Malesherbes (2 syl.). If anyone asked Malesherbes his opinion about any French words, he always sent him to the street porters at the Port au Foin, saying that they were his “masters in language.”—Racan, Vie de Malesherbes (1830).
It is said that Shakespeare read his plays to an oyster-woman when he wished to know if they would suit the popular taste.
Mal´inal, brother of Yuhid´thiton. When the Aztecas declared war against Madoc and his colony, Malinal cast in his lot with the white strangers. He was a noble youth, who received two arrow-wounds in his leg while defending the white women; and being unable to stand, fought in their defense on his knees. When Malinal was disabled, Amal´ahta caught up the princess, and ran off with her; but Mervyn the “young page” (in fact a girl) struck him on the hamstrings with a bill-hook, and Malinal, crawling to the spot, thrust his sword in the villain’s groin and killed him.—Southey, Madoc, ii. 16 (1805).
Mal´iom. Mahomet is so called in some of the old romances.
“Send five, send six against me! By Maliom! I swear I’ll take them all.”—Fierabras.
Malkin. The maid Marian of the morris-dance is so called by Beaumont and Fletcher:
Mall Cutpurse, Mary Frith, a thief and receiver of stolen goods. John Day, in 1610, wrote “a booke called The Madde Prancks of Merry Mall of the Bankside, with her Walks in Man’s Apparel, and to what Purpose.” It is said that she was an androgyne (1584-1659).
Malluch, merchant of Antioch, who befriends Ben-Hur when he most needs substantial aid.—Lew Wallace, Ben-Hur; A Tale of the Christ (1880).
Mal-Orchol, king of Fuär´fed (an island of Scandinavia). Being asked by Ton-Thormod to give him his daughter in marriage, he refused, and the rejected suitor made war on him. Fingal sent his son Ossian to assist Mal-Orchol, and on the very day of his arrival he took Ton-Thormod prisoner. Mal-Orchol, in gratitude, now offered Ossian his daughter in marriage; but Ossian pleaded for Ton-Thormod, and the marriage of the lady with her original suitor was duly solemnized. (The daughter’s name was Oina-Moral).—Ossian, Oina-Morul.
Malony (Kitty), a much maltreated cook, to whom her mistress introduced a “hay-thun Chineser” as an assistant. His imitation, in good faith, of her practice of taking toll of groceries brought into the kitchen awakens her employer’s suspicions.
“She give me such sass as I cudn’t take from no lady, an’ I give her warnin’, an’ left that instant, an’ she a-pointin’ to the door.”—Mary Mapes Dodge, Thophilus and Others (1876).
Maltworm, a tippler. Similarly, bookworm means a student.
Mal´venu, Lucif´ĕra’s porter.—Spenser, Faëry Queen, i. 4 (1590).
Malvina, daughter of Toscar. She was betrothed to Oscar, son of Ossian; but he was slain in Ulster by Cairbar, before the day of marriage arrived.—Temora, i.
I was a lovely tree in thy presence, Oscar, with all my branches round me; but thy death came like a blast from the desert, and laid my green head low. The spring returned with its showers; no leaf of mine arose.... The tear was on the cheek of Malvina.—Ossian, Croma.
Malvoisin (Sir Albert de), a preceptor of the Knights Templars.
Sir Philip de Malvoisin, one of the knights challengers at the tournament.—Sir W. Scott, Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).
Malvo´lio, Olivia’s steward. When he reproves Sir Toby Belch for riotous living, the knight says to him, “Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?” Sir Toby and Sir Andrew Ague-cheek join Maria in a trick against the steward. Maria forges a letter in the handwriting of Olivia, leading Malvolio to suppose that his mistress is in love with him, telling him to dress in yellow stockings, and to smile on the lady. Malvolio falls into the trap; and when Olivia shows astonishment at his absurd conduct, he keeps quoting parts of the letter he has received, and is shut up in a dark room as a lunatic.—Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (1614).
