Chapter Mardonius to Margiana of M by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Mardonius to Margiana

Mardonius (Captain), in Beaumont and Fletcher’s drama called A King or No King (1619).

Mareschal of Mareschal Wells (Young), one of the Jacobite conspirators, under the leadership of Mr. Richard Vere laird of Ellieslaw.—Sir W. Scott: The Black Dwarf (time, Anne).

Marfisa, an Indian queen.—Bojardo: Orlando Innamorato (1495); and Ariosto: Orlando Furioso (1516).

Marforio’s Statue. This statue lies on the ground in Rome, and was at one time used for libels, lampoons, and jests, but was never so much used as Pasquin’s.

Margarelon , a Trojan hero of modern legend, who performed deeds of marvellous bravery. Lydgate, in his Boke of Troy (1513), calls him a son of Priam. According to this authority, Margarelon attacked Achillês, and fell by his hand.

MARGARET, only child and heiress of sir Giles Overreach. Her father set his heart on her marrying lord Lovel, for the summit of his ambition was to see her a peeress. But Margaret was modest, and could see no happiness in ill-assorted marriages; so she remained faithful to Tom Allworth, the man of her choice.—Massinger: A New Way to Pay Old Debts (1628).

Margaret, wife of Vandunke , the drunken burgomaster of Bruges.—Fletcher: The Beggars’ Bush (1622).

Margaret (Ladye), “the flower of Teviot,” daughter of the duchess Margaret and lord Walter Scott of Branksome Hall. The ladye Margaret was beloved by Henry of Cranstown, whose family had a deadly feud with that of Scott. (For the rest of the tale, see Lay of the Last Minstrel, p. 599.)—Sir W. Scott: Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805).

Margaret, the heroine of Goethe’s Faust. Faus t first encounters her on her return from church, falls in love with her, and seduces her. Overcome with shame, Margaret destroys the infant to which she gives birth, and is condemned to death. Faust attempts to save her; and, gaining admission to her cell, finds her huddled up on a bed of straw, singing, lik e Ophelia, wild snatches of ancient ballads, her reason faded, and her death at hand. Faust tries to persuade the mad girl to flee with him, but in vain. Mephistophelês, passionless and grim, arrives to hurry them both to their spiritual ruin; but Margaret calls “upon the judgment-seat of God,” and when Mephistopheles says, “She is judged,” voices from above answer, “Is saved.” She ascends to heaven as Faust disappears with Mephistopheles. Margaret is often called by the pet diminutive “Gretchen,” and in Gounod’s (1859) opera, “Margherita.”—Goethe: Faust (1790).

Shakespeare has drawn no such portrait as that of Margaret; no such peculiar union of passion, simplicity, homeliness, and witchery. The poverty and inferior social position of Margaret are never lost sight of—she never becomes an abstraction. It is love alone which exalts her above her station.—Lewes.

Margaret Catchpole, a Suffolk celebrity, born at Nacton, in that county, in 1773; the title and heroine of a tale by the Rev. R. Cobbold. She falls in love with a smuggler named Will Laud, and in 1797, in order to reach him, steals a horse from Mr. J. Cobbold, brewer, of Ipswich, in whose service she had lived much respected. She dresses herself in the groom’s clothes, and makes her way to London, where she is detected while selling the horse, and is put in prison. She is sentenced to death at the Suffolk assizes—a sentence afterwards commuted to one of seven years’ transportation. Owing to a difficulty in sending prisoners to New South Wales, she is confined in Ipswich jail; but from here she makes her escape, joins Laud, who is shot in her defence. Margaret is recaptured, and again sentenced to death, which is for the second time commuted to transportation, this time for life, and she arrives at Port Jackson in 1801. Here, by her good behaviour, she obtains a free pardon, and ultimately marries a former lover named John Barry, who had emigrated and risen to a high position in the colony. She died, much respected, in the year 1841.