Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 16

=Minagro'bis=, admiral of the cats in the great sea-fight of the cats and rats. Minagrobis won the victory by devouring the admiral of the rats, who had made three voyages round the world in very excellent s.h.i.+ps, in which he was neither one of the officers nor one of the crew, but a kind of interloper.--Comtesse D'Aulnoy, _Fairy Tales_ ("The White Cat,"

1682).

=Min'cing=, lady's-maid to Millamant. She says _mem_ for ma'am, _fit_ for fought, _la's.h.i.+p_ for ladys.h.i.+p, etc.--W. Congreve, _The Way of the World_ (1700).

=Minikin= (_Lord_), married to a cousin of Sir John Trotley, but, according to _bon ton_, he flirts with Miss t.i.ttup; and Miss t.i.ttup, who is engaged to Colonel Tivy, flirts with a married man.

_Lady Minikin_, wife of Lord Minikin. According to _bon ton_, she hates her husband, and flirts with Colonel Tivy; and Colonel Tivy, who is engaged to Miss t.i.ttup, flirts with a married woman. It is _bon ton_ to do so.--Garrick, _Bon Ton_ (1760).

=Minjekah'wun=, Hiawatha's mittens, made of deer-skin. When Hiawatha had his mittens on, he could smite the hardest rocks asunder.

He [_Hiawatha_] had mittens, Minjekahwun, Magic mittens made of deer-skin; When upon his hands he wore them, He could smite the rocks asunder.

Longfellow, _Hiawatha_, iv. (1855).

=Minna and Brenda=, two beautiful girls, the daughters of Magnus Troil, the old udaller of Zetland. Minna was stately in form, with dark eyes and raven locks; credulous and vain, but not giddy; enthusiastic, talented and warm-hearted. She loved Captain Clement Cleveland; but Cleveland was killed in an encounter on the Spanish main. Brenda had golden hair, a bloom on her cheeks, a fairy form, and a serene, cheerful disposition. She was less the heroine than her sister, but more the loving and confiding woman. She married Mordaunt Mertoun (ch. iii).--Sir W. Scott, _The Pirate_ (time, William III.).

=Minna von Barnhelm.= A wealthy girl who is engaged to Major von Tellheim, a Prussian soldier. He loses his fortune, is wounded and suspected of dishonor, and from regard for Minna strives to break the engagement.

Everything is righted, and they marry.--G. E. Lessing.

=Minneha'ha= ("_the laughing water_"), daughter of the arrow-maker of Daco'tah, and wife of Hiawatha. She was called Minnehaha from the waterfall of that name between St. Anthony and Fort Snelling.

From the waterfall, he named her Minnehaha, Laughing Water.

Longfellow, _Hiawatha_, iv. (1855).

=Minnesingers=, the Troubadours of Germany during the Hohenstaufen period (1138-1294), minstrels who composed and sung short lyrical poems--usually in praise of women or in celebration of the beauties of nature--called _Minne_, or love songs. The names of nearly three hundred of these poets have come down to us, including all cla.s.ses of society, the most famous being Dietmar von Aist, Ulrich von Lichenstein, Heinrich von Frauenlob, and above all Walther von der Vogelweid (1168-1230).

Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gottfried von Strasburg, and Hartmann von der Aue are also cla.s.sed among the Minnesingers, but their princ.i.p.al fame was won in the field of metrical romance.

? The story runs that Vogelweid bequeathed his worldly all to a Wurtzburg monastery upon condition that they should feed the doves at noon every day upon his grave. The multiplying birds aroused the avaricious alarm of the abbot, who forbade the daily distribution.

"Time has long effaced the inscriptions On the cloister's funeral stones, And tradition only tells us Where repose the poet's bones.

But around the vast cathedral By sweet echoes mutiplied[TN-12]

Still the birds repeat the legend And the name of Vogelweid."

H. W. Longfellow, _Walter von der Vogelweid_ 186-.

=Mino'na=, "the soft blus.h.i.+ng daughter of Torman," a Gaelic bard in the _Songs of Selma_, one of the most famous portions of Macpherson's _Ossian_.

