MON 
fucli a one. The ufe of the word monfieur was formerly 
snore extenfive than at prelent; they applied it to people 
who lived many ages before them. Thus Monfieur St. 
Aug-uftin.e, Monfieur St. Ambrofe; and the vulgar dill 
fay, Monfieur St. Paul, Monfieur St. Jaques, See. Mon- 
jicitr, abiolutely ufed, is a title or quality appropriated 
to the fecond fon of France, or the king’s brother. In a 
letter of Philip de Valois, that princ.e, fpeaking of hispre- 
de.ceflor, calls him BJpvfieiir le Roy. It is commonly 
ufed in England as a term of reproach for a Frenchman.— 
Nor (hall we then need the movficurs of Paris to take our 
hopeful youth into their flight and prodigal cuftodies. 
Milton on Education. 
A Frenchman his companion ; 
An eminent monfieur, that, it feems, much loves 
A Gallian girl. Shake fixture s Cymbeline. 
MONSIGNY' (Pierre Alexandre), one of the moll: ce¬ 
lebrated dramatic compofers that France has produced 
during the eighteenth century, was born in 1729, in the 
province of Artois. Fie was fent, during his youth, to 
Paris, to follow the career of finance, and was placed in 
the office of accounts. When attending the reprefenta- 
tion of La Servante Maitrefle, of Pergolefe, he felt the 
palfion of muiic awake in him ; and, from that inftant, 
was refolved to devote himfelf to the art: he ftudied un¬ 
der Giannotti, and at the end of five months the mailer 
told him he required no farther lefions. Monfigny, on 
quitting him, (bowed him part of his opera of Les Aveux 
Lndifcrets. The mafter dil’covered in him great talent, 
and predicted his future fuccels ; but Monfigny, far from 
fatisfied with his labour, recompofed'it, and only played 
it in 1759. The fuccefs of this opera encouraged him to 
give, the year following, Le Maitre en Droit, and Le Cadi 
Dupe, ; which were fucceeded,in 1761, by Onne s'avifeja¬ 
mais de tout. Sedaine furnilhed him afterwards with the 
text of Le Roi et le Fermier, Rofe et Colas, Aline Reine 
de Golconde, L'ljle Sonnante, Le DeJ’erteur, Le Faucon, and 
Felix, on VEufant troupe. In 1775, he compofed the mufic 
of La Belle ArJ’ene, by Favart. Phillidore, Duny, and 
Monfigny, were the firft imitators of the Italian ltyle in 
France; they divided amongft them the Comic Theatre, 
when Gretry carne and furpalfed them all in feveral of his 
competitions. Monfigny furvived this great mailer but a 
few years; he was his fucceflor at the Inllitute, in the 
clafs of the Fine Arts. In 1800, he fucceeded Pinine as 
director of Le Confervatoire. His fortune fufrered by 
the revolution; and, it is laid, he had long ago ceded his 
rights on the reprefentations of his pieces for an annuity. 
He died on the 15th of January, 1817 ; his remains were 
interred in the cemetery of Pere la Chaife, and adilcourfe 
pronounced over his tomb by M. Quatremere de Quincy, 
perpetual fecretary of the Academie des Beaux Arts. He 
had fcarcely ceafed to breathe an hour, when a dozen can¬ 
didates commenced a canvas for the fauteuil he has left 
vacant at the Inllitute. Britijh Lady's Magazine. 
Monfigny is deferibed by Dr. Burney as one of the 
creators of the French comic opera, which kind of drama 
was firft ellablilhed at the Theatre de la Foire, in 1754, 
upon the idea of the Italian burletta, in all things except 
the recitative, the dialogue in the French opera comique 
being fpoken, and incidentally mixed with airs. This in¬ 
genious and pleafing compofer’s name of Monfigny feems 
Italian; but his ltyle of melody is neither Italian nor 
French, but a mixture of both. Nothing could be more 
pleafing and amufing than thefe dramas to the natives of 
all Europe, not great critics in finging ; for it mull be 
owned, that they were all well written, well fet, and well 
aCled ; and in the principal man’s part, when performed 
by the admirable Caillot, well fung. Burney's Hijiory of 
Mufic. 
MONSOI/, a town of France, in the department of the 
Rhone and Loire : fifteen miles north of Villefranche. 
MON.SOL', a town of Africa, in the kingdom of An- 
M O N (J99 
ziko, and refidence of the micocco, or king. Lat. i.S. 
