Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 26

Gueulette, _Chinese Tales_ ("The Ape Moroug," 1723).

=Morrel= or =Morell=, a goat-herd, who invites Thomalin, a shepherd, to come to the higher grounds, and leave the low-lying lands. He tells Thomalin that many hills have been canonized, as St. Michael's Mount, St. Bridget's Bower in Kent, and so on; then there was Mount Sinah and Mount Parna.s.s, where the Muses dwelt. Thomalin replies, "The lowlands are safer, and hills are not for shepherds." He then ill.u.s.trates his remark by the tale of shepherd Algrind, who sat, like Morrel, on a hill, when an eagle, taking his white head for a stone, let a sh.e.l.l-fish fall on it, and cracked his skull.--Spenser, _Shepheardes Calendar_, vii.

[aeschylus was killed by a tortoise dropped on his head by an eagle].

(This is an allegory of the high and low church parties. Morel is an anagram of Elmer or Aylmer, bishop of London, who "sat on a hill," and was the leader of the high-church party. Algrind is Grindal, archbishop of Canterbury, head of the low-church party, who in 1578 was sequestrated for writing a letter to the queen on the subject of puritanism. Thomalin represents the puritans. This could not have been written before 1578, unless the reference to Algrind was added in some later edition).

=Morris=, a domestic of the earl of Derby.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II).

_Morris_ (_Mr._), the timid fellow-traveller of Frank Osbaldistone, who carried the portmanteau. Osbaldistone says, concerning him, "Of all the propensities which teach mankind to torment themselves, that of causeless fear is the most irritating, busy, painful, pitiable."--Sir W.

Scott, _Rob Roy_ (time, George I.).

_Morris_ (_Peter_), the pseudonym of John G. Lockhart, in _Peter's Letters to His Kinsfolk_ (1819).

_Morris_ (_Dinah_). Beautiful gospeller, who marries Adam Bede, after the latter recovers from his infatuation for pretty _Hetty Sorrel_.

Hetty is seduced by the young squire, murders her baby, and is condemned to die for the crime. Dinah visits the doomed girl in prison, wins her to a confession and repentance, and accompanies her in the gallows-cart.

They are at the scaffold when a reprieve arrives.--George Eliot, _Adam Bede_.

=Morris-Dance=, a comic representation of every grade of society. The characters were dressed partly in Spanish and partly in English costume.

Thus, the huge sleeves were Spanish, but the laced stomacher English.

Hobby-horse represented the king and all the knightly order; Maid Marian, the queen; the friar, the clergy generally; the fool, the court jester. The other characters represented a franklin or private gentleman, a churl or farmer, and the lower grades were represented by a clown. The Spanish costume is to show the origin of the dance.

A representation of a morris-dance may still be seen at Betley, in Staffordshire, in a window placed in the house of George Tollet, Esq., in about 1620.

=Morrison= (_Hugh_), a Lowland drover, the friend of Robin Oig.--Sir W.

Scott, _The Two Drovers_ (time, George III.).

=Mortality= (_Old_), a religious itinerant who frequented country churchyards and the graves of covenanters. He was first discovered in the burial ground at Gandercleugh, clearing the moss from the gray[TN-24]

tombstones, renewing with his chisel the half-defaced inscriptions, and repairing the decorations of the tombs.--Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

? "Old Mortality" is said to be meant for Robert Patterson.

=Morta'ra=, the boy who died from being covered all over with gold-leaf by Leo XII., to adorn a pageant.

=Mortcloke= (_Mr._), the undertaker at the funeral of Mrs. Margaret Bertram of Singleside.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

=Morte d'Arthur=, a compilation of Arthurian tales, called on the t.i.tle-page _The History of Prince Arthur_, compiled from the French by Sir Thomas Malory, and printed by William Caxton in 1470. It is divided into three parts. The first part contains the birth of King Arthur, the establishment of the Round Table, the romance of Balin and Balan, and the beautiful allegory of Gareth and Linet'. The second part is mainly the romance of Sir Tristram. The third part is the romance of Sir Launcelot, the quest of the Holy Graal, and the death of Arthur, Guenever, Tristram, Lamorake, and Launcelot.

? The difference of style in the third part is very striking. The end of ch. 44, pt. i., is manifestly the close of a romance. The separate romances are not marked by any formal indication; but, in the modern editions, the whole is divided into chapters, and these are provided with brief abstracts of their contents.

This book was finished the ninth year of the reign of King Edward IV. by Sir Thomas Malory, knight. Thus endeth this n.o.ble and joyous book, ent.i.tled _La Morte d'Arthur_, notwithstanding it treateth of the birth, life and acts of the said King Arthur, and of his n.o.ble knights of the Round Table ... and the achieving of the Holy Sancgreall, and in the end the dolorous death and departing out of the world of them all.--Concluding paragraph.

