Chapter Martyr King to Masaniello of M by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Mamma was to assume the character and stately way of the royal “Mary of Modena.”—Percy Fitzgerald: The Parvenu Family, iii. 239.

Mary queen of Scots was confined first at Carlisle; she was removed in 1568 to Bolton; 1569 she was confined at Tutbury, Wingfield, Tutbury, Ashby-de-la-Zouche, and Coventry; in 1570 she was removed to Tutbury, Chatsworth, and Sheffield; in 1577 to Chatsworth; in 1578 to Sheffield; in 1584 to Wingfield; in 1585 to Tutbury, Chartley, Tixhall, and Chartley; in 1586 (September 25) to Fotheringay.

(She is introduced by sir W. Scott in his novel The Abbot.)

N.B.—Schiller has taken Mary Stuart for the subject of his best tragedy, and P. Lebrun brought out in France a French version thereof (1729–1807).

Mary queen of Scots. The most elegant and poetical compliment ever paid to woman was paid to Mary queen of Scots, by Shakespeare, in Midsummer Night’s Dream. Remember, the mermaid is “queen Mary;” the dolphin means the “dauphin of France,” whom Mary married; the rude sea means the “Scotch rebels;” and the stars that shot from their spheres means “the princes who sprang from their allegiance to queen Elizabeth;” and probably the name Mary and the Latin mare , meaning “the sea,” may have suggested the compound word “sea-maid.”

Thou remember’st
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin’s back,
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her song;
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
To hear the sea-maid’s music.
   —Act ii. sc. 1 (1592).

These “stars” were the earl of North-umberland, the earl of Westmoreland, and the duke of Norfolk.

Mary the Maid of the Inn, the delight and sunshine of the parish, about to be married to Richard, an idle, worthless fellow. One autumn night, two guests were drinking at the inn, and one remarked he should not much like to go to the abbey on such a night. “I’ll wager that Mary will go,” said the other, and the bet was accepted. Mary went, and, hearing footsteps, stepped into a place of concealment, when presently passed her two men carrying a young woman they had just murdered. The hat of one blew off, and fell at Mary’s feet. She picked it up, flew to the inn, told her story, and then, producing the hat, found it was Richard’s. Her senses gave way, and she became a confirmed maniac for life.—Southey: Mary the Maid of the Inn (from Dr. Plot’s History of Staffordshire, 1686).

Marzavan, foster-brother of the princess Badoura.—Arabian Nights (“Camaralzaman and Badoura”).

Masaniello, a corruption of [Tom]-mas Aniello, a Neapolitan fisherman, who headed an insurrection in 1647 against the duke of Arcos; and he resolved to kill the duke’s son for having soduced Fenella his sister, who was deaf and dumb. The insurrection succeeded, and Masaniello was elected by his rabble “chief magistrate of Portici;” but he became intoxicated with his greatness, so the mob shot him, and flung his dead body into a ditch. Next day, however, it was taken out and interred with much ceremony and pomp. When Fenella heard of her brother’s death, she threw herself into the crater of Vesuvius.

(Auber has an opera on the subject (1831), the libretto by Scribe. Caraffa had chosen the same subject for an opera previously.)