M I C 
Mr. Mickle, that he might negledt no proper means of ob¬ 
taining from it the emolument which his narrow circum- 
Itances demanded, applied to a peri'on of great rank, with 
■whom his family had been connefted, (the duke of Buc- 
cleugh,) for permiflion to dedicate it to him. Permiflion 
was granted, and his patron honoured him with a very 
polite letter; but, after receiving a copy, for which an 
extraordinary price had been paid for the binding, he did 
not think proper to take any notice of the author. The 
applaufe with which the work was received, however, 
foon baniflied from his mind thofe dilagreeable fenfa- 
tions which had been occaiioned by the contemptuous 
negleft of his patron, as well as fome fevere criticifms 
which had been circulated concerning it. A fecond edi¬ 
tion was prepared in 1778, with a plate prefixed to it, exe¬ 
cuted by the celebrated artilt Mortimer. Mickle’s per¬ 
formance has acquired for him a rank among the Eng- 
li(h poets which he is likely to retain ; and, though it is 
only in the inferior capacity of a tranllator, yet, as far as 
fplendour of diftion and melody of verfification can go to 
eltablifh a poetical charaft$r, the name of Mickle has not 
many fuperiors. It is true, that perhaps no metrical 
tranllator ever took greater liberties with his original, 
and that his Lufiad and that of Caraoens have little more 
in common than the plan and outline. Their difference 
confifts not only in the language, which in the Portu- 
gueie poet is as remarkably bald as it is florid in the 
Englifli poet, but in many of the circumftances and in¬ 
cidents of the piece. A late Portuguefe editor of 
Camoens, while he does juftice to Mickle’s poetical 
talents, complains with reafon of his licentious altera¬ 
tions : he gives an inftance in which the tranfaftions be¬ 
tween Gama and the Zamorin are narrated in a totally 
different manner by the tranllator, who has painted a 
ilorm and a naval adlion in three hundred lines, of which 
there is not a veftige in Camoens. His fuppreflions are 
as frequent as his interpolations 5 and of this the reader 
ought to be apprifed, in cafe he (hould fet about compar¬ 
ing the Portuguefe poem with its Englifli tranllation. He 
acknowledges, indeed/that his purpol'e was “ to give a 
oem that might live in the Englifli languageand this 
e has probably efie&ed, though the defefts of the origi¬ 
nal plan will ever hang as a weight upon the detached 
beauties of defcription, and render the perufal of the 
whole rather a talk than a pleafure. The preliminary 
hiltorical matter is refpedably compofed ; but the com¬ 
parative eftimate of the merits of Camoens partakes much 
of the partiality of a tranllator, and is not free from criti¬ 
cal arrogance. 
Previoully to the publication of the Lufiad, he had 
written a tragedy entitled The Siege of Marfeilles ; which 
being offered to Garrick for his opinion, he allowed that 
it contained fine paffages, but pronounced that it was not 
adapted to the ftage. This fentence fo much difpleafed 
the poet, who feems to have been of an irritable conlti- 
tution, that he talked of writing a Dunciad, of which Gar¬ 
rick fhould be the hero; but, his tragedy being rejected 
alfo by Mr. Harris and Mr. Sheridan, he buffered his wrath 
to fublide, though he appears never to have loft his own 
good opinion of the unfortunate piece. The fuccefs of 
iijs Lufiad, which came to a fecond edition in 1778, gave 
him hopes of confiderable emolument from publishing his 
works by lubfcription ; but in the mean time a more lu¬ 
crative employment than that.of an author prefen ted it- 
felf. Governor Johnftone, his patron, and kinfman in a 
remote degree, being appointed to the command of the 
Romney man-of-war, in 1779, offered him the poll of his 
fecretary. This he accepted, and was left in that year at 
Lilbon as joint-agent for prizes. A refldence in that ca¬ 
pital, where he was known as one who had done honour 
to the Lufitanian bard, was made agreeable to him by fe¬ 
deral flattering marks of attention, among which was 
that of being admitted a member of the Royal Academy 
of Lilbon at its firft opening. During his abode he wrote 
his poem of “iklmada-hill, an Epiftie from Lilbon,” 
M I C SSI 
which did not fupport the reputation acquired by his Lu¬ 
fiad. Returning to England with a moderate indepen¬ 
dence, he married in 17S2, and fettled at Wheatley near 
Oxford. His fubfequent literary exertions were chiefly 
confined to writing in the European Magazine. It is 
fcarcely neceffary to notice fome previous prole-writings, 
confilt'ing of controverfial pamphlets now forgotten. He 
died at Wheatley in 1789, in his fifty-fifth year, regarded 
as a man with fpme foibles and imperfections, but po fi¬ 
fe fled of folid worth and integrity. Monthly Mag. Eucy. 
