MAC 



M A C 



Hercules, on lus foot. " Tarda Philoftetoe fanavit crura 

 Machaon.'' Prop. lib. ii. 



It appears, too, from the \vridn<TS of the poets, that 

 Machaon was a brave and aftive foldicr ; for he is men- 

 tioned as engaged in fome of the mod: dangerous enterprifes, 

 with the other celebrated leaders. Homer tells of a wound 

 which he received in the flioulder, in one of the failies of the 

 Trojans : and Virgil and Hyginus inform us, that he was 

 one of the brave warriors who entered the wooden horfc, 

 from which, according to the former, he was the firll to de- 

 fcend. (jlineid. lib. ii. v. 263. Hygin. Fabul. lib. i. cap. 81. 

 &c.) He is faidto have loll his life in lingle combat with 

 Nereus, or, aV others itate, with Eurypilus, the fon of Tc- 

 lephus, during the fiege of Troy ; whicli, however, is in- 

 conliitent with the afTertion juft mentioned, Cnce the fiege was 

 terminated by the introdu<ftion of the troops in the wooden 

 horfe. (See Paufanias in Laconic. 2. Calaber, Ub. vi. 5c 

 vii.) Paufanias adds, that the remains of Machaon were 

 prelerved by Neftor, and conveyed to MefTenia, where they 

 were buried. 



Macliaon married Anticlea, daughter of Diodes, king of 

 Meffenia, by whom he had two fon 5, Nichoniachus and Gor- 

 gafus, who reilded at Pherae, and poffefred the territory of 

 their grandfather, until the Heraclidce, on their return 

 from Troy, made themfelves mailers of MefTenia, and tlie 

 reft of the Peloponnefus. Machaon is fuppofed to have been 

 a king, either in his own right, or that of his wife, fince 

 Homer, in two or three places, calls him " Pa!lor of the 

 people," (^rAjx.ivx. Xc.ij), a title which he gives to Agamemnon 

 a']d the other kings. Paufanias mentions three other fons 

 ot Machaon, namely, Sphyrus, Alexanor, and Polemocrate?, 

 who are fuppofed to have Ijeen the fruit of another marriage. 

 M. Goulin, in his literary and critical memoirs, ftates his 

 opinion, that the birth of Machaon may be fixed about the 

 year of the world 3765. See Le Clerc. Hift. de la Me- 

 decine. Schultzius Hill. Medicinre. 



MACHAU, GciLLAUME, a French poet and<Tnufician, 

 born about 1282. He was at firll in the fervice of the con- 

 fort of Philippe-le-Bel, and, in 1307, was appointed valet- 

 de-chambre to the king, and continued to occupy this office 

 to the end of that prince's reign, who died in 13 14. 



As the works of this author are the mod ancient lyric com- 

 pofitions that have been preferved in France, with the ori- 

 ginal muficy great pains have,bepn taken in commenting them, 

 and rendering both words and mulic intelligible. 



The abbe Leboeuf, in the year 1 746, gave a Very ample 

 and fatisfaclory account to the Academy of Infcriptions 

 at Paris ot two volumes of French and Latin poems, 

 preferved in the hbrary of the Carm.elites of that.city, " with 

 a defcription of the kind of mulic to which iomc of thefe 

 poems were fet." 



In 1747, the count dc Caylus, leaving found in the king of 

 France's library, N'7609 — 2, a duplicate of thefe poems, 

 gave likewife an account of them to the fame Academy, in 

 two memoirs. The author, Guillaume dfe Machau, is 

 ftyled by the count, J:ot't end mufician; and both thefe excel- 

 lent critics agree, that he flourilhed about the middle of the 

 fourteenth century, and died in 1:570. Among the poems, 

 which are written upon various fubjefls, there is an infinite 

 number of lai?, virelais, ballads, and rondeaux, chiefly in 

 old French, with a few in Latin, and fet to mufic : fome for 

 a fingle voice, and others in four parts, tripliun, tenor, con- 

 tratenor, and a fourth part, without a name. In thefe full 

 pieces, as the words are placed only under the tenor part, it 

 is natural to conclude that this was the principal melody. In 

 the mufic, which is written with great care and neatnefs, 

 notes in a lozenge form, with tails to them, frequently oc- 

 cur ; thefe, whether the heads were full or open, were at 



firft called minims ; but when a dill quicker note was thought 

 necelfary, the white or open notes only had that title, and 

 the black were by the French called noir, and by Englifli 

 crotchets : a name give by the French with more propriety, 

 from the hook or curvature of the tail, to the llill more ra- 

 pid note, which we call a quaver. 



