The Project Gutenberg EBook of Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, by E. Cobham Brewer This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 Author: E. Cobham Brewer Release Date: March 20, 2007 [EBook #20851] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARACTER SKETCHES *** Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Julia Miller, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Transcriber's Note: A number of typographical errors and inconsistencies have been maintained in this version of this book. Typographical errors have been marked with a [TN-#], which refers to a description in the complete list found at the end of the text. A list of words that have been inconsistently spelled or hyphenated is found at the end of the present text. The illustrations listed in the illustration list were missing from the book used as the source for this text. The following Unicode characters are used in this book: ă a with breve ā a with macron ě e with breve ē e with macron ĭ i with breve ī i with macron ŏ o with breve ō o with macron ŭ u with breve ū u with macron ⁂ asterism (in the original text, the asterism was reversed, with two asterisks at the top and one at the base) ♭ musical flat symbol ♯ musical sharp symbol If they do not display properly, please try changing your font. The following codes are used for characters that could not be represented in the character set used for this version of the book: [1] upside down 1 [6] upside down 6 CHARACTER SKETCHES OF ROMANCE, FICTION AND THE DRAMA A REVISED AMERICAN EDITION OF THE READER’S HANDBOOK BY THE REV. E. COBHAM BREWER, LL.D. EDITED BY MARION HARLAND VOLUME III [Colophon] NEW YORK SELMAR HESS PUBLISHER MDCCCXCII Copyright, 1892, by SELMAR HESS. PHOTOGRAVURES PRINTED ON THE HESS PRESS. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. VOLUME III. PHOTOGRAVURES AND ETCHINGS. _Illustration_ _Artist_ DEATH OF MINNEHAHA (_colored_) W. L. DODGE MADAME CHRYSANTHÈME MEPHISTOPHELES AND FAUST A. JACOMIN MILLER (THE), HIS SON AND THE ASS EUGÈNE LEJEUNE NEWCOME (COLONEL) FREDERICK BARNARD OPHELIA MADELEINE LEMAIRE ORPHEUS G. MOREAU PECKSNIFF (MR.) FREDERICK BARNARD PENDENNIS (MAJOR) FREDERICK BARNARD WOOD ENGRAVINGS AND TYPOGRAVURES. MACARTHY (LAWRENCE) AND HIS SISTER ELLEN SCANLAN MACHEATH WITH LUCY AND POLLY STUART NEWTON MAIDEN (THE) AND LOVER BENCZUR-GYULA MANFRED AND ASTARTE K. LISKA MANON LESCAUT (THE BURIAL OF) P. A. J. DAGNAN-BOUVERET MANRICO AND LEONORA FERD. KELLER MANUEL (DON) DISCOVERS BEATRICE C. JAEGER MARGARET BEFORE THE MATER DOLOROSA MARIE ANTOINETTE ON HER WAY TO THE GUILLOTINE F. FLAMING MARIE MICHON (THE ADVENTURE OF) G. BOULANGER MARY (HIGHLAND) B. E. SPENCE MASANIELLO EDOUARD HAMMAN MASCARILLE (COQUELIN AS) MATHIAS (THE MESMERIST AND) ADRIEN MARIE MATTHEW (FATHER) AND SIR ROLFE W. B. DAVIS MAUPRAT (BERNARD) AND JEAN MAUPRAT MAZEPPA A. WAGNER MEDEA N. SICHEL MERMAIDENS (THE) ARNOLD BÖCKLIN METAMORA (FORREST AS) MICAWBER (MR. WILKINS) FREDERICK BARNARD MIGNON G. HOM MIRANDA AND FERDINAND R. E. PINE M'LISS EDWARD LONG MOOR (FRANZ) FR. PECHT MORLAND (CATHARINE) R. W. BUSS MOSES (PREPARING) FOR THE FAIR D. MACLISE MOYA (THE POET PEDRO DE) AND THE PLAYERS D. MACLISE MULLER (MAUD) NIOBE WITH HER CHILDREN SOLOMON J. SOLOMON NORMA AND POLLIONE ALBERT BAUER OLDBUCK (MR.) AND JENNY ROB. HERDMAN OLIVIA OLIVIA (THE RETURN OF) G. S. NEWTON ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE L. THIERSCH OTTILIA AND THE CHILD OTTOCAR (PRINCE) AND MAX EUGEN KLIMSCH PALISSY THE POTTER MRS. E. M. WARD PANGLOSS (JEFFERSON AS DOCTOR) PEGGY (MISS) AND HER FRIENDS DUDLEY HARDY PENELOPE R. VON DEUTSCH PENSEROSO (IL) J. C. HORSLEY PENTHESILEA, QUEEN OF THE AMAZONS PERI AT HEAVEN'S GATE (THE) FR. HEYSER PHARAOH AND THE BEARERS OF EVIL TIDINGS LECOMTE-DU-NOUY PHEDRA AND HIPPOLYTUS PIERRE GUÉRIN PHOEBUS DE CHATEAUPERS G. BRION PICCIOLA (CHARNEY EXAMINING) BARRIAS PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN (THE) H. KAULBACH PIZARRO BEFORE CHARLES V. PORTIA AND THE CASKETS ALEX. CABANEL PORTIA AT THE GRAVE OF THE MESSIAH H. FÜGER POSA (DON CARLOS, THE KING AND THE MARQUIS OF) FERDINAND RITTER PRISCILLA DAVIDSON KNOWLES PROMETHEUS AND THE OCEAN NYMPHS EDUARD MÜLLER PRYNNE (HESTER) H. G. BOUGHTON PSYCHE (CUPID AND) PAUL BAUDRY PSYCHE AND CHARON A. ZICK PUCK AND THE FAIRIES ARTHUR HUGHES PUSS-IN-BOOTS GUSTAVE DORÉ PYGMALION AND GALATEA JEAN RAOUX QUIXOTE (DON) IN HIS STUDY GUSTAVE DORÉ REBECCA (THE ABDUCTION OF) LÉON COGNIET RED RIDINGHOOD (LITTLE) EUGÈNE LEJEUNE REINIKE FOX BEFORE KING LION W. VON KAULBACH REINIKE FOX TO BE HUNG W. VON KAULBACH RHODOPE, THE EGYPTIAN PRINCESS FERD. KELLER RICHLAND (MISS) VISITS MR. HONEYWOOD W. P. FRITH ROB ROY PARTING RASHLEIGH AND FRANCIS OSBALDISTONE J. B. MCDONALD ROBSART (AMY) ROLAND (MADAME) ALBERT LYNCH ROLAND AT THE BATTLE OF RONCESVALLES LOUIS GUESNET ROMEO AND JULIET IN FRIAR LAWRENCE'S CELL CARL BECKER ROSE AND BLANCHE (DAGOBERT WITH) EDWARD H. CORBOULD ROUMESTAN (NUMA) EMILE BAYARD RUGGIERO ON THE HIPPOGRIFF GUSTAVE DORÉ CHARACTER SKETCHES OF ROMANCE, FICTION, AND THE DRAMA. =Mark Tapley=, a serving companion of Martin Chuzzlewit, who goes out with him to Eden, in North America. Mark Tapley thinks there is no credit in being jolly in easy circumstances; but when in Eden he found every discomfort, lost all his money, was swindled by every one, and was almost killed by fevers, then indeed he felt it would be a real credit “to be jolly under the circumstances.”--C. Dickens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_ (1843). =Markham=, a gentleman in the train of the earl of Sussex.--Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth). _Markham_ (_Mrs._), pseudonym of Mrs. Elizabeth Perrose[TN-1] (born Elizabeth Cartwright), authoress of _History of England_, etc. =Markleham= (_Mrs._), the mother of Annie. Devoted to pleasure, she always maintained that she indulged in it for “Annie’s sake.” Mrs. Markleham is generally referred to as “the old soldier.”--C. Dickens, _David Copperfield_ (1849). =Marksman=, one of Fortunio’s seven attendants. He saw so clearly and to such a distance, that he generally bandaged his eyes in order to temper the great keenness of his sight.--Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“Fortunio,” 1682). =Marlborough= (_The duke of_), John Churchill. He was called by Marshal Turenne _Le Bel Anglais_ (1650-1722). =Marlow= (_Sir Charles_), the kind-hearted old friend of Squire Hardcastle. _Young Marlow_, son of Sir Charles. “Among women of reputation and virtue he is the modestest man alive; but his acquaintances give him a very different character among women of another stamp” (act i. 1). Having mistaken Hardcastle’s house for an inn, and Miss Hardcastle for the barmaid, he is quite at his ease, and makes love freely. When fairly caught, he discovers that the supposed “inn” is a private house, and the supposed barmaid is the squire’s daughter; but the ice of his shyness being broken, he has no longer any difficulty in loving according to his station.--Goldsmith, _She Stoops to Conquer_ (1773). When Goldsmith was between 16 and 17 he set out for Edgworthstown, and finding night coming on, asked a man which was the “best house” in the town--meaning the best inn. The man pointed to the house of Sir Ralph Fetherstone (or _Mr. Fetherstone_), and Oliver, entering the parlor, found the master of the mansion sitting at a good fire. Oliver told him he desired to pass the night there, and ordered him to bring in supper. “Sir Ralph” knowing his customer, humored the joke, which Oliver did not discover till next day, when he called for his bill. (We are told in _Notes and Queries_ that Ralph Fetherstone was only _Mr._, but his grandson was _Sir Thomas_). =Marmaduke Wharne.= Eccentric old Englishman long resident in America. Benevolent and beneficent, but gruff in manner and speech.--A. D. T. Whitney, _Leslie Goldthwaite’s Summer_ (1866). =Marmaduke= (_Sir_). A man who has lost all earth can give--wealth, love, fame and friends, but thus comforts himself: “I account it worth All pangs of fair hopes crossed,-- All loves and honors lost,-- To gain the heavens, at cost Of losing earth.” Theodore Tilton, _Sir Marmaduke’s Musings_ (1867). =Marmion.= Lord Marmion was betrothed to Constance de Beverley, but he jilted her for Lady Clare, an heiress, who was in love with Ralph de Wilton. The Lady Clare rejected Lord Marmion’s suit, and took refuge from him in the convent of St. Hilda, in Whitby. Constance took the veil in the convent of St. Cuthbert, in Holy Isle, but after a time left the convent clandestinely, was captured, taken back, and buried alive in the walls of a deep cell. In the mean time, Lord Marmion, being sent by Henry VIII. on an embassy to James IV. of Scotland, stopped at the hall of Sir Hugh de Heron, who sent a palmer as his guide. On his return, Lord Marmion commanded the abbess of St. Hilda to release the Lady Clare, and place her under the charge of her kinsman, Fitzclare of Tantallon Hall. Here she met the palmer, who was Ralph de Wilton, and as Lord Marmion was slain in the battle of Flodden Field, she was free to marry the man she loved.--Sir W. Scott, _Marmion_ (1808). _Marmion_ (_Lord_), a descendant of Robert de Marmion, who obtained from William the Conqueror, the manor of Scrivelby, in Lincolnshire. This Robert de Marmion was the first royal champion of England, and the office remained in the family till the reign of Edward I., when in default of male issue it passed to John Dymoke, son-in-law of Philip Marmion, in whose family it remains still. =Marnally= (_Bernard_). Good-looking Irish tutor at “Happy-go-Lucky,” a country house. He is accused of murdering the infant children of a young widow with whom he is in love, but is acquitted and goes back to Ireland. Some years later, he revisits America, meets his old love and marries her.--Miriam Coles Harris, _Happy-go-Lucky_ (1881). =Marner= (_Silas_). Miser and misogynist in humble life, who finds a baby-girl in his cottage one night, and in bringing her up, learns to have patience with life and charity with his kind.--George Eliot, _Silas Marner_. =Ma´ro=, Virgil, whose full name was Publius Virgilius Maro (B.C. 70-19). Oh, were it mine with the sacred Maro’s art To wake to sympathy the feeling heart, Like him the smooth and mournful verse to dress In all the pomp of exquisite distress ... Then might I ... Falconer, _The Shipwreck_, iii. 5 (1756). =Mar´onites= (3 _syl._), a religious semi-Catholic sect of Syria, constantly at war with their near neighbors, the Druses, a semi-Mohammedan sect. Both are now tributaries of the sultan, but enjoy their own laws. The Maronites number about 400,000, and the Druses about half that number. The Maronites owe their name to J. Maron, their founder; the Druses to Durzi, who led them out of Egypt into Syria. The patriarch of the Maronites resides at Kanobin; the hakem of the Druses at Deir-el-kamar. The Maronites, or “Catholics of Lebanon,” differ from the Roman Catholics in several points, and have a pope or patriarch of their own. In 1860 the Druses made on them a horrible onslaught, which called forth the intervention of Europe. =Marotte= (2 _syl._), a footman of Gorgibus; a plain bourgeois, who hates affectation. When the fine ladies of the house try to convert him into a fashionable flunky, and teach him a little grandiloquence, he bluntly tells them he does not understand Latin. _Marotte._ Voilà un laquais qui demande si vous êtes au logis, et dit que son maître, vous venir voir. _Madelon._ Apprenez, sotte, à vous énoncer moins vulgaiment. Dites: Voilà un nécessaire que demande si vous êtes en commodité d’etre visibles. _Marotte._ Je n’entends point le Latin.--Molière, _Les Précieuses Ridicules_, vii. (1659). =Marphi´sa=, sister of Roge´ro, and a female knight of amazing prowess. She was brought up by a magician, but being stolen at the age of seven, was sold to the king of Persia. When she was 18, her royal master assailed her honor; but she slew him, and usurped the crown. Marphisa went to Gaul to join the army of Agramant, but subsequently entered the camp of Charlemagne, and was baptized.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516). =Marphu´rius=, a doctor of the Pyrrhonian school. Sganarelle consults him about his marriage; but the philosopher replies, “Perhaps; it is possible; it may be so; everything is doubtful;” till at last Sganarelle beats him, and Marphurius says he shall bring an action against him for battery. “Perhaps,” replies Sganarelle; “it is possible; it may be so,” etc., using the very words of the philosopher (sc. ix.).--Molière, _Le Mariage Forcé_ (1664). =Marplot=, “the busy body.” A blundering, good-natured, meddlesome young man, very inquisitive, too officious by half, and always bungling whatever he interferes in. Marplot is introduced by Mrs. Centlivre in two comedies, _The Busy Body_ and _Marplot in Lisbon_. That unlucky dog Marplot ... is ever doing mischief, and yet (to give him his due) he never designs it. This is some blundering adventure, wherein he thought to show his friendship, as he calls it.--Mrs. Centlivre, _The Busy Body_, iii. 5 (1709). ⁂ This was Henry Woodward’s great part (1717-1777). His unappeasable curiosity, his slow comprehension, his annihilation under the sense of his dilemmas, were so diverting, that even Garrick confessed him the decided “Marplot” of the stage.--Boaden, _Life of Siddons_. N. B.--William Cavendish, duke of Newcastle, brought out a free tranlation[TN-2] of Molière’s _L’Etourdi_, which he entitled _Marplot_. =Marquis de Basqueville=, being one night at the opera, was told by a messenger that his mansion was on fire. “Eh bien,” he said to the messenger, “adressez-vous à Mme. la marquise qui est en face dans cette loge; car c’est affaire de ménage.”--Chapus, _Dieppe et ses Environs_ (1853). =Marrall= (_Jack_), a mean-spirited, revengeful time-server. He is the clerk and tool of Sir Giles Overreach. When Marrall thinks Wellborn penniless, he treats him like a dog; but as soon as he fancies he is about to marry the wealthy dowager, Lady Allworth, he is most servile, and offers to lend him money. Marrall now plays the traitor to his master, Sir Giles, and reveals to Wellborn the scurvy tricks by which he has been cheated of his estates. When, however, he asks Wellborn to take him into his service, Wellborn replies, “He who is false to one master will betray another;” and will have nothing to say to him.--Massinger, _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_ (1628). =Married Men of Genius.= The number of men of genius unhappy in their wives is very large. The following are notorious examples:--Socratês and Xantippê; Saadi, the Persian poet; Dantê and Gemma Donati; Milton, with Mary Powell; Marlborough and Sarah Jennings; Gustavus Adolphus and his flighty queen; Byron and Miss Milbanke; Dickens and Miss Hogarth; etc. Every reader will be able to add to the list. =Mars=, divine Fortitude personified. Bacchus is the tutelary demon of the Mahommedans, and Mars the guardian potentate of the Christians.--Camoens, _The Lusiad_ (1569). _That Young Mars of Men_, Edward the Black prince, who with 8,000 men defeated, at Poitiers, the French king, John, whose army amounted to 60,000--some say even more (A. D. 1356).