MASKELYNE MASON. 



711 



observant of his word, and very strict to his chil- 

 dren ; but in the particular of being continually 

 imposed on, he remains the same. He speaks in the 

 Venetian dialect the doctor in the Bolognese. Buf- 

 foons are likewise among- the oldest masks of the 

 Italian stage ; one is Harlequin (q. v.), the other is 

 Scapin, cunning- and knavish servants of Pantalone and 

 the Doctor. Brighella is not so old, as his garment, 

 garnished with green ribands, and made in the 

 fashion of the middle ages, proves. Sismondi gives 

 the following account of his origin, from the Chroni- 

 cle of Malvezzi : " 1200 of the nobility of Brescia 

 wished to compel the citizens to take up arms against 

 the people of Bergamo, and they resisted. A bloody 

 battle ensued, in the streets of Brescia, in which the 

 nobility were beaten ; they fled to Cremona, where 

 they formed a military band ; the popular party formed 

 a similar band, under the name of Brugella or Bri- 

 ghella.'" The name has been preserved on the stage, 

 in a mask, which represents a proud, bold, and crafty 

 plebeian of Brescia. This derivation is opposed to 

 the common account, according- to which, Brighella 

 sprung from Ferrara. The Doctor of Bologna, Panta- 

 lone of Venice, Harlequin of Bergamo, Brighella of 

 Ferrara, and all the personages, who are best com- 

 prehended under the name Zanneschi, the captains 

 Spavento, Tracasso, Tempesta (who call to mind the 

 Pyrgopolynices of Plautus), Trufaldin the Bergamese, 

 have, therefore, all been on the stage from the fif- 

 teenth century. Besides these, the Romans had the 

 don Pasquale and the Gelsonmi ; the Florentines, 

 the Pasquelle ; the Calabrians, the Giangurgolo ; the 

 Sicilians, the Travaglini ; the Messenians, the Giova- 

 nelli ; the Neapolitans, the Coviello, Pasquariello ; 

 the Milanese, the Girolamo; the Piedmontese, the 

 Gianduja. Of the female masks, the Colombine of 

 the Italian theatre is to be mentioned. Of the other 

 characters may be mentioned Pedrolino, Bertolino, 

 Trivelino, Mezzolino, and D. Plione Balanzoni. 

 (Respecting the mask of Pulcinella, see this article.) 

 Ruzzante, in 1530, is said to have introduced the 

 masked characters into the higher comedy. Accurate 

 representations of these masks are to be found in 

 Riccoboni's History of the Italian Theatre (Paris, 

 1728, 2 vols. 8vo.) See professor Franc. Valen- 

 tini's Trattato sulla Commedia del Arte, ossia improv- 

 visa, Maschere Italians ed alcune Scene del Carnivale 

 di Roma, Berlin, 1826, 4to, with twenty coloured 

 engravings. See, also, the article Carnival. 



The mask used at masked balls, or masquerades, is a 

 covering for the head and face made from a light stuff, 

 with which a man may disguise himself and remain 

 unknown, or perhaps represent some other character. 

 There are whole and half masks ; for example, masks 

 for the nose and the eyes. The best are of wax and 

 fine linen ; the poorer, of paper, The former are 

 made very well in Berlin and Italy, particularly at 

 Venice ; the latter in France, at Paris and Rouen. 

 There are natural masks, caricature masks (masche- 

 racci), &c. Catharine of Medici is said to have first 

 introduced masked balls. A similar mummery was in 

 fashion at the court of Henry VIII. (151046), who 

 liked the disguise. 



Mask ; a species of drama. See Masque. 



MASKELYNE, NEVIL, an eminent mathematician 

 and astronomer, born in London, in 1732, educated 

 at Westminster and Cambridge, was chosen a fel- 

 low of the royal society, and, in 1761, deputed to 

 proceed to the island of St Helena, to observe the 

 transit of Venus. During the voyage, he employed 

 himself in making lunar observations, with a view to 

 ascertaining the longitude. In 1763, he went to 

 Barbadoes, to try the accuracy of Harrison's time- 

 keeper. On the death of Mr Bliss, he became royal 

 astronomer; and, in 1767, commenced the publica- 



tion of the Nautical Almanac, for which he published 

 a volume of accompanying tables. (See Mason, 

 Charles.) In 1774, doctor Maskelyne was employed 

 in making observations on the eclipses of Jupiter's 

 satellites at Greenwich ; and the same year he went 

 to Scotland, to ascertain the gravitative attraction of 

 the mountain Schehallien, in Perthshire, of which he 

 published an account in the Philosophical Transac- 

 tions. He died in 1811. He was the author of the 

 British Mariner's Guide, containing complete and 

 easy instructions for the discovery of the longitude 

 at sea and land (1763, 4to); and Astronomical Ob- 

 servations made at the Royal Observatory at Green- 

 wich (1784 88, 3 vols., fbl.); besides many papers 

 in the Philosophical Transactions. 



MASON, CHARLES ; an English astronomer, an 

 assistant of doctor Bradley at the royal observatory 

 at Greenwich. He was employed to examine the 

 lunar tables of Mayer, and the result of his labours 

 appeared in Mayer's Lunar Tables, improved by C. 

 Mason, published by order of the Commissioners 

 of the Board of Longitude (London, 1787). Mr 

 Mason was sent to America with a grand sector, to 

 determine the limits of the provinces of Maryland 

 and Pennsylvania. He was accompanied by Mr 

 Dixon, in conjunction with whom he measured a de- 

 gree of the meridian ; and an account of their opera- 

 tions was published by doctor Maskelyne in the 

 Philosophical Transactions for 1768. Mason died at 

 Pennsylvania, in February, 1787. He communicated 

 to the royal society an account of observations on the 

 transit of Venus, June 3, 1769, made at Cavan in 

 Ireland, and other papers, which may be found in the 

 Philosophical Transactions. 



MASON, WILLIAM, an eminent English poet, was 

 the son of a clergyman in Yorkshire, where he was 

 born in 1725. He studied at Cambridge, where he 

 received a fellowship. His first appearance in the 

 literary world was by the publication of Isis, a poem 

 (1748), in which he satirized the Jacobitism and 

 high church principles which prevailed in the univer- 

 sity of Oxford. This piece provoked a reply from 

 Thomas Warton, entitled the triumph of Isis. In 

 1752, he published his Elfrida, a tragedy with choral 

 odes on the ancient Greek model. Having taken 

 orders in the church, he obtained the living of Aston 

 in Yorkshire, and was appointed one of the royal 

 chaplains. In 1759, appeared his Caractacus, a 

 drama, on a kindred plan with the former. In 1762, 

 Mr Mason was made precentor of York. One of his 

 principal works, the English Garden, a poem, in four 

 books, appeared in 1772, 77, 79, and 81 (4to); and 

 a second edition, with a commentary and notes, by 

 W. Burgh, was printed in 1785 (8vo). This work 

 was translated into French and German. In 1775, he 

 published the poems of his friend Gray, with memoirs 

 of his life. His principal subsequent publications 

 are, Odes ; a translation of Du Fresnoy's Art of 

 Painting, with Sir Joshua Reynold's notes (1783, 

 4to); the Life of William Whitehead, with his poems 

 (1788, 3 vols., 8vo); and an Essay on Church Music. 

 Besides his acknowledged works, Mason is supposed 

 to have been the author of the Heroic Epistle to Sir 

 William Chambers, and other satirical pieces, which 

 were published under the signature of M'Gregoi-. 

 At the beginning of the American war, Mr Mason 

 became so active an advocate for freedom as to give 

 offence at court, and he was consequently dismissed 

 from his chaplainship ; but alarmed by the French 

 revolution, his zeal cooled in the latter part of his 

 life. He died April 7, 1797. 



MASON, JOHN MITCHELL, D. D., an American 

 theologian and pulpit orator, was born in the city of 

 New York, March 19, 1770. He entered Columbia 

 College, in that city, and was graduated in May, 1789 , 



