791 



MKTZU MliUSEL. 



part of France, on the Moselle, thirty leagues north- 

 wr-i from Stra-luirg. sixty-one north-east from I'jiris; 

 Imputation, -lj,^7() ; lat. 49 7' N. ; Ion. 6 11' E. 

 It is tin- srat of military, religious, and civil nuthori- 

 .iid contains numerous literary, scientific, and 

 rharitable institutions. It is a military place of the 

 first class, highly important both for offensive and 

 tlftt-ii-ive measures. Its fortifications are very exten- 

 sive, and constructed on the modern system, under 

 the direction of Vauban and Belle-Isle. Besides ma- 

 nufactures of cotton, woollen, silk, &c.,ithas initner- 

 ous and extensive public works in the war department. 

 It is a very old place, founded at an early period by 

 the Gauls, and adorned by the Romans with fine 

 monuments. It was a free city of the German empire, 

 from the eleventh century, but was occupied by the 

 French troops, in 1552, and confirmed to France in 

 J648. About a league from the city, are the ruins 

 of a Roman aqueduct, called, by the people, the 

 deviCs bridge. In 1822, some remains of antiquity 

 were discovered in the ancient citadel, which have 

 been described by Devilly (Metz, 1823.) 



METZU, GABRIEL, a painter, born at Leyden, in 

 1615, lived in Amsterdam, where he died in 1658. 

 'lis models were Douw, Terburg, and Mieris. His 

 tyle, however, was nobler. He painted subjects 

 rom common life, fruit-women, chemists in the 

 aboratory, physicians attending the sick, &c. His 

 manner is free and pleasing, and his imitation of 

 nature true. His colouring was admirable. A lady 

 tuning her lute, and another washing her hands in a 

 silver basin held by her woman, are among his best 

 pieces. His works are scarce, as he spent much 

 time on them, and highly valued. 



MEUDON ; a village and castle, two leagues from 

 Versailles, and the same distance from Paris. The old 

 castle, built in the fifteenth century, and which, in the 

 seventeenth, belonged to Louvois, was demolished in 

 1804. The chateau, built by Louis XIV., is situated 

 on a rising ground, and commands a view of Paris, the 

 Seine, and the environs. There is a fine terrace in 

 front, and a small park planted by Lenotre. Napo- 

 leon improved the works, and assigned it as the 

 residence of his son, while at the breast. Dur- 

 ing the expedition to Russia, the empress resided 

 there. 



MEULEN, ANTONY FRANCIS VAN DER, a battle 

 painter, born at Brussels, 1634, was a pupil of Peter 

 Snayers. Some of his compositions, having been 

 carried to France,' attracted the notice of Lebrun, 

 and Colbert invited the young artist to Paris, with a 

 pension of 2000 livres, and a residence at the Gobe- 

 lin manufactory. His talents as a battle painter 

 recommended him to Louis XIV., who always took 

 him on his expeditions, and often pointed out the 

 subjects which he desired him to represent. The 

 painter had thus an opportunity of perfecting him- 

 self in his department of the art, and is considered, 

 on account of his truth of expression, one of the best 

 battle painters. He was also distinguished in the 

 representation of scenes from common life, and in 

 landscape painting. Among his most celebrated 

 works, are the entrance of Louis XIV. into a con- 

 quered city ; the entrance of the same prince into 

 Arras ; the siege of Maestricht ; a horseman with 

 a glass in his hand speaking to a young girl, who is 

 tuning her guitar, &c. He also executed many ex- 

 cellent views of the royal chateaux in France. The 

 expression of his horses is particularly admired, and 

 Lebrun intrusted to him the execution of the horses 

 In his paintings of the battles of Alexander. Van 

 der Meulen died in 1690. The most celebrated en- 

 gravers of his time executed a series of 152 engrav- 

 ing- from his works, among which those of his pupil 

 Baudoins, which now form the sixteenth, seventeenth, 



and eighteenth volumes of the great collection calle-1 

 Cubiitrt tlit AW, arc distiiigui-heil. 