[TN-3] _The Mars of Men_, Henry Plantagenet, earl of Derby, third son of Henry, earl of Lancaster, and near kinsman of Edward III. (See DERBY.) =Marse’ Chan.= Brave Virginian soldier whose lady-love enacts “My Lady Disdain” until news is brought her that he has fallen in battle. Then she grieves for him as a widow for her husband, and when she dies, she is buried by him.--Thomas Nelson Page, _In Ole Virginia_ (1887). =Mars of Portugal= (_The_), Alfonso de Albuquerque, viceroy of India (1452-1515). =Mars Wounded.= A very remarkable parallel to the encounter of Diŏmed and Mars in the _Iliad_, v., occurs in Ossian. Homer says that Diomed hurled his spear against Mars, which, piercing the belt, wounded the war-god in the bowels; “Loud bellowed Mars, nine thousand men, ten thousand, scarce so loud, joining fierce battle.” Then Mars ascending, wrapped in clouds, was borne upwards to Olympus. Ossian, in _Carrick-Thura_, says that Loda, the god of his foes, came like a “blast from the mountain. He came in his terror and shook his dusky spear. His eyes were flames, and his voice like distant thunder. ‘Son of night,’ said Fingal, ‘retire. Do I fear thy gloomy form, spirit of dismal Loda? Weak is thy shield of cloud, feeble thy meteor sword.’”[TN-4] Then cleft he the gloomy shadow with his sword. It fell like a column of smoke. It shrieked. Then rolling itself up, the wounded spirit rose on the wind, and the island shook to its foundation.” =Marseilles’ Good Bishop=, Henri François Xavier de Belsunce (1671-1775). Immortalized by his philanthropic diligence in the plague at Marseilles (1720-1722). Charles Borromēo, archbishop of Milan a century previously (1576), was equally diligent and self-sacrificing in the plague of Milan (1538-1584). Sir John Lawrence, lord mayor of London during the great plague, supported 40,000 dismissed servants, and deserves immortal honor. Darwin refers to Belsunce and Lawrence in his _Loves of the Plants_, ii. 433. =Marshal Forwards=, Blücher; so called for his dash in battle, and the rapidity of his movements, in the campaign of 1813 (1742-1819). =Marsi=, a part of the Sabellian race, noted for Magic, and said to have been descended from Circê. Marsis vi quadam genitali datum, ut serpentium virulentorum domitores sint, et incantationibus herbarumque succis faciant medelarum mira.--_Gellius_, xvi. 11. =Marsig´lio=, a Saracen king, who plotted the attack upon Roland, “under the tree on which Judas hanged himself.” With a force of 600,000 men, divided into three companies, Marsiglio attacked the paladin in Roncesvallês and overthrew him; but Charlemagne, coming up, routed the Saracen, and hanged him on the very tree under which he planned the attack.--Turpin, _Chronicle_ (1122). =Marsilia=, “who bears up great Cynthia’s train,” is the marchioness of Northampton, to whom Spenser dedicated his _Daphnaida_. This lady was Helena, daughter of Wolfgangus Swavenburgh, a Swede. No less praiseworthy is Marsilia, Best known by bearing up great Cynthia’s train. She is the pattern of true womanhead.... Worthy next after Cynthia [_queen Elizabeth_] to tread, As she is next her in nobility. Spenser, _Colin Clout’s Come Home Again_ (1595). =Mar´syas=, the Phrygian flute-player. He challenged Apollo to a contest of skill, but being beaten by the god, was flayed alive for his presumption. =Mar´tafax and Ler´mites= (3 _syl._), two famous rats brought up before the White Cat for treason, but acquitted.--Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“The White Cat,” 1682). =Marta´no=, a great coward, who stole the armor of Gryphon, and presented himself in it before King Norandi´no. Having received the honors due to the owner, Martano quitted Damascus with Origilla; but Aquilant unmasked the villain, and he was hanged (bks. viii., ix.).--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516). =Marteau des Heretiques=, Pierre d’Ailly; also called _L’Aigle de la France_ (1350-1420). =Martel= (_Charles_), Charles, natural son of Pépin d’Héristal. M. Collin de Plancy says that this “palace mayor” of France was not called “Martel” because he _martelé_ (“hammered”) the Saracens under Abd-el-Rahman in 732, but because his patron saint was _Martellus_ (or _St. Martin_).--_Bibliothèque des Légendes._ Thomas Delf, in his translation of Chevreuil’s _Principles of Harmony, etc., of Colors_ (1847), signs himself “Charles Martel.” =Martext= (_Sir Oliver_), a vicar in Shakespeare’s comedy of _As You Like It_ (1600). =Martha:= “Yea, Lord! Yet man must earn And woman bake the bread; And some must watch and wake Early for other’s sake Who pray instead.” Julia C. R. Dorr, _Afternoon Songs_ (1885). _Martha_, sister to “The Scornful Lady” (no name given).--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Scornful Lady_ (1616). _Martha_, the servant-girl at Shaw’s Castle.--Sir W. Scott, _St. Ronan’s Well_ (time, George III.). _Martha_, the old housekeeper at Osbaldistone Hall.--Sir W. Scott, _Rob Roy_ (time, George I.). _Martha_, daughter of Ralph and Louise de Lascours, and sister of Diana de Lascours. When the crew of the _Urania_ rebelled, Martha, with Ralph de Lascours (the captain), Louise de Lascours, and Barabas, were put adrift in a boat, and cast on an iceberg in “the Frozen Sea.” The iceberg broke, Ralph and Louise were drowned, Barabas was picked up by a vessel, and Martha fell into the hands of an Indian tribe, who gave her the name of Orgari´ta (“withered corn”). She married Carlos, but as he married under a false name, the marriage was illegal, and when Carlos was given up to the hands of justice, Orgarita was placed under the charge of her grandmother, Mde. de Théringe, and [probably] espoused Horace de Brienne.--E. Stirling, _The Orphan of the Frozen Sea_ (1856). _Martha_, a friend of Margaret. She makes love to Mephistophelês, with great worldly shrewdness.--Goethe, _Faust_ (1798). _Martha, alias_ ULRICA, mother of Bertha, who is betrothed to Hereward and marries him.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus). _Martha_ (_The Abbess_), abbess of Elcho Nunnery. She is a kinswoman of the Glover family.--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.). _Martha_ (_Dame_), housekeeper to major Bridgenorth.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.). =Martha Hilton=, serving-maid in the household of the widowed Governor Wentworth, until, on his sixtieth birthday, he surprised the guests assembled to do him honor by wedding her in their sight.--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, _Lady Wentworth_. =Marthé=, a young orphan, in love with Frédéric Auvray, a young artist who loves her in return, but leaves her, goes to Rome, and falls in love with another lady, Elena, sister of the Duke Strozzi. Marthé leaves the Swiss pastor, who is her guardian, and travels in midwinter to Rome, dressed as a boy, and under the name of Piccolino. She tells her tale to Elena, who abandons the fickle, false one, and Frédéric forbids the Swiss wanderer ever again to approach him. Marthé, in despair, throws herself into the Tiber, but is rescued. Frédéric repents, is reconciled, and marries the forlorn maiden.--Mons. Guiraud, _Piccolino_ (an opera, 1875). =Marthon=, an old cook at Arnheim Castle.--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.). _Marthon, alias_ RIZPAH, a Bohemian woman, attendant on the Countess Hameline of Croye.--Sir W. Scott, _Quentin Durward_ (time, Edward IV.). =Martian Laws= (not _Mercian_ as Wharton gives it in his _Law Dictionary_) are the laws collected by Martia, the wife of Guithelin, great grand-son of Mulmutius, who established in Britain the “Mulmutian Laws” (_q.v._). Alfred translated both these codes into Saxon-English, and called the Martian code _Pa Marchitle Lage_. These laws have no connection with the kingdom of Mercia.--Geoffrey, _British History_, iii. 13 (1142). Guynteline, ... whose queen, ... to show her upright mind, To wise Mulmutius’ laws her Martian first did frame. Drayton, _Polyolbion_, viii. (1612). =Martigny= (_Marie le comptesse de_), wife of the earl of Etherington.--Sir W. Scott, _St. Ronan’s Well_ (time, George III.). =Martin=, in Swift’s _Tale of the Tub_, is Martin Luther; “John” is Calvin; and “Peter” the pope of Rome (1704). In Dryden’s _Hind and Panther_, “Martin” means the Lutheran party (1687). _Martin_, the old verdurer near Sir Henry Lee’s lodge.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth). _Martin_, the old shepherd in the service of the lady of Avenel.--Sir W. Scott, _The Monastery_ (time, Elizabeth). _Martin_, the ape in the beast-epic of _Reynard the Fox_ (1498). _Martin_ (_Dame_), partner of Darsie Latimer at the fishers’ dance.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.). _Martin_ (_Sarah_), the prison reformer of Great Yarmouth. This young woman, though but a poor dressmaker, conceived a device for the reformation of prisoners in her native town, and continued for twenty-four years her earnest and useful labor of love, acting as schoolmistress, chaplain and industrial superintendent. In 1835, Captain Williams, inspector of prisons, brought her plans before the Government, under the conviction that the nation at large might be benefitted by their practical good sense (1791-1843). =Martin Weldeck=, the miner. His story is read by Lovel to a picnic party at St. Ruth’s ruins.--Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.). =Martine= (3 _syl._), wife of Sganarelle. She has a furious quarrel with her husband, who beats her, and she screams. M. Robert, a neighbor, interferes, says to Sganarelle, “Quelle infamie! Peste soit le coquin, de battre ainsi sa femme.” The woman snubs him for his impertinence, and says, “Je veux qu’il me battre, moi;” and Sganarelle beats him soundly for meddling with what does not concern him.--Molière, _Le Médecin Malgré Lui_ (1666). =Martival= (_Stephen de_), a steward of the field at the tournament.--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.). =Martivalle= (_Martius Galeotti_), astrologer to Louis XI. of France.--Sir W. Scott, _Quentin Durward_ (time, Edward IV.). =Martyr King= (_The_), Henry VI., buried at Windsor beside Edward IV. Here o’er the Martyr King [_Henry VI._] the marble weeps. And fast beside him once-feared Edward [_IV._] sleeps; The grave unites where e’en the grave finds rest, And mingled lie the oppressor and th’opprest. Pope. _Martyr King_ (_The_), Charles I. of England (1600, 1625-1649). Louis XVI. of France is also called Louis “the Martyr” (1754, 1774-1793). =Martyrs to Science.= Claude Louis, Count Berthollet, who tested on himself the effects of carbonic acid on the human frame, and died under the experiment (1748-1822). Giordano Bruno, who was burnt alive for maintaining that matter is the mother of all things (1550-1600). Galileo, who was imprisoned twice by the Inquisition for maintaining that the earth moved round the sun, and not the sun round the earth (1564-1642). And scores of others. =Marvellous Boy= (_The_), Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770). I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous boy, The sleepless soul that perished in his pride. Wordsworth. =Marwood= (_Alice_), daughter of an old woman who called herself Mrs. Brown. When a mere girl she was concerned in a burglary and was transported. Carker, manager in the firm of Dombey and Son, seduced her, and both she and her mother determined on revenge. Alice bore a striking resemblance to Edith (Mr. Dombey’s second wife), and in fact they were cousins, for Mrs. Brown was “wife” of the brother-in-law of the Hon. Mrs. Skewton (Edith’s mother).--C. Dickens, _Dombey and Son_ (1846). _Marwood_ (_Mistress_), jilted by Fainall, and soured against the whole male sex. She says, “I have done hating those vipers--men, and am now come to despise them;” but she thinks of marrying to keep her husband “on the rack of fear and jealousy.”--W. Congreve, _The Way of the World_ (1700). =Mary=, the pretty housemaid of the worshipful, the mayor of Ipswich (_Nupkins_). When Arabella Allen marries Mr. Winkle, Mary enters her service; but eventually marries Sam Weller, and lives at Dulwich, as Mr. Pickwick’s housekeeper.--C. Dickens, _The Pickwick Papers_ (1836). _Mary_, niece of Valentine, and his sister Alice. In love with Mons. Thomas.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _Mons. Thomas_ (1619). _Mary. The queen’s Marys_, four young ladies of quality, of the same age as Mary, afterwards “queen of Scots.” They embarked with her in 1548, on board the French galleys, and were destined to be her playmates in childhood, and her companions when she grew up. Their names were Mary Beaton (or _Bethune_), Mary Livingston (or _Leuison_), Mary Fleming (or _Flemyng_), and Mary Seaton (_Seton_ or _Seyton_). ⁂ Mary Carmichael has no place in authentic history, although an old ballad says: Yestrien the queen had four Marys; This night she’ll hae but three: There was Mary Beaton, and Mary Seaton, And Mary Carmichael, and me. ⁂ One of Whyte Melville’s novels is called _The Queen’s Marys_. =Mary Anne=, a slang name for the guillotine; also called _L’abbaye de monte-à-regret_ (“the mountain of mournful ascent”). (See MARIANNE.) _Mary Anne_, a generic name for a secret republican society in France. [TN-5]See MARIANNE.)--B. Disraeli, _Lothair_. Mary Anne was the red-name for the republic years ago, and there always was a sort of myth that these secret societies had been founded by a woman. The Mary-Anne associations, which are essentially republic, are scattered about all the provinces of France.--_Lothair._ =Mary Graham=, an orphan adopted by old Martin Chuzzlewit. She eventually married Martin Chuzzlewit, the grandson, and hero of the tale. =Mary Scudder.= Blue-eyed daughter of a “capable” New England housewife. From childhood she has loved her cousin. Her mother objects on the ground that James is “unregenerate,” and brings Mary to accept Dr. Hopkins, her pastor. The doctor, upon discovering the truth, resigns his betrothed to the younger lover.--Harriet Beecher Stowe, _The Minister’s Wooing_ (1862). =Mary Stuart=, an historical tragedy by J. Haynes (1840). The subject is the death of David Rizzio. ⁂ Schiller has taken Mary Stuart for the subject of a tragedy. P. Lebrun turned the German drama into a French play. Sir W. Scott, in _The Abbot_, has taken for his subject the flight of Mary to England. =Mary Tudor.= Victor Hugo has a tragedy so called (1833), and Tennyson, in 1878, issued a play entitled _Queen Mary_, an epitome of the reign of the Tudor Mary. =Mary and Byron.= The “Mary” of Lord Byron was Miss Chaworth. Both were under the guardianship of Mr. White. Miss Chaworth married John Musters, and Lord Byron married Miss Milbanke; both equally unfortunate. Lord Byron, in _The Dream_, refers to his love-affair with Mary Chaworth. =Mary in Heaven= (_To_) and _Highland Mary_, lyrics addressed by Robert Burns to Mary Campbell, between whom and the poet there existed a strong attachment previous to the latter’s departure from Ayrshire to Nithsdale. _Mary Morison_, a youthful effusion, was written to the object of a prior passion. The lines in the latter Those smiles and glances let me see, That make the miser’s treasure poor, resembles those in _Highland Mary_-- Still o’er those scenes my mem’ry wakes, And fondly broods with miser care. =Mary of Mode´na=, the second wife of James II. of England, and mother of “The Pretender.” Mamma was to assume the character and stately way of the royal “Mary of Modena.”