Field, Stephen J(ohnson) (b. Nov. 4, 1816, Haddam, Conn., U.S.—-d. April 9, 1899, Washington, D.C.) U.S. jurist. After graduating from Williams College in 1837, he practiced law in New York with his brother, the legal reformer David Dudley Field (1805-94). In 1849 he moved to California, where he later joined the state supreme court. In 1863 he was appointed by Pres. Abraham Lincoln to the Supreme Court of the United States; he served until 1897. He became chief architect of the constitutional approach that largely exempted U.S. industry from gov¬ ernment regulation after the American Civil War, basing his interpretation principally on the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment (1868), which had been passed as a civil-rights measure. Field’s stance toward industry would be maintained by the Court until the 1930s.
field hockey or hockey Game played with curve-ended sticks between two teams of 11 players. It is played on a field 100 yd (91.4 m) by 60 yd (55 m) in size. The object is to use the sticks to direct a ball into the opponent’s goal. Field hockey originated in English schools in the late 19th century, and the British Army introduced it into India and the Far East. By 1928 it had become India’s national game. Men’s field hockey has been included in the Olympic Games since 1908, women’s since 1980. The game was introduced into the U.S. in 1901 and became particularly popular at women’s schools, colleges, and clubs. Several international championship tournaments are held during the year, includ¬ ing the World Cup.
field mouse or wood mouse In general, any mouse that normally lives in fields; more strictly, any of about seven species of small, long¬ tailed mice in the genus Apodemus (family Muridae). Field mice in this genus are found in fields, woodlands, and mountain meadows in the warm and temperate parts of Eurasia. They are grayish or light or reddish brown and are 2-5 in. (6-12 cm) long excluding the tail. They generally live in burrows and build nests of grass and other plants. They eat seeds, roots, and other plant material, occasionally damaging crops or young trees.
Field of Cloth of Gold Setting for meetings between Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France in June 1520, near Calais, France. Splen¬ did temporary palaces were erected for each king, and jousts and other entertainments were held. The splendor of the meetings vastly impressed contemporaries, but the political results were negligible. In July Henry met Emperor Charles V, Francis’s rival, near Calais, and they agreed to make no new alliances with France for two years.
field theory In mathematics, the study of the structure of a set of objects (e.g., numbers) with two combining operations (e.g., addition and multiplication). Such a system, known as a field, must satisfy certain properties: associative law, commutative law, distributive law, an additive identity (“zero”), a muliplicative identity (“one”), additive inverses (see inverse function), and multiplicative inverses for nonzero elements. The sets of rational numbers, real numbers, and complex numbers are fields under ordinary addition and multiplication. The investigation of polynomial equations and their solutions led to the development of field theory.
field trial Competitive trial of sporting dogs under conditions that approximate or simulate those found in the hunting field. Dogs represent¬ ing individual breeds, or classes of breeds (e.g., bird dogs, spaniels, hounds), are judged on such factors as pace, range, keenness of nose, handling response, hunting ability, and game and gun manners.
Fielding, Henry (b. April 22, 1707, Sharpham Park, Somerset, Eng.—d. Oct. 8, 1754, Lisbon, Port.) British novelist and playwright. Fielding attended Eton College but left early and lost his family’s sup¬ port. In his 25 plays, all written early, he was essentially a satirist of
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672 I fieldlark > figure skating
political corruption; because of his sharp commentary he was eventually effectively banished from the theatre, whereupon he took up the study of law. In 1748 he was appointed a magistrate, in which role he established a new tradition of justice and suppression of crime in London. He prob¬ ably wrote Shamela (1741), a burlesque of Samuel Richardson’s Pamela that he never claimed. In the entertaining and original Joseph Andrews (1742) he also parodies Richardson’s novel. Tom Jones (1749), his most popular work, is noted for its great comic gusto, vast gallery of charac¬ ters, and contrasted scenes of high- and lowlife. The more sober Amelia (1751) anticipates the Victorian domestic novel. In these works he helped develop the English novel as a planned, realistic narrative genre survey¬ ing contemporary society.
fieldlark See pipit
Fields, Dame Grade orig. Grace Stansfield (b. Jan. 9, 1898, Rochdale, Lancashire, Eng.—d. Sept. 27, 1979, Capri, Italy) English music-hall comedienne. She performed in music halls from age 13 and gained notice in the touring revue Mr. Tower of London (1918-25). She became tremendously popular with an act composed of low-comedy songs such as “The Biggest Aspidistra in the World” and sentimental ballads such as “My Blue Heaven,” performing on radio and television and in films such as Sally in Our Alley (1931) and Sing As We Go (1934).
Fields, Dorothy (b. July 15, 1905, Allenhurst, N.J., U.S.—d. March 28, 1974, New York, N.Y.) U.S. lyricist and librettist. Born to a family active in theatre (her father Lew was a comedian and impresario, and her brothers Herbert and Joseph were librettists). Fields taught drama and wrote poetry and later wrote songs for Broadway and Cotton Club revues with Jimmy McHugh, including “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” and “On the Sunny Side of the Street.” With Jerome Kern, she later wrote songs for Hollywood, including “The Way You Look Tonight.” Returning to Broadway, she wrote the book or lyrics for many musicals, including Annie Get Your Gun (1946) and Sweet Charity (1966).
Fields, W.C. orig. William Claude Dukenfield (b. Jan. 29, 1880, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—d. Dec. 25, 1946, Pasadena, Calif.) U.S. actor and screenwriter. He was a vaudeville headliner as a juggler and appeared for seven seasons (1915-21) in the Ziegfeld Follies. His starring role in the stage hit Poppy (1923) brought him to Hollywood for its film adap¬ tation, Sally of the Sawdust (1925). He emerged as a top film comedian only after the advent of sound pictures, when audiences could hear his distinctive raspy voice. His screen personality—an unlovable but hilari¬ ous con man, braggart, misanthrope, and hater of children and dogs—was largely his own. Fields wrote and improvised the action for most of his films, which include comedies such as You Can *t Cheat an Honest Man (1939), My Little Chickadee (1940), The Bank Dick (1940), and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941). His only serious role was Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield (1935).
Fiesole, Mi no da See Mino da Fiesole
Fife Council area (pop., 2001: 349,249) and historic county, eastern Scot¬ land. An ancient Pictish kingdom, Fife became one of Scotland’s leading provinces and one of the kingdom’s seven earldoms. Modem Fife con¬ sists largely of an agricultural northeast and an industrial southwest. Coal mining long dominated its industry but has all but ceased; manufacturing and light industries now predominate. The service sector includes con¬ sulting services for Scotland’s petroleum industry. Fife’s administrative headquarters is Glenrothes.
Fifth Republic System of government in France from 1959 to the present. Under the constitution crafted by Charles de Gaulle with the help of Michel Debre, executive power was increased at the expense of the National Assembly. It came into being in 1959 after de Gaulle was elected president, with Debre as his prime minister. In 1962 de Gaulle pushed through a constitutional amendment that provided for direct popular elec¬ tion of the president, and in 1965 he became the first French president elected by popular vote since 1848. He was succeeded by Georges Pom¬ pidou (1969-74), Valery Giscard d'Estaing (1974-81), Francois Mitterrand (1981-95), and Jacques Chirac (from 1995).