Chapter Meredith to Middleton of M by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

to be too favourable to the Emperors, and the imperial idea. An earlier work was The Fall of the Roman Republic (1853).

Merriman, H. Seton (See Scott, H. S.).

Meston, William (1688?-1745).—S. of a blacksmith, was educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, took part in the ’15, and had to go into hiding. His Knight of the Kirk (1723) is an imitation of Hudibras. It has little merit.

Mickle, William Julius (1735-1788).—Poet, son of the minister of Langholm, Dumfriesshire, was for some time a brewer in Edinburgh, but failed. He went to Oxford, where he was corrector for the Clarendon Press. After various literary failures and minor successes he produced his translation of the Lusiad, from the Portuguese of Camoens, which brought him both fame and money. In 1777 he went to Portugal, where he was received with distinction. In 1784 he published the ballad of Cumnor Hall, which suggested to Scott the writing of Kenilworth. He is perhaps best remembered, however, by the beautiful lyric, There’s nae luck aboot the Hoose, which, although claimed by others, is almost certainly his.

Middleton, Conyers (1683-1750).—Divine and scholar, born at Richmond, Yorkshire, and educated at Cambridge He was the author of several latitudinarian treatises on miracles, etc., which brought him into controversy with Waterland (q.v.). and others, and of a Life of Cicero (1741), largely plagiarised from William Bellenden, a Scottish writer of the 17th century. Another of his controversies was with Bentley on college administration. He was master of a very fine literary style.