M E R 
this, he dropped his fifilitious chara&er, and ever after 
publilhed in his own name. 
Mr. Merry had always been a Ion vivmt ; he had all’o a 
turn for play; and this, with other falhionable propen- 
fities, kept him for feveral years in an embarraffed date. 
Upon his marriage with Mil's Brunton, a charming ac- 
Irefs, who performed in his tragedy of Lorenzo, aprol'pedl 
opened to him of living at his eafe, by the joint produc¬ 
tion of that lady’s talents and his own pen ; but unfor¬ 
tunately the pride of thofe relations upon whom he had 
moll dependence was wounded by the alliance; and he 
was confirained, much againft Mrs. Merry’s inclination, 
to take her from the itage. This he did as loon as her 
engagement at the theatre expired, which was in the 
fpring-of 1792. They retired to America in 1796; and 
Mr. Merry died fuddenly at Baltimore, in Maryland, 
Dec. 24, 1798, of an apopledtic dilorder, which proceed¬ 
ing from a plethora, produced by .want of exercil'e. 
Mr. Merry’s dramas are as follow : Ambitious Vengeance, 
and Lorenzo, tragedies; The Magician no Conjuror, a 
comic opera; and Fenelon, a ferious drama. His miff 
cellaneous pieces, given under dilferent names and fig- 
natures, have never been publilhed colie&ively that we 
know of. Biographia Dramatica. 
MERRY-AN'DREW,/ A buffoon ; a zany ; a jack¬ 
pudding.—He would be a ftatefman becaufe he is a buf¬ 
foon ; as if there went no more to the making of a coun- 
fellor than the faculties of a merry-andrew or tumbler. 
X’ Eft-range. 
MER'RY-HEARTED, adj. Inclined to merriment.— 
The vine languilheth, and all the merry hearted ligh. If a. 
xxiv. 
MER'RY’s ISLAND, an illand in Hudfon’s Bay. Lat. 
€1. 52. N. Ion. 93. 5. E. 
MER'RY-MEETING BAY, a bay of North America, 
in Strafford-county, New Hamplhire, being thefoutliern- 
moff arm of lake Winnipifcogee. On its welt fide Hands 
Mount Major.—Alfo, a bay in Maine, formed by the 
junction ot Androlcoggin and Kennebeck rivers, oppo- 
Ete to the town of Woolwich, twenty miles from the lea. 
MER'RY-THOUGHT, J! A forked bone on the body 
©f fowls; fo called becaufe boys and girls pull in play at 
the two fides, the longeft part broken off betokening 
priority of marriage.—Let him not be breaking merry¬ 
thoughts under the table w'ith my coulin. Echarcl. 
MERS, a town of France, in the department of the 
Indre : Ex miles from La Chatre. 
MERS. See Berwickshire, vol. ii. 
MERS AGOLE'TA, a town of Algiers, near the fea- 
coaft : fix miles fouth-weff of Tnifs. 
MERS EL FA'HM. See Zuffoone. 
MERS IL KEBEE'R, or Mazalouiver, a fea-port 
town of Algiers, defended by a caftle, more celebrated 
for its fize than for its beauty and llrength ; anciently 
called Portus Magnus: the harbour is good. It is Ex miles 
0/ Oran. 
MER'SA, a town of Barbary, pleafantly fituated about 
eleven miles from the city of Tunis, and two from Melcha 
the fite of ancient Cartilage. The bey has here two coun- 
try-houles ; one of them very handlome, built by Kalian 
Bey, lurnamed the Good. From thele are orange-gar¬ 
dens reaching almoH to the fea-fhore ; on the edge of 
which is a famous well of fweet water, efteemed the bell 
and lightell in the kingdom. Clole to this i9 a coffee- 
houle, whither numbers of people from the neighbouring 
places relort to drink coffee, and a glafs of this natural 
luxury fo peculiarly enjoyed in the eallern countries. In 
the middle of the court is a large mulberry-tree, under 
the lhade of which they fit and fmoke and play at chefs; 
inhaling the comfortable fea-breeze that refrelhes this 
delightful lpot. The water is drawn up by a camel with 
the Perfian wheel. There are the remains of an ancient 
port, or cothon, (fuppofed to be an artificial one,) buiit 
by the Carthaginians after Scipto had blocked up the old 
port, nothing but the turret or light-houfe being-left, 
Vol. XV. No. 1032. 
