Opening…

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 forbidden to deal with her, this very absurd decree was a two-edged sword, cutting both ways.

=Mildred=, the bride, “fresh and fair as May,” whom Philip, the pastor, installs as Mistress of the Manse, in Josiah Gilbert Holland’s poem of that name (1874).

=Mildmay= (Frank), hero of sea-story bearing his name.--Frederick Marryatt.

=Mile´sian Fables= (Milesiæ Fabulæ), very wanton and ludicrous tales. Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton (Lord Lytton) published six of the Lost Tales of Milētus in rhymeless verse. He pretends he borrowed them from the scattered remnants preserved by Apollodo´rus and Conon, contained in the pages of Pausa´nias and Athenæus, or dispersed throughout the Scholiasts. The Milesian tales were, for the most part, in prose; but Ovid tells us that Aristi´dês rendered some of them into verse, and Sisenna into Latin.

Junxit Aristides Milesia carmina secum Pulsus Aristides nec tamen urba sua est.

The original tales by Antonius Diog´enês are described by Photius. It appears that they were great favorites with the luxurious Sybarites. A compilation was made by Aristīdês, by whom (according to Ovid) some were versified also. The Latin translation by Sisenna was made about the time of the civil wars of Ma´rius and Sylla. Parthen´ius Nice´nus, who taught Virgil Greek, borrowed thirty-six of the tales, which he dedicated to Cornelius Gallus, and entitled Erôtikôn Pathêmatôn (“love stories”).

Milesia Crimina, amatory offences. Venus was worshipped at Milētus, and hence the loose amatory tales of Antonius Diogenês were entitled Milesiæ Fabulæ.

=Mile´sians=, the “ancient” Irish. The legend is that Ireland was once peopled by the Fir-bolg or Belgæ from Britain, who were subdued by Milesians from Asia Minor, called the Gaels of Ireland.

=Miles= (Throckmorton), harum-scarum, brave, indiscreet, over-generous hero of Constance Cary Harrison’s story, Flower de Hundred (1890).

=Milford= (Colonel), a friend of Sir Geoffrey Peveril.--Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Milford (Jack), a natural son of Widow Warren’s late husband. He was the crony of Harry Dornton, with whom he ran “the road to ruin.” Jack had a fortune left him, but he soon scattered it by his extravagant living, and was imprisoned for debt. Harry then promised to marry Widow Warren if she would advance him £6,000 to pay off his friend’s debts with. When Harry’s father heard of this bargain, he was so moved that he advanced the money himself; and Harry, being set free from his bargain, married the widow’s daughter instead of the widow. Thus all were rescued from “the road to ruin.”--Holcroft, The Road to Ruin (1792).

=Milinowski=, a portly, imposing American widow, who, after twenty years spent under the marital rule of a Prussian army officer, “takes kindly to the prose of life.” She is the exemplary and not unkindly chaperone of Miss Caroline Lester, heroine of Charlotte Dunning’s book Upon a Cast (1885).

=Milk-Pail= (The), which was to gain a fortune, (See PERRETTE.)

=Millamant=, the prétendue of Edward Mirabell. She is a most brilliant girl, who says she “loves to give pain, because cruelty is a proof of power; and when one parts with one’s cruelty, one parts with one’s power.” Millamant is far gone in poetry, and her heart is not in her own keeping. Sir Wilful Witwould makes love to her, but she detests “the superannuated lubber.”--W. Congreve, The Way of the World (1700).

=Miller= (James), the “tiger” of the Hon. Mr. Flammer. James was brought up in the stable, educated on the turf and pavé, polished and completed in the fives-court. He was engaged to Mary Chintz, the maid of Miss Bloomfield.--C. Selby, The Unfinished Gentleman.

Miller, (Joe), James Ballantyne, author of Old Joe Miller, by the Editor of New J. M., three vols. (1801).

⁂ Mottley compiled a jest-book in the reign of James II., entitled Joe Miller’s Jests. The phrase, “That’s a Joe Miller,” means “that’s a jest from Mottley’s book.”

Miller (Maximilian Christopher), the Saxon giant; height eight feet. His hand measured a foot; his second finger was nine inches long; his head unusually large. He wore a rich Hungarian jacket and a huge plumed cap. This giant was exhibited in London in the year 1733. He died aged 60; was born at Leipsic (1674-1734).

=Miller= (Draxy), bonny daughter of a thriftless, honest man, whose energy in the effort to recover some hundreds of acres of woodland deeded to her in jest, and supposed to be unprofitable, leads to comfort for her father, and a happy marriage for herself.--Saxe Holm Stories (1886).

=Miller of Mansfield= (The), John Cockle, a miller and keeper of Sherwood Forest. Hearing the report of a gun, John Cockle went into the forest at night to find poachers, and came upon the king (Henry VIII.), who had been hunting, and had got separated from his courtiers. The miller collared him; but, being told he was a wayfarer, who had lost himself in the forest, he took him home with him for the night. Next day, the courtiers were brought to the same house, having been seized as poachers by the under-keepers. It was then discovered that the miller’s guest was the king, who knighted the miller, and settled on him 1000 marks a year.--R. Dodsley, The King and the Miller of Mansfield (1737).

=Miller of Trompington= (The), Simon Simkin, an arrant thief. Two scholars undertook to see that a sack of corn was ground for “Solar Hill College,” without being tampered with; so one stood at the hopper, and the other at the trough below. In the mean time, Simon Simkin let loose the scholars’ horse; and while they went to catch it, he purloined half a bushel of the flour, which was made into cakes, and substituted meal in its stead. But the young men had their revenge; they not only made off with the flour, meal, and cakes without payment, but left the miller well trounced also.--Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (“The Reeve’s Tale,” 1388).

A trick something like that played off on the Miller of Trompington.--Review of Kirkton, xix. 253.

=Miller on the Dee.= “There was a Jolly Miller once lived on the River Dee,” is a song by Isaac Bickerstaff, introduced in Love in a Village, i. 1 (1763).

=Mills= (Miss), the bosom friend of Dora. Supposed to have been blighted in early life in some love affair, and hence she looks on the happiness of others with a calm, supercilious benignity, and talks of herself as being “in the desert of Sahara.”--C. Dickens, David Copperfield (1849).

=Millwood= (Sarah), the courtezan who enticed George Barnwell to rob his master and murder his uncle. Sarah Millwood spent all the money that George Barnwell obtained by these crimes, then turned him out of doors, and informed against him. Both were hanged.--George Lillo, George Barnwell (1732).

=Milly=, the wife of William Swidger. She is the good angel of the tale.--C. Dickens, The Haunted Man (1848).

=Milo=, an athlete of Croto´na, noted for his amazing strength. He could carry on his shoulders a four-year-old heifer. When old, Milo attempted to tear in twain an oak tree, but the parts, closing on his hands, held him fast, till he was devoured by wolves.

Milo (The English), Thomas Topham, of London (1710-1752).

=Milton=, introduced by Sir Walter Scott in Woodstock (time, Commonwealth).

=Milton of Germany=, Frederick Gottlieb Klopstock, author of The Messiah, an epic poem (1724-1803).

A very German Milton indeed.

Coleridge.

=Milton’s Monument=, in Westminster Abbey, was by Rysbrack.

=Milvey= (The Rev. Frank), a “young man expensively educated and wretchedly paid, with quite a young wife and half a dozen young children. He was under the necessity of teaching ... to eke out his scanty means, yet was generally expected to have more time to spare than the idlest person in the parish, and more money than the richest.”

Mrs. Milvey (Margaretta), a pretty, bright little woman, emphatic and impulsive, but “something worn by anxiety. She had repressed many pretty tastes and bright fancies, and substituted instead schools, soup, flannel, coals, and all the week-day cares and Sunday coughs of a large population, young and old.”--C. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (1864).

=Minagro´bis=, admiral of the cats in the great sea-fight of the cats and rats. Minagrobis won the victory by devouring the admiral of the rats, who had made three voyages round the world in very excellent ships, in which he was neither one of the officers nor one of the crew, but a kind of interloper.--Comtesse D’Aulnoy, Fairy Tales (“The White Cat,” 1682).