--Percy Fitzgerald, _The Parvenu Family_, iii. 239. =Mary Queen of Scots= was confined first at Carlisle; she was removed in 1568 to Bolton; in 1569 she was confined at Tutbury, Wingfield, Tutbury, Ashby-de-la-Zouche, and Coventry; in 1570 she was removed to Tutbury, Chatsworth, and Sheffield; in 1577 to Chatsworth; in 1578 to Sheffield; in 1584 to Wingfield; in 1585 to Tutbury, Chartley, Tixhall, and Chartley; in 1586 (September 25) to Fotheringay. ⁂ She is introduced by Sir W. Scott, in his novel entitled _The Abbot_. Schiller has taken Mary Stuart for the subject of his best tragedy, and P. Lebrun brought out in France a French version thereof (1729-1807). _Mary queen of Scots._ The most elegant and poetical compliment ever paid to woman was paid to Mary queen of Scots, by Shakespeare, in _Midsummer Night’s Dream_. Remember, the _mermaid_ is “Queen Mary;” the _dolphin_ means the “dauphin of France,” whom Mary married; the _rude sea_ means the “Scotch rebels;” and the _stars that shot from their spheres_ means “the princes who sprang from their allegiance to Queen Elizabeth.” Thou remember’st Since once I sat upon a promontory, And heard a _mermaid_, on a _dolphin’s_ back, Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, That the _rude sea_ grew civil at her song; And certain _stars shot madly from their spheres_, To hear the sea-maid’s music. Act ii. sc. 1 (1592). These “stars” were the earl of Northumberland, the earl of Westmoreland, and the duke of Norfolk. =Mary, the Maid of the Inn=, the delight and sunshine of the parish, about to be married to Richard, an idle, worthless fellow. One autumn night, two guests were drinking at the inn, and one remarked he should not much like to go to the abbey on such a night. “I’ll wager that Mary will go,” said the other, and the bet was accepted. Mary went, and, hearing footsteps, stepped into a place of concealment, when presently passed her two young men carrying a young woman they had just murdered. The hat of one blew off, and fell at Mary’s feet. She picked it up, and flew to the inn, told her story, and then, producing the hat, found it was Richard’s. Her senses gave way, and she became a confirmed maniac for life.--R. Southey, _Mary, the Maid of the Inn_ (from Dr. Plot’s _History of Staffordshire_, 1686). =Mary Pyncheon.= (See PYNCHEON.) =Mary Woodcock.= (See WOODCOCK.) =Mar´zavan=, foster-brother of the Princess Badou´ra.--_Arabian Nights_ (“Camaralzaman and Badoura”). =Masaniello=, a corruption of [Tom]maso Aniello, a Neapolitan fisherman, who headed an insurrection in 1647 against the duke of Arcos; and he resolved to kill the duke’s son for having seduced Fenella, his sister, who was deaf and dumb. The insurrection succeeded, and Masaniello was elected by his rabble “chief magistrate of Portici;” but he became intoxicated with his greatness, so the mob shot him, and flung his dead body into a ditch. Next day, however, it was taken out and interred with much ceremony and pomp. When Fenella heard of her brother’s death, she threw herself into the crater of Vesuvius. ⁂ Auber has an opera on the subject (1831), the libretto by Scribe. Caraffa had chosen the same subject for an opera previously. =Mascarille= (3 _syl._), the valet of La Grange. In order to reform two silly, romantic girls, La Grange and Du Croisy introduce to them their valets, as the “marquis of Mascarille” and the “viscount of Jodelet.” The girls are taken with their “aristocratic visitors;” but when the game has gone far enough, the masters enter and unmask the trick. By this means the girls are taught a most useful lesson, and are saved from any serious ill consequences.--Molière, _Les Précieuses Ridicules_ (1659). ⁂ Molière had already introduced the same name in two other of his comedies, _L’Etourdi_ (1653) and _Le Dépit Amoureux_ (1654). =Masetto=, a rustic engaged to Zerlīna; but Don Giovanni intervenes before the wedding, and deludes the foolish girl into believing that he means to make her a great lady and his wife.--Mozart, _Don Giovanni_ (libretto by L. da Ponte, 1787). =Mask´well=, the “double dealer.” He pretends to love Lady Touchwood, but it is only to make her a tool for breaking the attachment between Mellefont (2 _syl._) and Cynthia. Maskwell pretends friendship for Mellefont merely to throw dust in his eyes respecting his designs to carry off Cynthia, to whom Mellefont is betrothed. Cunning and hypocrisy are Maskwell’s substitutes for wisdom and honesty.--W. Congreve, _The Double Dealer_ (1700). =Massasowat.= The account given by Edward Winslow of the illness of Massasowat--the friendly Indian chief whose alliance with the pilgrim father ceased only with his life--is a curious contribution to colonial literature. The remedies and diet used by Winslow are so extraordinary as to give unintentional point to his remark--“We, with admiration, blessed GOD for giving his blessing to such rare and ignorant means.”--Edward Winslow, _Good News from New England_ (1624). =Mason= (_William_). The medallion to this poet in Westminster Abbey was by Bacon. _Mason_ (_Lady_). She forges a will purporting to be by her husband, securing his estate to herself and her son. Nobody suspects the fraud for years. When inquiry arises, Lady Mason is engaged to a gallant old baronet who will not credit her guilt until, conscience-smitten, she throws herself at his feet and acknowledges all. _Lucius Mason._ The priggish, good-looking youth for whom Lady Mason risks so much. When he learns the truth he is stern in his judgment of the unhappy woman.--Anthony Trollope, _Orley Farm_. =Master= (_The_). Goethe is called _Der Meister_ (1749-1832). I beseech you, Mr. Tickler, not to be so sarcastic on “The Master.”--_Noctes Ambrosiana._ _Master_ (_The Old_). Mythical personage, whose breakfast-table monologues are among the most charming that enliven the pages of Oliver Wendell Holmes’s _Poet at the Breakfast Table_. “I think he suspects himself of a three-story intellect, and I don’t feel sure that he isn’t right.” =Master Adam=, Adam Billaut, the French poet (1602-1662). =Master Humphrey=, the narrator of the story called “The Old Curiosity Shop.”--C. Dickens, _Master Humphrey’s Clock_ (1840). =Master Leonard=, grand-master of the nocturnal orgies of the demons. He presided at these meetings in the form of a three-horned goat with a black human face.--_Middle Age Demonology._ =Master, like Man= (_Like_). Such mistress, such Nan; Such master, such man. Tusser, xxxviii. 22. Again: Such master, such man; and such mistress, such maid; Such husband and huswife; such houses arraid. T. Tusser, _Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry_, xxxix. 22 (1557). =Master Matthew=, a town gull.--Ben Jonson, _Every Man in His Humor_ (1598). =Master Stephen=, a country gull of melancholy humor. (See MASTER MATTHEW).--Ben Jonson, _Every Man in His Humor_ (1598). =Master of Sentences=, Pierre Lombard, author of a book called _Sentences_ (1100-1164). =Masters= (_Doctor_), physician to Queen Elizabeth.--Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth). _Masters_ (The Four): (1) Michael O’Clerighe (_or_ Clery), who died 1643; (2) Cucoirighe O’Clerighe; (3) Maurice Conry; (4) Fearfeafa Conry; authors of _Annals of Donegal_. =Mat Mizen=, mate of H.M. ship _Tiger_. The type of a daring, reckless, dare-devil English sailor. His adventures with Harry Clifton, in Delhi, form the main incidents of Barrymore’s melodrama, _El Hyder, Chief of the Ghaut Mountains_. =Mat-o’-the Mint=, a highwayman in Captain Macheath’s gang. Peachum says, “He is a promising, sturdy fellow, and diligent in his way. Somewhat too bold and hasty; one that may raise good contributions on the public if he does not cut himself short by murder.”--Gay, _The Beggar’s Opera_, i. (1727). =Matabrune= (3 _syl._), wife of King Pierron of the Strong Island, and mother of Prince Oriant, one of the ancestors of Godfrey of Bouillon.--_Mediæval Romance of Chivalry._ =Mathematical Calculators.= George Parkes Bidder, president of the Institution of Civil Engineers (1800- ). Jedediah Buxton, of Elmeton, in Derbyshire. He would tell how many letters were in any one of his father’s sermons, after hearing it from the pulpit. He went to hear Garrick, in _Richard III._, and told how many words each actor uttered (1705-1775). Zerah Colburn, of Vermont, U. S., came to London in 1812, when he was eight years old. The duke of Gloucester set him to multiply five figures by three, and he gave the answer instantly. He would extract the cube root of nine figures in a few seconds (1804- ). Vito Mangiamele, son of a Sicilian shepherd. In 1839 MM. Arago, Lacroix, Libri, and Sturm examined the boy, then 11 years old, and in half a minute he told them the cube root of seven figures, and in three seconds of nine figures (1818- ). Alfragan, the Arabian astronomer (died 820). =Mathilde= (2 _syl._), heroine of a tale so called by Sophie Ristaud, Dame Cottin (1773-1807). _Mathilde_ (3 _syl._), sister of Gessler, the tyrannical governor of Switzerland, in love with Arnoldo, a Swiss, who saved her life when it was imperilled by an avalanche. After the death of Gessler she married the bold Swiss.--Rossini, _Guglielmo Tell_ (an opera, 1829). =Mathis=, a German miller, greatly in debt. One Christmas Eve a Polish Jew came to his house in a sledge, and, after rest and refreshment, started for Nantzig, “four leagues off.” Mathis followed him, killed him with an axe, and burnt the body in a lime-kiln. He then paid his debts, greatly prospered, and became a highly respected burgomaster. On the wedding night of his only child, Annette, he died of apoplexy, of which he had previous warning by the constant sound of sledge-bells in his ears. In his dream he supposed himself put into a mesmeric sleep in open court, when he confessed everything, and was executed.--J. R. Ware, _The Polish Jew_. ⁂ This is the character which first introduced H. Irving to public notice. =Math´isen=, one of the three anabaptists who induced John of Leyden to join their rebellion; but no sooner was John proclaimed “the prophet-king” than the three rebels betrayed him to the emperor. When the villains entered the banquet-hall to arrest their dupe, they all perished in the flames of the burning palace.--Meyerbeer, _Le Prophète_ (an opera, 1849). =Matilda=, wife of the earl of Leicester, in the “first American tragedy regularly produced” in the United States. She plans to poison her lord, a plot discovered and thwarted by him. In shame and remorse she stabs herself to the heart, praying Leicester to “pity her youthful paramour.”--William Dunlap, _Leicester, A Tragedy_ (1794). _Matilda_, sister of Rollo and Otto, dukes of Normandy, and daughter of Sophia.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Bloody Brother_ (1639). _Matilda_, daughter of Lord Robert Fitzwalter. ⁂ Michael Drayton has a poem of some 650 lines, so called. _Matilda_, daughter of Rokeby, and niece of Mortham. Matilda was beloved by Wilfred, son of Oswald; but she herself loved Redmond, her father’s page, who turned out to be Mortham’s son.--Sir W. Scott, _Rokeby_ (1812). =Matsys= (_Quintin_), a blacksmith of Antwerp. He fell in love with Liza, the daughter of Johann Mandyn, the artist. The father declared that none but an artist should have her to wife; so Matsys relinquished his trade, and devoted himself to painting. After a while, he went into the studio of Mandyn to see his picture of the fallen angel; and on the outstretehed[TN-6] leg of one of the figures painted a bee. This was so life-like, that when the old man returned, he proceeded to frighten it off with his handkerchief. When he discovered the deception, and found out it was done by Matsys, he was so delighted that he at once gave Liza to him for wife. =Matthew Merrygreek=, the servant of Ralph Roister Doister. He is a flesh-and-blood representative of “vice” in the old morality-plays.--Nicholas Udall, _Ralph Roister Doister_ (the first English comedy, 1634). =Matthias de Monçada=, a merchant. He is the father of Mrs. Witherington, wife of General Witherington.--Sir W. Scott, _The Surgeon’s Daughter_ (time, George II.). =Matthias de Silva= (_Don_), a Spanish beau. This exquisite one day received a challenge for defamation, soon after he had retired to bed, and said to his valet, “I would not get up before noon to make one in the best party of pleasure that was ever projected. Judge, then, if I shall rise at six o’clock in the morning to get my throat cut.”--Lesage, _Gil Blas_, iii. 8 (1715). (This reply was borrowed from the romance of Espinel, entitled _Vida del Escudero Marços de Obregon_, 1618). =Mattie=, maid servant of Bailie Nicol Jarvie, and afterwards his wife.--Sir W. Scott, _Rob Roy_ (time, George I.). =Maud Muller=, pretty, shy haymaker, of whom the judge, passing by, craves a cup of water. He falls in love with the rustic maiden, but dare not wed her. She, too, recollects him with tenderness, dreaming vainly of what might have been her different lot. “Of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these, ‘It might have been.’” J. G. Whittier, _Maud Muller_. Bret Harte has written a clever parody upon Maud Muller,--“_Mrs. Judge Jenkins_.” “There are no sadder words of tongue or pen, Than ‘It is, but _it hadn’t orter been!_’” =Maude=, (1 _syl._), wife of Peter Pratefast, “who loved cleanliness.” She kepe her dishes from all foulenes; And when she lacked clowtes withouten fayle, She wyped her dishes with her dogges tayll. Stephen Hawes, _The Pastyme of Pleasure_, xxix. (1515). =Maugis=, the Nestor of French romance. He was one of Charlemagne’s paladins, a magician and champion. ⁂ In Italian romance he is called “Malagigi” (_q.v._). =Maugis d’Aygremont=, son of Duke Bevis d’Aygremont, stolen in infancy by a female slave. As the slave rested under a white-thorn, a lion and a leopard devoured her, and then killed each other in disputing over the infant. Oriande la fèe, attracted to the spot by the crying of the child, exclaimed, “by the powers above, the child is _mal gist_ (‘badly nursed’)!” and ever after it was called Mal-gist or Mau-gis’. When grown to manhood, he obtained the enchanted horse Bayard, and took from Anthenor (the Saracen) the the[TN-7] sword Flamberge. Subsequently he gave both to his cousin Renaud (_Renaldo_). Romance of _Maugis d’Aygremont et de Vivian son Frère_. ⁂ In the Italian romance, Maugis is called “Malagigi,” Bevis is “Buovo,” Bayard is “Bayardo,” Flamberge is “Fusberta,” and Renaud is “Renaldo.” =Maugrabin= (_Zamet_), a Bohemian, hung near Plessis lés Tours. _Hayraddin Maugrabin_, the “Zingaro,” brother of Zamet Maugrabin. He assumes the disguise of Rouge Sanglier, and pretends to be a herald from Liège [_Le.aje_].