Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 6

Do despise me; I'm the prouder for it. I like to be despised.--I.

Bickerstaff, _The Hypocrite_, ii. 1 (1768).

=Max=, a huntsman, and the best marksman in Germany. He was plighted to Agatha, who was to be his wife, if he won the prize in the annual match.

Caspar induced Max to go to the wolf's glen at midnight and obtain seven charmed b.a.l.l.s from Samiel, the Black Huntsman. On the day of contest, while Max was shooting, he killed Caspar, who was concealed in a tree, and the king in consequence abolished this annual _fete_.--Weber, _Der Freischutz_ (an opera, 1822).

=Maxime= (2 _syl._), an officer of the Prefect Almachius. He was ordered to put to death Valerian and Tibur'ce, because they refused to worship the image of Jupiter; but he took pity on them, took them to his house, became converted and was baptized. When Valerian and Tiburce were afterwards martyred, Maxime said he saw angels come and carry them to heaven, whereupon Almachius caused him to be beaten with rods "til he his lif gan lete."--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ ("Second Nun's Tale,"

1388).

? This is based on the story of "Cecilia" in the _Legenda Aurea_; and both are imitations of the story of Paul and the jailer of Philippi (_Acts_ xvi. 19-34).

=Maximil'ian= (son of Frederick III.), the hero of the _Teuerdank_, the _Orlando Furioso_ of the Germans, by Melchior Pfinzing.

....[_here_] in old heroic days Sat the poet Melchoir, singing Kaiser Maximilian's praise.

Longfellow, _Nuremberg_.

=Maximin=, a Roman tyrant.--Dryden, _Tyrannic Love_, or _the Royal Martyr_.

=Maximus=, (called by Geoffrey, "Maximian"), a Roman senator, who in 381, was invited to become king of Britain. He conquered Armorica (_Bretagne_), and "published a decree for the a.s.sembling together there of 100,000 of the common people of Britain, to colonize the land, and 30,000 soldiers to defend the colony." Hence Armorica was called, "The other Britain" or "Little Britain."--Geoffrey, _British History_, v. 14 (1142).

Got Maximus at length the victory in Gaul, ... where after Gratian's fall.

Armorica to them the valiant victor gave....

Which colony ... is "Little Britain" called.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, ix. (1612).

=Maxwell=, deputy chamberlain at Whitehall.--Sir W. Scott, _Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

_Maxwell_ (_Mr. Pate_), laird of Summertrees, called "Pate in Peril;"

one of the papist conspirators with Redgauntlet.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

_Maxwell_ (_The Right Hon. William_), Lord Evandale, an officer in the king's army.--Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

=May=, a girl who married January, a Lombard baron 60 years old. She loved Damyan, a young squire; and one day the baron caught Damyan and May fondling each other, but the young wife told her husband his eyes were so defective that they could not be trusted. The old man accepted the solution--for what is better than "a fruitful wife and a confiding spouse?"--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ ("The Merchant's Tale," 1388).

=May unlucky for Brides.= Mary, queen of Scotland, married Bothwell, the murderer of her husband, Lord Darnley, on May 12.

Mense malum Maio nubere vulgus ait.

Ovid, _Fasti_, v.

=May-Day= (_Evil_), May 1, 1517, when the London apprentices rose up against the foreign residents and did incalcuable[TN-8] mischief. This riot began May 1, and lasted till May 22.

=May Queen= (_The_), a poem in three parts by Tennyson (1842). Alice, a bright-eyed, merry child, was chosen May queen, and, being afraid she might oversleep herself, told her mother to be sure to call her early.

I sleep so sound all night, mother, that I shall never wake, If you do not call me loud when the day begins to break; But I must gather knots of flowers, and buds and garlands gay, For I'm to be queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be queen o' the May.

The old year pa.s.sed away, and the black-eyed rustic maiden was dying.

She hoped to greet the new year before her eyes closed in death, and bade her mother once again to be sure to call her early; but it was not now because she slept so soundly. Alas! no.

Good night, sweet mother; call me before the day is born.

All night I lie awake, but I fall asleep at morn; But I would see the sun rise upon the glad New Year, So, if you're waking, call me, call me early, mother dear.

The day rose and pa.s.sed away, but Alice lingered on till March. The snow-drops had gone before her, and the violets were in bloom. Robin had dearly loved the child, but the thoughtless village beauty, in her joyous girlhood, tossed her head at him, and never thought of love, but now, that she was going to the land of shadows, her dying words were:

And say to Robin a kind word, and tell him not to fret; There's many worthier than I, would make him happy yet.

If I had lived--I cannot tell--I might have been his wife; But all these things have ceased to be, with my desire of life.

=Maye= (_The_), that subtle and abstruse sense which the G.o.ddess Maya inspires. Plato, Epicharmos, and some other ancient philosophers refer it to the presence of divinity. "It is the divinity which stirs within us." In poetry it gives an inner sense to the outward word, and in common minds it degenerates into delusion or second sight. Maya is an Indian deity, and personates the "power of creation."

Hartmann possede la Maye ... il laisse penetrer dans ses ecrits les sentiments, et les pensees dont son ame est remplie, et cherche sans cesse a resoudre les ant.i.theses.--G. Weber, _Hist. de la Litterature Allemande_.

=Mayeux=, a stock name in France for a man deformed, vain, and licentious, but witty and brave. It occurs in a large number of French romances and caricatures.

=Mayflower=, a ship of 180 tons, which in December, 1620, started from Plymouth, and conveyed to Ma.s.sachusetts 102 puritans, called the "Pilgrim Fathers," who named their settlement New Plymouth.

... the _Mayflower_ sailed from the harbor [_Plymouth_], Took the wind on her quarter, and stood for the open Atlantic, Borne on the sand of the sea, and the swelling hearts of the pilgrims.

Longfellow, _Courtship of Miles Standish_, v. (1858).

_Men of the Mayflower_, the Pilgrim Fathers, who went out in the _Mayflower_ to North America in 1620.

_Mayflower_ (_Phbe_), servant at Sir Henry Lee's lodge.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, commonwealth).

=Maylie= (_Mrs._), the lady of the house attacked burglariously by Bill Sykes and others. Mrs. Maylie is mother of Harry Maylie, and aunt of Rose Fleming, who lives with her.

She was well advanced in years, but the high-backed oaken chair in which she sat was not more upright than she. Dressed with the utmost nicety and precision in a quaint mixture of bygone costume, with some slight concession to the prevailing taste, which rather served to point the old style pleasantly than to impair its effect, she sat in a stately manner, with her hands folded before her.

_Harry Maylie_, Mrs. Maylie's son. He marries his cousin, Rose Fleming.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Oliver Twist_ (1837).

=Mayor of Garratt= (_The_). Garratt is between Wandsworth and Tooting. The first mayor of this village was elected towards the close of the eighteenth century, and the election came about thus: Garratt Common had often been encroached on, and in 1780 the inhabitants a.s.sociated themselves together to defend their rights. The chairman was called _Mayor_, and as it happened to be the time of a general election, the society made it a law that a new "mayor" should be elected at every general election. The addresses of these mayors, written by Foote, Garrick, Wilks, and others, are satires and political squibs. The first mayor of Garratt was "Sir" John Harper, a retailer of brickdust; and the last was "Sir" Harry Dimsdale, a m.u.f.fin-seller (1796). In Foote's farce so called, Jerry Sneak is chosen mayor, son-in-law of the landlord (1763).

=Mayors= (_Lord_) who have founded n.o.ble houses: