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189 
M U M 
MUMBA'CUM, a town of Hindooftan, In the Carnatic : 
fifteen miles fouth of Arcot. 
To MUM'BLE, v. n. [mommelen, Tent, mumler, Dan. 
momia, Su. Goth, to mutter.] To fpeak inwardly ; to 
grumble; to mutter; to fpeak with imperfeft found or 
articulation.—Peace, you mumbling fool. Shahefpeare. 
A wrinkled hag, with age grown double, 
Picking dry flicks, and mumbling to lierfelf. Otway. 
To chew; to bite foftly; to eat with the lips clofe : 
The man, whoflaugh’d but once to fee an afs 
Mumbling to make the grofs-grain’d thiltles pafs, 
Might laugh again to fee a jury chaw 
The prickles of unpalatable law. Dryden. 
To MUM'BLE, v.a. To utter with a low inarticulate 
voice.—They neither alledge the fond furmifed caufes by 
Frarine, nor mumbl°. them over in mum-budget. Fulhe's 
Anfiver to P. Frarine, 1580.—He with mumbled pray’rs 
attones the deity. Dryden's Juvenal. 
Here flood he in the dark, 
Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon 
To Hand’s aufpicious miftrefs. Shahejpeare's K. Lear. 
To mouth gently: 
Spaniels civilly delight 
In mumbling of the game they dare not bite. Pope. 
To (lubber over; to fupprefs; to utter imperfectly.—The 
railing of my rabble is an exploit of confequence ; and not 
to be mumbled up in filer.ce, for all her pertnefs. Dryden. 
MUM'BLE-NEWS, / A kind of tale-bearer; one who 
privately reports news : 
Some carry-tale, fome pleafe-man, fqme flight zany, 
Some mumble-news, fome trencher-knight, fome Dick, 
Told our intents before. Shahefpeare's Love's Lab. Loft. 
MUMBLE PO'INT, a rock in the Briftol Channel, at 
the weft of the entrance into Swanfea-bay. Lat. 51. 37. N. 
Ion. 4. 3. W. 
MUM'BLER, f One that fpeaks inarticulately ; a mut- 
terer.—Employing a company of boys, or old illiterate 
mumblers, to read the fervice. Echard on the Cont. of the 
Clergy. 
MUM'BLING, f. The aft of uttering with a low inar¬ 
ticulate voice; a low' inarticulate found; the aft of chew¬ 
ing with the lips fliut. 
MUM'BLING, a river of Germany, which rifes about 
feven miles fouth of Erbach in Franconia, and runs into 
‘the Mayne, near Obenburg, in the eleftorate of Mentz. 
MUM'BLINGLY, adv. With inarticulate utterance. 
MUMBO'LE, a town of Hindooftan, in the Carnatic : 
twenty miles (outh-weft of Nellore. 
MUM'BOS, a country of Africa, north-weft of Moca- 
ranga. 
MU'MIA,/. [Arabic.] A mummy. 
MU'MIAL, adj. Belonging to a mummy. Cole. 
To MUM, v. a. [mumme , Dan.] To malk ; to frolic in 
difguife. 
MUM'MER, f [mumme, Dan.] A malker ; one who 
performs frolics in a perfonated drefs. Dr. Jolmfon .—Ori¬ 
ginally, one w'ho gefticulated, without fpeaking.—If you 
chance to be pinch’d with the colick, you make faces like 
mummers. Shahefpeare's Coriolanus. 
Good faith, fir, concernynge the people, they are not gay ; 
And, as fane as I fee, they be mummers; for nought they 
fay. Damon and Pithias. 
MUM'MERY, f. Mafking; frolic in maflcs; foolery, 
Sometimes written mommery, from the Fr. momerie .-—This 
open day-light doth not (hew the mafts and mummeries 
and triumphs of the world, half fo ftately as candlelight. 
Bacon's Sat. Llijl. 
Your fathers 
Difdain’d the mummery of foreign ftroliers. Fenton. 
