M A T 
sad, indulging appetite, lived fo luxurioufly, that he 
brought on difeafes which foon put an end to his exiftence. 
He left a fon, Nicola Matteis, whom he taught on the 
violin from his cradle. “ I have feen the boy in coats,” 
fays Mr. North, “ play to his father’s guitar. When he 
grew up he became a celebrated malter on the violin, in 
London, for feveral years. Being invited into Germany, 
he went to Vienna, and has continued there ever fince, in 
full payment for all the mafters we have received from 
thofe countries.” 
The younger Matteis muft have returned to England 
foon after Mr. North’s Memoirs of Mufic were written; 
at Shrewfbury he was fettled as a language-matter, as well 
as performer on the violin, in 1737. Dr. Burney himfelf 
afterwards learned French and the violin of this matter, 
who continued at Shrewfbury till his deceafe, about the 
year 174.9. Burney's Hijf. of Mufic. 
MATTELOY', a town of Hindooftan, in Canara: four 
miles from Nelifuram. 
MATTENA'f, [Hebrew,] A man’s name. 
MAT'TER, a town of Tunis, anciently called Oppidum 
Malterenfe: twenty-feven miles n-orth-weft of Tunis. 
MAT'TER, f [maticre, Fr. materia, Lat.] Body; fub- 
ftance extended.—It teems probable to me, that God in 
the beginning formed matter in folid, maffy, hard, impe¬ 
netrable, moveable, particles, of fuch tizes and figures, 
and with fuch other properties, and in fuch proportion 
to fpace, as mott conduced to the.end for which he formed 
them ; and that thofe primitive’particles, being folids, are 
incomparably harder than any porous bodies compounded 
of them, even fo very hard as never to wear or break in 
pieces, no ordinary power being able to divide what God 
himfelf made one in the firfi: creation. Newton. —Some have 
dimenfions of length, breadth, and depth, and have alio 
a.power of refiftance, or exclude every thing of the fame 
-kind from being in the fame place : this is the proper 
character of matter, or body. Watts's Logic. —See the article 
Metaphysics, in the enfuing volume. 
If then the loul another foul do make, 
Becaufe her pow’r is kept within a bound, 
She muft fome former fluff or matter take; 
But in the foul there is no matter found. Davies. 
Materials ; that of which any thing is compofed.—The 
upper regions of the air perceive the collection of the 
matter of tempefts before the air here below. Bacon. —Sub¬ 
ject; thing treated.—It is matter of the greatell aftonifh- 
ment to obferve the common.boldnefs of men. Decay of 
Piety. 
Son of God, Saviour of men! Thy name 
Shall be the copious matter of my fong. Milton, 
The whole; the very thing fuppofed.—He grants the de¬ 
luge to have come fo very near the matter , that but very 
few efcaped. Tillotfon. —Affair; bufinefs: in a familiar 
fenfe.—Never was any thing gotten bv fenfuality and iloth 
in matter of profit or reputation. L'EJlrange. 
If chance herfelf fhotild vary 
Obferve how matters would mifcarry. Prior. 
Caufe of diflurbance.—Where art thou ? What’s the matter 
with thee? Shakefpeare. 
What is the matter, you diffentious rogues, 
That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion. 
Make yourfelves fcabs ? Shakefpeare's Cortolams. 
SubjeCt of fuit or complaint.—Slender, I broke your head ; 
what matter have you againlt me ?—Marry, lir, I have 
matter in my head againft you. Shakefpeare. —Import; con- 
fequence; importance; moment.—If I had had time to 
have made new liveries, I would have bellowed the thou- 
fand I borrowed of you : but it is no matter, this poor 
fhew doth better. Shakefpeare's Henry IP. 
And pleafe yourfelves this day; 
No matter from what hands you have the play. Dryden. 
Thing; objeCt; that which has fome particular relation, or 
MAT MS 
is fubjeft to particular corifideration.—Plato reprehended 
a young man for entering into a diffolute houfe : the young 
man faid. Why for fo fmall a matter? Plato replied, But 
cuftom is no fmall matter. Bacon. —Queftion confidered.— 
Upon the whole matter, it is abfurd to think that confci- 
ence can be kept in order without frequent examination. 
