Chapter XX: Part 20

The regulations of the Football Association, which is the recognized administrative and legislative body for the game in England, make provision for the sanction and control of leagues and competitions; and its rules, regulations, principles and practices very largely prevail in all national associations. The king is the patron, and the council consists of 56 members, a president, 6 vice-presidents, a treasurer, 10 representatives elected by the clubs in the ten divisions into which the country is subdivided, together with representatives of the army, the navy and of county associations in England which have upwards of 50 clubs in membership, each representative being directly appointed by his association. In 1905 the Football Association became incorporated under the Joint Stock Companies Acts, and as a consequence the word "Limited" appears in its title. It is not, however, a trading body; the shareholders are not entitled to any dividend, bonus or profit, nor may the members of the council, who are the directors, receive any payment for their services. The Scottish Football Association is also an incorporated body with similar powers. Many of the leading clubs of the United Kingdom have also become incorporated, but under the regulations of the Football Association they may not pay a larger dividend to their shareholders than 5%, nor may any of the directors receive payment for their services.

The whole policy of legislation in Association football of late years has been naturally to make the game faster by bringing every one into full play. The great aim accordingly has been to encourage combination and to discourage purely individual efforts. In the early days, though there was a certain amount of cohesion, a player had to rely mainly on himself. Even up to the middle of the 'seventies dribbling was looked upon as the great desideratum; it was the essential for a forward, just as long kicks were the main object of a back. The development of the game was of course bound to change all that. The introduction of passing, long or short, but long in particular, placed the dribbler pure and simple at a discount, and necessitated methods with which he was mostly unacquainted. Combined play gradually came to be regarded as the keynote to success. Instead of one full back, as was originally the case, and one half-back, the defence gradually developed by the addition first of a second half, then of a second full back, and still later of a third half-back, until it came to show, in addition to the goalkeeper of course, two full backs and three half-backs. The eight forwards who used to constitute the attack in the earliest days of the Association have been reduced by degrees, as the science of the game became understood, until they now number only five. The effect of the transition has been to put the attack and defence on a more equal footing, and as a natural consequence to make the game more open and thereby generally more interesting and attractive. Association football is indeed, from the standpoint of the spectator, a much brighter game than it was in its infancy, the result of the new methods bringing every one of the eleven players into full relief throughout the game. The players who, as a rule, make or mar the success of a side in modern football are the centre forward and the centre half-back. They are the pivot on which the attack and the defence respectively turn. Instead of close dribbling and following up, the new formation makes for accuracy of passing among the forwards, with intelligent support from the half-backs. The net result is practically the effective combination of the whole side. To do his part as it ought to be done every member of an eleven must work in harmony with the rest, and on a definite system, in all cases subordinating his own methods and personal interests to promote the general well-being of the side. (C. W. A.; F. J. W.)

The literature of British football is very extensive, but the
following works are among the best: _Football_ in the "Badminton
Library" (London, 1904), where the different games played at Eton,
Harrow, Rugby, Winchester and other public schools are thoroughly
described; Rev. F. Marshall, _Football; the Rugby Game_ (London,
Cassells); J.E. Vincent, _Football; its History for Five Centuries_
(London, 1885); C.J.B. Marriott and C.W. Alcock, _Football_ ("Oval
Series"); "Football," in the _Encyclopaedia of Sport_; _The Rugby
Football Union Handbook_, Richardson, Greenwich, Official Annual; and
_The Football Annual_, Merritt and Hatcher (Association Game), London.

_United States._--In America the game of football has been elaborated far more than elsewhere, and involves more complications than in England. From colonial times until 1871 a kind of football generally resembling the English Association game was played on the village greens and by the students of colleges and academies. There was no running with the ball, but dribbling, called "babying," was common. In 1871 a code of rules was drawn up, but they were unsatisfactory and not invariably observed. "Batting the ball," i.e. striking the ball forward with the fists, was allowed. There were two backs, sixteen rushers or forwards, and two rovers or "peanutters," who lurked near the opponents' goal. During this period the first international football game was played at Yale between the college team and one made up of old Etonians, the rules being a compromise between the American and the English.

English Rugby, introduced from Canada, was first played at Harvard University, and in 1875 a match under a compromise set of rules, taken partly from the Rugby Union and partly from the existing American game, was played with Yale. The following year Yale adopted the regular Rugby Union rules, and played Harvard under these. Later, several other colleges adopted these English rules. Absence of tradition necessitated expansion of these laws, and a convention of colleges was assembled. Thenceforward annual conventions were held, which from time to time altered and amplified the rules. A college association was formed, and the game grew in popularity. Public criticism of the roughness shown in the play early threatened its existence; indeed at one time the university authorities compelled Harvard to abstain from the annual game with Yale. Changes in the rules were introduced, and the game has been characterized by less roughness and by increased skill. It has become the most popular autumn game in the United States, the principal university matches often attracting crowds of 35,000 and even 40,000 spectators. The association subsequently disbanded, but a Rules Committee, invited by the University Athletic Club of New York, made the necessary changes in the rules from time to time, and these have been accepted by the country at large. In the West associations were formed; but the game in the East is played principally under separate agreements between the contesting universities, all using, however, one code of rules. Later this Rules Committee amalgamated with a new committee of wider representation. Amateur athletic clubs as well as public and private schools have also taken up the game. The American football season lasts from the middle of September to the first of December only, owing to the severity of the American winter. Professional football is not played in America.

