marks of youthful vigour and enthusiasm. It is impossible, however, from the scattered facts that remain, to put together anything like a satisfactory account of his career. Certain it is, that in his early life he was devoted to the study of the mathematical sciences, and especially of astronomy; but what cause it was that diverted him to other and less learned pursuits, we are left to conjecture. The publication already referred to was an ephemeris for the year 1557, entitled "Ephemeris anni 1557 currentis, juxta Copernici et Reinhaldi canones fideliter per Joannem Field," &c. This work which Field had undertaken at the suggestion of the celebrated Dr. John Dee, was probably the first publication in which any notice was taken of the discoveries of Copernicus, and certainly the first of the kind in which the system of that astronomer was made the basis of calculations for practical purposes. Field published also similar ephemerides for the years 1558 and 1559. These were calculated for the meridian of London, from the tables of Reinhold. He appears to have enjoyed considerable renown at this time, "the Clarencieux king-at-arms having by patent given him to bear as a crest over his family arms, what in the language of heraldry would be described a dexter arm, habited gules, issuing from clouds proper, supporting an armillary sphere or." After this, however, his course can be only imperfectly traced. All we know, indeed, is that he married, and retired some time before 1577 to Ardsley, or Ardslowe, a village of the wapentake of Morley, where he died, probably in 1587. He describes himself as "fermor, sometymes studente in the mathematicall sciences."—R. M., A.
FIELD, John, known as Field of Petersburg, a pianist and composer for his instrument, was born at Dublin on the 26th of July, 1782, and died at Moscow on the 11th of January, 1837. He was of a musical family; his father having been a violinist in the orchestra of the Dublin theatre, and his grandfather, who was his first instructor on the pianoforte, having been an organist. He was received by the famous Clementi as an articled pupil, with a premium of a hundred guineas; and his rapid proficiency did such honour to his teaching, that his master took every opportunity to exhibit his remarkable talent. He complained grievously, however, of the parsimony with which Clementi evaded the obligations to furnish him with food and raiment, which were included in his contract; and that, while he was compelled to remain within doors from week to week for the want of a hat, the veteran virtuoso would receive handsome fees for the discharge of duties, the fulfilment of which he deputed to his scholar. Field accompanied Clementi in his continental tour, on which he started in 1802. He left a lasting impression in Paris of his high qualities as a pianist, especially from his playing of the fugues of Bach; and was also well received in Vienna. There Clementi purposed to leave him under the tuition of Albrechtsberger, but yielded to his persuasion to let him proceed with him to Petersburg. Field arrived in the Russian capital towards the close of 1803, and found there so many admirers, and made so many friends, that when Clementi left at the beginning of the following year, he thought it expedient to remain. When his former master revisited Petersburg, some eighteen months afterwards, he saw his pupil universally esteemed as an artist, and sought at the highest terms as a teacher. His earnings from this time might be accounted princely; but with a reckless improvidence he spent as quickly as he acquired, and was thus none the richer for his success. In 1822 Field went to Moscow, and there established himself with even greater honour and profit than had attended his nineteen years' sojourn in Petersburg. It became a fashion, among the scions of the old nobility, to boast of him as their instructor, and persons came from great distances to receive his lessons, for the sake of saying he had taught them. He made some excursions to Courland and other places; but Moscow was his permanent abode until 1831, when, for the only time, he revisited England, and performed in London. The following year he appeared in Paris. Thence he started on a tour through the Netherlands, and reached Brussels in 1833. He now proceeded to Italy, where the success which had always welcomed, for the first time deserted him. At Naples he was seized with an illness, under which he lingered till the summer of 1835; when, being in extreme poverty, he was glad to accept the offer of a Russian family to convey him back to Moscow. He was scarcely able to regain his former position in this city; probably on account of the intemperate habits which are said to have caused his death. He published five concertos, and many compositions for the chamber. These are less valuable for their merit than as evidences of his legato style of playing. John Field must not be confounded with Henry Field of Bath—a pianist of great merit who died in 1850.—G. A. M.
FIELD, Nathaniel, an English dramatist, was born towards the close of the sixteenth century. At an early age he was associated with the boys who enacted plays before the court called "Children of the Chapel." Field acted in this company for some years, after which he was associated with the players at the theatres of the Globe and the Blackfriars, and was one of Shakspeare's company. Field, besides being an actor, was the author, in conjunction with Massinger, of the "Fatal Dowry." In addition to this he wrote two comedies—"A Woman's a Weathercock," and "Amends for Ladies." These compositions, though now little read, have considerable merit. The plots are good, the incidents well arranged, and there is much spirit and variety in the conduct of the pieces. Field deservedly holds a place in the old English drama.—J. F. W.
FIELD, Richard, a celebrated English divine, was born at Hempstead in 1561, and died in 1616. He studied at Oxford, and for seven years, after taking his degree of M.A., delivered lectures in logic and philosophy in Magdalen hall. He was esteemed one of the ablest disputants of the university, and had a great reputation as a preacher and school divine. Field was afterwards appointed divinity-reader in the cathedral church at Winchester, and in 1594 to the society of Lincoln's Inn. One of the members of that society presented him to the living of Burghclere in Hampshire, where the rest of his life was chiefly spent. Soon after James I. came to the throne, Field was appointed chaplain-in-ordinary to his majesty, and became one of his first favourites. He was nominated canon of Windsor in 1604, and six years later had the deanery of Gloucester bestowed on him by the king. His majesty designed him for a bishopric, and on one occasion desired his promotion to the see of Salisbury, but was frustrated in his wish by the importunate solicitations of his courtiers. At length he promised him the see of Oxford, which it was thought would soon become vacant. Before that event occurred, however. Field was carried off by a stroke of apoplexy. He was a most estimable man; learned, moderate, and conciliating. Hood says, "he was much against disputing about the high points of predestination and reprobation, nor did he like that men should be busy in determining what God's decrees in heaven are. He was one that laboured much to heal the breaches of christendom, and was ready to embrace truth wheresoever he found it." Fuller describes him in his quaint way as "that learned divine, whose memory smelleth like a field the Lord hath blessed." Field is now chiefly known by his great work, entitled "Of the Church," four books, 1606. A fifth book was added in 1610, and the whole was reprinted at Oxford in 1628. This work belongs to the same class with Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, and Sanderson's Treatises and Sermons. It is an elaborate yet moderate and admirable defence of the constitution and discipline of the Church of England. It was highly esteemed by Coleridge, and has lately been edited in three volumes by the Rev. John S. Brewer. Field was the friend of Hooker; and if he had lived a few years longer, none would have sat more reverently at his feet than the learned and "judicious" Sanderson.—R. M., A.
FIELDING, Copley Vandyke, President of the Society of Painters in Water Colours, was born about 1787. Belonging to a family of painters, art appeared to him as his natural calling. As early as 1810, he contributed a picture to the Spring Gardens exhibition, and having soon secured an honourable position as a teacher of drawing, and somewhat later considerable popularity as a landscape painter, his career thenceforward was one of quiet, uneventful prosperity. He was one of the early members of the Water Colour Society, and for a long series of years one of the largest, most regular, and most popular contributors to its annual exhibitions, and for many years its president. His most successful pictures were scenes on the South Downs, and coast and marine views, which he painted with wonderful facility, and always with great brilliancy of effect; though, perhaps from the almost unlimited repetition of similar subjects, with considerable mannerism and conventionality. He himself heartily enjoyed the broad sunny slopes, and shady hollows of the chalky Sussex Downs and Kentish Weald, and he succeeded in imparting something of the evidence of his enjoyment to his