=Min´cing=, lady’s-maid to Millamant. She says mem for ma’am, fit for fought, la’ship for ladyship, etc.--W. Congreve, The Way of the World (1700).

=Minikin= (Lord), married to a cousin of Sir John Trotley, but, according to bon ton, he flirts with Miss Tittup; and Miss Tittup, who is engaged to Colonel Tivy, flirts with a married man.

Lady Minikin, wife of Lord Minikin. According to bon ton, she hates her husband, and flirts with Colonel Tivy; and Colonel Tivy, who is engaged to Miss Tittup, flirts with a married woman. It is bon ton to do so.--Garrick, Bon Ton (1760).

=Minjekah´wun=, Hiawatha’s mittens, made of deer-skin. When Hiawatha had his mittens on, he could smite the hardest rocks asunder.

He [Hiawatha] had mittens, Minjekahwun, Magic mittens made of deer-skin; When upon his hands he wore them, He could smite the rocks asunder.

Longfellow, Hiawatha, iv. (1855).

=Minna and Brenda=, two beautiful girls, the daughters of Magnus Troil, the old udaller of Zetland. Minna was stately in form, with dark eyes and raven locks; credulous and vain, but not giddy; enthusiastic, talented and warm-hearted. She loved Captain Clement Cleveland; but Cleveland was killed in an encounter on the Spanish main. Brenda had golden hair, a bloom on her cheeks, a fairy form, and a serene, cheerful disposition. She was less the heroine than her sister, but more the loving and confiding woman. She married Mordaunt Mertoun (ch. iii).--Sir W. Scott, The Pirate (time, William III.).

=Minna von Barnhelm.= A wealthy girl who is engaged to Major von Tellheim, a Prussian soldier. He loses his fortune, is wounded and suspected of dishonor, and from regard for Minna strives to break the engagement. Everything is righted, and they marry.--G. E. Lessing.

=Minneha´ha= (“the laughing water”), daughter of the arrow-maker of Daco´tah, and wife of Hiawatha. She was called Minnehaha from the waterfall of that name between St. Anthony and Fort Snelling.

From the waterfall, he named her Minnehaha, Laughing Water.

Longfellow, Hiawatha, iv. (1855).

=Minnesingers=, the Troubadours of Germany during the Hohenstaufen period (1138-1294), minstrels who composed and sung short lyrical poems--usually in praise of women or in celebration of the beauties of nature--called Minne, or love songs. The names of nearly three hundred of these poets have come down to us, including all classes of society, the most famous being Dietmar von Aist, Ulrich von Lichenstein, Heinrich von Frauenlob, and above all Walther von der Vogelweid (1168-1230). Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gottfried von Strasburg, and Hartmann von der Aue are also classed among the Minnesingers, but their principal fame was won in the field of metrical romance.

⁂ The story runs that Vogelweid bequeathed his worldly all to a Wurtzburg monastery upon condition that they should feed the doves at noon every day upon his grave. The multiplying birds aroused the avaricious alarm of the abbot, who forbade the daily distribution.

“Time has long effaced the inscriptions On the cloister’s funeral stones, And tradition only tells us Where repose the poet’s bones. But around the vast cathedral By sweet echoes mutiplied[TN-12] Still the birds repeat the legend And the name of Vogelweid.”

H. W. Longfellow, Walter von der Vogelweid 186-.

=Mino´na=, “the soft blushing daughter of Torman,” a Gaelic bard in the Songs of Selma, one of the most famous portions of Macpherson’s Ossian.

=Minor= (The), a comedy by Samuel Foote (1760). Sir George Wealthy, “the minor,” was the son of Sir William Wealthy, a retired merchant. He was educated at a public school, sent to college, and finished his training in Paris. His father, hearing of his extravagant habits, pretended to be dead, and, assuming the guise of a German baron, employed several persons to dodge the lad, some to be winners in his gambling, some to lend money, some to cater to other follies, till he was apparently on the brink of ruin. His uncle, Mr. Richard Wealthy, a City merchant, wanted his daughter, Lucy, to marry a wealthy trader, and as she refused to do so, he turned her out of doors. This young lady was brought to Sir George as a fille de joie, but she touched his heart by her manifest innocence, and he not only relieved her present necessities, but removed her to an asylum where her “innocent beauty would be guarded from temptation, and her deluded innocence would be rescued from infamy.” The whole scheme now burst as a bubble. Sir George’s father, proud of his son, told him he was his father, and that his losses were only fictitious; and the uncle, melted into a better mood, gave his daughter to his nephew, and blessed the boy for rescuing his discarded child.

=Minotti=, governor of Corinth, then under the power of the doge. In 1715 the city was stormed by the Turks; and during the siege one of the magazines in the Turkish camp blew up, killing 600 men. Byron says it was Minotti himself who fired the train, and that he perished in the explosion.--Byron, Siege of Corinth (1816).

=Minstrel= (The), an unfinished poem, in Spenserian metre, by James Beattie. Its design was to trace the progress of a poetic genius, born in a rude age, from the first dawn of fancy to the fullness of poetic rapture. The first canto is descriptive of Edwin, the minstrel; canto ii. is dull philosophy, and there, happily, the poem ends. It is a pity it did not end with the first canto (1773-4).

And yet poor Edwin was no vulgar boy, Deep thought oft seemed to fix his infant eye. Dainties he heeded not, nor gaude, nor toy, Save one short pipe of rudest minstrelsy; Silent when sad, affectionate, tho’ shy; And now his look was most demurely sad; And now he laughed aloud, though none knew why. The neighbors stared and sighed, yet blessed the lad; Some deemed him wondrous wise, and some believed him mad.

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I. 16

Minstrel (Lay of the Last). Ladye Margaret, “the flower of Teviot,” was the daughter of Lord Walter Scott, of Branksome Hall. She loved Baron Henry, of Cranstown; but between the two families a deadly feud existed. One day the elfin page of Lord Cranstown inveigled the heir of Branksome Hall (then a lad) into the woods, where he fell into the hands of the English, who marched with 3000 men to Branksome Hall; but, being told that Douglas was coming to the rescue with 10,000 men, the two armies agreed to settle by single combat whether the lad should be given up to the mother or be made King Edward’s page. The two champions were Sir Richard Musgrave (English) and Sir William Deloraine (Scotch). The Scotch champion slew Sir Richard, and the boy was delivered to his mother. It now turned out that Sir William Deloraine was Lord Cranstown, who claimed and received the hand of Ladye Margaret as his reward.--Sir W. Scott (1805).

=Minstrel of the Border=, Sir W. Scott; also called “The Border Minstrel” (1771-1832).

My steps the Border Minstrel led.

Wordsworth, Yarrow Revisited.

Great Minstrel of the Border.

Wordsworth.

=Minstrel of the English Stage= (The Last), James Shirley, last of the Shakespeare school (1594-1666).

⁂ Then followed the licentious French school, headed by John Dryden.

=Minstrels= (Royal Domestic).

Of William I., Berdie, called Regis Jocula´tor.

Of Henry I., Galfrid and Royer, or Raher.

Of Richard I., Blondel.

=Mint Julep=, a Virginian beverage, celebrated in song by Charles Fenno Hoffman (185-). A favorite variety of this drink is compounded of brandy, water, sugar, mint-leaves and pounded ice, and is called a “hail-storm.”

“The draught was delicious, and loud the acclaim, ’Though something seemed wanting for all to bewail; But JULEPS the drink of immortals became When Jove himself added a handful of hail.”

Charles Fenno Hoffman, Poems (1846).

=Mintz=, alias Araminta Sophronia--the best cook and housemaid in town--rules the Stackpole family with a rod of red-hot steel until the son of the house defies her by marrying the head scholar in the Boston Cooking School.--Augusta Larned, Village Photographs (1887).

=Miol´ner= (3 syl.), Thor’s hammer.

This is my hammer, Miölner the mighty; Giants and sorcerers cannot withstand it.