The American Rugby game is played by teams of eleven men on a field of 330 ft. long and 160 ft. wide, divided by chalk lines into squares with sides 5 yds. long, leaving a strip 5 ft. wide on each side of the field. Until 1903 the field was divided by latitudinal lines only and was therefore popularly called the "gridiron"; subsequently it was called the "checkerboard." The end lines are called "goal-lines," the side "touch-lines." The two lines 25 yds. from each goal-line, and the middle line, or 55 yard-line, are made broader than the rest. In the middle of each goal-line is a goal, consisting of two uprights exceeding 20 ft. in length, set 18 ft. 6 in. apart with a crossbar 10 ft. from the ground. The ball is in shape and material of the English Rugby type.

The football rules provide that when the ball is put in play in a
scrimmage, the first man who receives the ball, commonly known as the
quarter-back, may carry it forward beyond the line of scrimmage,
provided in so doing he crosses such line at least 5 yds. from the
point where the snapper-back put the ball in play, and furthermore,
that a forward pass may be made provided the ball passes over the line
of scrimmage at least 5 yds. from the point at which the ball is put
in play. The field is marked off at intervals of 5 yds. with white
lines parallel to the goal line, for convenience in penalizing fouls
and for measuring the 10 yds. to be gained in three downs, and also at
intervals of 5 yds. with white lines parallel to the side lines, in
order to assist the referee in determining whether the quarter-back
runs according to rule, or whether, in case of a forward pass, such
pass is legally made. Thus the football field is changed from the
gridiron as in 1902, to what now resembles a checkerboard, and the
above diagram shows exactly how the field should be marked. As the
width of the field does not divide evenly into 5 yd. spaces, it is
wise to run the first line through the middle point of the field and
then to mark off the 5 yds. on each side from that middle line. In
order to save labour, it may be sufficient to omit the full completion
of the longitudinal lines, as the object of these lines is
accomplished if their points of intersection with the transverse lines
are distinctly marked, for instance, by a line a foot long.]

A match game consists of two periods (_halves_) of thirty-five minutes with an interval of fifteen minutes. Practice games usually have shorter halves. There are four officials: the _umpire_, whose duty it is to watch the conduct of the players and decide regarding fouls; the _referee_, who decides questions regarding the progress of the ball and of play; the _field judge_ who assists the referee and keeps the time; and the _linesman_, who (with two assistants, one representing each eleven) marks the distance gained or lost in each play.

In scoring, a "touchdown" (the English Rugby "try") counts 5 points, a goal from a touchdown 6 (or one added to the 5 for the touchdown), a "goal from the field," whether from placement or drop-kick, 4, and a "safety" (the English Rugby "touchdown") 2. _Mutatis mutandis_, these are made as in English Rugby. American Rugby differs from the English game, because in the scrimmage the men are lined up opposite each other, and, although separated by the length of the ball, are engaged in a constant man-to-man contest, and also in that a system of "interference" is allowed. Furthermore, a player in the American game is put "on side" when a kicked ball strikes the ground; and forward passing, i.e. throwing the ball toward the opponents' goal, is permissible under certain restrictions. The costume usually consists of a close-fitting jersey with shoulders and elbows padded and reinforced with leather; short trousers with padded thighs and knees, heavy stockings and shoes with leather cleats. In the early period of the game caps were worn, but, as they were impossible to keep on, they were discarded in favour of the wearing of long hair, and the "chrysanthemum head" became the distinguishing mark of the football player. This, however, proved an inadequate protection, and some players now wear a "head harness" of soft padded leather. Substitutes are allowed in the places of injured players.

The object of the game is identical with that of English Rugby, and the rules in regard to fair catches, punting, drop-kicking, place-kicking, goal-kicking, passing and gentlemanly conduct are practically the same, except that, on a free kick after a fair catch, the opposing players in the American game may not come up to the mark but must keep 10 yds. in front of it. In the American game there is no scrummage in the English sense, nor is the ball thrown in at right angles after going into touch. The element of chance in both these methods of play was done away with by the enunciation of the principle of the "possession of the ball." In America, when the ball has gone out of bounds or a runner has been tackled and held and the ball downed, the ball is also put into play by an evolution called a scrimmage, usually called "line-up," which beyond the name bears no resemblance to the English scrummage. The ball, at every moment of the game, belongs theoretically either to one side or to the other. It may be lost by a fumble, or by the side in possession not being able to make the required distance of 10 yds. in three successive attempts or by a voluntary kick. In the line-up the seven linemen (i.e. forwards) face each other on a line parallel to the goal-lines on the spot where it was ordered down by the referee. The ball is placed on the ground by the centre-rush, also called the snapper-back, who, upon the signal being given by his quarter-back, "snaps back" the ball to this player, or to the full-back, by a quick movement of the hand or foot. The moment the ball is snapped-back it is in play. In every scrimmage it is a foul for the side having the ball (attacking side) to obstruct an opponent except with the body (no use may be made of hands or arms); or for the defending side to interfere with the snap-back. The defenders may use their hands and arms only to get their opponents out of the way in order to get at the man with the ball. Each member of the attacking side endeavours, of course, to prevent his opponents from breaking through and interfering with the quarter-back, who requires this protection from his line in order to have time to pass the ball to one of the backs, whom he has notified by a signal to be ready. In the United States a player may be obstructed by an off-side opponent so long as hands and arms are not used. In the line-up this is called "blocking-off" and "interference" when done to protect a friend running with the ball. Interference is one of the most important features of American football. As soon as the ball is passed to one of the half-backs for a run, for example, round one end of the line, his interference must form immediately. This means that one or more of his fellows must accompany and shield him as he runs, blocking off any opponent who tries to tackle him. The first duty of the defence against a hostile run is therefore to break up the interference, i.e. put these defenders out of the play, so that the runner may be reached and tackled.