Mamamouchi, an imaginary order of knighthood. M. Jourdain, the parvenu, is persuaded that the grand seignior of the order has made him a member, and he submits to the ceremony of a mock installation.—Molière, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670).
Mambrino’s Helmet, a helmet of pure gold, which rendered the wearer invisible. It was taken possession of by Rinaldo, and stolen by Scaripantê.
Cervantes tells us of a barber who was caught in a shower of rain, and who, to protect his hat, clapped his brazen basin on his head. Don Quixote insisted that this basin was the helmet of the Moorish king; and, taking possession of it, wore it as such.
⁂ When the knight set the galley-slaves free, the rascals “snatched the basin from his head, and broke it to pieces” (pt. I. iii. 8); but we find it sound and complete in the next book (ch. 15), when the gentlemen at the inn sit in judgment on it, to decide whether it is really a “helmet or a basin.” The judges, of course, humor the don, and declare the basin to be an undoubted helmet.—Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605).
“I will lead the life I have mentioned, till, by the force and terror of my arm, I take a helmet from the head of some other knight.” ... The same thing happened about Mambrino’s helmet, which cost Scaripante so dear.—Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. ii. 2 (1605).
Mamillius, a young prince of Sicilia.—Shakespeare, Winter’s Tale (1604).
Mammon, the personification of earthly ambition, be it wealth, honors, sensuality, or what not. “Ye cannot serve God and Mammon” (Matt. vi. 24). Milton makes Mammon one of the rebellious angels:
Mammon tells Sir Guyon, if he will serve him, he shall be the richest man in the world; but the knight replies that money has no charm in his sight. The god then takes him into his smithy, and tells him to give any order he likes; but Sir Gruyon declines the invitation. Mammon next offers to give the knight Philotine to wife; but Sir Gruyon still declines. Lastly, the knight is led to Proserpine’s bower, and told to pluck some of the golden fruit, and to rest him awhile on the silver stool; but Sir Gruyon resists the temptation. After three day’s sojourn in the infernal regions, the knight is led back to earth, and swoons.—Spenser, Faëry Queen, ii. 7 (1590).
Mammon (Sir Epicure), the rich dupe who supplies Subtle, “the alchemist,” with money to carry on his artifices, under pretence of transmuting base metals into gold. Sir Epicure believes in the possibility, and glories in the mighty things he will do when the secret is discovered.—Ben Jonson, The Alchemist (1610).
Mammoth (The), or big buffalo, is an emblem of terror and destruction among the American Indians. Hence, when Brandt, at the head of a party of Mohawks and other savages, was laying waste Pennsylvania, and approached Wyo´ming, Outalissi exclaims:
Mammoun, eldest of the four sons of Corcud. One day he showed kindness to a mutilated serpent, which proved to be the fairy Gialout, who gave him for his humanity the power of joining and mending whatever was broken. He mended a pie’s egg which was smashed into twenty pieces, and so perfectly that the egg was hatched. He also mended in a moment a ship which had been wrecked and broken in a violent storm.—T.S. Gueulette, Chinese Tales (“Corcud and His four Sons,” 1723).
Man. His descent according to the Darwinian theory: (1) The larvæ of ascidians, a marine mollusc; (2) fish lowly organized, as the lancelet; (3) ganoids, lepidosiren, and other fish; (4) amphibians; (5) birds and reptiles; (6) from reptiles we get the monotremata, which connects reptiles with the mammalia; (7) the marsupials; (8) placental mammals; (9) lemurĭdæ; (10) simiădæ; (11) the New World monkeys called platyrhines, and the Old World monkeys called catarrhines; (12) between the catarrhines and the race of men the “missing link” is placed by some; but others think between the highest organized ape and the lowest organized man the gradation is simple and easy.
Man (Races of). According to the Bible, the whole human race sprang from one individual, Adam. Virey affirms there were two original pairs. Jacquinot and Latham divide the race into three primordial stocks; Kent into four; Blumenbach into five; Buff on into six; Hunter into seven; Agassiz into eight; Pickering into eleven; Bory St. Vincent into fourteen; Desmoulins into sixteen; Morton into twenty-two; Crawfurd into sixty; and Burke into sixty-three.
