UAXWKLI,, LOBD. 



MAYER, TOBIAS. 



1M 



waa Ik* ftrnosM with which he opposed Vaatili's dirorce from his 

 if* S.lom* (oo aoaount of barrenne*.), and his rarriage with 

 the PriiK*> Helena C.l.o.kL !! as condemned by synod. cxcom- 

 muDicmtol u a her tie, and imprisoned in the Otrotch monastery at 

 Tver. talSSi. In this confinement ha we* treated with great rigour 

 d<-a<h of ll> metropolitan Dani. 1 ; after which the Bishop of 

 Tver interotdrd for him, and obUincd some mitigation of the severity 

 towardf him. At length tha next Tear, Iran Vaasilivich, con- 



tented to hi* being removed to tha monastery of St. Scrgiip, where be 

 eonUnuvJ nutil bis death in 105fi. A great number of works are 

 slant Hy hint (chiefly in manuscript) on a variety of subject*, 

 docmatinl, polemical, philosophical, te. ; from which considerable 

 inf->ra.at>n hat been derived with regard to the opinions and pre- 

 jodior* if the clergy and people in that age; nor was ho at all timid 

 m reproving the amute and vice* of the times. This alone would 

 :i>. for the persecution which he drow down upon himself; but 

 LU death even those who had been among the more violent 

 n*in<t him admitted hi innocence, nor was it long before hi* memory 

 TOM to b- regarded an that of a holy man and a martyr. 



atAXWKI.l., K T.K.ItT, LOUD, son of John, third Lord Maxwell, 

 l .. w.f killed at Kloddon, in September I'.ll. II" bad been knighted, 

 and appointed Stewart of Annandale, on the resignation of his father, 

 on the lOUi of June precedinc ; and in 1517 l. was appointed warden 

 .f the We*t Mrc' i -. In 1.V2I be was provost of Edinburgh, and in 

 that rapacity choarn one of the lords of articles for the commissioners 

 of borough* : a solitary instance, it U supposed, of a peer being so 

 elected. Ha wa afterward* chosen one of the privy-council ; and on 

 UK 17th of November l.",33. appears in the sederunts of the Court of 

 8***ion a* an extraordinary lord of sea-ion. In 1536 he was appointed 

 one of th> Ion Is of the rrft-ncy to whom the government of the king- 

 dom w*a intruated during the absence of King .lames V. on hU 

 matrimonial expedition to Prance ; and the next year he was himself 

 dpaljhd to negotiate the marriage of Mnry of Lorraine. He is 

 said to have advised the expedition which terminated at Solway 

 MOM, but was so incensed at the command of tha army being given 

 to Oilier Sinclair, that in common with most of the Scots nobility he 

 mutinied and yielded himself up a prisoner to the English, who had 

 a force much inferior to their opponents. On the death of King 

 James V. he was ranaomed and allowed to return to Scotland, in the 

 bop* that he would further the projects of King Henry VIII., in 

 not to the marriage of the young Queon of Scots. In the first 

 par) lament of Mary, whn-h met in March 1543, he presented to the 

 lcd* of article* one of the moat important acts of the time, which 

 had undoubtedly considerable effect in accelerating the progress of 

 toe Il< formation. Tbi was a writing, or an we should now term it, 

 a I'.ill,' for an act of p rliament to allow the reading of the 

 Soripturee in the vulgar tongue. The lords of articles found the 

 prupraal rea*onble ; and it wa* accordingly brought into parliament, 

 aad puetd into a law notwithstanding the protest and opposition of 

 the lord chancellor and the whole hierarchy of tv< kingdom. 

 Toward* the end of the aame year, Beaton became chancellor, and 

 Lord Maxw.il wa* apprehended, but he contrived to make his escape 

 almost immediately after. He died on the 9th of July 1546. 



