FRANCE 



Boucher : the man, his times, his 

 art, and his significances, Haldane 

 Macfall, 1908; The French Pas- 

 tellists of the 18th Century, Haldane 

 Macfall, ed. T. Leman Hare, 1909; 

 Manet and The French Impression- 

 ists, T. Duret, Eng. trans. J. E. 

 Crawford Flitch, 1910; The History 

 of Painting, Haldane Macfall, vols. 

 vi and viii, 1911. 



France, BANK OF. Chief banking 

 institution of France. Founded 

 Feb. 13, 1800, by Napoleon I, it 

 was granted the privilege of issuing 

 bank notes in 1803. This privilege 





Bank of France. The head offices in Paris 



became its monopoly in 1848.. Al- 

 though a private joint stock bank, 

 it is subject to state control, hold- 

 ing its peculiar privileges for de- 

 finite periods. They were last 

 renewed on Dec. 11, 1917, for a 

 period ending Dec. 31, 1945. With 

 branches .all over France, it per- 

 forms important clearing-house 

 functions as well as ordinary bank- 

 ing business. Its capital is fixed 

 at 172 million francs. The maxi- 

 mum note issue at the outbreak of 

 the Great War was 6,800 million 

 francs ; by Sept., 1917, it had risen 

 to 24,000 million, and in July, 

 1919, stood at 40,000 million. Its 

 head offices are in the Rue de la 

 Vrilliere, Paris. 



France, ANATOLE (1844-1924; 

 Pen-name of Jacques Anatole 

 Thibault, French author. Born in 

 Paris, April 16, 

 1844, he was 

 the son of a 

 bo o kseller, 

 whose shop was 

 much frequent- 

 ed by literary 

 men. Educated 

 at the College 

 Stanislas, Par- 

 is, he early de- 

 voted himself 

 tt & Fry I to literature, 

 publishing his first book, "a 

 study of Alfred de Vigny, in 

 1 868. After producing two volumes 

 of poems in 1873 and 1876, he 

 turned to prose work w\th the tales, 

 Jocaste et le Chat Maigre, 1879. >. 

 Out of the long succession of 



33O6 



works of fiction, satire, and criti- 

 cism which France has since pro- 

 duced, the following are the most 

 noteworthy : Le Crime de Syl- 

 vestre Bonnard, 1881 ; Le Livre 

 de mon Ami, 1885 ; Balthasar, 

 1889; Thais, 1890; La Vie Lit- 

 teraire, a series of reprinted essays, 

 1888-92 ; La Rotisserie de la 

 Reine Pedauque, 1893 ; Les Opin- 

 ions de M. Jerome Coignard, 1893, 

 and M. Bergeret a Paris, 1901, two 

 satiric studies of contemporary 

 French affairs; Pierre Noziere, 1899; 

 Crainquebille, 

 1902; Histoire 

 Comique, 1903; the 

 sceptical but bril- 

 liantly written his- 

 tory of Jeanne 

 d'Arc, 1908 ; the 

 satirical survey of 

 modern French his- 

 tory, L'lle des Pin- 

 gouins, 1908 ; Les 

 Dienx ont Soif, a 

 story of the Re- 

 volution, 1912 ; and 

 another great 

 satire, La Re volte 

 des Anges, 1914. 

 Many of his books 

 have been translated into English. 

 Anatole France was a staunch 

 supporter of Zola in the Dreyfus 

 affair, and a prominent supporter 

 of socialist, radical, and anti-mili- 

 tarist causes. He 

 was elected a mem- 

 ber of the French 

 Academy in 1896, 

 and is an officer of 

 the Legion of Hon- 

 our. He visited 

 England in 1913. 

 He strongly sup- 

 ported his coun- 

 try's entry into the 

 Great War, even 

 offering himself as 

 a volunteer in 1914, 

 and strove always 

 to upholdthe ideal- 

 ism of the French 

 cause, publishing 

 a striking appeal 

 to this end, full of 

 his old vigour, in August, 1920. 



At once erudite and keenly in- 

 terested in actuality, he is perhaps 

 the leading figure in contemporary 

 French letters. It is hardly fair to 

 call Anatole France a novelist ; 

 rather is he a kindly satirist, using 

 the novel -the recit, as he would 

 style it as his medium for dis- 

 sertation and analysis. A master 

 of the impersonal and almost 

 wholly impartial method which 

 only a few of the greatest French 

 writers have successfully com- 

 passed, he takes history ancient 

 and modern as his theme ; but his 

 delight is in turning ancient or 



1 personality he puts 

 He is a master of the 



FRANCESCA 



legendary tales inside out and 

 showing us the modernity inherent 

 in all humanity. In a sense he 

 resembles Bernard Shaw, or even 

 Wells ; but he is less ruthless and 

 restless than . either, perhaps be- 

 cause he does not indulge either in 

 destruction or in reformation. 



On the whole his work leaves us, 

 not the somewhat acid taste of 

 exposure or disillusion, but the 

 pleasant conviction that we now 

 know the humorous as well as 

 the conventional side of whatever 

 subject or 

 before us. 

 old as well as of modern French 

 tongue, and uses it freely. He died 

 Oct. 13,1 924. See Anatole France . 

 L P Shanks, 1919. 



Francesca, PIERO BELLA (c. 

 1416-92). Italian painter. He was 

 born at Borgo san Sepolcro, where 

 he died. In 1439 he was employed 

 by Domenico Veneziano on the 

 frescoes of Sant' Egidio, Florence. 

 Later he collaborated with Bra- 

 mantino at the Vatican, and in 

 1469 entered the service of duke 

 Federigo at Urbino. The master 

 of Perugino and Luca Signorelli, 

 he was learned in the laws of per- 

 spective and introduced some im- 

 provements in oil-colours. 



Francesca DA RIMINI. Heroine 

 of a famous Italian love-story. 

 Giovanni Malatesta of Rimini 





Francesca da Rimini. The fatal end of the love-story 

 of Paolo and Francesca, as depicted by A. Cabanel 



Luxembourg, Paris 



(nicknamed Scianciato, the lame) 

 obtained her in marriage from her 

 father, Guido da Polenta, lord of 

 Ravenna, and sent his brother 

 Paolo to fetch her. Francesca and 

 Paolo fell in love and were caught 

 together and slain by Giovanni. 

 1285. The story was told by Dante 

 in the Inferno ; it has also been 

 used by Leigh Hunt, 1816, Silvio 

 Pellico, 1818, Stephen Phillips, 

 1899, and D'Annunzio, 1901. 

 Ingres, 1819, Cabanel, 1870, and 

 G. F. Watts, 1879, have shown the 

 story in paintings, and several 

 operas have been founded on it. 

 See Dante ; Rimini. 



