370 



THE STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



knight Rinaldo. In "Don Quixote" we are told of a 

 barber who was caught in a shower of rain, and who. t<> 

 protect his hat, flapped his brazen basin on his head. 

 Don Quixote insisted that this basin was the helmet of 

 the Moorish king: and, taking possession of it, wore it 



Slan'agarm. Prose Edda. The largest and most 

 formidable of the race of giants. He dweDfl in the Iron- 

 wood, Jamvid. Managann will first fill himself with the 

 blood of man, and then will he swallow up the moon. 

 This giant symbolizes war. and the "Iron wood" in 

 whifh he dwells is the wood of s; . 



Manfred. Subject of a poem by Myron, written under 

 this title. Manfred sold himself to the prince of dark- 

 ness, and received from him seven spirits to do his bid- 

 ding. They were the spirits of "earth, ocean, air, night, 

 mountains, winds, and the star of his own destiny." 

 Wholly without human sympathies, the count dwelt in 

 splendid solitude among the Alpine Mountains. He 

 loved Astarte, and was visited by her spirit after her 

 death. In spirit form she told Manfred that he would 

 die the following day: and when asked if she loved him, 

 she sighed "Manfred," and vanished. 



Mantali'ni. Nicholas NU-kleby, Dickens. The 

 husband of madame; he is a man-doll, noted for his 

 white teeth, his oaths, and his gorgeous morning gown. 

 This "exquisite" lives on his wife's earnings, and thinks 

 he C9nfers a favor on her by spending. Madame Man- 

 talini is represented as a fashionable milliner near Caven- 

 dish S(|iiare, London. 



Marcel'lus. Hamlet, Shakespere. An officer of 

 Denmark, to whom the ghost of the murdered king ap- 

 peared before it presented itself to Prince Hamlet. 



Marchioness, The. Old Curiosity Shop, Dickens. 

 A half-starved maid of-all-work, in the service of 

 Sampson Brass and his sister Sally. She was so lone- 

 some and dull, that it afforded her relief to peep at Mr. 

 Bwiveller even through the keyhole of his door. Mr. 

 Swiveller called her the "marchioness," when she played 

 cards with him, "because it seemed more real and pleas- 

 ant" to play with a marchioness than with a domestic. 

 While enjoying these games they made the well-known 

 "orange-peel wine." 



.Mariana in the Moated Grange. In Tennyson's 

 poem by this name, a young damsel who sits in the 

 moated grange, looking out for her lover, who never 

 comes. (2) In Shakespere's "Measure for Measure" 

 Mariana is a lovely and lovable lady, betrothed to 

 Angelo, who, during the absence of Vincentio. the Duke 

 of Vienna, acted as his lord deputy. Her pleadings to 

 the duke for Angelo are wholly unrivaled. 



Marplot. "The busy body." A blundering, good- 

 natured, meddlesome young man, very inquisitive, too 

 officious by half, and always bungling whatever he inter- 

 feres in. Character found in comedies written by Mrs. 

 Centlivre. 



Martin's Summer, St. Halcyon days: a time of 

 prosperity: fine weather. Mentioned by Shakespere 

 in Henry VI., etc. 



Masora. A critical work or canon, whereby is fixed 

 and ascertained the reading of the text of the Hebrew 

 version of the Bible. 



Masques. Dramatic representations made for a 

 festive occasion, with a reference to the persons present 

 and the occasion. Their personages were allegorical. 

 They admitted of dialogue, music, singing, and dancing, 

 combined by the use of some ingenious fable into a whole. 

 They were made and performed for the court and the 

 houses of the nobles, and the scenery was gorgeous and 

 varied. According to Holinshed's Chronicle, the first 

 masque performed in England was at Greenwich, in 

 1512. Shakespere, as well as Beaumont and Fletcher, 

 have frequently introduced masques into their plays. 

 Milton himself made them worthier by writing "Comus." 

 H. W. Longfellow wrote the "Masque of Pandora," 

 taking the story from Hawthorne's "Wonder Book." 



Mauth Dog. Lay of the Last Minstrel, Scott. 

 A black specter spaniel that haunted the guard-room of 

 Peeltown in the Isle of Man. A drunken trooper entered 

 the guard-room while the dog was there, but lost his 

 speech, and died within three days. 



Mavournin. Irish for "darling." 



May'eux. The name of a hunchback, who figures 

 prominently in numberless French caricatures and ro- 

 mances. 



Mazep'pa. Poem, Byron. Mazeppa in poem 

 under same title was a Cossack of noble family who be- 

 came a page in the court of the King of Poland, and while 

 in this capacity intrigued with Theresia, the young wife 

 of a count, who discovered the amour, and had the 

 young page lashed to a wild horse, and turned adrift. 



