Chapter Macrothumus to Madoc of M by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Macrothumus to Madoc

Macrothumus, Long-suffering personified. Fully described in canto x. (Greek, makrothumia, “long- suffering.”)—P. Fletcher: The Purple Island (1633).

MacSarcasm (Sir Arthur), “a proud Caledonian knig ht, whose tongue, like the dart of death, spares neither sex nor age.…His insolence of family and licent iousness of wit gained him the contempt of every one” (act i. 1). Sir Archy tells Charlotte, “In the house of M’Sarcasm are twa barons, three viscounts, six earls, ane marquisate, and twa dukes, besides baron ets and lairds oot o’ a reckoning” (act i. 1). He makes love to Charlotte Goodchild, but, thinking that she has lost her fortune, he declares to her that he has just received letters “frae the dukes, the marquis, and a’ the dignitaries of the family…expressly prohibiting the contamination of the blood of the M’Sarcasms wi’ onything sprung from a hogshead or a coontinghouse” (act ii. 1).

The man has something droll, something ridiculous about him. His abominable Scotch accent, his grotesque visage almost buried in snuff, the roll of his eyes and twist of his mouth, his strange inhuman laugh, his tremendous periwig, and his manners altogether—why, one might take him for a mountebank doctor at a Dutch fair.—Macklin: Love à-la-Mode, act i. 1 (1779).

Sir Archy’s Great-grandmother. Sir Archy insisted on fighting sir Callaghan O’Brallaghan on a point of ancestry. The Scotchman said that the Irish are a colony from Scotland, “an ootcast, a mere ootcast.” The Irishman retorted by saying that “one MacFergus O’Brallaghan went from Carrickfergus, and peopled all Scotland with his own hands.” Charlotte Goodchild interposed, and asked the cause of the contention; whereupon sir Callaghan replied, “Madam, it is about sir Archy’s great-grandmother” (act i. 1).—Macklin: Love à-la- Mode (1779).

We shall not now stay to quarrel about sir Archy’s great-grandmother.—Macpherson: Dissertation upon Ossian.

(Boaden says, “To Covent Garden, G. F. Cooke [1746–1812] was a great acquisition, as he was a ‘Shylock,’ an ‘Iago,’ a ‘Kitely,’ a ‘sir Archy,’ and a ‘sir Pertinax’ [MacSycophant].” Leigh Hunt says that G. F. Cooke was a new kind of Macklin, and, like him, excelled in “Shylock” and “sir Archy M‘Sarcasm.”) “Shylock” in the Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare); “Iago” in Othello (Shakespeare); “Kitely” in Every Man in His Humour (B. Jonson); “sir Archy” that is, “M‘Sarcasm;” “sir Pertinax McSycophant” in The Man of the World (Macklin).

MacSillergrip, a Scotch pawnbroker, in search of Robin Scrawkey, his runaway apprentice, whom he pursues upstairs and assails with blows.

Mrs. M‘Sillergrip, the pawnbroker’s wife, always in terror lest the manager should pay her indecorous attentions.—Charles Mathew (At home, in Multiple).

The skill with which Mathews [1775–1835] carried on a conversation between these three persons produced a most astonishing effect.—Contemporary Paper.

MacStinger (Mrs.), a widow who kept lodgings at No. 9, Brig Place, on the brink of a canal near the India Docks. Captain Cuttle lodged there. Mrs. MacStinger was a termagant, and rendered the captain’s life miserable. He was afraid of her, and, although her lodger, was her slave. When her son Alexander was refractory, Mrs MacStinger used to beat him well and then seat him on a paving-stone to cool! She contrived to make captain Bunsby her second husband,—Dickens: Dombey and Son (1846).

MacSycophant (Sir Pertinax), the hot-headed, ambitious father of Charles Egerton. His love for Scotland is very great, and he is continually quarrelling with his family because they do not hold his country in sufficient reverence.

I raised it [my fortune] by booing…I never could stand straight in the presence of a great mon, but always booed, and booed, and booed, as it were by instinct.—Act iii. 1 (1764).