Part 203

=Medea= (_mē-dē´ä_).--A play by Euripides. The _Medea_ came out in 431 B. C. along with the poet’s _Philoctetes_, _Dictys_, and the satiric _Reapers_ (the last was early lost). It was based upon a play of Neophron’s, and only obtained the third prize, Euphorion being first, and Sophocles second. It may accordingly be regarded as a failure in its day--an opinion apparently confirmed by the faults (_viz._, Ægeus and the winged chariot) selected from it as specimens in Aristotle’s _Poetica_. There is considerable evidence of there being a second edition of the play, and many of the variants, or so-called interpolations, seem to arise from both versions being preserved and confused. Nevertheless, there was no play of Euripides more praised and imitated.

=Médecine Malgré Lui, Le= (_mād-saN´ mal-grā´lwē lu_), (or, _The Doctor in Spite of Himself_).--A comedy by Molière. The “enforced doctor” is Sganarelle, a fagot maker, who is called in by Géronte to cure his daughter of dumbness. Sganarelle soon perceives that the malady is assumed in order to prevent a hateful marriage, and introduces her lover as an apothecary. The dumb spirit is at once exorcized, and the lovers made happy with “pills matrimonial.”

In 1733 Fielding produced a farce called _The Mock Doctor_, which was based on this comedy. The doctor he calls “Gregory,” and Géronte “Sir Jasper.” Lucinde, the dumb girl, he calls “Charlotta;” and Anglicizes her lover’s name, Léandre, into “Leander.”

=Meg Merrilies= (_mer´i-lēz_).--A prominent character in Scott’s _Guy Mannering_, a half-crazy gypsy or sibyl.

=Meistersingers= (_mīs´ter-sing-ers_).--In Germany an association of master tradesmen, to revive the national minstrelsy, which had fallen into decay with the decline of the minnesingers or love minstrels (1350-1523). Their subjects were chiefly moral or religious, and constructed according to rigid rules.

=Melissa= (_me-lis´ä_).--_Orlando Furioso_, Ariosto. The prophetess who lived in Merlin’s cave. Bradamante gave her the enchanted ring to take to Rogero; so, assuming the form of Atlantes, she not only delivered Rogero but disenchanted all the forms metamorphosed in the island where he was captive.

=Melnotte, Claude.=--_Lady of Lyons_, Bulwer. The son of a gardener in love with Pauline, “the Beauty of Lyons,” but treated by her with contempt. Beauseant and Glavis, two other rejected suitors, conspired with him to humble her.

=Merchant of Venice.=--A comedy by Shakespeare. Antonio the merchant, signs a bond in order to borrow money from Shylock, a Jew, for Bassanio, the lover of Portia. If the loan was repaid within three months, only the principal would be required; if not, the Jew should be at liberty to claim a pound of flesh from Antonio’s body. The ships of Antonio being delayed by contrary winds, the merchant was unable to meet his bill, and the Jew claimed the forfeiture. Portia, in the dress of a law doctor, conducted the defense, and saved Antonio by reminding the Jew that a pound of flesh gave him no drop of blood.

=Merlin.=--The name of an ancient Welsh prophet and enchanter. He is often alluded to by the older poets, especially Spenser, in his _Faërie Queene_, and also figures in Tennyson’s _Idylls of the King_. In the _History of Prince Arthur_ by Malory, Merlin is the prince of enchanters and of a supernatural origin. He is said to have built the Round Table and to have brought from Ireland the stones of Stonehenge.

=Merlin’s Cave.=--In Dynevor, near Carmarthen, noted for its ghastly noises of rattling iron chains, groans, and strokes of hammers. The cause is said to be this: Merlin set his spirits to fabricate a brazen wall to encompass the city of Carmarthen, and, as he had to call on the Lady of the Lake, bade them not slacken their labor till he returned; but he never did return, for Vivian held him prisoner by her wiles.

=Merry Wives of Windsor, The.=--A comedy by Shakespeare. It is said that Queen Elizabeth was so pleased with the Falstaff of Henry IV. that she commanded Shakespeare to show how he conducted himself when in love. For the plot he was probably but little indebted to other writers. _The Two Lovers of Pisa_ from Straparola, in Tarleton’s _News Out of Purgatory_, and a story from _Il Pecorone_ which suggests the hiding of Falstaff in the soiled linen, may possibly have suggested some of the incidents. John Dennis wrote a play, _The Comical Gallant, or the Amours of Sir John Falstaff_, in 1702, in which _The Merry Wives_ may be recognized.