=Minor= (_The_), a comedy by Samuel Foote (1760). Sir George Wealthy, "the minor," was the son of Sir William Wealthy, a retired merchant. He was educated at a public school, sent to college, and finished his training in Paris. His father, hearing of his extravagant habits, pretended to be dead, and, a.s.suming the guise of a German baron, employed several persons to dodge the lad, some to be winners in his gambling, some to lend money, some to cater to other follies, till he was apparently on the brink of ruin. His uncle, Mr. Richard Wealthy, a City merchant, wanted his daughter, Lucy, to marry a wealthy trader, and as she refused to do so, he turned her out of doors. This young lady was brought to Sir George as a _fille de joie_, but she touched his heart by her manifest innocence, and he not only relieved her present necessities, but removed her to an asylum where her "innocent beauty would be guarded from temptation, and her deluded innocence would be rescued from infamy." The whole scheme now burst as a bubble. Sir George's father, proud of his son, told him he was his father, and that his losses were only fict.i.tious; and the uncle, melted into a better mood, gave his daughter to his nephew, and blessed the boy for rescuing his discarded child.

=Minotti=, governor of Corinth, then under the power of the doge. In 1715 the city was stormed by the Turks; and during the siege one of the magazines in the Turkish camp blew up, killing 600 men. Byron says it was Minotti himself who fired the train, and that he perished in the explosion.--Byron, _Siege of Corinth_ (1816).

=Minstrel= (_The_), an unfinished poem, in Spenserian metre, by James Beattie. Its design was to trace the progress of a poetic genius, born in a rude age, from the first dawn of fancy to the fullness of poetic rapture. The first canto is descriptive of Edwin, the minstrel; canto ii. is dull philosophy, and there, happily, the poem ends. It is a pity it did not end with the first canto (1773-4).

And yet poor Edwin was no vulgar boy, Deep thought oft seemed to fix his infant eye.

Dainties he heeded not, nor gaude, nor toy, Save one short pipe of rudest minstrelsy; Silent when sad, affectionate, tho' shy; And now his look was most demurely sad; And now he laughed aloud, though none knew why.

The neighbors stared and sighed, yet blessed the lad; Some deemed him wondrous wise, and some believed him mad.

Canto i. 16.

_Minstrel_ (_Lay of the Last_). Ladye Margaret, "the flower of Teviot,"

was the daughter of Lord Walter Scott, of Branksome Hall. She loved Baron Henry, of Cranstown; but between the two families a deadly feud existed. One day the elfin page of Lord Cranstown inveigled the heir of Branksome Hall (then a lad) into the woods, where he fell into the hands of the English, who marched with 3000 men to Branksome Hall; but, being told that Douglas was coming to the rescue with 10,000 men, the two armies agreed to settle by single combat whether the lad should be given up to the mother or be made King Edward's page. The two champions were Sir Richard Musgrave (_English_) and Sir William Deloraine (_Scotch_).

The Scotch champion slew Sir Richard, and the boy was delivered to his mother. It now turned out that Sir William Deloraine was Lord Cranstown, who claimed and received the hand of Ladye Margaret as his reward.--Sir W. Scott (1805).

=Minstrel of the Border=, Sir W. Scott; also called "The Border Minstrel"

(1771-1832).

My steps the Border Minstrel led.

Wordsworth, _Yarrow Revisited_.

Great Minstrel of the Border.

Wordsworth.

=Minstrel of the English Stage= (_The Last_), James s.h.i.+rley, last of the Shakespeare school (1594-1666).

? Then followed the licentious French school, headed by John Dryden.

=Minstrels= (_Royal Domestic_).

Of William I., Berdie, called _Regis Jocula'tor_.

Of Henry I., Galfrid and Royer, or Raher.

Of Richard I., Blondel.

=Mint Julep=, a Virginian beverage, celebrated in song by Charles Fenno Hoffman (185-). A favorite variety of this drink is compounded of brandy, water, sugar, mint-leaves and pounded ice, and is called a "hail-storm."

"The draught was delicious, and loud the acclaim, 'Though something seemed wanting for all to bewail; But JULEPS the drink of immortals became When Jove himself added a handful of hail."

Charles Fenno Hoffman, _Poems_ (1846).