Man in Black (The), said to be meant for Goldsmith’s father. A true oddity, with the tongue of a Timon and the heart of an Uncle Toby. He declaims against beggars, but relieves every one he meets; he ridicules generosity, but would share his last cloak with the needy.—Goldsmith, Citizen of the World (1759).
⁂ Washington Irving has a tale called The Man in Black.
Man in the Moon (The). Some say it is the man who picked up a bundle of sticks on the Sabbath day (Numb. xv. 32-36). Dantê says it is Cain, and that the “bush of thorns” is an emblem of the curse pronounced on the earth: “Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee” (Gen. iii. 18). Some say it is Endymion, taken there by Diana.
The curse pronounced on the “man” was this: “As you regarded not ‘Sunday’ on earth, you shall keep a perpetual ‘Moon-day’ in heaven.” This, of course, is a Teutonic tradition.
The bush of thorns, in the Schaumburglippê version, is to indicate that the man strewed thorns in the church path, to hinder people from attending mass on Sundays.
A North Frisian version gives cabbages instead of a faggot of wood.
⁂ There are other traditions, among which may be mentioned “The Story of the Hare and the Elephant.” In this story “the man in the moon” is a hare.—Pantschatantra (a collection of Sanskrit fables).
Man in the Moon, a man who visits the “inland parts of Africa.”—W. Thomson, Mammuth or Human Nature Displayed on a Grand Scale (1789).
Man in the Moon, the man who, by the aid of a magical glass, shows Charles Fox (the man of the people), various eminent contemporaries.—W. Thomson, The Man in the Moon or Travels into the Lunar Regions (1783).
Man of Blood. Charles I. was so called by the puritans, because he made war on his parliament. The allusion is to 2 Sam. xvi. 7.
Man of Brass, Talos, the work of Hephæstos (Vulcan). He traversed the Isle of Crete thrice a year. Apollo´nius (Argonautica, iv.) says he threw rocks at the Argonauts, to prevent their landing. It is also said that when a stranger was discovered on the island, Talos made himself red-hot, and embraced the intruder to death.
Man of December. Napoleon III. So called because he was made president December 11, 1848; made the coup d’état, December 2, 1851; and was made emperor December 2, 1852.
(Born in the Rue Lafitte, Paris (not in the Tuileries), April 20, 1808; reigned 1852-1870; died at Chiselhurst, Kent, January 9, 1873).
Man of Destiny, Napoleon I., who always looked upon himself as an instrument in the hands of destiny, and that all his acts were predestined.
The Man of Destiny ... had power for a time “to bind kings with chains, and nobles with fetters of iron.”—Sir W. Scott.
Man of Feeling (The), Harley, a sensitive, bashful, kind-hearted, sentimental sort of a hero.—H. Mackenzie, The Man of Feeling (1771).
⁂ Sometimes Henry Mackenzie is himself called “The Man of Feeling.”
Man of Ross, John Kyrle, of Ross, in Herefordshire, distinguished for his benevolence and public spirit. “Richer than miser, nobler than king or king-polluted lord.”—Pope, Epistle, iii. (“On the Use of Riches,” 1709).
Man of Salt (A). Tears are called salt, hence a man of salt is one who weeps on slight provocation.
Man of Sedan, Napoleon III. So called because he surrendered his sword to William, king of Prussia, after the battle of Sedan in September, 1870.
(Born in the Rue Lafitte, 1808; reigned 1852-1870; died at Chiselhurst, 1873).
Man of Sin (The), mentioned in 2 Thess. ii. 3.
Whitby says the “Man of sin” means the Jews as a people.
Grotius says it means Caius Cæsar or else Caligula.
Wetstein says it is Titus.
Olshausen thinks it is typical of some one yet to come.
