314 ' M E Z 
of Brives. The place contains 2072, and the canton 
10,4.66, inhabitants,-in 14. communes. 
MEY'SSENS, or Meytens (John), a painter and en¬ 
graver, was born at Bruffels in the year 1612. He learned 
the principles of painting from Anthony Van Obftal, and 
afterwards became the difciple of Nicholas Vander Horil. 
He painted both hiftorical lubjeCts and portraits, but was 
molt fuccefsful in the latter. He reiided at Amfterdam, 
where he publilhed feveral collections of engraved por¬ 
traits, not only from his own paintings, but thofe of Van¬ 
dyke, and a variety of other mafcers. Meyflens engraved 
and etched ; and we have by him a collection of portraits 
which he publilhed in 1649. Profper Merchand, in his 
Hiftorical Didiionary, mentions a book of portraits by this 
artill, (likewile publilhed by himfelf,) whicji is become 
very rare, on the frontifpiece of which is the name of 
Spechh-aemer. They are in general greatly inferior to 
what might have been expedled from his hand, and do 
not do him much credit as an artift. 
MEY'SSENS (Cornelius), fon of the above, was born 
at Antwerp, A.D. 1646. He learned the elements of art 
under his paternal roof; but removed from thence to 
Vienna, where he remained fome years. He teems chiefly 
to have been employed by his father in engraving por¬ 
traits, which he executed entirely with the graver, in a 
ftiff taftelefs ftyle. His belt prints have no great merit to 
recommend them ; and the reft are more flovenly per¬ 
formances, evidently executed in a hurry. His moft con -1 
fiderable -work is a fet of portraits of the emperors of the 
lioufe of Auftria, in folio, entitled <e Effigies Imperatorum 
domus Auftriacffi, deiineatse per Joannen Meyflens, et 
acri infculptas per Filium fuum, Cornelium Meyflens.” 
This proves, beyond contradidiion, that he was the fon of 
John, and not the nephew, as Baffan affirms. His work 
of next importance is in folio, and entitled, “ Les Effigies 
des Souverains Princes et Dues de Brabant.” In thele he 
was aflifted by Peter de Jode, Waumans, Van Schupen, and 
other artifts. 
MEY'WAR. See Ouditour. 
MEYZIEU', a town of France, in the department of the 
Ifere, and chief place of a canton, in the diftriCt of Vienna. 
The place contains 1045, and the canton 9547, inhabitants, 
in 16 communes. 
MEZ le CARHAI'X, a town of France, in the de¬ 
partment of the North Coafts: fix miles eaft of Carhaix, 
and five north-weft of Roitrenen. 
ME'ZA, a river of Ruflia, in the government of Polotfk, 
which runs into the Dwina iixteen miles north-eaft of 
Veliz. 
MEZ'ABIB, [Hebrew.] A man’s name. 
MEZALA'NA, a town of Italy, in the department of 
the Mincio : four miles fouth of Mantua. 
MEZA'NA, a town of Italy: five miles fouth of Padua. 
MEZA'NA, a town of Naples, in Baiilicata : leventeen 
miles feuth-fouth-weft of Turfi. 
MEZANDERAN'. See Mazanderan, vol. xiv. p. 581. 
MEZ'DA, a town of Africa: fixty miles louth of Tri¬ 
poli. 
MEZDA'GA, a town of Fez, in the province of Chaus, 
fituated at the foot of Mount Atlas. 
ME'ZE, a town of France, in the department of the 
Herault: nine miles north-eaft of Pezenas, and fifteen 
fouth-weft of Montpellier. Lat. 43. 25. N. Ion. 3.42. E. 
ME'ZEL, a town of France, in the department of the 
Lower Alps : fix miles fouth of Digne, and eighteen eaft- 
north-eaft of Forcalquier. 
MEZELIEMEI'N A, a town of Africa, in Tunis, on 
lake Bizerta : twenty-eight miles north of Tunis. 
MEZEM'NA, a leaport of Africa, in the kingdom of 
Fez, on the coaftof the Mediterranean : eighty miles eaft 
of Tetuan. Lat. 35. 22. N. Ion. 4. 5. W. 
