M E U 
are Ikilfully arranged, with great buftle, animation, and 
1'pirit, and executed with a very agreeable, though not al¬ 
ways a natural, tone of colour, and with a fweet and de¬ 
licate pencil. Some of his pictures exhibit uncommon 
(kill and tafte in compofition : for frequently the fcene 
he had to paint was flat and infipid, luch as a marfhy 
country before long extended walls ; but even thefe he 
contrived to render agreeable by his judicious manage¬ 
ment of the chiaro-fcuro, and the plealing groups which 
he difplayed with his figures, which, though drelfed m 
the ftiff uncouth frippery of the French court of that 
period, are handled with lo much delicacy and tafte, that 
they never fail to pleafe. He was particularly Ikilful in 
ourtraying the aftions of the horfe, of which he has left 
ehind him a number of excellent ftudies, drawn with 
great care from nature. His pictures frequently include 
a great extent of country, and an immenfe number of 
objefts. His perfeft knowledge of perfpeftive enabled 
him to manage the objefts and diftances with the greateft 
eafe and effeft, fo that the eye accompanies the figures 
without confufion, and afligns to each its due aftion and 
diftance. He lived not beyond the age of 56 ; but left a 
great number of piftures, mod of which are in France, but 
they are not very unfrequent in this country. 
ME'UM, J'. in botany. See zEthusa raeum, vol. i. 
p. 179. 
ME'UN, a town of France, in the department of the 
Loiret: four miles north-eaft of Beaugency, and ten 
iouth-weft of Orleans. 
ME'UN, .or Meung (John de), an old French poet, 
alio named C/opincl from the lamenefs of one leg, was 
born at Meun on the Loire, in 1280. Although he early 
entered into the fervice of the great, he feems to have 
been well acquainted with the ftudies of the age ; but 
poetry was his favourite purfuit, and by the vivacity of 
his parts he became the delight of the court of Philip le 
Bel. He had a great turn to fatire and lampoon, which 
he freely exercifed upon the court-ladies. It is faid that 
a party of them, who had fmarted under his lalli, once 
feized him with the relolution of treating him with a 
good flogging, and that he efcaped the punilhment by 
deiiring that the moll unchalle among them would give 
the firll blow. He is fuppofed to have died about 1364. 
By his will he direfted that he Ihould be interred in the 
church of the Dominicans at Paris; and, by way of re- 
compence, bequeathed to that order a heavy cheft not to be 
opened till after the funeral. When the fathers examined 
their legacy, expefting fome valuable treafure, they found 
only a number ©f ilates fcrawled with fums and figures. 
In their refentment they difinterred the body; but the 
parliament of Paris obliged them to give it frelh and ho¬ 
nourable burial in their cloifter. The principal work of 
John de Meun was his continuation of the Roman de la 
Role, begun by William de Lorris ; (fee vol. xiii. p. 672.) 
The addition of de Meun, which conftitutes more than 
three parts of the whole, is iefs poetical than the firft part, 
but has more of latire and manners. To Lenglet du 
Frefnoy’s edition of his poem, 1735, are fubjoined the 
Codicil of John de Meun, a fatirical piece, and other 
poems of the fame author. He all’o tranflated Boethius 
de Confolatione, the Letters of Abelard, and a work on 
the Refponfes of the Sybils. Warton's IIJl. of Engl. 
Poetry. 
MEURJE', a town of Egypt, on the right bank of the 
Nile: twenty-three miles fouth of Achmim. 
MEU'RO, a town of Saxony: three miles north-weft 
of Schmiedelberg. 
MEURS (Jacob van), a Dutch engraver, was born at 
Amfterdam in 1640 ; but is rather an obfcure artift. He 
chiefly engraved book-plates and ornaments, and fome 
few portraits in a neat ftiff ftyle, among which are por¬ 
traits of Nicholas Copernicus, the aftronomer, in 4to. 
profeffor George Calixtus, in folio; and Charles II. of 
England, in folio, from Vandyke. 
Vol. XV. No. 1042. 