MAY, T luMAS, an early English dramatist and historian, was 

 born in 1JW. lie w*< the son of Sir Thomas May, who was 

 ilese Dilid from an anci. ut family in the county of Sussex. Having 

 tabbed hi* education at Sidney-Sussex College, Cambridge, he came 

 to London, adopted the law a* hii profession, and made the acquaint- 

 ance of Mvrral prraoni of distinction. In 16.'17 May was opposed 

 to Sir William Davrnant as candidate for the office of laureate, which 

 tbe death of Ben Jomon had left vacant. Sir William was successful, 

 and l>u tocos*, .o exasperated May, that although hitherto a courtier, 

 be became boetil* to the king* party, and by tho interest of Crom- 

 well wet made eeereury of the wliament, of which he wrote a 



History.' On the 13th of November 16&0 he wns found dead in bin 

 bed. It U rappoacd that he aa stranded by the tightness of his 

 nMrtitcap-etriug* ; but Marvel intimate* that it was from the effect of 

 drtnUag. He was buried in Westminster Al.bey ; but his body was 



p after the aUatontwn, and removed to a large pit in tho 



bureajard of 8*. Margaret'*, Westminster, and bin munummt in the 

 abbey polled dova 



Hwida* a hutory of parliament, be wrote a ' Description in Verse 



>ry II-,' and a pro** 'Short Survey of the Change* of the 



Itdtaof Hear* II., w, a th n.aracter of Henry and Hicbar I, hi 



- Dialed The Victorious Ileign of Edward 111. ; ' and 



twstailB of Loan'* 'J'hanalia,' with a Continuation both in Latin 

 ad Kmtti.h traaalatioa* of Virgil'* 'Oeorgio,' and ' Selected Kpi- 

 ,ram. l Martial.' Hi* plat* ,r mppoeeJ by iomo to be <lve in 

 MM and IbnM fit* are named A gripping Antigone,' 

 |or. The lUir.' and The Old :.* last two are comedies, 

 exl an pit.ird in I>I.Uy' Collection. 'The History of the 



..nt w.s r-f r.nted with a Trefaoo by Baron Majorca. 



MAYKU. SlV.n;.| , bora in Bavaria (at X.ndtrIorf, in 1760, 



aooocditMC 10 .J.rber; at Meadorf, in 1 763, at stated by Lichtenthal). 



mt at an e*rly ago to atmly music In Italy, in which country 



> ,~M*.| tb* greater portion of I.U Mf*. In 170 appeared his first 



r>ltofa4ird opera, now known tmder the title of 11 Fanatico per 

 te Mn.ink' ]n 1*W b* Meboeti at Maettoo di C*pella to tho church 



of Maria Maggi >re in Bergama In the same year he produced his 

 ' Miiteri Eleustni,' which on the Continent has always been considered 

 a work of tho first olasn, though we believe it never reach. 

 country. It U supposed to have prepared the way for the reception 

 of Mozart's compositions in Italy, by the iutroduotion of richer har- 

 mony and fuller and bolder accompaniment*. In 1803 he brought out 

 at Vienna ' L'Equivoco,' an opera buffo; and in the same year ' La 

 Oinevra di Scozia," founded on tho episode of Ariodaute in the 

 'Orlando Furioso,' which yet is occasionally placed on the Italian lyric 

 stage. So indeed are his 'Lodoiska,' 'Alcramo ed Adelosia,' and ' 1. 1 

 Rosa Bianca, e la llosa Kossa,' the subject of the latter from the 

 history of our wars of the Red and White Roses. But the grottoes* 

 of his conceptions, and the most striking proof of the energy of hU 

 mind, are evidenced in Ms serious opera, ' Medea,' first made known 

 in London by Madame Pasta, whose personation of the Sorceress of 

 Colchis was by all acknowledged to be one of the finest histrionic 

 efforts that any stage in any country hod exhibited, and who did no 

 le's justice to the vigorous mu>io of the composer than to the classical 

 taste of the poet, Signer Roeetti, who built his drama on the found- 

 ations laid by Euripides and Corneille. The bold determination of 

 Mayer (and also of Paer) to draw more effects from the orchestra to 

 give to his compositions a higher colouring, as well as deeper contrast) 

 of light and shade, than had been allowed by the Italian school met 

 at first with much opposition from the sturdy nou progressionist*, 

 and, through their influence, from the public generally ; but tho 

 enlarged powers of the art thus obt lined soon became apparent, and 

 overcame all resistance. Mayer died in Italy, December 2, 1345. 