U E R 161 
^ER'SBURG, or Morspurg, a town of the duchy 
of Baden, late belonging to the bilhopric of ConHance, 
fituated on the lake of Conllance, and the ufual refidence 
of the bilhop, containing a feminary for fecular clergy, 
and a nunnery of the Dominicans. It is fix miles north- 
eall of Conllance, and eighteen well-north-well of Lin- 
dau. Lat. 47. 41. N. Ion. 9. 14 E. 
MERSCH, a town of France, in the department of the 
Forells, and chief place of a canton, in the diflrifit of Lux¬ 
embourg. The place contains 1446, and the canton 
81 S3, inhabitants, in fifteen communes. 
MER'SCHOWITZ, a town ol Bohemia, in the circle of 
Leitmeritz: fourteen miles welt-fouth-weit of Leitmeritz. 
MER'SEA, a townlhip of Upper Canada, in the county 
of Effex, feated on lake Erie, welt of Romney. 
MER'SEBURG, a principality of Saxony, furrounded 
by the circle of Leipfic, Thuringia, the principality of 
Querfurt, and duchy of Magdeburg, The foil is fertile, 
and well cultivated, producing wheat, millet, and flax ; 
but it wants wood. It was erefted into a bilhopric in 
the year 968, by Otho the Great; but in the fixteenth 
century, the bilhop embracing the proteilant religion, the 
electoral princes of Saxony demanded the adminillration 
of the bilhopric, and the regency of the foundation was 
annexed to the electoral houfe for ever In the whole 
foundation are reckoned leven towns, and 223 villages. 
MER'SEBURG, a town of Saxony, and capital of the 
above principality, fituated on the Saale. Within the 
liberties of the chapter Hands the epifcopal palace, to¬ 
gether with the cathedral, in which are to be leen, 
among other things, the metal monument of the em¬ 
peror Rodolph of Swabia; his right hand, which he loll 
in 1080, in battle again!! the emperor Henry IV. and 
alfo the burying-vault of the dukes of Saxe-Merieburg. 
The town draws its bell lubfiflence from the Hrong beer 
which is brewed here, and exported to different places. 
This town has feveral times luffered by great fires. It 
is eight miles fouuh of Halle, and fixteen well of Leipfic. 
Lat. 51. 22. N. Ion. 12. 6. E. 
MERSENE'FI, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in Natolia ; 
ten miles fouth-eafi of Milets. 
MERSEN'NE (Marin,) a learned French monk, phi- 
lofopher, and mathematician, was born at Oyfe in the 
province of Maine, in the year 1588. After having been 
initiated in the rudiments of learning at Mans, he was 
fent to purfue his Hudies at the college of La Fieche, 
where he had Des Cartes fora feliow-lludent; with whom 
he contracted an intimate friendlhip, which lulled during 
their lives. Here Merlenne rendered himleif conlpicuous 
by his proficiency, not only in the belles-lettres, but in 
logic, natural philolophy, metaphyiics, and the mathe¬ 
matics, and he alfo commenced the lludy of divinity. 
From La Fieche he went to the univerfity of Paris, vvliere 
he made further progrefs in the mathematical lciences at 
the college-royal, and went through a courle of theology 
at the Sorbonne. When he had completed that courfe, 
he entered into a convent of Minims near Paris, and took 
the vows in 1612, when he was twenty-four years of 
age. During the following year he was ordained prielt; and 
then began to apply to the lludy of the Hebrew language, 
of which he made himleif mailer. In 1615, he was lent 
by the provincial of the province of France to the con¬ 
vent of his order near Nevers, to fill the philofophical 
chair in that houfe; and he continued teaching philolophy 
and afterwards theology there till the year 1619, when 
he was chofen fuperior of the convent. Upon the ex¬ 
piration of the term of his office, which was annual, he 
withdrew to Paris, where he fpent the remainder of his 
life in lludy and literary converlation ; excepting fuch 
time as he devoted to Ihort excurlions into Italy, Ger¬ 
many, and the Netherlands. Father Merlenne held an 
epiitolary intercourle with moll of the learned men of 
his time. He was, as it were, the very centre of com¬ 
munication between literary men of ail countries; being 
in France what Mr. Collins was in England. He omitted 
T t no 
