Chapter Make-wage to Malt of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Make-wage to Malt

Make-wage Wages supplemented by grants or rates. Similarly, a make-weight [loaf] is a small loaf added to make up the proper weight.

Make-weight A bit [of meat, cheese, bread, or other article] thrown into the scale to make the weight correct.

Makeshift (A). A temporary arrangement during an emergency; a device. (The Anglo-Saxon seyft means a division, hence a device.)

Malagigi (in Orlando Furioso). Son of Buovo, and brother of Aldiger and Vivian, of Clarmont's race; a wizard knight, cousin of Rinaldo. (See Maugis .)

Malagrowther (Malachi). The signature of Sir Walter Scott to a series of letters in 1822 contributed to the Edinburgh Review upon the lowest limitation of paper money to £5. They caused immense sensation, not inferior to that produced by Drapier's Letters (q.v.) in Ireland. No political tract, since Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution, ever excited such a stir in Great Britain.

Malagrowther (Sir Mungo). An old courtier soured by misfortune, who tries to make everyone as discontented as himself. (Scott: Fortunes of Nigel.)

Malakoff (in the Crime'a). In 1831 a sailor and ropemaker, named Alexander Ivanovitch Malakoff, celebrated for his wit and conviviality, lived at Sebastopol. He had many friends and admirers, but, being engaged in a riot, was dismissed the dockyards in which he had been employed. He then opened a liquor-shop on the hill outside the town. His old friends gathered round him, and his shop was called the Malakoff. In time other houses were built around, and the Malakoff became a town, which ultimately was fortified. This was the origin of the famous Malakoff Tower, which caused so much trouble to the allied army in the Crimean War. (Gazette de France.)

Malambruno The giant, first cousin of Queen Maguncia, of Canday'a, who enchanted Antonomasia and her husband, and shut them up in the tomb of the deceased queen. The infanta he transformed into a monkey of brass, and the knight into a crocodile. Don Quixote achieved their disenchantment by mounting the wooden horse called Clavileno. (Cervantes: Don Quixote, part ii. book iii. chap. xlv.)

Malaprop (Mrs.), in The Rivals, by Sheridan. (French, mal à propos.) Noted for her blunders in the use of words. “As headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile” is one of her famous similes. (See Partington .)

Malbecco A “cankered, crabbed earl,” very wealthy, but miserly and mean. He seems to be the impersonation of self-inflicted torments. He married a young wife named Helenore, who set fire to his house, and eloped with Sir Paridel. Malbecco cast himself over a high rock, and all his flesh vanished into thin air, leaving behind nothing but his ghost, which was metamorphosed into Jealousy. (Spenser: Faërie Queene, book iii.)

Malbrouk or Marlbrough (Marlbro'), does not date from the battle of Malplaquet (1709), but from the time of the Crusades, 600 years before. According to a tradition discovered by M. de Châteaubriand, the air came from the Arabs, and the tale is a legend of Mambron, a crusader. It was brought into fashion during the Revolution by Mme. Poitrine, who used to sing it to her royal foster-child, the son of Louis XVI. M. Arago tells us that when M. Monge, at Cairo, sang this air to an Egyptian audience, they all knew it, and joined in it. Certainly the song has nothing to do with the Duke of Marlborough, as it is all about feudal castles and Eastern wars. We are told also that the band of Captain Cook, in 1770,