Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama | Page 4

is false to one master
will betray another;" and will have nothing to say to him.--Massinger,
A New Way to Pay Old Debts (1628).
=Married Men of Genius.= The number of men of genius unhappy in
their wives is very large. The following are notorious
examples:--Socratês and Xantippê; Saadi, the Persian poet; Dantê and
Gemma Donati; Milton, with Mary Powell; Marlborough and Sarah
Jennings; Gustavus Adolphus and his flighty queen; Byron and Miss
Milbanke; Dickens and Miss Hogarth; etc. Every reader will be able to
add to the list.
=Mars=, divine Fortitude personified. Bacchus is the tutelary demon of
the Mahommedans, and Mars the guardian potentate of the
Christians.--Camoens, The Lusiad (1569).
That Young Mars of Men, Edward the Black prince, who with 8,000
men defeated, at Poitiers, the French king, John, whose army amounted
to 60,000--some say even more (A. D. 1356).[TN-3]
The Mars of Men, Henry Plantagenet, earl of Derby, third son of Henry,
earl of Lancaster, and near kinsman of Edward III. (See DERBY.)
=Marse' Chan.= Brave Virginian soldier whose lady-love enacts "My
Lady Disdain" until news is brought her that he has fallen in battle.
Then she grieves for him as a widow for her husband, and when she
dies, she is buried by him.--Thomas Nelson Page, In Ole Virginia
(1887).

=Mars of Portugal= (The), Alfonso de Albuquerque, viceroy of India
(1452-1515).
=Mars Wounded.= A very remarkable parallel to the encounter of
Di[)o]med and Mars in the Iliad, v., occurs in Ossian. Homer says that
Diomed hurled his spear against Mars, which, piercing the belt,
wounded the war-god in the bowels; "Loud bellowed Mars, nine
thousand men, ten thousand, scarce so loud, joining fierce battle." Then
Mars ascending, wrapped in clouds, was borne upwards to Olympus.
Ossian, in Carrick-Thura, says that Loda, the god of his foes, came like
a "blast from the mountain. He came in his terror and shook his dusky
spear. His eyes were flames, and his voice like distant thunder. 'Son of
night,' said Fingal, 'retire. Do I fear thy gloomy form, spirit of dismal
Loda? Weak is thy shield of cloud, feeble thy meteor sword.'"[TN-4]
Then cleft he the gloomy shadow with his sword. It fell like a column
of smoke. It shrieked. Then rolling itself up, the wounded spirit rose on
the wind, and the island shook to its foundation."
=Marseilles' Good Bishop=, Henri François Xavier de Belsunce
(1671-1775). Immortalized by his philanthropic diligence in the plague
at Marseilles (1720-1722).
Charles Borrom[=e]o, archbishop of Milan a century previously (1576),
was equally diligent and self-sacrificing in the plague of Milan
(1538-1584).
Sir John Lawrence, lord mayor of London during the great plague,
supported 40,000 dismissed servants, and deserves immortal honor.
Darwin refers to Belsunce and Lawrence in his Loves of the Plants, ii.
433.
=Marshal Forwards=, Blücher; so called for his dash in battle, and the
rapidity of his movements, in the campaign of 1813 (1742-1819).
=Marsi=, a part of the Sabellian race, noted for Magic, and said to have
been descended from Circê.

Marsis vi quadam genitali datum, ut serpentium virulentorum
domitores sint, et incantationibus herbarumque succis faciant
medelarum mira.--Gellius, xvi. 11.
=Marsig´lio=, a Saracen king, who plotted the attack upon Roland,
"under the tree on which Judas hanged himself." With a force of
600,000 men, divided into three companies, Marsiglio attacked the
paladin in Roncesvallês and overthrew him; but Charlemagne, coming
up, routed the Saracen, and hanged him on the very tree under which he
planned the attack.--Turpin, Chronicle (1122).
=Marsilia=, "who bears up great Cynthia's train," is the marchioness of
Northampton, to whom Spenser dedicated his Daphnaida. This lady
was Helena, daughter of Wolfgangus Swavenburgh, a Swede.
No less praiseworthy is Marsilia, Best known by bearing up great
Cynthia's train. She is the pattern of true womanhead.... Worthy next
after Cynthia [queen Elizabeth] to tread, As she is next her in nobility.
Spenser, Colin Clout's Come Home Again (1595).
=Mar´syas=, the Phrygian flute-player. He challenged Apollo to a
contest of skill, but being beaten by the god, was flayed alive for his
presumption.
=Mar´tafax and Ler´mites= (3 syl.), two famous rats brought up before
the White Cat for treason, but acquitted.--Comtesse D'Aunoy, Fairy
Tales ("The White Cat," 1682).
=Marta´no=, a great coward, who stole the armor of Gryphon, and
presented himself in it before King Norandi´no. Having received the
honors due to the owner, Martano quitted Damascus with Origilla; but
Aquilant unmasked the villain, and he was hanged (bks. viii.,
ix.).--Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).
=Marteau des Heretiques=, Pierre d'Ailly; also called L'Aigle de la
France (1350-1420).

=Martel= (Charles), Charles, natural son of Pépin d'Héristal.
M. Collin de Plancy says that this "palace mayor" of France was not
called "Martel" because he martelé ("hammered") the Saracens under
Abd-el-Rahman in 732, but because his patron saint was Martellus (or
St. Martin).--Bibliothèque des Légendes.