Sæmund Sigfusson, Edda (1130).

=Miquelets= (Les), soldiers of the Pyrenees, sent to co-operate with the dragoons of the Grand Monarque against the Camisards of the Cevennes.

=Mir´abel=, the “wild goose,” a travelled Monsieur, who loves women in a loose way, but abhors matrimony, and especially dislikes Oria´na; but Oriana “chases” the “wild goose” with her woman’s wiles, and catches him.--Beaumont and Fletcher, The Wild-goose Chase (1652).

Mirabel (Old). He adores his son, and wishes him to marry Oria´na. As the young man shilly-shallies, the father enters into several schemes to entrap him into a declaration of love; but all his schemes are abortive.

Young Mirabel, the son, called “the inconstant.” A handsome, dashing young rake, who loves Oriana, but does not wish to marry. Whenever Oriana seems lost to him the ardor of his love revives; but immediately his path is made plain, he holds off. However, he ultimately marries her.--G. Farquhar, The Inconstant (1702).

=Mirabell= (Edward), in love with Millamant. He liked her, “with all her faults; nay, liked her for her faults, ... which were so natural that (in his opinion) they became her.”--W. Congreve, The Way of the World (1700).

Not all that Drury Lane affords Can paint the rakish “Charles” so well, Or give such life to “Mirabell” [As Montague Talbot, 1778-1831].

Crofton Croker.

=Mirabella=, “a maiden fair, clad in mourning weeds, upon a mangy jade unmeetly set, with a lewd fool called Disdain” (canto 6). Timias and Serena, after quitting the hermit’s cell, meet her. Though so sorely clad and mounted, the maiden was “a lady of great dignity and honor, but scornful and proud.” Many a wretch did languish for her through a long life. Being summoned to Cupid’s judgment hall, the sentence passed on her was that she should “ride on a mangy jade, accompanied by a fool, till she had saved as many lovers as she had slain” (canto 7). Mirabella was also doomed to carry a leaky bottle, which she was to fill with tears, and a torn wallet, which she was to fill with repentance: but her tears and her repentance dropped out as fast as they were put in, and were trampled under foot by Scorn (canto 8).--Spenser, Faëry Queen, vi. 6-8 (1596).

⁂ “Mirabella” is supposed to be meant for Rosalind, who jilted Spenser, and who is called by the poet “a widow’s daughter of the glen, and poor.”

=Mir´amont=, brother of Justice Brisac, and uncle of the two brothers, Charles (the scholar) and Eustace (the courtier). Miramont is an ignorant, testy old man, but a great admirer of learning and scholars.--Beaumont and Fletcher, The Elder Brother (1637).

=Miran´da=, daughter of Prospero, the exiled duke of Milan, and niece of Antonio, the usurping duke. She is brought up on a desert island, with Ariel, the fairy spirit, and Cal´iban, the monster, as her only companions. Ferdinand, son of the king of Naples, being shipwrecked on the island, falls in love with her, and marries her.--Shakespeare, The Tempest (1609).

Identifying herself with the simple yet noble-minded Miranda in the isle of wonder and enchantment.--Sir W. Scott.

Miranda, an heiress, the ward of Sir Francis Gripe. As she must obtain his consent to her marriage before she could obtain possession of her fortune, she pretended to love him, although he was 64 years old; and the old fool believed it. When, therefore, Miranda asked his consent to marry, he readily gave it, thinking himself to be the man of her choice; but the sly little hussy laughed at her old guardian, and plighted her troth to Sir George Airy, a man of 24.--Mrs. Centlivre, The Busy Body (1709).

=Mir´ja=, one of the six Wise Men of the East, led by the guiding star to Jesus. Mirja had five sons, who followed his holy life.--Klopstock, The Messiah, v. (1771).

=Mirror= (Alasnam’s), a mirror which showed Alasnam if “a beautiful girl was also chaste and virtuous.” The mirror was called “the touchstone of virtue.”--Arabian Nights (“Prince Zeyn Alasnam”).

Mirror (Cambuscan’s), a mirror sent to Cambuscan´, king of Tartary, by the king of Araby and Ind. It showed those who consulted it if any adversity were about to befall them; if any one they loved were friend or foe.--Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (“The Squire’s Tale,” unfinished.)

“Or call up him who left half-told, The story of Cambuscan bold.

* * * * *

That owned the virtuous ring and glass.”

Milton, Il Penseroso.

Mirror (Kelly’s), Dr. Dee’s speculum. Kelly was the doctor’s speculator or seer. The speculum resembled a “piece of polished cannel coal.”

Kelly did all his feats upon The devil’s looking-glass, a stone.

S. Butler, Hudibras (1663-78).

Mirror (Lao’s), a looking-glass which reflected the mind as well as the outward form.--Goldsmith, Citizen of the World, xlv. (1759).

Mirror (Merlin’s Magic) or Venus’s looking-glass, fabricated in South Wales, in the days of King Ryence. It would show to those that looked therein anything which pertained to them, anything that a friend or foe was doing. It was round like a sphere, and was given by Merlin to King Ryence.

That never foe his kingdom might invade But he it knew at home before he heard Tidings thereof.

Britomart, who was King Ryence’s daughter and heiress, saw in the mirror her future husband and also his name, which was Sir Artegal.--Spenser, Faëry Queen, iii. 2 (1590).

Mirror (Prester John’s), a mirror which possessed similar virtues to that made by Merlin. Prester John could see therein whatever was taking place in any part of his dominions.

⁂ Dr. Dee’s speculum was also spherical, and possessed a similar reputed virtue.

Mirror (Reynard’s Wonderful). This mirror existed only in the brain of Master Fox. He told the queen lion that whoever looked therein could see what was being done a mile off. The wood of the frame was part of the same block out of which Crampart’s magic horse was made.--Reynard the Fox, xii. (1498).

Mirror (Venus’s), generally called “Venus’s looking-glass,” the same as Merlin’s magic mirror (q.v.).[TN-13]

Mirror (Vulcan’s). Vulcan made a mirror which showed those who looked into it the past, present, and future. Sir John Davies says that Cupid handed this mirror to Antin´ous, when he was in the court of Ulysses, and Antinous gave it to Penel´opê, who beheld therein the court of Queen Elizabeth and all its grandeur.

Vulcan, the king of fire, that mirror wrought ... As there did represent in lively show Our glorious English court’s divine image As it should be in this our golden age.

Sir John Davies, Orchestra (1615).

=Mirror of King Ryence=, a mirror made by Merlin. It showed those who looked into it whatever they wished to see.--Spenser, Faëry Queen, iii. (1590).

=Mirror of Knighthood=, a romance of chivalry. It was one of the books in Don Quixote’s library, and the curé said to the barber:

“In this same Mirror of Knighthood we meet with Rinaldo de Montalban and his companions, with the twelve peers of France, and Turpin, the historian. These gentlemen we will condemn only to perpetual exile, as they contain something of the famous Bojardo’s invention, whence the Christian poet Ariosto borrowed the groundwork of his ingenious compositions; to whom I should pay little regard if he had not written in his own language [Italian].”--Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. i. 6 (1605).

=Mirror of all Martial Men=, Thomas, earl of Salisbury (died 1428).

=Mirrour for Magistraytes=, begun by Thomas Sackville, and intended to be a poetical biography of remarkable Englishmen. Sackville wrote the “Induction,” and furnished one of the sketches, that of Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham (the tool of Richard III.). Baldwynne, Ferrers, Churchyard, Phair, etc., added others. Subsequently, John Higgins, Richard Nichols, Thomas Blenerhasset, etc., supplied additional characters; but Sackville alone stands out pre-eminent in merit. In the “Induction,” Sackville tells us he was conducted by Sorrowe into the infernal regions. At the porch sat Remorse and Dread, and within the porch were Revenge, Miserie, Care, and Slepe. Passing on, he beheld Old Age, Maladie, Famine, and Warre. Sorrowe then took him to Achĕron, and ordered Charon to ferry them across. They passed the three-headed Cerbĕrus and came to Pluto, where the poet saw several ghosts, the last of all being the duke of Buckingham, whose “complaynt” finishes the part written by Thomas Sackville (1557). (See BUCKINGHAM.)