--Sir W. Scott, _Quentin Durward_ (time, Edward IV.). =Mau´graby=, son of Hal-il-Maugrăby and his wife Yandar. Hal-il-Maugraby founded Dom-Daniel “under the roots of the ocean” near the coast of Tunis, and his son completed it. He and his son were the greatest magicians that ever lived. Maugraby was killed by Prince Habed-il-Rouman, son of the caliph of Syria, and with his death Dom-Daniel ceased to exist.--_Continuation of Arabian Nights_ (“History of Maugraby”). Did they not say to us every day that if we were naughty the Maugraby would take us?--_Continuation of Arabian Nights_, iv. 74. =Maugys=, a giant who kept the bridge leading to a castle in which a lady was besieged. Sir Lybius, one of the knights of the Round Table, did battle with him, slew him, and liberated the lady.--_Libeaux_ (a romance). =Maul=, a giant who used to spoil young pilgrims with sophistry. He attacked Mr. Greatheart with a club; but Greatheart pierced him under the fifth rib, and then cut off his head.--Bunyan, _Pilgrim’s Progress_, ii. (1684). =Maul of Monks=, Thomas Cromwell, visitor-general of English monasteries, which he summarily suppressed (1490-1540). =Maulstatute= (_Master_), a magistrate.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.). =Maun´drel=, a wearisome gossip, a chattering woman. _Maundrels_, vagaries, especially those of a person in delirium, or the disjointed gabble of a sleeper. ⁂ The word is said to be a corruption of Mandeville (_Sir John_), who published a book of travels, full of idle tales and maundering gossip. =Mauprat= (_Adrien de_), colonel and chevalier in the king’s army; “the wildest gallant and bravest knight of France.” He married Julie; but the king accused him of treason for so doing, and sent him to the Bastille. Being released by the Cardinal Richelieu, he was forgiven, and made happy with the blessing of the king.--Lord Lytton, _Richelieu_ (1839). _Mauprat_, the last of a fierce race of French robber nobles. His wild nature is subdued into real nobility by his love for his beautiful cousin.--George Sand, _Mauprat_ (1836). =Maurice Beevor= (_Sir_), a miser, and (failing the children of the countess) heir to the Arundel estates. The countess having two sons (Arthur and Percy), Sir Maurice hired assassins to murder them; but his plots were frustrated, and the miser went to his grave “a sordid, spat-upon, revengeless, worthless, and rascally poor cousin.”--Lord Lytton, _The Sea-Captain_ (1839). =Mause= (_Old_), mother of Cuddie Headrigg, and a covenanter.--Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.). =Mauso´lus=, king of Caria, to whom his wife Artĕmisia erected a sepulchre which was one of the “Seven Wonders of the World” (B.C. 353). The chief mausoleums besides this are those of Augustus; Hadrian (now called the castle of St. Angelo) at Rome; Henri II., erected by Catherine de Medicis; St. Peter the martyr, in the church of St. Eustatius, by G. Balduccio; that to the memory of Louis XVI.; and the tomb of Napoleon in Les Invalides, Paris. The one erected by Queen Victoria to Prince Albert may also be mentioned. =Mauthe Dog=, a black spectre spaniel that haunted the guard-room of Peeltown in the Isle of Man. One day a drunken trooper entered the guard-room while the dog was there, but lost his speech, and died within three days.--Sir W. Scott, _Lay of the Last Minstrel_, vi. 26 (1805). =Mauxalin´da=, in love with Moore, of Moore Hall; but the valiant combatant of the dragon deserts her for Margery, daughter of Gubbins, of Roth’ram Green.--H. Carey, _Dragon of Wantley_ (1696-1743). =Mavortian=, a soldier or son of Mavors (_Mars_). Hew dreadfull Mavortian the poor price of a dinner.--Richard Brome, _Plays_ (1653). =Mawworm=, a vulgar copy of Dr. Cantwell “the hypocrite.” He is a most gross abuser of his mother tongue, but believes he has a call to preach. He tells old Lady Lambert that he has made several sermons already, but “always does ’em extrumpery” because he could not write. He finds his “religious vocation” more profitable than selling “grocery, tea, small beer, charcoal, butter, brickdust, and other spices,” and so comes to the conclusion that it “is sinful to keep shop.” He is a convert of Dr. Cantwell, and believes in him to the last. Do despise me; I’m the prouder for it. I like to be despised.--I. Bickerstaff, _The Hypocrite_, ii. 1 (1768). =Max=, a huntsman, and the best marksman in Germany. He was plighted to Agatha, who was to be his wife, if he won the prize in the annual match. Caspar induced Max to go to the wolf’s glen at midnight and obtain seven charmed balls from Samiel, the Black Huntsman. On the day of contest, while Max was shooting, he killed Caspar, who was concealed in a tree, and the king in consequence abolished this annual _fête_.--Weber, _Der Freischütz_ (an opera, 1822). =Maxime= (2 _syl._), an officer of the Prefect Almachius. He was ordered to put to death Valerian and Tibur´cê, because they refused to worship the image of Jupiter; but he took pity on them, took them to his house, became converted and was baptized. When Valerian and Tiburcê were afterwards martyred, Maxime said he saw angels come and carry them to heaven, whereupon Almachius caused him to be beaten with rods “til he his lif gan lete.”--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (“Second Nun’s Tale,” 1388). ⁂ This is based on the story of “Cecilia” in the _Legenda Aurea_; and both are imitations of the story of Paul and the jailer of Philippi (_Acts_ xvi. 19-34). =Maximil´ian= (son of Frederick III.), the hero of the _Teuerdank_, the _Orlando Furioso_ of the Germans, by Melchior Pfinzing. ....[_here_] in old heroic days Sat the poet Melchoir, singing Kaiser Maximilian’s praise. Longfellow, _Nuremberg_. =Maximin=, a Roman tyrant.--Dryden, _Tyrannic Love_, or _the Royal Martyr_. =Maximus=, (called by Geoffrey, “Maximian”), a Roman senator, who in 381, was invited to become king of Britain. He conquered Armorica (_Bretagne_), and “published a decree for the assembling together there of 100,000 of the common people of Britain, to colonize the land, and 30,000 soldiers to defend the colony.” Hence Armorica was called, “The other Britain” or “Little Britain.”--Geoffrey, _British History_, v. 14 (1142). Got Maximus at length the victory in Gaul, ... where after Gratian’s fall. Armorica to them the valiant victor gave.... Which colony ... is “Little Britain” called. Drayton, _Polyolbion_, ix. (1612). =Maxwell=, deputy chamberlain at Whitehall.--Sir W. Scott, _Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.). _Maxwell_ (_Mr. Pate_), laird of Summertrees, called “Pate in Peril;” one of the papist conspirators with Redgauntlet.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.). _Maxwell_ (_The Right Hon. William_), Lord Evandale, an officer in the king’s army.--Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.). =May=, a girl who married January, a Lombard baron 60 years old. She loved Damyan, a young squire; and one day the baron caught Damyan and May fondling each other, but the young wife told her husband his eyes were so defective that they could not be trusted. The old man accepted the solution--for what is better than “a fruitful wife and a confiding spouse?”--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (“The Merchant’s Tale,” 1388). =May unlucky for Brides.= Mary, queen of Scotland, married Bothwell, the murderer of her husband, Lord Darnley, on May 12. Mense malum Maio nubere vulgus ait. Ovid, _Fasti_, v. =May-Day= (_Evil_), May 1, 1517, when the London apprentices rose up against the foreign residents and did incalcuable[TN-8] mischief. This riot began May 1, and lasted till May 22. =May Queen= (_The_), a poem in three parts by Tennyson (1842). Alice, a bright-eyed, merry child, was chosen May queen, and, being afraid she might oversleep herself, told her mother to be sure to call her early. I sleep so sound all night, mother, that I shall never wake, If you do not call me loud when the day begins to break; But I must gather knots of flowers, and buds and garlands gay, For I’m to be queen o’ the May, mother, I’m to be queen o’ the May. The old year passed away, and the black-eyed rustic maiden was dying. She hoped to greet the new year before her eyes closed in death, and bade her mother once again to be sure to call her early; but it was not now because she slept so soundly. Alas! no. Good night, sweet mother; call me before the day is born. All night I lie awake, but I fall asleep at morn; But I would see the sun rise upon the glad New Year, So, if you’re waking, call me, call me early, mother dear. The day rose and passed away, but Alice lingered on till March. The snow-drops had gone before her, and the violets were in bloom. Robin had dearly loved the child, but the thoughtless village beauty, in her joyous girlhood, tossed her head at him, and never thought of love, but now, that she was going to the land of shadows, her dying words were: And say to Robin a kind word, and tell him not to fret; There’s many worthier than I, would make him happy yet. If I had lived--I cannot tell--I might have been his wife; But all these things have ceased to be, with my desire of life. =Maye= (_The_), that subtle and abstruse sense which the goddess Maya inspires. Plato, Epicharmos, and some other ancient philosophers refer it to the presence of divinity. “It is the divinity which stirs within us.” In poetry it gives an inner sense to the outward word, and in common minds it degenerates into delusion or second sight. Maya is an Indian deity, and personates the “power of creation.” Hartmann possède la Mâye ... il laisse pénétrer dans ses écrits les sentiments, et les pensées dont son âme est remplie, et cherche sans cesse à resoudre les antithèses.--G. Weber, _Hist. de la Littérature Allemande_. =Mayeux=, a stock name in France for a man deformed, vain, and licentious, but witty and brave. It occurs in a large number of French romances and caricatures. =Mayflower=, a ship of 180 tons, which in December, 1620, started from Plymouth, and conveyed to Massachusetts 102 puritans, called the “Pilgrim Fathers,” who named their settlement New Plymouth. ... the _Mayflower_ sailed from the harbor [_Plymouth_], Took the wind on her quarter, and stood for the open Atlantic, Borne on the sand of the sea, and the swelling hearts of the pilgrims. Longfellow, _Courtship of Miles Standish_, v. (1858). _Men of the Mayflower_, the Pilgrim Fathers, who went out in the _Mayflower_ to North America in 1620. _Mayflower_ (_Phœbe_), servant at Sir Henry Lee’s lodge.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, commonwealth). =Maylie= (_Mrs._), the lady of the house attacked burglariously by Bill Sykes and others. Mrs. Maylie is mother of Harry Maylie, and aunt of Rose Fleming, who lives with her. She was well advanced in years, but the high-backed oaken chair in which she sat was not more upright than she. Dressed with the utmost nicety and precision in a quaint mixture of bygone costume, with some slight concession to the prevailing taste, which rather served to point the old style pleasantly than to impair its effect, she sat in a stately manner, with her hands folded before her. _Harry Maylie_, Mrs. Maylie’s son. He marries his cousin, Rose Fleming.--C. Dickens, _Oliver Twist_ (1837). =Mayor of Garratt= (_The_). Garratt is between Wandsworth and Tooting. The first mayor of this village was elected towards the close of the eighteenth century, and the election came about thus: Garratt Common had often been encroached on, and in 1780 the inhabitants associated themselves together to defend their rights. The chairman was called _Mayor_, and as it happened to be the time of a general election, the society made it a law that a new “mayor” should be elected at every general election. The addresses of these mayors, written by Foote, Garrick, Wilks, and others, are satires and political squibs. The first mayor of Garratt was “Sir” John Harper, a retailer of brickdust; and the last was “Sir” Harry Dimsdale, a muffin-seller (1796). In Foote’s farce so called, Jerry Sneak is chosen mayor, son-in-law of the landlord (1763). =Mayors= (_Lord_) who have founded noble houses: _Lord Mayor._ AVELAND (_Lord_), from Sir Gilbert Heathcote 1711 BACON (_Lord_), from Sir Thomas Cooke, draper 1557 BATH (_Marquis of_), from Sir Rowland Heyward, cloth-worker 1570 BRAYBROOKE (_Lord_), from Sir John Gresham, grocer 1547 BROOK (_Lord_), from Sir Samuel Dashwood, vintner 1702 BUCKINGHAM (_Duke of_), from Sir John Gresham, grocer 1547 COMPTON (_Lord_), from Sir Wolston Dixie, skinner 1585 CRANBOURNE (_Viscount_), from Sir Christopher Gascoigne 1753 DENBIGH (_Earl of_), from Sir Godfrey Fielding, mercer 1452 DONNE (_Viscount_), from Sir Gilbert Heathcote 1711 FITZWILLIAM (_Earl of_), from Sir Thomas Cooke, draper 1557 PALMERSTON (_Lord_), from Sir John Houblon, grocer 1695 SALISBURY (_Marquis of_), from Sir Thomas Cooke, draper 1557 WARWICK (_Earl of_), from Sir Samuel Dashwood, vintner 1702 WILTSHIRE (_Earl of_), from Sir Godfrey Boleine 1457 (queen Elizabeth was his granddaughter). =Maypole= (_The_), the nickname given to Erangard Melousine de Schulemberg, duchess of Kendal, the mistress of George I., on account of her leanness and height (1719, died, 1743). =Mazarin of Letters= (_The_), D’Alembert (1717-1783). =Mazarine= (_A_), a common council-man of London; so called from the mazarine-blue silk gown worn by this civil functionary. =Mazeppa= (_Jan_), a hetman of the Cossacks, born of a noble Polish family in Podolia. He was a page in the court of Jan Casimir, king of Poland, and while in this capacity intrigued with Theresia, the young wife of a Podolian count, who discovered the amour, and had the young page lashed to a wild horse, and turned adrift. The horse rushed in mad fury, and dropped down dead in the Ukraine, where Mazeppa was released by a Cossack, who nursed him carefully in his own hut. In time the young page became a prince of the Ukraine, but fought against Russia in the battle of Pultowa. Lord Byron (1819) makes Mazeppa tell his tale to Charles XII. after the battle (1640-1709). “Muster Richardson” had a fine appreciation of genius, and left the original “Mazeppa” at Astley’s a handsome legacy [1766-1836].--Mark Lemon. =M. B. Waistcoat=, a clerical waistcoat. M. B. means “Mark [_of the_] Beast;” so called because, when these waistcoats were first worn by Protestant clergymen (about 1830), they were stigmatized as indicating a popish tendency. He smiled at the folly which stigmatized an M. B. waistcoat[TN-9]--Mrs. Oliphant, _Phœbe, Jun._, ii. 1. =McGrath= (_Miss Jane_), “is a woman. Uv course doorin’ the war she wuz loyal ez she understood loyalty. She believed in her State. She hed two brothers which went into the Confedrit servis, and she gave ’em both horses. But wood any sister let her brother go afoot?... Her case is one wich I shel push the hardest.... Ef Congress does not consider it favorably it will show that Congress hez no bowels.”