Brit. 
MICKLE ROO'E, one of the fmaller Shetland i(lands. 
Lat. 60. 30. N. Ion. 1.49. W. 
MICK'LEHAM, a village and parifh in the county of 
Surrey. The houfes are placed in a vale between Leather- 
head and Dorking; the valley is watered by the river 
Mole, and claims attention on account of the peculiar 
and pifturefque nature of its fcenery, and the many hand- 
fome feats included within its jurildidlion. On the weft 
of the village rifes a gentle hill, adorned by the handfoms 
manfion of Norbury-park, the property of William Locke, 
efq. and on the eaft is Mickleham Down, a very fine fheep- 
pafture, belonging to fir Lucas Pepys, bart. Part of this 
Down is covered with plantations, which were begun by 
the late fir Cecil Bifhop, about the year 1763, which ferve 
both to Ihelter and ornament the feat of the proprietor, 
fituated immediately beneath them. A part of the Roman 
road, called Stanes-ftreet, can be diftinftly traced not far 
from the houfe. At fome diftance further, to the fouth- 
eall, is an eminence called Box-hill. This hill afcends 
abruptly from the Mole, and commands, from its fummit, 
a very grand and extenfive profpedt. What is remark¬ 
able, there is a well on the top of it, the water of which 
Hands at only fifteen feet from the furface, whereas, on 
another hill oppolite, it is neceffary to raife the water 430 
feet. The Mole, which in its paffage through this parilh 
forms a very ferpentine current, finks entirely into the 
ground at different places, which commonly are deno¬ 
minated the Swallows. 
The church of Mickleham is a very ancient building, 
and is rather remarkable in its architecture. It is built 
of ftone, and confifts of a nave, with a chancel at the eaft 
end of it, a fmall chapel on the north fide, and a louth 
aiile, feparated from the nave by round pillars fupporting 
femi-circular arches. The eaft window is adorned witn 
handfome tracery-work; and on each fide of the chancel 
are two windows, with lancet-lhaped tops within a round- 
headed arch, which relts upon round pillars, and is orna¬ 
mented with a Angle row of fquare billet-work. At the 
weft end rifes a low fquare tower, ftrengthened by double 
angular buttreffes, and furmounted by a pyramidal fpire. 
The font is of iblid ftone, the bafon having been hollowed 
out from it. Here are feveral monuments, but none of 
them peculiarly interelfing. The living is a reCtory. 
For farther particulars of Norbury-park, Box-hill, &c. 
fee the article Leatherhead, vol. xii. p. 426, 7. 
MICK'MACKS, American Indians, which inhabit tha 
country bordering on the Gulf of St. Laurence, in Nova 
Scotia, oppofite St. John’s illand. 
MICOT'SI (Mofes), a learned Spanifli Jew who flou- 
riHied in the fourteenth century. He was the author of 
a work, entitled “ Sepher Mijevoth Gadol, or The great 
Book of Precepts,” explanatory of the commandments of 
the Jewilh law, which was printed at Venice in 1545, and 
is frequently quoted. Simon's Grit. Hijl. Old TeJ’t. 
MICOUPE'E, adj. in heraldry, parted half-way by a 
feffe. 
MICOY'A BA'Y, a bay of the Pacific Ocean, on the 
coaft of Mexico. Lat. 10.18. N. 
MICRANTHE'MUM, f [from the Gr. fmall; 
and asvOos, a flower.] In botany, a genus of the clafs dian- 
dria, order monogynia, natural order rotaceae, Linn, (ly- 
limachiae, Juff.) Generic characters—Calyx: perianthium 
inferior, in four deep fomewhat-fpatulate fegments ; the 
two uppermpft father .the fmalieft. Corolla : fcarcely 
a longer 