The game begins by the captains tossing for choice of kick-off or goal. If the winner of the toss chooses the goal, on account of the direction of wind, the loser must kick off and send the ball at least 10 yds. into the opponents' territory from a place-kick from the 55 yds. line. The two ends of the kicking side, who are usually fast runners, get down the field after the ball as quickly as possible, in order to prevent the man who catches the kick-off from running back with the ball. When the kick-off is caught, the catcher with the aid of interference runs it back as far as possible, and as soon as he is tackled and held by his opponents the ball is down, and a line-up takes place, the ball being in the possession of the catcher's side, which now attacks. In order to prevent the so-called "block game," once prevalent, in which neither side made any appreciable progress, the rules provide that the side in possession of the ball must make _at least 10 yds. in three successive attempts_, or, failing to do so, must surrender the ball to the enemy, or, as it is called, "lose the ball on downs". This is infrequent in actual play, because if, after two unsuccessful attempts, or partly successful, it becomes evident that the chances of completing the obligatory 10-yd. gain on the remaining attempt are unfavourable, a forward pass or a kick is resorted to, rather than risk losing the ball on the spot. The kick, although resulting in the loss of the ball, nevertheless gives it to the enemy much nearer his goal. When the wind is strong the side favoured by it usually kicks often, as the other side, not being able to kick back on equal terms, is forced to play a rushing game, which is always exhausting. Again, the kicking game is often resorted to by the side that has the lead in the score, in order to save its men and yet retain the advantage. The only remaining way to advance the ball is on a free-kick after a fair catch, as in the English game. The free kick may be either a punt, a drop-kick or a kick from placement. Whenever the ball goes over the side line into touch it is brought back to the point where it crossed the line by the man who carried it over, or, if kicked or knocked over, by a man of the side which did not kick it out, and there put in play in one of two ways. Either it may be touched to the ground and then kicked at least 10 yds. towards the opponents' goal, or it may be taken into the field at right angles to the line a distance not less than 5 yds. nor more than 15, and there put down for a line-up, the player who takes it in first declaring how far he will go, so that the opposing team may not be caught napping.

Of the seven men in the line, the centre is chosen for his weight and ability to handle the ball cleanly in snapping back. He must also, in case the full-back is to make the next play, be able to throw the ball from between his legs accurately into the full-back's hands, thus saving the time that would be wasted if the quarter-back were used as an intermediary. The two "guards," who must also be heavy men, form with the centre the bulk of the line, protecting the backs in offence, and in defence blocking the enemy. The two "tackles" must be heavy yet active and aggressive men, as they must not only help the centre and guards in repelling assaults on the middle of the line, but also assist the ends in stopping runs round the line as well as those between tackle and end, a favourite point of attack. The "ends" are chosen for their activity, sure tackling, fast running and ability to follow up the ball after a kick. Of the four players behind the line, the full-back must be a sure catcher and tackler and a fast runner. The two half-backs must also be fast runners and good dodgers. One of them is often chosen for his ability to gain ground by "bucking the line," i.e. plunging through the opposing team's line. He must therefore be over the average weight, while the other half-back is called upon to gain by running round the opposing ends. The quarter-back is the commanding general and therefore the most important member of his side, as with him lies the choice of plays to be made when on the attack. Courage, coolness, promptness in decision and discrimination in the choice of plays are the qualities absolutely required for this position. As soon as his side obtains the ball, the quarter-back shouts out a signal, consisting of a series of numbers or letters, or both, which denotes a certain play that is to be carried through the moment the ball is snapped back. A good quarter-back thinks rapidly and shouts his signal for the next play as soon as a down has been called and while the scrimmage is forming, so that the plays are run off rapidly and the enemy is given as little time as possible to concentrate. The signals, which are secret and often changed to guard them from being solved by the enemy, are formed by designating every position and every space in the line, as well as kicks and other open plays, by a number or letter. Some signals are called sequence-signals, and indicate a prearranged series of plays for use in certain emergencies. Every manoeuvre of the attacking side is carried out by every member of the team, the ideal being "every man in every play every time." As soon as a signal is given each man should know what part of the ensuing move will fall to him, in carrying the ball, interfering for the runner, or getting down the field under a punt. Every team has its own code.

About 1890 the system of interference led to momentum and mass plays (wedge-formations, tandems, &c.), i.e. to the grouping of bodies of men behind the line, and starting them before the ball was snapped back, so that they struck the line with an acquired momentum that was extremely severe, particularly when met by men equally determined. These plays caused frequent injuries and led to legislation against them, the most important law providing for a limitation to the number of men who could be dropped back of the line, and practically keeping seven men drawn up in the line.

