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MATTHIAS CORVINUS MAUBREUIL. 



human nature in all its endless variety, and no man 

 ever observed it to greater advantage. The designs 

 tor all his "At Homes " were given by himself, though 

 written by others; hence came, perhaps, in a great 

 measure, the spirit of his performance, as in this respect 

 .Matthews might be compared to a great musician 

 playing his own music. He was the satirist and 

 rebuker a gentle and an amusing one of the vices, 

 tlie follies, and the extravagances of the day. He 

 did not distort his character, but his incidents. He 

 chose those circumstances under which the peculi- 

 arities of his characters could be best displayed a 

 privilege which every novelist and dramatist has 

 claimed from time immemorial ; and within these 

 bounds he was always true to nature. The finish of 

 his sketches was as surprising as their vigour, and his 

 extreme versatility more extraordinary than both. No 

 man since Garrick ever went through such a range of 

 character, whilst his occasional touches of exquisite 

 tenderness and pathos mingled with his rich comic 

 humour in strange yet harmonious combination. 

 Matthews was the only actor of our day who could 

 suffuse the eye with tears of emotion, and convulse 

 the features with laughter at one and the same 

 moment. Nothing could exceed the correctness of 

 his ear ; he spoke all the dialects of Ireland, Scot- 

 land, and Wales with a fidelity perfectly miraculous. 

 He would discriminate between the pronunciation of 

 the different Ridings of Yorkshire, and speak French 

 with the Parisian accent, the patois of the South, or 

 the guttural tone of the Flemish. 



In person, Matthews was about five feet eleven 

 inches in height : his countenance was pleasing on 

 the stage, though a singular twist was always percep- 

 tible about the mouth, and seemed the latent token of 

 his irresistible drollery. 



MATTHIAS CORVINUS, king of Hungary, 

 second son of the gallant Hunniades, a man of great 

 ability, who, by his wars against the Turks, excited 

 the interest of Europe, and in Hungary, was esteemed 

 the first of her kings. The enemies of his father 

 kept him imprisoned in Bohemia, but, in 1458, at the 

 age of sixteen years, he was called to the throne of 

 Hungary. Several Hungarian magnates opposed 

 the election, and invited Frederic III. to accept the 

 crown. The Turks, profiting by these dissensions, 

 invaded and laid waste Hungary ; butCorvinus, hav- 

 ing compelled Frederic III. to resign to him the 

 crown of St Stephen, hastened to meet the Turks, 

 and drove them from the country. Between 1468 

 and 1478, he conquered Silesia, Moravia, and Lusatia; 

 he was also victorious over the Poles, and took part 

 of Austria, including Vienna, from Frederic III. 

 These wars obliged him to lay heavy taxes on his 

 subjects, and he governed arbitrarily, but must 

 be allowed to have been a man of extraordinary 

 powers. During the whole of his disturbed reign, 

 lie not only encourarged science, but cultivated it 

 himself. It is much to be regretted, that the great 

 library, which he collected at Buda, was destroyed by 

 the Turks, twenty years after his death. At Buda, 

 lie reposed from the toils of war, and collected 

 scholars around him. In 1488, at a diet at Buda, 

 he established laws against duels, for the better 

 administration of justice, &c. He died in 1490, at 

 Vienna, when occupied with preparations for a new 

 war against the Turks. He left only a natural son, 

 Johannes Corvinus, who was not able to obtain 

 the crown. The candidates for it were numerous. 

 The Hungarians elected king Wladislaus VII. of 

 Bohemia. 



MATTHIAS, JOHN VAN HARLEM. See Ana- 



MATURIN, CHARLES; an ingenious but eccentric 

 .clergyman of the established church, curate of St 



Peter's, Dublin, and author ot soveial- popular 

 romances, many ot which, especially his family of 

 Montorio, evince great powers of imagination, with 

 a richness of language, but exhibit an almost equal 

 degree of carelessness in the application of both. 

 Besides the one just mentioned, the principal are the 

 Milesian Chief; Fatal Revenge; Woman; Melmoth, 

 &c. Bertram, a tragedy, performed at Drury-lane 

 theatre, with Kean as the representative of the princi- 

 pal character, was the first production which, by its 

 singular success, brought him into notice as an author. 

 This effort is said to have produced him .1000. In 

 a subsequent dramatic attempt (Manuel), he was not 

 so fortunate, and, having anticipated his resources, 

 without contemplating the possibility of a failure, he 

 contracted embarrassments, from which he was seldom 

 entirely free till his death, in October, 1825. He pub- 

 lished, in 1821, a poem, in blank verse, entitled the 

 Universe, which brought him more profit than repu- 

 tation; and, in 1824, appeared six of Ins Controversial 

 Sermons, preached at St Peter's, during the Lent of 

 that year. These exhibit him as a well-read scholar, 

 and an acute reasoner, and are, perhaps, the best 

 foundation on which to rest his claims to the notice 

 of posterity. He was remarkably felicitous in their 

 delivery, and attracted by his eloquence unprece- 

 dented congregations. 



MAUBEUGE; a French fortress, on the Sambre, 

 department Du Nord. The Sambre traverses Mau- 

 beuge, and becomes navigable here, seven leagues 

 and a half east-south-east of Valenciennes. Mau- 

 beuge has considerable commerce in wines, spirits, 

 &c.; manufactures, arms, nails, soap, &c.; and con- 

 tains 6044 inhabitants. It dates its origin from the 

 foundation of a chapter of canonesses, in 618, by St 

 Aldegonde. It was the capital of the former pro- 

 vince of Hainault. Louis XIV. took it, in 1649, and 

 the peace of Nimeguen, in 1678, confirmed it 

 France. The Prussians took it in 1815. 



MAUBEUZE. See Mabuse. 



MAUBREUIL, MARQUIS DE. Connected with 

 the history of this personage, there are some curious 

 circumstances, which have not yet been explained, but 

 whichseemto reflectnogreatcredit on the partisans of 

 what is denominated, in politics, the principle of legi- 

 timacy. He was born in Brittany, of a noble family, 

 about the year 1780, entered into the imperial army 

 in which he made several campaigns, and was subse- 

 quently taken into the service of the king of West- 

 phalia, who appointed him his equerry. Maubreuil 

 was employed in Spain, as a captain of Westphalian 

 light-horse, and his bravery gained for him the cross of 

 the legion of honour. He, however, quitted the army 

 to become a contractor; but the ministry having bro- 

 ken some of the contracts entered into with him, he 

 fell into embarrassments, and his property was seized 

 by his creditors. His enemies say that, in 1814, he 

 exulted beyond measure at the downfall of the imperial 

 government, and rode through the streets, pointing 

 out to the passengers the star of the legion of honour, 

 which he had tied to his horse's tail. If this be true, it 

 was probably the cause of his being employed, in 

 conjunction with a M. Dasies, on a very extraordinary 

 mission, by the provisional government. The osten- 

 sible purpose of this mission, for which he was 

 authorized to call in the assistance of the armed force 

 and the civil authorities, was to recover the crown 

 jewels, which were said to have been carried away 

 by the family of Napoleon. The marquis and his 

 companion took the route of Fountainebleau, from 

 which place the emperor had just set out for Elba; 

 and they stopped the ex-queen of Westphalia, the wife 

 of Jerome Bonaparte, who was travelling to Ger- 

 many with a passport from the allies. They seized 

 eleven chests, containing valuables belonging to the 



