Chapter Mamillius to Man of Law's Tale of M by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Mamillius to Man of Law's Tale

Mamillius, a young prince of Sicilia.—Shakespeare: Winter’s Tale (1604).

Mammon, the personification of earthly ambition, be it wealth, honours, sensuality, or what not. “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matt. vi. 24). Milton makes Mammon one of the rebellious angels—

Mammon, the least-erected spirit that fell
From heaven; for e’en in heaven his looks and thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of heaven’s pavement, trodden gold,
Than aught, divine or holy, else enjoyed.
   —Paradise Lost, i. 679, etc. (1665).

Mammon tells sir Guyon if he will serve him, he shall be the richest man in the world; but the knight replies that money has no charm in his sight. The god then takes him into his smithy, and tells him to give any order he likes; but sir Guyon declines the invitation. Mammon next offers to give the knight Philotine to wife; but sir Guyon still declines. Lastly, the knight is led to Proserpine’s bower, and told to pluck some of the golden fruit, and to rest him awhile on the silver stool; but sir Guyon resists the temptation. After three days’ sojourn in the infernal regions, the knight is led back to earth, and swoons.—Spenser: Faërie Queene, ii. 7 (1590).

Mammon (Sir Epicure), the rich dupe who supplies Subtle “the alchemist” with money to carry on his artifices, under pretence of transmuting base metals into gold. Sir Epicure believes in the possibility, and glories in the mighty things he will do when the secret is discovered.—Jonson: The Alchemist (1610).

[Sir] Epicure Mammon has the whole “matter and copy of the father—eye, nose, lip, the trick of his frown.” It is just such a swaggerer as contemporaries have described Ben to be.…He is arrogance personified.…What a “towering bravery” there is in his sensuality! He affects no pleasure under a sultan—C. Lamb.

Mammoth (The) or big buffalo is an emblem of terror and destruction among the American Indians. Hence, when Brandt, at the head of a party of Mohawks and other savages, was laying waste Pennsylvania, and approached Wyoming, Outalissi exclaims—

The mammoth comes—the foe—the monster Brandt,
With all his howling, desolating band…
Red is the cup they drink, but not of wine!
   —Campbell: Gertrude of Wyoming, iii. 16 (1809).

Mammoth Cave (The), in Edmondson County, Kentucky. It is the largest in the world.

Mammoth Grove (The), in California. Some of the trees grow to the height of from 200 to 300 feet, and have a girth of from 100 to 200 feet.

Mammoun, eldest of the four sons of Corcud. One day, he showed kindness to a mutilated serpent, which proved to be the fairy Gialout, who gave him for his humanity the power of joining and mending whatever was broken. He mended a pie’s egg which was smashed into twenty pieces, and so perfectly that the egg was hatched. He also mended in a moment a ship which had been wrecked and broken in a violent storm.—Gueulette: Chinese Tales (“Corcud and his Four Sons,” 1723).

Man. His descent according to the Darwinian theory: (1) The larvæ of ascidians, a marine mollusc; (2) fish lowly organized, as the lancelet; (3) ganoids, lepidosiren, and other fish; (4) amphibians; (5) birds and reptiles; (6) from reptiles we get the monotremata, which connects reptiles with the mammalia; (7) the marsupials; (8) placental mammals; (9) lemurîdæ; (10) simiâdæ; (11) the New World monkeys called platyrhines, and the Old World monkeys called catarrhines; (12) between the catarrhines and the race of man the “missing link” is placed by some; but others think between the highest organized ape and the lowest organized man the gradation is simple and easy.

The Bedouins say the monkeys of Kara were once human beings, and were transformed for disobedience. The prophet of Mount Kara bade them drink the milk, and wash in the water set before them; but they reversed the order, by drinking the water and washing in the milk. Whereupon he transformed them into monkeys.