⁂ Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham, must not be mistaken for George Villiers, duke of Buckingham 150 years later.

=Mirza= (The Vision of). Mirza, being at Grand Cairo on the fifth day of the moon, which he always kept holy, ascended a high hill, and, falling into a trance, beheld a vision of human life. First he saw a prodigious tide of water rolling through a valley with a thick mist at each end--this was the river of time. Over the river was a bridge of a thousand arches, but only three score and ten were unbroken. By these, men were crossing, the arches representing the number of years the traveller lived before he tumbled into the river. Lastly, he saw the happy valley, but when he asked to see the secrets hidden under the dark clouds on the other side, the vision was ended, and he only beheld the valley of Bagdad, with its oxen, sheep, and camels grazing on its sides.--Addison, Vision of Mirza (Spectator, 159).

=Misbegot= (Malcolm), natural son of Sybil Knockwinnock, and an ancestor of Sir Arthur Wardour.--Sir W. Scott, The Antiquary (time, George III.).

=Miser= (The), a comedy by H. Fielding, a réchauffé of Molière’s comedy L’Avare. Lovegold is “Harpagon,” Frederick is “Cléante,” Mariana is “Mariane,” and Ramilie is “La Fléche.” Lovegold, a man of 60, and his son Frederick, both wish to marry Mariana, and, in order to divert the old miser from his foolish passion, Mariana pretends to be most extravagant. She orders a necklace and ear-rings of the value of £3000, a petticoat and gown from a fabric which is £12 a yard, and besets the house with duns. Lovegold gives £2000 to break off the bargain, and Frederick becomes the bridegroom of Mariana.

=Misers.=--See Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.

=Misere´re= (The), sung on Good Fridays in Catholic churches, is the composition of Gregorio Allegri, who died in 1640.

=Mishe-Mok´wa=, the great bear slain by Mudjekeewis.--Longfellow, Hiawatha, ii. (1855).

=Mishe-Nah´ma=, the great sturgeon, “king of fishes,” subdued by Hiawatha. With this labor, the “great teacher” taught the Indians how to make oil for winter. When Hiawatha threw his line for the sturgeon, that king of fishes first persuaded a pike to swallow the bait and try to break the line, but Hiawatha threw it back into the water. Next, a sun-fish was persuaded to try the bait, with the same result. Then the sturgeon, in anger, swallowed Hiawatha and canoe also; but Hiawatha smote the heart of the sturgeon with his fist, and the king of fishes swam to the shore and died. Then the sea-gulls opened a rift in the dead body, out of which Hiawatha made his escape.

“I have slain the Mishê-Nahma, Slain the king of fishes” said he.

Longfellow, Hiawatha, vii. (1855).

=Misnar=, sultan of India, transformed by Ulin into a toad. “He[TN-14] was disenchanted by the dervise Shemshel´nar, the most “pious worshipper of Alla amongst all the sons of Asia.” By prudence and piety, Misnar and his vizier, Horam, destroyed all the enchanters who filled India with rebellion, and, having secured peace, married Hem´junah, daughter of Zebenezer, sultan of Cassimir, to whom he had been betrothed when he was known only as the prince of Georgia.--James Ridley, Tales of the Genii, vi., vii. (1751).

=Misog´onus=, by Thomas Rychardes, the third English comedy (1560). It is written in rhyming quatrains, and not in couplets like Ralph Roister Doister and Gammer Gurton’s Needle.

=Miss in Her Teens=, a farce by David Garrick (1753). Miss Biddy Bellair is in love with Captain Loveit, who is known to her only by the name of Rhodophil; but she coquets with Captain Flash and Mr. Fribble, while her aunt wants her to marry an elderly man by the name of Stephen Loveit, whom she detests. When the Captain returns from the wars, she sets Captain Flash and Mr. Fribble together by the ears; and while they stand fronting each other, but afraid to fight, Captain Loveit enters, recognizes Flash as a deserter, takes away his sword, and dismisses Fribble as beneath contempt.

=Mississippi Bubble=, the “South Sea scheme” of France, projected by John Law, a Scotchman. So called because the projector was to have the exclusive trade of Louisiana, on the banks of the Mississippi, on condition of his taking on himself the National Debt (incorporated 1717, failed 1720).

The debt was 208 millions sterling. Law made himself sole creditor of this debt, and was allowed to issue ten times the amount in paper money, and to open “the Royal Bank of France,” empowered to issue this paper currency. So long as a 20-franc note was worth 20 francs, the scheme was a prodigious success, but immediately the paper money was at a discount, a run on the bank set in, and the whole scheme burst.

=Miss Ludington.= A beautiful girl changed by illness into “a sad and faded woman.” She had a portrait painted from an ivory miniature of herself, taken before the change, and conceives the idea that what she was once must still exist somewhere. The phantasy is played upon by impostors, who undertake to materialize the fancied creature and introduce her as the soul-sister of the credulous spinster. The instrument of the audacious fraud becomes conscience stricken and reveals it.--Edward Bellamy, Miss Ludington’s Sister (1884).

=Mistletoe Bough= (The). The song so called is by Thomas Haynes Bayley, who died 1839. The tale is this: Lord Lovel married a young lady, a baron’s daughter, and on the wedding night the bride proposed that the guest should play “hide-and-seek.” The bride hid in an old oak chest, and the lid, falling down, shut her in, for it went with a spring-lock. Lord Lovel sought her that night and sought next day, and so on for a week, but nowhere could he find her. Some years later, the old chest was sold, and, on being opened, was found to contain the skeleton of the bride.

Rogers, in his Italy, gives the same story, and calls the lady “Ginevra” of Modĕna.

Collet, in his Relics of Literature, has a similar story.

Another is inserted in the Causes Célèbres.

Marwell Old Hall (near Winchester), once the residence of the Seymours, and afterwards of the Dacre family, has a similar tradition attached to it, and “the very chest is said to be now the property of the Rev. J. Haygarth, rector of Upham.”

Bramshall, Hampshire, has a similar tale and chest.

The great house at Malsanger, near Basingstoke, also in Hampshire, has a similar tradition connected with it.

=Mi´ta=, sister of Aude. She married Sir Miton de Rennes, and became the mother of Mitaine. (See next art.)--Croquemitaine, xv.

=Mitaine=, daughter of Mita and Miton, and godchild of Charlemagne. She went in search of Fear Fortress, and found that it existed only in the imagination, for as she boldly advanced towards it, the castle gradually faded into thin air. Charlemagne made Mitaine, for this achievement, Roland’s squire, and she fell with him in the memorable attack at Roncesvallês. (See previous art.)--Croquemitaine, iii.

=Mite= (Sir Matthew), a returned East Indian merchant, dissolute, dogmatical, ashamed of his former acquaintances, hating the aristocracy, yet longing to be acknowledged by them. He squanders his wealth on toadies, dresses his livery servants most gorgeously, and gives his chairmen the most costly exotics to wear in their coats. Sir Matthew is forever astonishing weak minds with his talk about rupees, lacs, jaghires, and so on.--S. Foote, The Nabob.

=Mithra= or =Mithras=, a supreme divinity of the ancient Persians, confounded by the Greeks and Romans with the sun. He is the personification of Ormuzd, representing fecundity and perpetual renovation. Mithra is represented as a young man with a Phrygian cap, a tunic, a mantle on his left shoulder, and plunging a sword into the neck of a bull. Scaliger says the word means “greatest” or “supreme.” Mithra is the middle of the triplasian deity: the Mediator, Eternal Intellect, and Architect of the world.

Her towers, where Mithra once had burned, To Moslem shrines--oh shame!--were turned; Where slaves, converted by the sword, Their mean apostate worship poured, And cursed the faith their sires adored.

Moore, Lalla Rookh (“The Fire-Worshippers,” 1817).