--D. R. Locke’s, _The Struggles--Social, Financial and Political--of Petroleum_, V. Nasby. =Meadows= (_Sir William_), a kind country gentleman, the friend of Jack Eustace, and father of young Meadows. _Young Meadows_ left his father’s home because the old gentleman wanted him to marry Rosetta, whom he had never seen. He called himself Thomas, and entered the service of Justice Woodcock as gardener. Here he fell in love with the supposed chamber-maid, who proved to be Rosetta, and their marriage fulfilled the desire of all the parties interested.--I. Bickerstaff, _Love in a Village_. Charles Dignum made his _début_ at Drury Lane, in 1784, in the character of “Young Meadows.” His voice was so clear and full-toned, and his manner of singing so judicious, that he was received with the warmest applause.--_Dictionary of Musicians._ =Meagles= (_Mr._), an eminently “practical man,” who, being well off, travelled over the world for pleasure. His party consisted of himself, his daughter Pet, and his daughter’s servant called Tatty-coram. A jolly man was Mr. Meagles; but clear-headed, shrewd, and persevering. _Mrs. Meagles_, wife of the “practical man,” and mother of Pet.--C. Dickens, _Little Dorrit_ (1857). =Meal-Tub Plot=, a fictitious conspiracy concocted by Dangerfield for the purpose of cutting off those who opposed the succession of James, duke of York, afterwards James II. The scheme was concealed in a meal-tub in the house of Mrs. Cellier (1685). =Measure for Measure.= There was a law in Vienna that made it death for a man to live with a woman not his wife; but the law was so little enforced that the mothers of Vienna complained to the duke of its neglect. So the duke deputed Angelo to enforce it, and, assuming the dress of a friar, absented himself awhile, to watch the result. Scarcely was the duke gone, when Claudio was sentenced to death for violating the law. His sister Isabel went to intercede on his behalf, and Angelo told her he would spare her brother if she would give herself to him. Isabel told her brother he must prepare to die, as the conditions proposed by Angelo were out of the question. The duke, disguised as a friar, heard the whole story, and persuaded Isabel to “assent in words,” but to send Mariana (the divorced wife of Angelo), to take her place. This was done; but Angelo sent the provost to behead Claudio, a crime which “the friar” contrived to avert. Next day, the duke returned to the city, and Isabel told her tale. The end was, the duke married Isabel, Angelo took back his wife, and Claudio married Juliet, whom he had seduced.--Shakespeare, _Measure for Measure_ (1603). ⁂ This story is from Whetstone’s _Heptameron_ (1578). A similar story is given also in Giraldi Cinthio’s third decade of stories. =Medam´othi=, the island at which the fleet of Pantag´ruel landed on the fourth day of their voyage. Here many choice curiosities were bought, such as “the picture of a man’s voice,” an “echo drawn to life,” “Plato’s ideas,” some of “Epicurus’s atoms,” a sample of “Philome´la’s needlework,” and other objects of _vertu_ to be obtained nowhere else.--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, iv. 3 (1545). ⁂ _Medamothi_ is a compound Greek word, meaning “never in any place.” So _Utopia_ is a Greek compound, meaning “no place;” _Kennaquhair_ is a Scotch compound, meaning “I know not where;” and _Kennahtwhar_ is Anglo-Saxon for the same. All these places are in 91° north lat. and 180° 1' west long., in the Niltālê Ocean. =Medea=, a famous sorceress of Colchis who married Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, and aided him in getting possession of the golden fleece. After being married ten years, Jason repudiated her for Glaucê; and Medea, in revenge, sent the bride a poisoned robe, which killed both Glaucê and her father. Medea then tore to pieces her two sons, and fled to Athens in a chariot drawn by dragons. The story has been dramatized in Greek by Euripĭdês; in Latin by Senĕca and by Ovid; in French by Corneille (_Médée_, 1635), Longepierre (1695), and Legouvé (1849); in English by Glover (1761). Mrs. Yates was a superb “Medea.”--Thomas Campbell. =Mede´a and Absyr´tus.= When Medea fled with Jason from Colchis (in Asia), she murdered her brother, Absyrtus, and, cutting the body into several pieces, strewed the fragments about, that the father might be delayed in picking them up, and thus be unable to overtake the fugitives. Meet I an infant of the duke of York, Into as many gobbets will I cut it As wild Medea young Absyrtus did. Shakespeare, 2 _Henry VI._ act v. sc. 2 (1591). =Mede´a’s Kettle.= Medea, the sorceress, cut to pieces an old ram, threw the parts into her caldron, and by her incantations changed the old ram into a young lamb. The daughters of Pelias thought they would have their father restored to youth, as Æson had been. So they killed him, and put the body in Medea’s caldron; but Medea refused to utter the needful incantation, and so the old man was not restored to life. Change the shape, and shake off age. Get thee Medea’s kettle, and be boiled anew.--W. Congreve, _Love for Love_, iv. (1695). =Médecin Malgré Lui= (_Le_) a comedy by Molière (1666). The “enforced doctor” is Sganarelle, a faggot-maker, who is called in by Géronte to cure his daughter of dumbness. Sganarelle soon perceives that the malady is assumed in order to prevent a hateful marriage, and introduces her lover as an apothecary. The dumb spirit is at once exorcised, and the lovers made happy with “pills matrimoniac.” In 1723 Fielding produced a farce called _The Mock Doctor_, which was based on this comedy. The doctor he calls “Gregory,” and Géronte “Sir Jasper.” Lucinde, the dumb girl, he calls “Charlotte,” and Anglicizes her lover, Léandre, into “Leander.” =Medham= (“_the keen_”), one of Mahomet’s swords. =Medicine= (_The Father of_), Aretæos of Cappadocia (second and third centuries). ⁂ Also Hippoc´rates, of Cos (B.C. 460-357). =Medina=, the Golden Mean personified, Step-sister of Elissa (_parsimony_) and Perissa (_extravagance_). The three sisters could never agree on any subject.--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, ii. (1590). =Medley= (_Matthew_), the factotum of Sir Walter Waring. He marries Dolly, daughter of Goodman Fairlop, the woodman.--Sir H. P. Dudley, _The Woodman_ (1771). =Medo´ra=, the beloved wife of Conrad, the corsair. When Conrad was taken captive by the Pacha Seyd, Medora sat day after day expecting his return, and feeling the heart-anguish of hope deferred. Still he returned not, and Medora died. In the mean time, Gulnare, the favorite concubine of Seyd, murdered the pacha, liberated Conrad, and sailed with him to the corsair’s island home. When, however, Conrad found his wife dead, he quitted the island, and went no one knew whither. The sequel of the story forms the poem called _Lara_.--Byron, _The Corsair_ (1814). =Medo´ro=, a Moorish youth of extraordinary beauty, but of humble race; page to Agramante. Being wounded, Angelica dressed his wounds, fell in love with him, married him, and retired with him to Cathay, where, in right of his wife, he became a king. This was the cause of Orlando’s madness.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516). When Don Roldan [_Orlando_] discovered in a fountain proofs of Angelica’s dishonorable conduct with Medoro, it distracted him to such a degree that he tore up huge trees by the roots, sullied the purest streams, destroyed flocks, slew shepherds, fired their huts, pulled houses to the ground, and committed a thousand other most furious exploits worthy of being reported in fame’s register.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. iii. 11 (1605). =Medu´sa= (_The soft_), Mary Stuart, queen of Scots (1545-1577). Rise from thy bloody grave, Thou soft Medusa of the “Fated Line,” Whose evil beauty looked to death the brave! Lord Lytton, _Ode_, i. (1839). =Meeta=, the “maid of Mariendorpt,” a true woman and a true heroine. She is the daughter of Mahldenau, minister of Mariendorpt, whom she loves almost to idolatry. Her betrothed is Major Rupert Roselheim. Hearing of her father’s captivity at Prague, she goes thither on foot to crave his pardon.--S. Knowles, _The Maid of Mariendorpt_ (1838). =Meg=, a pretty, bright, dutiful girl, daughter of Toby Veck, and engaged to Richard, whom she marries on New Year’s Day.--C. Dickens, _The Chimes_ (1844). =Meg Dods=, the old landlady at St. Ronan’s Well.--Sir W. Scott, _St. Ronan’s Well_ (time, George III.). =Meg Merrilees=, a half-crazy sibyl or gypsy woman.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.). =Meg Murdochson=, an old gypsy thief, mother of Madge Wildfire.--Sir W. Scott, _Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.). =Megid´don=, the tutelar angel of Simon the Canaanite. This Simon, “once a shepherd, was called by Jesus from the field, and feasted Him in his hut with a lamb.”--Klopstock, _The Messiah_, iii. (1748). =Megingjard=, the belt of Thor, whereby his strength was doubled. =Megissog´won= (“_the great pearl feather_”), a magician, and the Manĭto of wealth. It was Megissogwon who sent the fiery fever on man, the white fog, and death. Hiawatha slew him, and taught man the science of medicine. This great Pearl-Feather slew the father of Niko´mis (the grandmother of Hiawatha). Hiawatha all day long fought with the magician without effect; at nightfall the woodpecker told him to strike at the tuft of hair on the magician’s head, the only vulnerable place; accordingly, Hiawatha discharged his three remaining arrows at the hair tuft, and Megissogwon died. “Honor be to Hiawatha! He hath slain the great Pearl-Feather; Slain the mightiest of magicians-- Him that sent the fiery fever, ... Sent disease and death among us.” Longfellow, _Hiawatha_, ix. (1855). =Megnoun.= (See MEJNOUN.) =Meg´ra=, a lascivious lady in the drama called _Philaster_, or _Love Lies a-bleeding_, by Beaumont and Fletcher (1608). =Meiklehose= (_Isaac_), one of the elders of Roseneath parish.--Sir W. Scott, _Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.). =Meiklewham= (_Mr. Saunders_), “the man of law,” in the managing committee of the Spa hotel.--Sir W. Scott, _St. Ronan’s Well_ (time, George III.). =Meister= (_Wilhelm_), the hero and title of a novel by Goethe. The object is to show that man, despite his errors and short-comings, is led by a guiding hand, and reaches some higher aim at last (1821). =Meistersingers=, or minstrel tradesmen of Germany. An association of master tradesmen to revive the national minstrelsy, which had fallen into decay with the decline of the minnesingers, or love minstrels (1350-1523). Their subjects were chiefly moral or religious, and constructed according to rigid rules. The three chief were Hans Rosenblüt (armorial painter, born 1450), Hans Folz (surgeon, born 1479), and Hans Sachs (cobbler, 1494-1574). The next best were Heinrich von Mueglen, Konrad Harder, Master Altschwert, Master Barthel Regenbogen (the blacksmith), Muscablüt (the tailor), and Hans Blotz (the barber). =Mej´noun and Lei´lah= (2 _syl._), a Persian love tale, the Romeo and Juliet of Eastern romance. They are the most beautiful, chaste, and impassionate of lovers; the models of what lovers would be if human nature were perfect. When he sang the loves of Megnôun and Leileh ... tears insensibly overflowed the cheeks of his auditors.--W. Beckford, _Vathek_ (1786). =Mela Dryfoos.= Loud young lady of the gilded period, “physically too amiable and too well corporeally ever to be quite cross,” but selfish and coarse and reposing confidently upon the importance given her by her father’s money.--W. D. Howells, _A Hazard of New Fortunes_ (1889). =Melan´chates= (4 _syl._), the hound that killed Actæon, and was changed into a hart. Melanchates, that hound That plucked Actæon to the grounde, Gaue him his mortal wound, ... Was chaungéd to a harte. J. Skelton, _Philip Sparow_ (time, Henry VIII). =Melantius=, a rough, honest soldier, who believes every one is true till convicted of crime, and then is he a relentless punisher. Melantius and Diph´ilus are brothers of Evadnê.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Maid’s Tragedy_ (1610). ⁂ The master scene between Antony and Ventidius in Dryden’s _All for Love_ is copied from _The Maid’s Tragedy_. “Ventidius” is in the place of Melantius. =Melchior=, one of the three kings of Cologne. He was the “Wise Man of the East” who offered to the infant Jesus _gold_, the emblem of royalty. The other two were Gaspar and Balthazar. Melchior means “king of light.” _Melchior_, a monk attending the black priest of St. Paul’s.--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.). _Melchior_ (_i.e. Melchior Pfinzing_), a German poet who wrote the _Teuerdank_, an epic poem which has the kaiser Maximilian (son of Frederick III.) for its hero. This poem was the _Orlando Furioso_ of the Germans. Sat the poet Melchior, singing kaiser Maximilian’s praise. Longfellow, _Nuremberg_. =Melea´ger=, son of Althæa, who was doomed to live while a certain log remained unconsumed. Althæa kept the log for several years, but being one day angry with her son, she cast it on the fire, where it was consumed. Her son died at the same moment.--Ovid, _Metam._, viii. 4. Sir John Davies uses this to illustrate the immortality of the soul. He says that the life of the soul does not depend on the body as Meleager’s life depended on the fatal brand. Again, if by the body’s prop she stand-- If on the body’s life her life depend, As Meleager’s on the fatal brand; The body’s good she only would intend. _Reason_, iii. (1622). =Melesig´enes= (5 _syl._). Homer is so called from the river Melês (2 _syl._), in Asia Minor, on the banks of which some say he was born. ... various measured verse, Æolian charms and Dorian lyric odes, And his who gave them breath, but higher sung, Blind Melesigēnês, thence Homer called, Whose poem Phœbus challenged for his own. Milton, _Paradise Regained_ (1671). =Melema= (_Tito_). Beautiful accomplished Greek adventurer who marries and is unfaithful to Romola. He dies by the hand of an old man who had been the benefactor of his infancy and youth, and whom he had basely deserted and ignored.--George Eliot, _Romola_. =Me´li= (_Giovanni_), a Sicilian, born at Palermo; immortalized by his eclogues and idylls. Meli is called “The Sicilian Theocritus” (1740-1815). Much it pleased him to peruse The songs of the Sicilian Muse-- Bucolic songs by Meli sung. Longfellow, _The Wayside Inn_ (prelude, 1863). =Meliadus=, father of Sir Tristan; prince of Lyonnesse, and one of the heroes of Arthurian romance.--_Tristan de Leonois_ (1489). ⁂ Tristan, in the _History of Prince Arthur_, compiled by Sir T. Malory (1470), is called “Tristram;” but the old minnesingers of Germany (twelfth century) called the name “Tristan.” =Mel´ibe= (3 _syl._), a rich young man married to Prudens. One day, when Melibê was in the fields, some enemies broke into his house, beat his wife, and wounded his daughter Sophie in her feet, hands, ears, nose and mouth. Melibê was furious and vowed vengeance, but Prudens persuaded him “to forgive his enemies, and to do good to those who despitefully used him.” So he called together his enemies, and forgave them, to the end that “God of His endeles mercie wole at the tyme of oure deyinge forgive us oure giltes that we have trespased to Him in this wreeched world.”--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (1388). ⁂ This prose tale is a liberal translation of a French story.