81 M, E N 
MENA'GE (Gillcs), a diftinguilhed man of letter's, was 
born in 1613 at Angers, of which‘city his father was a 
king’s advocate. After having finifhed his early ftudies 
with reputation, he was admitted to the bar at Angers in 
1632, and began to plead. In the lame year he went to 
Paris, where he was likewile admitted as an advocate. He 
purlued his profelTion for fome time, till at length, be¬ 
coming difgufted with it, he adopted the ecclefiaftical 
character lo far as to be able to hold fome benefices with¬ 
out cure of fouls ; and thenceforth he gave himfelf up en¬ 
tirely to literary purluits, and fixed his reiidence in the 
metropolis. Through the means of Chapelain, he was 
received into the houl’e of cardinal de Retz, and foon made 
himfelf known as a man of wit and erudition. The free¬ 
dom of his remarks upon feveral of thofe who frequented 
the fame houfe involved him in fo many quarrels, that 
after fome years he quitted it, and took apartments in the 
cioifter of Notre Dame, where he held weekly affemblies 
of the learned, to which he gave the title of Mcrcuriaks. 
A prodigious memory rendered his converfation, though 
pedantic, yet entertaining and inllruCtive from the va¬ 
riety of matter j and he was not deficient in wit and in¬ 
genuity to give it a feafoning. He was, however, over¬ 
bearing and opinionative; and few fcholars have palled 
their lives in the midft of more petty hollilities. Menage 
was in ealy circumftances. He had fold a fmall paternal 
eifate for a life-annuity ■, enjoyed a confiderable rent- 
charge upon two abbeys ; and obtained a royal penfion, 
which, however, like many of the bounties of Louis XIV. 
to men of letters, was paid only for alhort time. He was 
thus enabled to cultivate literature in the way moll agree¬ 
able to him, and to print lome of his works at his own 
expenle, which the bookfellers might not have chofen to 
undertake. Admilhon into the French Academy at the 
beginning of his career was precluded to him by his witty 
fatire, entitled “ Requete des DiCtionnaires and, when 
he made interell for a place in it at a later period, a candi¬ 
date who had more friends, though lefs learning, was pre¬ 
ferred to him. It was a remarkable circumftance in his 
life, that, having in advanced age experienced a confider¬ 
able lofs of memory, he afterwards recovered it again; 
both which occurrences he has recorded in a Latin hymn 
to Mnemofyne. He died in Paris in 1692, at the age of 
leventy-nine. Menage w r as a very various writer, with 
refpeCt both to lubjeCt and language. His principal works 
axe, 1. DiCtionnaire Etymologique, ou Origines de la 
Langue Frangoile j firft printed in 1650, and reprinted in 
1750 with many corrections and additions by M. Jault, in 
2 vqls. folio. This is accounted a performance of much 
utility, though in its firft Hate abounding with falfe and 
abi’urd etymologies. 2. Origines de la Langue Italienne, 
1685, folio 5 a limilar work with refpeCl to the Italian lan¬ 
guage, of which he had an uncommon knowledge for a 
foreigner; he was affifted in it by feveral members of the 
academy Della Crufca, of which he was an aftociate. 3. 
Milcellanea, 1652, 4X0. a collection of pieces in profe and 
verfe and in different languages, among which is his Re¬ 
quete des Didtionnaires, one of the moil ingenious pieces 
of literary raillery, directed againft the Dictionary of the 
French Academy. 4. An edition of Diogenes Laertius 
with valuable notes and corrections, Amft. 2 vols. 4to. 
1692. 5. Notes on the Poems of Malherbe, added to an 
edition of that poet. 6. Remarques fur la Langue Fran- 
coife. 7. Anti-Buillet, a fatirical critique on that author, 
containing much wit and erudition, with no fmall portion 
of ill-nature. 8. Hiftoire de Sable. 9. Hiftoria Mulierum 
philofophorum. 10. Satirical Pieces againft Montmaur 
Hie Greek profefibr, of which the beft is his metamorphoiis 
into a parrot. 11. Poefies Latines, Italiennes, Grecques, 
et Frangoifes. With no real genius for poetry. Menage 
had a facility of verlification, derived from the abundance 
of poetical phrafes that dwelt on his memory, which gave 
him more reputation when writing in a foreign language 
than in his own. 12, Juris civilis Afnasnitates. After his 
death a Menagjana was compiled from notes of Iris cou- 
M E N 
verfation, anecdotes, remarks, &c. which was one of the 
moft fuccefsful of the numerous Apas, (fee that word 
vol. i.) and was feveral times reprinted with augmenta¬ 
tions. Thelaft edition by M. de la Monnoye, in 1715, is 
in 4 vols. i2mo. Moreri. 
