Chapter Mount Zion to Mucklewrath of M by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Mount Zion to Mucklewrath

Mount Zion, the Celestial City.—Bunyan: Pilgrim’s Progress (1678).

Mountain (The). A name given in the French Revolution to a faction which sat on the benches most elevated in the Hall of Assembly. The Girondins sat in the centre or lowest part of the hall, and were nicknamed the “plain.” The “mountain” for a long time was the dominant part; it utterly overthrew the “plain” on August 31, 1793; but was in turn overthrown at the fall of Robespierre (9 Thermidor ii. or July 27, 1794).

Mountain (The Old Man of the), the imaum Hassan ben Sabbah el Homairi. The sheik Al Jebal was so called. He was the prince of the Assassins.

In Rymer’s Fædera (vol. i.) Dr. Clarke, the editor, has added two letters of this sheik; but the doctor must be responsible for their genuineness.

Mountain Brutus (The), William Tell (1282–1350).

Mountain-Monarch of Europe, mont Blanc.

Mountain of Flowers, the site of the palace of Violenta, the mother fairy who brought up the young princess afterwards metamorphosed into “The White Cat.”—Comtesse D’Aulnoy: Fairy Tales (“The White Cat,” 1682).

Mountain of Miseries. Jupiter gave permission for all men to bring their grievances to a certain plain, and to exchange them with any others that had been cast off. Fancy helped them; but, though the heap was so enormous, not one single vice was to be found amongst the rubbish. Old women threw away their wrinkles, and young ones their mole-spots; some cast on the heap poverty; many their red noses and bad teeth; but no one his crimes. Now came the choice. A galley-slave picked up gout, poverty picked up sickness, care picked up pain, snub noses picked up long ones, and so on. Soon all were bewailing the change they had made; and Jupiter sent Patience to tell them they might, if they liked, resume their own grievances again. Every one gladly accepted the permission, and Patience helped them to take up their own bundle, and bear it without a murmur.—Addison: The Spectator (1711, 1712, 1714).

Mountains (Prince of German), Schneekoppe (5235 feet), in Eastern Prussia.

Mourning. In Colman’s Heir-at-Law (1797) every character is in mourning: the Dowlases as relatives of the deceased lord Duberly; Henry Morland as heir of lord Duberly; Steadfast as the chief friend of the family; Dr. Pangloss as a clergyman; Caroline Dormer for her father recently buried; Zekiel and Cicely Homespun for the same reason; Kenrick for his deceased master.—J. Smith: Memoirs (1840).

Mourning Bride (The), a drama by W. Congreve (1697). “The mourning bride” is Almeria daughter of Manuel king of Granada, and her husband was Alphonso prince of Valentia. On the day of their espousals they were shipwrecked, and each thought the other had perished; but they met together in the court of Granada, where Alphonso was taken captive under the assumed name of Osmyn. Osmyn, having effected his escape, marched to Granada at the head of an army, found the king dead, and “the mourning bride” became his joyful wife.

This play is noted for the introductory lines—

Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,
To soften rocks, and bend a knotted oak.

And Dr. Johnson extravagantly praises the description of a cathedral in the play, beginning—

How reverend is the face of this tall pile!

Mouse (The Country and the City) (1687), a travesty, by Prior, of Dryden’s Hind and the Panther (1687).