_Penalties_ are of three kinds: (1) forfeiture of the game, for refusing to play when directed to do so by the referee, and for repeated fouls made with the intention of delaying the game; (2) disqualification of players for unnecessary roughness or ungentlemanly conduct; and (3) for infringement of rules, for which certain distances are taken away from the previous gains of the side making the fouls.

The game resolves itself into a series of scrimmages interspersed with runs and kicks. The systematized development of plays places at the disposal of the quarter an infinite variety of attack, which he seeks to direct at the opposing line with bewildering rapidity and dash. During the preliminary games of the season "straight football" is generally played; that is, intricate attacks are avoided and kicks and simple plunges into the line are mainly relied upon. "Trick plays," which comprise all manoeuvres of an intricate nature, are reserved for later and more important matches. Among these is the "fake (false) kick," in which the full-back takes position as if to receive the ball for a kick, but the ball is passed to a different player for a run. Another play of this kind is the "wing-shift," in which some or all of the players on one side of centre suddenly change to the other side, thus forming a mass and throwing the opponents' line out of balance. To this category belong also "double passes," "false passes," "delayed passes," "delayed runs" and "criss-crosses."

Training for football in America resembles that for other sports in regard to food and hygiene. The coaching systems at the universities differ, but there is generally a head coach, who is assisted by graduates, each of whom pays especial attention to one set of men, one to the men in the centre of the line, one to the backs, another to the ends, &c. Candidates for the teams are put through a severe course of practice in catching punts and hard-thrown passes, in quick starts, falling on the ball, tackling a mechanical dummy, in blocking, breaking through the line, and all kinds of kicking, although in matches the kicking is generally left to one or two men who have shown themselves particularly expert. Every player is taught to dive for the ball whenever he sees it on the ground, as possession is of cardinal importance in American football, and dribbling for this reason is unknown. When running with the ball the player is taught to take short steps, to follow his interference, that is, not isolate himself from his defenders, and neither to slow up nor shut his eyes when striking the opposing line. Tackling well below the waist is taught, but it is a foul to tackle below the knee. The general rule for defensive work of all kinds is "play low."

See Walter Camp, _How to play Football_, and the _Official Football
Guide_ (annual), both in Spalding's Athletic Library; his _Book of
College Sports_ (New York, 1893), his _American Football_ (New York,
1894), and his _Football_ (Boston, 1896)--the last in co-operation
with L.F. Deland; R.H. Barbour, _The Book of School and College
Sports_ (New York, 1904); W.H. Lewis, _Primer of College Football_
(Boston, 1896). (E. B.; W. Ca.)

FOOTE, ANDREW HULL (1806-1863), American admiral, was born at New Haven, Connecticut, on the 12th of September 1806, his father, Samuel Augustus Foote (1780-1846), being a prominent lawyer and Whig politician, who as U.S. senator moved in 1829 "Foote's resolutions" on public lands, in the discussion of which Daniel Webster made his "reply to Hayne." He entered the U.S. navy in 1822, and was commissioned lieutenant in 1830. After cruising round the world (1837-1840) in the "John Adams," he was assigned to the Philadelphia Naval Asylum, and later (1846-1848) to the Boston Navy Yard. In 1849 he was made commander of the "Perry," and engaged for two years in suppressing the slave trade on the African coast. In 1856, as commander of the "Portsmouth," he served on the East India station, under Com. James Armstrong, and he captured the Barrier Forts near Canton. From October 1858 to the outbreak of the Civil War, he was in charge of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, becoming a full captain in 1861. In August 1861 he was assigned to the command "of the naval operations upon the Western waters." His exploit in capturing Fort Henry (on the right bank of the Tennessee river) from the Confederates, on the 6th of February 1862, without the co-operation of General Grant's land forces, who had not arrived in time, was a brilliant success; but their combined attack on Fort Donelson (12 m. off, on the left bank of the Cumberland river), whither most of the Fort Henry garrison had escaped, resulted, before its surrender (Feb. 16), in heavy losses to Foote's gunboats, Foote himself being severely wounded. In March-April he co-operated in the capture of New Madrid (q.v.) and Island No. 10. In June he retired from his command and in July was promoted rear-admiral, and became chief of the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting. On the 26th of June 1863 he died at New York.

See the life (1874) by Professor James Mason Hoppin (1820-1906).

FOOTE, MARY HALLOCK (1847- ), American author and illustrator, was born in Milton, New York, on the 19th of November 1847, of English Quaker ancestry. She was educated at the Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Female Collegiate Seminary and at the Cooper Institute School of Design for women, in New York. In 1876 she married Arthur De Wint Foote, a mining engineer, and subsequently lived in the mining regions of California, Idaho, Colorado and Mexico. She is best known for her stories, in which, as in her drawings, she portrays vividly the rough picturesque life, especially the mining life, of the West. Some of her best drawings appear in her own books. Among her publications are _The Led-Horse Claim_ (1883), _John Bodewin's Testimony_ (1886), _The Chosen Valley_ (1892), _Coeur d'Alene_ (1894); _The Prodigal_ (1900), a novelette; _The Desert and the Sown_ (1902); and several collections of short stories, including _A Touch of Sun and other Stories_ (1903).

