Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 4

I beseech you, Mr. Tickler, not to be so sarcastic on "The Master."--_Noctes Ambrosiana._

_Master_ (_The Old_). Mythical personage, whose breakfast-table monologues are among the most charming that enliven the pages of Oliver Wendell Holmes's _Poet at the Breakfast Table_. "I think he suspects himself of a three-story intellect, and I don't feel sure that he isn't right."

=Master Adam=, Adam Billaut, the French poet (1602-1662).

=Master Humphrey=, the narrator of the story called "The Old Curiosity Shop."--C. d.i.c.kens, _Master Humphrey's Clock_ (1840).

=Master Leonard=, grand-master of the nocturnal orgies of the demons. He presided at these meetings in the form of a three-horned goat with a black human face.--_Middle Age Demonology._

=Master, like Man= (_Like_).

Such mistress, such Nan; Such master, such man.

Tusser, x.x.xviii. 22.

Again:

Such master, such man; and such mistress, such maid; Such husband and huswife; such houses arraid.

T. Tusser, _Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry_, x.x.xix. 22 (1557).

=Master Matthew=, a town gull.--Ben Jonson, _Every Man in His Humor_ (1598).

=Master Stephen=, a country gull of melancholy humor. (See MASTER MATTHEW).--Ben Jonson, _Every Man in His Humor_ (1598).

=Master of Sentences=, Pierre Lombard, author of a book called _Sentences_ (1100-1164).

=Masters= (_Doctor_), physician to Queen Elizabeth.--Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Masters_ (The Four): (1) Michael O'Clerighe (_or_ Clery), who died 1643; (2) Cucoirighe O'Clerighe; (3) Maurice Conry; (4) Fearfeafa Conry; authors of _Annals of Donegal_.

=Mat Mizen=, mate of H.M. s.h.i.+p _Tiger_. The type of a daring, reckless, dare-devil English sailor. His adventures with Harry Clifton, in Delhi, form the main incidents of Barrymore's melodrama, _El Hyder, Chief of the Ghaut Mountains_.

=Mat-o'-the Mint=, a highwayman in Captain Macheath's gang. Peachum says, "He is a promising, st.u.r.dy fellow, and diligent in his way. Somewhat too bold and hasty; one that may raise good contributions on the public if he does not cut himself short by murder."--Gay, _The Beggar's Opera_, i.

(1727).

=Matabrune= (3 _syl._), wife of King Pierron of the Strong Island, and mother of Prince Oriant, one of the ancestors of G.o.dfrey of Bouillon.--_Mediaeval Romance of Chivalry._

=Mathematical Calculators.=

George Parkes Bidder, president of the Inst.i.tution of Civil Engineers (1800- ).

Jedediah Buxton, of Elmeton, in Derbys.h.i.+re. He would tell how many letters were in any one of his father's sermons, after hearing it from the pulpit. He went to hear Garrick, in _Richard III._, and told how many words each actor uttered (1705-1775).

Zerah Colburn, of Vermont, U. S., came to London in 1812, when he was eight years old. The duke of Gloucester set him to multiply five figures by three, and he gave the answer instantly. He would extract the cube root of nine figures in a few seconds (1804- ).

Vito Mangiamele, son of a Sicilian shepherd. In 1839 MM. Arago, Lacroix, Libri, and Sturm examined the boy, then 11 years old, and in half a minute he told them the cube root of seven figures, and in three seconds of nine figures (1818- ).

Alfragan, the Arabian astronomer (died 820).

=Mathilde= (2 _syl._), heroine of a tale so called by Sophie Ristaud, Dame Cottin (1773-1807).

_Mathilde_ (3 _syl._), sister of Gessler, the tyrannical governor of Switzerland, in love with Arnoldo, a Swiss, who saved her life when it was imperilled by an avalanche. After the death of Gessler she married the bold Swiss.--Rossini, _Guglielmo Tell_ (an opera, 1829).

=Mathis=, a German miller, greatly in debt. One Christmas Eve a Polish Jew came to his house in a sledge, and, after rest and refreshment, started for Nantzig, "four leagues off." Mathis followed him, killed him with an axe, and burnt the body in a lime-kiln. He then paid his debts, greatly prospered, and became a highly respected burgomaster. On the wedding night of his only child, Annette, he died of apoplexy, of which he had previous warning by the constant sound of sledge-bells in his ears. In his dream he supposed himself put into a mesmeric sleep in open court, when he confessed everything, and was executed.--J. R. Ware, _The Polish Jew_.

? This is the character which first introduced H. Irving to public notice.

=Math'isen=, one of the three anabaptists who induced John of Leyden to join their rebellion; but no sooner was John proclaimed "the prophet-king" than the three rebels betrayed him to the emperor. When the villains entered the banquet-hall to arrest their dupe, they all perished in the flames of the burning palace.--Meyerbeer, _Le Prophete_ (an opera, 1849).

=Matilda=, wife of the earl of Leicester, in the "first American tragedy regularly produced" in the United States.

She plans to poison her lord, a plot discovered and thwarted by him. In shame and remorse she stabs herself to the heart, praying Leicester to "pity her youthful paramour."--William Dunlap, _Leicester, A Tragedy_ (1794).

_Matilda_, sister of Rollo and Otto, dukes of Normandy, and daughter of Sophia.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The b.l.o.o.d.y Brother_ (1639).

_Matilda_, daughter of Lord Robert Fitzwalter.

? Michael Drayton has a poem of some 650 lines, so called.

_Matilda_, daughter of Rokeby, and niece of Mortham. Matilda was beloved by Wilfred, son of Oswald; but she herself loved Redmond, her father's page, who turned out to be Mortham's son.--Sir W. Scott, _Rokeby_ (1812).

=Matsys= (_Quintin_), a blacksmith of Antwerp. He fell in love with Liza, the daughter of Johann Mandyn, the artist. The father declared that none but an artist should have her to wife; so Matsys relinquished his trade, and devoted himself to painting. After a while, he went into the studio of Mandyn to see his picture of the fallen angel; and on the outstretehed[TN-6] leg of one of the figures painted a bee. This was so life-like, that when the old man returned, he proceeded to frighten it off with his handkerchief. When he discovered the deception, and found out it was done by Matsys, he was so delighted that he at once gave Liza to him for wife.

=Matthew Merrygreek=, the servant of Ralph Roister Doister. He is a flesh-and-blood representative of "vice" in the old morality-plays.--Nicholas Udall, _Ralph Roister Doister_ (the first English comedy, 1634).

=Matthias de Moncada=, a merchant. He is the father of Mrs. Witherington, wife of General Witherington.--Sir W. Scott, _The Surgeon's Daughter_ (time, George II.).