[Faust, Johannes]. See [Fust].
[Faust], or Doctor Faustus, a reputed professor of the black art, a native of Germany, who flourished in the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century, and who is alleged to have made a compact with the devil to give up to him body and soul in the end, provided he endowed him for a term of years with power to miraculously fulfil all his wishes. Under this compact the devil provided him with a familiar spirit, called Mephistopheles, attended by whom he traversed the world, enjoying life and working wonders, till the term of the compact having expired, the devil appeared and carried him off amid display of horrors to the abode of penal fire. This myth, which has been subjected to manifold literary treatment, has received its most significant rendering at the hands of Goethe, such as to supersede and eclipse every other attempt to unfold its meaning. It is presented by him in the form of a drama, in two parts of five acts each, of which the first, published in 1790, represents "the conflicting union of the higher nature of the soul with the lower elements of human life; of Faust, the son of Light and Free-Will, with the influences of Doubt, Denial, and Obstruction, or [Mephistopheles] (q. v.), who is the symbol and spokesman of these; and the second, published in 1832, represents Faust as now elevated, by the discipline he has had, above the hampered sphere of the first, and conducted into higher regions under worthier circumstances."
[Fausta], the wife of Constantino the Great.
[Faustina, Annia Galeri], called Faustina, Senior, wife of Antoninus Pius, died three years after her husband became emperor (105-141).
[Faustina, Annia, Junior], wife of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, daughter of the preceding. Both she and her mother are represented by historians as profligate and unfaithful, and quite unworthy the affection lavishly bestowed upon them by their husbands.
[Faustulus], the shepherd who, with his wife Laurentia, was the foster-parent of Romulus and Remus, who, as infants, had been exposed on the Palatine Hill.
[Favart, Charles Simon], French dramatist, born at Paris, where he became director of the Opéra Comique; was celebrated as a vivacious playwright and composer of operas; during a temporary absence from Paris he established his Comedy Company in the camp of Marshal Saxe during the Flanders campaign; his memoirs and correspondence give a bright picture of theatrical life in Paris during the 18th century (1710-1792).
[Favonius], the god of the favouring west wind.
[Favre, Jules Claude Gabriel], a French Republican statesman, born at Lyons; called to the Paris bar in 1830; a strong Republican, he joined the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848; held office as Minister of the Interior in the New Republic, and disapproving of the coup d'état, resumed practice at the bar; defended the Italian conspirator [Orsini] (q. v.), and in 1870, on the dissolution of the Empire, became Minister of Foreign Affairs; mistakes in his negotiations with Bismarck led to his resignation and resumption of his legal practice (1809-1880).
[Fawcett, Henry], statesman and political economist, born at Salisbury; though blind, it was his early ambition to enter the arena of politics, and he devoted himself to the study of political economy, of which he became professor at Cambridge; entering Parliament, he became Postmaster-General under Mr. Gladstone in 1880; he wrote and published works on his favourite study (1832-1884).