Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama | Page 7

Mary.
=Mary and Byron.= The "Mary" of Lord Byron was Miss Chaworth.
Both were under the guardianship of Mr. White. Miss Chaworth
married John Musters, and Lord Byron married Miss Milbanke; both
equally unfortunate. Lord Byron, in The Dream, refers to his love-affair
with Mary Chaworth.
=Mary in Heaven= (To) and Highland Mary, lyrics addressed by
Robert Burns to Mary Campbell, between whom and the poet there
existed a strong attachment previous to the latter's departure from
Ayrshire to Nithsdale. Mary Morison, a youthful effusion, was written
to the object of a prior passion. The lines in the latter
Those smiles and glances let me see, That make the miser's treasure
poor,
resembles those in Highland Mary--
Still o'er those scenes my mem'ry wakes, And fondly broods with miser
care.

=Mary of Mode´na=, the second wife of James II. of England, and
mother of "The Pretender."
Mamma was to assume the character and stately way of the royal
"Mary of Modena."--Percy Fitzgerald, The Parvenu Family, iii. 239.
=Mary Queen of Scots= was confined first at Carlisle; she was
removed in 1568 to Bolton; in 1569 she was confined at Tutbury,
Wingfield, Tutbury, Ashby-de-la-Zouche, and Coventry; in 1570 she
was removed to Tutbury, Chatsworth, and Sheffield; in 1577 to
Chatsworth; in 1578 to Sheffield; in 1584 to Wingfield; in 1585 to
Tutbury, Chartley, Tixhall, and Chartley; in 1586 (September 25) to
Fotheringay.
[Asterism] She is introduced by Sir W. Scott, in his novel entitled The
Abbot.
Schiller has taken Mary Stuart for the subject of his best tragedy, and P.
Lebrun brought out in France a French version thereof (1729-1807).
Mary queen of Scots. The most elegant and poetical compliment ever
paid to woman was paid to Mary queen of Scots, by Shakespeare, in
Midsummer Night's Dream. Remember, the mermaid is "Queen Mary;"
the dolphin means the "dauphin of France," whom Mary married; the
rude sea means the "Scotch rebels;" and the stars that shot from their
spheres means "the princes who sprang from their allegiance to Queen
Elizabeth."
Thou remember'st Since once I sat upon a promontory, And heard a
mermaid, on a dolphin's back, Uttering such dulcet and harmonious
breath, That the rude sea grew civil at her song; And certain stars shot
madly from their spheres, To hear the sea-maid's music.
Act ii. sc. 1 (1592).
These "stars" were the earl of Northumberland, the earl of
Westmoreland, and the duke of Norfolk.

=Mary, the Maid of the Inn=, the delight and sunshine of the parish,
about to be married to Richard, an idle, worthless fellow. One autumn
night, two guests were drinking at the inn, and one remarked he should
not much like to go to the abbey on such a night. "I'll wager that Mary
will go," said the other, and the bet was accepted. Mary went, and,
hearing footsteps, stepped into a place of concealment, when presently
passed her two young men carrying a young woman they had just
murdered. The hat of one blew off, and fell at Mary's feet. She picked it
up, and flew to the inn, told her story, and then, producing the hat,
found it was Richard's. Her senses gave way, and she became a
confirmed maniac for life.--R. Southey, Mary, the Maid of the Inn
(from Dr. Plot's History of Staffordshire, 1686).
=Mary Pyncheon.= (See PYNCHEON.)
=Mary Woodcock.= (See WOODCOCK.)
=Mar´zavan=, foster-brother of the Princess Badou´ra.--Arabian Nights
("Camaralzaman and Badoura").
=Masaniello=, a corruption of [Tom]maso Aniello, a Neapolitan
fisherman, who headed an insurrection in 1647 against the duke of
Arcos; and he resolved to kill the duke's son for having seduced Fenella,
his sister, who was deaf and dumb. The insurrection succeeded, and
Masaniello was elected by his rabble "chief magistrate of Portici;" but
he became intoxicated with his greatness, so the mob shot him, and
flung his dead body into a ditch. Next day, however, it was taken out
and interred with much ceremony and pomp. When Fenella heard of
her brother's death, she threw herself into the crater of Vesuvius.
[Asterism] Auber has an opera on the subject (1831), the libretto by
Scribe. Caraffa had chosen the same subject for an opera previously.
=Mascarille= (3 syl.), the valet of La Grange. In order to reform two
silly, romantic girls, La Grange and Du Croisy introduce to them their
valets, as the "marquis of Mascarille" and the "viscount of Jodelet."
The girls are taken with their "aristocratic visitors;" but when the game
has gone far enough, the masters enter and unmask the trick. By this

means the girls are taught a most useful lesson, and are saved from any
serious ill consequences.--Molière, Les Précieuses Ridicules (1659).
[Asterism] Molière had already introduced the same name in two other
of his comedies, L'Etourdi (1653) and Le Dépit Amoureux (1654).
=Masetto=, a rustic engaged to