Part 9

=Moral Philosophy= (_The Father of_), Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274).

=Moran, Son of Fithil=, one of the scouts in the army of Swaran, king of Lochlin (_Denmark_).--Ossian, _Fingal_.

=Moran’s Collar=, a collar for magistrates, which had the supernatural power of pressing the neck of the wearer if his judgments deviated from strict justice, and even of causing strangulation if he persevered in wrong doing. Moran, surnamed “the Just,” was the wise counsellor of Feredach, an early king of Ireland.

=Morat=, in _Aurungzebe_, a drama by Dryden (1675).

Edward Kynaston [1619-1687] shone with uncommon lustre in “Morat” and “Muley Moloch.” In both these parts he had a fierce, lion-like majesty in his port and utterance, that gave the spectators a kind of trembling admiration.--Colley Cibber.

=Morbleu!= This French oath is a corrupt contraction of Mau´graby; thus, _maugre bleu_, _mau’bleu_. Maugraby was the great Arabian enchanter, and the word means “barbarous,” hence a barbarous man or barbarian. The oath is common in Provence, Languedoc, and Gascoigne. I have often heard it used by the medical students at Paris.

Probably it is a punning corruption of _Mort de Dieu_.

=Mordaunt=, the secretary, at Aix, of Queen Margaret, the widow of Henry VI. of England.--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).

=Mor´decai= (_Beau_), a rich Italian Jew, one of the suitors of Charlotte Goodchild, but, supposing the report to be true that she has lost her fortune, he calls off and retires.--C. Macklin, _Love à-la-Mode-_[TN-22] (1759).

_Mordecai._ Earnest young Jew, supporting himself by repairing watches, jewelry, etc. He is devoted to his race, proud of his lineage, and versed in all pertaining to Hebrew history. He dies of consumption.--George Eliot, _Daniel Deronda_.

=Mordent=, father of Joanna, by a former wife. In order to marry Lady Anne, he deserts Joanna and leaves her to be brought up by strangers. Joanna is placed under Mrs. Enfield, a crimp, and Mordent consents to a proposal of Lennox to run off with her. Mordent is a spirit embittered with the world--a bad man, with a goading conscience. He sins and suffers the anguish of remorse; does wrong, and blames Providence because when he “sows the wind he reaps the whirlwind.”

_Lady Anne_, the wife of Mordent, daughter of the earl of Oldcrest, sister of a viscount, niece of Lady Mary, and one of her uncles is a bishop. She is wholly neglected by her husband, but, like Griselda (_q.v._), bears it without complaint.--Holcroft, _The Deserted Daughter_ (1784, altered into _The Steward_).

=Mordred= (_Sir_), son of Margawse (sister of King Arthur), and Arthur, her brother, while she was the wife of Lot, king of Orkney (pt. i. 2, 35, 36). The sons of Lot himself and his wife were Gaw´ain, Agravain, Ga´heris, and Gareth, all knights of the Round Table. Out of hatred to Sir Launcelot, Mordred and Agravain accuse him to the king of too great familiarity with Queen Guenever, and induce the king to spend a day in hunting. During his absence, the queen sends for Sir Launcelot to her private chamber, and Mordred and Agravain, with twelve other knights, putting the worst construction on the interview, clamorously assail the chamber, and call on Sir Launcelot to come out. This he does, and kills Agravain with the twelve knights, but Mordred makes his escape and tells the king, who orders the queen to be burnt alive. She is brought to the stake, but is rescued by Sir Launcelot, who carries her off to Joyous Guard, near Carlisle, which the king besieges. While lying before the castle, King Arthur receives a bull from the pope, commanding him to take back his queen. This he does, but as he refuses to be reconciled to Sir Launcelot, the knight betakes himself to Benwick, in Brittany. The king lays siege to Benwick, and during his absence leaves Mordred regent. Mordred usurps the crown, and tries, but in vain, to induce the queen to marry him. When the king hears thereof, he raises the siege of Benwick, and returns to England. He defeats Mordred at Dover, and at Barondown, but at Salisbury (_Camlan_) Mordred is slain fighting with the king, and Arthur receives his death-wound. The queen then retires to a convent at Almesbury, is visited by Sir Launcelot, declines to marry him, and dies.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_ iii. 143-174 (1470).

⁂ The wife of Lot is called “Anne” by Geoffrey, of Monmouth (_British History_, viii. 20, 21); and “Bellicent” by Tennyson, in _Gareth and Lynette_.

This tale is so very different from those of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and Tennyson, that all three are given. (See MODRED.)

