Chapter Mincius to Mirabella of M by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Minona came forth in her beauty, with downcast look and tearful eye. Her hair flew slowly on the blast that rushed unfrequent from the hill. The souls of the heroes were sad when she raised the tuneful voice.—Ossian: The Songs of Selma.

Minor (The), a comedy by Samuel Foote (1760). Sir George Wealthy, “the minor,” was the son of sir William Wealthy, a retired merchant. He was educated at a public school, sent to college, and finished his training in Paris. His father, hearing of his extravagant habits, pretended to be dead, and, assuming the guise of a German baron, employed several persons to dodge the lad, some to be winners in his gambling, some to lend money, some to cater to other follies, till he was apparently on the brink of ruin. His uncle, Mr. Richard Wealthy, a City merchant, wanted his daughter Lucy to marry a wealthy trader, and, as she refused to do so, he turned her out of doors. This young lady was brought to sir George as a fille de joie, but she touched his heart by her manifest innocence, and he not only relieved her present necessities, but removed her to an asylum where her “innocent beauty would be guarded from temptation, and her deluded innocence would be rescued from infamy.” The whole scheme now burst as a bubble. Sir George’s father, proud of his son, told him he was his father, and that his losses were only fictitious; and the uncle melted into a better mood, gave his daughter to his nephew, and blessed the boy for rescuing his discarded child.

Minotti, governor of Corinth, then under the power of the doge. In 1715 the city was stormed by the Turks; and during the siege one of the magazines in the Turkish camp blew up, killing 600 men. Byron says it was Minotti himself who fired the train, and that he perished in the explosion.—Byron: Siege of Corinth (1816).

Minstrel (The), an unfinished poem, in Spenserian metre, by James Beattie. Its design was to trace the progress of a poetic genius, born in a rude age, from the first dawn of fancy to the fulness of poetic rapture. The first canto (1771) is descriptive of Edwin the minstrel; canto ii. (1774) is dull philosophy, and there, happily, the poem ends. It is a pity it did not end with the first canto.

And yet poor Edwin was no vulgar boy,
Deep thought oft seemed to fix his infant eye.
Dainties he heeded not, nor gaude, nor toy.
Save one short pipe of rudest minstrelsy;
Silent when sad, affectionate, tho’shy;
And now his look was most demurely sad;
And now he laughed aloud, yet none knew why.
The neighbours stared and sighed, yet blessed the lad;
Some deemed him wondrous wise, and some believed him mad.
   —Conto i. 16.

Minstrel (Lay of the Last). (See Lay of the last Minstrel, p. 599.)

Minstrel of the Border, sir W. Scott; also called “The Border Minstrel” (1771–1832).

My steps the Border Minstrel led.
   —Wordsworth: Yarrow Revisited.

Great Minstrel of the Border.
   —Wordsworth.

Minstrel of the English Stage (The Last), James Shirley, last of the Shakespeare school (1594–1666).

Then followed the licentious French school, headed by John Dryden.

Minstrels Song (The), in the tragedy called Ælla by Chatterton (1777). It is in imitation of the antique. The first verse ends thus—

My love is dead,
Gone to her death-bed.
All under the willow-tree.

Minstrels (Royal Domestic).

Of William I., Berdic, called Regis Joculator.

Of Henry I., Galfrid and Royer or Raher.