Pope.
Foster (Silas), the bucolic master of the house that shelters the reformers of The Blithedale Romance. He gulps his tea, helps himself to dip-toast with the flat of his own knife, and perpetrates terrible enormities with the butter-plate, “behaving less like a sensible Christian than the worst kind of an ogre.”—Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance (1852).
Foul-weather Jack, Commodore Byron (1723-1786.)
Foundling (The), Harriet[, Harriet] Raymond, whose mother died in childbirth, was committed to the charge of a gouvernante, who announced to her father (Sir Charles Raymond) that the child was dead. This, however, was not true, for the gouvernante changed the child’s name to Fidelia, and sold her at the age of 12 to one Villiard. One night, Charles Belmont, passing Villiard’s house, heard the cries of a girl for help; he rescued her and took her to his own home, where he gave her in charge to his sister Rosetta. The two girls became companions and friends, and Charles fell in love with the “foundling.” The gouvernante, on her death-bed, revealed the secret to Sir Charles Raymond, the mystery was cleared up, and Fidelia became the wife of Charles Belmont. Rosetta gave her hand to Fidelia’s brother, Colonel Raymond.—Edward Moore, The Foundling (1748).
Fountain, Bellamore, and Hare´brain, suitors to Lady Hartwell, a widow. They are the chums of Valentine the gallant, who would not be persuaded to keep his estate.—Beaumont and Fletcher, Wit without Money (1639).
Fountain of Life, Alexander Hales, “the Irrefragible Doctor” (*-1245).
Fountain of Oblivion. The student, Hieronymous, is told to seek out a certain fountain and cast a scroll into it, “and he shall find peace.” He obeys, and sees mirrored there his own life, and himself as boy and man, and beside him a maiden whose face is like that of the woman he loves.
“And the name was no longer Hermione, but was changed to Mary; and the student, Hieronymous, is lying at your feet!”—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Hyperion (1839).
Fountain of Youth, a marvellous fountain in the island of Bim´ini (one of the Baha´ma group). It had the virtue of restoring the aged to youth again. In the middle ages it was really believed to exist, and Juan Ponce de Leon, among other Spanish navigators, went in serious quest of this fountain.
Four Kings (The) of a pack of cards are Charlemagne (the Franco-German king), David (the Jewish king), Alexander (the Macedonian king), and Cæsar (the Roman king). These four kings are representatives of the four great monarchies.