=Mithridate= (3 syl.), a medicinal confection, invented by Damoc´ratês, physician to Mithrida´tês, king of Pontus, and supposed to be an antidote to all poisons and contagion. It contained seventy-two ingredients. Any panacea is called a “mithridate.”

Their kinsman garlic bring, the poor man’s mithridate.

Drayton, Polyolbion, xx. (1622).

Mithridate (3 syl.), a tragedy by Racine, (1673). “Monime” (2 syl.), in this drama, was one of Mdlle. Rachel’s great characters.

=Mithrida´tes= (4 syl.), surnamed “the Great.” Being conquered by the Romans, he tried to poison himself, but poison had no effect on him, and he was slain by a Gaul. Mithridatês was active, intrepid, indefatigable, and fruitful in resources; but he had to oppose such generals as Sulla, Lucullus, and Pompey. His ferocity was unbounded, his perfidy was even grand.

⁂ Racine has written a French tragedy on the subject, called Mithridate (1673); and N. Lee brought out his Mithridatês in English about the same time.

=Mixit= (Dr.), the apothecary at the Black Bear inn at Darlington.--Sir W. Scott, Rob Roy (time, George I.).

=M’liss=, brave, arch, and loving girl of the Wild West; the heroine of one of Bret Harte’s most popular sketches.

=M. M. Sketch= (An), a memorandum sketch.

=Mne´me= (2 syl.), a well-spring of Bœo´tia, which quickens the memory. The other well-spring in the same vicinity, called Lê´thê, has the opposite effect, causing blank forgetfulness.--Pliny.

Dantê calls this river Eu´noê. It had the power of calling to the memory all the good acts done, all the graces bestowed, all the mercies received, but no evil.--Dantê, Purgatory, xxxiii. (1308).

=Mo´ath=, a well-to-do Bedouin, father of Onei´za (3 syl.), the beloved of Thalaba. Oneiza, having married Thalaba, died on the bridal night, and Moath arrived just in time to witness the mad grief of his son-in-law.--Southey, Thalaba, the Destroyer, ii., viii. (1798).

=Mocca´sins=, an Indian buskin.

He laced his moccasins [sic] in act to go.

Campbell, Gertrude of Wyoming, i. 24 (1809).

=Mochingo=, an ignorant servant of the Princess Ero´ta.--Beaumont and Fletcher, The Laws of Candy (1647).

=Mock Doctor= (The), a farce by H. Fielding (1733), epitomized from Le Médecin Malgré Lui, of Molière (1666). Sir Jasper wants to make his daughter marry a Mr. Dapper; but she is in love with Leander and pretends to be dumb. Sir Jasper hears of a dumb doctor, and sends his two flunkies to fetch him. They ask one Dorcas to direct them to him, and she points them to her husband, Gregory, a faggot-maker; but tells them he is very eccentric, and must be well beaten, or he will deny being a physician. The faggot-maker is accordingly beaten into compliance, and taken to the patient. He soon learns the facts of the case, and employs Leander as apothecary. Leander makes the lady speak, and completes his cure with “pills matrimoniac.” Sir Jasper takes the joke in good part, and becomes reconciled to the alliance.

=Mocking-Bird.= “During the space of a minute, I have heard it imitate the woodlark, chaffinch, blackbird, thrush, and sparrow.... Their few natural notes resemble those of the nightingale, but their song is of greater compass and more varied.”--Ashe, Travels in America, ii. 73.

=Moclas=, a famous Arabian robber, whose name is synonymous with “thief.” (See ALMANZOR, the caliph.)

=Mode= (Sir William), in Mrs. Centlivre’s drama, The Beaux’ Duel (1703).

=Mode´love= (Sir Philip), one of the four guardians of Anne Lovely, the heiress. Sir Philip is an “old beau, that has May in his fancy and dress, but December in his face and his heels. He admires all new fashions ... loves operas, balls, and masquerades” (act i. 1). Colonel Freeman personates a French fop, and obtains his consent to marry his ward, the heiress.--Mrs. Centlivre, A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1717).

=Modely=, a man of the world, gay, fashionable, and a libertine. He had scores of “lovers,” but never loved till he saw the little rustic lass named Aura Freehold, a farmer’s daughter, to whom he proposed matrimony.--John Philip Kemble, The Farm-house.

=Modish= (Lady Betty), really in love with Lord Morelove, but treats him with assumed scorn or indifference, because her pride prefers “power to ease.” Hence she coquets with Lord Foppington (a married man), to mortify Morelove and arouse his jealousy. By the advice of Sir Charles Easy, Lord Morelove pays her out in her own coin, by flirting with Lady Graveairs, and assuming an air of indifference. Ultimately, Lady Betty is reduced to common sense, and gives her heart and hand to Lord Morelove.--Colley Cibber, The Careless Husband (1704).

=Modo=, the fiend that urges to murder, and one of the five that possessed “poor Tom.”--Shakespeare, King Lear, act iv. sc. 1 (1605).

=Modred=, son of Lot, king of Norway, and Anne, own sister of King Arthur (pt. viii. 21; ix. 9). He is always called “the traitor.” While King Arthur was absent, warring with the Romans, Modred was left regent, but usurped the crown, and married his aunt, the queen (pt. x. 13). When Arthur heard thereof, he returned, and attacked the usurper, who fled to Winchester (pt. xi. 1). The king followed him, and Modred drew up his army at Cambula, in Cornwall, where another battle was fought. In this engagement Modred was slain, and Arthur also received his death-wound (pt. xi. 2). The queen, called Guanhuma´ra (but better known as Guen´evere), retired to a convent in the City of Legions, and entered the order of Julius the Martyr (pt. xi. 1).--Geoffrey, British History (1142).

⁂ This is so very different from the accounts given in Arthurian romance of Mordred, that it is better to give the two names as if they were different individuals.

Modred (Sir), nephew of King Arthur. He hated Sir Lancelot, and sowed discord among the knights of the Round Table. Tennyson says that Modred “tampered with the lords of the White Horse,” the brood that Hengist left. Geoffrey of Monmouth says, he made a league with Cheldric, the Saxon leader in Germany, and promised to give him all that part of England which lies between the Humber and Scotland, together with all that Hengist and Horsa held in Kent, if he would aid him against King Arthur. Accordingly, Cheldric came over with 800 ships, filled “with pagan soldiers” (British History, xi. 1).

When the king was in Brittany, whither he had gone to chastise Sir Lancelot for adultery with the queen, he left Sir Modred regent, and Sir Modred raised a revolt. The king returned, drew up his army against the traitor, and in this “great battle of the West” Modred was slain and Arthur received his death-wound.--Tennyson, Idylls of the King (“Guinevere,” 1858).

⁂ This version is in accordance neither with Geoffrey of Monmouth (see previous art.), nor with Arthurian romance (see MORDRED), and is, therefore, given separately.

=Modu=, the prince of all devils that take possession of a human being.

Mado was the chief devil that had possession of Sarah Williams; but ... Richard Mainy was molested by a still more considerable fiend called Modu, ... the prince of all other devils.--Harsnett; Declaration of Popish Impostures, 268.

=Modus=, cousin of Helen; a “musty library, who loved Greek and Latin;” but cousin Helen loved the bookworm, and taught him how to love far better than Ovid could with his Art of Love. Having so good a teacher, Modus became an apt scholar, and eloped with Cousin Helen.--S. Knowles, The Hunchback (1831).

=Mœ´chus=, adultery personified; one of four sons of Caro (fleshly lust). His brothers were Pornei´us (fornication), Acath´arus and Asel´gês (lasciviousness). In the battle of Mansoul, Mœchus is slain by Agnei´a (wifely chastity), the spouse of Encra´tês (temperance) and sister of Parthen´ia (maidenly chastity). (Greek, moichos “an adulterer.”)--Phineas Fletcher, The Purple Island, xi. (1633).

=Mœli´ades= (4 syl.). Under this name William Drummond signalized Henry, prince of Wales, eldest son of James I., in the monody entitled Tears on the Death of Mœliadës. The word is an anagram of Milês a Deo. The prince, in his masquerades and martial sports, used to call himself “Mœliadês of the Isles.”