--See _MS. Reg._, xix. 7; and _MS. Reg._, xix. 11, British Museum. =Melibee=, a shepherd, and the reputed father of Pastorella. Pastorella married Sir Calidore.--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, vi. 9 (1596). “Melibee” is Sir Francis Walsingham. In the _Ruins of Time_, Spenser calls him “Melibœ.” Sir Philip Sidney (the “Sir Calidore” of the _Faëry Queen_) married his daughter Frances. Sir Francis Walsingham died in 1590, so poor that he did not leave enough to defray his funeral expenses. =Melibœus=, one of the shepherds in _Eclogue_ i. of Virgil. Spenser, in the _Ruins of Time_ (1591), calls Sir Francis Walsingham “the good Melibœ;” and in the last book of the _Faëry Queen_ he calls him “Melibee.” =Melin´da=, cousin of Sylvia. She loves Worthy, whom she pretends to dislike, and coquets with him for twelve months. Having driven her modest lover to the verge of distraction, she relents, and consents to marry him.--G. Farquhar, _The Recruiting Officer_ (1705). =Mel´ior=, a lovely fairy, who carried off, in her magic bark, Parthen´opex, of Blois, to her secret island.--_Parthenopex de Blois_ (a French romance, twelfth century). =Melisen´dra= (_The princess_), natural daughter of Marsilio, and the “supposed daughter of Charlemagne.” She eloped with Don Gayferos. The king, Marsilio, sent his troops in pursuit of the fugitive. Having made Melisendra his wife, Don Gayferos delivered her up captive to the Moors at Saragossa. This was the story of the puppet-show of Master Peter, exhibited to Don Quixote and his squire at “the inn beyond the hermitage.”--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. ii. 7 (1615). =Melissa=, a prophetess who lived in Merlin’s cave. Bradamant gave her the enchanted ring to take to Roge´ro; so, under the form of Atlantês, she went to Alcīna’s isle, delivered Rogēro, and disenchanted all the captives in the island. In bk. xix. Melissa, under the form of Rodŏmont, persuaded Agramant to break the league which was to settle the contest by single combat, and a general battle ensued.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516). ⁂ This incident of bk. xix. is similar to that in Homer’s _Iliad_, iii. iv., where Paris and Menelāos agree to settle the contest by single combat; but Minerva persuades Pandăros to break the truce, and a general battle ensues. =Me´lita= (now _Malta_). The point to which the vessel that carried St. Paul was driven was the “Porto de San Paolo,” and according to tradition, the cathedral of Citta Vecchia stands on the site of the house of Publius, the Roman governor. St. Paul’s grotto, a cave in the vicinity, is so named in honor of this great apostle. =Meli´tus=, a gentleman of Cyprus, in the drama called _The Laws of Candy_, by Beaumont and Fletcher (1647). =Melizyus=, king of Thessaly, in the golden era of Saturn. He was the first to tame horses for the use of man. _Melizyus_ (_King_) held his court in the Tower of Chivalry, and there knighted Graunde Amoure, after giving him the following advice: And first _Good Hope_ his legge harneyes should be; His habergion, of _Perfect Ryhteousnes_, Gird first with the girdle of _Chastitie_; His rich placarde should be good busines, Brodred with _Alms_ ... The helmet _Mekenes_, and the shelde _Good Fayeth_, His swerde _God’s Word_, as St. Paule sayeth. Stephen Hawes, _The Passe-tyme of Plesure_, xxviii. (1515). =Mell= (_Mr._), the poor, down-trodden second master at Salem House, the school of Mr. Creakles. Mr. Mell played the flute. His mother lived in an almshouse, and Steerforth used to taunt Mell with this “degradation,” and indeed caused him to be discharged. Mell emigrated to Australia, and succeeded well in the new country.--C. Dickens, _David Copperfield_ (1849). =Melle´font= (2 _syl._), in love with Cynthia, daughter of Sir Paul Pliant. His aunt, Lady Touchwood, had a criminal fondness for him, and, because he repelled her advances, she vowed his ruin. After passing several hair-breadth escapes from the “double dealing” of his aunt and his “friend,” Maskwell, he succeeded in winning and marrying the lady of his attachment.--W. Congreve, _The Double Dealer_ (1700). =Mellifluous Doctor= (_The_), St. Bernard, whose writings were called “a river of paradise” (1091-1153). =Melnotte= (_Claude_), a gardener’s son, in love with Pauline, “the Beauty of Lyons,” but treated by her with contempt. Beauseant and Glavis, two other rejected suitors, conspired with him to humble the proud fair one. To this end, Claude assumed to be the prince of Como, and Pauline married him, but was indignant when she discovered how she had been duped. Claude left her to join the French army, and, under the name of Morier, rose in two years and a half to the rank of colonel. He then returned to Lyons, and found his father-in-law on the eve of bankruptcy, and Pauline about to be sold to Beauseant to pay the creditors. Claude paid the money required, and claimed Pauline as his loving and truthful wife.--Lord L. B. Lytton, _Lady of Lyons_ (1838). =Melo= (_Juan de_), born at Castile in the fifteenth century. A dispute having arisen at Esalo´na upon the question whether Achillês or Hector were the braver warrior, the Marquis de Ville´na called out, “Let us see if the advocates of Achillês can fight as well as prate.” At the word, there appeared in the assembly a gigantic fire-breathing monster, which repeated the same challenge. Every one shrank back except Juan de Melo, who drew his sword and placed himself before King Juan II. to protect him, “tide life, tide death.” The king appointed him alcaydê of Alcala la Real, in Grana´da, for his loyalty.--_Chronica de Don Alvaro de Luna._ =Melrose= (_Violet_), an heiress, who marries Charles Middlewick. This was against the consent of his father, because Violet had the bad taste to snub the retired tradesman, and considered vulgarity as the “unpardonable sin.” _Mary Melrose_, Violet’s cousin, but without a penny. She marries Talbot Champneys; but his father, Sir Geoffrey, wanted him to marry Violet, the heiress.--H. J. Byron, _Our Boys_ (a comedy, 1875). =Melusi´na=, the most famous of the _fées_ of France. Having enclosed her father in a mountain for offending her mother, she was condemned to become a serpent every Saturday. When she married the count of Lusignan, she made her husband vow never to visit her on that day, but the jealousy of the count made him break his vow. Melusina was, in consequence, obliged to leave her mortal husband, and roam about the world as a ghost till the day of doom. Some say the count immured her in the dungeon wall of his castle.--_Jean d’Arras_ (fourteenth century). ⁂ The cry of despair given by the _fée_ when she discovered the indiscreet visit of her husband, is the origin of the phrase, _Un cri de Mélusine_ (“A shriek of despair”). =Melvil= (_Sir John_), a young baronet, engaged to be married to Miss Sterling, the elder daughter of a City merchant, who promises to settle on her £800,000. A little before the marriage, Sir John finds that he has no regard for Miss Sterling, but a great love for her younger sister, Fanny, to whom he makes a proposal of marriage. His proposal is rejected; and it is soon brought to light that Miss Fanny had been clandestinely married to Lovewell for four months.--Colman and Garrick, _The Clandestine Marriage_ (1766). =Melville= (_Major_), a magistrate at Cairnvreckan village.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.). _Melville_ (_Sir Robert_), one of the embassy from the privy council to Mary queen of Scots.--Sir W. Scott, _The Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth). _Melville_, the father of Constantia.--C. Macklin, _The Man of the World_ (1764). _Melville_ (_Julia_), a truly noble girl, in love with Faulkland, who is always jealous of her without a shadow of cause. She receives his innuendos without resentment, and treats him with sincerity and forbearance (see act i. 2).--Sheridan, _The Rivals_ (1775). =Melyhalt= (_The Lady_), a powerful subject of King Arthur, whose domains Sir Galiot invaded; notwithstanding which the lady chose Sir Galiot as her fancy knight and chevalier. =Memnon=, king of the Ethiopians. He went to the assistance of his uncle, Priam, and was slain by Achillês. His mother, Eos, inconsolable at his death, weeps for him every morning, and her tears constitute what we call dew. _Memnon_, the black statue of King Amen´ophis III., at Thebes, in Egypt, which, being struck with the rays of the morning sun, gives out musical sounds. Kircher says these sounds are due to a sort of clavecin or Æolian harp enclosed in the statue, the cords of which are acted upon by the warmth of the sun. Cambyses, resolved to learn the secret, cleft the statue from head to waist; but it continued to utter its morning melody notwithstanding. _Memnon_, “the mad lover,” general of As´torax, king of Paphos.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Mad Lover_ (1617). _Memnon_, the title of a novel by Voltaire, the object of which is to show the folly of aspiring to too much wisdom. =Memnon’s Sister.= He´mera, mentioned by Dictys Cretensis. Black, but such as in esteem Prince Memnon’s sister might beseem. Milton, _Il Penseroso_ (1638). =Memorable= (_The Ever-_), John Hales, of Eton (1584-1656). =Memory.= The persons most noted for their memory are: Magliabecchi, of Florence, called “The Universal Index and Living Cyclopædia” (1633-1714). P. J. Beronicius, the Greek and Latin improvisator, who knew by heart Horace, Virgil, Cicero, Juvenal, both the Plinys, Homer, and Aristophănês. He died at Middleburgh, in 1676. Andrew Fuller, after hearing 500 lines twice, could repeat them without a mistake. He could also repeat verbatim a sermon or speech; could tell either backwards or forwards every shop sign from the Temple to the extreme end of Cheapside, and the articles displayed in each of the shops. “Memory” Woodfall could carry in his head a debate, and repeat it a fortnight afterwards. “Memory” Thompson could repeat the names, trades, and particulars of every shop from Ludgate Hill to Piccadilly. William Ratcliff, the husband of the novelist, could repeat a debate the next morning. _Memory_ (_The Bard of_), Samuel Rogers, author of the _Pleasures of Memory_ (1762-1855). =Men of Prester John’s Country.= Prester John, in his letter to Manuel Comnēnus, says his land is the home of men with horns; of one-eyed men (the eye being in some cases before the head, and in some cases behind it); of giants, forty ells in height (_i.e._ 120 feet); of the phœnix, etc.; and of ghouls who feed on premature children. He gives the names of fifteen different tributary states, amongst which are those of Gog and Magog (now shut in behind lofty mountains); but at the end of the world these fifteen states will overrun the whole earth. =Menalcas=, any shepherd or rustic. The name occurs in the _Idylls_ of Theoc´ritos, the _Eclogues_ of Virgil, and the _Shepheardes Calendar_ of Spenser. =Men´cia of Mosquera= (_Donna_) married Don Alvaro de Mello. A few days after the marriage, Alvaro happened to quarrel with Don An´drea de Baesa and kill him. He was obliged to flee from Spain, leaving his bride behind, and his property was confiscated. For seven years she received no intelligence of his whereabouts (for he was a slave most of the time), but when seven years had elapsed the report of his death in Fez reached her. The young widow now married the marquis of Guardia, who lived in a grand castle near Burgos, but walking in the grounds one morning she was struck with the earnestness with which one of the under-gardeners looked at her. This man proved to be her first husband, Don Alvaro, with whom she now fled from the castle; but on the road a gang of robbers fell upon them. Alvaro was killed, and the lady taken to the robbers’ cave, where Gil Blas saw her and heard her sad tale. The lady was soon released, and sent to the castle of the marquis of Guardia. She found the marquis dying from grief, and indeed he died the day following, and Mencia retired to a convent.--Lesage, _Gil Blas_, i. 11-14 (1715). =Mendo´za=, a Jew prize-fighter, who held the belt at the close of the last century, and in 1791 opened the Lyceum in the Strand, to teach “the noble art of self-defence.” I would have dealt the fellow that abused you such a recompense in the fifth button, that my friend Mendoza could not have placed it better.--R. Cumberland, _Shiva, the Jew_, iv. 2 (1776). There is a print often seen in old picture shops, of Humphreys and Mendoza sparring, and a queer angular exhibition it is. What that is to the modern art of boxing, Quick’s style of acting was to Dowton’s.--_Records of a Stage Veteran._ _Mendoza_ (_Isaac_), a rich Jew, who thinks himself monstrously wise, but is duped by every one. (See under ISAAC.)--Sheridan, _The Duenna_ (1775). =Menech´mians=, persons exactly like each other, as the brothers Dromio. So called from the Mencœchmi of Plautus. =Menec´rates= (4 _syl._), a physician of Syracuse, of unbounded vanity and arrogance. He assumed to himself the title of Jupiter, and in a letter to Philip, king of Macedon, began thus: “Menecratês Jupiter to King Philip, greeting.” Being asked by Philip to a banquet, the physician was served only with frankincense, like the gods; but Menecratês was greatly offended, and hurried home. =Mengs= (_John_), the surly innkeeper at Kirchhoff village.--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.). =Menippee= (_Satyre_), a famous political satire, written during the time of what is called in French History the Holy League, the objects of which were to exterminate the Huguenots, to confine the king (Henri III.) in a monastery, and to crown the duc de Guise. The satire is partly in verse, and partly in prose, and its object is to expose the perfidious intentions of Philip of Spain and the culpable ambition of the Guises. It is divided into two parts, the first of which is entitled _Catholicon d’Espagne_, by Pierre Leroy (1593), exposing those who had been corrupted by the gold of Spain; the second part is entitled _Abrégé des Etats de la Ligue_, by Gillot, Pithou, Rapin and Passerat, published 1594. ⁂ Menippus was a cynic philosopher and poet of Gadara, in Phœnicia, who wrote twelve books of satires in prose and verse. Varro wrote in Latin a work called _The Satires of Menippus_ (_Satyræ Menippeæ_). =Mennibojou=, a North American Indian deity. =Mentz= (_Baron von_), a Heidelberg bully, whose humiliation at the hands of the fellow-student he has insulted is the theme of an exciting chapter in Theodore S. Fay’s novel, _Norman Leslie_ (1835). =Menteith= (_the earl of_), a kinsman of the earl of Montrose.--Sir W. Scott, _Legend of Montrose_ (time, Charles I.). =Mentor=, a wise and faithful adviser or guide. So called from Mentor, a friend of Ulyssês, whose form Minerva assumed when she accompanied Telemachus in his search for his father.