Page:Imperialdictiona02eadi Brandeis.pdf/541

FRI the fire was set on the faggots he embraced the same in his arms, and with all patience committed his spirit unto Almighty God." Though less than thirty years old when he suffered martyrdom, Frith was one of the most original, learned, and powerful writers of the English Reformation. The writings of Frith and Tyndale remain illustrious monuments to prove that the English Reformation was a purely spiritual movement, long before it became a political work. Their collected works were published with those of Barnes, in folio, in 1573, and an excellent edition of them, in 3 vols. 8vo, was brought out in 1631, under the editorship of Thomas Russell, A.M.—P. L.  * FRITH,, R.A., was born at Harrogate, Yorkshire, in 1819. After the usual initiation at Sass's art-school, Bloomsbury, he became in 1837 a student at the Royal Academy. He first appeared as an exhibitor at the British Institution in 1839, and at the Royal Academy in 1840, where his contribution, "Malvolio and Olivia," was much admired. Thenceforward he every year sent to the Royal Academy pictures, of which the subjects were selected from the pages of Shakspeare, Goldsmith, Sterne, Scott, the Spectator, or the Bourgeois Gentilhomme. "The Village Pastor" from Goldsmith's Deserted Village, exhibited in 1845, procured Mr. Frith's election that year as associate of the Royal Academy, and he justified the honour by preparing for the exhibition of 1846, the most important picture he had yet painted—"An English Merry-making a Hundred Years ago," the work in which he first signalized his power of depicting popular manners. The corresponding picture, "Coming of Age," was exhibited in 1849: both are well known by the engravings. Still it was as a painter of the past that Mr. Frith had as yet sought fame. He now aimed to show that he could observe and depict the present. His "Life at the Sea-side," exhibited in 1854, was a picture of the London citizen's elysium, Ramsgate, in the height of the season; and it showed the actual every-day aspect of the beach, with such unimpeachable truth, quiet humour, and good-feeling; and, at the same time, displayed so much artistic skill, that it at once became one of the most popular pictures of the season. To complete the painter's triumph the picture was purchased by her majesty, and the council of the Art Union of London selected it for engraving (in line by Mr. Sharpe) on a scale of unexampled magnitude. Mr. Frith had been elected R.A. in 1853. His next great work was "The Derby Day," exhibited in 1858, which not only surpassed all his previous pictures in popularity, but achieved an amount of success only equalled by one or two of the most popular of Wilkie's pictures; and during its subsequent exhibition in the provinces, as well as in the metropolis, its attraction underwent no diminution. Indeed, whatever objection critics might raise to the subject, or to the particular phase selected, there could be but one opinion as to the comprehensive glance of the painter, the wonderful truth of the representation, the admirable delineation of character, the conscientious working out of every detail, and the thorough mastery of execution. It is now being engraved on a large scale by M. Auguste Blanchard of Paris. Mr. Frith has since been chiefly occupied in painting his "Claude Duval," which appears in the exhibition of 1860. In 1859 his only contribution was a small portrait—"Charles Dickens in his study."—J. T—e.  * FRITZSCHE,, a philological writer, was born January 26, 1806, at Steinbach in Saxony. Having studied philology at Leipsic, he for a short time held the appointment of teacher at a school of the latter town; and in 1828 accepted a call as professor of ancient literature at the university of Rostock. He wrote—"Quæstiones Lucianeæ," 1826; "Commentationes de atticismo et orthographia Luciani," 1828; "Quæstiones Aristophaneæ," 1835; "Streitschriften über des Æschylus Eumeniden," 1834-35.—F. M.  FRITZSCHE,, brother of Franz Volkmar Fritzsche, born at Steinbach, December 16, 1801, studied theology at the university of Leipsic, and for a few years settled as privat docent at the latter place, until obtaining in 1826 a call to the vacant chair of theology at Rostock, which he exchanged fifteen years after for a like professorship at the university of Giessen, where he died, December 6th, 1846. He wrote numerous books and pamphlets, chiefly of a controversial nature. Among his works are a series of commentaries on the Epistles of St. Peter.—F. M.  * FRITZCHE,, a chemist, born October 29th, 1808, in Neustadt, near Stolpen-Sachsen, was at one time assistant in Mitscherlich's laboratory. He is a member of the Imperial Academy of Science in St. Petersburg. His researches are both numerous and important. He has investigated derivations of uric acid, more particularly murexide. He has also experimented successfully on indigo. He has published on the constitution of the fulminates. Certain rare metals, viz.—vanadium, osmium, and iridium have also been the subjects of his researches.—J. A. W.  FROBEN or FROBENIUS,, a learned and enterprising printer of the early part of the sixteenth century, was born at Hammelburg in Franconia in 1460, and studied the learned languages at the university of Basle. Becoming a corrector of the press in the printing-office of Amerbach, he continued there till 1491, when he established an office in Basle for himself. His first publication was a Latin Bible, published that same year. Devoting his art to the service of religion and sound learning, he acquired great distinction as a printer by his editions of the Latin Fathers, in the preparation of which he was aided by the exquisite learning and taste of Erasmus. His Jerome appeared in 1516 in 9 vols. folio; Cyprian and Rufinus in 1520; Tertullian in 1521; Hilarius in 1523; and Ambrose in 1527. He printed many of Erasmus' works, including several editions of his Greek Testament and Latin Paraphrase. Erasmus held him in high esteem for his learning, piety, and integrity; and, upon occasion of his lamented death in 1527, wrote his epitaph both in Greek and Latin. His sons, Hieronymus and Johann, and his grandsons, Ambrosius and Aurelius Froben, continued the business, and executed in part his design of bringing out editions of the Greek fathers—Chrysostom, in 5 vols. folio, appeared in 1530-33, and Basilius in 1532. Hieronymus Froben was honoured with the warm friendship of Erasmus, who lived for many years in his house before and after the elder Froben's death. He died in October, 1527.—P. L.  FROBENIUS,, a German who came to reside in London, where he died in 1741. He is noted as one of the first who prepared ether. His method, which appeared in the Philosophical Transactions, seems to have attracted considerable attention. For many years ether went by the name, Liquor sive æther Frobenii.—J. A. W.  FROBISHER or FORBISHER,, an English mariner of the sixteenth century, fills a conspicuous place amongst the great men of the Elizabethan era. He was born in the neighbourhood of Doncaster in Yorkshire, but the exact year of his birth, and the circumstances of his early life, are unknown. It is in connection with maritime discovery that he first comes upon the stage of history. Frobisher was of opinion that the finding of a north-west passage to Cathay and the Indies was "the only thing of the world that was left yet undone, whereby a notable mind might be made famous and fortunate," and he persevered during fifteen years in his efforts to obtain the means of seeking the hoped-for distinction. The spirit of maritime enterprise was already enkindled amongst the English nation, but the ardent hopes of Frobisher might seem to promise a less tangible result than that afforded by the expeditions to the Western Indies and the Spanish main, in which Hawkins, Drake, and ether English adventurers were already engaged—not merely to the increase of their own renown, but to the profit of those at whose expense the expeditions were fitted out. At length, aided by the patronage of Dudley, earl of Warwick, Frobisher was intrusted by a body of London merchants with two barques—the Gabriel of thirty-five tons, and the Michael, a pinnace of thirty tons—in which to take his course through the little-known seas of the north-west. He sailed in June, 1576—Queen Elizabeth waving her hand in token of encouragement, from the windows of her palace at Greenwich, while the vessels proceeded down the Thames. The first land which Frobisher saw on this voyage, after leaving the British seas, was the southern part of Greenland, or Friezeland, as it was then called. Sailing thence in a general direction of west, he discovered and entered (on the coast of what he supposed to be Labrador) a strait which he concluded to form the commencing portion of the desired passage to the shores of Asia. This is the Frobisher Strait of our charts. It was here that the native Esquimaux were first seen by our voyagers. The unwonted appearance they presented in their boat's or kayaks led the English sailors to mistake them at first for porpoises, or some strange species of fish. Determining to treat his countrymen with a sight of one of these "strange infideles, whose like was never seen, read, nor heard of before," <section end="541Zcontin" />