fioretto and spada, conduce to a freer use of wrist-play and a straight arm. The French, on the other hand, having long ago adopted the plain grip both for fleuret and épée, have come to rely more upon finger-play and a semi-bent arm. Both schools have long laid claims to an overwhelming superiority, on theoretical ground, over their rivals—claims which were unwarrantable. Indeed, of later days, especially since the evolution of a special “duelling play,” the two schools show a decided tendency, notwithstanding the difference in the grip of the weapons, towards a mutual assimilation of principles.
As a duelling weapon—as one, that is to say, the practice of which under the restrictive influence of conventions could become elaborated into an art—the sabre (see Sabre-fencing) returned to favour in some countries at the close of the Napoleonic wars. Considered from the historical point of view, the modern sabre, albeit now a very distant cousin of the small-sword, is as direct a descendant as the latter itself of the old cut-and-thrust rapier. It is curious, therefore, to note that, just as the practice of the “small” or thrusting sword gave rise to two rival schools, the French and the Italian, that of the sabre or cutting sword (it can hardly be called the broadsword, the blade, for the purposes of duelling play, having been reduced to slenderest proportions) became split up into two main systems, Italian and German. And further it is remarkable that the leading characteristics of the latter should still be, in a manner, “severity” and steadfastness; and that the former, the Italian, should rely, as of yore, specially upon agility and insidious cunning.
Concerning the latter-day evolution of that special and still more conventional system of fence, the Schläger or Hau-rapier play favoured by the German student, from that of the ancestral rapier, the curious will find a critical account in an article entitled “Schlägerei” which appeared in the Saturday Review, 5th of December 1885.
See also the separate articles on Cane-Fencing (canne); Épée-de-Combat; Foil-Fencing; Sabre-Fencing; and Single-stick.
Authorities.—The bibliography of fencing is a copious subject; but it has been very completely dealt with in the following works: Bibliotheca dimicatoria, in the “Fencing, Boxing and Wrestling” volume of the Badminton library (Longmans); A Bibliography of Fencing and Duelling, by Carl A. Thimm (John Lane). For French works more especially: La Bibliographie de l’escrime, by Vigeant (Paris, Motteroz); and Ma Collection d’escrime, by the same (Paris, Quantin). For Italian books: Bibliografia generale della scherma, by Gelli (Firenza, Niccolai). For Spain and Portugal: Libros de esgrima españoles y portugueses, by Leguina (Madrid, Los Huérfanos). Both M. Vigeant’s and Cav. Gelli’s works deal with the subject generally; but their entries are only critical, or even tolerably accurate, in the case of books belonging to their own countries. Concerning the history of the art, Egerton Castle’s Schools and Masters of Fence (George Bell); Hutton’s The Sword and the Centuries (Grant Richards); and Letainturier-Fradin’s Les Joueurs d’épée à travers les âges (Paris, Flammarion) cover the ground, technically and ethically. As typical exponents of the French and Italian schools respectively may be mentioned here: La Théorie de l’escrime, by Prévost (Paris, de Brunhof) (this is the work which was adopted in the Badminton volume on Fencing), and Trattato teorico-pratico della scherma, by Parise (Rome, Voghera). (E. Ca.)
FENDER, a metal guard or defence (whence the name) for a
fire-place. When the open hearth with its logs burning upon dogs
or andirons was replaced by the closed grate, the fender was
devised as a finish to the smaller fire-places, and as a safeguard
against the dropping of cinders upon the wooden floor, which was
now much nearer to the fire. Fenders are usually of steel, brass
or iron, solid or pierced. Those made of brass in the latter part of
the 18th and the earlier part of the 19th centuries are by far the
most elegant and artistic. They usually had three claw feet, and
the pierced varieties were often cut into arabesques or conventional
patterns. The lyre and other motives of the Empire
style were much used during the prevalence of that fashion. The
modern fender is much lower and is often little more than a kerb;
it is now not infrequently of stone or marble, fixed to the floor.