=Mor´dure= (2 _syl._), son of the emperor of Germany. He was guilty of illicit love with the mother of Sir Bevis, of Southampton, who murdered her husband and then married Sir Mordure. Sir Bevis, when a mere lad, reproved his mother for the murder of his father, and she employed Saber to kill him; but the murder was not committed, and young Bevis was brought up as a shepherd. One day, entering the hall where Mordure sat with his bride, Bevis struck at him with his axe. Mordure slipped aside, and the chair was “split to shivers.” Bevis was then sold to an Armenian, and was presented to the king, who knighted him and gave him his daughter Josian in marriage.--M. Drayton, _Polyolbion_, ii. (1612).

_Mordure_ (2 _syl._), Arthur’s sword, made by Merlin. No enchantment had power over it, no stone or steel was proof against it, and it would neither break nor bend. (The word means “hard biter.”)--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, ii. 8 (1590).

=More= (_Margareta_), the heroine and feigned authoress of _Household of Sir Thomas More_, by Miss Manning (1851).

=More of More Hall=, a legendary hero, who armed himself with armor full of spikes, and, concealing himself in the cave where the dragon of Wantley dwelt, slew the monster by kicking it in the mouth, where alone it was mortal.

⁂ In the burlesque of H. Carey, entitled _The Dragon of Wantley_, the hero is called “Moore of Moore Hall,” and he is made to be in love with Gubbins’s daughter, Margery, of Roth’ram Green (1696-1743).

=Morecraft=, at first a miser, but after losing most of his money he became a spendthrift.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Scornful Lady_ (1616).

⁂ “Luke,” in Massinger’s _City Madam_, is the exact opposite. He was at first a poor spendthrift, but coming into a fortune he turned miser.

=Morell= (_Sir Charles_), the pseudonym of the Rev. James Ridley, affixed to some of the early editions of _The Tales of the Genii_, from 1764.

=More´love= (_Lord_), in love with Lady Betty Modish, who torments him almost to madness by an assumed indifference, and rouses his jealousy by coquetting with Lord Foppington. By the advice of Sir Charles Easy, Lord Morelove pays the lady in her own coin, assumes an indifference to her, and flirts with Lady Grave´airs. This brings Lady Betty to her senses, and all ends happily.--Colley Cibber, _The Careless Husband_ (1704).

=Morë´no= (_Don Antonio_), a gentleman of Barcelona, who entertained Don Quixote with mock-heroic hospitality.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. iv. 10 (1615).

=Morfin= (_Mr._), a cheerful bachelor, in the office of Mr. Dombey, merchant. He calls himself “a creature of habit,” has a great respect for the head of the house, and befriends John Carker when he falls into disgrace by robbing his employer. Mr. Morfin is a musical amateur, and finds in his violoncello a solace for all cares and worries. He marries Harriet Carker, the sister of John and James.--C. Dickens, _Dombey and Son_ (1846).

=Morgan= (_le Fay_), one of the sisters of King Arthur (pt. i. 18); the others were Margawse, Elain, and Anne (Bellicent was his half-sister). Morgan calls herself “queen of the land of Gore” (pt. i. 103). She was the wife of King Vrience (pt. i. 63), the mother of Sir Ew´ain (pt. i. 73), and lived in the castle of La Belle Regard (pt. ii. 122).

On one occasion, Morgan le Fay stole her brother’s sword, “Excalibur,” with its scabbard, and sent them to Sir Accolon, of Gaul, her paramour, that he might kill her brother Arthur in mortal combat. If this villany had succeeded, Morgan intended to murder her husband, marry Sir Accolon, and “devise to make him king of Britain;” but Sir Accolon, during the combat, dropped the sword, and Arthur, snatching it up, would have slain him had he not craved mercy and confessed the treasonable design (pt. i. 70). After this, Morgan stole the scabbard and threw it into the lake (pt. i. 73). Lastly, she tried to murder her brother by means of a poisoned robe; but Arthur told the messenger to try it on, that he might see it, and when he did so he dropped down dead, “being burnt to a coal” (pt. i. 75).--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_ (1470).

W. Morris, in his _Earthly Paradise_ (“August”), makes Morgan la Fée the bride of Ogier, the Dane, after his earthly career was ended.

_Morgan_, a feigned name adopted by Belarius, a banished lord.--Shakespeare, _Cymbeline_ (1605).