=Messiah= (_me-sī´ä_), =The=.--An epic poem in fifteen books, by F. G. Klopstock. The subject is the last days of Jesus, his crucifixion and resurrection.

=Middlemarch=: _A Study of Provincial Life._--A novel, by George Eliot, published in 1872, and characterized by _The Quarterly Review_ “as the most remarkable work of the ablest of living novelists, and, considered as a study of character, unique.” The heroine is Dorothea Brooke, first married to Mr. Casaubon, afterward to Will Ladislaw. Among the other characters are Mr. Lydgate, Rosamond Vincy, Mary Garth, and Mrs. Cadwallader.

=Midlothian=, or =Mid-Lothian= (_mid-lō´_TH_i-an_), =The Heart of=.--A tale by Scott, of the Porteous riot, in which the incidents of Effie and Jeanie Deans are of absorbing interest. Effie was seduced by Geordie Robertson (_alias_ George Staunton), while in the service of Mrs. Saddletree. She murdered her infant, and was condemned to death; but her half sister Jeanie went to London, pleaded her cause before the queen, and obtained her pardon. Jeanie, on her return to Scotland, married Reuben Butler; and Geordie Robertson (then Sir George Staunton) married Effie. Sir George being shot by a gypsy boy, Effie (_i. e._, Lady Staunton) retired to a convent on the continent.

=Midsummer Night’s Dream.=--A comedy by Shakespeare. The author says there was a law in Athens that if a daughter refused to marry the husband selected for her by her father, she might be put to death. Ægeus, an Athenian, promised to give his daughter Hermia in marriage to Demetrius; but, as the lady loved Lysander, she refused to marry the man selected by her father, and fled from Athens with her lover. Demetrius went in pursuit of her, followed by Helena, who doted on him. All four came to a forest, and fell asleep. In their dreams a vision of fairies passed before them, and, on awaking, Demetrius resolved to forego Hermia, who disliked him, and to take to wife Helena, who sincerely loved him. When Ægeus was informed thereof, he readily agreed to give his daughter to Lysander, and the force of the law was not called into action (1592).

=Mildendo.=--_Gulliver’s Travels_, Swift. The metropolis of Lilliput, the wall of which was two feet and a half in height, and at least eleven inches thick. The emperor’s palace, called Belfaborac, was in the center of the city.

=Miles Standish= (or, _Courtship of Miles Standish_).--A poem by H. W. Longfellow. From this poem the robust figures of the Puritan captain in his haps and mishaps, and of John Alden and Priscilla, are now part of our national treasures.

=Miller, Daisy.=--Title and heroine of a story by Henry James. An American girl traveling in Europe, where her innocence, ignorance, and disregard of European customs and standards of propriety put her in compromising situations, and frequently expose her conduct to misconstruction.

=Mill on the Floss.=--A novel by George Eliot, published in 1860. There is a simplicity about _The Mill on the Floss_ which reminds us of the classic tragedy. The vast power of nature over the career and fate of a family is figured forth in the river, beside which the child Maggie played, filling her mother’s heart with gloomy and not unveracious presentiments, and down which she passed with Stephen in her hour of temptation, with Tom in her last moments; the whole strength of association and of the ties and instinct of blood breaking in at every critical point in the story, like the voice of a Greek chorus, full of traditionary warning and stern common sense, but speaking in the dialect of English rusticity, and by the mouths of Mr. Tulliver and his wife’s relations.

=Minna von Barnhelm= (_min´ä fon bärn´helm_).--A comedy by Lessing, published in 1767. It is the first German national drama which deals with contemporary events.

=Minnehaha= (_min-e-hä´hä_).--_Hiawatha_, Henry W. Longfellow. The daughter of the arrow maker of Dacotah, and wife of Hiawatha. She was called Minnehaha from the waterfall of that name.

=Minnesingers= (_min´e-sing-erz_).--A name given to the German lyric poets of the middle ages, on account of love being the principal theme of their lays, the German word “minne” being used to denote a pure and faithful love.

=Miranda.=--_The Tempest_, Shakespeare. The daughter of Prospero, the exiled duke of Milan, and niece of Antonio, the usurping duke. She is brought up on a desert island, with Ariel, the fairy spirit, and Caliban, the monster, as her only companions.

=Miriam.=--A beautiful and mysterious woman in Hawthorne’s romance _The Marble Faun_, for love of whom Donatello commits murder, thus becoming her partner in crime.