Mœliadês, bright day-star of the West.

W. Drummond, Tears on the Death of Mœliades (1612).

The burden of the monody is:

Mœliadês sweet courtly nymphs deplore, From Thulê to Hydaspês’ pearly shore.

=Moffat= (Mabel), domestic of Edward Redgauntlet.--Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

=Mogg Megone.= Indian sachem who, at the behest of a white girl, kills her betrayer, and brings his scalp to her. In the storm of anguished remorse awakened by the sight of the bloody trophy, the woman murders Megone in his sleep, and is henceforth banned by the church, driven by conscience, a miserable wanderer upon the earth.--John Greenleaf Whittier, Mogg Megone.

=Moha´di= (Mahommed), the twelfth imaum, whom the Orientals believe is not dead, but is destined to return and combat Antichrist before the consummation of all things.

⁂ Prince Arthur, Merlin, Charlemagne, Barbarossa, Dom Sebastian, Charles V., Elijah Mansur, Desmond of Kilmallock, etc., are traditionally not dead, but only sleeping till the fullness of time, when each will awake and effect most wondrous restorations.

=Mohair= (The Men of), the citizens of France.

The men of mohair, as the citizens were called.--Asylum Christi, viii.

=Moha´reb=, one of the evil spirits of Dom-Daniel, a cave “under the roots of the ocean.” It was given out that these spirits would be extirpated by one of the family of Hodei´rah (3 syl.), so they leagued against the whole race. First, Okba was sent against the obnoxious race, and succeeeded[TN-15] in killing eight of them, Thalaba alone having escaped alive. Next, Abaldar was sent against Thalaba, but was killed by a simoom. Then Loba´ba was sent to cut him off, but perished in a whirlwind. Lastly, Mohareb undertook to destroy him. He assumed the guise of a warrior, and succeeded in alluring the youth to the very “mouth of hell;” but Thalaba, being alive to the deceit, flung Mohareb into the abyss.--Southey, Thalaba, the Destroyer, v. (1797).

=Mohicans= (Last of the), Uncas, the Indian chief, son of Chingachook, and called “Deerfoot.”--J. F. Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans (a novel, 1826).

The word ought to be pronounced Mo.hek´.kanz, but is usually called Mo.hĕ.kanz.

=Mohocks=, a class of ruffians who at one time infested the streets of London. So called from the Indian Mohocks. At the Restoration, the street bullies were called Muns and Tityre Tus; they were next called Hectors and Scourers; later still, Nickers and Hawcabites; and lastly, Mohocks.

Now is the time that rakes their revels keep, Kindlers of riot, enemies of sleep; His scattered pence the flying Nicker flings, And with the copper shower the casement rings; Who has not heard the Scowerer’s midnight fame? Who has not trembled at the Mohock’s name?

Gay, Trivia, iii. 321, etc. (1712).

=Mohun= (Lord), the person who joined Captain Hill in a dastardly attack on the actor, Mountford, on his way to Mrs. Bracegirdle’s house, in Howard Street. Captain Hill was jealous of Mountford, and induced Lord Mohun to join him in this “valiant exploit.” Mountford died next day, Captain Hill fled from the country, and Mohun was tried but acquitted.

The general features of this cowardly attack are very like that of the Count Koningsmark on Thomas Thynne of Lingleate Hill. Count Koningsmark was in love with Elizabeth Percy (widow of the earl of Ogle), who was contracted to Mr. Thynne; but before the wedding day arrived, the count, with some hired ruffians, assassinated his rival in his carriage as it was passing down Pall Mall.

⁂ Elizabeth Percy, within three months of the murder, married the duke of Somerset.

=Moidart= (John of), captain of the clan Ronald, and a chief in the army of Montrose.--Sir W. Scott, Legend of Montrose, (time, Charles I.).

=Moi´na= (2 syl.), daughter of Reutha´mir, the principal man of Balclu´tha, a town on the Clyde, belonging to the Britons. Moina married Clessammor (the maternal uncle of Fingal), and died in childbirth of her son Carthon, during the absence of her husband.--Ossian, Carthon.

=Mokanna=, the name given to Hakem ben Haschem, from a silver gauze veil worn by him “to dim the lustre of his face,” or rather to hide its extreme ugliness. The history of this impostor is given by D’Herbelot, Bibliothèque Orientale (1697).

⁂ Mokanna forms the first story of Lalla Rookh (“The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan”), by Thomas Moore (1817).

=Mokattam= (Mount), near Cairo (Egypt), noted for the massacre of the Caliph Hakem B’amr-ellah, who was given out to be incarnate deity, and the last prophet who communicated between God and man (eleventh century). Here, also;[TN-16] fell in the same massacre his chief prophet, and many of his followers. In consequence of this persecution, Durzi, one of the “prophet’s” chief apostles, led the survivors into Syria, where they settled between the Libanus and Anti-Libanus, and took the name of Durzis, corrupted into Druses.

As the khalif vanished erst, In what seemed death to uninstructed eyes, On red Mokattam’s verge.

Robert Browning, The Return of the Druses, i.

=Molay= (Jacques), grand-master of the Knights Templar, as he was led to the stake, summoned the pope (Clement V.), within forty days, and the king (Philippe IV.), within forty weeks, to appear before the throne of God to answer for his death. They both died within the stated periods. (See SUMMONS TO DEATH.)

=Molière= (The Italian), Charlo Goldoni (1707-1793).

Molière (The Spanish), Leandro Fernandez Moratin (1760-1828).

=Moll Cutpurse=, Mary Frith, who once attacked General Fairfax on Hounslow Heath.

=Moll Flanders=, a woman of great beauty, born in the Old Bailey. She was twelve years a courtezan, five years a wife, twelve years a thief, eight years a convict in Virginia; but ultimately grew rich, and died a penitent in the reign of Charles II.

⁂ Daniel Defoe wrote her life and adventures, which he called The Fortunes of Moll Flanders (1722).

=Molly=, Jaggers’s housekeeper. A mysterious, scared-looking woman, with a deep scar across one of her wrists. Her antecedents were full of mystery, and Pip suspected her of being Estella’s mother.--C. Dickens, Great Expectations (1860).

=Molly Maggs=, a pert young housemaid, in love with Robin. She hates Polyglot, the tutor of “Master Charles,” but is very fond of Charles. Molly tries to get “the tuterer Polypot” into a scrape, but finds, to her consternation, that Master Charles is in reality the party to be blamed.--J. Poole, The Scapegoat.

=Molly Maguires=, stout, active young men, dressed up in women’s clothes, with faces blackened, or otherwise disguised. This secret society was organized in 1843, to terrify the officials employed by Irish landlords to distrain for rent, either by grippers, (bumbailiffs), process-servers, keepers, or drivers (persons who impound cattle till the rent is paid.[TN-17]--W. S. Trench, Realities of Irish Life, 82.

=Molly Mog=, an innkeeper’s daughter at Oakingham, Berks. Molly Mog was the toast of all the gay sparks in the former half of the eighteenth century; but died a spinster at the age of 67 (1699-1766).

⁂ Gay has a ballad on this Fair Maid of the Inn. Mr. Standen, of Arborfield, the “enamoured swain,” died in 1730. Molly’s sister was quite as beautiful as “the fair maid” herself. A portrait of Gay still hangs in Oakingham Inn.

=Molly Wilder=, New England girl, who shelters and cares for a young French nobleman wrecked on the Cape Cod coast. A love affair and a clandestine marriage follow. The marriage is acknowledged when peace is established between the French and English.--Jane G. Austin, A Nameless Nobleman (1881).

=Molmu´tius.= (See MULMUTIUS.)

=Moloch= (ch = k), the third in rank of the Satanic hierarchy, Satan being first, and Beëlzebub second. The word means “king.” The rabbins say the idol was of brass, with the head of a calf. Moloch was the god of the Am´monites (3 syl.), and was worshipped in Rabba, their chief city.

First Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood Of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears, Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, Their children’s cries unheard, that passed thro’ fire To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite Worshipped in Rabba.

