Napolitano, that undermined whatever influence still remained with the royalist party, denouncing in its cleverly written columns the reprehensible conduct of Queen Caroline with General Acton. At the restoration of King Ferdinand, this heroic lady, who spurned to fly from her country, was arrested by order of the incensed queen, brought before a tribunal, and condemned to be hanged, a terrible sentence, which was carried into execution on the 20th of July, 1799.—A. C. M.
FONSECA, Juan Rodriguez, born at Toro in 1451; died at Burgos in 1524; the confidential adviser of Isabella of Spain, successively bishop of Badajoz, Cordova, Palencia, and Burgos; archbishop of Rosano. He was one of the commission appointed to examine into the schemes of Columbus, and reported them to be visionary and impracticable. Throughout life he was the implacable foe of Columbus, and as a member of the council of the Indies, he found ample means of gratifying his hostility. Unfortunately, to him was committed the care of the missions for the conversion of the Indians, and he made a point of selecting as missionaries the most fanatical and bigoted men. He was also continually engaged in disputes with Las Casas and Hernando Cortez.—F. M. W.
FONSECA, Pedro de, an eminent jesuit, was born in 1528 at Cortisada, a village of Portugal, and joined the Society of Jesus in Coimbra in 1548. In 1551 he entered the university of Evora, where he distinguished himself so much by his dialectical powers, that he was soon made a professor of philosophy, and acquired for himself the name of the Portuguese Aristotle. In 1570 he was made a doctor of divinity, and was promoted in succession, in after years, to the highest dignities of the order. Philip II., having formed a council of ministers for the reform of Portugal, placed Fonseca upon it; and Pope Gregory XII. committed to him the direction of ecclesiastical affairs of the highest moment. Lisbon owes to him several of her educational and conventual establishments. He died in 1599, at the age of seventy-one years. He claimed to be the discoverer of the "scientia media," or a certain manner of reconciling the freewill of man with the predestination of God, which, having been adopted by the jesuit Molina, became a topic of long and bitter controversy between the jesuits, the jansenists, and dominicans, who adhered to the doctrine of Augustine upon that subject. He published in 1564 "Institutiones Dialecticæ," and afterwards a Latin commentary upon the metaphysics of Aristotle, both of which works went through many editions.—P. L.
FONSECA Y SCARES, Antonio de (better known as Antonio das Chagas), a Portuguese ecclesiastic and author, born at Vidiguera in 1631; died in 1682. In early life he was a soldier; and having killed an opponent in a duel, he fled to Brazil, where he appears to have led a loose life, but from some cause resolved to return to Europe and become a Franciscan. He came to Lisbon, relapsed into his former way of life, but finally took the vows of the order in 1663. He refused the bishopric of Lamego, which was offered to him in 1679. He instituted a seminary at Torres Vedras, where he died in the odour of sanctity. His religious works are not of great importance; two poems, "A Fenix renascida" and "Filis e Deinophante," attained some renown in their day; but the author in his later years made it a rule to fast and flagellate himself every time they were named in his hearing.—F. M. W.
FONTAINE, Alexis, an eminent French geometrician, was born at Claveison in Dauphiny about 1705, and died in 1771. His parents designed him for the law, but the profession was distasteful to him, and eventually having fallen in with a treatise on geometry, he determined to devote himself to the study of the exact sciences. He shortly afterwards formed friendships with Clairaut, Maupertuis, and other eminent scientific men. Fontaine improved upon Bernouilli's method of solving the problems de maximis, and prosecuted a series of valuable investigations relative to the integral calculus. His subtlety and skill as a geometrician have been highly praised by Condorcet, who, however, says that it is sometimes difficult to follow him through the turnings and windings of his intricate processes. Fontaine sold his books in 1764, and retired to Cuiseaux, a small town in Burgundy, in the neighbourhood of which he had purchased an estate. During his last years he suffered much, but with great fortitude, from a cruel malady.—R. M., A.