=Misanthrope, Le= (_mi-zä_N-_trop´, lu_).--A comedy by Molière, produced in 1666. This play is an almost inexhaustible source of allusions, quotations, proverbial sayings, etc. Its principal interest lies in the development of various pairs of opposing characters in even their lightest shades. It is the ideal of classic comedy. Alceste, the impatient, but not cynical, hero. Célimène the coquette, Oronte the fop, Éliante the reasonable woman, Arsinœ the mischief maker, are all immortal types.

=Misérables, Les= [(_mi-zā-rabl´, lâ_); or, _The Unfortunates_.]--A novel by Victor Hugo, in five parts: _Fantine_, _Cosette_, _Marius_, _L’Idylle Rue Plumet_, and _Jean Valjean_. It was published in 1862.

=Morte d’Arthur= (_môrt där´ther_).--(1) Compilation of Arthurian tales, called on the title page _The History of Prince Arthur_, compiled from the French by Sir Thomas Malory, and printed by William Caxton in 1470. It is divided into three parts. The first part contains the birth of King Arthur, the establishment of the Round Table, the romance of Balin and Balan, and the beautiful allegory of Gareth and Linet. The second part is mainly the romance of Sir Tristram. The third part is the romance of Sir Launcelot, the quest of the holy grail, and the death of Arthur, Guinevere, Tristram, Lamorake, and Launcelot.

(2) An idyll by Tennyson, called _The Passing of Arthur_, in the _Idylls of the King_. The poet supposes Arthur (wounded in the great battle of the west) to be borne off the field by Sir Bedivere. The wounded monarch directed Sir Bedivere to cast Excalibur into the mere. Sir Bedivere then carried the dying king to a barge, in which were three queens, who conveyed him to the island valley of Avilion.

=Mualox.=--_The Fair God_, Lew Wallace. The old paba or prophet who assured Nenetzin that she was to be the future queen in her father’s palace.

=Much Ado About Nothing.=--A comedy by Shakespeare. It was first printed in 1600. The play was known as _Benedict and Bettris_ in 1613, and is probably the same as _Love’s Labor’s Won_. The story of Hero is taken with some variations from one of Bandello’s tales, which probably was borrowed from the story of Geneura and Ariodantes in the _Orlando Furioso_ of Ariosto. This part of the play, however, is subordinated by Shakespeare to the loves of Benedict and Beatrice.

=Mucklebacket.=--_The Antiquary_, Scott. Name of a conspicuous family, consisting of Saunders Mucklebacket, the old fisherman of Musselcrag; Old Elspeth, mother of Saunders; Maggie, wife of Saunders; Steenie, the eldest son, who was drowned; Little Jennie, Saunders’ child.

=Mumblecrust, Madge.=--A character in Edall’s _Ralph Roister Doister_, whose name was subsequently employed in Dekker’s _Satiro-Mastix_, and the comedy of _Patient Grissel_. Madge is mentioned in the MS. comedy of _Misogonus_.

=Münchausen= (_münch´hou-zen_), =The Baron=.--A hero of most marvelous adventures, and the fictitious author of a book of travels filled with most extravagant tales. The name is said to refer to Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Münchausen, a German officer in the Russian army, noted for his marvelous stories.

=Mutual Friend, Our.=--A novel by Charles Dickens. The “mutual friend” is Mr. Boffin, the golden dustman, who was the mutual friend of John Harmon and of Bella Wilfer. The tale is this: John Harmon was supposed to have been murdered by Julius Handford; but it was Ratford, who was murdered by Rogue Riderhood, and the mistake arose from a resemblance between the two persons. By his father’s will, John Harmon was to marry Bella Wilfer; but John Harmon knew not the person destined by his father for his wife, and made up his mind to dislike her. After his supposed murder, he assumed the name of John Rokesmith, and became the secretary of Mr. Boffin, “the golden dustman,” residuary legatee of old John Harmon, by which he became possessor of one hundred thousand dollars. Boffin knew Rokesmith, but concealed his knowledge for a time. At Boffin’s house John Harmon (as Rokesmith) met Bella Wilfer, and fell in love with her. Mr. Boffin, in order to test Bella’s love, pretended to be angry with Rokesmith for presuming to love Bella; and, as Bella married him, he cast them both off “for a time,” to live on John’s earnings. A babe was born, and then the husband took the young mother to a beautiful house, and told her he was John Harmon, that the house was their house, that he was the possessor of five hundred thousand dollars through the disinterested conduct of their “mutual friend,” Mr. Boffin, and the young couple live happily with Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, in wealth and luxury.