FOOTE, SAMUEL (1720-1777), English dramatist and actor, was baptized at Truro on the 27th of January 1720. Of his attachment to his native Cornwall he gives no better proofs as an author than by making the country booby Timothy (in _The Knights_) sound the praises of that county and of its manly pastimes; but towards his family he showed a loyal and enduring affection. His father was a man of good family and position. His mother, Eleanor Goodere, whom he is said in person as well as in disposition to have strongly resembled, he liberally supported in the days of his prosperity, and after her death indignantly vindicated her character from the imputations recklessly cast upon it by the revengeful spite of the duchess of Kingston. About the time when Foote came of age, he inherited his first fortune through the murder of his uncle, Sir John Dinely Goodere, Bart., by his brother, Captain Samuel Goodere. Foote was educated at the collegiate school at Worcester, and at Worcester College, Oxford, distinguishing himself in both places by mimicry and audacious pleasantries of all kinds, and, although he left Oxford without taking his degree, acquiring a classical training which afterwards enabled him neatly to turn a classical quotation or allusion, and helped to give to his prose style a certain fluency and elegance.

Foote was "designed" for the law, but certainly not by nature. In his chambers at the Temple, and in the Grecian Coffee-house hard by, he learned to know something of lawyers if not of law, and was afterwards able to jest at the jargon and to mimic the mannerisms of the bar, and to satirize the Latitats of the other branch of the profession with particular success. The famous argument in Hobson v. Nobson, in _The Lame Lovers_, is almost as good of its kind as that in Bardell v. Pickwick. But a stronger attraction drew him to the Bedford Coffee-house in Covent Garden, and to the theatrical world of which it was the social centre. After he had run through two fortunes (the second of which he appears to have inherited at his father's death), and had then passed through severe straits, he made his first appearance on the actual stage in 1744. It is said that he had married a young lady in Worcestershire; but the traces of his wife (he affirmed himself that he was married to his washer-woman) are mysterious, and probably apocryphal.

Foote's first appearance as an actor was made little more than two years after that of Garrick, as to whose merits the critics, including Foote himself, were now fiercely at war. His own first venture, as Othello, was a failure; and though he was fairly successful in genteel comedy parts, and was, after a favourable reception at Dublin, enrolled as one of the regular company at Drury Lane in the winter of 1745-1746, he had not as yet made any palpable hit. Finding that his talent lay neither in tragedy nor in genteel comedy, he had begun to wonder "where the devil it _did_ lie," when his successful performance of the part of Bayes in _The Rehearsal_ at last suggested to him the true outlet for his extraordinary gift of mimicry. Following the example of Garrick, he had introduced into this famous part imitations of actors, and had added a variety of other satirical comment in the way of "gag." Engaging a small company of actors, he now boldly announced for the 22nd of April 1747, at the theatre in the Haymarket "_gratis_," "a new entertainment called the _Diversions of the Morning_," to which were to be added a farce adapted from Congreve, and an epilogue "spoken by the B-d-d Coffee-house." Foote's success in these _Diversions_ obtained for him the name of "the English Aristophanes," an absurd compliment, declined by Foote himself (see his letter in _The Minor_). The _Diversions_ consisted of a series of imitations of actors and other well-known persons, whose various peculiarities of voice, gesture, manner or dress were brought directly before the spectators, while the epilogue introduced the wits of the Bedford engaged in ludicrous disputation, and specially "took off" an eminent physician (probably the munificent Sir William Browne, whom he afterwards caricatured in _The Devil on Two Sticks_), and a notorious quack oculist of the day. The actors ridiculed in this entertainment having at once procured the aid of the constables for preventing its repetition, Foote immediately advertised an invitation to his friends to drink a dish of tea with him at the Haymarket on the following day at noon--"and 'tis hoped there will be a great deal of comedy and some joyous spirits; he will endeavour to make the morning as diverting as possible. Tickets for this entertainment to be had at St George's coffee-house, Temple-Bar, without which no person will be admitted. N.B.--_Sir Dilbury Diddle will be there, and Lady Betty Frisk has absolutely promised._" The device succeeded to perfection; further resistance was abandoned as futile by the actors, whom Foote mercilessly ridiculed in the "instructions to his pupils" which the entertainer pretended to impart (typifying them under characters embodying their several chief peculiarities or defects--the massive and sonorous James Quin as a watchman, the shrill-voiced Lacy Ryan as a razor-grinder, the charming Peg Woffington, whose tones had an occasional squeak in them, as an orange-woman crying her wares and the bill of the play); and Mr Foote's _Chocolate_, which was afterwards converted into an evening _Tea_, became an established favourite with the town.