Roman Catholics say it means Anti-christ.
Protestants think it refers to the pope.
The Fifth-Monarchy men applied it to Cromwell.
Man of the Hill, a tedious “hermit of the vale,” introduced by Fielding in his novel of Tom Jones (1749).
Man of the Mountain (Old). (See Koppenburg.)
Man of the People, Charles James Fox (1749-1806).
Man of the Sea (The Old), the man who got upon the shoulders of Sindbad, the sailor, and would not get off again, but clung there with obstinate pertinacity till Sindbad made him drunk, when he was easily shaken off. Sindbad then crushed him to death with a large stone.
“You had fallen,” said they, “into the hands of the Old Man of the Sea, and you are the first whom he has not strangled.”—Arabian Nights (“Sindbad,” fifth voyage).
Man of the World (The), Sir Pertinax McSycophant, who acquires a fortune by “booing” and fawning on the great and rich. He wants his son Egerton to marry the daughter of Lord Lumbercourt, but Egerton, to the disgust of his father, marries Constantia, the protégée of Lady McSycophant. Sir Pertinax had promised his lordship a good round sum of money if the marriage was effected; and when this contretemps occurs, his lordship laments the loss of money, “which will prove his ruin.” Sir Pertinax tells Lord Lumbercourt that his younger son Sandy will prove more pliable, and it is agreed that the bargainbargain shall stand good if Sandy will marry the young lady.—C. Macklin, The Man of the World (1764).
⁂ This comedy is based on Voltaire’s Nanine (1749).
Man without a Skin. Richard Cumberland, the dramatist, was so called by Garrick, because he was so extremely sensitive that he could not bear “to be touched” by the finger of criticism (1732-1811).
Managarm, the most gigantic and formidable of the race of hags. He dwells in the Iron-wood, Jamvid. Managarm will first fill himself with the blood of man, and then will he swallow up the moon. This gigantic hag symbolizes War, and the “Iron-wood” in which he dwells is the wood of spears.—Prose Edda.
Manchester Poet (The), Charles Swain, born 1803.
Manciple’s Tale. Phœbus had a crow which he taught to speak; it was white as down, and as big as a swan. He had also a wife, whom he dearly loved. One day, when he came home, the crow cried, “Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo!” and Phœbus asked the bird what it meant; whereupon it told the god that his wife was unfaithful to him. Phœbus, in his wrath, seized his bow, and shot his wife through the heart; but to the bird he said, “Curse on thy tell-tale tongue! never more shall it brew mischief.” So he deprived it of the power of speech, and changed its plumage from white to black. Moral—Be no tale-bearer, but keep well thy tongue, and think upon the crow.
⁂ This is Ovid’s tale of “Coronis” in the Metamorphoses, ii. 543, etc.
Manda´ne (3 syl.), wife of Zamti, the Chinese mandarin, and mother of Hamet. Hamet was sent to Corea to be brought up by Morat, while Mandanê brought up Zaphimri (under the name of Etan), the orphan prince and only surviving representative of the royal race of China. Hamet led a party of insurgents against Ti´murkan´, was seized, and ordered to be put to death as the supposed prince. Mandanê tried to save him, confessed he was not the prince; and Etan came forward as the real “orphan of China.” Timurkan, unable to solve the mystery, ordered both to death, and Mandanê with her husband to the torture; but Mandanê stabbed herself.—Murphy, The Orphan of China (1759).
Mandane (2 syl.), the heroine of Mdlle. Scud´eri’s romance called Cyrus the Great (1650).
Manda´ne and Stati´ra, stock names of melodramatic romance. When a romance writer hangs the world on the caprice of a woman, he chooses Mandanê or Statira for his heroine. Mandanê of classic story was the daughter of King Astyăgês, wife of Cambysês, and mother of Cyrus the Great. Statīra was daughter of Darius, the Persian, and wife of Alexander the Great.
Man´dans, an Indian tribe of Dakota, in the United States, noted for their skill in horsemanship.