_Morgan_, one of the soldiers of Prince Gwenwyn of Powys-land.--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

=Morgane= (2 _syl._), a fay, to whose charge Zephyr committed young Passelyon and his cousin, Bennucq. Passelyon fell in love with the fay’s daughter, and the adventures of these young lovers are related in the romance of _Perceforest_, iii.

=Morgante= (3 _syl._), a ferocious giant, converted to Christianity by Orlando. After performing the most wonderful feats, he died at last from the bite of a crab.--Pulci, _Morgante Maggiore_ (1488).

He [_Don Quixote_] spoke favorably of Morgante, who, though of gigantic race, was most gentle in his manners.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. i. 1 (1605).

=Morgause= or MARGAWSE, wife of King Lot. Their four sons were Gaw´ain, Agravain, Ga´heris, and Gareth (ch. 36); but Morgause had another son by Prince Arthur, named Mordred. Her son Gaheris, having caught his mother in adultery with Sir Lamorake, cut off her head.

=Morgia´na=, the female slave, first of Cassim, and then of Ali Baba, “crafty, cunning, and fruitful in inventions.” When the thief marked the door of her master’s house with white chalk in order to recognize it, Morgiana marked several other doors in the same manner; next day she observed a red mark on the door, and made a similar one on others, as before. A few nights afterwards, a merchant with thirty-eight oil-jars begged a night’s lodging; and as Morgiana wanted oil for a lamp, she went to get some from one of the leather jars. “Is it time?” asked a voice. “Not yet,” replied Morgiana, and going to the others, she discovered that a man was concealed in thirty-seven of the jars. From the last jar she took oil, which she made boiling hot, and with it killed the thirty-seven thieves. When the captain discovered that all his men were dead, he decamped without a moment’s delay. Soon afterwards, he settled in the city as a merchant, and got invited by Ali Baba to supper, but refused to eat salt. This excited the suspicion of Morgiana, who detected in the pretended merchant the captain of the forty thieves. She danced awhile for his amusement, playfully sported with his dagger, and suddenly plunged it into his heart. When Ali Baba knew who it was that she had slain, he not only gave the damsel her liberty, but also married her to his own son.--_Arabian Nights_ (“Ali Baba, or the Forty Thieves”).

=Morglay=, the sword of Sir Bevis, of Hamptoun, _i.e._ Southampton, given to him by his wife, Josian, daughter of the king of Armenia.--Drayton, _Polyolboin_,[TN-23] ii. (1612).

You talk of Morglay, Excalibur [_Arthur’s sword_], and Durindana [_Orlando’s sword_], or so. Tut! I lend no credit to that is fabled of ’em.--Ben Jonson, _Every Man in His Humor_, iii. 1 (1598).

=Morgue la Faye=, a _fée_ who watched over the birth of Ogier, the Dane, and after he had finished his earthly career, restored him to perpetual youth, and took him to live with her in everlasting love in the isle and castle of Av´alon.--_Ogier, le Danois_ (a romance).

=Mor´ice= (_Gil_ or _Chĭld_), the natural son of Lady Barnard, “brought forth in her father’s house wi’ mickle sin and shame.” One day, Gil Morice sent Willie to the baron’s hall, with a request that Lady Barnard would go at once to Greenwood to see the chĭld. Lord Barnard, fancying the “chĭld” to be some paramour, forbade his wife to leave the hall, and went himself to Greenwood, where he slew Gil Morice, and sent his head to Lady Barnard. On his return, the lady told her lord he had slain her son, and added, “Wi’ the same spear, oh, pierce my heart, and put me out o’ pain!” But the baron repented of his hasty deed, and cried, “I’ll lament for Gil Morice, as gin he were mine ain.”--Percy, _Reliques, etc._, III. i.

⁂ This tale suggested to Home the plot of his tragedy called _Douglas_.

=Mor´land=, in _Lend Me Five Shillings_, by J. M. Morton (1838).

_Morland_ (_Henry_), “the heir-at-law” of Baron Duberly. It was generally supposed that he had perished at sea; but he was cast on Cape Breton, and afterwards returned to England, and married Caroline Dormer, an orphan.--G. Colman, _The Heir-at-Law_ (1797).

Mr. Beverley behaved like a father to me [_B. Webster_], and engaged me as a walking gentleman for his London theatre, where I made my first appearance as “Henry Morland,” in _The Heir-at-Law_, which, to avoid legal proceedings, he called _The Lord’s Warming-pan_.--Peter Paterson.

=Morley= (_Mrs._), the name under which Queen Anne corresponded with Mrs. Freeman (_The Duchess of Marlborough_).

