Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 30

Shenstone, _The Schoolmistress_ (1758).

_Mulla._ Thomas Campbell, in his poem on the _Spanish Parrot_, calls the island of Mull, "Mulla's Sh.o.r.e."

=Mullet= (_Professor_), the "most remarkable man" of North America. He denounced his own father for voting on the wrong side at an election for president, and wrote thunderbolts in the form of pamphlets, under the signature of "Suturb" or Brutus reversed.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_ (1844).

=Mullins= (_Rev. Peter_). A minister of the gospel, who holds so hard to the belief that the laborer is worthy of his hire, that he can see nothing but the hire.

"How am I to know whether my services are acceptable unless every year there is some voluntary testimonial concerning them? It seems to me that I must have such a testimonial. I find myself looking forward to it."--Josiah Gilbert Holland, _Arthur Bonnicastle_ (1873).

=Mul'mutine Laws=, the code of Dunvallo Mulmutius, sixteenth king of the Britons (about B.C. 400). This code was translated by Gildas from British into Latin, and by Alfred into English. The Mulmutine laws obtained in this country till the Conquest.--Holinshed, _History of England, etc._, iii. 1 (1577).

Mulmutius made our laws, Who was the first of Britain which did put His brows within a golden crown, and call'd Himself a king.

Shakespeare, _Cymbeline_, act iii. sc. 1 (1605).

=Mulmutius= (_Dunwallo_), son of Cloten, king of Cornwall. "He excelled all the kings of Britain in valor and gracefulness of person." In a battle fought against the allied Welsh and Scotch armies, Mulmutius tried the very scheme which Virgil (_aeneid_, ii.) says was attempted by aeneas and his companions--that is, they dressed in the clothes and bore the arms of the enemy slain, and thus disguised, committed very great slaughter. Mulmutius, in his disguise, killed both the Cambrian and Albanian kings, and put the allied army to thorough rout.--Geoffrey, _British History_, ii. 17.

Mulmutius this land in such estate maintained As his great Belsire Brute.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, viii. (1612).

=Mulvaney= (_Terence_). Rollicking, epigrammatic, harum-scarum Irish trooper, in the Indian service, whose adventures and sayings are narrated in _Soldiers Three_, _The Courting of Dinah Shadd_, _etc._, by Rudyard Kipling.

=Multon= (_Sir Thomas de_), of Gilsland. He is Lord de Vaux, a crusader, and master of the horse to King Richard I.--Sir. W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

=Mumblazen= (_Master Michael_), the old herald, a dependant of Sir Hugh Robsart.--Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth).

=Mumbo Jumbo=, an African bogie, hideous and malignant, the terror of women and children.

=Mumps= (_Tib_), keeper of the "Mumps' Ha' ale-hous'," on the road to Charlie's Hope farm.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

=Munchau'sen= (_The Baron_), a hero of most marvellous adventures.--Rudolf Erich Raspe (a German, but storekeeper of the Dolcoath mines, in Cornwall, 1792).

? The name is said to refer to Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Munchhausen, a German officer in the Russian army, noted for his marvellous stories (1720-1797). It is also supposed to be an implied satire on the traveller's tales of Baron de Tott, in his _Memoires sur les Turcs et Tartares_ (1784), and those of James Bruce, "The African Traveller," in his _Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile_ (1790).

_Munchausen_ (_The Baron_). The French Baron Munchausen is represented by M. de Crac, the hero of a French operetta.

=Mu'nera=, daughter of Pollente, the Saracen, to whom he gave all the spoils he could lay his hands on. Munera was beautiful and rich exceedingly; but Talus, having chopped off her golden hands and silver feet, tossed her into the moat.--Spenser, _Faery Queen_, v. 2 (1596).

=Mungo=, a black slave of Don Diego.

Dear heart, what a terrible life am I led!

A dog has a better dat's sheltered and fed ...

Mungo here, Mungo dere, Mungo everywhere ...

Me wish to the Lord me was dead.

I. Bickerstaff, _The Padlock_ (1768).

=Munster= (_Baroness_). American woman married to a German prince, who wants to get rid of her. She comes to America with her brother to visit relatives, and is bored by everything, and forever threatening to write to the reigning prince to recall her to Germany.--Henry James, Jr., _The Europeans_ (1878).

=Murat= (_The Russian_), Michael Miloradowitch (1770-1820).

=Murdstone= (_Edward_), the second husband of Mrs. Copperfield. His character was "firmness," that is, an unbending self-will, which rendered the young life of David intolerably wretched.

_Jane Murdstone_, sister of Edward, as hard and heartless as her brother. Jane Murdstone became the companion of Dora Spenlow, and told Mr. Spenlow of David's love for Dora, hoping to annoy David. At the death of Mr. Spenlow, Jane returned to live with her brother.--d.i.c.kens, _David Copperfield_ (1849).

=Murray= or =Moray= (_The bonnie earl of_), James Stewart, the "Good Regent," a natural son of James V. of Scotland, by Margaret, daughter of John, Lord Erskine. He joined the reform party in 1556, and went to France in 1561, to invite Mary queen of Scots to come and reside in her kingdom. He was an accomplice in the murder of Rizzio, and during the queen's imprisonment was appointed regent. According to an ancient ballad, this bonny earl "was the queen's love," _i.e._ Queen Anne of Denmark, daughter of Frederick II., and wife of James I. of England. It is said that James, being jealous of the handsome earl, instigated the earl of Huntly to murder him (1531-1570).

Introduced by Sir W. Scott in _The Monastery_ and _The Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Murray_ (_John_), of Broughton, secretary to Charles Edward, the Young Pretender. He turned king's evidence, and revealed to Government all the circ.u.mstances which gave rise to the rebellion, and the persons most active in its organization.

If crimes like these hereafter are forgiven, Judas and Murray both may go to heaven.

_Jacobite Relics_, ii. 374.

=Musaeus=, the poet (B.C. 1410), author of the elegant tale of _Leander and Hero_. Virgil places him in the Elysian fields attended by a vast mult.i.tude of ghosts, Musaeus being taller by a head than any of them (_aeneid_, vi. 677).

Swarm ... as the infernal spirits On sweet Musaeus when he came to h.e.l.l.

C. Marlowe, _Dr. Faustus_ (1590).

=Muscadins of Paris=, Paris exquisites, who aped the London c.o.c.kneys in the first French Revolution. Their dress was top-boots with thick soles, knee-breeches, a dress-coat with long tails and high stiff collar, and a thick cudgel called a _const.i.tution_. It was thought John Bull-like to a.s.sume a huskiness of voice, a discourtesy of manners, and a swaggering vulgarity of speech and behavior.

c.o.c.kneys of London! Muscadins of Paris!

Byron, _Don Juan_, viii. 124 (1824).

=Mus'carol=, king of flies, and father of Clarion, the most beautiful of the race.--Spenser, _Muiopotmos, or The b.u.t.terfly's Fate_ (1590).