Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/57

 flutes; ten sonatas for flute; three quartets and two trios for German flutes, violin, viola, and cello, from eminent masters, revised by J. C. Fischer. Pohl mentions 'God save great George our King,' for four solo voices, chorus and harp accompaniment, newly harmonised; and 'The Invocation of Neptune,' solo quartet and chorus.

Gainsborough's portrait of Fischer, now at Hampton Court, is full of expression; another by the same artist is mentioned by Thicknesse, 'painted at full length &hellip; in scarlet and gold, like a Colonel of the Foot Guards.' It is said to have been exposed for sale at a picture dealer's in Catherine Street.



FISCHER, JOHN GEORGE PAUL (1786–1875), painter, born at Hanover on 16 Sept. 1786, was the youngest of three sons of a line-engraver, who died very soon after the birth of the youngest child, leaving his family in poverty. Fischer at the age of fourteen was placed as pupil with J. H. Ramberg, the fashionable court painter, by whom he was employed in painting portraits, theatrical scenery, and generally assisting his master. He became capable of earning enough money to support his mother. In 1810 he betook himself to England, and his Hanoverian connection rendered it easy for him to obtain the patronage of royalty. He painted miniature portraits of Queen Charlotte and the junior members of the royal family, and was employed by the prince regent to paint a series of military costumes. He painted the present queen twice, once in 1819 as an infant in her cradle, and again in 1820. In 1817 he began to exhibit at the Royal Academy, and continued to do so up to 1852, occasionally contributing also to the Suffolk Street Exhibition. His works were chiefly portraits in miniature, but he occasionally exhibited landscapes in watercolours. He continued to paint up to his eighty-first year, and died 12 Sept. 1875. Fischer was an industrious but inferior artist. Some sketches by him in the print room at the British Museum show spirit and intelligence, especially two pencil portraits of William Hunt and his wife. He published a few etchings and lithographs.



FISH, SIMON (d. 1531), theologian and pamphleteer, was a member of the university of Oxford, and entered Gray's Inn about 1525, which is the first date that can be approximately fixed in his life. In London he formed one of a circle of young men who gave expression to the popular dislike of Wolsey and denounced the riches of the church. One of their boldest undertakings was the production of an interlude, written by one Mater Roo (a member of Queens' College, Cambridge), the object of which was to hold up Wolsey to ridicule. Fish acted a part in this interlude, and, fearing the wrath of Wolsey, fled into the Low Countries, where he consorted with other English exiles, chief of whom were Tyndale and Roy. From them it would seem that he learned the principles of protestantism, and he turned his energies to the promotion of the Reformation in England. Wolsey's wrath against him soon passed away, and he returned to London, where he acted as an agent for the sale of Tyndale's New Testament. He lived in a house by the White Friars, and one Necton confessed that he bought from him copies of Tyndale's prohibited book, 'now five, now ten, to the number of twenty or thirty' (Necton's confession in, Memorials, i. App. No. 22). Such conduct drew on him suspicion, and he again fled to the Low Countries, probably about the end of 1527. There he wrote his famous 'Supplication of the Beggars.'

So far it is possible to adapt Foxe's narrative (Acts and Monuments, ed. 1837, iv. 656, &c.) to other known facts about Fish's life. About the date of the 'Supplication' and its influence in England, Foxe gives two contradictory accounts without seeing that they are contradictory: (1) He tells us that Fish found means to send a copy of the 'Supplication' to Anne Boleyn early in 1528; Anne was advised by her brother to show it to Henry VIII, who was much amused by it and kept the copy. On hearing this Mrs. Fish made suit to the king for her husband's return, but apparently received no answer. However, on Wolsey's fall, in October 1529, Fish ventured to return, and had a private interview with Henry VIII, who 'embraced him with a loving countenance,' and gave him his signet ring as a protection against Sir Thomas More, in case the new chancellor should continue the grudge of his predecessor. (2) He tells us that the book was brought to the king by two London merchants, who read it aloud. When they had done the