Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 25

=More'no= (_Don Antonio_), a gentleman of Barcelona, who entertained Don Quixote with mock-heroic hospitality.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. iv.

10 (1615).

=Morfin= (_Mr._), a cheerful bachelor, in the office of Mr. Dombey, merchant. He calls himself "a creature of habit," has a great respect for the head of the house, and befriends John Carker when he falls into disgrace by robbing his employer. Mr. Morfin is a musical amateur, and finds in his violoncello a solace for all cares and worries. He marries Harriet Carker, the sister of John and James.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Dombey and Son_ (1846).

=Morgan= (_le Fay_), one of the sisters of King Arthur (pt. i. 18); the others were Margawse, Elain, and Anne (Bellicent was his half-sister).

Morgan calls herself "queen of the land of Gore" (pt. i. 103). She was the wife of King Vrience (pt. i. 63), the mother of Sir Ew'ain (pt. i.

73), and lived in the castle of La Belle Regard (pt. ii. 122).

On one occasion, Morgan le Fay stole her brother's sword, "Excalibur,"

with its scabbard, and sent them to Sir Accolon, of Gaul, her paramour, that he might kill her brother Arthur in mortal combat. If this villany had succeeded, Morgan intended to murder her husband, marry Sir Accolon, and "devise to make him king of Britain;" but Sir Accolon, during the combat, dropped the sword, and Arthur, s.n.a.t.c.hing it up, would have slain him had he not craved mercy and confessed the treasonable design (pt. i.

70). After this, Morgan stole the scabbard and threw it into the lake (pt. i. 73). Lastly, she tried to murder her brother by means of a poisoned robe; but Arthur told the messenger to try it on, that he might see it, and when he did so he dropped down dead, "being burnt to a coal"

(pt. i. 75).--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_ (1470).

W. Morris, in his _Earthly Paradise_ ("August"), makes Morgan la Fee the bride of Ogier, the Dane, after his earthly career was ended.

_Morgan_, a feigned name adopted by Belarius, a banished lord.--Shakespeare, _Cymbeline_ (1605).

_Morgan_, one of the soldiers of Prince Gwenwyn of Powys-land.--Sir W.

Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

=Morgane= (2 _syl._), a fay, to whose charge Zephyr committed young Pa.s.selyon and his cousin, Bennucq. Pa.s.selyon fell in love with the fay's daughter, and the adventures of these young lovers are related in the romance of _Perceforest_, iii.

=Morgante= (3 _syl._), a ferocious giant, converted to Christianity by Orlando. After performing the most wonderful feats, he died at last from the bite of a crab.--Pulci, _Morgante Maggiore_ (1488).

He [_Don Quixote_] spoke favorably of Morgante, who, though of gigantic race, was most gentle in his manners.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. i. 1 (1605).

=Morgause= or MARGAWSE, wife of King Lot. Their four sons were Gaw'ain, Agravain, Ga'heris, and Gareth (ch. 36); but Morgause had another son by Prince Arthur, named Mordred. Her son Gaheris, having caught his mother in adultery with Sir Lamorake, cut off her head.

=Morgia'na=, the female slave, first of Ca.s.sim, and then of Ali Baba, "crafty, cunning, and fruitful in inventions." When the thief marked the door of her master's house with white chalk in order to recognize it, Morgiana marked several other doors in the same manner; next day she observed a red mark on the door, and made a similar one on others, as before. A few nights afterwards, a merchant with thirty-eight oil-jars begged a night's lodging; and as Morgiana wanted oil for a lamp, she went to get some from one of the leather jars. "Is it time?" asked a voice. "Not yet," replied Morgiana, and going to the others, she discovered that a man was concealed in thirty-seven of the jars. From the last jar she took oil, which she made boiling hot, and with it killed the thirty-seven thieves. When the captain discovered that all his men were dead, he decamped without a moment's delay. Soon afterwards, he settled in the city as a merchant, and got invited by Ali Baba to supper, but refused to eat salt. This excited the suspicion of Morgiana, who detected in the pretended merchant the captain of the forty thieves. She danced awhile for his amus.e.m.e.nt, playfully sported with his dagger, and suddenly plunged it into his heart. When Ali Baba knew who it was that she had slain, he not only gave the damsel her liberty, but also married her to his own son.--_Arabian Nights_ ("Ali Baba, or the Forty Thieves").

=Morglay=, the sword of Sir Bevis, of Hamptoun, _i.e._ Southampton, given to him by his wife, Josian, daughter of the king of Armenia.--Drayton, _Polyolboin_,[TN-23] ii. (1612).

You talk of Morglay, Excalibur [_Arthur's sword_], and Durindana [_Orlando's sword_], or so. Tut! I lend no credit to that is fabled of 'em.--Ben Jonson, _Every Man in His Humor_, iii. 1 (1598).

=Morgue la Faye=, a _fee_ who watched over the birth of Ogier, the Dane, and after he had finished his earthly career, restored him to perpetual youth, and took him to live with her in everlasting love in the isle and castle of Av'alon.--_Ogier, le Danois_ (a romance).

