M E N 
ME'NA, a town of Mexico, in the province of Nica¬ 
ragua, on a river which runs into the lake of Nicaragua: 
thirty miles north-well of St. Carlos. 
ME'NA, in Grecian mythology, one of the nuptial 
goddeffes. 
ME'NA, in Hindoo mythology, the fpoufe of Hima¬ 
laya, and mother of Parvati in one of her terreftrial incar¬ 
nations. The legend connected with this poetical fidtion 
is very wild and fanciful. Himalaya, or the Manfion of 
Snow, is the Hindoo claflkal name of that vail chain of 
mountains that bounds India to the north, and embraces 
it with its eaftern and weilern arms, both extending to 
the ocean ; one named, in Sanfcrit, Chandra-Sekra, or 
Moon-crowned; and the other, which ftretches weftward 
to the mouths of the Indus, was called by the ancients 
Montes Parveti. The mountain Himalaya, being perlo- 
nihed, is reprefented as a powerful monarch, bearing the 
moon as his crown, and being the lource of all the good 
derivable from the many rivers that iifue from him. Thefe 
mountains were the relort of the god Siva ; and his celef- 
tial confort, having no children by him, became regene¬ 
rated in the daughter of Himalaya and Mena, and was 
named Parveti, or Mountain-born. In this incarnation, 
ihe, according to fome legends, bore him two Ions; Ganefa, 
the wifeft of deities, the god of prudence and policy, al¬ 
ways invoked at the beginning of every literary work ; 
and Kartikya, commander of the celeltial armies. The 
name Himalaya is ufually altered by European writers to 
Himmaleh ; the range of mountains is otherwife called 
Hi ndoo Koo. See tliofe articles. 
ME'NA (Juan de), a Callilian poet of great celebrity, 
was born at Cordova about the year 14.11. It w’as not till 
the age of twenty-three that he dilcovered any propenfity 
towards literature j but then he made up for the time 
which he confidered as having been loft, and betook him- 
felf moft pallionately to his ftudies, which‘he purlued firll 
at Cordova, then at Salamanca, and afterwards at Rome. 
By his poetical talents he foon attracted a confiderable 
degree of notice, and was patronized by feveral conlider- 
able perfons, and by Juan II. This king, though far from 
relpedtable as to character or talents, was a lover of learn¬ 
ing, and anencourager of it, and appointed Juan de Mena 
his chronicler, communicated to him materials for the 
hiftory of his reign, and took delight in beholding the 
progrefs of his work. The hiftory was never finilhed 
by de Mena; and he is chiefly known' as a poet. The 
longeft and moft elaborate of his poems is entitled “ El 
Labyrintho,” commonly known by the title of Las Tre- 
zicntas, becaufe it coniilts of three hundred ftanzas. Mr. 
Southey, in the General Biography, has given a pretty 
full account of the plan and contents of this poem. It 
is faid that the king ordered him to add fixty-five ftanzas. 
to his poem, for this ivij'e reafon, that there might be juft 
as many as there are days in the year. Of thele twenty- 
four are printed at the end of the poem. They contain 
fome execrable flattery of Juan, and an orthodox addrefs 
to the Deity ; the reft is declamation againft the fadtious 
nobles. Juan de Mena was probably not the author of 
thefe. 
Another poem of fome length is La Corcnacion, a fee¬ 
ble fidlion in honour of the marquis de Santillana. Juan 
de Mena has commented it liimfelf, and prefixed a pro¬ 
logue, an exordium and four preambles. In one of thefe 
he expounds, for the benefit of unlearned readers, the 
title which he had given to this work, but which was fup- 
p relied when it was printed. It was Calamicleos, compound¬ 
ed of the Latin calamitas, and the Greek nM 0;; which, fays 
he, fignifies a treatife upon Mifery and Glory. This com¬ 
mentary is the perfection of formal pedantry ; two, four, 
and fometimes eight and nine, pages of the finalleft pofli- 
ble print to explain the myfteries of a Angle ftanza. Firft 
he divides the ftanza into its different parts, then explains 
what each part is about; then comes an account of the 
fidtion of the firft of thefe parts, then the truth and hif¬ 
tory of it, then the application and morality ; and this to 
each of the parts, of which there are fometimes five in a 
M E N 83 
ftanza of ten fhort lines. The only remaining poem of 
any length is his Tra&ado de Views y Virtudes, which he 
left unfinifhed. It was unfuccefsfuliy continued by Gomez 
Manrique a diftinguifhed knight, and Pero Guillen who 
is ltyled the gjwt trolador. Jeronymo de Olivares, a knight 
of Alcantara, then took it in hand. He fays, both in 
prole and verfe, that, while lie was meditating fo.to do, 
and helltating in doubt of his talents, Juan de Mena, ap¬ 
peared to him, and told him he was let out a little while 
from purgatory to bid him fulfil his intention. He di¬ 
rected him to infert in the former part of the poem fome 
fpeeches on the part of the Vices, as his father had advifed 
when it was firft written; then breathed into his ear, and 
inlpired him. 
