M 1 L 
408 
fence made a difpofition of his property, by a formal de¬ 
claration of his will. This mode of tedament, which is 
called nuncupative, was fet afide, on a fuit inftituted by his 
daughters. By this nuncupative will he had given all his 
property to his widow, afiigning nothing to his daughters 
but their mother’s portion, which had not yet been paid. 
On this account, and from exacting from his children 
fome irkfome i’ervices, fuch as reading to him in lan¬ 
guages which they did not underhand, which were ne- 
ceifities refulting from his blindnefs and his indigence, he 
has been branded as an unkind father. But the nuncu¬ 
pative will, difcovered fome years fince, (hows him to 
have been amiable, and injured in that private fcene in 
which alone he has generally been confidered as liable to 
cenfure, or rather, perhaps, as not entitled to aft'edtion. 
In this will, publillied by Mr. Warton, and in the papers 
connefted with it, we find the venerable parent complain¬ 
ing of “ unkind children,” as he call them, for leaving 
and negledting him becaufe he was blind ; and we fee him 
compelled, by their injurious conduct, to appeal againil 
them even to his lervants. By the depolition of one of 
thole lervants, it is certain, that his complaints were not 
extorted by (light WTongs, or uttered by capricious palfion 
on trivial provocations ; that his children, with the ex¬ 
ception of the youngeft, would occafionally fell his books 
to the dunghill-women, as the witnel's calls them. That 
thefe daughters were capable of combining with the maid- 
fervant, and of advifing her to cheat her mailer, and their 
father, in her marketings} and that one of them, Mary, 
on being told that her father was married, replied, “ that 
was no news; but, if lhe could hear of his death, that 
would be fomething.” 
Of the three daughters of Milton, Anne, the elded, 
married a mader-builder, and died with her fil'd child in 
her lying-in. Mary, the fecond, died in a fingle date ; 
and Deborah, the younged, married Abraham Clarke, a 
weaver in Spitalfields. She had (even fons and three 
daughters; but of thefe (lie left, at her deceafe, only Caleb, 
who, marrying in the Ead Indies, had two fons whole 
hidory cannot be traced ; and Elizabeth, who married 
Thomas Foder, of the fame bulinefs with her father, and 
had by him three fons and four daughters, who all died 
young and without ilfue. Mrs. Foder was brought into 
public notice in the year 1750, being then in London in 
great didrefs. She was introduced to Garrick, and had 
Comus performed for her benefit on the 5th of April; 
upon which occalion Dr. Johnfon wrote a prologue, which 
was lpoken by Garrick. She died May 9, 1754.; and with 
her the poet’s family appears to have been extindt. Lau¬ 
der’s plagiarifms in refpedt to Milton were detedted about 
the fame time; and, upon this occafion, Mr. Bofwell, in a 
very fatisfactory manner exonerates Dr. Johnlon from the 
imputations, cad by fir John Hawkins and others, of 
wilhing to injure Milton’s fame in any way. See Lauder, 
vol. xii. p. 291. Si/tnmovs's, Newton's, and Johnfon s, Lives 
of Milton. JJofwejl's Life of Johnfon. 
MILTO'NIAN, adj. Belonging to Milton ; refembling 
the ilyle of Milton. 
MIL'TOWN MAL'BAY, a pod-town of Ireland, in 
the county of Clare. It is built on a bank running down 
to the lea, facing the fouth-w'ed. Here are hot and cold 
baths, and it is much frequented as a bathing-place. It 
is 128 miles wed-fouth-wed from Dublin. 
MILT'SCHIN, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of 
Bechin : ten miles north of Tabor. 
MIL'TUS, f. [fo called b.y Loureiro, from prtloq, Gr. 
red lead, or vermilion ; the whole plant being, as that au¬ 
thor fays, of a beautifully-vivid red colour.] In botany, 
a genus of the clals dodecandria, order pentagynia, na¬ 
tural order caryophyllei, Linn, (ficoideas, Jufjf Generic 
characters—Calyx: perianth inferior, of five, ovate, con¬ 
cave, rugole, coloured, fpreading, permanent legments. 
Corolla: none. Nectary none. Stamina: filaments twelve, 
affixed to the bottom of the calyx, and Ihorter than it; 
anthdrte ovate, twin eredt. Piltillum: gerraen fuperior. 