Mandeville, any one who draws the long-bow; a flam. Sir John Mandeville [Man’.de.vil], an English traveller, published a narrative of his voyages, which abounds in the most extravagant fictions (1300-1372).
Oh! he is a modern Mandeville. At Oxford he was always distinguished by the facetious appellation of “The Bouncer.”—Samuel Foote, The Liar, ii. 1 (1761).
Mandeville (Bernard de), a licentious, deistical writer, author of The Virgin Unmasked (1709), Free Thoughts on Religion (1712), Fable of the Bees (1714), etc. (1670-1733).
Man´drabul’s Offering, one that decreases at every repetition. Mandrabul, of Samos, having discovered a gold-mine, offered a golden ram to Juno for the discovery. Next year he offered a silver one, the third year a brazen one, and the fourth year nothing.
Mandricardo, king of Tartary, son of Agrican. Mandricardo wore Hector’s cuirass, married Derălis, and was slain by Roge´ro in single combat.—Bojardo, Orlando Innamorato (1495); Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).
Mandriccardo, a knight whose adventures are recorded by Barahona (Mandriccardo, etc., i. 70, 71).
Mandel (Mrs.), salaried society “coach” of the Dryfoos family after their removal to New York.—W.D. Howells, A Hazard of New Fortunes (1889).
Manduce (2 syl.), the idol Gluttony, venerated by the Grastrol´aters, a people whose god was their belly.
Maiiette (Dr.), of Beauvais. He had been imprisoned eighteen years, and had gradually lost his memory. After his release he somewhat recovered it, but any train of thought connected with his prison life produced a relapse. While in prison, the doctor made shoes, and, whenever the relapse occurred, his desire for cobbling returned.
Lucie Manette, the loving, golden-haired, blue-eyed daughter of Dr. Manette. She marries Charles Darnay.
Lucie Manette had a forehead with the singular capacity of lifting and knitting itself into an expression that was not quite one of perplexity, or wonder, or alarm, or merely of bright, fixed attention, though it included all the four expressions.—C. Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, i. 4 (1859).
Maney or Manny (Sir Walter), a native of Belgium, who came to England as page to Philippa, queen of Edward III. When he first began his career of arms, he and some young companions of his own age put a black patch over their left eye, and vowed never to remove it till they had performed some memorable act in the French wars (died 1372).
Man´fred (Count), son of Sig´ismund. He sells himself to the prince of darkness, and received from him seven spirits to do his bidding. They were the spirits of “earth, ocean, air, night, mountains, winds, and the star of his own destiny.” Wholly without human sympathies, the count dwelt in splendid solitude among the Alpine Mountains. He once loved the beautiful As´tarte (2 syl.), and, after her murder, went to the hall of Arima´nês to see her. The spirit of Astarte informed him that he would die the following day; and when asked if she loved him, she sighed “Manfred,” and vanished.—Byron, Manfred (1817).
⁂ Byron sometimes makes Astarte two syllables, and sometimes three. The usual pronunciation is As.tar-te.
Mangerton (The laird of), John Armstrong, an old warrior who witnesses the national combat in Liddesdale valley between his own son (the Scotch champion), and Foster (the English champion). The laird’s son is vanquished.—Sir W. Scott, The Laird’s Jock (time, Elizabeth).
Maniche´an (4 syl.), a disciple of Manês or Manichee, the Persian heresiarch. The Manicheans believe in two opposing principles—one of good, and the other of evil. Theodora, wishing to extirpate these heretics, put 100,000 of them to the sword.
Man´ito or Mani´tou, the Great Spirit of the North American Indians. These Indians acknowledge two supreme spirits—a spirit of good and a spirit of evil. The former they call Gitchê-Manĭto, and the latter Mitchê-Manito. The good spirit is symbolized by an egg, and the evil one by a serpent.—Longfellow, Hiawatha, xiv.
