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

Mendoza (Daniel), the Jew. A prize-fighter who held the belt at the close of the last century, and in 1791 opened the Lyceum in the Strand to teach “the noble art of boxing.” (1719-1791.)

“When Humphreys stood up to the Israelite's thumps
In kerseymere breeches and touch-me-not pumps.”
Mendoza the Jew.

    The Odiad (1798) is a mock heroic on the battle between Mendoza and Humphreys. The Art of Boxing (1799) was written by Mendoza. Memoirs of the Life of Daniel Mendoza (1816). See also Pugilistica, vol, i. (1880).

Menechmians Persons exactly like each other, as the brothers Dromio. So called from the Menæchmi of Plautus.
    In the Comedy of Errors, not only the two Dromios are exactly like each others, but also Antipholus of Ephesus is the facsimile of his brother Antipholus of Syracuse.

Menecrates (4 syl.). A physician of Syracuse, of such unbounded vanity that he called himself Jupiter. Philip of Macedon invited him to a banquet, but served him with incense only.

“Such was Menecrates of little worth,
Who Jove, the saviour, to be called presumed,
To whom of incense Philip made a feast.”
Lord Brooke: Inquisition upon Fame, etc.

Manevia St. David's (Wales). Its old British name was Henemenew.

Meng-tse The fourth of the sacred books of China; so called from its author, Latinised into Mencius. It is by far the best of all, and was written in the fourth century B.C. Confucius or Kong-foo-tse wrote the other three: viz. Ta-heo (School of Adults), Chongyong (The Golden Mean), and Lun-yu (or Book of Maxims).
   Mother of Meng. A Chinese expression, meaning “an admirable teacher.” Meng's father died soon after the birth of the sage, and he was brought up by his mother. (Died B.C. 317.)

Menie (2 syl.). A contraction of Marianne.

“And maun I still on Menie doat.
And bear the scorn that's in her e'e?”
Burns.

Menippos the cynic, called by Lucian “the greatest snarler and snapper of all the old dogs” (cynics).
   Varro wrote in Latin Satyræ Menippæ.
   The Menippean Satire is a political pamphlet, partly in verse and partly in prose, designed to expose the perfidious intentions of Spain in regard to France, and the criminal ambition of the Guise family. The chief writers were Leroy (who died 1593), Pithou (1544-1596), Passerat (1534-1602), and Rapin, the poet (1540-1609).

Mennonites (3 syl.). The followers of Simons Menno, a native of Friesland, who modified the fanatical views of the Anabaptists. (1496-1561.)

Menstruum means a monthly dissolvent (Latin, mensis), from the notion of the alchemists that it acted only at the full of the moon.

“All liquors are called menstruums which are used as dissolvents or to extract the virtues of ingredients by infusion or decoction.”- Quincy.

Mental Hallucinations The mind informing the senses, instead of the senses informing the mind. There can be no doubt that the senses may be excited by the mind (from within, as well as from without). Macbeth saw the dagger of his imagination as distinctly as the dagger which he held in his hand. Malebranche declared that he heard the voice of God. Descartes thought he was followed by an invisible person, telling him to pursue his search for truth. Goethe says that, on one occasion, he met an exact counterpart of himself. Sir Walter Scott was fully persuaded that he had seen the ghost of the deceased Byron. All such hallucinations (due to mental disturbances) are of such stuff as dreams are made of.

Mentor A guide, a wise and faithful counsellor; so called from Mentor, a friend of Ulysses, whose form Minerva assumed when she accompanied Telemachos in his search for his father. (Fénelon: Télémaque.)

Menu (alternative Manu ) Son of Brahma, whose institutes are the great code of Indian civil and religious law.