Chapter Melyhalt to Merchant of Venice of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Melyhalt to Merchant of Venice

Melyhalt (Lady). A powerful subject of King Arthur, whose domains Galiot invaded. She chose Galiot as her lover.

Memento Mori (A). Something to put us in mind of the shortness and uncertainty of life.

“I make as good use of it [Bardolph's face] as many a man doth of a death's head or a memento mori.”- Shakespeare: Henry IV., iii. 3.

Memnon Prince of the Ethiopians, who went to the assistance of his uncle Priam, and was slain by Achilles. His mother Eos was inconsolable for his death, and wept for him every morning.
   The Greeks used to call the statute of Amenophis III., in Thebes, that of Memnon. This image, when first struck by the rays of the rising sun, is said to have produced a sound like the snapping asunder of a chord. Poetically, when Eos (morning) kisses her son at daybreak, the hero acknowledges the salutation with a musical murmur. The word is the Egyptian mei-amun, beloved of Ammon.

“Memnon bending o'er his broken lyre.”
Darwin: Economy of Vegetation, i. 3.

   Memnon. One of Voltaire's novels, designed to show the folly of aspiring to too much wisdom.
   Memnon's sister. Himera, mentioned by Dictys Cretensis.

“Black, but such as in esteem
Prince Memnon's sister might beseem.”
Milton: Il Penseroso.

   The legend given by Dictys Cretensis (book vi.) is that Himera, on hearing of her brother's death, set out to secure his remains, and encountered at Paphos a troop laden with booty, and carrying Memnon's ashes in an urn. Pallas, the leader of the troop, offered to give her either the urn or the booty, and she chose the urn.
   Probably all that is meant is this: Black so delicate and beautiful that it might beseem a sister of Memnon the son of Aurora or the early day-dawn.

Memorable The ever memorable. John Hales, of Eton (1584-1656).

Memory Magliabechi, of Florence, the book-lover, was called “the universal index and living cyclopædia.” (1633-1714.) (See Woodfall .)
   Bard of Memory. Samuel Rogers, author of Pleasures of Memory. (1762- 1855.)

Men in Buckram Hypothetical men existing only in the brain of the imaginer. The allusion is to the vaunting tale of Falstaff to Prince Henry. (Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., ii. 4.)

Men of Kent (See Kent .)

Men of Lawn Bishops of the Anglican Church. (See Man .)

Men are but Children of a Larger Growth (Dryden: All for Love, iv. l.)

Menah A large stone worshipped by certain tribes of Arabia between Mecca and Medina. This, stone, like most other Arabian idols, was demolished in the eighth year of “the flight.” The “menah” is simply a rude large stone brought from Mecca, the sacred city, by certain colonists, who wished to carry with them some memento of the Holy Land.

Menalcas Any shepherd or rustic. The name figures in the Eclogues of Virgil and the Idyls of Theocritos.

Menam A river of Siam, on whose banks swarms of fire-flies are seen.

Menamber A rocking-stone in the parish of Sithney (Cornwall) which a little child could move. The soldiers of Cromwell thought it fostered superstition, and rendered it immovable.

Mendicants The four orders are the Jacobins, Franciscans, Augustinians, and Carmelites (3 syl.).