Manlius, surnamed Torquātus, the Roman consul. In the Latin war, he gave orders that no Roman, on pain of death, should engage in single combat. One of the Latins having provoked young Manlius by repeated insults, he slew him; but when the young man took the spoils to his father, Manlius ordered him to be put to death for violating the commands of his superior officer.—Roman Story.
Man´lius Capitoli´nus, consul of Rome, B.C. 392, then military tribune. After the battle of Allia (390), seeing Rome in the power of the Gauls, he threw himself into the capitol with 1000 men, surprised the Gauls, and put them to the sword. It was for this achievement he was called Capitolinus. Subsequently he was charged with aiming at sovereignty, and was hurled to death from the Tarpeian Rock.
⁂ Lafosse (1698) has a tragedy called Manlius Capitolinus, and “Manlius” was one of the favorite characters of Talma, the French actor. Lafosse’s drama is an imitation of Otway’s tragedy of Venice Preserved (1682).
Manly, the lover of Lady Grace Townly, sister-in-law of Lord Townly. Manly is the cousin of Sir Francis Wronghead, whom he saves from utter ruin. He is noble, judicious, upright, and sets all things right that are going wrong.—Vanbrugh and Cibber, The Provoked Husband (1728).
The address and manner of Dennis Delane [1700-1753] were easy and polite; and he excelled in the well-bred man, such as “Manly.”—T. Davies.
Manly, “the plain dealer.” An honest, surly sea-captain, who thinks every one a rascal, and believes himself no better. Manly forms a good contrast to Olivia, who is a consummate hypocrite of most unblushing effrontery.
“Counterfeit honors,” says Manly, “will not be current with me. I weigh the man, not his titles. ’Tis not the king’s stamp can make the metal better or heavier.”—Wycherly, The Plain DealerDealer i. 1 (1677).
⁂ Manly, the plain dealer, is a copy of Molière’s “Misanthrope,” the prototype of which was the duc de Montausier.
Manly (Captain), the fiancé of Arabella, ward of Justice Day, and an heiress.
Manly (Colonel), a bluff, honest soldier, to whom honor is dearer than life. The hero of the drama.—Mrs. Centlivre, The Beaux’ Duel (1703).
Mann (Mrs.), a dishonest, grasping woman, who kept a branch workhouse, where children were farmed. Oliver Twist was sent to her child-farm. Mrs. Mann systematically starved the children placed under her charge.—C. Dickens, Oliver Twist (1837).
Mannaia, goddess of retribution. The word in Italian means “an axe.”
Mannering (Guy) or Colonel Mannering.
Mrs. Mannering (née Sophia Wellwood), wife of Guy Mannering.
Julia Mannering, daughter of Guy. She marries Captain Bertram. “Rather a hare-brained girl, but well deserving the kindest regards” (act i. 2 of the dramatized version).
Sir Paul Mannering, uncle to Guy Mannering.—Sir. W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).
⁂ Scott’s tale of Guy Mannering has been dramatized by Daniel Terry.
Manon l’Escaut, the heroine of a French novel, entitled Histoire de Chevalier Desgrieux et de Manon Lescot, by A. F. Prévost (1733). Manon is the “fair mischief” of the story. Her charms seduce and ruin the Chevalier des Grieux, who clings to her through all her career with an unconquered passion, forgiving and forgetting to the tragic end when she dies as a convict in the wilds of Louisiana.
Manri´co, the supposed son of Azuce´na, the gypsy, but in reality the son of Garzia (brother of the conte di Luna). Leono´ra is in love with him, but the count entertains a base passion for her, and, getting Manrico into his power, condemns him to death. Leonora promises the count to give herself to him if he will spare the life of Manrico. He consents, but while he goes to release his “nephew,” Leonora sucks poison from a ring and dies. Manrico, on perceiving this, dies also.—Verdi, Il Trovato´rê (an opera, 1853).
Mans (The Count of), Roland, nephew of Charlemagne. He is also called the “knight of Blaives.”
Mansel (Sir Edward), lieutenant of the Tower of London.
