FORREST, EDWIN, a celebrated American actor, born in Philadelphia; went on the stage at 14, and from the provinces made his way to New York, where his rendering of Othello at the age of 20 raised him to the front rank among actors; he made three tours in England, but during his last in 1845 he entirely lost the popular favour through his conduct in an embittered quarrel with Macready; after his final appearance on the stage in 1871 he continued for a short while to give Shakespearian readings; he was a tragedian of the highest order, and in his profession amassed a large fortune (1806-1872).

FORS CLAVIGERA, the name given by Ruskin to a series of letters to workmen, written during the seventies of this century, and employed by him to designate three great powers which go to fashion human destiny, viz., Force, wearing, as it were, (clava) the club of Hercules; Fortitude, wearing, as it were, (clavis) the key of Ulysses; and Fortune, wearing, as it were, (clavus) the nail of Lycurgus; that is to say, Faculty waiting on the right moment, and then striking in.  See Shakespeare’s “Time and tide in the affairs of men,” &c., the “flood” in which is the “Third Fors.”  The letters are represented as written at the dictation of the Third Fors, or, as it seems to the author, the right moment, or the occurrence of it.

FOeRSTER, ERNST, an art critic, brother of succeeding, author of a number of elaborate and important works bearing on the history of art in Germany and Italy; was the son-in-law of Jean Paul, whose works he edited, and to whose biography he made contributions of great value (1800-1885).

FOeRSTER, FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH, German poet and historian; his poetic gifts were first called into exercise during the war of liberation, in which he served as a volunteer, and the series of spirited war-songs he then wrote procured him a wide-spread fame; afterwards he lived in Berlin, teaching in the school of artillery, and subsequently becoming custodian of the Royal Art Museum; besides poems he wrote several historical and biographical works (1791-1868).

FORSTER, JOHANN GEORGE ADAM, naturalist, son of the succeeding; accompanied his father in the voyage with Cook, and contributed to the literature anent the expedition; subsequently became professor of Natural History at Cassel and at Wilna, and eventually librarian to the Elector of Mayence in 1788; his works are published in 9 vols. (1754-1794).

FORSTER, JOHANN REINHOLD, a German naturalist and traveller, born in Prussia; accompanied Captain Cook as a naturalist on his second expedition to the South Seas, and in connection with which he wrote a volume of observations; died professor of Natural History and Mineralogy at Halle (1729-1798).

FORSTER, JOHN, a noted English writer, born at Newcastle; was educated for the bar, but took to journalism, and soon made his mark as a political writer in the Examiner; he subsequently edited the Foreign Quarterly Review, the Daily News (succeeding Dickens), and the Examiner (1847-56); he was the author of several historical sketches, but his best-known works are the admirable biographies of Goldsmith, Landor, and Dickens (1812-1876).