South. —Space or quantity nearly computed.—Away he 
goes to the market-town, a matter of feven miles off, to en¬ 
quire if any had feen his afs. L'Ef range. —I have thoughts 
to tarry a fmall matter in town, to learn fomewhat of your 
.lingo. Congreve.-— My lord Alton will be there a matter of 
two or three hours. Howe/. —Purulent running; that which 
is formed by fuppuration.—In an inflamed tubercle in the 
great angle of the left eye, the matter being fuppurated, I 
opened it. Wifeman's Surgery. 
Upon the Matter. A low phrafe,now out of ufe. Confi- 
dering the whole; with refpeCt to the main; nearly_ 
In their luperiors it quencheth jealoufy, and layeth their 
competitors afleep; fo that, upon the matter, in a great wit, 
deformity is an advantage to rifing. Bacon's Ejjays. — Upon 
the matter, in thefe prayers I do the fame thing I did be¬ 
fore, fave only that what before I fpake without book I 
now read. Bi/hop Sanderfon. 
To MAT'TER, v. n. To be of importance ; to import. 
It is ufed with it, this, that, or what, before it.— It matters 
not how they were called, fo we know who they are. Locke . 
If Petrarch’s mufe did Laura’s wit rehearfe, 
And Cowley flatter’d dear Orinda’s verfe ; 
She hopes Irom you—Pox take her hopes and fears, 
I plead her fex’s claim: what matters her’s? Prior. 
To generate matter by fuppuration.—Deadly wounds.in¬ 
ward bleed ; each flight lore matteretk. Sidney. 
To MAT'TER, v. a. To regard; not to negleCt : as, 
I matter not that calumny.—Laws my Pindaric parents 
matter'd not. Bramjlone. 
MAT'PERDALE, a village in Cumberland, north-eaft- 
of Kefwick, in Greyffock parjlh. Here is a chapel of 
eafe, and a charity-fchool. 
MAT'TERLESS, adj '-Void of matter: 
All fine noife 
Of verfe, mere matterlefs, and tinkling toys. B. Jonfon's Hor » 
MAT'TERSEY, a village near Bawtry in Nottingham- 
Ill ire ; with a good bridge over the Idle. 
MAT'TERY, oil/. Purulent; generating matter.—The 
putrid vapours colliquate the phlegmatic humours of the* 
body, which, tranfeending to the lungs, caufes their mat¬ 
tery cough. Harvey on Confumption. 
MAT'THAN, [Hebrew.] A man’s name. 
MAT'THAT, [Heb. a gift.] A man’s name. 
MATTHE'IA (St.), a fmall ifland in the North Pacific 
Ocean ; about 140 miles from the louth-ealt coalt of Rtrffia. 
Lat. 60. 10. N. Ion. 177. 10. E. 
MATTH'ESON (John), a diftinguifhed mufician, was 
a native of Hamburgh, and born in 1681. He was the 
fon of a Lutheran clergyman, and feems to have been edu¬ 
cated with great care. At feven years old he was allowed 
a mufic-matter, under whom he profited fo rapidly, that* 
at the age of nine he was able to fing to the organ, in the 
church at Hamburgh, anthems of his own compofition. 
What is more extraordinary, while he was fo eagerly pur- 
fuing the ftudy of mufic, he made himfelf malter of mo¬ 
dern languages ; and alfo applied part of his time to the 
Itudy of the civil law, attending the public leisures by 
turns of two doctors learned in that faculty. But we (hall 
chiefly confine ourfelves to his progrefs in mufic, and the 
ufe he made of his attainments in that art; as his con¬ 
nection and conflict with Handel, early in their feveral 
lives, have rendered him an intereiting perfonage to our 
readers of mufical hiltory. 
At the age of eighteen he compofed an opera in the 
German language, called the Pleiades, and performed a 
principal part in it himfelf. Handel, in 1703, at the age 
of nineteen, on the death of his father, in order to avoid 
being burthenfome to his mother, went to Hamburgh, 
and 