MEUNG, or MEUN, JOHN UK, a French poet, 

 surnamed, from his lameness, Clopinel, was IMH-II at 

 Meung sur Loire, about 1250. H e was well informed , 

 and, by his poetical talents and vivacity, remit red 

 himself a favourite at the court of Philip le Bel. He 

 was satirically inclined, and exercised his wit upon 

 the ladies of the court, who were so irritated against 

 him, that a party of them seized him, and resolved 

 to give him a severe flogging ; but his wit came to 

 his assistance, and he escaped castigation by desiring 

 the most unchaste to give the first blow. He died 

 about 1322, directing, by his will, that he should be 

 buried in the church of the Dominicans at Paris, and 

 leaving to that order a heavy chest, not to be opened 

 until after the funeral. The friars, expecting a trea- 

 sure, opened the chest, but found only some old slates, 

 scrawled with sums and figures. In revenge, they 

 disinterred the body ; but the parliament of Paris 

 obliged them to bury it again with fresh honours. 

 His principal work was his continuation of the Roman 

 de la Rose, begun by William de Lorris, which com- 

 prises more than three parts of the whole. It is not 

 so poetical as the other, but has more satire and 

 knowledge of the world. He was also the author of 

 a translation of Boethius de Consolatione ; the letters 

 of Abelard ; a work on the Responses of the Sybils-, 

 and a satirical piece, styled the Codicil of John de 

 Meung, prefixed to Lenglet du Fresnoy's edition of 

 the Roman de la Rose, &c. 



MEURSIUS, JOHN ; a Dutch critic, born in 1579, 

 at Losdun, near the Hague. At sixteen, while a 

 student in the university of Leyden, he published his 

 tlrst work, an edition of Lycophron's Cassandra. He 

 was afterwards selected by the celebrated Barneveldt, 

 as travelling tutor to his sons, whom he accompanied 

 over great part of the continent. On his return to 

 Holland, after a ten years' absence (1610), he was 

 elected professor of history and of Greek at Leyden, 

 with the title of historiographer to the slates general. 

 The fall of Barneveldt (q. v.) obliged him to resign 

 his situation ; and, accepting an invitation of the 

 court of Denmark, he proceeded to Copenhagen. 

 Here he soon became established at the college 

 erected for the education of the young nobility at 

 Sora, in a similar post to that which he had occupied 

 in Holland. His works are a History of Athens; On 

 the Athenian Archons ; On the people of Athens. ; 

 On the Festivals of the Greeks ; On the Dances of 

 the Ancients; new editions of several classics; a 

 History of Denmark, &c. The only complete edition 

 of his works is that of Florence, in twelve folio 

 volumes, 1743. Meursius died in 1639, leavinga son, 

 who died at an early age, in 1653, the author of 

 several valuable antiquarian treatises. 



MEURTHE ; a department in the north of France. 

 (See Lorraine, and Department.) The chief place is 

 Nancy. 



MEUSE, in Dutch, Maas, (Mosa); a navigable 

 river, which rises in the department of Upper 

 Marne (Champagne), in France, passes through the 

 provinces of Namur, Liege, and Limburg, separates 

 those of Guelderland and Holland from South Bra- 

 bant, and divides, at Gorcum, into two branches, 

 the northern and southern, which empty into the 

 North sea by several mouths. It passes by Namur, 

 Liege, Maestricht, Ruremonde,Venloo, Gorcum, Dor- 

 drecht, and Rotterdam, in the Low Countries. 



MEUSE ; a department in the north of France, 

 with 306,339 inhabitants ; chief place, Bar-le-Dnc. 

 See Lorraine, and Department. 



MEUSEL, JOHN GEORGE, was born in 1743, at 

 Kyrichshof, in Franconia, and, in 1764, entered the 

 university of Gottingen; in 1766, that of Halle, 



