Chapter Melyhalt to Mephostophilus of M by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Memory (The Bard of), Samuel Rogers, author of the Pleasures of Memory (1762–1855).

(Tennyson wrote an Ode to Memory, 1830.)

Men of Prester John’s Country. Prester John, in his lett er to Manuel Comnenus, says his land is the home of men with horns; of one-eyed men (the eye being in some cases before the head, and in some cases behind it); of giants forty ells in height (i.e. 120 feet); of the phœnix, etc.; and of ghouls who feed on premature children. He gives the names of fifteen different tributary states, amongst which are those of Gog and Magog (now shut in behind lofty mountains); but at the end of the world these fifteen states will overrun the whole earth.

Menalcas, any shepherd or rustic. The name occurs in the Idylls of Theocritos, the Eclogues of Virgil, and the Shepheardes Calendar of Spenser.

Mencia of Mosquera (Donna) married don Alvaro de Mello. A few days after the marriage, Alvaro happened to quarrel with don Andrea de Baesa and kill him. He was obliged to flee from Spain, leaving his bride behind, and his property was confiscated. For seven years she received no intelligence of his whereabouts (for he was a slave most of the time), but when seven years had elapsed the report of his death in Fez reached her. The young widow now married the marquis of Guardia, who lived in a grand castle near Burgos; but walking in the grounds one morning she was struck with the earnestness with which one of the under-gardeners looked at her. This man proved to be her first husband, don Alvaro, with whom she now fled from the castle; but on the road a gang of robbers fell upon them. Alvaro was killed, and the lady taken to the robbers’ cave, where Gil Blas saw her and heard her sad tale. The lady was soon released, and sent to the castle of the marquis of Guardia. She found the marquis dying from grief, and indeed he died the day following, and Mencia retired to a convent.—Lesage: Gil Blas, i. 11–14 (1715).

Mendoza, a Jew prize-fighter, who held the belt at the close of the eighteenth century; and in 1791 opened the Lyceum in the Strand, to teach “the noble art of self-defence.”

I would have dealt the fellow that abused you such a recompense in the fifth button, that my friend Mendoza should not have placed it better.—Cumberland: Shiva the Jew, iv. 2 (1776).

There is a print often seen in old picture shops, of Humphreys and Mendoza sparring, and a queer angular exhibition it is. What that is to the modern art of boxing, Quick’s style of acting was to Dowton’s. —Records of a Stage Veteran.

Mendoza (Isaac), a rich Jew, who thinks himself monstrously wise, but is duped by every one. (See under Isaac, p. 529.)—Sheridan: The Duenna (1775).

John Kemble [1757–1823] once designed to play “Macheath” [Beggar’s Opera, by Gay], a part about as much suited to him as “Isaac Mendoza.” It is notorious that he persisted in playing “Charles Surface” in the School for Scandal [Sheridan], till some wag said to him, “Mr. Kemble, you have often given us ‘Charles’s martyrdom,’ when shall we have his restoration?”—W. G. Russell: Representative Actors, 243.

Menech’mians, persons exactly like each other, as the brothers Dromio. So called from the Menœchmi of Plautus.

Menecrates , a physician of Syracuse, of unbounded vanity and arrogance. He assumed to himself the title of Jupiter, and in a letter to Philip king of Macedon he began thus: “Menecratês Jupiter to king Philip greeting.” Being asked by Philip to a banquet, the physician was served only with frankincense, like the gods; but Menecratês was greatly offended, and hurried home.

Such was Menecratês of little worth,
Who Jove, the saviour, to be called presumed,
To whom of incense Philip made a feast,
And gave pride scorn and hunger to digest.
   —Brooke: Inquisition upon Fame, etc. (1554–1628).