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

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=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 Fran?ois 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=, Bl��cher; 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 Circ��.
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 Roncesvall��s 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 P��pin d'H��ristal.
M. Collin de Plancy says that this "palace mayor" of France was not called "Martel" because he martel�� ("hammered") the Saracens under Abd-el-Rahman in 732, but because his patron saint was Martellus (or St. Martin).--Biblioth��que des L��gendes.
Thomas Delf, in his translation of Chevreuil's Principles of Harmony, etc., of Colors (1847), signs himself "Charles Martel."
=Martext= (Sir Oliver), a vicar in Shakespeare's comedy of As You Like It (1600).
=Martha:=
"Yea, Lord! Yet man must earn And woman bake the bread; And some must watch and wake Early for other's sake Who pray instead."
Julia C.?R. Dorr, Afternoon Songs (1885).
Martha, sister to "The Scornful Lady" (no name given).--Beaumont and Fletcher, The Scornful Lady (1616).
Martha, the servant-girl at Shaw's Castle.--Sir W. Scott, St. Ronan's Well (time, George III.).
Martha, the old housekeeper at Osbaldistone Hall.--Sir W. Scott, Rob Roy (time, George I.).
Martha, daughter of Ralph and Louise