Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 22

=Mon'ker and Nakir= [_Na.keer'_], the two examiners of the dead, who put questions to departed spirits respecting their belief in G.o.d and Mahomet, and award their state in after-life according to their answers.--_Al Koran._

"Do you not see those spectres that are stirring the burning coals?

Are they Monker and Nakir come to throw us into them?"--W.

Beckford, _Vathek_ (1786).

=Monmouth=, the surname of Henry V. of England, who was born in that town (1388, 1413-1422).

? Mon-mouth is the _mouth of the Monnow_.

_Monmouth_ (_The duke of_), commander-in-chief of the royal army.--Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

? The duke of Monmouth was nicknamed "The Little Duke," because he was diminutive in size. Having no name of his own, he took that of his wife, "Scott," countess of Buccleuch. Pepys says: "It is reported that the king will be tempted to set the crown on the Little Duke" (_Diary_, seventeenth century).

=Mon'ema=, wife of Quia'ra, the only persons of the whole of the Guarani race who escaped the small-pox plague which ravaged that part of Paraguay. They left the fatal spot, and settled in the Modai woods. Here they had one son, Yeruti, and one daughter, Mooma, but Quiara was killed by a jaguar before the latter was born. Monema left the Mondai woods, and went to live at St. Joachin, in Paraguay, but soon died from the effects of a house and city life.--Southey, _A Tale of Paraguay_ (1814).

Mononia, when nature embellished the tint Of thy fields and thy mountains so fair, Did she ever intend that a tyrant should print The footstep of slavery there?

T. Moore, _Irish Melodies_, i. ("War Song," 1814).

=Monsieur=, Philippe, Duc d'Orleans, brother of Louis XIV. (1674-1723).

? Other gentlemen were Mons. A or Mons. B, but the regent was Mons.

without any adjunct.

Similarly, the daughter of the duc de Chartres (the regent's grandson) was Mademoiselle.

=Monsieur le Coadjuteur=, Paul de Gondi, afterwards Cardinal de Retz (1614-1679).

=Monsieur le duc=, Louis Henri de Bourbon, eldest son of the prince de Conde (1692-1740).

=Monsieur Thomas=, a drama by Beaumont and Fletcher (1619).

=Monsieur Tonson=, a farce by Moncrieff. Jack Ardourly fails in love with Adolphine de Courcy in the street, and gets Tom King to a.s.sist in ferreting her out. Tom King discovers that his sweeting lives in the house of a French refugee, a barber, named Mons. Morbleu; but not knowing the name of the young lady, he inquires for Mr. Thompson, hoping to pick up information. Mons. Morbleu says no Mons. Tonson lives in the house, but only Mde. Bellegarde and Mdlle. Adolphine de Courcy. The old Frenchman is driven almost crazy by different persons inquiring for Mons. Tonson; but ultimately Jack Ardourly marries Adolphine, whose mother is Mrs. Thompson after all.

Taylor wrote a drama of the same t.i.tle in 1767.

=Monster= (_The_), Renwick Williams, a wretch who used to prowl about London by night, armed with a double-edged knife, with which he mutilated women. He was condemned July 8, 1790.

=Mont Rognon= (_Baron of_), a giant of enormous strength and insatiable appet.i.te. He was bandy-legged, had an elastic stomach, and four rows of teeth. He was a paladin of Charlemagne, and one of the four sent in search of Croquemitaine and Fear Fortress.--_Croquemitaine._

=Mont St. Michel=, in Normandy. Here nine druidesses used to sell arrows to sailors to charm away storms. The arrows had to be discharged by a young man 25 years of age.

The Laplanders drove a profitable trade by selling winds to sailors.

Even so late as 1814, Bessie Millie, of Pomona (Orkney Islands), helped to eke out a livelihood by selling winds for sixpence.

Eric, king of Sweden, could make the winds blow from any quarter he liked by a turn of his cap. Hence, he was nicknamed "Windy Cap."

=Mont Tresor=, in France; so called by Gontran "the Good," king of Burgundy (sixteenth century). One day, weary with the chase, Gontran laid himself down near a small river, and fell asleep. The squire who watched his master, saw a little animal come from the king's mouth, and walk to the stream, over which the squire laid his sword, and the animal running across, entered a hole in the mountain. When Gontran was told of this incident, he said he had dreamt that he crossed a bridge of steel, and, having entered a cave at the foot of a mountain, entered a palace of gold. Gontran employed men to undermine the hill, and found there vast treasures, which he employed in works of charity and religion. In order to commemorate this event he called the hill Mont Tresor.--Claud Paradin, _Symbola Heroica_.

? This story has been ascribed to numerous persons.

=Mon'tague= (3 _syl._), head of a n.o.ble house in Verona, at feudal enmity with the house of Capulet. Romeo belonged to the former, and Juliet to the latter house.

_Lady Montague_, wife of Lord Montague, and mother of Romeo.--Shakespeare, _Romeo and Juliet_ (1598).

=Montalban.=

_Don Kyrie Elyson de Montalban_, a hero of romance, in the _History of Tirante the White_.

_Thomas de Montalban_, brother of Don Kyrie Elyson, in the same romance of chivalry.

_Rinaldo de Montalban_, a hero of romance, in the _Mirror of Knighthood_, from which work both Bojardo and Ariosto have largely borrowed.

_Montalban_, now called Montauban (a contraction of _Mons Alba'nus_), in France, in the department of Tarn-et-Garonne.

Jousted in Aspramont or Montalban.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, i. 583 (1665).

_Montalban_ (_The Count_), in love with Volante (3 _syl._), daughter of Balthazar. In order to sound her, the count disguised himself as a father confessor; but Volante detected the trick instantly, and said to him, "Come, come, count, pull off your lion's hide, and confess yourself an a.s.s." However, as Volante really loved him, all came right at last.--J. Tobin, _The Honeymoon_ (1804).

=Montanto= (_Signor_), a master of fence and a great braggart.--Ben Jonson, _Every Man in His Humour_ (1598).

=Montargis= (_The Dog of_), named Dragon. It belonged to Captain Aubri de Montdidier, and is especially noted for his fight with the Chevalier Richard Macaire. The dog was called Montargis, because the encounter was depicted over the chimney of the great hall in the castle of Montargis.

It was in the forest of Bondi, close by this castle, that Aubri was a.s.sa.s.sinated.

=Monte Christo= (_Count_), convict who escapes from prison, and finds immense treasure, with which he does incredible things.

a.s.suming the t.i.tle of "count," he adds the name of the island on which his treasure is buried, and plays the grande seignior in society, punis.h.i.+ng his former persecutors and false friends, and rewarding his old allies. Finally he is brought to confess that man cannot play providence, and to recall the words "Vengeance is mine!"--Alexander Dumas, _Count of Monte Christo_.

=Montenay= (_Sir Philip de_), an old English knight.--Sir W. Scott, _Castle Dangerous_ (time, Henry I.).