146 



FARNESINA FARRILL. 



FARNESINA, LA, or CASINO FARNESE; a 

 spot highly distinguished in the history of the fine 

 arts ; a palace in Rome, now belonging to the king 

 of Naples, formerly the property of the dukes of Far- 

 nese. It was originally built in the time of Leo X., 

 by the architect Bahtossare Petrucci, for an emi- 

 nent banker, Agostino Chigi. In this palace are 

 the celebrated fresco paintings of Galatea, and of the 

 story of Cupid and Psyche, the former painted en- 

 tirely by the hand of Raphael (il divino Raffello); the 

 latter by his pupils under his direction. They are 

 among the greatest productions of the fine arts. The 

 pictures of the story of Cupid and Psyche are two of 

 large size, on the ceiling of a large hall. One of 

 till-in represents the judgment of the pair by Jove, 

 in the presence of all the gods ; the other, the nuptials 

 of the lovely couple celebrated by all the Olympian 

 deities. Besides these there are fourteen triangular 

 pictures on the ceiling, and all surrounded with 

 beautiful wreaths. There are also some other va- 

 luable paintings in the palace, with which is con- 

 nected a beautiful garden. The Farnesina is truly 

 a characteristic Roman palace, the temple of the 

 fine arts. 



FARO OF MESSINA ; a strait of the Mediter- 

 ranean, between Sicily and Calabria, about five miles 

 wide, remarkable for the tide's ebbing and flowing 

 every six hours. The kingdom of the Two Sicilies 

 is divided into dominj al di qua del Faro (lands this 

 side the Faro), and dominj al di la del Faro (lands on 

 the other side of the Faro, or Sicily. 



FARO, or PHARO ; one of the most common 

 of all games of hazard played with cards in Europe, 

 in which immense sums are lost and won. It is a 

 favourite game at the different watering places. The 

 players are called punters or pointeurs ; he who 

 manages the bank, the banker. For the rules and 

 regulations of this simple game, see Hoyle. 



FAROE, or FAROER ISLANDS ; a group of 

 islands in the Northern ocean, lying between Ice- 

 land and Shetland, and between 61 15' and 62 20' 

 N. latitude. They belong to Denmark, a*id consist 

 of twenty-five islands, of which seventeen are inha- 

 bited. Population, in 1812, 5209. 



FARQUHAR, GEORGE, a comic writer of emin- 

 ence, was born at Londonderry, in Ireland, in 1678. 

