Chapter Mate to Maunds of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Mate to Maunds

Mate A man does not get his hands out of the tar by becoming second mate. A second mate is expected to put his hands into the tar bucket for tarring the rigging, like the men below him. The first mate is exempt from this dirty work. The rigging is tarred by the hands, and not by brushes.

Mate (2 syl.). Paraguay tea is so called from maté, the vessel in which the herb is in Paraguay infused. These vessels are generally hollow gourds, and the herb is called yerba de maté.

Materialism The doctrines of a Materialist, who maintains that the soul and spirit are effects of matter. The orthodox doctrine is that the soul is distinct from the body, and is a portion of the Divine essence breathed into the body. A materialist, of course, does not believe in a “spiritual deity” distinct from matter. Tertullian contended that the Bible proves the soul to be “material,” and he charges the “spiritual” view to the heretical doctrines of the Platonic school.

Matfellon Villa beatæ Mariæ de Matfellon. Whitechapel, dedicated to Mary the Mother.

Mathew (Father), 1799-1856, called The Apostle of Temperance. His success was almost miraculous.

Mathisen One of the three Anabaptists who induced John of Leyden to join their rebellion. (See John Of Leyden .)

Mathurin (St.). Patron saint of idiots and fools. A pun on his name. (See below.)
   The malady of St. Mathurin. Folly, stupidity. A French expression.
   Maturins, in French argot, means dice, and “maturin plat,” a domino.

“Ces deux objets doivent leur nom a leur resemblance avec le costume des Trinitaires (vulgairement appeles Maturins), qui, chez nous, portaient une sontane de serge blanche sur laquelle, quand ils sortaient, ils jetaient un manteau noir.”- Francisque Michel.

Matilda Daughter of Lord Robert Fitzwalter. Michael Drayton has a poem of some 670 lines so called.
   Matilda. Daughter of Rokeby, and niece of Mortham. She was beloved by Wilfrid, son of Oswald, but loved Redmond, her father's page, who turns out to be Mortham's son. (Scott: Rokeby)
   Matilda. Sister of Gessler; in love with Arnold, a Swiss, who had saved her life when threatened by the fall of an avalanche. After the death of Gessler, who was shot by William Tell, the marriage of these lovers is consummated. (Rossini: Guglielmo Tell, an opera.)
   Rosa Matilda. (See Gifford's Baviad and Mæviad.)

Matriculate means to enrol oneself in a society. The University is called our alma mater (propitious mother). The students are her alumni (foster-children), and become so by being enrolled in a register after certain forms and examinations. (Latin, matricula a roll.)

Matter-of-fact Unvarnished truth, prosaic, unimaginative. Whyte Melville speaks of a “matter-of-fact swain.”

Matter's afoot (The). Is in train, is stirring. Il marche bien, it goes well; ca ira.

“Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot;
Take thou what course thou wilt.”
Shakespeare: Julius Caesar, iii. 2.

Matterhorn The matrimonial Matterhorn. The leap in the dark. The Matterhorn is the German name for Mont Cervin, a mountain of the Pennine Alps, about 40 miles east-north-east of Mont Blanc. Above an unbroken glacier-line of 11,000 feet high, it rises in an inaccessible obelisk of rock more than 3,000 feet higher. The total elevation of the Matterhorn is 14,836 feet. Figuratively any danger, or desperate situation threatening destruction.

Matthew (St.) in Christian art is represented (1) as an evangelist- an old man with long beard; an angel generally stands near him dictating his Gospel. (2) As an apostle, in which capacity he bears a purse, in reference to his calling as a publican; sometimes he carries a spear, sometimes a carpenter's rule or square. (See Luke .)
   In the last of Matthew. At the last gasp, on one's last legs. This is a German expression, and arose thus: A Catholic priest said in his sermon that Protestantism was in the last of