Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/151

 F I D F I E 141 propositions called the constitution is merely a series of fictions. The legal attributes of the king, and even of the House of Lords, are fictions. If we could suppose that the effects of the two Reform Acts had been brought about, not by legislation, but by the decisions of law courts and the practice of House of Commons committees by such assump tions as that freeholder includes lease-holder, and that ten means twenty we should have in the legal constitution of the House of Commons the same kind of fictions that we find in the legal statement of the attributes of the crown and the House of Lords. Here, too, fictions have been largely resorted to for the purpose of supporting particular theories, popular or monarchical, and such have flourished even more vigorously than purely legal fictions. (E. R.) FIDEN.E, identified with the modern CASTELLO Giu- BILEO, an old and important Latin city on the left bank of the Tiber, about five miles above Rome. It is said by Livy to have owed its origin to the Etruscans ; but his testimony is not supported by any other historian. There is no Latin city which plays so important a part in the annals of regal Rome. According to the tradition of the Roman historians, hostilities first broke out between the two cities in the time of Romulus, and continued with little intermission and various success till 496 B.C., when, being abandoned by its allies, it was forced to yield to the Roman arms. In 438 B.C. the Fidenates revolted and slew the Roman ambassa dors, but after maintaining for twelve years an unequal contest, their city was taken and plundered, and them selves sold into slavery. From this time Fidcme almost disappears. In the later period of the republic, and under the empire, it was a small country village, and it is men tioned by Horace as almost proverbially desolate. In the reign of Tiberius it acquired a dismal notoriety : an extra ordinary gladiatorial show had attracted vast multitudes from Rome and the surrounding country, and the wooden amphitheatre in which they were accommodated fell during the exhibition, and destroyed, it is said, nearly 50,000 persons. No ruins of Fidenae now exist. FIELD, JOHN (1782-1837), one of the most remarkable pianists of his time and of the few composers of British origin whose works have acquired European reputation, was born at Dublin in 1782. He was descended from a musical family, his father being a violinist, and his grandfather the organist in one of the churches of Dublin. From the latter the boy received his first musical education. When a few years later the family settled in London, Field became the favourite pupil of the celebrated dementi, whom he accom panied to Paris, and later, in 1802, on his great concert tour through France, Germany, and Russia. Under the auspices of his master Field appeared in public in most of the great European capitals, especially in St Petersburg, and in that city he remained when Clemeiiti returned to England. During his stay with the great pianist Field had to suffer many privations, owing to dementi s all but unex ampled parsimony; but when the latter left Russia his splendid connexion amongst the highest circles of the capital became Field s inheritance. Fame and wealth were now within his grasp, but owing to his extravagant and dissipated way of life the composer was never free from care ; and to the same cause his early end must no doubt be attri buted. His marriage with a French lady of the name of Charpentier was anything but happy, and had soon to be dissolved. Field made frequent concert tours to the chief cities of Russia, and in 1820 settled permanently in Moscow. In 1831 he came to England for a short time, and for the next four years led a migratory life in France, Germany, and Italy, exciting the admiration of amateurs wherever he appeared in public. In Naples he fell seriously ill, and lay several months in the hospital, till a Russian family discovered him and brought him back to Moscow. There he lingered for several years till his death on January 11, 1837. Field was not a prolific writer, but he has left many works which will not easily be forgotten. His training and the cast of his genius were not of a kind to enable him to excel in the larger forms of instrumental music, and of his seven concert! for the pianoforte few if any are heard in concert-rooms now-a-days. Neither do his quartets for strings and pianoforte hold their own by the side of those of the great masters. But in the minor forms of composition he has shown gifts surpassed by few of his contemporaries. Especially his &quot; nocturnes,&quot; a form of music highly de veloped if not actually created by him, remain all but un rivalled for their tenderness and dreaminess of conception, combined with a continuous flow of beautiful melody. But their best claim to immortality is the fact that they have been the models of Chopin s still higher efforts in the same direction. Field s execution on the pianoforte was nearly allied to the nature of his compositions, beauty and poetical charm of touch being mentioned by contemporaries as one of the chief characteristics of his style. A certain monotony was the almost necessary complement of these qualities. Moscheles, who heard Field in 1831, speaks of his &quot; enchant ing legato.&quot; &quot; I again,&quot; he writes on another occasion, &quot; admired his tenderness and elegance and his beautiful touch ; but he wants spirit and accent, light and shade, and intensity of feeling.&quot; FIELD, NATHAN, a dramatist and actor of the time of Elizabeth, was probably born about but not later than 15 87. He was the son of the rector of Cripplegate, the Rev. John Field, and early became one of the children of Queen Elixabeth s chapel, and in 1GOO he played one of the princi pal parts in Ben Jonson s Cynthia s Revels, which was acted by children. Next year he played in the Poetaster, in 1G07 in Jlussi/ (TAmbois, and in 1G08 in Epicene, on which occa sion his is the only name among the &quot;children&quot; of 1GOO which still remains. In 1G12, when he must have been very young, he brought out his first play, the original comedy of A Woman is a Weathercock, in which the inconstancy of woman is made a theme fertile in humour. In 1613 he was engaged with Daborne in writing a play which has not been handed down to us; and soon afterwards we find these two authors, in conjunction with Massinger, praying Henslowe for a small sum of money to free them from im prisonment. In 1618 Field printed Amends for Ladies, in which he reversed the judgment of his first comedy, and, in the persons of a virtuous maid, wife, and widow, vindicated womankind against himself. It has been supposed that Field had some hand in editing the first folio Shakespeare in 1623 ; he certainly assisted Massinger in that year in com posing his tragedy of The Fatal Dowry, and the play bears evident traces of his co-operation. In 1G39 he reprinted the Amends for Ladies, and in 1641 he was dead. There exists a portrait of Field in Dulwich College. He was the poetic &quot; son &quot; of George Chapman, and the associate of many dramatic poets of that age. His elder brother Theophilus, also a writer of verse, entered the church, and rose to be bishop of Llandaff and afterwards of Hereford. The two unassisted plays of Nathan Field are comedies of contemporary London life, and are mainly written in very smooth and flowing blank verse. They contain one or two lyrics, which, in conjunction which certain passages in The Fatal Dowry, prove Field to have surpassed Massinger in lyrical power. Amends for Ladies is greatly superior to its companion play in animation, plausibility, and humour ; but the passages between Scudmore and Bellafront in A Woman is a Weathercock perhaps display the serious style of Field at its best. His song &quot; Rise, lady mistress, rise,&quot; in Amends for Ladies, is a charming aubade. It is to be regretted that we possess so little of the work of this bright and sensible writer. His plays have never been collected.