In 1132 the prior and twelve monks of St Mary’s abbey, York, being dissatisfied with the easy life they were living, left the monastery and with the assistance of Thurstan, archbishop of York, founded a house in the valley of the Skell, where they adopted the Cistercian rule. While building their monastery the monks are said to have lived at first under an elm and then under seven yew trees called the Seven Sisters. Two years later they were joined by Hugh, dean of St Peter’s, York, who brought with him a large sum of money and a valuable collection of books. His example was followed by Serlo, a monk of St Mary’s abbey, York, and by Tosti, a canon of York, and others. Henry I. and succeeding sovereigns granted them many privileges. During the reign of Edward I. the monks appear to have again suffered from poverty, partly no doubt owing to the invasion of the Scots, but partly also through their own “misconduct and extravagance.” On account of this Edward I. in 1291 appointed John de Berwick custodian of the abbey so that he might pay their debts from the issues of their estates, allowing them enough for their maintenance, and Edward II. in 1319 granted them exemption from taxes. After the Dissolution Henry VIII. sold the manor and site of the monastery to Sir Richard Gresham, and from him after passing through several families it came to the marquess of Ripon.
See Victoria County History, Yorkshire; Dugdale, Monasticon; Surtees Society, Memorials of the Abbey of St Mary of Fountains, collected and edited by J.R. Walbran (1863-78).
FOUQUÉ, FERDINAND ANDRÉ (1828-1904), French geologist and petrologist, was born at Mortain, dept. of La Manche, on the 21st of June 1828. At the age of twenty-one he entered the École Normale in Paris, and from 1853 to 1858 he held the appointment of keeper of the scientific collections. In 1877 he became professor of natural history at the Collège de France, in Paris, and in 1881 he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences. As a stratigraphical geologist he rendered much assistance on the Geological Survey of France, but in the course of time he gave his special attention to the study of volcanic phenomena and earthquakes, to minerals and rocks; and he was the first to introduce modern petrographical methods into France. His studies of the eruptive rocks of Corsica, Santorin and elsewhere; his researches on the artificial reproduction of eruptive rocks, and his treatise on the optical characters of felspars deserve special mention; but he was perhaps best known for the joint work which he carried on with his friend Michel Lévy. He died on the 7th of March 1904. His chief publications were: Santorin et ses éruptions, 1879; (with A. Michel Lévy) Minéralogie micrographique, Roches éruptives françaises (2 vols., 1879); and Synthèse des minéraux et des roches (1882).
FOUQUÉ, FRIEDRICH HEINRICH KARL DE LA MOTTE, Baron (1777-1843), German writer of the romantic movement, was born on the 12th of February 1777 at Brandenburg. His grandfather had been one of Frederick the Great’s generals and his father was a Prussian officer. Although not originally intended for a military career, Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué ultimately gave up his university studies at Halle to join the army, and he took part in the Rhine campaign of 1794. The rest of his life was devoted mainly to literary pursuits. Like so many of the younger romanticists, Fouqué owed his introduction to literature to A.W. Schlegel, who published his first book, Dramatische Spiele von Pellegrin in 1804. His next work, Romanzen vom Tal Ronceval (1805), showed more plainly his allegiance to the romantic leaders, and in the Historie vom edlen Ritter Galmy (1806) he versified a 16th-century romance of medieval chivalry. Sigurd der Schlangentöter, ein Heldenspiel (1808), the first modern German dramatization of the Nibelungen saga, attracted attention to him, and influenced considerably subsequent versions of the story, such as Hebbel’s Nibelungen and Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen. These early writings indicate the lines which Fouqué’s subsequent literary activity followed; his interests were divided between medieval chivalry on the one hand and northern mythology on the other. In 1813, the year of the rising against Napoleon, he again fought with the Prussian army, and the new patriotism awakened in the German people left its mark upon his writings.
Between 1810 and 1815 Fouqué’s popularity was at its height; the many romances and novels, plays and epics, which he turned out with extraordinary rapidity, appealed exactly to the mood of the hour. The earliest of these are the best—Undine, which appeared in 1811, being, indeed, one of the most charming of all German Märchen and the only work by which Fouqué’s memory still lives to-day. A more comprehensive idea of his powers may, however, be obtained from the two romances Der Zauberring (1813) and Die Fahrten Thiodulfs des Isländers (1815). From 1820 onwards the quality of Fouqué’s work rapidly degenerated, partly owing to the fatal ease with which he wrote, partly to his inability to keep pace with the changes in German taste. He remained the belated romanticist, who, as the reading world turned to new interests, clung the more tenaciously to the paraphernalia of romanticism; but in the cold, sober light of the post-romantic age, these appeared merely flimsy and theatrical. The vitalizing imaginative power of his early years deserted him, and the sobriquet of a “Don Quixote of Romanticism” which his enemies applied to him was not unjustified.
Fouqué’s first marriage had been unhappy and soon ended in divorce. His second wife, Karoline von Briest (1773-1831) enjoyed some reputation as a novelist in her day. After her death Fouqué married a third time. Some consolation for the ebbing tide of popular favour was afforded him by the munificence of Frederick William IV. of Prussia, who granted him a pension which allowed him to spend his later years in comfort. He died in Berlin on the 23rd of January 1843.
Fouqué’s Ausgewählte Werke, edited by himself, appeared in 12 vols. (Berlin, 1841); a selection, edited by M. Koch, will be found in Kürschner’s Deutsche Nationalliteratur, vol. 146, part ii. (Stuttgart, 1893); Undine, Sintram, &c., in innumerable reprints. Bibliography in Goedeke’s Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung (2nd ed., vi. pp. 115 ff., Dresden, 1898). Most of Fouqué’s works have been translated, and the English versions of Aslauga’s Knight (by Carlyle), Sintram and his Companions and Undine, have been frequently republished. For Fouqué’s life cp. Lebensgeschichte des Baron Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué. Aufgezeichnet durch ihn selbst (Halle, 1840), (only to the year 1813), and also the introduction to Koch’s selections in the Deutsche Nationalliteratur.
(J. G. R.)