MORTE D'ARTHUR 



5543 



MORTLAKE 



omphani*ed until it was nearly 

 square with a flat top ; this Bur- 

 face was enlarged and the biretiim 

 became th square cap of th- 

 li-h high churchmen of the 17th 

 rfiitury. In the 18th century the 

 WHS stitfrned \\itli \voodor 

 rnnllioard and a tassel was sub- 

 stituted for the original ornamental 

 knot. See Cap. 



Morte d' Arthur, THE. Name of 

 hc\ii:;l works in verse and prosa 

 (mlmclyinr; the medieval legends nj 

 Kiii<.' Arthur and the Knights of 

 tl><> Hound Table. Of these the 

 most important is the compilation, 

 mainly from French sources, com- 

 pleted by Sir Thomas Malory in 

 1470, and first printed by Caxton in 

 1485. Malory s woi-k, of deep 

 intrinsic interest, is remarkable for 

 its selection and arrangement of 

 the more notable features of the 

 Arthurian story, the loves of 

 Lancelot and Guinevere, and the 

 Quest of the Holy Grail. It is the 

 finest extant example of 15th cent- 

 ury English prose, a foundation 

 stone of English prose fiction, and 

 proved a source of inspiration to 

 Spenser, Matthew Arnold, Swin- 

 burne, William Morris, and Alfred 

 Tennyson, whose Idylls of the 

 King are to a considerable extent 

 based upon it. See Arthur ; 

 Elaine ; Malory ; Tennyson. 



Bibliography. Le morte Arthur, 

 ed. by F. J. Furnivall, 1864, and 

 J. D. Bruce, 1903; Morte D'Arthur, 

 Malory's, ed. J. Gollancz, 1900 ; 

 E. Strachey, 1898, repr. 1904 ; E. 

 Rhys, 1909 ; and H. O. Sommer, 

 with essay by A. Lang, 1889-91 ; 

 The Legend of the Holy Grail, A. 

 Nutt, 1888 ; Survey of Arthurian 

 Romance, J. L. Weston, 1905; Vul- 

 gate Version of the Arthurian Ro- 

 mances, ed. from MSS. in British 

 Museum, with index, H. O. Sommer, 

 1908-16; Structure of Le Livre 

 d'Artus, H. O. Sommer, 1914. 



Mortgage. In English law, the 

 creation in property of an interest 

 which is to cease when a certain 

 sum of money, usually with in- 

 terest, is paid on a certain date. 

 When the owner of land, lease- 

 hold, freehold, or copyhold, wishes 

 to borrow money on the security 

 of his land, he usually does so by 

 way of mortgage. 



The nature of the transaction it, 

 thus : the borrower (mortgagor) 

 executes a deed conveying the 

 land to the lender (mortgagee), 

 and agrees to pay back the money 

 with interest at an agreed rate in 

 six months. At Common Law, if 

 he did not repay on the given date, 

 he had no right to repay subse- 

 quently ; that is, the mortgagee 

 became the absolute owner of the 

 property. But the court of equity 

 interfered, and would, even after 

 the six months had elapsed, allow 



the borrower to repay the 

 piil, interest, and costs, and compel 

 the mortgagee to reconvey the 

 property. As a rule, the mortgagee 

 does not enter into possession of 

 that property, but if ho does he is 

 compelled to account to the mort- 

 gagor for all the rents and profits 

 ne receives, and is in no cirrum 

 stances allowed to make profit 

 beyond his principal, interest, and 

 costs, and anything ho has neces- 

 sarily spent in repairs, etc. 



A mortgagee who wants his 

 money must give three months' 

 notice. After such notice is given 

 on one side or the other, if the 

 money is not repaid, the mortgagee 

 can either ( 1 ) sell the property and 

 repay himself, handing over the 

 balance to the mortgagor ; or (2) 

 foreclose. To foreclose means to 

 obtain an order from the court 

 that, unless the mortgagor pays up 

 within a fixed time, he shall lose all 

 rights to redeem, so that the land, 

 etc., becomes the absolute property 

 of the mortgagee. If the mortgagee 

 sells, and the property does not 

 realize enough to pay the principal, 

 interest, and costs of sale, he can 

 sue the mortgagor for the balance. 

 During and after the Great War 

 Acts of Parliament restricted the 

 power to call in mortgages and to 

 raise the" rate of interest thereon 

 above a certain figure. See J-and 

 Laws ; Rent Restriction. 