' M £ U 277 
MEURS, or Moers, late a principality of Germany, 
furrounded by the duchies of Juliers, Cleves, and Berg, 
by the archbilhopric of Cologne, and the duchy of Guel- 
ders, being fomewhat above eight miles in length, and as 
many broad. It abounds in corn, cattle, and venifon. 
To the eaft its limits are formed by the Rhine; and it is 
likewife -watered by feveral fmall rivers and brooks. 
This country was an ancient fief of Cleves, which the 
firft counts of Moers, fo early as the year 1287, received 
of the counts thereof. On the death of Hermann, the 
laft count of Moers, William duke of Cleves wanted to 
take pofleflion of the country as an open fief; but Wal- 
purgis, filler of the laft count, made a prefent of and be¬ 
queathed this county to prince Maurice of Naflau Orange ; 
and, though the duke of Cleves, on her death, took pof- 
feftion thereof in the year 1600, yet it was wrefted from 
him by prince Maurice, and it remained neutral in the 
pofleflion of the houfe of Naflau Orange, till the death of 
William III. after which the king of Pruflia, partly as 
lord, and partly as his heir, feized on this country. Iti 
1807 it was annexed to France, and included in the de¬ 
partment of the Roer ; but reflored to the king of Pruflia 
by the Congrefs at Vienna in 1815, and taken pofleflion 
of by him on the 5th of April in that year, while the 
congrefs was fitting, and before the Aft of Congrefs, 
by which thefe changes were fanftioned and confirmed, 
was publillied ; for that inftrument is dated June 1815. 
This explanation is neceflary, left we fliould feem to have 
given a wrong date; for it is to be obferved, that the 
partition of Saxony, and many other ceflions, were com¬ 
pleted before the congrefs broke up. 
MEURS, or Moers, capital of the above principality, 
a fmall but fortified town, containing a citadel, and the 
place at which the provincial colleges held their meet¬ 
ings. In it is a Calvinill church, and a Latin fchool. The 
ftates-general garrifoned this town and citadel till the 
year 1712 ; but in that year the Pruflian troops, on their 
retiring into winter-quarters out of Brabant, quietly 
made themfelves mailers thereof, and compelled the 
Dutch garrifon to withdraw. It is fixteen miles north- 
north-weft of Dulfeldorp,and thirteen fouth-eall of Guel- 
ders. Lat. 51. 13. N. Ion. 6. 30. E. 
MEU'RSAC, a town of France, in the department of 
the Lower Charente : nine miles Iouth-weft of Saintes. 
MEURSAU'LT, a town of France, in the department 
of the Cote d’Or: four miles fouth of Beaune, and fif¬ 
teen fouth-eaft of Arney le Due. 
MEUR'SIUS (John), a very learned philologift, was 
born in 1379 at Lofdun, near the Hague. He was fo 
early a proficient in claflical literature, that he compofed 
Latin orations and wrote Greek veries with facility at 
twelve or thirteen years of age. After finilliing his aca¬ 
demical ftudies at Leyden, he was engaged by the cele¬ 
brated penfionary Bameveldt to aflift in the education of 
his fons, whom he accompanied, on their travels. He 
pafled fome time in the ftudy of the law at Orleans, where, 
in 1608, he was made doftor of that faculty. He vilited, 
with his pupils, feveral of the courts of Europe, made ac¬ 
quaintance with many learned foreigners, and examined 
the moll celebrated libraries. On his return to Holland 
he was appointed to the profeiforlhip of liillory at Ley¬ 
den in 1610, and afterwards of the Greek language ; and 
in 1611 the Hates of Holland nominated him their liifto- 
riographer. The unhappy fate of Barneveldt, in 1619, 
threw a cloud over all who had been connefted with him, 
and the violence of the triumphant party marked them 
for perfecution. Meurfius, as having been in a confiden¬ 
tial fituation in his family, became an objeft of fufpicion, 
though in the religious difputes which had brought on 
this cataftrophe he had carefully abftained from taking 
any part. _ Hisafliduity in performing his profeflbrial du^ 
ties had given his enemies no pretext for depriving him 
of his chair; but, they found means to render his fituation 
fo uaeafy, that he only waited for an occafion to quit it 
4 with 