The Latin poems are chiefly motets, and for a fingle 

 voice ; fome of which are written in black and red notes, 

 with this inilruftisn to the fingers : " nigras funt perfeftx, 

 & rubra: impcrfcftx." An admonition worth remembering 

 by thofe who wifli to decipher mufic of the fourteenth and 

 fifteenth centuries, in which red notes frequently occur. It 

 was an eafy expedient of diminution, till the invention of 

 printing, when the ufe of ink of different colours, on the 

 fame page, occafioned the expence and trouble of double 

 printing. The abbe Leboeuf obferve?, that the dilTedlion and 

 accelerated motion of notes, during thefe ages, gave great 

 offence and fcandal to pious and' fober Cliriftians. In a 

 kyrie eleifon to the Gregorian chant, wriich is called ten-ir, 

 the three parts that are added to it are called triplum, mote- 

 tus, and contratenor. In the fecond volume of thefe poems the 

 common chants of the whole mafs, and even the credo, are 

 written in four parts. This mafs is fuppofed to have been 

 fung at the coronation of Charles V. king of France, 



I3''4- 



There are in the French MS. many ballads and rondeaux 

 in three parts, tenor, triplum, and contratenor. The four- 

 teenth century feems the era when mufic in parts, moving 

 in different melodies, came firll into general favour ; for of 

 the preceding age no mufic can be found of more th^n two 

 parts in llrict cinmterpoint of note againfl note. 



Machau calls his coUeftion of fongs fet to mufic, Remedes 

 de fortune, regarding mufic as a fpecific, or at leaft an opiate, 

 againll: the ills of life. In the illuminations to tliefe lyric 

 compofitions an affembly of minllrels is reprefented with 

 thirty or forty mufical inflruments, of which he gives the 

 names. His poem called " Le Dit de la Harpe," is a mo- 

 ral and allegorical piece in the ftyle of the famous " Romaiv 

 de la Rofe," by Guillaume de Loris, and Jean de Meun. 



The abbe Rive has likewife given an hillorical and criti- 

 cal account of another MS. copy of thofe poems in the 

 coUeClion of the duke de le Valhere ; but none of thefe 

 gentlemen have produced fpecimens of Machau's mufical 

 compofitions ; indeed the count de Caylus frankly confelTes, 

 that though he has Rudied this n:ufic with the utmofl atten- 

 tion, and confulted tiie moll learned muficians, he has been 

 utteri) unable to latisfy his curiofity concerning their intrinfic 

 worth. 



Maciiau, in Geography, a town of Bohemia, in the 

 circle of Konigingratz ; eight miles S.W. of Branaw. 



MACHAVANA, a river of Africa, which runs into 

 the Indian k?., S. lat. 26 4J'. 



MACHAULT, James de, in Biography, a French 

 Jefuit, was a native of Paris, and born in 1599. He en- 

 tered on liis noviciate in his eighteenth year, and after Tiavin^ 

 finidied the ufual courfe of academic lludies, he was fe- 

 lefted to teach, firll polite literature, then philofophy, and 

 for feveral years divinity, in different feminaries belonging to 

 the order. He was elcdtcd fucceffively rcclor of the colleges 

 at Alenjon, Orleans, and Caen, and died in his native city 

 in 1680. He was author of many con fidcrable works, as 

 " Tiie Account of the MifTions in Paraguay and ot'-.er Parts 

 of South America," 8vo. 1636 ; " A Relation of the State 

 of Affairs in Japan," 1646 ; " Account of the Provinces of 

 Goa," &c. ; " A Relation of the Travels of twenty-five 

 Members of the .Society on the Indian Miflion," 1659 j 

 •' Account cf tbcMifiioiiof the Society in Perfia," &c. 



