Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama | Page 8

Abbey was by Bacon.
Mason (Lady). She forges a will purporting to be by her husband, securing his estate to herself and her son. Nobody suspects the fraud for years. When inquiry arises, Lady Mason is engaged to a gallant old baronet who will not credit her guilt until, conscience-smitten, she throws herself at his feet and acknowledges all.
Lucius Mason. The priggish, good-looking youth for whom Lady Mason risks so much. When he learns the truth he is stern in his judgment of the unhappy woman.--Anthony Trollope, Orley Farm.
=Master= (The). Goethe is called Der Meister (1749-1832).
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. Dickens, 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, xxxviii. 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, xxxix. 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. ship 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, sturdy 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 Godfrey of Bouillon.--Medi?val Romance of Chivalry.
=Mathematical Calculators.=
George Parkes Bidder, president of the Institution of Civil Engineers (1800-?).
Jedediah Buxton, of Elmeton, in Derbyshire. 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.
[Asterism] 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,