Lady Mansel, wife of Sir Edward.—Sir W. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, (time, James I).
Mansfield (The Miller of), a humorous, good-natured countryman, who offered Henry VIII. hospitality when he had lost himself in a hunting expedition. The miller gave the king half a bed with his son Richard. Next morning, the courtiers were brought to the cottage by under-keepers, and Henry, in merry pin, knighted his host, who thus became Sir John Cockle. He then made him “overseer of Sherwood Forest,” with a salary of 1000 marks a year.—R. Dodsley, The King and the Miller of Mansfield (1737).
⁂ In the ballad called The King and the Miller of Mansfield, the king is Henry II., and there are several other points of difference between the ballad and the play. In the play, Cockle hears a gun fired, and goes out to look for poachers, when he lays hold of the king, but, being satisfied that he is no poacher, he takes him home. In the ballad, the king out-rides his lords, gets lost, and, meeting the miller, asks of him a night’s lodging. When the miller feels satisfied with the face and bearing of the stranger, he entertains him right hospitably. He gives him for supper a venison pasty, but tells him on no account to tell the king “that they made free with his deer.” Another point of difference is this: In the play, the courtiers are seized by the under-keepers, and brought to Cockle’s house; but in the ballad they track the king and appear before him next morning. In the play, the king settles on Sir John Cockle 1000 marks; in the ballad, £300 a year.—Percy, Reliques, III. ii. 20.
(Of course, as Dodsley introduced the “firing of a gun,” he was obliged to bring down his date to more modern times, and none of the Henrys between Henry II. and Henry VIII. would be the least likely to indulge in such a prank.)
Mansur (Elijah), a warrior, prophet, and priest, who taught a more tolerant form of Islâm, but not being an orthodoxorthodox Moslem, he was condemned to imprisonment in the bowels of a mountain. Mansur is to re-appear and wave his conquering sword, to the terror of the Muscovite.—Milner, Gallery of Geography, 781. (See Barbarossa.)
Mantacci´ni, a charlatan, who professed to restore the dead to life.
Mantali´ni (Madame), a fashionable milliner, near Cavendish Square, London. She dotes upon her husband, and supports him in idleness.
Mr. Mantalini, the husband of madame; he is a man-doll and cockney fop, noted for his white teeth, his minced oaths, and his gorgeous morning gown. This “exquisite” lives on his wife’s earnings, and thinks he confers a favor on her by lavishing her money on his selfish indulgences.—C. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby (1838).
Mantle (The Boy and the). One day, a little boy presented himself before King Arthur, and showed him a curious mantle “which would become no wife that was not leal” to her true lord. The queen tried it on, but it changed its color and fell into shreds; Sir Kay’s lady tried it on, but with no better success; others followed, but only Sir Cradock’s wife could wear it.—Percy, Reliques.
Mantuan (The) that is, Baptista Spagn´olus, surnamed Mantua´nus, from the place of his birth. He wrote poems and eclogues in Latin. His works were translated into English by George Tuberville in 1567. He lived 1443-1516.
Mantuan Swan (The), Virgil, a native of Mantua (B. C. 70-19).
Ma´nucodia´ta, a bird resembling a swallow, found in the Molucca Islands. “It has no feet, and though the body is not bigger than that of a swallow, the span of its wings is equal to that of an eagle. These birds never approach the earth, but the female lays her eggs on the back of the male, and hatches them in her own breast. They live on the dew of heaven, and eat neither animal nor vegetable food.”—Cardan, De Rerum Varietate (1557).
Manuel du Sosa, governor of Lisbon, and brother of Guiomar (mother of the vainglorious Duarte),Duarte), (3 syl.).—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Custom of the Country (1647).
Mapp (Mrs.), bone-setter. She was born at Epsom, and at one time was very rich, but she died in great poverty at her lodgings in Seven Dials, 1737.