=My Novel.=--A work of fiction by Edward, Lord Lytton, published in 1853. It is described as the “great work which marks the culminating point in Lord Lytton’s genius, the work to which, with a rare estimate of his own powers, he has given the singularly appropriate title of _My Novel_.... If we except one or two melodramatic scenes, it is throughout an admirable work.... The plot is complex, but it is unfolded with marvelous directness and ingenuity, and, notwithstanding the digressions, the interest never for a moment flags.” Among the characters are Squire Hazeldean, Mr. Dale, Dick Avenel, Leonard Fairfield, and Harley L’Estrange.

=N=

=Nathan the Wise= [_Nathan der Wise_ (_nä´tän der vī´ze_).]--A drama by G. E. Lessing, so called from the name of its principal character. Its tendency is toward religious tolerance, especially in the episode of the three rings, which was taken from Boccaccio. Nathan is a persecuted but noble Jew, an ideal character resembling Moses Mendelssohn.

=Natty Bumppo.=--Called “Leather-Stocking.” He appears in five of Cooper’s novels: (1) _The Deerslayer_; (2) _The Pathfinder_; (3) As “Hawk-eye” in _The Last of the Mohicans_; (4) “Natty Bumppo” in _The Pioneers_; and (5) as the “Trapper” in _The Prairie_, in which he dies.

=Neæra= (_nē-ē´rä_).--The name of a girl mentioned by the Latin poets Horace, Vergil, and Tibullus; sometimes also introduced into modern pastoral poetry as the name of a mistress or sweetheart.

=Nepenthe.=--A care-dispelling drug, which Polydamna, wife of Thonis, king of Egypt, gave to Helen. A drink containing this drug “changed grief to mirth, melancholy to joyfulness, and hatred to love.” The water of Ardenne had the opposite effects. Homer mentions this drug nepenthe in his _Odyssey_. It is also mentioned in Poe’s _Raven_.

=New Atlantis, The.=--An imaginary island in the middle of the Atlantic. Bacon, in his allegorical fiction, so called, supposes himself wrecked on this island, where he finds an association for the cultivation of natural science and the promotion of arts. Called the “New” Atlantis to distinguish it from Plato’s Atlantis, an imaginary island of fabulous charms.

=Newcomes, The.=--_Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family_, by William Makepeace Thackeray. The hero is Clive Newcome, a young artist, son of Colonel Newcome, and cousin of Ethel Newcome, whom he marries after the death of his first wife, Rosa Mackenzie. Among the other characters are Comte de Florac, Charles Honeyman, “J. J.,” Fred Bayham, Lady Kew, Jack Belsize, Dr. Goodenough, and others.

Colonel Newcome, is “the finest portrait,” says Hannay, “that has been added to the gallery of English fiction since Sir Walter’s time. The pathos, at once manly and delicate, with which his ruin and death are treated, places Thackeray in a high rank in poetic sentiment.”

=Nibelungenlied= (_nē´be-loong-en-lēd_).--An historic poem, generally called the German _Iliad_. It is the only great national epic that European writers have produced since antiquity, and belongs to every country that has been peopled by Germanic tribes, as it includes the hero traditions of the Franks, the Burgundians and the Goths, with memorials of the ancient myths carried with them from Asia. The poem is divided into two parts, and thirty-two lieds, or cantos. The first part ends with the death of Siegfried, and the second part with the death of Kriemhild. The death of Siegfried and the revenge of Kriemhild have been celebrated in popular songs dating back to the lyric chants now a thousand years old. These are the foundation of the great poem.

=Nicholas Nickleby.=--A novel by Dickens. The mother of the hero, Nicholas, is a widow fond of talking and of telling long stories with no connection. She imagined her neighbor, a mildly insane man, was in love with her because he tossed cabbages and other articles over the garden wall. She had a habit of introducing in conversation topics wholly irrelevant to the subject under consideration, and of always declaring, when anything unanticipated occurred, that she had expected it all along, and had prophesied to that precise effect on divers (unknown) occasions. Nicholas Nickleby has to make his own way in the world. He first goes as usher to Mr. Squeers, schoolmaster at Dotheboys Hall; but leaves in disgust with the tyranny of Squeers and his wife, especially to a poor boy named Smike. Smike runs away from the school to follow Nicholas, and remains his humble follower till death. At Portsmouth, Nicholas joins the theatrical company of Mr. Crummles, but leaves the profession for other adventures. He falls in with the Brothers Cheeryble, who make him their clerk; and in this post he rises to become a merchant, and finally marries Madeline Bray.

=Nightingale, Ode to a.=--Poem by John Keats, which “was written,” says Leigh Hunt, “in a house at the foot of Highgate Hill, on the border of the fields looking toward Hampstead. The poet had then his mortal illness upon him, and knew it; never was the voice of death sweeter.”