Milton, Paradise Lost, i. 392, etc. (1665).

=Mo´ly= (Greek, môlu), mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey. An herb with a black root and white blossom, given by Hermês to Ulysses, to counteract the spells of Circê, (See HÆMONY.)

... that Mō´ly That Hermês once to wise Ulysses gave.

Milton, Comus (1634).

The root was black, Milk-white the blossom; Môly is its name In heaven.

Homer, Odyssey, x. (Cowper’s trans.).

=Momus’s Lattice.= Momus, son of Nox, blamed Vulcan, because, in making the human form, he had not placed a window in the breast for the discerning of secret thoughts.

Were Momus’ lattice in our breasts, My soul might brook to open it more widely Than theirs [i. e. the nobles].

Byron, Werner, iii., 1 (1822).

=Mon= or =Mona=, Anglesia, the residence of the Druids. Suetonius Paulīnus, who had the command of Britain in the reign of Nero (from A.D. 59 to 62), attacked Mona, because it gave succor to the rebellious. The frantic inhabitants ran about with fire-brands, their long hair streaming to the wind, and the Druids invoked vengeance on the Roman army.--See Drayton, Polyolbion, viii. (1612).

=Mon´aco= (The king of), noted because whatever he did was never right in the opinion of his people, especially in that of Rabagas, the demagogue: If he went out, he was “given to pleasure;” if he stayed at home, he was “given to idleness;” if he declared war, he was “wasteful of the public money;” if he did not, he was “pusillanimous;” if he ate, he was “self-indulgent;” if he abstained, he was “priest-ridden.”--M. Sardou, Rabagas (1872).

Monaco. Proud as a Monegasque. A French phrase. The tradition is that Charles Quint ennobled every one of the inhabitants of Monaco.

=Monaldini= (Signor), rich, bourgeois citizen of Rome, who purchases, fits up and lets to desirable tenants an old palace.--Mary Agnes Tincker, Signor Monaldini’s Niece (1879).

=Monarch of Mont Blanc=, Albert Smith; so-called, because for many years he amused a large London audience, night after night, by relating “his ascent of Mont Blanc” (1816-1860).

=Monarque= (Le Grand), Louis XIV., of France (1638, 1643-1715).

=Monastery= (The), a novel by Sir W. Scott (1820). The Abbot appeared the same year. These two stories are tame and very defective in plot; but the character of Mary queen of Scots, in The Abbot, is a correct and beautiful historical portrait. The portrait of Queen Elizabeth is in Kenilworth.

=Monçada= (Matthias de), a merchant, stern and relentless. He arrests his daughter the day after her confinement of a natural son.

Zilia de Monçada, daughter of Matthias, and wife of General Witherington.--Sir W. Scott, The Surgeon’s Daughter, (time, George II.).

=Monda´min=, maize or Indian corn (mon-da-min, “the Spirit’s grain”).

Sing the mysteries of mondamin, Sing the blessing of the corn-fields.

Longfellow, Hiawatha, xiii. (1855).

=Mone´ses= (3 syl.), a Greek prince, betrothed to Arpasia, whom for the nonce he called his sister. Both were taken captive by Baj´azet. Bajazet fell in love with Arpasia, and gave Monēsês a command in his army. When Tamerlane overthrew Bajazet, Monēsês explained to the Tartar king how it was that he was found in arms against him, and said his best wish was to serve Tamerlane. Bajazet now hated the Greek, and, as Arpasia proved obdurate, thought to frighten her into compliance by having Monēsês bow-strung in her presence; but the sight was so terrible that it killed her.--N. Rowe, Tamerlane (1702).

=Money=, a drama by Lord E. L. B. Lytton (1840). Alfred Evelyn, a poor scholar, was secretary and factotum of Sir John Vesey, but received no wages. He loved Clara Douglas, a poor dependent of Lady Franklin; proposed to her, but was not accepted, “because both were too poor to keep house.” A large fortune being left to the poor scholar, he proposed to Georgina, the daughter of Sir John Vesey; but Georgina loved Sir Frederick Blount, and married him. Evelyn, who loved Clara, pretended to have lost his fortune, and, being satisfied that she really loved him, proposed a second time, and was accepted.

=Moneytrap=, husband of Araminta, but with a tendresse for Clarissa, the wife of his friend Gripe.--Sir John Vanbrugh, The Confederacy (1695).

=Monflathers= (Miss), mistress of a boarding and day establishment, to whom Mrs. Jarley sent little Nell, to ask her to patronize the wax-work collection. Miss Monflathers received the child with frigid virtue, and said to her, “Don’t you think you must be very wicked to be a wax-work child? Don’t you know it is very naughty to be a wax child when you might have the proud consciousness of assisting, to the extent of your infant powers, the noble manufacturers of your country?” One of the teachers here chimed in with “How doth the little--;” but Miss Monflathers remarked, with an indignant frown, that “the little busy bee” applied only to genteel children, and the “works of labor and of skill” to painting and embroidery, not to vulgar children and wax-work shows.”[TN-18]--Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop, xxxi. (1840).

=Monford=, the lover of Charlotte Whimsey. He plans various devices to hoodwink her old father, in order to elope with the daughter.--James Cobb, The First Floor (1756-1818).

=Monime= (2 syl.), in Racine’s tragedy of Mithridate. This was one of Mdlle. Rachel’s great characters, first preformed[TN-19] by her in 1838.

=Monim´ia=, “the orphan,” sister of Chamont, and ward of Lord Acasto. Monimia was in love with Acasto’s son, Castalio, and privately married him. Polydore (the brother of Castalio) also loved her, but his love was dishonorable love. By treachery, Polydore obtained admission to Monimia’s chamber, and passed the bridal night with her, Monimia supposing him to be her husband; but when the next day she discovered the deceit, she poisoned herself; and Polydore, being apprised that Monimia was his brother’s wife, provoked a quarrel with him, ran on his brother’s sword, and died.--Otway, The Orphan (1680).

More tears have been shed for the sorrows of “Belvidēra” and “Monimia,” than for those of “Juliet” and “Desdemona.”--Sir W. Scott, The Drama.

Monimia, in Smollett’s novel of Count Fathom (1754).

=Moniplies= (Richie), the honest, self-willed Scotch servant of Lord Nigel Olifaunt, of Glenverloch.--Sir W. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel (time, James I.).

=Monk= (General), introduced by Sir Walter Scott in Woodstock (time, Commonwealth.[TN-20]

Monk (The Bird Singing to a). The monk is Felix, who listened to a bird for a hundred years, and thought the time only an hour.--Longfellow, The Golden Legend, ii. (1851).

Monk (The), a novel, by Sir Matthew G. Lewis (1794).

=Monk Lewis.= Matthew Gregory Lewis; so called from his novel (1773-1818).

=Monk of Bury=, John Lydgate, poet, who wrote the Siege of Troy, the Story of Thebes, and the Fall of Princes (1375-1460).

Nothynge I am experte in poetry, As the monke of Bury, floure of eloquence.

Stephen Hawes, The Passe-Tyme[TN-21] of Plesure (1515).

=Monk of Westminister=, Richard, of Cirencester, the chronicler (fourteenth century).

This chronicle, On the Ancient State of Britain, was first brought to light in 1747, by Dr. Charles Julius Bertram, professor of English at Copenhagen; but the original being no better known than that of Thomas Rowley’s poems, published by Chatterton, grave suspicions exist that Dr. Bertram was himself the author of the chronicles.

=Monks= (The Father of), Ethelwold, of Winchester (*-984).

Monks, alias Edward Leeford, a violent man, subject to fits. Edward Leeford, though half-brother to Oliver Twist, was in collusion with Bill Sykes, to ruin him. Failing in this, he retired to America, and died in jail.--C. Dickens, Oliver Twist (1837).

=Monkbarns= (Laird of), Mr Jonathan Oldbuck, the antiquary.--Sir W. Scott, The Antiquary (time, George III.).