 In 1694, he was sent to Trinity college, Dublin, 

 whence, however, he either eloped or was expelled, 

 in consequence of irregular conduct. His partiality 

 for the drama induced him to make his appearance 

 on the stage at Dublin ; but he displayed little ability 

 as an actor, and he soon relinquished the profession 

 he had so hastily chosen. About 1696, he accompa- 

 nied his friend VVilks the player to London, where 

 he commenced writer for the stage. His first pro- 

 duction was Love in a Bottle, performed at Drury- 

 lane theatre with great success in 1698. About this 

 time, he attracted the favour of lord Orrery, who 

 procured him a lieutenancy in his own regiment. In 

 1700, he added to his reputation by his comedy of 

 The Constant Couple, or the Trip to the Jubilee, in 

 which, under the character of Sir Harry Wildair, he 

 exhibited a lively picture of the foppish fine gentle- 

 man of the end of the seventeenth century. In 1701 

 appeared Sir Harry Wildair, a sequel to the former 

 comedy; and the following year he published a 

 volume of Miscellanies, consisting of poems, letters, 

 essays, &c. The Inconstant, or the Way to Win 

 Him, was the next effort of his pen ; and it is 

 amongst those which have kept possession of the 

 stage. It has great merit ; but much of it is bor- 

 rowed from the Wildgoose Cliase of Beaumont 

 and Fletcher. About 1703, he married a lady, who, 

 having fallen in love with him, had represented hex-- 

 self as the heiress of a large fortune, and Farquhar 



is said to have pardoned the deception, and treated 

 her with kindness. In 1706 appeared The Recruit- 

 ing Officer, one of his most popular plays ; and this 

 was succeeded by The Beaux's Stratagem, which is 

 reckoned his master-piece, though finished within 

 the short space of six weeks, while labouring under 

 serious indisposition. He died in 1707. It is no 

 mean testimony of the dramatic talents of Farquhar, 

 that three of his plays fire still favourites with the 

 public. His wit is -genuine and spontaneous ; and 

 his characters are admirably supported, and drawn 

 from nature. His plots excel in the arrangement of 

 incidents, and in unity of action. The libertinism of 

 language and sentiment which his works exhibit 

 cannot be defended ; but it was the vice of the age 

 rather than the writer, who was much less culpable 

 in this respect than Dryden, or Wycherly. 



FARRILL, DON GONZALO O' ; a Spanish lieuten- 

 ant-general, born at the Havanna, in 1753, of an 

 Irish family settled there. This distinguished soldier 

 and statesman, was educated at the school of Soreze, 

 in France, and entered the Spanish service in 1766. 

 He distinguished himself by his courage and talent 

 at the sieges of Mahon and Gibraltar. In 1780, he 

 made himself acquainted with the organization of the 

 schools for artillery and engineering in France, and 

 was afterwards sent by his government to Berlin, to 

 study the tactics of Frederic the Great in the 

 evolutions of the Prussian infantry. On his return, 

 he was placed at the head of the military school at 

 the Puerto de Santa Maria, near Cadiz, from which 

 some of the best Spanish tacticians and officers, such 

 as Castanos and others, have proceeded. In 1793-4, 

 O'Farrill served under the generals Ventura Caro 

 and Calamera against the French in the Western 

 Pyrenees ; in 1795, he served as quarter-master- 

 general in the army of Catalonia, which forced the 

 enemy back to the river Fluvia, and penetrated to 

 Perpignan. After the treaty of Bale, he was 

 appointed by Charles IV. to run the boundary line in 

 the Pyrenees. He afterwards travelled through 

 Germany, Switzerland, Holland, and England. In 

 1808, Ferdinand VII. created him director-general 

 of the artillery, and, in the same year, minister of 

 war. He advised the king to place himself under 

 the protection of Napoleon, at Bayonne. When a 

 member of the supreme junta, under the presidency 

 of the Infant don Antonio, O'Farrill, with Azanza, 

 maintained the authority of his sovereign against the 

 threats of Murat. He put a stop to the effusion of 

 blood occasioned by the insurrection in Madrid, 

 May 2. After the departure of the president of the 

 junta, Murat, having desired to obta-n a seat and 

 vote in that body, met with a vigorous opposition 

 from O'Farrill, and the ministers Azanza, and Gil : 

 but, finding the majority of his colleagues determined 

 to yield, O'Farrill withdrew. Under the government 

 of Joseph, O'Farrill was again appointed minister of 

 war. In connexion with Azanza and the ministers 

 Mazaredo and Cabarrus (Aug. 1808), he addressed 

 to Napoleon a bold memorial, the object of which 

 was to secure the Spaniards from the ill consequences 

 of the connexion with France. After the restoration 

 of Ferdinand to the Spanish throne, O'Farrill, in a 

 letter to the king, frankly explained the motives ol 

 his conduct ; but his property was confiscated, and 

 he himself condemned to death, as a Josefino, or 

 traitor to religion and the king, after having served 

 the state for nearly fifty years. O'Farrill retired to 

 France, where he and Azanza published, at Paris, a 

 defence of their political conduct, which is an impor- 

 tant addition to the history of the Spanish revolution: 

 Memoir -es de Don Miguel Azanza et de Don Gonzalo 

 O'Farrill, et Expose des Fails quijustifient leur Con- 

 duite politique, depuis Mars, 1808, jusqu'cn Aimi, 



