Chapter Muckworm to Munera of M by Brewer's Readers Handbook

day; and with the setting sun
Dropt from the zenith like a falling star,
On Lemnos, the Ægean ile.
   —Milton: Paradise Lost, 739, etc. (1665).

Muley Bugentuf, king of Morocco, a blood-and-thunder hero. He is the chief character of a tragedy of the same name, by Thomas de la Fuenta.

In the first act, the king of Morocco, by way of recreation, shot a hundred Moorish slaves with arrows; in the second, he beheaded thirty Portuguese officers, prisoners of war; and in the third and last act, Muley, mad with his wives, set fire with his own hand to a detached palace, in which they were shut up, and reduced them all to ashes. … This conflagration, accompanied with a thousand shrieks, closed the piece in a very diverting manner.—Lesage: Gil Blas, ii. 9 (1715).

Muléykeh, a beautiful mare which belonged to an Arab called Hóseyn. One night she was stolen by Duhl, who galloped away on her. Hóseyn followed the thief on the sister mare Buhéyseh, and gained so fast that the horses were soon “neck by croup.” Then it flashed across Hóseyn’s mind that his darling was being beaten, and he shouted instructions to Duhl to urge her on. The mare obeyed her master’s voice, bounded forward, and was soon out of sight and lost to him for ever.—An old Arabian Story.

(Browning has a poem called Muléykeh.)

Mull Sack. John Cottington, in the time of the Commonwealth, was so called, from his favourite beverage. John Cottington emptied the pockets of Oliver Cromwell when lord protector; stripped Charles II. of £1500; and stole a watch and chain from lady Fairfax.

Mull sack is spiced sherry negus.

Mulla. Thomas Campbell, in his poem on the Spanish Parrot, calls the island of Mull “Mulla’s Shore.”

Mulla’s Bard, Spenser, author of the Faërie Queene. The Mulla (Awbeg) is a tributary of the Blackwater, in Ireland, and flowed close by the spot where the poet’s house stood. He was born and died in London (1553–1599).

… it irks me while I write,
As erst the bard of Mulla’s silver stream,
Oft as he told of deadly dolorous plight,
Sighed as he sung, and did in tears indite.
   —Shenstone: The Schoolmistress (1758).

Mullet (Professor), the “most remarkable man” of North America. He denounced his own father for voting on the wrong side at an election for president, and wrote thunderbolts, in the form of pamphlets, under the signature of “Suturb,” or “Brutus” reversed.—Dickens: Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).

Mulmutine Laws, the code of Dunvallo Mulmutius, sixteenth king of the Britons (about B.C. 400). This code was translated by Gildas from British into Latin, and by Alfred into English. The Mulmutine laws obtained in this country till the Conquest.—Holinshed: History of England, etc., iii. 1 (1577).

Mulmutius made our laws,
Who was the first of Britain which did put
His brows within a golden crown, and call’d
Himself a king.
   —Shakespeare: Cymbeline, act iii. sc. 1 (1605).

Mulmutius (Dunwallo), son of Cloten king of Cornwall. “He excelled all the kings of Britain in valour and gracefulness of person.” In a battle fought against the allied Welsh and Scotch armies, Mulmutius tried the very scheme which Virgil (Æneid, ii.) says was attempted by Æneas and his companions—that is, they dressed in the clothes and bore the arms of the enemy slain; and, thus disguised, committed very great slaughter. Mulmutius, in his disguise, killed both the Cambrian and Albanian kings, and put the allied army to thorough rout.—Geoffrey: British History, ii. 17 (1142).

Mulmutius this land in such estate maintained
As his great belsire Brute.

Drayton: Polyolbion, viii. (1612).