ME'ZEN, a river of Ruflia, which rifes in the govern¬ 
ment of Archangel in lat. 64. 15.JM. Ion. 49. 14. E. runs 
fouth-weft to the town of Poiianlkoi, when it changes its 
M E Z 
courfe, and runs north-wefterly to lat. 66. 30. Ion. 48. 34, 
where it falls into the Frozen Ocean. 
ME'ZEN, a feaport-town of Ruflia, in the government 
of Archangel, near the White Sea, at the mouth of a river 
of the fame name: 128 miles north-north-eaft of Arch¬ 
angel. Lat. 66.30. N. Ion. 43. 34. E. 
ME'ZEN, a mountain of France, which gives name to 
a diftridt, in the department of the Ardeche : twenty- 
feven miles weft of Valence, and eighteen weft-north-weft 
of Privas. 
MEZEN'TIUS, a king of the Tyrrhenians when ZEneas 
came into Italy. He was remarkable for his cruelties, 
and put his fubjedls to death by flow tortures, or fome- 
times tied a man to a dead corpfe face to face, and fuf- 
fered him to die in that condition. He was expelled by 
his fubjedls, and fled to Turnus, who employed him in 
his war againft the Trojans. He was killed by ZEneas, 
with his fon Laufus. Virg. JEn. vii. 648. viii. 48a. 
MEZERA'DA. See Mesurada, p. 194. 
MEZERAI' (Francis Eudes de), a celebrated French 
hiftorian, born in 1610 at Ry in Lower Normandy, was 
fon of a furgeon in that place. After ftudying at Caen, 
he came to Paris, where he obtained the poll of an officer 
of artillery, in which capacity he ferved two campaigns. 
He then quitted the army in difguft, and fhut himfelf up 
in the college of St. Barbe, where he applied with great 
ardour to ftudy, having then projedted a hiftory of France. 
Cardinal Richelieu, informed of his defigns and of his in¬ 
digent circumftances, made him a prelent of five hundred 
crowns, which animated his progrefsfo much, that in 1643 
he publilhed the firft folio volume of his Hiftory of France. 
The two others appeared in 1646 and 1651. This work 
was regarded as much fuperior to any of the kind which 
had before been offered to the public ; and the court re- 
compenfed his labours by apenfionof four thouland livres, 
with the title of hiftoriographer. His fuccefs engaged 
him to compofe an abridgment of it under the title of 
“ Abrege chronologique de l’Hiftoire de France,” 3 vols. 
4to. 1668 ; reprinted in Holland in 6 vols. nmo. 1673. 
In this work he was aflifted by the advice of his learned 
friends Dupuy, Launoi, and Dirois; and it is reckoned 
much luperior to his great hiftory. He gave in it an ac¬ 
count of the origin of all the public imports, with fome 
very free reflections, which fo much offended the minifter 
Colbert, that he remonftrated with the author, who pro- 
mifed to correCt it in a lecond edition. This he per¬ 
formed, but at the fame time informed the readers that 
he was compelled to do fo ; and his corrections, more¬ 
over, were only palliations; he was therefore puniftied 
, by withdrawing half his penfion. On his complaint, the 
other half was alfo fuppreffed; upon which he declared 
that he would not continue his hiftory. He put by in a 
feparate drawer the laft payment of his appointment as 
hiftoriographer, with this note ; “ This is the laft money 
I have received of the king ; he has ceafed to pay me, and 
I to fpeak of him, either well or ill.” On the death of 
Conrart in 1675, the French academy gave him the va¬ 
cant place of perpetual fecretary, in which quality he pre¬ 
pared a iketch of the projected Dictionary of the Academy. 
He died in 1683. 
Mezerai was a man of many Angularities of temper and 
manners. He was cauftic and cenforiou's, and paid little 
regard to the common forms of focial life. In his dreis 
he was io negligent, or rather fqualid, that he was once 
taken up by the police for a beggar; an adventure that 
gave him much amuiement. He was fond of low com¬ 
pany, and formed an unaccountable attachment to one le 
Faucheur, the mailer of a public-houl'e on the road to St. 
Denis, with whom he would fpend whole days, and whom 
he left the general heir of his property, with the excep¬ 
tion of his patrimonial eftate, which was fmall. He never 
wrote but by candle-light, even in the day-time in the 
midll offummerj and had always a bottle on the table. 
He affeCted a fccptical pliiloiophy, and Ipoke very freely 
upon 