Measure for Measure. Shakespere. There was 

 a law in Vienna that made it death for a man to live with 



a woman not his wife; but the law was so little enforced 

 that the mothers of Vienna complained to the duke of 

 its neglect. So the duke deputed Angelo to enforce it: 

 and. assuming the dress of a friar, absented himself 

 awhile, to watch the result. Scarcely was the duke gone, 

 when Claudio was sentenced to death for violating the 

 law. His sister Isabel went to intercede on his In-half, 

 and Angelo told her he would spare her brother if she 

 would become his Phryne. Isabel told her brother he 

 must prepare to die, as the conditions proposed by Angelo 

 were out of the question. The duke, disguised as a friar, 

 heard the whole story, and persuaded Isabel to "assent 

 in words," but to send Mariana (the divorced wife of 

 Angelo) to take her place. This was done: but Angelo 

 sent the provost to behead Claudio, a crime which "the 

 friar" contrived to avert. Next day, the duke returned 

 to the city, and Isabel told her tale. The end was, the 

 duke married Isabel, Angelo took back his wife, and 

 Claudio married Juliet. 



Meeting of the Waters. Title of a poem by Moore, 

 better known under the name "Sweet Vale of Avoca." 

 "The Meeting of the Waters" forms a part of that beauti- 

 ful scenery which lies between Rathdrum and Arklow, 

 in the county of \Vicklow, Ireland: and these lines were 

 suggested by a visit to this romantic spot in the summer 

 of 1807. 



Meg Mer'rilies. A prominent character in Scott's 

 "Guy Mannering," a half-crazy gypsy or sibyl. 



Meis'tersingers. In Germany an association of 

 master tradesmen, to revive the national minstrelsy, 

 which had fallen into decay with the decline of the min- 

 nesingers or love-minstrels (1350-1523). Their subjects 

 were chiefly moral or religious, and constructed according 

 to rigid rules. 



Meis'ter, Wilhelm. Hero and title of a philosophic 

 novel by Goethe. The object is to show that man, de- 

 spite his errors and shortcomings, is led by a guiding 

 hand, and reaches some higher aim at last. This is con- 

 sidered to be the first true German novel. 



3Ielis'sa. Orlando Furioso, Ariosto. The 

 prophetess who lived in Merlin's cave. Brad'amant gave 

 her the enchanted ring to take to Roge'ro: so, assuming 

 the form of Atlantes, she not only delivered Roge'ro, 

 but disenchanted all the forms metamorphosed in the 

 island, where he was captive. 



Mel'notte, Claude. Lady of Lyons, Buhver. 

 The son of a gardener in love with Pauline, "the Beauty 

 of Lyons," but treated by her with contempt. Bea use- 

 ant and Glavis, two other rejected suitors, conspired 

 with him to humble her. 



Melyhalt. A powerful female subject of King Ar- 

 thur's court. Sir Galiot invaded her domain, but she 

 forgave his trespass and chose him for her knight and 

 chevalier. 



Menard. The Road to Frontenac, Mervvin. The 

 hero of the novel, a leader among Indians and white men 

 during the making of New France. From Quebec he 

 goes west, holding control of affairs in spite of treachery 

 in both races. His companions are chiefly French, amid 

 whom figure a Jesuit and two Indians, and the story 

 contains much of that romantic charm peculiar to early 

 French pioneer life, whence Longfellow and other poets 

 and story-tellers have drawn inspiration. 



Mengtse. The fourth of the sacred books of China, 

 so called from its author, Mengtse, Latinized into Men- 

 cius. This great work was written in the Fourth Cen- 

 tury B. C., and contains the wisdom of the age. These 

 are some of its teachings: "Humanity, righteousness, 

 propriety, knowledge, are as natural to man as his four 

 limbs." "Humanity is internal, righteousness is exter- 

 nal." In this same book Mencius taught that govern- 

 ment is from God. but for the people whose welfare is 

 the supreme good. The phrase "mother 9f Meng." 

 which has been borrowed from the Chinese, signifies "a 

 great teacher." 



Menteur', Le(Fr. The Liar). Comedy by Corneille. 

 The propensities of the leading character give the play 

 its name and lead to the complications of the plot. This 

 is generally considered Corneille's best comedy and the 

 most important before the time of Moliere. 



Merchant's Tale. The. Chaucer. Is substantially 

 the same as the first Latin metrical tale of Adolphus. and 

 is not unlike a Latin prose tale given in the appendix of 

 Wright's edition of ^Esop's Fables. It is the story of 

 the betrayal of an old husband by a young wife. The 

 story is evidently of Oriental origin and very old. Boc- 

 caccio and Chaucer may have borrowed it from the 

 "Commedia LydiaV The well-known incident of the 

 pear tree is found in all these sources. An interesting 

 account of these sources has been given by the Chaucer 

 Society Publications under "Origins and Analogues of 

 the Tales." Pope used this story as his basis for "January 

 and May." 