There are many editions of thefe poems ; the earlieft 
is thefmallone of Zaragoza, 1515. This is lefs complete 
than the folio of Seville 1528, or than the fmall odtavo 
of Antwerp, 1552, which is the lateft. Two other works 
he left in manulcript, and probably they are Hill preferved ; 
the one, Memoirs of fome of the noble Families of Caf- 
tille, written by command of Don Alvaro de Luna ; the 
other, (in the king’s library at Madrid,) an unfinifhed 
abridgment of the Iliad made by the king’s command. 
This poet has been extravagantly praifed in England. 
It has been faid that he unites the merits of Dante and 
Petrarca. Omne ignotum pro magnifico. Juan de Mena, 
according to Mr. Southey, was agreat poet in an agewhen 
there was no greater 5 but he was not beyond his age : he 
was utterly deficient in fancy; his merits are exclufively 
what he may pollefs for his language ; there is no glimpfe 
of imagination, and lcarcely a trace of feeling. He died 
in 14.56 at Tordelaguna, and was buried in the parochial 
church of that town, in a fumptuous tomb which his 
friend the marquis de Santillana eredled. 
MENABIL'LY, a village in Cornwall, about two miles 
fouth-weft from Fowey. Here is the feat of Win. Rafh- 
leigh, efq. M. P. for Fowey. It is large and commodious. 
Handing in a lawn near the fea ; near which, and almoft 
on the beach, is a grotto, built chiefly of large rough peb¬ 
bles ; the infide is covered with valuable and curious 
foflils, fixed to the walls, and arranged in a curious man¬ 
ner by the late proprietor, P. Rafhleigh, efq. who repre¬ 
fented this borough thirty years. 
To MEN'ACE, v.a. J menacer, Fr.] To threaten ; to 
threat.—Your .eyes do menace me ; why look you pale ? 
Shakefpeare. 
My mailer knows not but I am gone hence. 
And fearfully did menace me with death. 
If I did flay to look on his intents. Shakefpeare. 
MEN'ACE, f. Threat.—He that would not believe the 
menace of God at firft, it may be doubted whether, before 
an ocular example, he believed the curie at laft. Broicn's 
Vulgar Errours. 
The Trojans view the dufty cloud from ftr, 
And the dark menace of the diftant war. Dryden, 
MEN'ACER, f. Athreatener; one that threats : 
Hence, mcnacer ! nor tempt me into rage : 
This roof protects thy rafhnefs. But be gone. Philips, 
MENA'CHA, a town of Arabia, in the country of Ye¬ 
men : thirty-fix miles weft-fouth-well of Sana. 
MENACH'ANITE, f. in mineralogy. See Titanium. 
MEN'ACING,/. The adf of uttering threats. 
MEN'ADON, oi'Panadon, a bay which lies two leagues 
from Port Balena, or Port Nove, on the coaft of Cape- 
Breton ifland, at the fouth part of the Gulf of St. Lau¬ 
rence, having the ifland of Scatair, formerly called Little 
Cape Breton, oppofite to it. 
MEN'AGE, an ifland in the river Senegal. 
To MEN'AGE, v. a. [the old word for] To manage ; 
Proud Rome beheld 
The forward young men menage lpear and fliield. Fairfax „ 
MENA'GE, f. [French.] A colledlion of animals.—I 
flaw here the largeft mCnage that I ever met with. Addifon, 
MENA'G& 