--Fénelon, _Télémaque_ (1700). =Mephistoph´eles= (5 _syl._), the sneering, jeering, leering attendant demon of Faust in Goethe’s drama of _Faust_, and Gounod’s opera of the same name. Marlowe calls the name “Mephostophilis” in his drama entitled _Dr. Faustus_. Shakespeare, in his _Merry Wives of Windsor_ writes the name “Mephostophilus;” and in the opera he is called “Mefistofele” (5 _syl._). In the old demonology, Mephistophelês was one of the seven chief devils, and second of the fallen archangels. =Mephostophilis=, the attendant demon of Faustus, in Marlowe’s tragedy of _Dr. Faustus_ (1589). There is an awful melancholy about Marlowe’s “Mephostophilis,” perhaps more expressive than the malignant mirth of that fiend in the renowned work of Goethe.--Hallam. =Mephostophilus=, the spirit or familiar of Sir John Faustus or [Dr.] John Faust (Shakespeare, _Merry Wives of Windsor_, 1596). Subsequently it became a term of reproach, about equal to “imp of the devil.” =Mercedes=, Spanish woman, who, to disarm suspicion, drinks the wine poisoned for the French soldiery who have invaded the town. She is forced to let her baby drink it, also, and gives no sign of perturbation until the invaders, twenty in number, have partaken of the wine, and the baby grows livid and expires before their eyes.--Thomas Bailey Aldrich, _Mercedes_ (drama, 1883). =Mercer= (_Major_), at the presidency of Madras.--Sir W. Scott, _The Surgeon’s Daughter_ (time, George II.). =Merchant of Venice= (_The_), Antonio, who borrowed 3000 ducats for three months of Shylock, a Jew. The money was borrowed to lend to a friend named Bassanio, and the Jew, “in merry sport,” instead of interest, agreed to lend the money on these conditions: If Antonio paid it within three months, he should pay only the principal; if he did not pay it back within that time, the merchant should forfeit a pound of his own flesh, from any part of his body the Jew might choose to cut it off. As Antonio’s ships were delayed by contrary winds, he could not pay the money, and the Jew demanded the forfeiture. On the trial which ensued, Portia, in the dress of a law doctor, conducted the case, and, when the Jew was going to take the forfeiture, stopped him by saying that the bond stated “a pound of flesh,” and that, therefore, he was to shed no drop of blood, and he must cut neither more nor less than an exact pound, on forfeit of his life. As these conditions were practically impossible, the Jew was nonsuited and fined for seeking the life of a citizen.--Shakespeare, _Merchant of Venice_ (1598). The story is in the _Gesta Romanorum_, the tale of the bond being ch. xlviii., and that of the caskets ch. xcix.; but Shakespeare took his plot from a Florentine novelette called _Il Pecorone_, written in the fourteenth century, but not published till the sixteenth. There is a ballad on the subject, the date of which has not been determined. The bargain runs thus: “No penny for the loan of it, For one year shall you pay-- You may do me a good turn Before my dying day; But we will have a merry jest, For to be talkêd long; You shall make me a bond,” quoth he, “That shall be large or strong.” =Merchant’s Tale= (_The_), in Chaucer, is substantially the same as the first Latin metrical tale of Adolphus, and is not unlike a Latin prose tale given in the appendix of T. Wright’s edition of Æsop’s fables. The tale is this: A girl named May married January, an old Lombard baron, 60 years of age, but entertained the love of Damyan, a young squire. She was detected in familiar intercourse with Damyan, but persuaded her husband that his eyes had deceived him, and he believed her.--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (1388). =Mercian Laws.= (See MARTIAN.) =Mercilla=, a “maiden queen of great power and majesty, famous through all the world, and honored far and nigh.” Her kingdom was disturbed by a soldan, her powerful neighbor, stirred up by his wife Adicĭa. The “maiden queen” is Elizabeth; the “soldan,” Philip of Spain, and “Adicia” is injustice, presumption, or the bigotry of popery.--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, v. (1596). =Mercu´tio=, kinsman of Prince Escalus, and Romeo’s friend. An airy, sprightly, elegant young nobleman, so full of wit and fancy that Dryden says Shakespeare was obliged to kill him in the third act, lest the poet himself should have been killed by Mercutio.--Shakespeare, _Romeo and Juliet_ (1598). =Mercutio of Actors= (_The_), William Lewis (1748-1811). =Mercy=, a young pilgrim, who accompanied Christiana in her walk to Zion. When Mercy got to the Wicket Gate, she swooned from fear of being refused admittance. Mr. Brisk proposed to her, but being told that she was poor, left her, and she was afterwards married to Matthew, the eldest son of Christian.--Bunyan, _Pilgrim’s Progress_, ii. (1684). =Merdle= (_Mr._), banker, a skit on the directors of the Royal British bank, and on Mr. Hudson, “the railway king.” Mr. Merdle, of Harley Street, was called the “Master Mind of the Age.” He became insolvent, and committed suicide. Mr. Merdle was a heavily made man, with an obtuse head, and coarse, mean, common features. His chief butler said of him, “Mr. Merdle never was a gentleman, and no ungentlemanly act on Mr. Merdle’s part would surprise me.” The great banker was “the greatest forger and greatest thief that ever cheated the gallows.” Lord Decimus [_Barnacle_] began waving Mr. Merdle about ... as Gigantic Enterprise. The wealth of England, Credit, Capital, Prosperity, and all manner of blessings.--Bk. ii. 24. _Mrs. Merdle_, wife of the bank swindler. After the death of her husband, society decreed that Mrs. Merdle should still be admitted among the sacred few; so Mrs. Merdle was still received and patted on the back by the upper ten.--C. Dickens, _Little Dorrit_ (1857). =Meredith= (_Mr._), one of the conspirators with Redgauntlet.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.). _Meredith_ (_Mr. Michael_), “the man of mirth,” in the managing committee of the Spa hotel.--Sir. W. Scott, _St. Ronan’s Well_. (time, George III.). _Meredith_ (_Sir_), a Welsh knight.--Sir W. Scott, _Castle Dangerous_ (time, Henry I.). _Meredith_ (_Owen_), pseudonym of the Hon. Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton (Lord Lytton), author of _The Wanderer_ (1859), etc. This son of Lord Bulwer Lytton, poet and novelist, succeeded to the peerage in 1873. =Me´rida= (_Marchioness_), betrothed to Count Valantia.--Mrs. Inchbald, _Child of Nature_. =Meridarpax=, the pride of mice. Now nobly towering o’er the rest, appears A gallant prince that far transcends his years; Pride of his sire, and glory of his house, And more a Mars in combat than a mouse; His action bold, robust his ample frame, And Meridarpax his resounding name. Parnell, _The Battle of the Frogs and Mice_, iii. (about 1712). =Merid´ies= or “Noonday Sun,” one of the four brothers who kept the passages of Castle Perilous. So Tennyson has named him; but in the _History of Prince Arthur_, he is called “Sir Permōnês, the Red Knight.”--Tennyson, _Idylls_ (“Gareth and Lynette”); Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 129 (1470). =Merion= (_James_), New York lawyer, who plays the lover to three women, honestly believing himself enamoured of each.--Ellen Olney Kirke, _A Daughter of Eve_ (1889). =Merle= (_Madame_), a plausible woman with an ambition to be thought the incarnation of propriety, who carries with her the knowledge that she is the mistress of a man who has a wife, and that Madame Merle’s illegitimate daughter is brought up by the step-mother, who knows nothing of the shameful story.--Henry James, _The Portrait of a Lady_ (1881). =Merlin= (_Ambrose_), prince of enchanters. His mother was Matilda, a nun, who was seduced by a “guileful sprite,” or incubus, “half angel and half man, dwelling in mid-air betwixt the earth and moon.” Some say his mother was the daughter of Pubidius, lord of Math-traval, in Wales; and others make her a princess, daughter of Demetius, king of Demet´ia. Blaise baptized the infant, and thus rescued it from the powers of darkness. Merlin died spell-bound, but the author and manner of his death are given differently by different authorities. Thus, in the _History of Prince Arthur_ (Sir T. Malory, 1470), we are told that the enchantress Nimue or Ninive inveigled the old man, and “covered him with a stone under a rock.” In the _Morte d’Arthur_ it is said “he sleeps and sighs in an old tree, spell-bound by Vivien.” Tennyson, in his _Idylls_ (“Vivien”), says that Vivien induced Merlin to take shelter from a storm in a hollow oak tree, and left him spell-bound. Others say he was spell-bound in a hawthorn bush, but this is evidently a blunder. (See MERLIN THE WILD.) ⁂ Merlin made “the fountain of love,” mentioned by Bojardo in _Orlando Innamorato_, l. 3. Ariosto, in _Orlando Furioso_, says he made “one of the four fountains” (ch. xxvi). He also made the Round Table at Carduel for 150 knights, which came into the possession of King Arthur on his marriage with Queen Guinever; and brought from Ireland the stones of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. Allusion is made to him in the _Faëry Queen_; in Ellis’s _Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances_; in Drayton’s _Polyolbion_; in _Kenilworth_, by Sir W. Scott, etc. T. Heywood has attempted to show the fulfilment of Merlin’s prophecies. Of Merlin and his skill what region doth not hear?... Who of a British nymph was gotten, whilst she played With a seducing sprite ... But all Demetia thro’ there was not found her peer. Drayton, _Polyolbion_, v. (1612). _Merlin_ (_The English_), W. Lilly, the astrologer, who assumed the _nom de plume_ of “Mer´linus Anglĭcus” (1602-1681). =Merlin the Wild=, a native of Caledonia, who lived in the sixteenth century, about a century after the great Ambrose Merlin, the sorcerer. Fordun, in his _Scotichronicon_, gives particulars about him. It was predicted that he would die by earth, wood, and water, which prediction was fulfilled thus: A mob of rustics hounded him, and he jumped from a rock into the Tweed, and was impaled on a stake fixed in the river bed. His grave is still shown beneath an aged hawthorn bush at Drummelzier, a village on the Tweed. =Merlin’s Cave=, in Dynevor, near Carmarthen, noted for its ghastly noises of rattling iron chains, brazen caldrons, groans, strokes of hammers, and ringing of anvils. The cause is this: Merlin set his spirits to fabricate a brazen wall to encompass the city of Carmarthen, and as he had to call on the Lady of the Lake, bade them not to slacken their labor till he returned; but he never did return, for Vivien by craft got him under the enchanted stone, and kept him there. Tennyson says he was spell-bound by Vivien in a hollow oak tree, but the _History of Prince Arthur_ (Sir T. Malory) gives the other version.--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, iii. 3 (1590). =Merop’s Son=, a nobody, a _terræ filius_, who thinks himself somebody. Thus Phaëton (Merop’s son), forgetting that his mother was an earthborn woman, thought he could drive the horses of the sun, but not being able to guide them, nearly set the earth on fire. Many presume like him, and think themselves capable or worthy of great things, forgetting all the while that they are only “Merop’s son.” Why, Phaëton (for thou art Merop’s son), Wilt thou aspire to guide the heavenly car, And with thy daring folly burn the world? Shakespeare, _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, act iii. sc. 1 (1594). =Merrilees= (_Meg_), a half-crazy woman, part sibyl and part gypsy. She is the ruler and terror of the gypsy race. Meg Merrilees was the nurse of Harry Bertram.--Sir W. Scott, _Gay Mannering_ (time, George II.). In the dramatized version of Scott’s novel, Miss Cushman [1845-9] made “Meg Merrilees” her own. She showed therein indisputably the attributes of genius. Such was her power over the intention and feeling of the part, that the mere words were quite a secondary matter. It was the figure, the gait, the look, the gesture, the tone, by which she put beauty and passion into language the most indifferent.--Henry Morley. =Merry Andrew=, Andrew Borde, physician to Henry VIII. (1500-1549). ⁂ Prior has a poem on _Merry Andrew_. =Merry Monarch= (_The_), Charles II., of England (1630, 1660-1685). =Merry Mount.= Name of the home of a certain Englishman, called in the chronicle “the pestilent Morton,” who set up a May-pole in colonial Massachusetts. “That worthy gentleman, Mr. John Endicott, ... visiting those parts, caused that May-pole to be cut down, and rebuked them for their profaneness ... so they now (or others) changed the name of their place, ‘Merry Mount,’ again, and called it ‘Mount Dagon.’”--William Bradford, _History of the Plymouth Plantation_ (1630-50). =Mer´rylegs=, a highly trained, performing dog, belonging to Signor Jupe, clown in Sleary’s circus. This dog leaves the circus when his master disappears, but several years afterwards finds its way back and dies.--C. Dickens, _Hard Times_ (1854). =Merthyr Tydvil=, a corruption of _Martyr St. Tidfil_, a Welsh princess who suffered martyrdom. =Merton= (_Tommy_), one of the chief characters in _Sanford and Merton_, a tale for boys, by Thomas Day (1783-9). _Merton_ (_Tristram_). Thomas Babington Macaulay (Lord Macaulay), so signs the ballads and sketches which he inserted in _Knight’s Quarterly Magazine_. =Mertoun= (_Basil_), _alias_ VAUGHAN, formerly a pirate. _Mordaunt Mertoun_, son of Basil Mertoun. He marries Brenda Troil.--Sir W. Scott, _The Pirate_ (time, William III.). =Merveilleuse= [_Mair.vay.´uze_], the sword of Doolin of Mayence. It was so sharp that, if placed edge downwards on a block of wood, it would cut through it of itself. =Mervett= (_Gustavus de_), in _Charles XII._, an historical drama by J. R. Planché (1826). =Mervyn= (_Mr. Arthur_), guardian of Julia Mannering.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.). =Messali´na=, wife of the Emperor Claudius of Rome. Her name is a by-word for incontinency (A.D. *-48). _Messalina_ (_The Modern_), Catherine II. of Russia (1729-1796). =Messalina of Germany=, Barbary of Cilley, second wife of Kaiser Sigismund of Germany (fifteenth century). =Messala.= Haughty young Roman who feigns friendship for Ben-Hur, and betrays his confidence. In after years the scheme of revenge nursed by the ruined youth is fulfilled in the famous chariot-race.