_Morte d'Arthur_, by Tennyson. The poet follows closely the story of the death of Arthur, as told by Malory. The king is borne off the field by Sir Bedivere. Arthur orders the knight to throw his sword Excalibur into the mere. Twice the knight disobeyed the command, intending to save the sword; but the dying king detected the fraud, and insisted on being obeyed. Sir Bedivere then cast the sword into the mere, and an arm, clothed in white samite, caught it by the hilt, brandished it three times, and drew it into the mere. Sir Bedivere then carried the dying king to a barge, in which were three queens, who conveyed him to the island-valley of Avil'ion, "where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, nor ever wind blows loudly." Here was he taken to be healed of his grievous wound; but whether he lived or died we are not told.

In his "Idylls of the King," Tennyson has taken the stories as told by Malory, and has turned them into his own melodious verse; yet, while adhering to the substance of each tale, he has in minor matters taken such liberties as have been allowed to poets since the earliest times.

Shakespeare, in his "Julius Caesar," makes a like use of Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch; the speech of Mark Antony over the body of Caesar, to cite the most striking instance among many, is almost a literal transcription of North's version, but subjected to the laws of verse.

=Mortemar= (_Alberick of_), an exiled n.o.bleman, _alias_ Theodorick, the hermit of Engaddi, the enthusiast.--Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

=Mor'timer= (_Mr._), executor of Lord Abberville, and uncle of Frances Tyrrell. "He sheathed a soft heart in a rough case." Externally, Mr.

Mortimer seemed unsympathetic, brusque and rugged; but in reality he was most benevolent, delicate and tender-hearted. "He did a thousand n.o.ble acts without the credit of a single one." In fact, his tongue belied his heart, and his heart his tongue.--c.u.mberland, _The Fashionable Lover_ (1780).

_Mortimer_ (_Sir Edward_), a most benevolent man, oppressed with some secret sorrow. In fact, he knew himself to be a murderer. The case was this: Being in a county a.s.sembly, the uncle of Lady Helen insulted him, struck him down, and kicked him. Sir Edward rode home to send a challenge to the ruffian; but, meeting him on the road drunk, he murdered him, was tried for the crime, but was honorably acquitted. He wrote a statement of the case, and kept the papers connected with it in an iron chest. One day Wilford, his secretary, whose curiosity had been aroused, saw the chest unlocked, and was just about to take out the doc.u.ments when Sir Edward entered, and threatened to shoot him; but he relented, made Wilford swear secrecy, and then told him the whole story.

The young man, unable to live under the jealous eyes of Sir Edward, ran away; but Sir Edward dogged him, and at length arrested him on the charge of robbery. The charge broke down, Wilford was acquitted, Sir Edward confessed himself a murderer, and died.--G. Colman, _The Iron Chest_ (1796).

=Mortimer Lightwood=, solicitor employed in the "Harmon murder" case. He was the great friend of Eugene Wrayburn, barrister-at-law, and it was the ambition of his life to imitate the _nonchalance_ and other eccentricities of his friend. At one time he was a great admirer of Bella Wilfer. Mr. Veneering called him "one of his oldest friends;" but Mortimer was never in the merchant's house but once in his life, and resolved never to enter it again.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Our Mutual Friend_ (1864).

=Morten= (_Sir_), a spectre who appears at King Olaf's feast, in the guise of a one-eyed old man, and carouses with the guests until bed-time. When the morning breaks, he has departed, and no trace of him is to be found.

"King Olaf crossed himself and said-- 'I know that Odin the Great is dead; Sure is the triumph of our Faith, This one-eyed stranger was his wraith.'

Dead rides Sir Morten of Fogelsang."

H. W. Longfellow, _The Wraith of Odin_.

=Morton=, a retainer of the earl of Northumberland.--Shakespeare, 2 _Henry IV._ (1508).[TN-25]

_Morton_ (_Henry_), a leader in the covenanters' army with Balfour.

While abroad, he is Major-general Melville. Henry Morton marries Miss Edith b.e.l.l.e.n.den.

_Old Ralph Morton of Milnwood_, uncle of Henry Morton.

_Colonel Silas Morton of Milnwood_, father of Henry Morton.--Sir W.

Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

_Morton_ (_The earl of_), in the service of Mary queen of Scots, and a member of the privy council of Scotland.--Sir W. Scott, _The Monastery_ and _The Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Morton_ (_The Rev. Mr._)[TN-26] the Presbyterian pastor of Cairnvreckan village.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

=Mortsheugh= (_Johnie_), the old s.e.xton of Wolf's Hope village.--Sir W.

Scott, _The Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

=Morvi'dus=, son of Danius by his concubine, Tangustela. In his reign, there "came from the Irish coasts a most cruel monster, which devoured the people continually, but as soon as Morvidus heard thereof, he ventured to encounter it alone. When all his darts were spent, the monster rushed upon him, and swallowed him up like a small fish."--Geoffrey of Monmouth, _British History_, iii. 15 (1142).