Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 14

The error of all those doctrines so vicious ...

That are making such terrible work in the Churches By Michael the Stammerer.

Longfellow, _The Golden Legend_ (1851).

=Michal=, in the satire of _Absalom and Achitophel_, by Dryden and Tate, is meant for Catharine, the wife of Charles II.--Pt. ii. (1682).

=Michelot=, an unprincipled, cowardly, greedy man, who tries to discover the secret of "the gold-mine." Being procurator of the president of Lyons, his office was "to capture and arrest" those charged with civil or criminal offences.--E. Stirling, _The Gold-Mine, or Miller of Gren.o.ble_ (1854).

=Micomico'na=, the pretended queen of Micomicon. Don Quixote's adventure to Micomiconnia came to nothing, for he was taken home in a cage, almost as soon as he was told of the wonderful enchantments.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. iv. 2 (1605.)

=Mi'das= (_Justice_), appointed to adjudge a musical contest between Pol and Pan. He decides in favor of Pan, whereupon Pol throws off his disguise, appears as the G.o.d Apollo, and, being indignant at the decision, gives Midas "the ears of an a.s.s."--Kane O'Hara, _Midas_ (1764).

Edward Shuter (1728-1776) was p.r.o.nounced by Garrick "the greatest comic actor;" and C. Dibdin says: "Nothing on earth could have been superior to his 'Midas.'"

_Midas's Ears._ The servant who used to cut the king's hair, discovering the deformity, was afraid to whisper the secret to any one, but, being unable to contain himself, he dug a hole in the earth, and, putting his mouth into it, cried out, "King Midas has a.s.s's ears!" He then filled up the hole and felt relieved.

Tennyson makes the barber a woman:

No livelier than the dame That whispered "a.s.ses' ears" among the sedge.

Tennyson, _The Princess_.

=Middleburgh= (_Mr. James_), an Edinburgh magistrate.--Sir W. Scott, _Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.).

=Middlemas= (_Mr. Matthew_), a name a.s.sumed by General Witherington.

_Mrs. Middlemas_, wife of the general (born Zelia de Moncada).

_Richard Middlemas_, alias _Richard Tresham_, a foundling, apprenticed to Dr Gray. He discovers that he is the son of General Witherington, and goes to India, where he a.s.sumes the character of Sadoc, a black slave in the service of Mde. Montreville. He delivers Menie Gray by treachery to Tippoo Saib, and Hyder Ali gives him up to be crushed to death by an elephant.--Sir W. Scott, _The Surgeon's Daughter_ (time, George II.).

=Middlewick= (_Mr. Perkyn_), a retired b.u.t.terman, the neighbor of Sir Geoffrey Champneys, and the father of Charles. The b.u.t.terman is innately vulgar, drops his _h's_ and inserts them out of place, makes the greatest geographical and historical blunders, has a tyrannical temper, but a tender heart. He turns his son adrift for marrying Violet Melrose, an heiress, who snubbed the plebeian father. When reduced to great distress, the old b.u.t.terman goes to his son's squalid lodgings and relents. So all ends happily.

_Charles Middlewick_, son of the retired b.u.t.terman, well educated, and a gentleman. His father wanted him to marry Mary Melrose, a girl without a penny, but he preferred Violet, an heiress.--H. J. Byron, _Our Boys_ (1875).

=Midge=, the miller's son, one of the companions of Robin Hood. (See MUCH.)

_Midge_ (_The_), a well-born but friendless waif, thrown at the age of thirteen upon the charity of Dr. Peters, an eccentric bachelor. She cares for his house and for him in quaint, womanly fashion, very bewitching, until she is grown. The suit of another and a younger man, makes the doctor know, to his cost, how well he loves her. He holds his peace, and marries Midge to her lover.

"Then he went into the big pantry. In the corner on the shelf, still lay the crock in which the Midge had hidden her head, heavy with childish grief, years before. The old stool stood before it.

He sat down on it and rested his hot forehead on the cool rim of the jar.

"And that's the end of the story."--H. C. Bunner, _The Midge_ (1886).

=Midian Mara=, the Celtic mermaid.

=Midlo'thian= (_The Heart of_), a tale of the Porteous riot, in which the incidents of Effie and Jeanie Deans are of absorbing interest. Effie was seduced by Geordie Robertson (_alias_ George Staunton), while in the service of Mrs. Saddletree. She murdered her infant, and was condemned to death; but her half-sister, Jeanie, went to London, pleaded her cause before the queen, and obtained her pardon. Jeanie, on her return to Scotland, married Reuben Butler; and Geordie Robertson (then Sir George Staunton) married Effie. Sir George being shot by a gypsy boy, Effie (_i.e._ Lady Staunton), retired to a convent on the Continent.--Sir W.