FÉNELON, BERTRAND DE SALIGNAC, seigneur de la Mothe
(1523–1589), French diplomatist, came of an old family of
Périgord. After serving in the army he was sent ambassador to
England in 1568. At the request of Charles IX. he endeavoured
to excuse to Elizabeth the massacre of St. Bartholomew as a
necessity caused by a plot which had been laid against the life of
the king of France. For some time after the death of Charles IX.
Fénelon was continued in his office, but he was recalled in 1575
when Catherine de’ Medici wished to bring about a marriage
between Elizabeth and the duke of Alençon, and thought that
another ambassador would have a better chance of success in the
negotiation. In 1582 Fénelon was charged with a new mission to
England, then to Scotland, and returned to France in 1583. He
opposed the Protestants until the end of the reign of Henry III.,
but espoused the cause of Henry IV. He died in 1589. His
nephew in the sixth degree was the celebrated archbishop of
Cambrai.
Fénelon is the author of a number of writings, among which those of general importance are Mémoires touchant l’Angleterre et la Suisse, ou Sommaire de la négociation faite en Angleterre, l’an 1571 (containing a number of the letters of Charles and his mother, relating to Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary and the Bartholomew massacre), published in the Mémoires of Castelnau (Paris, 1659); Négociations de la Mothe Fénelon et de Michel, sieur de Mauvissière, en Angleterre; and Dépêches de M. de la Mothe Fénelon, Instructions au sieur de la Mauvissière, both contained in the edition of Castelnau’s Mémoires, published at Brussels in 1731. The correspondence of Fénelon was published at Paris in 1838–1841, in 7 vols. 8vo.
See “Lettres de Catherine de’ Médicis,” edited by Hector de la Ferrière (1880 seq.) in the Collection de documents inédits sur l’histoire de France.
FÉNELON, FRANÇOIS DE SALIGNAC DE LA MOTHE (1651–1715),
French writer and archbishop of Cambrai, was born at
the château of Fénelon in Périgord on the 6th of August 1651.
His father, Pons, comte de Fénelon, was a country gentleman of
ancient lineage, large family and small estate. Owing to his
delicate health the boy’s early education was carried on at home;
though he was able to spend some time at the neighbouring
university of Cahors. In 1666 he came to Paris, under charge
of his father’s brother, Antoine, marquis de Fénelon, a retired
soldier of distinction, well known for his religious zeal. Three
years later he entered the famous theological college of Saint
Sulpice. Here, while imbibing the somewhat mystical piety
of the house, he had an excellent chance of carrying on his
beloved classical studies; indeed, at one time he proposed to
couple sacred and profane together, and go on a missionary
journey to the Levant. “There I shall once more make the
Apostle’s voice heard in the Church of Corinth. I shall stand
on that Areopagus where St. Paul preached to the sages of this
world an unknown God. But I do not scorn to descend thence
to the Piraeus, where Socrates sketched the plan of his republic.
I shall mount to the double summit of Parnassus; I shall revel
in the joys of Tempe.” Family opposition, however, put an end
to this attractive prospect. Fénelon remained at Saint Sulpice
till 1679, when he was made “superior” of a “New Catholic”
sisterhood in Paris—an institution devoted to the conversion of
Huguenot ladies. Of his work here nothing is known for certain.
Presumably it was successful; since in the winter of 1685, just
after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, Fénelon was put
at the head of a number of priests, and sent on a mission to the
Protestants of Saintonge, the district immediately around the
famous Huguenot citadel of La Rochelle. To Fénelon such
employment was clearly uncongenial; and if he was rather
too ready to employ unsavoury methods—such as bribery and
espionage—among his proselytes, his general conduct was kindly
and statesmanlike in no slight degree. But neither in his actions
nor in his writings is there the least trace of that belief in liberty
of conscience ascribed to him by 18th-century philosophers.
Tender-hearted he might be in practice; but toleration he declares
synonymous with “cowardly indulgence and false compassion.”
Meanwhile the marquis de Fénelon had introduced his nephew into the devout section of the court, dominated by Mme de Maintenon. He became a favourite disciple of Bossuet, and at the bishop’s instance undertook to refute certain metaphysical errors of Father Malebranche. Followed thereon an independent philosophical Treatise on the Existence of God, wherein Fénelon rewrote Descartes in the spirit of St Augustine. More important