=Mon´ker and Nakir= [Na.keer´], the two examiners of the dead, who put questions to departed spirits respecting their belief in God and Mahomet, and award their state in after-life according to their answers.--Al Korân.

“Do you not see those spectres that are stirring the burning coals? Are they Monker and Nakir come to throw us into them?”--W. Beckford, Vathek (1786).

=Monmouth=, the surname of Henry V. of England, who was born in that town (1388, 1413-1422).

⁂ Mon-mouth is the mouth of the Monnow.

Monmouth (The duke of), commander-in-chief of the royal army.--Sir W. Scott, Old Mortality (time, Charles II.).

⁂ The duke of Monmouth was nicknamed “The Little Duke,” because he was diminutive in size. Having no name of his own, he took that of his wife, “Scott,” countess of Buccleuch. Pepys says: “It is reported that the king will be tempted to set the crown on the Little Duke” (Diary, seventeenth century).

=Mon´ema=, wife of Quia´ra, the only persons of the whole of the Guārani race who escaped the small-pox plague which ravaged that part of Paraguay. They left the fatal spot, and settled in the Modai woods. Here they had one son, Yerūti, and one daughter, Mooma, but Quiāra was killed by a jagŭar before the latter was born. Monĕma left the Mondai woods, and went to live at St. Joăchin, in Paraguay, but soon died from the effects of a house and city life.--Southey, A Tale of Paraguay (1814).

Mononia, when nature embellished the tint Of thy fields and thy mountains so fair, Did she ever intend that a tyrant should print The footstep of slavery there?

T. Moore, Irish Melodies, i. (“War Song,” 1814).

=Monsieur=, Philippe, Duc d’Orléans, brother of Louis XIV. (1674-1723).

⁂ Other gentlemen were Mons. A or Mons. B, but the regent was Mons. without any adjunct.

Similarly, the daughter of the duc de Chartres (the regent’s grandson) was Mademoiselle.

=Monsieur le Coadjuteur=, Paul de Gondi, afterwards Cardinal de Retz (1614-1679).

=Monsieur le duc=, Louis Henri de Bourbon, eldest son of the prince de Condé (1692-1740).

=Monsieur Thomas=, a drama by Beaumont and Fletcher (1619).

=Monsieur Tonson=, a farce by Moncrieff. Jack Ardourly fails in love with Adolphine de Courcy in the street, and gets Tom King to assist in ferreting her out. Tom King discovers that his sweeting lives in the house of a French refugee, a barber, named Mons. Morbleu; but not knowing the name of the young lady, he inquires for Mr. Thompson, hoping to pick up information. Mons. Morbleu says no Mons. Tonson lives in the house, but only Mde. Bellegarde and Mdlle. Adolphine de Courcy. The old Frenchman is driven almost crazy by different persons inquiring for Mons. Tonson; but ultimately Jack Ardourly marries Adolphine, whose mother is Mrs. Thompson after all.

Taylor wrote a drama of the same title in 1767.

=Monster= (The), Renwick Williams, a wretch who used to prowl about London by night, armed with a double-edged knife, with which he mutilated women. He was condemned July 8, 1790.

=Mont Rognon= (Baron of), a giant of enormous strength and insatiable appetite. He was bandy-legged, had an elastic stomach, and four rows of teeth. He was a paladin of Charlemagne, and one of the four sent in search of Croquemitaine and Fear Fortress.--Croquemitaine.

=Mont St. Michel=, in Normandy. Here nine druidesses used to sell arrows to sailors to charm away storms. The arrows had to be discharged by a young man 25 years of age.

The Laplanders drove a profitable trade by selling winds to sailors. Even so late as 1814, Bessie Millie, of Pomōna (Orkney Islands), helped to eke out a livelihood by selling winds for sixpence.

Eric, king of Sweden, could make the winds blow from any quarter he liked by a turn of his cap. Hence, he was nicknamed “Windy Cap.”

=Mont Trésor=, in France; so called by Gontran “the Good,” king of Burgundy (sixteenth century). One day, weary with the chase, Gontran laid himself down near a small river, and fell asleep. The squire who watched his master, saw a little animal come from the king’s mouth, and walk to the stream, over which the squire laid his sword, and the animal running across, entered a hole in the mountain. When Gontran was told of this incident, he said he had dreamt that he crossed a bridge of steel, and, having entered a cave at the foot of a mountain, entered a palace of gold. Gontran employed men to undermine the hill, and found there vast treasures, which he employed in works of charity and religion. In order to commemorate this event he called the hill Mont Trésor.--Claud Paradin, Symbola Heroica.

⁂ This story has been ascribed to numerous persons.

=Mon´tague= (3 syl.), head of a noble house in Verona, at feudal enmity with the house of Capŭlet. Romeo belonged to the former, and Juliet to the latter house.

Lady Montague, wife of Lord Montague, and mother of Romeo.--Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1598).

=Montalban.=

Don Kyrie Elyson de Montalban, a hero of romance, in the History of Tirante the White.

Thomas de Montalban, brother of Don Kyrie Elyson, in the same romance of chivalry.

Rinaldo de Montalban, a hero of romance, in the Mirror of Knighthood, from which work both Bojardo and Ariosto have largely borrowed.

Montalban, now called Montauban (a contraction of Mons Alba´nus), in France, in the department of Tarn-et-Garonne.

Jousted in Aspramont or Montalban.

Milton, Paradise Lost, i. 583 (1665).

Montalban (The Count), in love with Volantê (3 syl.), daughter of Balthazar. In order to sound her, the count disguised himself as a father confessor; but Volantê detected the trick instantly, and said to him, “Come, come, count, pull off your lion’s hide, and confess yourself an ass.” However, as Volantê really loved him, all came right at last.--J. Tobin, The Honeymoon (1804).

=Montanto= (Signor), a master of fence and a great braggart.--Ben Jonson, Every Man in His Humour (1598).

=Montargis= (The Dog of), named Dragon. It belonged to Captain Aubri de Montdidier, and is especially noted for his fight with the Chevalier Richard Macaire. The dog was called Montargis, because the encounter was depicted over the chimney of the great hall in the castle of Montargis. It was in the forest of Bondi, close by this castle, that Aubri was assassinated.

=Monte Christo= (Count), convict who escapes from prison, and finds immense treasure, with which he does incredible things.

Assuming the title of “count,” he adds the name of the island on which his treasure is buried, and plays the grande seignior in society, punishing his former persecutors and false friends, and rewarding his old allies. Finally he is brought to confess that man cannot play providence, and to recall the words “Vengeance is mine!”--Alexander Dumas, Count of Monte Christo.

=Montenay= (Sir Philip de), an old English knight.--Sir W. Scott, Castle Dangerous (time, Henry I.).

=Montesi´nos=, a legendary hero, who received some affront at the French court, and retired to La Mancha, in Spain. Here he lived in a cavern, some sixty feet deep, called “The Cavern of Montesinos.” Don Quixote descended part of the way down this cavern, and fell into a trance, in which he saw Montesinos himself, Durandartê and Belerma under the spell of Merlin, Dulcin´ea del Toboso enchanted into a country wench, and other visions, which he more than half believed to be realities.--Cervantes, Don Quixote, II. ii. 5, 6 (1615).

⁂ This Durandartê was the cousin of Montesinos, and Belerma the lady he served for seven years. When he fell at Roncesvallês, he prayed his cousin to carry his heart to Belerma.

=Montespan= (The marquis de), a conceited court fop, silly and heartless. When Louis XIV. took Mde. de Montespan for his concubine, he banished the marquis, saying:

Your strange and countless follies-- The scenes you make--your loud domestic broils-- Bring scandal on our court. Decorum needs Your banishment.... Go! And for your separate household, which entails A double cost, our treasure shall accord you A hundred thousand crowns.

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IV. 1

The foolish old marquis says, in his self-conceit:

A hundred thousand crowns for being civil To one another! Well now, that’s a thing That happens but to marquises. It shows My value in the state. The king esteems My comfort of such consequence to France, He pays me down a hundred thousand crowns, Rather than let my wife disturb my temper!

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