Fata Falsire´na, an enchantress in the Adonê of Marini (1623).
Fata della Fonti, an enchantress, from whom Mandricardo obtained the arms of Hector.—Bojardo, Orlando Innamorato (1495).
Fata Morga´na, sister of Arthur, and pupil of Merlin. She lived at the bottom of a lake, and dispensed her treasures to whom she willed. This fairy is introduced by Bojardo in his Orlando Innamorato, first as “Lady Fortune,” but subsequently as an enchantress. In Tasso her three daughters (Morganetta, Nivetta, and Carvilia) are introduced.
⁂ “Fata Morgana” is the name given to a sort of mirage occasionally seen in the Straits of Messi´na.
Fata Nera and Fata Bianca, protectresses of Guido´nê and Aquilantê.—Bojardo, Orlando Innamorato (1495).
Fata Silvanella, an enchantress in Orlando Innamorato, by Bojardo (1495).
Fatal Curiosity, an epilogue in Don Quixote (pt. I. iv. 5, 6). The subject of this tale is the trial of a wife’s fidelity. Anselmo, a Florentine gentleman, had married Camilla, and wishing to rejoice over her incorruptible fidelity, induced his friend Lothario to put it to the test. The lady was not trial-proof, but eloped with Lothario. The end was that Anselmo died of grief, Lothario was slain in battle, and Camilla died in a convent (1605).
Fatal Curiosity, by George Lillo. Young Wilmot, supposed to have perished at sea, goes to India, and having made his fortune, returns to England. He instantly visits Charlotte, whom he finds still faithful and devotedly attached to him, and then in disguise visits his parents, with whom he deposits a casket. Agnes Wilmot, out of curiosity, opens the casket, and when she discovers that it contains jewels, she and her husband resolve to murder the owner, and secure the contents of the casket. Scarcely have they committed the fatal deed, when Charlotte enters, and tells them it is their own son whom they have killed, whereupon old Wilmot first stabs his wife and then himself. Thus was the “curiosity” of Agnes fatal to herself, her husband, and her son (1736).
Fatal Dowry (The), a tragedy by Philip Massinger (1632). Rowe has borrowed much of his Fair Penitent from this drama.
Fatal Marriage (The), a tragedy by Thomas Southern (1659-1746). Isabella, a nun, marries Biron, the eldest son of Count Baldwin. The count disinherits his son for this marriage, and Biron, entering the army, is sent to the siege of Candy, where he is seen to fall, and is reported dead. Isabella, reduced to the utmost poverty, after seven years of “widowhood,” prays Count Baldwin to do something for her child, but he turns her out of doors. Villeroy (2 syl.) proposes marriage to her, and her acceptance of him was “the fatal marriage,” for the very next day Biron returns and is set upon by ruffians in the pay of his brother Carlos, who assassinate him. Carlos accuses Villeroy of the murder, but one of the ruffians confesses, and Carlos is apprehended. As for Isabella, she stabs herself and dies.