Mort Homme. Hill of France, 

 in the dept. of Meuse. It is 968 ft. 

 high, and stands on the W. bank 

 of the Meuse, a little to the N. of 

 Verdun. In March, 1916, the Ger- 

 mans tried to storm it by frontal 

 attacks and to take it in flank, but 

 were defeated with enormous 

 losses. Another attack on April 9 

 also failed, but in May a renewal of 

 it brought about a French with- 

 drawal. The hill was retaken by 

 the French on Aug. 20. See Verdun, 

 Battles of. 



Mortification. Death of a 

 limited portion of tissue. The term 

 gangrene (q.v.) is more often used. 



Mortification (Lat. mortuus, 

 dead ; facer e, to make). In Scots 

 law, a gift of land made inalienably 

 for ecclesiastical or charitable pur- 

 poses. The word is also applied to 

 lands so given, and to funds or 

 institutions supported from the 

 revenues therefrom. It is equiva- 

 lent to the English mortmain (q.v.). 



Mortillet, Louis LAURENT GA- 

 BRIEL DE (1821-98). French an- 

 thropologist and zoologist. Born at 

 Meylan, Isere, Aug. 29, 1821, he 

 studied in Paris. The propaganda 

 of a newspaper which he acquired 

 led, after the 1848 revolution, to a 

 sentence of imprisonment. To elude 

 this he resided abroad, mostly in 

 Italy and Switzerland. Work at 



the Ocneva natural history museum 

 induced him to study the Swiss 

 lake-dwellings. Returning to Paris, 

 1864, he became in 1868 curator of 

 the St. Germain museum. He died 

 at St. Germain-en-Laye, Sept. 25, 

 1898, having written a number of 

 books on antiquarian subjects. 



Mortimer. Famous English 

 family. Of Norman origin, th.- 

 name is taken from Mortemer, 

 their home in Normandy. Ralph dr; 

 Mortimer followed William the 

 Conqueror to England and ob- 

 tained a good deal of land in the 

 border counties, where the name is 

 still perpetuated by Mortimer's 

 Cross and Cleobury Mortimer. In 

 1086, according to Domesday, he 

 had land in eleven counties, and his 

 successors, whose chief stronghold 

 was first Wigmore Castle and later 

 Ludlow Castle, were equally power- 

 ful. One of them, Roger Mortimer, 

 helped to win the battle of Eve- 

 sham for Henry III, and another 

 Roger obtained by marriage great 

 estates in Ireland. The latter was 

 the baron who, the lover of Isa- 

 bella, helped to overthrow her hus- 

 band, Edward II. In 1328 he was 

 made earl of March and, after his 

 death as a traitor, his title and 

 estates were restored to his grand- 

 son, Edmund. He married Phi- 

 lippa, daughter of Lionel, duke of 

 Clarence, and the Mortimers were 

 thus members of the group hi whom 

 the succession to the crown lay. 

 The house became extinct when the 

 5th earl died in 1425. See March, 

 Earl of ; Wigmore. 



Mortimer's Cross, BATTLE OF. 

 Fought during the War of the 

 Roses, Feb. 2, 1461. Mortimer's 

 Cross is near Wigmore in Hereford- 

 shire. Edward of York, afterwards 

 King Edward IV, was then at 

 Shrewsbury, and the news of his 

 father's death and the Yorkist 

 disaster at Wakefield encouraged 

 the Lancastrian lords to collect 

 against him. The details of the 

 engagement are lost, but it ended 

 in a Yorkist victory. Owen Tudor 

 was one of the captives executed 

 by Edward after the battle. 



Mortlake. Parish and village of 

 Surrey. England. It stands on the 

 Thames, 1| m. E. by N. of Rich- 

 mond, with a station on the I .. & 

 S.W. Rly. The chief building is 

 S. Mary's Church. A noted boating 

 resort and the finishing point of the 

 Oxford and Cambridge boat-race, 

 Mortlake was at one time cele- 

 brated for its tapestries, a factory, 

 said to be the first in England, hav- 

 ing been set up here in 1616. It is 

 now chiefly concerned with brew- 

 ing and malting. Mortlake House 

 wag long a residence of the arch- 

 bishops of Canterbury. Pop. 

 16,300. 