--Lew Wallace, _Ben Hur_, _A Tale of the Christ_ (1880). =Messiah= (_The_), an epic poem in fifteen books, by F. G. Klopstock. The first three were published in 1748, and the last in 1773. The subject is the last days of Jesus, His crucifixion and resurrection. Bk. i. Jesus ascends the Mount of Olives, to spend the night in prayer. Bk. ii. John the Beloved, failing to exorcise a demoniac, Jesus goes to his assistance; and Satan, rebuked, returns to hell, where he tells the fallen angels his version of the birth and ministry of Christ, whose death he resolves on. Bk. iii. Messiah sleeps for the last time on the Mount of Olives; the tutelar angels of the twelve apostles, and a description of the apostles are given. Satan gives Judas a dream, and then enters the heart of Caiaphas. Bk. iv. The council in the palace of Caiaphas decree that Jesus must die; Jesus sends Peter and John to prepare the Passover, and eats His Last Supper with His apostles. Bk. v. The three hours of agony in the garden. Bk. vi. Jesus, bound, is taken before Annas, and then before Caiaphas. Peter denies his Master. Bk. vii. Christ is brought before Pilate; Judas hangs himself; Pilate sends Jesus to Herod, but Herod sends Him again to Pilate, who delivers Him to the Jews. Bk. viii. Christ nailed to the cross. Bk. ix. Christ on the cross. Bk. x. The Death of Christ. Bk. xi. The vail[TN-10] of the Temple rent, and the resurrection of many from their graves. Bk. xii. The burial of the body, and death of Mary, the sister of Lazarus. Bk. xiii. The resurrection and suicide of Philo. Bk. xiv. Jesus shows Himself to His disciples. Bk. xv. Many of those who had risen from their graves show themselves to others. Conclusion. _Messiah_, an oratorio by Handel (1749). The liberetto was by Charles Jennens, nicknamed “Soliman the Magnificent.” =Metanoi´a=, Repentance personified, by William Browne, in _Britannia’s Pastorals_, v. (Greek, _mĕtanoia_, “repentance”.) Faire Metanoia is attending To croune thee with those joys that know no ending. _Pastorals_, v. 1 (1613). =Metasta´sio.= The real name of this Italian poet was Trapassi (_death_). He was brought up by Gravina, who Grecized the name (1698-1782). ⁂ So “Melancthon” is the Greek form of _Schwarzerdê_ (“black earth”); “Œcolampadius” is the Greek form of the German name _Hausschein_; “Desiderius Erasmus” is _Gheraerd Gheraerd_ (the first “Gheraerd” is Latinized into _Desiderius_, and the latter is Grecized into _Erasmus_). =Meth´os=, drunkenness personified. He is twin-brother of Gluttony, their mother being Caro (_fleshly lust_). In the battle of Mansoul, Methos is slain by Agnei´a (_wifely chastity_) spouse of Eucra´tês (_temperance_), and sister of Parthen´ia (_maiden chastity_). (Greek, _methê_ or _methŭs_ is “drunkenness.”)--Phineas Fletcher, _The Purple Island_, vii., xi. (1633). =Met´ophis=, the corrupt chief minister of Sesostris. Il avait l’ame aussi corrumpue et aussi artificieuse que Sesostris était sincère et généreux.--Fénelon, _Télémaque_ (1700). =Mexit´li=, chief god and idol of the Az´tecas. He leaped full-grown into life, and with a spear slew those who mocked his mother, Coatlan´tona (4 _syl._). Already at [_his mother’s breast_] the blow was aimed, When forth Mexitli leapt, and in his hand The angry spear. Southey, _Madoc_, ii. 21 (1805). ⁂ Of course, it will be remembered that Minerva, like Mexitli, was born full-grown and fully armed. =Mezen´tius=, king of the Tyrrhenians, who put criminals to death by tying them face to face with dead bodies.--Virgil, _Æneid_, viii. 485. =Mezzora´mia=, an earthly paradise in Africa, accessible by only one road. Gaudentio di Lucca discovered the road, and lived at Mezzoramia for twenty-five years.--Simon Berington, _Gaudentio di Lucca_. =M. F. H.=, Master [_of the_] Fox-hounds. =Micaw´ber= (_Mr. Wilkins_), a most unpractical, half-clever man, a great speechifier, letter writer, projector of bubble schemes, and, though confident of success, never succeeding. Having failed in everything in the old country, he migrated to Australia, and became a magistrate at Middlebay.--C. Dickens, _David Copperfield_ (1849). ⁂ This truly amiable, erratic genius is a portrait of Dickens’s own father, “David Copperfield” being Dickens, and “Mrs. Nickleby” (one can hardly believe it) is said to be Dickens’s mother. =Mi´chael= (2 _syl._), the special protector and guardian of the Jews. This archangel is messenger of peace and plenty.--Sale’s _Korân_, ii. notes. ⁂ That Michael was really the protector and guardian angel of the Jews we know from _Dan._ x. 13, 21; xii. 1. Milton makes Michael the leader of the heavenly host in the war in heaven. The word means “God’s power.” Gabriel was next in command to the archangel Michael. Go, Michael, of celestial armies prince _Paradise Lost_, vi. 44 (1665). ⁂ Longfellow, in his _Golden Legend_, says that Michael is the presiding spirit of the planet Mercury, and brings to man the gift of prudence (“The Miracle-Play,” iii., 1851). _Michael_, the “trencher favorite” of Arden of Feversham, in love with Maria, sister of Mosby. A weak man, who both loves and honors Arden, but is inveigled by Mosby to admit ruffians into Arden’s house to murder him.--Geo. Lillo, _Arden of Feversham_ (1592). =Michael, God of Wind= (_St._). At the promontory of Malea is a chapel built to St. Michael, and the sailors say when the wind blows from that quarter it is occasioned by the violent motion of St. Michael’s wings. Whenever they sail by that promontory, they pray St. Michael to keep his wings still. _St. Michael’s Chair._ It is said that any woman who has sat on Michael’s chair (on St. Michael’s Mount, in Cornwall), will rule her husband ever after. =Michael Angelo of Battle-Scenes= (_The_), Michael Angelo Cerquozzi, of Rome (1600-1660). =Michael Angelo of France= (_The_), Jean Cousin (1500-1590). =Michael Angelo des Kermesses=, Peter van Laar, called _Le Bamboche_, born at Laaren (1613-1673). Or _Michel-Ange des Bamboches_. =Michael Angelo of Music= (_The_), Johann Christoph von Glück (1714-1787). =Michael Angelo of Sculptors= (_The_), Pierre Puget (1623-1694). Réné Michael Slodtz is also called the same (1705-1764). =Michael Angelo Titmarsh=, one of the pseudonyms under which Thackeray contributed to _Frazer’s Magazine_ (1811-1863). =Michael Armstrong=, “the factory boy.” The hero and title of a novel by Mrs. Trollope (1839). The object of this novel is to expose what the authoress considered to be the evils of the factory system. =Michael Perez=, the copper captain. (See PEREZ.) =Michael, the Stammerer=, born at Armorium, in Phrygia, mounted the throne as emperor of Greece in A.D. 820. He used all his efforts to introduce the Jewish Sabbath and sacrifice. I think I have proved ... The error of all those doctrines so vicious ... That are making such terrible work in the Churches By Michael the Stammerer. Longfellow, _The Golden Legend_ (1851). =Michal=, in the satire of _Absalom and Achitophel_, by Dryden and Tate, is meant for Catharine, the wife of Charles II.--Pt. ii. (1682). =Michelot=, an unprincipled, cowardly, greedy man, who tries to discover the secret of “the gold-mine.” Being procurator of the president of Lyons, his office was “to capture and arrest” those charged with civil or criminal offences.--E. Stirling, _The Gold-Mine, or Miller of Grenoble_ (1854). =Micomico´na=, the pretended queen of Micomicon. Don Quixote’s adventure to Micomiconnia came to nothing, for he was taken home in a cage, almost as soon as he was told of the wonderful enchantments.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. iv. 2 (1605.) =Mi´das= (_Justice_), appointed to adjudge a musical contest between Pol and Pan. He decides in favor of Pan, whereupon Pol throws off his disguise, appears as the god Apollo, and, being indignant at the decision, gives Midas “the ears of an ass.”--Kane O’Hara, _Midas_ (1764). Edward Shuter (1728-1776) was pronounced by Garrick “the greatest comic actor;” and C. Dibdin says: “Nothing on earth could have been superior to his ‘Midas.’” _Midas’s Ears._ The servant who used to cut the king’s hair, discovering the deformity, was afraid to whisper the secret to any one, but, being unable to contain himself, he dug a hole in the earth, and, putting his mouth into it, cried out, “King Midas has ass’s ears!” He then filled up the hole and felt relieved. Tennyson makes the barber a woman: No livelier than the dame That whispered “Asses’ ears” among the sedge. Tennyson, _The Princess_. =Middleburgh= (_Mr. James_), an Edinburgh magistrate.--Sir W. Scott, _Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.). =Middlemas= (_Mr. Matthew_), a name assumed by General Witherington. _Mrs. Middlemas_, wife of the general (born Zelia de Monçada). _Richard Middlemas_, alias _Richard Tresham_, a foundling, apprenticed to Dr Gray. He discovers that he is the son of General Witherington, and goes to India, where he assumes the character of Sadoc, a black slave in the service of Mde. Montreville. He delivers Menie Gray by treachery to Tippoo Saib, and Hyder Ali gives him up to be crushed to death by an elephant.--Sir W. Scott, _The Surgeon’s Daughter_ (time, George II.). =Middlewick= (_Mr. Perkyn_), a retired butterman, the neighbor of Sir Geoffrey Champneys, and the father of Charles. The butterman is innately vulgar, drops his _h’s_ and inserts them out of place, makes the greatest geographical and historical blunders, has a tyrannical temper, but a tender heart. He turns his son adrift for marrying Violet Melrose, an heiress, who snubbed the plebeian father. When reduced to great distress, the old butterman goes to his son’s squalid lodgings and relents. So all ends happily. _Charles Middlewick_, son of the retired butterman, well educated, and a gentleman. His father wanted him to marry Mary Melrose, a girl without a penny, but he preferred Violet, an heiress.--H. J. Byron, _Our Boys_ (1875). =Midge=, the miller’s son, one of the companions of Robin Hood. (See MUCH.) _Midge_ (_The_), a well-born but friendless waif, thrown at the age of thirteen upon the charity of Dr. Peters, an eccentric bachelor. She cares for his house and for him in quaint, womanly fashion, very bewitching, until she is grown. The suit of another and a younger man, makes the doctor know, to his cost, how well he loves her. He holds his peace, and marries Midge to her lover. “Then he went into the big pantry. In the corner on the shelf, still lay the crock in which the Midge had hidden her head, heavy with childish grief, years before. The old stool stood before it. He sat down on it and rested his hot forehead on the cool rim of the jar. “And that’s the end of the story.”--H. C. Bunner, _The Midge_ (1886). =Midian Mara=, the Celtic mermaid. =Midlo´thian= (_The Heart of_), a tale of the Porteous riot, in which the incidents of Effie and Jeanie Deans are of absorbing interest. Effie was seduced by Geordie Robertson (_alias_ George Staunton), while in the service of Mrs. Saddletree. She murdered her infant, and was condemned to death; but her half-sister, Jeanie, went to London, pleaded her cause before the queen, and obtained her pardon. Jeanie, on her return to Scotland, married Reuben Butler; and Geordie Robertson (then Sir George Staunton) married Effie. Sir George being shot by a gypsy boy, Effie (_i.e._ Lady Staunton), retired to a convent on the Continent.--Sir W. Scott, _Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.). =Midshipman Easy.= (See EASY.) =Midsummer Night’s Dream.= Shakespeare says there was a law in Athens, that if a daughter refused to marry the husband selected for her by her father, she might be put to death. Egēus (3 _syl._), an Athenian, promised to give his daughter, Hermia, in marriage to Demētrius; but, as the lady loved Lysander, she refused to marry the man selected by her father, and fled from Athens with her lover. Demetrius went in pursuit of her, followed by Helĕna, who doted on him. All four came to a forest, and fell asleep. In their dreams a vision of fairies passed before them, and on awaking, Demetrius resolved to forego Hermia, who disliked him, and to take to wife Helena, who sincerely loved him. When Egeus was informed thereof, he readily agreed to give his daughter to Lysander, and the force of the law was not called into action (1592). ⁂ Several of the incidents of this comedy are borrowed from the _Diana_ of Montemayor, a Spaniard (sixteenth century). =Midwinter= (_Ozias_), the _alias_ of another Allan Armadale. His father has murdered the father of the real Allan, and the son of the homicide resolves to keep his own identity a secret, while trying to atone to Allan for the wrong done him. He loves and marries the perfidious governess of Allan’s betrothed.--Wilkie Collins, _Armadale_. =Miggs= (_Miss_), the handmaiden and “comforter” of Mrs. Varden. A tall, gaunt young woman, addicted to pattens; slender and shrewish, of a sharp and acid visage. She held the male sex in utter contempt, but had a secret exception in favor of Sim Tappertit, who irreverently called her “scraggy.” Miss Miggs always sided with madam against master, and made out that she was a suffering martyr, and he an inhuman Nero. She called ma’am “mim;” said her sister lived at “twenty-sivin;” Simon she called “Simmun.” She said Mrs. Varden was “the mildest, amiablest, forgivingest-sperited, longest-sufferingest female in existence.” Baffled in all her matrimonial hopes, she was at last appointed female turnkey to a county Bridewell, which office she held for thirty years, when she died. Miss Miggs, baffled in all her schemes ... and cast upon a thankless, undeserving world, turned very sharp and sour ... but the justices of the peace for Middlesex ... selected her from 124 competitors to the office of turnkey for a county Bridewell, which she held till her decease, more than thirty years afterwards, remaining single all that time.--C. Dickens, _Barnaby Rudge_ (1841). =Mign´on=, a beautiful, dwarfish, fairy-like Italian girl, in love with Wilhelm, her protector. She glides before us in the mazy dance, or whirls her tambourine like an Ariel. Full of fervor, full of love, full of rapture, she is overwhelmed with the torrent of despair at finding her love is not returned, becomes insane, and dies.--Goethe, _Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship_ (1794-6). Sir W. Scott drew his “Fenella,” in _Peveril of the Peak_, from this character; and Victor Hugo has reproduced her in his _Notre Dame_, under the name of “Esmeralda.” =Mignonette:= “A pitcher of mignonette In a tenement’s highest casement Queer sort of flower-pot--yet That pitcher of mignonette Is a garden in heaven set To the little sick child in the basement, The pitcher of mignonette. In the tenement’s highest casement.” Henry Cuyler Bunner, _Airs from Arcady and Elsewhere_ (1884). =Migonnet=, a fairy king, who wished to marry the princess brought up by Violenta, the fairy mother. Of all dwarfs he was the smallest. His feet were like an eagle’s, and close to the knees, for legs he had none. His royal robes were not above half a yard long, and trailed one-third part upon the ground. His head was as big as a peck, and his nose long enough for twelve birds to perch on. His beard was bushy enough for a canary’s nest, and his ears reached a foot above his head.--Comtesse D’Aulnoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“The White Cat,” 1682). =Mikado= (_of Japan_), the hero of Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera “The Mikado.” The plot turns upon the complications brought about [TN-11] the Mikado’s severe laws against flirting: “So he decreed in words succint, That all who flirted, leered or winked, Unless connubially linked, Should forthwith be beheaded.” =Mi´lan= (_The duke of_), an Italian prince, an ally of the Lancastrians.--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.). =Milan Decree=, a decree of Napoleon Bonaparte, dated Milan, December 27, 1807, declaring “the whole British empire to be in a state of blockade, and prohibiting all countries from trading with Great Britain, or using any article made therein.” ⁂ As Britain was the best customer of the very nations forbidd