=Morna=, daughter of Cormac, king of Ireland. She was in love with Câthba, youngest son of Torman. Duchômar, out of jealousy, slew his rival, and then asked Morna to be his bride. She replied, “Thou art dark to me, O, Duchômar, and cruel is thine arm to Morna.” She then begged him for his sword, and when “he gave it to her she thrust it into his heart.” Duchômar fell, and begged the maid to pull out the sword that he might die, but when she did so, he seized it from her and plunged it into her side. Whereupon Cuthullin said:

“Peace to the souls of the heroes! Their deeds were great in fight. Let them ride around me in clouds. Let them show their features in war. My soul shall then be firm in danger, mine arm like the thunder of heaven. But be thou on a moonbeam, O, Morna, near the window of my rest, when my thoughts are at peace, when the din of war is past.”--Ossian, _Fingal_, i.

_Morna_, wife of Compal, and mother of Fingal. Her father was Thaddu, and her brother Clessammor.--Ossian.

=Mornay=, the old seneschal, at Earl Herbert’s tower at Peronne.--Sir W. Scott, _Quentin Durward_ (time, Edward IV.).

=Morning Star of the Reformation=, John Wycliffe (1324-1384).

=Morocco= or MAROCCUS, the performing horse, generally called “Bankes’s Horse.” Among other exploits, we are told that “it went up to the top of St. Paul’s.” Both horse and man were burnt alive at Rome, by order of the pope, as magicians.--Don Zara del Fogo, 114 (1660).

⁂ Among the entries at Stationers’ Hall is the following:--_Nov. 14, 1595: A Ballad showing the Strange Qualities of a Young Nagg called Morocco._

In 1595 was published the pamphlet _Maroccus Extaticus_, or _Bankes’s Horse in a Trance_.

=Morocco Men=, agents of lottery assurances. In 1796, The great State lottery employed 7500 morocco men. Their business was to go from house to house among the customers of the assurances, or to attend in the back parlors of public-houses, where the customers came to meet them.

=Morolt= (_Dennis_), the old squire of Sir Raymond Berenger.--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

=Morose= (2 _syl._), a miserly old hunks, who hates to hear any voice but his own. His nephew, Sir Dauphine, wants to wring out of him a third of his property, and proceeds thus: He gets a lad to personate “a silent woman,” and the phenomenon so delights the old man, that he consents to a marriage. No sooner is the ceremony over, than the boy-wife assumes the character of a virago of loud and ceaseless tongue. Morose, driven half-mad, promises to give his nephew a third of his income if he will take this intolerable plague off his hands. The trick being revealed, Morose retires into private life, and leaves his nephew master of the situation.--Ben Jonson, _The Silent Woman_ (1609).

(“Wasp” in _Bartholomew Fair_, “Corbaccio” in _The Fox_, and “Ananias” in _The Alchemist_.)

=Moroug=, the monkey mistaken for the devil. A woman of Cambalu died, and Moroug, wishing to personate her, slipped into her bed, and dressed himself in her night-clothes, while the body was carried to the cemetery. When the funeral party returned, and began the usual lamentations for the dead, pug stretched his night-capped head out of the bed, and began moaning and grimacing most hideously. All the mourners thought it was the devil, and scampered out as fast they could run. The priests assembled, and resolved to exorcise Satan; but pug, noting their terror, flew on the chief of the bonzes, and bit his nose and ears most viciously. All the others fled in disorder; and when pug had satisfied his humor, he escaped out of the window. After a while, the bonzes returned, with a goodly company well armed, when the chief bonze told them how he had fought with Satan, and prevailed against him. So he was canonized, and made a saint in the calendar for ever.--T. S. Gueulette, _Chinese Tales_ (“The Ape Moroug,” 1723).

=Morrel= or =Morell=, a goat-herd, who invites Thomalin, a shepherd, to come to the higher grounds, and leave the low-lying lands. He tells Thomalin that many hills have been canonized, as St. Michael’s Mount, St. Bridget’s Bower in Kent, and so on; then there was Mount Sinah and Mount Parnass, where the Muses dwelt. Thomalin replies, “The lowlands are safer, and hills are not for shepherds.” He then illustrates his remark by the tale of shepherd Algrind, who sat, like Morrel, on a hill, when an eagle, taking his white head for a stone, let a shell-fish fall on it, and cracked his skull.--Spenser, _Shepheardes Calendar_, vii.

[Æschylus was killed by a tortoise dropped on his head by an eagle].

