Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama | Page 3

of male issue it passed to John Dymoke, son-in-law of Philip
Marmion, in whose family it remains still.
=Marnally= (Bernard). Good-looking Irish tutor at "Happy-go-Lucky,"
a country house. He is accused of murdering the infant children of a
young widow with whom he is in love, but is acquitted and goes back
to Ireland. Some years later, he revisits America, meets his old love and
marries her.--Miriam Coles Harris, Happy-go-Lucky (1881).
=Marner= (Silas). Miser and misogynist in humble life, who finds a
baby-girl in his cottage one night, and in bringing her up, learns to have

patience with life and charity with his kind.--George Eliot, Silas
Marner.
=Ma´ro=, Virgil, whose full name was Publius Virgilius Maro (B.C.
70-19).
Oh, were it mine with the sacred Maro's art To wake to sympathy the
feeling heart, Like him the smooth and mournful verse to dress In all
the pomp of exquisite distress ... Then might I ...
Falconer, The Shipwreck, iii. 5 (1756).
=Mar´onites= (3 syl.), a religious semi-Catholic sect of Syria,
constantly at war with their near neighbors, the Druses, a
semi-Mohammedan sect. Both are now tributaries of the sultan, but
enjoy their own laws. The Maronites number about 400,000, and the
Druses about half that number. The Maronites owe their name to J.
Maron, their founder; the Druses to Durzi, who led them out of Egypt
into Syria. The patriarch of the Maronites resides at Kanobin; the
hakem of the Druses at Deir-el-kamar. The Maronites, or "Catholics of
Lebanon," differ from the Roman Catholics in several points, and have
a pope or patriarch of their own. In 1860 the Druses made on them a
horrible onslaught, which called forth the intervention of Europe.
=Marotte= (2 syl.), a footman of Gorgibus; a plain bourgeois, who
hates affectation. When the fine ladies of the house try to convert him
into a fashionable flunky, and teach him a little grandiloquence, he
bluntly tells them he does not understand Latin.
Marotte. Voilà un laquais qui demande si vous êtes au logis, et dit que
son maître, vous venir voir.
Madelon. Apprenez, sotte, à vous énoncer moins vulgaiment. Dites:
Voilà un nécessaire que demande si vous êtes en commodité d'etre
visibles.
Marotte. Je n'entends point le Latin.--Molière, Les Précieuses Ridicules,
vii. (1659).

=Marphi´sa=, sister of Roge´ro, and a female knight of amazing
prowess. She was brought up by a magician, but being stolen at the age
of seven, was sold to the king of Persia. When she was 18, her royal
master assailed her honor; but she slew him, and usurped the crown.
Marphisa went to Gaul to join the army of Agramant, but subsequently
entered the camp of Charlemagne, and was baptized.--Ariosto, Orlando
Furioso (1516).
=Marphu´rius=, a doctor of the Pyrrhonian school. Sganarelle consults
him about his marriage; but the philosopher replies, "Perhaps; it is
possible; it may be so; everything is doubtful;" till at last Sganarelle
beats him, and Marphurius says he shall bring an action against him for
battery. "Perhaps," replies Sganarelle; "it is possible; it may be so," etc.,
using the very words of the philosopher (sc. ix.).--Molière, Le Mariage
Forcé (1664).
=Marplot=, "the busy body." A blundering, good-natured, meddlesome
young man, very inquisitive, too officious by half, and always bungling
whatever he interferes in. Marplot is introduced by Mrs. Centlivre in
two comedies, The Busy Body and Marplot in Lisbon.
That unlucky dog Marplot ... is ever doing mischief, and yet (to give
him his due) he never designs it. This is some blundering adventure,
wherein he thought to show his friendship, as he calls it.--Mrs.
Centlivre, The Busy Body, iii. 5 (1709).
[Asterism] This was Henry Woodward's great part (1717-1777). His
unappeasable curiosity, his slow comprehension, his annihilation under
the sense of his dilemmas, were so diverting, that even Garrick
confessed him the decided "Marplot" of the stage.--Boaden, Life of
Siddons.
N. B.--William Cavendish, duke of Newcastle, brought out a free
tranlation[TN-2] of Molière's L'Etourdi, which he entitled Marplot.
=Marquis de Basqueville=, being one night at the opera, was told by a
messenger that his mansion was on fire. "Eh bien," he said to the
messenger, "adressez-vous à Mme. la marquise qui est en face dans

cette loge; car c'est affaire de ménage."--Chapus, Dieppe et ses
Environs (1853).
=Marrall= (Jack), a mean-spirited, revengeful time-server. He is the
clerk and tool of Sir Giles Overreach. When Marrall thinks Wellborn
penniless, he treats him like a dog; but as soon as he fancies he is about
to marry the wealthy dowager, Lady Allworth, he is most servile, and
offers to lend him money. Marrall now plays the traitor to his master,
Sir Giles, and reveals to Wellborn the scurvy tricks by which he has
been cheated of his estates. When, however, he asks Wellborn to take
him into his service, Wellborn replies, "He who