C26 M O L 
MO'LENBACH, a river of the grand duchy of Berg, 
which runs into the Wipper two miles north of Duma. 
MOLENDA'RIOUS, adj. Belonging to a mill. Bailey. 
MOLENJDI'NUM, J! in old records, a mill. Phillips. 
MOLEN'DUM, / [Latin.] In old records, a grill; a 
certain quantity of corn fent to the mill to be ground. 
MOLE'NE, a fmall ifland in the Englifh Channel, near 
the weft coaft of France: fix miles fouth-eaft of Ufhaut. 
Lat. 48.24. N. Ion. 4.52. W. 
MOLE'NES, a fmall ifland in the Englilh Channel, hear 
the coaft of France: thirteen miles weft of the ifland of 
Bas. Lat. 48.47. N. Ion. 3.33. E. 
MO'LENPURG, a town of Auftria: fixteen miles 
fouth-weft of Crems. 
MOLE'SMES, a town of France, in the department of 
the Cote d'Or: nine miles weil-north-well of Chatillon 
fur Seine. r 
To MOLES'T, v. a. [molcfier, Fr. moleflo , Lat.] To dif- 
turb ; to trouble: to vex.—Pleafure and pain fignify what¬ 
ever delights or molefts us. Locke. ■ 
Both are doom’d to death ; 
And the dead wake not to molej't the living. Ltoice. 
MOLESTA'TION, f Difturbance; uneafinefs caufed 
by vexation.—Though ufelefs unto us, and rather of mo- 
leftation, we refrain from killing fwallows. Broivris Vul¬ 
gar Errours. 
MOLES'TER, f. One who difturbs. Sherwood. 
MOLES'TFUL, adj. Vexatious ; troublefome.—That 
pride which breaketh out to the difturbance and vexa¬ 
tion of others, is hated as molcjlful and milchievous. Bar- 
row. 
MOLES'TING, f. The aft of troubling or infulting. 
MO'LESWORTH (Robert, Vifcount), defcended from 
an ancient Englilh family, was born at Dublin in 1656. 
Having received the elements of a good education, he was 
fent to complete his ftudies at Dublin-college. He mar¬ 
ried, at an early age, the filler of the earl of Bellamont. 
When the prince of Orange came to England in 1688, 
Mr. Molefworth rendered himfelf confpicuous as a friend 
to liberty and the Proteftant religion, for which he was 
afterwards attainted and his eftate fequeftered by king 
James’s Irilh parliament. The fuccefs of the popifli king, 
even in Ireland, was fliort; and Mr. Molefworth was im¬ 
mediately noticed by king William, w'ho raifed him to 
the rank of privy-counfellor. In 1692 he was fent out 
envoy-extraordinary to the court of Denmark, where he 
refided three years. He had not, however, been very long 
in his. fituation before he found reafon to be difgulled 
with the manners and habits of that newly-enflaved coun¬ 
try; and his eagernefs to infill upon privileges which he 
conceived were his due in the high charafter of ambaffa- 
dor, gave offence, and he was forbidden to enter the court. 
Without the ceremony of taking leave, he withdrew to 
Flanders, on pretence of bufinefs, and thence returned to 
England, where he publilhed “ An Account of Den¬ 
mark.” This work, written probably in refentment for 
the ill treatment he had met with, gave fuch an unfa¬ 
vourable account of the government and nation, that it 
W’as noticed by prince George of Denmark, conlort to 
the princefs Anne, afterwards queen of England; and 
a memorial was prefented to king William, by the Danilh 
envoy, complaining of the infult. Dr. King was employed 
to anfwer this work, in the performance of which, being 
furnilhed with fa6ts by the Danilh relident, he was en¬ 
abled to deteft fome miltakes and reprefentations ; the 
book was however well received, and wast ranflated into 
feveral foreign languages. For the author it procured 
the elteem and friendlhip of lord Shaftelbury, in unifon 
with whofe political principles he always afted. Mr. 
