Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 31

=Muse= (_The Tenth_), Marie Lejars de Gournay, a French writer (1566-1645).

Antoinette Deshoulieres; also called "The French Calliope." Her best work is an allegory called _Les Moutons_ (1633-1694).

Mdlle. Scuderi was preposterously so called (1607-1701).

Also Delphine Gray, afterwards Mde. Emile de Girardin. Her _nom de plume_ was "viconte de Launay." Beranger sang of "the beauty of her shoulders," and Chateaubriand, of "the charms of her smile" (1804-1855).

=Muse-Mother=, Mnemos'yne, G.o.ddess of memory, and mother of the Muses.

Memory, That sweet Muse-mother.

E. B. Browning, _Prometheus Bound_ (1850).

=Muses= (_Symbols of the_).

CAL'LIOPE [_Kal'.ly.o.py_], the epic Muse: a tablet and stylus, sometimes a scroll.

CLIO, Muse of history: a scroll or open chest of books.

ER'ATO, Muse of love ditties: a lyre.

EUTER'Pe, Muse of lyric poetry: a flute.

MELPOM'ENe, Muse of tragedy: a tragic mask, the club of Hercules, or a sword. She wears the cothurnus, and her head is wreathed with vine leaves.

POL'YHYM'NIA, Muse of sacred poetry: sits pensive, but has no attribute, because deity is not to be represented by any visible symbol.

TERPSIC'h.o.r.e [_Terp.sick'.o.ry_], Muse of choral song and dance: a lyre and the plectrum.

THALI'A, Muse of comedy and idyllic poetry: a comic mask, a shepherd's staff, or a wreath of ivy.

URAN'IA, Muse of astronomy: carries a staff pointing to a globe.

=Museum= (_A Walking_), Longinus, author of a work on _The Sublime_ (213-273).

=Musgrave= (_Sir Richard_), the English champion who fought with Sir William Deloraine, the Scotch champion, to decide by combat whether young Scott, the heir of Branksome Hall, should become the page of King Edward, or be delivered up to his mother. In the combat, Sir Richard was slain, and the boy was delivered over to his mother.--Sir W. Scott, _Lay of the Last Minstrel_ (1805).

_Musgrave_ (_Sir Miles_), an officer in the king's service under the earl of Montrose.--Sir W. Scott, _Legend of Montrose_ (time, Charles I.).

=Music.= Amphion is said to have built the walls of Thebes by the music of his lyre. Ilium and the capital of Arthur's kingdom were also built to divine music. The city of Jericho was destroyed by music (_Joshua_ vi.

20).

They were building still, seeing the city was built To music.

Tennyson.

_Music and Men of Genius._ Hume, Dr. Johnson, Sir W. Scott, Robert Peel and Lord Byron had no ear for music, and neither vocal nor instrumental music gave them the slightest pleasure. To the poet Rogers it gave actual discomfort. Even the harmonious Pope preferred the harsh dissonance of a street organ to Handel's oratorios.

_Music_ (_Father of_), Giovanni Battista Pietro Aloisio da Palestri'na (1529-1594).

_Music_ (_Father of Greek_), Terpander (fl. B.C. 676).

=Music's First Martyr.= Menaphon says that when he was in Thessaly he saw a youth challenge the birds in music; and a nightingale took up the challenge. For a time the contest was uncertain; but then the youth, "in a rapture," played so cunningly that the bird, despairing, "down dropped upon his lute, and brake her heart."

? This beautiful tale, by Strada (in Latin) has been translated in rhyme by R. Crashaw. Versions have been given by Ambrose Philips, and others; but none can compare with the exquisite relation of John Ford, in his drama ent.i.tled _The Lover's Melancholy_ (1628).

=Musical Small-Coal Man=, Thos. Britton, who used to sell small coals and keep a musical club (1654-1714).

=Musicians= (_Prince of_), Giovanni Battista Pietro Aloisio da Palestri'na (1529-1594).

=Musidora=, the _dame du cur_ of Damon. Damon thought her coyness was scorn; but one day he caught her bathing, and his delicacy on the occasion so enchanted her that she at once accepted his proffered love.--Thomson, _Seasons_ ("Summer," 1727).

=Musido'rus=, a hero, whose exploits are told by Sir Philip Sidney, in his _Arcadia_ (1581).

=Musketeer=, a soldier armed with a musket, but specially applied to a company of gentlemen who were a mounted guard in the service of the king of France from 1661.

They formed two companies, the _grey_ and the _black_; so called from the color of their hair. Both were clad in scarlet, and hence their quarters were called the _Maison rouge_. In peace they followed the king in the chase, to protect him; in war they fought either on foot or horseback. They were suppressed in 1791; restored in 1814, but only for a few months; and after the restoration of Louis XVIII. we hear no more of them. Many Scotch gentlemen enrolled themselves among these dandy soldiers, who went to war with curled hair, white gloves, and perfumed like milliners.

? A. Dumas has a novel called _The Three Musketeers_ (1844), the first of a series; the second is _Twenty Years Afterwards_; and the third, _Viconte de Bragelonne_.

=Muslin=, the talkative, impertinent, intriguing _suivante_ of Mrs.

Lovemore. Mistress Muslin is sweet upon William, the footman, and loves cards.--A. Murphy, _The Way to Keep Him_ (1760).

=Mus'tafa=, a poor tailor of China, father of Aladdin, killed by illness brought on by the idle vagabondism of his son.--_Arabian Nights_ ("Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp").

=Mutton=, a courtezan, sometimes called a "laced mutton." "Mutton Lane,"

in Clerkenwell, was so called because it was a suburra or quarter for harlots. The courtezan was called a "Mutton" even in the reign of Henry III., for Bracton speaks of them as _oves_.--_De Legibus_, etc., ii.

(1569).

=Mutton-Eating King= (_The_), Charles II. of England (1630, 1659-1685).

Here lies our mutton-eating king, Whose word no man relies on; He never _said_ a foolish thing, And never _did_ a wise on'.