literary career, Fortoul contributed largely to the Revue des deux Mondes and the Encyclopédie nouvelle.—J. A., D.
FORTUNATUS, Venantius Honorius Clementianus, Bishop of Poitiers, was of a good family, and was born near Ceneda, in the neighbourhood of Treviso, in 530. At Ravenna he learned grammar, rhetoric, poetry, and jurisprudence. About 565 he quitted Italy, and visited Austrasia, where he was hospitably entertained at the court of King Sigebert, on whose marriage with the celebrated Brunehaut he composed an epithalamium. After a sojourn of about two years at Sigebert's court, he travelled south, visiting on his way every person of distinction. He paid a visit to the tomb of St. Martin at Tours. Travelling through Gaul, he visited St. Radegonde at the monastery of St. Croix, where he accepted the office of chaplain and almoner. He was friendly with all contemporary bishops. In 580 he sent a panegyric on Chilperic to the council of Braine. He resided at his retreat in Poitiers until the death of Radegonde in 587. He became bishop of Poitiers at an advanced age, and died in the early years of the seventh century, with the reputation of having been the best poet of his age. He was the author of a collection of elegiac and other verses in eleven books, two prose works in explanation of the Credo and the Pater, and four books of the "Life of St. Martin of Tours." His works went through several editions at Cagliari, Cologne, and Mayence.—W. A. B.
FORTUNE, Robert, a Scottish botanist and collector, was born in Berwickshire in 1812. He received his botanical education in the royal botanic garden of Edinburgh, and in the horticultural society's garden in London, and attended the lectures of Professors Graham and Lindley. In 1843 he was engaged by the Horticultural Society of London to proceed to China to explore that country in search of new plants, and of other objects of natural history. The success which attended his efforts, and the knowledge which he had acquired in China, induced the directors of the East India Company to engage his services for the purpose of introducing the best varieties of the tea-plant, with implements and manufacturers, to the government plantations in the north-west provinces of India. From 1848 to 1857 he penetrated far into the interior of the Chinese empire, visiting the best tea districts on the north and south sides of the Bohea mountains, the great silk country, and other parts of interest, and he sent from time to time the result of his labours to India and Europe. After accomplishing the object of his mission in China, he visited India, having received orders from the governor-general to inspect and report upon the tea plantations in the north-west provinces and the Punjaub. In 1858 Mr. Fortune was engaged by the United States government to introduce the tea-plant into America, and in little more than a year fifty thousand plants were growing in Washington. European and American gardens are indebted to Mr. Fortune for many of the beautiful plants which they now contain. His entomological collections formed in the tea countries were also singularly rich and beautiful. The following are the names of a few of the more important plants discovered and introduced by him—Weigela rosea, Jasminum nudiflorum, Forsythea viridissima, Tree pæonies, Diclytra spectabilis, Berberis japonica. Ilex cornuta. Spiræa prunifolia plena, Glycine sinensis alba. Chusan palm hardy, Skimmia japonica, Camellias, Farfugium grande, Cryptomeria japonica, Cupressus funebris, Cephalotaxus Fortunèi, Abies Kæmpferi, Torreya grandis, azaleas, chrysanthemums, Prunus triloba, double flowering peaches, &c. We are indebted to him for the race of chrysanthemums called Pompones, the parent of all these being a little plant found at Chusan, and named the Chusan daisy. The results of his travels have been published in the following works—"Three Years Wanderings in China;" "A Journey to the Tea Countries;" and "A Residence amongst the Chinese."—J. H. B.