Ion. 3. 50. E. 
MON'SON, a townlhip of Hampfliire-county, Mafia- 
chufetts, eall of Brimfield. 
MON'SON (Sir William), a naval commander, and a 
writer upon naval lubjeCts, w'as born about the year 1369; 
and was lent, at an early age, to Baliol-college, Oxford, 
where he remained about two years. Being defirous of 
engaging in the fea-fervice, to which probably his parents 
objeCted, he entered, without their knowledge, at fixteen 
years of age, on-board a (mail veflel, fitted out to cruife 
againft the Spaniards. After fome years’ aCtive fervice, he 
accompanied the earl of Cumberland in two expeditions, 
in the fecond of which he was taken by the Spaniards, 
and was detained a prifoner two years. As foon as he 
was liberated, in 1593, he attached himfelf again to the 
earl’s fervice, in which he made two more voyages. In 
1596, he was captain of a Ihip iu the earl of Eiiex’s expe¬ 
dition to Cadiz, and in the next year in that to the Azores. 
After the acceffion of king James, he was appointed, in 
1604, admiral of the narrow feas, an office which hefuf- 
tained twelve years with credit to his own reputation, and 
honour to the Britith flag, by protecting the trade and 
filheries from all encroachments. His zeal againft the 
pretentions of the Dutch, and his endeavours to promote 
an enquiry into the Hate of the navy, againft the will of 
the earl of Nottingham, lord high admiral, involved him 
in troubles, and occafioned his committal to the Tower, 
in 1616 ; but, upon examination into his conduct, he was 
difeharged. He was confulted on the duke of Bucking¬ 
ham’s expedition againft Algiers, Cadiz, and the Ille of 
Rhe, all which he difapproved, g.nd his opinion was fully 
jullified by their want of fuccels. To his country hrs 
advice W'as unavailing, and to him it was unfortunate, 
fince his oppofition to a favourite w’as the caufe of his 
being kept out of employ for feveral years ; but in 1633 
he w'as appointed vice-admiral. After this he withdrew 
to a life of privacy, and employed himfelf in finilhing 
his Naval Tracis. He died in February 1642-3, leaving a 
high reputation as a brave, prudent, and upright, com¬ 
mander. He had not the good fortune to perform any 
very fplendid fervices, yet his zeal for the improvement 
of the navy of his country merits an honourable mention. 
His Naval TraCts contain much valuable information, 
hillorical and profeffional, with feveral plans and projects 
for advancing the interells of trade and navigation. Part 
of thefe Tracts was publilhed feparately in 1682, folio, 
with the title of “ A particular and exafit Account of the 
laft feventeen Years of Queen Elizabeth’s Reign ;” and 
they were all inferted in the third volume of Churchill’s 
Collection of Voyages, 1703. Biogr. Britan, and Camp- 
hell's Lives of the Admirals. 
MONSO'NIA, f. [defigned to commemorate lady Anne 
Monfon, a lady of diitinguilhed talents, as well as of emi¬ 
nent botanical tafte and knowledge, wdio, by a long refi¬ 
dence in the Eall Indies, had great opportunities of culti¬ 
vating the ftudy of plants, as well as infeCts.] In botany, 
a genus of the clafs monadelphia, order dodecandria, na¬ 
tural order of gruinales, (gerania, Juff.) Generic charac¬ 
ters—Calyx : perianthium five-leaved ; leaflets lanceo¬ 
late, awned, equal, permanent. Corolla: petals five, 
obovate, prtemorfe-toothed, longer than the calyx, in¬ 
ferted into the bale of the pitcher of ftamens. Stamina : 
filaments fifteen, united in five bodies, three in each, all 
connected at the bafe and forming a very ffiort pitcher; 
anthera: oblong. Piftillum : germen five-cornered, Ihort; 
ltyle awl-lhaped ; ftigmas five, oblong. Pericarpium : 
caplule five-cornered, five-celled; each cell fixed to a very 
long, twilled, terminating tail. Seeds : folitary.— EJfen- 
tial Chara&er. Calyx five-leaved ; corolla five-petalled ; 
llamina fifteen, united into five filaments; ltyle five-cleft; 
capfule five-grained. There are four fpecies. 
1. Monfonia fpeciofa, or large-flowered monfonia: 
leaves quinate; leaflets bipinnatifid. Native of the Cape 
of 
