FLETCHER FLEURY. 



211 



Scotland. In 1703, he opposed a vote of supply, 

 until ' the house should consider what was neces- 

 sary to secure the religion and liberties of the nation 

 on the death of the queen " (Anne), and carried 

 various limitations of the prerogative, forming part 

 of the act of security, rendered nugatory By the 

 Scottish union, which he vehemently opposed. He 

 died in London, in 1716. His tracts, and some of 

 his speeches, are published in one volume, octavo, 

 entitled The Political Works of Andrew Fletcher, 

 Esq. 



FLETCHER, JOHN, son to the bishop of London, 

 an eminent dramatic writer, is said to have been born 

 in 1576, in Northamptonshire, where his father was 

 dean of Peterborough ; although others suppose that 

 he was a native of London. He received his educa- 

 tion at Cambridge, but it is not known that he ever 

 looked forward to any profession, except that of a 

 poet, in which capacity he was the inseparable 

 partner of Francis Beaumont, (q. v.) After the 

 death of Beaumont, he is said to have consulted 

 Shirley in the formation of his dramas. He survived 

 his coadjutor some years, but died of the plague in 

 1625, and was interred in the church of St Mary 

 Overy, Southwark. The plays of Beaumont and 

 Fletcher consist of comedies, tragedies, and mixed 

 pieces, which possess many poetical beauties, and 

 striking incidents and characters. It is a tradition 

 that Beaumont excelled in the judgment requisite to 

 plot and construction, and Fletcher in fancy and 

 poetical feeling. The Faithful Shepherdess, a dra- 

 matic pastoral, the sole composition of the latter, 

 which evidently suggested the Comus of Milton, 

 wants the judgment given by Beaumont in respect to 

 plan, and as obviously displays the fancy and feeling 

 of Fletcher. Their plays, according to Dryden, 

 were, in his early days, acted two for one with 

 those of Jonson and Shakspeare ; but the license 

 assumed in the greater part of these dramas has 

 done much to aid in their exclusion of late years, 

 during which only one or two of them occasionally 

 appear. 



FLETCHER, PHINEAS; author of the Purple 

 Island, and Piscatory Eclogues. The former is an 

 allegorical description of man, founded upon an 

 allegory in the ninth canto of the second book of 

 the Faery Queen. It is composed in the Spenserian 

 manner, and is not without passages of strong fancy 

 and beauty of description, clothed in smooth and 

 elegant verse. In the first five cantos, however, the 

 reader loses the poet in the anatomist a character 

 but little adapted to the handling of poetry. When, 

 however, he steps from the physical to the intellec- 

 tual man, he not only attracts, but secures attention, 

 by a profusion of images, many of which are dis- 

 tinguished by much boldness of conception and 

 brilliancy of colouring. His Piscatory Eclogues 

 have considerable sweetness of versification, and 

 much descriptive elegance. Fletcher entered king's 

 college, Cambridge, in 1600, and, in 1621, obtained 

 the living of Helgay, in Norfolk. His two works 

 above mentioned were printed together in 1630. 



FLEURIEU, CHARLES-PIERRE-CLARET, COUNT OF, 

 member of the French institute, minister of the ma- 

 rine, &c., one of the most learned hydrographers of 

 modern times, was born at Lyons, in 1738. He en- 

 tered the navy at the age of thirteen, and dis- 

 tinguished himself by his uncommon activity and 

 exemplary conduct. After the termination of the 

 seven years' war, in which he served, he again 

 turned his attention to nautical studies ; and the sea- 

 chronometer, invented by him and the watchmaker 

 Ferdinand Berthoud (the first which was made in 

 France), was tried by him, in 1768 and 1769, in the 

 frigate Isis, which he commanded. The results sur- 



passed all expectation. Fleurieu then published his 

 excellent work, Voyage fait par Ordre du Rot en 

 1768 et 1169, pour eprouver les Horloges Marines 

 (Paris, 1773, 4 vols., with plates). In 1776, he re- 

 ceived the important post of director of the harbours 

 and arsenals. In this station, he drew up almost all 

 the plans for the naval operations of the war of 1778, 

 and the instructions for the voyages of discovery of 

 La Peyrouse and Entrecasteaux, of which, however, 

 Louis XVI., himself a skilful geographer, furnished 

 the general plan. In 1790, Fleurieu was made min- 

 ister of the marine, and, some time after, the direc- 

 tion of the education of the dauphin was given him. 

 The storm of the revolution obliged him to discon- 

 tinue his public occupations. He now devoted him- 

 self entirely to science. When the times became 

 more tranquil, he became a member of the council 

 of the ancients, in 1797, afterwards of the council 

 of state, and, finally, under the imperial government, 

 a senator. He died, August 18, 1810. We have, 

 by him, the Decouvertes des Francais dans le Sud- 

 Est de la nouvelle Guinee. He also published Ste- 

 phen Marchand's Voyage round the World, between 

 1790 and 1792. The excellent introduction to the 

 work is by Fleurieu. Other geographical and hy- 

 drographical works, as his Atlas de la Baltique et 

 du Cattegat, and his Neptune Americo-septentrional, 

 the publication of which he commenced, were left 

 unfinished by him. He had also undertaken to write 

 A Universal History of Voyages, which, if finished, 

 would have been more complete than any work of 

 the kind which we possess. 



FLEURUS, or FLERUS ; a town of Belgium in 

 the province of Hainault, on the river Sambre, six 

 miles N. E. of Charleroy. The population is 2400. 

 It is remarkable for having been the seat of four 

 battles foughtnear il> in 1622, 1690,' 1794, and 1815 ; 

 the first on the 30th of August, 1622, between the 

 troops of Spain and some German troops. The 

 second battle was fought in 1690, between the allies, 

 under the command of the prince of Waldeck, and 

 the French under the duke of Luxemburg, in which 

 the former were defeated, with the loss of 5000 

 killed and 4000 prisoners, forty-nine pieces of can- 

 non, eight pair of kettle-drums, and ninety-two 

 standards and colours. A third battle was fought 

 here in June, 1794, between the Austrians and the 

 French, in which the former were defeated with 

 great loss. The fourth battle near this place was 

 the bloody engagement, on June 16, 1815, between 

 the Prussians and French, called the battle of Ligny, 

 (q. v.). Population about 2,500. 



FLEURY, ANDRE HERCCLE DE, cardinal and 

 prime minister of Louis XV., was born at Lodeve, 

 in Languedoc, in 1653, and pursued his studies, at 

 first, in the college of the Jesuits, at Clermont, 

 whence he was removed to the college d'Harcourt, 

 at Paris, in order to study philosophy. He was then 

 made canon of Montpelier and doctor of the Sor- 

 bonne. At court, he won general favour, by his 

 pleasing person and fine understanding ; became al- 

 moner of the queen, and afterwards of the king. In 

 1698, Louis XIV. gave him the bishopric of Frejus, 

 and, shortly before his death, appointed him instruc- 

 tor to Louis XV. In the troubled times of the 

 regency, he knew how to retain the favour of the 

 duke of Orleans, by asking for no favours, and keep- 

 ing clear of all intrigues. The duke, who remarked 

 the friendship of the young king for his teacher, 

 offered him the archbishopric of Rheims, one of the 

 highest ecclesiastical dignities in France ; but Fleury 

 refused to become the first duke and peer of France, 

 and thereby be separated from his pupil. In 1726, 

 he was made cardinal, and soon after, the young 

 king, Louis XV., placed him at the head of the 

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