M I M 
roundilh, furrowed ; dyle none ; dig-mas five, linear, bent 
backwards. Pericafpium: capfules five, approaching 
each other, ovate, rough, fingle-feeded. Seed: ovate*, 
Ihining.— Effetitial Character. Calyx of five leaves, infe¬ 
rior ; corolla none ; capfules five, fingle-leeded. 
. Miltus Africana, a fingle fpecies. Stem Ihrubby, much 
divided, about four feet long, (lender, prodrate, fmooth; 
leaves oblong, entirfe, obtufe, thick or fielhy, fmooth, the 
lefier ones nearly fellile, oppofite, and crowded ; flower- 
dalks fimple, many together, lateral. The dems, flowers, 
and leaves, are all of a linking red or vermilion colour. 
Native of Mozambique in Africa. Loureiro's Cochin-china, 
3 ° 3 - 
MIL'VERTON, a market-town in the county of So- 
merfet, fituated in a woody fertile country, pleafingly di- 
verlified with hill and valley, at the didance of eight miles 
from Taunton, and five from Wellington. The build¬ 
ings are chiefly arranged in three irregular dreets; and 
the church dands on an eminence in the centre. This 
town was anciently a borough, the manor whereof is now 
veded in the crown, and long poflefled a good trade in 
ferges and druggets. The manufacture of thefe articles, 
however, is now almod entirely dropped ; but an exten- 
five manufactory of flannels has been edablilhed of late 
years. Though entirely deprived of its privileges as a 
borough, it continues to be governed by a portreeve ; and 
fearchers and fealers are dill annually appointed. The 
petty fellions are held here. Friday is the market-day ; 
and there are two fairs during the year, one on the 25th 
of July, and another on the 10th of OCtober. 
Milverton is remarkable in hidory as having given 
name to John de Milverton, the Carmelite friar of Briltol, 
who was celebrated for his zealous oppoiltion to the doc¬ 
trines of WicklilF, the fil'd Englilh reformer. Collinfon’s 
Hift. of SomerJ'etJhire, vol. iii. 
MIL'VINE, adj. [from milvius.] Belonging to the kite. 
MIL'VIUS, or Milvus, J'. in ornithology, the trivial 
name of the kite. See Falco milvus, vol. vii. p. 180. 
MIL'VIUS, or Molvius, Pons ; a bridge on the Ti¬ 
ber, built by ASmilius Scaurus the cenfor, in the time of 
Sylla, at two miles didance from the city, on the Via Fla- 
minia; and repaired by Augudus. From this bridge the 
ambaffadors of the Allobroges were brought back to 
Rome, by Cicero’s management, and made a difeovery of 
Cataline’s confpiracy (Sallufl). Near it Maxentius was 
defeated by Condantine (Eutropius). Now called Ponte 
Molle. 
MIL'WALDE, or Midwalde, a town of Holland, in 
the department of Groningen : eight miles fouth-fouth- 
ead of Dam. 
MIL'YAS, in ancient geography, a country of Afia 
Minor, better known by the name of Lycia. Its inhabi¬ 
tants, called Mihjades, and afterwards Solymi, were of the 
numerous nations which formed the army of Xerxes in 
his invafion of Greece. Herodotus. 
MIM BAS'HY, f [Indian.] A commander of a thou- 
fand horfe. James's Mil. Di 6 l. 
MI'MA, a town of Japan, in the ifland of Xicoco : 
twenty-two miles north-wed of Awa. 
MIMAN'SA, f. The name of a theory upheld by a nu¬ 
merous 1 ’eCt of Hindoos. The word denotes, in Sanfcrit, 
“ the operations and conclufions of realon.” Compared 
with the Grecian lchools,-the Mimanfa approaches neared 
the Platonic, having, indeed, many confonant ideas and 
doctrines. 
MI'ME, f. Gr. mitnus, Lat.] A bufloon who 
praCtifes gelticulations, either reprefentative of fome ac¬ 
tion, or merely contrived to raile mirth.—Let him go now, 
and brand another man injurioully with the name of mime ; 
being himfelf the looled and molt extravagant mime that 
hath been heard of, whom no lefs than almod half the 
world could ferve for Aage-room to play the mime in. Mil- 
ton's Apol. for Smcctymnus. —A ludicrous compolition ; a 
farce.—Scaliger defines a mine to be a poem intimating 
any adtion to dir up laughter. Milton.-- Our farces are 
really 