In spite of this success, he seems to have contrived to spend a third fortune, and to have found it necessary to eke out his means by a speculation in small-beer, as is recorded in an amusing anecdote told of him by Johnson. But he could now command a considerable income; and when money came he seems to have freely expended it in both hospitality and charity. During his engagements at Covent Garden and at Drury Lane, of which he was joint-manager, and in professional trips to Scotland, and more especially to Ireland, he appeared both in comedies of other authors and more especially in his own. He played Hartop in his _Knights_ (1749, printed 1754). _Taste_ (1752), in which parts of the _Diversions_ were incorporated, was followed by some eighteen pieces, the majority of which were produced at the Haymarket, the favourite home of Foote's entertainments. In 1760 he succeeded in obtaining for this theatre a licence from the lord chamberlain, afterwards (in 1766) converted into a licence for summer performances for life. The entertainments were a succession of variations on the original idea of the _Diversions_ and the _Tea_. Now, it was an Auction of Pictures (1748), of part of which an idea may be formed from the second act of the comedy Taste; now, a lecture on _Orators_ (1754), suggested by some bombastic discourses given by Macklin in his old age at the Piazza coffee-house in Covent Garden, where Foote had amused the audience and confounded the speaker by interposing his humorous comments. _The Orators_ is preserved in the shape of a hybrid piece, which begins with a mock lecture on the art of oratory and its representatives in England, and ends with a diverting scene of a pot-house forum debate, to which Holberg's _Politician-Tinman_ can hardly have been a stranger. At a later date (1773) a new device was introduced in a _Puppet-show_. The piece (unprinted) played in this by the puppets was called _Piety in Pattens_, and professed to show "by the moral how maidens of low degree might become rich from the mere effects of morality and virtue, and by the literature how thoughts of the most commonplace might be concealed under cover of words the most high flown." In other words, it was an attack upon sentimental comedy, which was still not altogether extinguished. An attack upon Garrick in connexion with the notorious Shakespeare jubilee was finally left out from the _Puppet-show_, and thus was avoided a recurrence of the quarrel which many years before had led to an interchange of epistolary thrusts, and an imitation by Woodward of the imitative Foote.

On the whole, the relations between the two public favourites became very friendly, and on Foote's part unmistakably affectionate, and they have not been always generously represented by Garrick's biographers. A comparison between the two as actors is of course out of the question; but, though Foote was a buffoon, and his tongue a scurrilous tongue, there is no authentic ground for the suggestion that his character was one of malicious heartlessness. Of Samuel Johnson's opinions of him many records remain in Boswell; when Johnson had at last found his way into Foote's company (he afterwards found it to Foote's own table) he was unable to "resist" him, and, on hearing of Foote's death, he thought the career just closed worthy of a lasting biographical record.

Meanwhile most of poor Foote's friendships in high life were probably those that are sworn across the table, and require "t'other bottle" to keep them up. It is not a pleasant picture--of Lord Mexborough and his royal guest the duke of York, and their companions, bantering Foote on his ignorance of horsemanship, and after he had weakly protested his skill, taking him out to hounds on a dangerous animal. He was thrown and broke his leg, which had to be amputated, the "patientee" (in which character he said he was now making his first appearance) consoling himself with the reflection that he would now be able to take off "old Faulkner" (a pompous Dublin alderman with a wooden leg, whom he had brought on the stage as Peter Paragraph in _The Orators_) "to the life." The duke of York made him the best reparation in his power by promising him a life-patent for the theatre in the Haymarket (1766); and Foote not only resumed his profession, as if, like Sir Luke Limp, he considered the leg he had lost "a redundancy, a mere nothing at all," but ingeniously turned his misfortune to account in two of his later pieces, _The Lame Lover_ and _The Devil on Two Sticks_, while, with the true instinct of a public favourite, making constant reference to it in plays and prologues. Though the characters played by him in several of his later plays are comparatively short and light, he continued to retain his hold over the public, and about the year 1774 was beginning to think of withdrawing, at least for a time, to the continent, when he became involved in what proved a fatal personal quarrel. Neither in his entertainments nor in his comedies had he hitherto (except in Garrick's case, and it is said in Johnson's) put any visible restraint upon personal satire. _The Author_, in which, under the infinitely humorous character of Cadwallader, he had brought a Welsh gentleman of the name of Ap-Rice on the stage, had, indeed, been ultimately suppressed. But in general he had pursued his hazardous course, mercilessly exposing to public ridicule and contempt not only fribbles and pedants, quacks or supposed quacks in medicine (as in _The Devil on Two Sticks_), enthusiasts in religion, such as Dr Dodd (in _The Cozeners_) and George Whitefield and his connexion (in _The Minor_). He had not only dared the wrath of the whole Society of Antiquaries (in _The Nabob_), and been rewarded by the withdrawal, from among the pundits who rationalized away Whittington's Cat, of Horace Walpole and other eminent members of the body, but had in the same play attacked a well-known representative of a very influential though detested element in English society,--the "Nabobs" themselves. But there was one species of cracked porcelain which he was not to try to hold up to contempt with impunity. The rumour of his intention to bring upon the stage, in the character of Lady Kitty Crocodile in _The Trip to Calais_, the notorious duchess of Kingston, whose trial for bigamy was then (1775) impending, roused his intended victim to the utmost fury; and the means and influence she had at her disposal enabled her, not only to prevail upon the lord chamberlain to prohibit the performance of the piece (in which there is no hint as to the charge of bigamy itself), but to hire agents to vilify Foote's character in every way that hatred and malice could suggest. After he had withdrawn the piece, and letters had been exchanged between the duchess and him equally characteristic of their respective writers, Foote took his revenge upon the chief of the duchess's instruments, a "Reverend Doctor" Jackson, who belonged to the "reptile" society of the journalists of the day, so admirably satirized by Foote in his comedy of _The Bankrupt_. This man he gibbeted in the character of Viper in _The Capuchin_, under which name the altered _Trip to Calais_ was performed in 1776. But the resources of his enemies were not yet at an end; and a discharged servant of Foote's was suborned by Jackson to bring a charge of assault and apply for a warrant against him. Though the attempt utterly broke down, and Foote's character was thus completely cleared, his health and spirits had given way in the struggle--as to which, though he seems to have had the firm support of the better part of the public, including such men as Burke and Reynolds, the very audiences of his own theatre had been, or had seemed to be, divided in opinion. He thus resolved to withdraw, at least for a time, from the effects of the storm, let his theatre to Colman, and after making his last appearance there in May 1777, set forth in October on a journey to France. But at Dover he fell sick on the day after his arrival there, and after a few hours died (October 21st). His epitaph in St Mary's church at Dover (written by his faithful treasurer William Jewell) records that he had a hand "open as day for melting charity." His resting-place in Westminster Abbey is without any memorial.