(This is an allegory of the high and low church parties. Morel is an anagram of Elmer or Aylmer, bishop of London, who “sat on a hill,” and was the leader of the high-church party. Algrind is Grindal, archbishop of Canterbury, head of the low-church party, who in 1578 was sequestrated for writing a letter to the queen on the subject of puritanism. Thomalin represents the puritans. This could not have been written before 1578, unless the reference to Algrind was added in some later edition).

=Morris=, a domestic of the earl of Derby.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II).

_Morris_ (_Mr._), the timid fellow-traveller of Frank Osbaldistone, who carried the portmanteau. Osbaldistone says, concerning him, “Of all the propensities which teach mankind to torment themselves, that of causeless fear is the most irritating, busy, painful, pitiable.”--Sir W. Scott, _Rob Roy_ (time, George I.).

_Morris_ (_Peter_), the pseudonym of John G. Lockhart, in _Peter’s Letters to His Kinsfolk_ (1819).

_Morris_ (_Dinah_). Beautiful gospeller, who marries Adam Bede, after the latter recovers from his infatuation for pretty _Hetty Sorrel_. Hetty is seduced by the young squire, murders her baby, and is condemned to die for the crime. Dinah visits the doomed girl in prison, wins her to a confession and repentance, and accompanies her in the gallows-cart. They are at the scaffold when a reprieve arrives.--George Eliot, _Adam Bede_.

=Morris-Dance=, a comic representation of every grade of society. The characters were dressed partly in Spanish and partly in English costume. Thus, the huge sleeves were Spanish, but the laced stomacher English. Hobby-horse represented the king and all the knightly order; Maid Marian, the queen; the friar, the clergy generally; the fool, the court jester. The other characters represented a franklin or private gentleman, a churl or farmer, and the lower grades were represented by a clown. The Spanish costume is to show the origin of the dance.

A representation of a morris-dance may still be seen at Betley, in Staffordshire, in a window placed in the house of George Tollet, Esq., in about 1620.

=Morrison= (_Hugh_), a Lowland drover, the friend of Robin Oig.--Sir W. Scott, _The Two Drovers_ (time, George III.).

=Mortality= (_Old_), a religious itinerant who frequented country churchyards and the graves of covenanters. He was first discovered in the burial ground at Gandercleugh, clearing the moss from the gray[TN-24] tombstones, renewing with his chisel the half-defaced inscriptions, and repairing the decorations of the tombs.--Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

⁂ “Old Mortality” is said to be meant for Robert Patterson.

=Morta´ra=, the boy who died from being covered all over with gold-leaf by Leo XII., to adorn a pageant.

=Mortcloke= (_Mr._), the undertaker at the funeral of Mrs. Margaret Bertram of Singleside.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

=Morte d’Arthur=, a compilation of Arthurian tales, called on the title-page _The History of Prince Arthur_, compiled from the French by Sir Thomas Malory, and printed by William Caxton in 1470. It is divided into three parts. The first part contains the birth of King Arthur, the establishment of the Round Table, the romance of Balin and Balan, and the beautiful allegory of Gareth and Linet´. The second part is mainly the romance of Sir Tristram. The third part is the romance of Sir Launcelot, the quest of the Holy Graal, and the death of Arthur, Guenever, Tristram, Lamorake, and Launcelot.

⁂ The difference of style in the third part is very striking. The end of ch. 44, pt. i., is manifestly the close of a romance. The separate romances are not marked by any formal indication; but, in the modern editions, the whole is divided into chapters, and these are provided with brief abstracts of their contents.

This book was finished the ninth year of the reign of King Edward IV. by Sir Thomas Malory, knight. Thus endeth this noble and joyous book, entitled _La Morte d’Arthur_, notwithstanding it treateth of the birth, life and acts of the said King Arthur, and of his noble knights of the Round Table ... and the achieving of the Holy Sancgreall, and in the end the dolorous death and departing out of the world of them all.--Concluding paragraph.

_Morte d’Arthur_, by Tennyson. The poet follows closely the story of the death of Arthur, as told by Malory. The king is borne off the field by Sir Bedivere. Arthur orders the knight to throw his sword Excalibur into the mere. Twice the knight disobeyed the command, intending to save the sword; but the dying king detected the fraud, and insisted on being obeyed. Sir Bedivere then cast the sword into the mere, and an arm, clothed in white samite, caught it by the hilt, brandished it three times, and drew it into the mere. Sir Bedivere then carried the dying king to a barge, in which were three queens, who conveyed him to the island-valley of Avil´ion, “where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, nor ever wind blows loudly.” Here was he taken to be healed of his grievous wound; but whether he lived or died we are not told.