MAYER, TOBIAS, was born at Marbach, a town of Wurtemberg, 

 on the 17th of February 1723. His father was a civil engineer, and 

 held the appointment of inspector of tho water-works (inspecteur deg 

 eaux) at Esslingcn. From him young Mayer received some elementary 

 instruction in the mathematics, but it could not have been much, 

 since we read that he was left an orphan and unprovided for at a 

 very early age. To gain a livelihood he began teaching the mathe- 

 matics, and at the age of twenty he studied the principles of giiini. ry, 

 probably with a view of entering the army. In the year 1746 he took 

 an active part in the establishment of the Cosmographical Society of 

 N urn berg, to whose 'Transactions' he afterwards contributed several 

 interesting memoirs. Among these is one, published in 1750, ' On tho 

 Libration of the Moon,' in which, besides treating the subject in a 

 very able m inner, he then for the first time employed " equations of 

 condition," which are now of such extensive and important applica- 

 tion. In 1751 he became director of the observatory at Cut 

 and at the same time or subsequently was appointed professor of 

 economy in that university, which appointment was probably a sinecure, 

 since it does not appear that he ever taught any subject but the mathe- 

 matics and their application. At Gottingen, during tho remainder of 

 a very short life, he laboured with the most praiseworthy zeal to 

 promot tho sciences of geography, navigation, and astronomy. His 

 'Zodiacal Catalogue' was " deserving of all confidence" (Delambre), 

 and comprised 998 stars, including those whose correct positions are 

 of most importance to the astronomer. In 1755 he published hu 

 ' Lunar Tables ' in the ' Acts of the Academy of Gottingen,' and a 

 copy of them was forwarded to the London Board of Longitude. By 

 order of the board the accuracy of the tables was rigorously tested by 

 Dr. Bradley, who was able in no instance to detect an error greater 

 than 1' 30" (the error of the other tables then existing sometimes 

 amounted to 10'), and even part of this he was of opinion mUht be 

 fairly attributed to his on-u observations. (See Dr. Bradley's ' Letter 

 to the Secretary of the Admiralty,' dated 10th of February IT.'iii.) 

 There tables were printed by the Board of Longitude in the year 1767, 

 and likewise the 'Solar Tables' by the same author in the year 1770. 

 After the death of Mayer the British parliament, at the recomnieij.la- 

 tion of tho Board, paid his widow the sum of 30002. The original 

 resolution of the Board, dated ilth of February 1765, recomtn. n.U 

 that a sum ' not exceeding 50002." should be awarded ; and Delamhro 

 states that a further sum of 20002. was subsequently paid ; but this 

 is a mistake. The act of parliament awarding the 30002. is that of 

 6 Oeo. Ill, o. 20; and tho later acts relating to the Board of Longitude 

 moke no further n ention of Mayer's widow. To Major is also due 

 the dincovery of the principle of the repeating circle, which WHS 

 nfierwards so fully doveloj,e 1 by Borda, and employed by him in tho 

 measurement of tho arc of tho incii.lian. [UoiiDA, vol. i., c 1 

 Mayor died at Guttingen on the 20th of l-'.-ln-uary 17C2. His dloge 

 waispokenbyKaostnar(Uott,4to, 1702). In IS01 a simple moonm nt 

 wa* erected to bin memory nt Gottingen, the place of his interment. 



The following liit of hn published works is given by M. Delambre 

 from the 'Kloge' of Mayer by Ka"Ktnor: 'Description of Be* 

 Globe of the Moon ' (Nurnborg, 1750); 'Terrestrial Refraction*;' 

 ' Geographical Maps ; ' ' Description of a new Micrometer ; ' ' 

 vation* of tho Solar Eclipse of 1718 ; ' ' Conjunctions of tho Moon :yi>l 

 Stars observed in 1747-48;' 'Proofs that the Moon has no Atmo- 

 sphere;' 'Motion of the Earth explained by a Change in the 

 lion of Giuvity ; ' ' Determination of the Latitude of Nurnberg, with 

 other Astronomical Ohsirvations; ' 'Memoir ou the Parallax of tho 

 Moon, and upon the Distance of that Satellite from the Earth, as 

 deduced from the Length of the Secr.nd Pendulum; ' 'On the Train- 

 forma'inn <( H'ctiliii"ar Figures into Triangles;' 'Inclination and 