Foote's chief power as an actor lay in his extraordinary gift of
mimicry, which extended to the mental and moral, as well as the mere
outward and physical peculiarities of the personages whose likeness he
assumed. He must have possessed a wonderful flexibility of voice,
though his tones are said to have been harsh when his voice was not
disguised, and an incomparable readiness for rapidly assuming
characters, both in his entertainments and in his comedies, where he
occasionally "doubled" parts. The excellent "patter" of some of his
plays, such as _The Liar_ and _The Cozeners_, must have greatly
depended for its effect upon rapidity of delivery. In person he was
rather short and stout, and coarse-featured; but his overflowing
humour is said to have found full expression in the irresistible
sparkle of his eyes.

As a dramatic author he can only be assigned a subordinate rank. He
regarded comedy as "an exact representation of the peculiar manners of
that people among whom it happens to be performed; a faithful
imitation of singular absurdities, particular follies, which are
openly produced, as criminals are publicly punished, for the
correction of individuals and as an example to the whole community."
This he regarded as the _utile_, or useful purpose, of comedy; the
_dulce_ he conceived to be "the fable, the construction, machinery,
conduct, plot, and incidents of the piece." For part at least of this
view (advanced by him in the spirited and scholarly "Letter" in which
he replied, "to the Reverend Author of the 'Remarks, Critical and
Christian,' on _The Minor_"), he rather loftily appealed to classical
authority. But he overlooked the indispensableness of the _dulce_ to
the comic drama under its primary aspect as a species of art. His
comic genius was particularly happy in discovering and reproducing
characters deserving of ridicule; and the fact that he not only took
them from real life, but closely modelled them on well-known living
men and women, was not in himself an artistic sin. Nor indeed was the
novelty of this process absolute, though probably no other comic
dramatist has ever gone so far in this course, or has pursued it so
persistently. The public delighted in his "d----d fine originals,"
because it recognized them as copies; and he was himself proud that he
had taken them from real persons, instead of their being "vamped from
antiquated plays, pilfered from the French farces, or the baseless
beings of the poet's brain." But the real excellence of many of
Foote's comic characters lies in the fact that, besides being
incomparably ludicrous types of manners, they remain admirable comic
types of general human nature. Sir Gregory Gazette, and his imbecile
appetite for news; Lady Pentweazel, and her preposterous vanity in her
superannuated charms; Mr Cadwallader, and his view of the advantages
of public schools (where children may "make acquaintances that may
hereafter be useful to them; for between you and I, as to what they
learn there, does not signify twopence"); Major Sturgeon and Jerry
Sneak; Sir Thomas Lofty, Sir Luke Limp, Mrs Mechlin, and a score or
two of other characters, are excellent comic figures in themselves,
whatever their origin; and many of the vices and weaknesses exposed by
Foote's vigorous satire will remain the perennial subject of comic
treatment so long as a stage exists. The real defect of his plays lies
in the abnormal weakness of their construction, in the absolute
contempt which the great majority of them show for the invention or
conduct of a plot, and in the unwarrantable subordination of the
interest of the action to the exhibition of particular characters. His
characters are ready-made, and the action is only incidental to them.
With the exception of _The Liar_ (which Foote pretended to have taken
from Lope de Vega, but which was really founded on Steele's adaptation
of Corneille's _Le Menteur_), and perhaps of _The Bankrupt_, there is
hardly one of Foote's "comedies" in which the conception and conduct
of the action rise above the exigencies of the merest farce. Not that
sentimental scenes and even sentimental characters are wanting, but
these familiar ingredients are as incapable of exciting real interest
as an ordinary farcical action is in itself unable to produce more
than transitory amusement. In his earlier plays Foote constantly
resorts to the most hackneyed device of farce--a disguise. Of course
Foote must have been well aware of the shortcomings of his rapidly
manufactured productions; he knew that if he might sneer at "genteel
comedy" as suited to the dramatists of the servants' hall, and
pronounce the arts of the drama at the great houses to be "directed by
the genius of insipidity," he, like the little theatre where he held
sway, was looked upon as "an eccentric, a mere summer fly."

At the same time, he was inexhaustible in the devising of comic scenes
of genuine farce. An oration of "old masters," an election of a
suburban mayor, an examination at the College of Physicians, a
newspaper conclave where paragraphs are concocted and reputations
massacred--all these and other equally happy situations are brought
before the mere reader with unfailing vividness. And everywhere the
comic dialogue is instinct with spirit and vigour, and the comic
characters are true to themselves with a buoyancy which at once raises
them above the level of mere theatrical conventionalism. Foote
professed to despise the mere caricaturing of national peculiarities
as such, and generally used dialect as a mere additional colouring; he
was, however, too wide awake to the demands of his public not to treat
France and Frenchmen as fair game, and coarsely to appeal to national
prejudice. His satire against those everlasting victims of English
comedy and farce, the Englishman in Paris and the Englishman returned
from Paris, was doubtless well warranted; while at the same time he
made fun of the fact that Englishmen are nowhere more addicted to the
society of their countrymen than abroad. In general, the purposes of
Foote's social satire are excellent, and the abuses against which it
is directed are those which it required courage to attack. The tone of
his morality is healthy, and his language, though not aiming at
refinement, is remarkably free from intentional grossness. He made
occasional mistakes; but he was on the right side in the warfare
against the pretentiousness of Cant and the effrontery of Vice, the
two master evils of the age and the society in which he lived.

