FAIRFAX, EDWARD (1580?-1635). —Translator, natural s. of Sir Thomas F., lived at Fuystone, near Knaresborough, in peace and prosperity. His translation of Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, on which his fame is founded, is a masterpiece, one of the comparatively few translations which in themselves are literature. It was highly praised by Dryden and Waller. The first ed. appeared in 1600, and was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. F. also wrote a treatise on Demonology, in which he was a devout believer.
FALCONER, WILLIAM (1732-1769). —Poet, s. of a barber in Edin., where he was b., became a sailor, and was thus thoroughly competent to describe the management of the storm-tossed vessel, the career and fate of which are described in his poem, The Shipwreck (1762), a work of genuine, though unequal, talent. The efforts which F. made to improve the poem in the successive ed. which followed the first were not entirely successful. The work gained for him the patronage of the Duke of York, through whose influence he obtained the position of purser on various warships. Strangely enough, his own death occurred by shipwreck. F. wrote other poems, now forgotten, besides a useful Nautical Dictionary.
FANSHAWE, CATHERINE MARIA (1765-1834). —Poetess, dau. of a Surrey squire, wrote clever occasional verse. Her best known production is the famous Riddle on the Letter H, beginning "'Twas whispered in heaven, 'twas muttered in hell" often attributed to Lord Byron.
FANSHAWE, SIR RICHARD (1608-1666). —Diplomatist, translator, and poet, b. at Ware Park, Herts, and ed. at Camb., travelled on the Continent, and when the Civil War broke out sided with the King and was sent to Spain to obtain money for the cause. He acted as Latin Sec. to Charles II. when in Holland. After the Restoration he held various appointments, and was Ambassador to Portugal and Spain successively. He translated Guarini's Pastor Fido, Selected Parts of Horace, and The Lusiad of Camoens. His wife, née Anne Harrison, wrote memoirs of her own life.
FARADAY, MICHAEL (1791-1867). —Natural philosopher, s. of a blacksmith, was b. in London, and apprenticed to a book-binder. He early showed a taste for chemistry, and attended the lectures of [Sir H. Davy] (q.v.), by whom he was, in 1813, appointed his chemical assistant in the Royal Institution. He became one of the greatest of British discoverers and popularisers of science, his discoveries being chiefly in the department of electro-magnetism. He had an unusual power of making difficult subjects clearly understood. Among his writings are History of the Progress of Electro-Magnetism (1821), The Non-metallic Elements, The Chemical History of a Candle, and The Various Forces in Nature. F. was a man of remarkable simplicity and benevolence of character, and deeply religious.