Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 13

=Metanoi'a=, Repentance personified, by William Browne, in _Britannia's Pastorals_, v. (Greek, _metanoia_, "repentance".)

Faire Metanoia is attending To croune thee with those joys that know no ending.

_Pastorals_, v. 1 (1613).

=Metasta'sio.= The real name of this Italian poet was Trapa.s.si (_death_).

He was brought up by Gravina, who Grecized the name (1698-1782).

? So "Melancthon" is the Greek form of _Schwarzerde_ ("black earth"); "colampadius" is the Greek form of the German name _Hausschein_; "Desiderius Erasmus" is _Gheraerd Gheraerd_ (the first "Gheraerd" is Latinized into _Desiderius_, and the latter is Grecized into _Erasmus_).

=Meth'os=, drunkenness personified. He is twin-brother of Gluttony, their mother being Caro (_fleshly l.u.s.t_). In the battle of Mansoul, Methos is slain by Agnei'a (_wifely chast.i.ty_) spouse of Eucra'tes (_temperance_), and sister of Parthen'ia (_maiden chast.i.ty_). (Greek, _methe_ or _methus_ is "drunkenness.")--Phineas Fletcher, _The Purple Island_, vii., xi. (1633).

=Met'ophis=, the corrupt chief minister of Sesostris.

Il avait l'ame aussi corrumpue et aussi artificieuse que Sesostris etait sincere et genereux.--Fenelon, _Telemaque_ (1700).

=Mexit'li=, chief G.o.d and idol of the Az'tecas. He leaped full-grown into life, and with a spear slew those who mocked his mother, Coatlan'tona (4 _syl._).

Already at [_his mother's breast_] the blow was aimed, When forth Mexitli leapt, and in his hand The angry spear.

Southey, _Madoc_, ii. 21 (1805).

? Of course, it will be remembered that Minerva, like Mexitli, was born full-grown and fully armed.

=Mezen'tius=, king of the Tyrrhenians, who put criminals to death by tying them face to face with dead bodies.--Virgil, _aeneid_, viii. 485.

=Mezzora'mia=, an earthly paradise in Africa, accessible by only one road.

Gaudentio di Lucca discovered the road, and lived at Mezzoramia for twenty-five years.--Simon Berington, _Gaudentio di Lucca_.

=M. F. H.=, Master [_of the_] Fox-hounds.

=Micaw'ber= (_Mr. Wilkins_), a most unpractical, half-clever man, a great speechifier, letter writer, projector of bubble schemes, and, though confident of success, never succeeding. Having failed in everything in the old country, he migrated to Australia, and became a magistrate at Middlebay.--C. d.i.c.kens, _David Copperfield_ (1849).

? This truly amiable, erratic genius is a portrait of d.i.c.kens's own father, "David Copperfield" being d.i.c.kens, and "Mrs. Nickleby" (one can hardly believe it) is said to be d.i.c.kens's mother.

=Mi'chael= (2 _syl._), the special protector and guardian of the Jews.

This archangel is messenger of peace and plenty.--Sale's _Koran_, ii.

notes.

? That Michael was really the protector and guardian angel of the Jews we know from _Dan._ x. 13, 21; xii. 1.

Milton makes Michael the leader of the heavenly host in the war in heaven. The word means "G.o.d's power." Gabriel was next in command to the archangel Michael.

Go, Michael, of celestial armies prince

_Paradise Lost_, vi. 44 (1665).

? Longfellow, in his _Golden Legend_, says that Michael is the presiding spirit of the planet Mercury, and brings to man the gift of prudence ("The Miracle-Play," iii., 1851).

_Michael_, the "trencher favorite" of Arden of Feversham, in love with Maria, sister of Mosby. A weak man, who both loves and honors Arden, but is inveigled by Mosby to admit ruffians into Arden's house to murder him.--Geo. Lillo, _Arden of Feversham_ (1592).

=Michael, G.o.d of Wind= (_St._). At the promontory of Malea is a chapel built to St. Michael, and the sailors say when the wind blows from that quarter it is occasioned by the violent motion of St. Michael's wings.

Whenever they sail by that promontory, they pray St. Michael to keep his wings still.

_St. Michael's Chair._ It is said that any woman who has sat on Michael's chair (on St. Michael's Mount, in Cornwall), will rule her husband ever after.

=Michael Angelo of Battle-Scenes= (_The_), Michael Angelo Cerquozzi, of Rome (1600-1660).

=Michael Angelo of France= (_The_), Jean Cousin (1500-1590).

=Michael Angelo des Kermesses=, Peter van Laar, called _Le Bamboche_, born at Laaren (1613-1673).

Or _Michel-Ange des Bamboches_.

=Michael Angelo of Music= (_The_), Johann Christoph von Gluck (1714-1787).

=Michael Angelo of Sculptors= (_The_), Pierre Puget (1623-1694).

Rene Michael Slodtz is also called the same (1705-1764).

=Michael Angelo t.i.tmarsh=, one of the pseudonyms under which Thackeray contributed to _Frazer's Magazine_ (1811-1863).

=Michael Armstrong=, "the factory boy." The hero and t.i.tle of a novel by Mrs. Trollope (1839). The object of this novel is to expose what the auth.o.r.ess considered to be the evils of the factory system.

=Michael Perez=, the copper captain. (See PEREZ.)

=Michael, the Stammerer=, born at Armorium, in Phrygia, mounted the throne as emperor of Greece in A.D. 820. He used all his efforts to introduce the Jewish Sabbath and sacrifice.

I think I have proved ...