The following is a list of Foote's farces or "comedies" as he calls
them, mostly in three, some in two acts, which remain in print. The
date of production, and the character originally performed by Foote,
are added to the title of each:

_The Knights_ (1748: Hartop, who assumes the character of Sir
Penurious Trifle); Taste (1752), in which part of the _Diversions_ is
incorporated; _The Englishman in Paris_ (1753: Young Buck); _The
Englishman returned from Paris_ (1756: Sir Charles Buck); _The Author_
(1757: Cadwallader); _The Minor_ (1760: Smirk and Mrs Cole); _The
Liar_ (1762); _The Orators_ (1762: Lecturer); _The Mayor of Garratt_
(1763: Major Sturgeon and Matthew Mug); _The Patron_ (1764: Sir Thomas
Lofty and Sir Peter Peppercorn); _The Commissary_ (1765: Mr Zac.
Fungus); _The Devil upon Two Sticks_ (1768: Devil,--alias Dr Hercules
Hellebore); _The Lame Lover_ (1770: Sir Luke Limp); _The Maid of Bath_
(1771: Mr Flint); _The Nabob_ (1772: Sir Matthew Mite); _The Bankrupt_
(1773: Sir Robert Riscounter); _The Cozeners_ (1774: Mr Aircastle);
_The Capuchin_, a second version of The Trip to Calais, forbidden by
the censor (1776: O'Donovan). His dramatic works were collected in
1763-1768.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Foote's biography may be read in W. ("Conversation")
Cooke's _Memoirs of Samuel Foote_ (3 vols., 1805), which contain,
amidst other matter, a large collection of his good things and of
anecdotes concerning him, besides two of his previously unpublished
occasional pieces (with the _Tragedy a la mode_, part of the
_Diversions_, in which Foote appeared as Fustian). From this source
seems to have been mainly taken the biographical information in the
rather grandiloquent essay on Foote prefixed by "Jon Bee" (John
Badcock, fl. 1816-1830, also known as "John Hunds") to his useful
edition of Foote's Works (3 vols., 1830). Various particulars will be
found in Tate Wilkinson's _Wandering Patentee_ (York, 1795) and in
other sources. There is an admirable essay on Foote, reprinted with
additions, from the _Quarterly Review_, in John Forster's
_Biographical Essays_ (1858). A recent life of Foote is by Percy
Fitzgerald (1910). (A. W. W.)

FOOTMAN, a name given among articles of furniture to a metal stand, usually of polished steel or brass, and either oblong or oval in shape, for keeping plates and dishes hot before a dining-room fire. In the days before the general use of hot-water dishes the footman possessed definite utility, but although it is still in occasional use, it is now chiefly regarded as an ornament. It was especially common in the hardware counties of England, where it is still frequently seen; the simple conventionality of its form is not inelegant.

FOOTSCRAY, a city of Bourke county, Victoria, Australia, on the Saltwater river, 4 m. W. of and suburban to Melbourne. Pop. (1901) 18,301. The city has large bluestone quarries from which most of the building stones in Melbourne and the neighbourhood is obtained; it is also an important manufacturing centre, with numerous sugar-mills, jute factories, soap works, woollen-mills, foundries, chemical works and many other minor industries.

FOOT-STALL, a word supposed to be a literal translation of _piedestal_, or pedestal, the lower part of a pier in architecture (see BASE).

FOPPA, VINCENZO, Italian painter, was born near Brescia. The dates of his birth and death used to be given as 1400 and 1492; but there is now good reason for substituting 1427 and 1515. He settled in Pavia towards 1456, and was the head of a Lombard school of painting which subsisted up to the advent of Leonardo da Vinci. In 1489 he returned to Brescia. His contemporary reputation was very considerable, his merit in perspective and foreshortening being recognized especially. Among his noted works are a fresco in the Brera Gallery, Milan, the "Martyrdom of St Sebastian"; and a "Crucifixion" in the Carrara gallery, Bergamo, executed in 1455. He worked much in Milan and in Genoa, but many of his paintings are now lost.

See C.J. Ffoulkes and R. Maiocchi, _Vincenzo Foppa_ (1910).

FORAGE, food for cattle or horses, chiefly the provender collected for the food of the horses of an army. In early usage the word was confined to the dried forage as opposed to grass. From this word comes "foray," an expedition in search of "forage," and hence a pillaging expedition, a raid. The word "forage," directly derived from the Fr. _fourrage_, comes from a common Teutonic origin, and appears in "fodder," food for cattle. The ultimate Indo-European root, _pat_, cf. Gr. [Greek: pateisthai], Lat. _pascere_, to feed, gives "food," "feed," "foster"; and appears also in such Latin derivatives as "pastor," "pasture."