Scott, _Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.).

=Midshipman Easy.= (See EASY.)

=Midsummer Night's Dream.= Shakespeare says there was a law in Athens, that if a daughter refused to marry the husband selected for her by her father, she might be put to death. Egeus (3 _syl._), an Athenian, promised to give his daughter, Hermia, in marriage to Demetrius; but, as the lady loved Lysander, she refused to marry the man selected by her father, and fled from Athens with her lover. Demetrius went in pursuit of her, followed by Helena, who doted on him. All four came to a forest, and fell asleep. In their dreams a vision of fairies pa.s.sed before them, and on awaking, Demetrius resolved to forego Hermia, who disliked him, and to take to wife Helena, who sincerely loved him. When Egeus was informed thereof, he readily agreed to give his daughter to Lysander, and the force of the law was not called into action (1592).

? Several of the incidents of this comedy are borrowed from the _Diana_ of Montemayor, a Spaniard (sixteenth century).

=Midwinter= (_Ozias_), the _alias_ of another Allan Armadale. His father has murdered the father of the real Allan, and the son of the homicide resolves to keep his own ident.i.ty a secret, while trying to atone to Allan for the wrong done him. He loves and marries the perfidious governess of Allan's betrothed.--Wilkie Collins, _Armadale_.

=Miggs= (_Miss_), the handmaiden and "comforter" of Mrs. Varden. A tall, gaunt young woman, addicted to pattens; slender and shrewish, of a sharp and acid visage. She held the male s.e.x in utter contempt, but had a secret exception in favor of Sim Tappert.i.t, who irreverently called her "scraggy." Miss Miggs always sided with madam against master, and made out that she was a suffering martyr, and he an inhuman Nero. She called ma'am "mim;" said her sister lived at "twenty-sivin;" Simon she called "Simmun." She said Mrs. Varden was "the mildest, amiablest, forgivingest-sperited, longest-sufferingest female in existence."

Baffled in all her matrimonial hopes, she was at last appointed female turnkey to a county Bridewell, which office she held for thirty years, when she died.

Miss Miggs, baffled in all her schemes ... and cast upon a thankless, undeserving world, turned very sharp and sour ... but the justices of the peace for Middles.e.x ... selected her from 124 compet.i.tors to the office of turnkey for a county Bridewell, which she held till her decease, more than thirty years afterwards, remaining single all that time.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Barnaby Rudge_ (1841).

=Mign'on=, a beautiful, dwarfish, fairy-like Italian girl, in love with Wilhelm, her protector. She glides before us in the mazy dance, or whirls her tambourine like an Ariel. Full of fervor, full of love, full of rapture, she is overwhelmed with the torrent of despair at finding her love is not returned, becomes insane, and dies.--Goethe, _Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship_ (1794-6).

Sir W. Scott drew his "Fenella," in _Peveril of the Peak_, from this character; and Victor Hugo has reproduced her in his _Notre Dame_, under the name of "Esmeralda."

=Mignonette:=

"A pitcher of mignonette In a tenement's highest cas.e.m.e.nt Queer sort of flower-pot--yet That pitcher of mignonette Is a garden in heaven set To the little sick child in the bas.e.m.e.nt, The pitcher of mignonette.

In the tenement's highest cas.e.m.e.nt."

Henry Cuyler Bunner, _Airs from Arcady and Elsewhere_ (1884).

=Migonnet=, a fairy king, who wished to marry the princess brought up by Violenta, the fairy mother.

Of all dwarfs he was the smallest. His feet were like an eagle's, and close to the knees, for legs he had none. His royal robes were not above half a yard long, and trailed one-third part upon the ground. His head was as big as a peck, and his nose long enough for twelve birds to perch on. His beard was bushy enough for a canary's nest, and his ears reached a foot above his head.--Comtesse D'Aulnoy, _Fairy Tales_ ("The White Cat," 1682).

=Mikado= (_of j.a.pan_), the hero of Gilbert and Sullivan's opera "The Mikado." The plot turns upon the complications brought about [TN-11] the Mikado's severe laws against flirting:

"So he decreed in words succint, That all who flirted, leered or winked, Unless connubially linked, Should forthwith be beheaded."