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird! No hungry generations tread thee down; The voice I hear this passing night was heard In ancient days by emperor and clown; Perhaps the selfsame song that found a path Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home, She stood in tears amid the alien corn; The same that ofttimes hath Charm’d magic casements, opening on the foam Of perilous seas, in faëry lands forlorn.

=Notre Dame de Paris.=--A prose romance by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. The scene is laid in Paris at the end of the reign of Louis XI. It is a vigorous but somber picture of mediæval manners.

=Nourmahal= (_nör-ma-häl´_).--_Lalla Rookh_, Moore. “Light of the Harem.” She was for a season estranged from the sultan, till he gave a grand banquet, at which she appeared in disguise as a lute-player and singer. The sultan was so enchanted with her performance that he exclaimed, “If Nourmahal had so played and sung, I could forgive her all;” whereupon the sultana threw off her mask.

=Nucta.=--_Paradise and the Peri_, Moore. The name given to the miraculous drop which falls from heaven, in Egypt, on St. John’s day, and is supposed to stop the plague.

=Nun of Nidaros.=--_Tales of a Wayside Inn_, Longfellow. The abbess of the Drontheim convent, who heard the voice of St. John while she was kneeling at her midnight devotions.

=Nut-Brown Maid.=--_Reliques_, Percy. The maid who was wooed by the “banished man.” The “banished man” described to her the hardships she would have to undergo if she married him; but finding that she accounted these hardships as nothing compared with his love, he revealed himself to be an earl’s son, with large hereditary estates in Westmoreland, and married her.

=O=

=Obermann= (_ō-ber-män´_).--The impersonation of high moral worth without talent, and the tortures endured by the consciousness of this defect. This name was given to the hero and imaginary author of a work of the same name by Etienne Pivert de Senancourt, a French writer.

=Oberon= ([_=o]´be-ron_).--King of the fairies, whose wife was Titania. Shakespeare introduces both Oberon and Titania in his _Midsummer Night’s Dream_. He and Titania, his queen, are fabled to have lived in India, and to have crossed the seas to northern Europe to dance by the light of the moon.

=Oberon the Fay.=--A humpty dwarf only three feet high, but of angelic face, lord and king of Mommur.

=Odyssey= (_od´i-si_).--Homer’s epic poem recording the adventures of Odysseus (Ulysses) in his voyage home from Troy. The poem opens in the island of Calypso, with a complaint against Neptune and Calypso for preventing the return of Odysseus to Ithaca. Telemachos, the son of Odysseus, starts in search of his father, accompanied by Pallas in the guise of Mentor. He goes to Pylos to consult old Nestor, and is sent by him to Sparta, where he is told by Menelaus that Odysseus is detained in the island of Calypso. In the meantime, Odysseus leaves the island, and, being shipwrecked, is cast on the shore of Phæacia. After twenty years’ absence Odysseus returns to his home. Penelope is tormented by suitors. To excuse herself, Penelope tells her suitors he only shall be her husband who can bend Odysseus’ bow. None can do so but the stranger, who bends it with ease. Odysseus is recognized by his wife, and the false suitors are all slain, and peace is restored to Ithaca.

=Œdipus= (_ed´i-pus_) =Coloneus= [(_kō-lō-nē´us_); or, _Œdipus at Colonus_ (_kō-lō´nus_)].--A tragedy of Sophocles, which was not exhibited till four years after his death, and was said to be the last he wrote. In it Œdipus, driven from Thebes by Creon, with his daughters, Antigone and Ismene, seeks asylum with Theseus at Athens, and there obtains pardon from the gods, and peace.

=Œdipus Tyrannus= (_ti-ran´us_).--A tragedy by Sophocles, of uncertain date, “placed by the scholiasts, and by most modern critics, at the very summit of Greek tragic art.”

=Ogier= (_ō-zhyā´_) the Dane.--One of the paladins of the Charlemagne epoch. Also made the hero of an ancient French romance, and the subject of a ballad whose story is probably a contribution from the stores of Norman tradition, Holger, or Olger, Danske, being the national hero of Denmark. He figures in Ariosto’s _Orlando Furioso_.

=O’Groat.=--A name often alluded to in early English parables or sayings coming from the legend of _John O’Groat’s House_. This ancient building was supposed to stand on the most northerly point in Great Britain. John of Groat and his brothers were originally from Holland. According to tradition, the house was of an octagonal shape, being one room with eight windows and eight doors, to admit eight members of the family, the heads of eight different branches of it, to prevent their quarrels for precedence at table, which, on a previous occasion, had well-nigh proved fatal.