⁂ Hogarth has introduced her in his heraldic picture, “The Undertakers’ Arms.” She is the middle of the three figures at the top, the other two being Dr. Ward, on the right hand of the spectator, and Dr. Taylor on the left.
Maqueda, the queen of the South, who visited Solomon, and had by him a son named Melech.—Zaga Zabo, Ap. Damian a Goes.
⁂ Maqueda is generally called Balkîs, queen of Saba or Zaba.
Mara Lincoln, orphaned grandchild of Captain and Mrs. Fennell; betrothed to Moses Fennell. She dies young, and is long and sincerely mourned.—Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Pearl of Orr’s Island.
Marcassin (Prince). This nursery tale is from the Nights, of Straparola, an Italian (sixteenth century). Translated into French in 1585.
Marce´lia, the “Desdemona” of Massinger’s Duke of Milan. Sforza, “the More,” doted on his young bride, and Marcelia returned his love. During Sforza’s absence at the camp, Francesco, “the lord protector,” tried to seduce the young bride from her fidelity, and, failing in his purpose, accused her to the duke of wishing to play the wanton. “I labored to divert her ... urged your much love ... but hourly she pursued me.” The duke, in a paroxysm of jealousy, flew on Marcelia and slew her.—Massinger, The Duke of Milan (1622).
Marcella, daughter of William, a farmer. Her father and mother died while she was young, leaving her in charge of an uncle. She was “the most beautiful creature ever sent into the world,” and every bachelor who saw her fell madly in love with her, but she declined their suits. One of her lovers was Chrysostom, the favorite of the village, who died of disappointed hope, and the shepherds wrote on his tombstone: “From Chrysostom’s fate, learn to abhor Marcella, that common enemy of man, whose beauty and cruelty are both in the extreme.”—Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. ii. 4, 5 (1605).
Marcellin de Peyras. The chevalier to whom the Baron de Peyras gave up his estates when he retired to Grenoble. De Peyras eloped with Lady Ernestine, but soon tired of her, and fell in love with his cousin Margaret, the baron’s daughter.—E. Stirling, The Gold-Mine or The Miller of Grenoble (1854).
Marcelli´na, daughter of Rocco, jailer of the State prison of Seville. She fell in love with Fidelio, her father’s servant; but this Fidelio turned out to be Leonora, wife of the State prisoner Fernando Florestan.—Beethoven, Fidelio (an opera, 1791).
Marcello, in Meyerbeer’s opera of Les Huguenots, unites in marriage Valenti´na and Raoul (1836).
Marcellus (M. Claudius), called “The Sword of Rome.” Fabius “Cunctator” was “The Shield of Rome.”
Marcellus, an officer of Denmark, to whom the ghost of the murdered king appeared before it presented itself to Prince Hamlet.—Shakespeare, Hamlet (1596).
Marchioness (The), the half-starved girl-of-all-work, in the service of Sampson Brass and his sister Sally. She was so lonesome and dull that it afforded her relief to peep at Mr. Swiveller, even through the keyhole of his door. Though so dirty and ill-cared for, “the marchioness” was sharp-witted and cunning. It was Mr. Swiveller who called her the “marchioness,” when she played cards with him, “because it seemed more real and pleasant” to play with a marchioness than with a domestic slavey (ch. lvii.) When Dick Swiveller was turned away and fell sick, the “marchioness” nursed him carefully, and he afterwards married her.—C. Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop (1840).
Marchmont (Miss Matilda), the confidante of Julia Mannering.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).
Marcian, armorer to Count Robert of Paris.—Sir W. Scott, Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).
Marck (William de la), a French nobleman, called “The Wild Boar of Ardennes” (Sanglier des Ardennes).—Sir W. Scott, Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).
Marcliffe (Theophilus), pseudonym of William Godwin (author of Caleb Williams, 1756-1836).
Marco Bozzaris. Leader of the Suliotes in the successful rebellion against the Turks. A night-attack upon the Turkish camp results in the victory of the Greeks. Bozzaris is killed as the cry of triumph is raised by his command.