Molefworth was continued a member of the privy-coun¬ 
cil till the latter part of the reign of queen Anne, when 
he was removed on account of a complaint from the cler¬ 
gy in convocation, to whofe increafing influence he was 
always inimical. On the acceflion of George I. he was 
token again into favour, and in 1716 was called to the 
M O L 
houfe of lords in Ireland, by the title of Vifcount Molef¬ 
worth of Swords in the kingdom of Ireland. After this, 
he fpent his time chiefly in a literary retirement, conneft- 
ed with and much elleemed by feveral men of learning 
and liberal principles, among whom were Locke, Moly! 
neux, and Toland. To the latter he was a warm friend 
and benefaftor, though his own circumftances were nar¬ 
row'. Lord Molefworth died in 1725, at his feat near 
Dublin, in the lixty-ninth year of his age. Beudes the 
work already referred to, he wrote an Addrels to the 
Houfe of Commons for the Encouragement of Agricul¬ 
ture; and to his pen were alcribcd feveral temporary 
publications in favour of the Englilh conftitution, and 
the general principles’ of liberty,—One of his daughters, 
Mary, the wife of George Monk, efq. at her death, in 
1715, left a Colleftion of Poems, which her father pub¬ 
lilhed, and dedicated to the princefs of Wales, afterwards 
queen Caroline. Gen’. Biog. 
MOLEVI'TO, a town of Ceylon. 
MO'LEWARP,/ [See Mouldwarp.] A mole: 
The tnolcwarp's brains mix’d therewithal, 
And with thefame the pifmire’s gall. Drayton'sEymphiad. 
MOLE'ZIO, or Molet'ti (Jofeph), a celebrated phy- 
fician, philofopher, and mathematician, was born at Mef- 
fina in Sicily about the year 1531. He was felefted by 
William de Gonzaga, duke of Mantua, to be his fon 
prince Vincent’s mathematical tutor; and not long after¬ 
wards he obtained the chair of profelfor of mathematics 
in the univerfity of Padua, where he was highly refpefted 
for his talents and merits. He was employed by pope 
Gregory XIIJ, in drawing up tables for that pontiff's re¬ 
formation of the calendar, or what was called the New 
Style; for which he received confiderable prefents from 
his hoHnefs, and alfo from the republic of Venice, which 
had intimated a wifli that he would undertake that talk. 
Moletti died et Padua in 1588, in the fifty-feventh year 
of his age. He was the author of the Tables above men¬ 
tioned, to which he gave the name of Gregorian, publilhed 
in 4to. 2. Ephemerides for twenty Years, commencing 
in 1564, and terminating in 1584, in Latin ; 1564, 4to.' 
3. Tabulae Geographicps.ex prutenicis deduftae pro motu 
oftavas Spherae, ac Luminum, 1580, 4to. 4. De Calen- 
darii correftione et computo ecclefiallico, &c. 5. A ge¬ 
neral Difcourfe comprifmg all the Terms and Rules be¬ 
longing to Geography, 1561 and 1573, 4to. and fubjoined 
to Jerome Rufcclli’s Italian veriion of Ptolemy’s Geo°ra- 
phy. He alfo publilhed, 6. The Geography of Ptolemy, 
tranflated into Latin by Bilibald Pircheimher, with a long 
Commentary on the firft and feventh Books, thirty-eight 
new Tables, &c. 1562, 4to. Landi's HiJ't. cle la Lit. de 
I'ltalit yvol. iv. 
MOLFET'TA, a town of Naples, in the province of 
Bari, on the coaft of the Adriatic ; the fee of a bifliop, im¬ 
mediately under the pope : eight miles eaft-foutii-eaft: of 
Trani. Lat. 41. 18. N. Ion. 16. 39. E. 
MO'LID, [Hebrew.] A man’s name. 
MO'LIENS, a town of France, in the department of 
the Somme : ten miles well of Amiens. 
MOLIE'RE (John-Baptift Poquelin de), the moll cele¬ 
brated of modern writers in corned)', was born at Paris in 
1620. His father, whofe name was Poquelin, was valet- 
de-chambre upholllerer to the king, and kept a broker’s 
fhop, defigned to bring him up to his own employment, 
and gave him a conformable education. The youth, with¬ 
out any advantages of inltruftion beyond thole of mere 
reading and writing, imbibed a talle for literature, and 
was fent to the Jefuits’ college as a day-fcholar. His af- 
fiduity was foon obferved ; he became connefted with 
Chapelle and Bernier, with w’hom he attended leftures in 
philofophy, under Gaffendi. As his father, with increaf¬ 
ing years, became very infirm, the bufinefs of the royal 
houfehold was devoh/ed on the fon; and he attended 
Louis XIII. to Narbonne in 1641. On his return to Pa¬ 
ris, his palfion for the theatre began, and he determined 
to purfue it as a profeifion. He ailociated himfelf with 
J acorn 
