Chapter Monumental Figures to Moots of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Monumental Figures to Moots

Monumental Figures No. 1.
   (1) Those in stone, with plain sloping roofs, and without inscriptions, are the oldest.
   (2) In 1160 these plain prismatic roofs began to be ornamented.
   (3) In the same century the sloping roofs gave place to armorial bearings.
   (4) In the thirteenth century we see flat roofs, and figures carved on the lids.
   (5) The next stage was an arch, built over the monument to protect it.
   (6) The sixth stage was a chapel annexed to the church.
   (7) The last stage was the head bound and feet tied, with children at the base, or cherubims at the feet.

Monumental Figures No. 2.
   Figures with their hands on their breasts, and chalices, represent priests.
   Figures with crozier, mitre, and pontificals, represent prelates.
   Figures with armour represent knights.
   Figures with legs crossed represent either crusaders or married men.
   Female figures with a mantle and large ring represent nuns.

Monumental Figures No. 3.
   Those in scale armour are the most ancient (time, Henry II.).
   Those in chain armour or ring-mail come next (time, Richard I. to Henry III.).
   Those with children or cherubims, between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries.
   Brasses are for the most part subsequent to the thirteenth century.

Monumental Figures No. 4.
   Saints lie to the east of the altar, and are elevated above the ground; the higher the elevation, the greater the sanctity. Martyrs are much elevated.
   Holy men not canonised lie on a level with the pavement.
   Founders of chapels, etc., lie with their monument built into the wall.

Monumental Inscriptions
   Capital letters and Latin inscriptions are of the first twelve centuries.
   Lombardic capitals and French inscriptions, of the thirteenth century.
   German text, of the fourteenth century.
   English and Roman print, subsequent to the fourteenth century.
   Tablets against the wall came in with the Reformation.

Moohel (also mohel) A Jew whose office it is to circumcise the young Jewish boys.

Moon means “measurer” of time (Anglo-Saxon, móna, masc. gen.). It is masculine in all the Teutonic languages; in the Edda the son of Mundilfori is Mâni (moon), and daughter Sôl (sun); so it is still with the Lithuanians and Arabians, and so was it with the ancient Mexicans, Slavi, Hindus, etc.; so that it was a most unlucky dictum of Harris, in his Hermes, that all nations ascribe to the Sun a masculine, and to the Moon a feminine gender. (Gothic, mena, masc.; Sanskrit, mâs, masc., from mâ, to measure.) The Sanskrit mâtram is an instrument for measuring; hence Greek metron; French, metre; English, meter.
   The Germans have Frau Sonne (Mrs. Sun) and Herr Mond (Mr. Moon).
   Moon, represented in five different phases: (1) new; (2) full; (3) crescent or decrescent; (4) half; and (5) gibbous, or more than half.
   Moon, in pictures of the Assumption of the Virgin, is represented as a crescent under her feet; in the Crucifixion it is eclipsed, and placed on one side of the cross, the sun being on the other; in the Creation and Last Judgment it is also introduced by artists.
   Hecate. The moon before she has risen and after she has set.
   Astarte. The crescent moon, “the moon with crescent horns.”
   Diana. The moon in the open vault of heaven, who “hunts the clouds.”
   Cynthia. Same as Diana.
   Selene or Luna. The moon personified, properly the full moon, who loved the sleeping Endymion.
   Endymion. Moonlight on a bank, field, or garden.

“How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!”
Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, v. 1.

   Phoebe. The moon as the sister of the sun. (See Astarte, Ashtaroth, etc.).
   Moon. Astolpho found treasured in the moon everything wasted on this earth, such as misspent time and wealth, broken vows, unanswered prayers, fruitless tears, abortive attempts, unfulfilled desires and intentions, etc. All bribes were hung on gold and silver hooks; prince's favours were kept in bellows; wasted talent was kept in vases, each marked with the proper name; etc. Orlando Furioso, bk. xviii. (See Rape of the Lock, c. v.)
   Moon. (See under Mahomet.)
   The moon is called “triform,” because it presents itself to us either round, or waxing with horns towards the east, or waning with horns towards the west.
   Island of the moon. Madagascar is so named by the natives.
   Minions of the moon. Thieves who rob by night. (See 1 Henry IV., i. 2.)
   Mountains of the Moon means simply White Mountains. The Arabs call a white horse “moon-coloured.” (Jackson.)
   He cries for the moon. He craves to have what is wholly beyond his reach. The allusion is to foolish children who want the moon for a plaything. The French say “He wants to take the moon between his