Chapter Middle Ages to Milesian Fables of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Montemayor, a Spanish writer of pastoral romance in the sixteenth century; and probably the Knightes Tale in Chaucer may have furnished hints to the author.
   Midsummer Night's Dream. Egeus of Athens went to Theseus, the reigning duke, to complain that his daughter Hermia, whom he had commanded to marry Demetrius, refused to obey him, because she loved Lysander. Egeus demanded that Hermia should be put to death for this disobedience, according to the law. Hermia pleaded that Demetrius loved Helena, and that his affection was reciprocated. Theseus had no power to alter the law, and gave Hermia four days' respite to consider the matter, and if then she refused the law was to take its course. Lysander proposed flight, to which Hermia agreed, and told Helena her intention; Helena told Demetrius, and Demetrius, of course, followed. The fugitives met ín a wood, the favourite haunt of the fairies. Now Oberon and Titania had had a quarrel about a changeling boy, and Oberon, by way of punishment, dropped on Titania's eyes during sleep some love-juice, the effect of which is to make the sleeper fall in love with the first thing seen when waking. The first thing seen by Titania was Bottom the weaver, wearing an ass's head. In the meantime King Oberon dispatched Puck to pour some of the juice on the eyes of Demetrius, that he might love Helena, who, Oberon thought refused to requite her love. Puck, by mistake, anointed the eyes of Lysander with the juice, and the first thing he saw on waking was not Hermia but Helena. Oberon, being told that Puck had done his bidding, to make all sure, dropped some of the love-juice on the eyes of Demetrius, and the first person he beheld on waking was Hermia looking for Lysander. In due time the eyes of all were disenchanted. Lysander married Hermia, Demetrius married Helena, and Titania gave the boy to her lord, King Oberon.

Midwife (Anglo-Saxon, mid, with; wif, woman). The nurse who is with the mother in her labour.
   Midwife of men's thoughts. So Socrates termed himself; and, as Mr. Grote observes, “No other man ever struck out of others so many sparks to set light to original thought.” Out of his intellectual school sprang Plato and the Dialectic system; Euclid and the Megaric; Aristippos and the Cyrenaic; Antisthenes and the Cynic; and his influence on the mind was never equalled by any teacher but One, of whom it was said, “Never man spake like this man.”

Miggs (Miss). Mrs. Varden's maid, and the impersonation of an old shrew. (Dickens: Barnaby Rudge.)

Mignon The young Italian girl who fell in love with Wilhelm Meister's apprentice, her protector. Her love not being returned, she became insane and died. (Goethe: Wilhelm Meister.)

Mikado (Japan, mi, exalted; kado, gate), is not a title of the emperor of Japan, but simply means the person who lives in the imperial palace.

Mike To loiter. A corruption of miche (to skulk); whence, micher (a thief), and michery (theft). (Old Norse, mak, leisure; Swedish, maka; Saxon, 'mugan, to creep.) (See Michon .)

“Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove a micher [loiterer]?”- Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., ii. 4.

Milan Decree (The). A decree made by Napoleon I., dated “Milan, Dec. 27, 1807,” declaring “the whole British Empire to be in a state of blockade, and forbidding all countries either from trading with Great Britain or from even using an article of British manufacture.”
   This very absurd decree was killing the goose which laid the golden eggs, for England was the best customer of the very countries thus restricted from dealing with her.

Milan Steel Armed in Milan steel. Milan was famous in the Middle Ages for its armoury. (Froissart, iv. 597.)

Milanese (3 syl.). A native of Milan- i.e. mi-lano. (Old Italian for middle-land, meaning in the middle of the Lombardian plain.)

Mildendo The metropolis of Lilliput, the wall of which was two feet and a half in height, and at least eleven inches thick. The city was an exact square, and two main streets divided it into four quarters. The emperor's palace, called Belfaborac, was in the centre of the city. (Gulliver's Travels: Voyage to Lilliput, iv.)