=Mor'ice= (_Gil_ or _Child_), the natural son of Lady Barnard, "brought forth in her father's house wi' mickle sin and shame." One day, Gil Morice sent Willie to the baron's hall, with a request that Lady Barnard would go at once to Greenwood to see the child. Lord Barnard, fancying the "child" to be some paramour, forbade his wife to leave the hall, and went himself to Greenwood, where he slew Gil Morice, and sent his head to Lady Barnard. On his return, the lady told her lord he had slain her son, and added, "Wi' the same spear, oh, pierce my heart, and put me out o' pain!" But the baron repented of his hasty deed, and cried, "I'll lament for Gil Morice, as gin he were mine ain."--Percy, _Reliques, etc._, III. i.

? This tale suggested to Home the plot of his tragedy called _Douglas_.

=Mor'land=, in _Lend Me Five s.h.i.+llings_, by J. M. Morton (1838).

_Morland_ (_Henry_), "the heir-at-law" of Baron Duberly. It was generally supposed that he had perished at sea; but he was cast on Cape Breton, and afterwards returned to England, and married Caroline Dormer, an orphan.--G. Colman, _The Heir-at-Law_ (1797).

Mr. Beverley behaved like a father to me [_B. Webster_], and engaged me as a walking gentleman for his London theatre, where I made my first appearance as "Henry Morland," in _The Heir-at-Law_, which, to avoid legal proceedings, he called _The Lord's Warming-pan_.--Peter Paterson.

=Morley= (_Mrs._), the name under which Queen Anne corresponded with Mrs.

Freeman (_The d.u.c.h.ess of Marlborough_).

=Morna=, daughter of Cormac, king of Ireland. She was in love with Cathba, youngest son of Torman. Duchomar, out of jealousy, slew his rival, and then asked Morna to be his bride. She replied, "Thou art dark to me, O, Duchomar, and cruel is thine arm to Morna." She then begged him for his sword, and when "he gave it to her she thrust it into his heart."

Duchomar fell, and begged the maid to pull out the sword that he might die, but when she did so, he seized it from her and plunged it into her side. Whereupon Cuthullin said:

"Peace to the souls of the heroes! Their deeds were great in fight.

Let them ride around me in clouds. Let them show their features in war. My soul shall then be firm in danger, mine arm like the thunder of heaven. But be thou on a moonbeam, O, Morna, near the window of my rest, when my thoughts are at peace, when the din of war is past."--Ossian, _Fingal_, i.

_Morna_, wife of Compal, and mother of Fingal. Her father was Thaddu, and her brother Clessammor.--Ossian.

=Mornay=, the old seneschal, at Earl Herbert's tower at Peronne.--Sir W.

Scott, _Quentin Durward_ (time, Edward IV.).

=Morning Star of the Reformation=, John Wycliffe (1324-1384).

=Morocco= or MAROCCUS, the performing horse, generally called "Bankes's Horse." Among other exploits, we are told that "it went up to the top of St. Paul's." Both horse and man were burnt alive at Rome, by order of the pope, as magicians.--Don Zara del Fogo, 114 (1660).

? Among the entries at Stationers' Hall is the following:--_Nov. 14, 1595: A Ballad showing the Strange Qualities of a Young Nagg called Morocco._

In 1595 was published the pamphlet _Maroccus Extaticus_, or _Bankes's Horse in a Trance_.

=Morocco Men=, agents of lottery a.s.surances. In 1796, The great State lottery employed 7500 morocco men. Their business was to go from house to house among the customers of the a.s.surances, or to attend in the back parlors of public-houses, where the customers came to meet them.

=Morolt= (_Dennis_), the old squire of Sir Raymond Berenger.--Sir W.

Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

=Morose= (2 _syl._), a miserly old hunks, who hates to hear any voice but his own. His nephew, Sir Dauphine, wants to wring out of him a third of his property, and proceeds thus: He gets a lad to personate "a silent woman," and the phenomenon so delights the old man, that he consents to a marriage. No sooner is the ceremony over, than the boy-wife a.s.sumes the character of a virago of loud and ceaseless tongue. Morose, driven half-mad, promises to give his nephew a third of his income if he will take this intolerable plague off his hands. The trick being revealed, Morose retires into private life, and leaves his nephew master of the situation.--Ben Jonson, _The Silent Woman_ (1609).

("Wasp" in _Bartholomew Fair_, "Corbaccio" in _The Fox_, and "Ananias"

in _The Alchemist_.)

=Moroug=, the monkey mistaken for the devil. A woman of Cambalu died, and Moroug, wis.h.i.+ng to personate her, slipped into her bed, and dressed himself in her night-clothes, while the body was carried to the cemetery. When the funeral party returned, and began the usual lamentations for the dead, pug stretched his night-capped head out of the bed, and began moaning and grimacing most hideously. All the mourners thought it was the devil, and scampered out as fast they could run. The priests a.s.sembled, and resolved to exorcise Satan; but pug, noting their terror, flew on the chief of the bonzes, and bit his nose and ears most viciously. All the others fled in disorder; and when pug had satisfied his humor, he escaped out of the window. After a while, the bonzes returned, with a goodly company well armed, when the chief bonze told them how he had fought with Satan, and prevailed against him.

So he was canonized, and made a saint in the calendar for ever.--T. S.