FONTAINE, Charles, born in 1513; died in 1587. His youth was passed in dissipation. He somehow got an appointment in the establishment of Renée of France, duchess of Ferrara, and travelled in her suite through parts of Italy. He published poems, which commemorate the incidents of an unimportant life, and also translations from Ovid and Musæus.—J. A., D.
FONTAINE, Jean de la, born at Chateau-Thierry in 1621; died in 1695; educated first at a village school, then at Reims. At nineteen he entered the congregation of the oratory. Fontaine first wrote verse at the age of twenty-two; the recitation of a poem of Malherbe made him feel that he, too, was a poet; he studied and declaimed the works of Malherbe, and imitated with some dexterity the King Cambyses vein. Luckily, however, he soon passed from this to the style of Marot. Rabelais was studied by him; he imitated Voiture. The era of imitation, however, with him was not long, and he passed into a style so peculiarly his own, that it recalls that of no other writer. A relation of his, who is remembered by a translation of part of Seneca, M. Pintrel, advised him to study the classics. A translation of Terence's Eunuch was Fontaine's first printed work. Racine translated for him passages from Plutarch and Plato. D'Olivet tells us that he saw Fontaine's copies of Plutarch and Plato (he most probably means French translations), and found them marked with Fontaine's pen; he adds that he recognized in the "Fables," the passages so marked. It may be so, but D'Olivet was one of those persons who seem to think there is no such thing as original genius. Fontaine preferred the Italian literature to the French. He has founded some of his stories on Machiavelli, and he has often told the same tales as Ariosto and Boccacio. Fontaine's father was anxious to see him married, and transferred to him, to enable him to marry, an office which he held of maitre des eaux et forêts. Fontaine neglected both his official and his domestic duties, seldom saw his wife, except on annual visits to get her to execute deeds, enabling him to part with successive portions of their joint property—a step which his indolence and her extravagance rendered necessary. The duchess de Bouillon brought Fontaine with her from Chateau-Thierry to Paris, and a pension was obtained for him from Fouquet. We next find Fontaine among the attendants of Henrietta of England. Her death threw the poet again into what would have been a state of helpless dependence, if it were not for the generosity of Madame de Sabliere, into whose establishment he passed. She called him her "fablier," or fable-tree, forming the word in analogy with "pommier," the apple-tree; intimating that he produced fables as freely, and with as little effort, as the apple-tree produces its fruits. He resided for twenty years in her house. At one time, when she was making changes in her establishment, she said—"I have sent them all off except my dog, my cat, and my Fontaine." Fontaine's first tales appeared in 1664; "Adonis" in 1665. The first edition of the "Fables" was 1668; of "Psyche," 1669. In 1684 he became a member of the Academy. After the death of Madame de Sabliere, Fontaine for a while thought of transferring his residence to England; but some presents given him by the duc de Bourgogne made him change his purpose. In 1692 he was seized with what proved his death-illness, and on the bed of death was brought to a sense of the injury done to society by the indecency of some of his tales. He was able to make his way to the Academy, and there publicly expressed his regret and repentance; he promised to devote himself to religious poetry, and the first-fruits were presented by him in a translation of the Dies Iræ. Fontaine was removed from his lodgings to the house of M. and Madame D'Hervart, and there treated with the same tenderness and consideration which he had received for so many years from Madame de Sabliere. When Fontaine died, it was found that, in the austerities of his penance, he wore a hair shirt. He was buried in the cemetery of St. Joseph by the side of Moliere. At the period of the Revolution both bodies were removed, but still left side by side. In 1817 they were transferred to Pére La Chaise. The evidence of every one who knew him attests the extreme simplicity, almost folly of his manner—a silly smile, heavy depressed air, lack-lustre eye, and a mind that seemed always absent. The secret of his being a favourite in society would seem to be, that he interfered with no one; even in literature, with all its rivalries, his style was so peculiarly his own that none sought distinction in the same way. When we think of Fontaine's works we speak of the "Fables" alone. The stories are old—none, we believe, his own invention; but, says La Harpe, "he has invented his style, and the secret has been well kept." It absolutely has defied all imitation in his own language, and
