Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/546

* FEAR. 494 FEAST OF FOOLS. FEAR, Cape. See Cape Feab. FEARNE, fern, Chables (1742-94). An Eng- lish legal author, born in London. He was the son of Charles Fearne, well known as judge-advocate of the Admiralty. The younger Fearne was edu- cated at Westminster School, and made his way to the bar through the Inner Temple. He was a man of many gifts and of more varied attainments than are often found in the masters of the legal profession, and was especially addicted to classical studies and to the making of mechanical inven- tions, in which he was an adept. Notwithstand- ing these distractions and a certain love of ease which often paralyzed his energies, his extraor- dinary legal talents, and especially his capacity for refined analytical reasoning, speedily made him a leader of the English bar. He was only thirty years old when he produced the remarkable Essay on the Learning of Contingent Remainders ami Executory Devises, on which his fame mainly rests. It was characteristic of Fearne that he should have devoted himself to the elucidation of the most technical and abstruse doctrine of the law of real property. It was as a piece of artificial mechanism, ingeniously calculated to produce cer- tain practical results, that it attracted him, and he did nothing to furnish it with a philosophical or rational basis — perhaps an impossible task. But his analysis of the doctrine, his arrangement of its parts, and his description of its complicated operation gave it a foremost place in the arti- lieial system of which it formed a part. The essay at once became a standard text-book of real- property lawyers, taking its place with Little- ton's Tenures, and Coke upon Littleton, and, in the decade after its publication, went through several editions. It has retained its place as a legal authority, and has had much learning ex- pended upon it bv subsequent editors. The best editions are those of Butler (1S09-24), and the tenth, by J. V. Smith (1831). Fearne's success at the bar was equally con- spieuous. He was said to have been 'more con- sulted than any man of his time,' and for a time he enjoyed a great professional income. But he soon wearied of the exclusive devotion t.i legal pursuits which his position in the profession called for, and allowed bis practice to slip away from him, and fell into straitened circum- stances, lie died at Chelmsford, February 25, 17114, broken in mind and body, at the compara- tively early age of fifty-two. His published orl include an historical sketch of land tenures in England, an "Impartial Answer" In a letter of "Junius" (published in 1770). and a volume (if posthumous legal essays (17ti7>. FEARNLEY, fern'li, C.mii. FbedEBIK (1818- 90). A Norwegian astronomer. He Mas born at Frederikshald, and after studying at Christiania, was appointed Hanstcen's assistant at the astrO- I observatory in (hat city. After further studies at Bonn and Konigsberg, Germany, lie returned to Christiania iii prosecute hi- investi- ln 1 s r. 7 in. became professor of as- at the university, ami in 1861, upon t lie n ol i [an teen, succeeded him as di- rector nf the Observatory, In 1876 he wa ftp 1 chairman nf the commission for the geodetic Burvey nf Norway. In addition in ma- in Noi (vegian and I fei man reviews, he published: Zur Theorie der terrestrischen Refraction (1884); Zonenbeobachtunycn der Sterne zwischen 6'.}° 50' und 70° 10' nordticher Deklination (1888). FEARNLEY, Thomas (1802-42). A Nor- wegian painter, of English parentage, brother of the preceding, born at Frederikshald. He studied at Christiania, Copenhagen, and Stock- holm, and from 1829 to 1830 he was the pupil of Dahl at Dresden. He was a constant traveler; living but little in his own country. His land- scapes are fine in color and his treatment is sin- cere and harmonious. Among the best of them are: "Justedal Glacier" (1829) ; "View of Roms- dalshorn;" "Grindelwald;" "Mountain Land- scape:" "View of Stockholm;" "Gravensfjord;" and "Norwegian Waterfall." FEAST OF FOOLS. A survival into and through the Middle Ages of the spirit of the Roman Saturnalia (q.v.). The details of its observance varied much in different places, but it was everywhere marked by the same broad, boisterous drollery. The donkey played so frequent a part in the pageantry that he often imposed his name on the celebration. (See Ass, Feast of the.) In every instance there was more or less attempt at dramatic representation, the theatre being generally the chief church of the place, and the words and action of the drama being often ordered by its book of ceremonies. Several rituals of this sort are still preserved. That which was in use at Beauvais, in France, has a rubric ordering the priest when he dismisses the congregation to bray three times, and ordering the people to bray three times in answer. As the ass was led toward the altar he was greeted with a hymn of nine stanzas, of which the first runs thus: Orientis partibus, AilvviKO it Asians, Pulcher et fortissinius, Sarcinis aptisslmns. H4, Sire Ane. he! [From the regions of the East — Blessings on the bonny beast ! — Game the donkey, stout and strong, With our packs to pace along. Bray. Sir Donkey, Bray!] Where the ass did not come upon the stage the chief point of the fane lay in the election of a mock pope, patriarch, cardinal, archbishop, bishop, or abbot. These mimic dignitaries took such titles as 'Pope of Fools,' 'Boy Bishop,' 'Patriarch of Sots,' 'Abbot of Unreason.' and (he like. On the day of their election they often look possession of the churches, and even occasionally travestied the performance of the Church's high- est office. The license which finally prevailed in these mummeries at length called for the inter- vention of ecclesiastical authority, and the bish- op- and popes began to prohibit them. The feast of fools maintained itself in many places lill the middle of the sixteenth century. t intibes, in the smith of France, it survived till the year Mill. The scene was a church; and the actors, dressing themselves in priests' robes tinned inside out, read prayers from books turned upside down, through spectacles of orange-peel; using coal in Hour for incense, amid a hnbblemein o1 in eil cries, and the mimic bellowings ol cattle ami grunting of pigs. Consul! Tilliot, V4 moires pour servir n Vhistoire de I" /• /- d< l .hi .urn.'. I ; 1 1 i. and see also Boi BlSHOPi Misni i e, Lord oi