Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/149

Rh poetry. His verses, however, attracted attention by their merit, and he pub. some of them in a coll. form. Unfortunately he fell into dissipated habits, under which his delicate constitution gave way, and he d. insane in his 24th year. His poems influenced, who greatly admired them.

 Author:James Frederick Ferrier (1808-1864).—Metaphysician, b. in Edin., and ed. there and at Oxf., he was called to the Scottish Bar in 1832, but devoted himself to literature and philosophy. In 1842 he was appointed Prof. of History in Edin., and in 1845 translated to the Chair of Moral Philosophy and Political Economy at St. Andrews. He pub. in 1854 Institutes of Metaphysics, and ed. the coll. works of his father-in-law, Prof. Wilson (".")

 Author:Susan Edmonstone Ferrier (1782-1854).—Novelist, dau. of James F., one of the principal clerks of the Court of Session, in which office he was the colleague of. Miss F. wrote three excellent novels, Marriage (1818), The Inheritance [1824), and Destiny (1831), all characterised by racy humour and acute character-painting. Her cheerful and tactful friendship helped to soothe the last days of Sir W. Scott.

 Author:Nathaniel Field (1587-1620) (1587-1633).—Dramatist and actor, was one of "the children of the Queen's Revels," who performed in Cynthia's Revels in 1600. He wrote A Woman's a Weathercock (1612), Amends for Ladies (1618), and (with ) The Fatal Dowry (1632).

 Author:Henry Fielding (1707-1754).—Novelist, was b. at Sharpham Park, near Glastonbury. His father was General Edmund F., descended from the Earls of Denbigh and Desmond, and his mother was the dau. of Sir Henry Gould of Sharpham Park. His childhood was spent at East Stour, Dorset, and his education was received at first from a tutor, after which he was sent to Eton. Following a love affair with a young heiress at Lyme Regis he was sent to Leyden to study law, where he remained until his f., who had entered into a second marriage, and who was an extravagant man, ceased to send his allowance. Thrown upon his own resources, he came to London and began to write light comedies and farces, of which during the next few years he threw off nearly a score. The drama, however, was not his true vein, and none of his pieces in this kind have survived, unless Tom Thumb, a burlesque upon his contemporary playwrights, be excepted. About 1735 he m. Miss Charlotte Cradock, a beautiful and amiable girl to whom, though he gave her sufficient cause for forbearance, he was devotedly attached. She is the prototype of his "Amelia" and "Sophia." She brought him £1500, and the young couple retired to East Stour, where he had a small house inherited from his mother. The little fortune was, however, soon dissipated; and in a year he was back in London, where he formed a company of comedians, and managed a small theatre in the Haymarket. Here he produced successfully Pasquin, a Dramatic Satire on the Times, and The Historical Register for 1736, in which was satirised. This enterprise was