To MUM'MIFY, v. a. [mummy, and Jio, Lat.] To pre¬ 
serve as a mummy; to make a mummy of; 
Voi. XVI. No. 1103. 
M U M 
Thy virtues are 
The (pices that embalm thee ; thou art far 
More richly laid, and (halt more long remains 
Still mummified within the hearts of men, 
Than if to lift thee in the rolls of fame 
Each marble fpoke thy fitape, all brafs thy name. 
J. Nall's Poems 164.6. 
MUM'MING,/. The amufement of mummery, of pan¬ 
tomime-tricks in difguife : 
The thriftlefs games. 
With mumming and with malking all around. Spenfer. 
Thefe mummings, O" mummeries, are of very ancient 
date. We tracesjgftiem as far back as the reign of Ed¬ 
ward III. and the preparations made for them at that, time 
are mentioned without the lead indications of novelty, 
which admits of the fuppofition that they were ftill more 
ancient. At the time w r e mention, they were a court- 
amufement, and were exhibited chiefly from Chriftmas- 
day to Twelfth-day. How far they were enlivened by 
dialogues or interlocutory eloquence is not known ; but 
probably they partook more of the feats of pantomime 
than of colloquial excellency, and were better calculated 
to amufe the fight than to inftruft the mind. The mag¬ 
nificent pageants and difguilings frequently exhibited at 
court in the lucceeding times, and efpecially during the 
reign of Henry VIII. no doubt, originated from the mum¬ 
meries above-mentioned. Thefe mummeries, as a mo¬ 
dern writer juftly obferves, were deftitute of charafter and 
humour, their chief aim being to furprife the fpeftators 
“ by the ridiculous and exaggerated oddity of the vizors, 
and by the Angularity and lplendour of the drefies ; every 
thing was out of nature and propriety. Frequently the 
mafque was attended with an exhibition of gorgeous ma¬ 
chinery, refembling the wonders of a modern pantomime.’* 
(Warton’s Hift. Poet. vol. ii. p. 156.) The reader may 
form fome judgment of the appearance the aftors made 
upon thefe occaiions, from fig. 1, a, of the annexed Plate, 
copied from Strutt, and by him taken from a beautiful 
manufcript written and illuminated in the reign of Ed- 
w'ard III. The performance feems to have confided 
chiefly in dancing, and the mummers are ufually at¬ 
tended by the minftrels playing upon feveral different 
kinds of mufical inftruments. 
In the middle aggs, mummings were very common; 
and at court, as well as in the manfions of the nobility, 
on occafions of feftivity, it frequently happened that the 
whole company appeared in borrowed characters ; and, 
full licenle of fpeecb being granted to every one, the dif- 
courfes were not always kept within the bounds of de- 
.cency. Thefe fpeftacles were exhibited with great fplen- 
riour during the reign of Henry VIII. Perfons capable 
of well fupporting alfumed charafters were frequently in¬ 
troduced at public entertainments, and alfo in the pa¬ 
geants exhibited on occafions of folemnity; fometimes 
they were the bearers of prefents, and fometimes the 
fpeakers of panegyrical orations. Froiffart tells us, that, 
after the coronation of Label of Bavaria, the queen of 
Charles VI. of France, (he had feveral rich donations 
brought to her by mummers iii different difguilemenfs ; 
one refembling a bear, another an unicorn, others like a 
company of Moors, and others as Turks or Saracens. 
When queen Elizabeth was entertained at Kenilworth- 
caftle, various fpeftacles were contrived for her amufe¬ 
ment; and fome of them produced without any previous 
notice, to take her as it were by furprife. It happened 
about nine o’clock one evening, as her majefty returned 
from hunting, and was riding, by torch-light, there came 
luddenly out of the wood, by the road-fide, a man habited 
like a favage, covered with ivy, holding in one of liis 
hands an oaken plant torn up by the roots, who placed 
liimfelf before her, and, after holding fame difcourie with 
a counterfeit echo, repeated a poetical oration in her praife, 
which was well received. This was on the icth o( July, 
