Chapter Mornay to Morte d'Arthur of M by Brewer's Readers Handbook

St. Bridget’s Bower in Kent, and so on; then there was mount Sinah and mount Parnass, where the Muses dwelt. Thomalin replies, “The lowlands are safer, and hills are not for shepherds.” He then illustrates his remark by the tale of shepherd Algrind, who sat like Morrel on a hill, when an eagle, taking his white head for a stone, let on it a shell-fish in order to break it, and all-to cracked his skull. [Æschylus was killed by a tortoise dropped on his head by an eagle.]—Spenser, Shepheardes Calendar, vii.

(This is an allegory of the high and low church parties. Morel is an anagram of Elmer or Aylmer bishop of London, who “sat on a hill,” and was the leader of the high-church party. Algrind is Grindal archbishop of Canterbury, head of the low-church party, who in 1578 was sequestrated for writing a letter to the queen on the subject of puritanism. Thomalin represents the puritans. This could not have been written before 1578, unless the reference to Algrind was added in some later edition.)

MORRIS, a domestic of the earl of Derby.—Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Morris (Mr.), the timid fellow-traveller of Frank Osbaldistone, who carried the portmanteau. Osbaldistone says, concerning him, “Of all the propensities which teach mankind to torment themselves, that of causeless fear is the most irritating, busy, painful, and pitiable.”—Sir W. Scott: Rob Roy (time, George I.).

Morris (Dinah), a Methodist field preacher, in Adam Bede, a novel by George Eliot (Mrs. J. W. Cross) (1859).

Morris (Peter), the pseudonym of John G. Lockhart, in Peter’s Letters to his Kinsfolk (1819).

Morris-Dance, a comic representation of every grade of society. The characters were dressed partly in Spanish and partly in English costume. Thus, the huge sleeves were Spanish, but the laced stomacher English. Hobby-horse represented the king and all the knightly order; Maid Marian, the queen; the friar, the clergy generally; the fool, the court jester. Other characters represented were a franklin or private gentleman, a churl or farmer, and the lower grades represented by a clown. The Spanish costume is to show the origin of the dance.

(A representation of a morris-dance may still be seen at Betley, in Staffordshire, in a window placed in the house of George Tollet, Esq., in about 1620.)

Morrison (Hugh), a Lowland drover, the friend of Robin Oig.—Sir W. Scott: The Two Drovers (time, George III.).

Mortality (Old), a religious itinerant, who frequented country churchyards and the graves of the covenanters. He was first discovered in the burial-ground at Gandercleugh, clearing the moss from the grey tombstones, renewing with his chisel the half-defaced inscriptions, and repairing the decorations of the tombs.—Sir W. Scott: Old Mortality (time, Charles II.). (For the plot of the novel, see Old Mortality.)

“Old Mortality” is said to be meant for Robert Patterson.

Mortara, the boy who died from being covered all over with gold-leaf by Leo XII., to adorn a pageant.

Mortcloke (Mr.), the undertaker at the funeral of Mrs. Margaret Bertram of Singleside.—Sir W. Scott: Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

Morte d’Arthur, a compilation of Arthurian tales, called on the title-page The History of Prince Arthur, compiled from the F rench by sir Thomas Malory, and printed by William Caxton in 1470. It is divided into three parts. The fir st part contains the birth of king Arthur, the establishment of the Round Table, the romance of Balin and Balan, and the beautiful allegory of Gareth and Linet. The second part is mainly the romance of sir Tristram. The third part is the romance of sir Launcelot, the quest of the holy graal, and the deaths of Arthur, Guenever, Tristram, Lamorake, and Launcelot (all which see).