Chapter MacIntyre to Mackintosh of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Latin is a mixture of Latin and some modern language. In Italy macheroni is a mixture of coarse meal, eggs, and cheese.

Macaronic Verse Verses in which foreign words are ludicrously distorted and jumbled together, as in Porson's lines on the threatened invasion of England by Napoleon. (Lingo drawn for the Militia.) So called by Teofilo Folengo, a Mantuan monk of noble family, who published a book entitled Liber Macaronicorum, a poetical rhapsody made up of words of different languages, and treating of “pleasant matters” in a comical style (1520). Folengo is generally called Merlinus Coccaius, or Merlino Coccajo. (See preceding.) The Vigonce of Tossa was published in 1494. The following Latin verse is an hexameter;

“Trumpeter unus erat qui coatum scarlet habebat”

   A. Cunningham published in 1801 a Delectus macaronicorum carminum, a history of macaronic poetry
   Cane carmen SIXPENCE, pera plena rye,
   De multis atris avibus coctis in a pie:
   Simul haec apert'est, cantat omnis grex,
   Nonne permirabile, quod vidit ille rex?
   Dimidium rex esus, misit ad reginam
   Quod reliquit illa, sending back catinum
   Rex fuit in aerario, multo nummo tumens:
   In culina Domina, bread and mel consumens,
   Ancell' in horticulo, hanging out the clothes,
   Quum descendens cornix rapuit her nose.
   E. C. B.

Macbeth (Shakespeare). The story is taken from Holinshed, who copied it from the History of Scotland, by Hector Boece or Boyce, in seventeen volumes (1527). The history, written in Latin, was translated by John Bellenden (1531-1535).

“History states that Macbeth slew Duncan at Bothgowan, near Elgin, in 1039, and not as Shakespeare says, at his castle of Inverness: the attack was made because Duncan had usurped the throne, to which Macbeth had the better claim. As a king Macbeth proved a very just and equitable prince, but the partisans of Malcolm got head, and succeeded in deposing Macbeth, who was slain in 1056, at Lumphanan. He was thane of Cromarty [Glamis], and afterwards of Moray [Cawdor].- Lardner: Cabinet Cyclopoedia

   Lady Macbeth. The wife of Macbeth. Ambition is her sin, and to gain the object of her ambition she hesitates at nothing. Her masterful mind sways the weaker Macbeth to “the mood of what she liked or loathed.” She is a Mede'a, or Catherine de' Medici, or Cæsar Borgia in female form. (Shakespeare: Macbeth.)
    The real name of Lady Macbeth was Graoch, and instead of being urged to the murder of Duncan through ambition, she was goaded by deadly injuries. She was, in fact, the granddaughter of Kenneth IV., killed in 1003, fighting against Malcolm II.- Lardner: Cabinet Cyclopoedia, vol. i. 17, etc.

Macbriar (Ephraim). An enthusiastic preacher in Sir Walter Scott's Old Mortality.
   This was the young preacher Maccaul so hideously tortured in the reign of Charles II. He died “in a rapture.” (See Cassell's History of England, Charles II., vol. iii. p. 422.)

Maccabaaeus The Hammerer. A surname given to Judas Asmonaeus; similar to “Martel,” the name given to Charles, son of Pepin Heristel, who beat down the Saracens as with a sledgehammer. Some think the name is a notarica or acrostic: Mi Camokah Baelim Jehovah (Who is like to thee among the gods, O Lord?). (Exodus xv. 11.) (See Notarica .)

Macdonald Lord Macdonald's breed. Parasites. Lord Macdonald (son of the Lord of the Isles) once made a raid on the mainland. He and his followers, with other plunder, fell on the clothes of the enemy, and stripping off their own rags, donned the smartest and best they could lay hands on, with the result of being overrun with parasites.

Macduff The thane of Fife. A Scotch nobleman whose castle of Kennoway was surprised by Macbeth, and his wife and babes “savagely slaughtered.” Macduff vowed vengeance and joined the army of Siward, to dethrone the tyrant. On reaching the royal castle of Dunsinane, they fought, and Macbeth was slain. (Shakespeare: Macbeth.)
   History states that Macbeth was defeated at Dunsinane, but escaped from the battle and was slain at Lumphanan in 1056.- Lardner: Cabinet Cyclopoedia, i. p. 17. etc.

Macheath (Captain). A highwayman, hero of The Beggar's Opera, by Gay. A fine, gay, bold-faced ruffian, game to the very last.