FOSBROKE, Thomas Dudley, was born in London in the year 1770. His family had been originally settled at Fosbroke in Staffordshire. He received his education, first at Petersfield school in Hampshire; then at St. Paul's school in London; and lastly, at Pembroke college, Oxford, where, through the kindness of a noble patron, he was elected to a scholarship. It was the wish of many of his friends, and would appear to have been his own, that he should study for the bar; but his father, several of whose progenitors had been clergymen in succession, expressed so decided a wish that his son also should adopt the same calling, that young Fosbroke devoted himself to theological studies, and was ordained to the curacy of Horsley in Gloucestershire in the year 1793. Three years after he married a Miss Howel, one of his parishioners. About this time he seems to have devoted himself to literature, and though the muse was but coy, he continued to court her for the remaining forty-six years of his life with an unflagging plodding assiduity which excites a certain admiration. The uneventful tenor of his days thenceforward is marked only by his transference from one parish to another, or by the appearance of his different works. In 1810 he was appointed to the curacy of Walford in Herefordshire, and became vicar of the same parish in 1830. He received no further preferment, of which illiberal treatment on the part of fortune or mankind, he complains (see the introductory autobiographical sketch prefixed to the Encyclopædia of Antiquities, 1825) in terms of bitter mortification and repining. In 1796 he published "The Economy of Monastic Life as it existed in England," a poem in the Spenserian stanza. A prose work on the same subject, entitled "British Monachism," appeared in 1802. He had been elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1799, and his studies from that time were nearly exclusively archæological. The titles of the chief among his other productions are—"Abstracts of Records and MSS. respecting the County of Gloucester," 1807; "History of the City of Gloucester," 1819; "Encyclopædia of Antiquities," 1825; "Account of Cheltenham," 1826. The "Wye Tour," published in 1820, obtained a considerable popularity. Several other works of less importance proceeded from his indefatigable pen; and he was a constant contributor for many years to the Gentleman's Magazine. He died at Walford in 1842.—T. A.
FOSCARI, Francesco, for thirty-four years the energetic and distinguished doge of Venice at one of the most troubled and eventful periods of Italian history, was born in 1372. His career belongs to the time when, in the decline of the papacy and of the empire, the Italian republics attained their highest influence and power. Of a patrician family he encountered no obstacle on the political path; and, ascending from one dignity to another, he was at last elected doge in 1423. The greatness of Venice had for centuries been founded on commerce; but this stimulated instead of abating the ambition of the Venetians. They had armies and fleets, took part in all Italian affairs, and had gained extensive possessions, not merely in the immediate neighbourhood of Venice, but also in the Mediterranean. At the beginning of the fifteenth century very various were the governments of Italy; at Venice alone, however, had a complete oligarchy, altogether independent of the people, been erected. Of this oligarchy the doge for the time being could be little more than the instrument. The first memorable act of Foscari as doge was to declare war in 1426 against Philip, duke of Milan, the bad son of a bad father, and a monster of ugliness, cruelty, perfidy, and cowardice. Philip had become master of Milan through the help of Carmagnola, one of the most famous of those soldiers of fortune who were so common in the middle ages. But Carmagnola, having been treated with the basest ingratitude by Philip, sought refuge in Venice. Placed immediately at the head of the Venetian forces, he defeated the Milanese, and a peace favourable to Venice was concluded. The war having been renewed in 1431, Carmagnola was this time less successful, though through no apparent fault or treachery. Nevertheless, he had to pay the penalty of misfortune by being first tortured, then barbarously murdered by the Venetian government. The last of many wars into which Foscari's daring spirit led the Venetians was that with Francesco Sforza, the new duke of Milan, a man of eminent political genius and valour. The peace of Lodi in April, 1454, brought it to a termination. Foscari had added to the strength and glory of Venice. But, in his extreme old age, he was not allowed to taste of calm or of joy. Three of his sons had fallen in the service of the republic. The only remaining one, Jacopo, had been driven in 1445 into exile on the charge of having accepted presents from foreign princes—a charge of which there was no proof. Having returned, he was about ten years after condemned to the same punishment. A faction led by the powerful family of the Loredani, had sworn the ruin of the father, as well as of the son. In the terrible tribunal, the Council of Ten, Jacopo Loredano proposed that Francesco Foscari should resign within twenty-four hours that illustrious office which he had made more illustrious. A resolution to that effect was immediately passed. Foscari took, as became him, a heroic attitude. He said that he had twice before