MENAG'ERIE, f. [French.] A place for keeping 
foreign birds, or other curious animals.—The national 
menagerie is collected by the firft phyiiologiits of the times; 
and it is defective in no defeription of lavage nature. 
Burke. 
MENA'GIO, a town of Italy, in the department of 
the Lario : fifteen miles north-north-eaft of Como. 
MEN'AGOGUE, f. [from Gr. /z»ns?, the menies, and 
aya, to drive.] A medicine that promotes the flux of the 
menfes. 
MEN'AHEM, or Manahem, [Heb. a comforter.] The 
fixteenth king of Ifrael. He was the general of king Ze- 
chariah; and was at Tirzah when he had the news of his 
mailer's death. He immediately marched againft Shallum, 
who had ufurped the crown, killed him, and reigned in his 
Head. He returned to Tirzah, but, that city fhutting its 
gates againft him, he vented his paflion on Tiphfah, a town 
in the neighbourhood of Tirzah, and probably a lharer in 
its refolution. Afterwards he took Tirzah, ruined it en¬ 
tirely, and exercifed many barbarities in it. He reigned 
in Samaria ten years, and did evil in the fight of the Lord. 
Pul king of Alfyria, probably father of Sardanapalus, hav¬ 
ing invaded Ifrael during the reign of Menahem ; this 
prince was obliged to pay him a thoufand talents. To 
raife this fum, Menahem was forced to tax all perfons fifty 
fliekels a-head ; after which, Pul returned into his own 
country ; and Menahem ended his reign in peace. 
2 Kings xv. 13-22. 
MENA'I, a river or channel between the ifland of Art- 
glefea and the county of Caernarvon. 
MENA'IS, f. in botany, a genus of the clafs pentandria, 
order monogynia, natural order of borraginete, Jujf. Ge¬ 
neric characters—Calyx : perianthium three-leaved ; leaf¬ 
lets concave, lax, acuminate, fmall, permanent. Corolla s 
one-petalled, falver-fhaped j tube cylindrical, longer than 
the calyx ; border flat, five-parted, with rounded fegments. 
Stamina : filaments five, very fhort, inferted into the tube; 
antherse awl-fhaped, at the throat of the corolla. Piftillum : 
germen roundifh; ftyle filiform, the length of the tube ; 
ltigmas two, oblong. Pericarpium : berry globular, four- 
celled. Seeds : folitary, fubovate, lharp at one end.— Ef- 
fential Character. Calyx three-leaved j corolla falver- 
fliaped ; berry four-celled ; feeds folitary. 
Menais topiaria, or bower-menais, the only fpecies. 
Native of South America. A lhrub, with round, fome- 
what hairy, Items ; leaves alternate, ovate, undivided, 
rough. Linnaeus mentions Aymen as the author of the 
genus. Juflieu fufpeCts it not to be different from Ehretia, 
to which we have chiefly to objeCt the three-leaved calyx. 
See Ehretia. 
MENA'KA, the name of a femi-divine female, in the 
Puranic romances of the Hindoos, frequently alluded to 
in their writings and converfation, proverbially, as highly 
beautiful and falcinating. When the evil counlellor India, 
jealous of the growing fanClity of the afcetic Vifwamitra, 
refolved to counteract his meritorious penance, he thought 
female blandifliment the readieft mode of debauching the 
laint; and feleCted Menaka, as a promising inllrument 
through whom to effeCt his unholy purpofe. The moral 
legend is thus alluded to in the 50th feCtion of the firlt 
book of the Ramayana. “ When the lanClified afcetic 
Vifwamitra, who had for thoufands of years been engaged 
in the moft rigid mortifications, beheld Menaka the Apiara, 
lent by Indra to debauch him, bathing, of furpriling form, 
unparalleled in beauty, in appearance refembling Sri, her 
clothes wetted by the ftream, exhibiting her falcinating 
lymmetry of frame ; he, fubdued by the arrows of Kan- 
darpa, approached her; and five times five years, fpent in 
dalliance with this feducing female, palled away like a 
moment. What!— exclaimed at length the reflecting fage, 
—my 
