Chapter Morison to Myers of M by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

Morison to Myers

Morison, James Cotter (1832-1888).—was educated at Oxford He wrote Lives of Gibbon (1878), and Macaulay (1882); but his best work was his Life of St. Bernard (1863). The Service of Man (1887) is written from a Positivist point of view.

Morley, Henry (1822-1894).—writer on English literature, son of an apothecary, was born in London, educated at a Moravian school in Germany, and at King’s College, London, and after practising medicine and keeping schools at various places, went in 1850 to London, and adopted literature as his profession. He wrote in periodicals, and from 1859-64 edited the Examiner. From 1865-89 he was Professor of English Literature at University College He was the author of various biographies, including Lives of Palissy, Cornelius A grippa, and Clement Marot. His principal work, however, was English Writers (10 vols. 1864-94), coming down to Shakespeare. His First Sketch of English Literature—the study for the larger work—had reached at his death a circulation of 34,000 copies.

Morris, Sir Lewis (1833-1907).—Poet, born at Penrhyn, Carmarthenshire, and educated at Sherborne and Oxford, was called to the Bar, and practised as a conveyancer until 1880, after which he devoted himself to the promotion of higher education in Wales, and became honorary secretrayand treasurer of the New Welsh University In 1871 he published Songs of Two Worlds, which showed the influence of Tennyson, and was well received, though rather by the wider public than by more critical circles. It was followed in 1876-77 by The Epic of Hades, which had extraordinary popularity, and which, though exhibiting undeniable talent both in versification and narrative power, lacked the qualities of the higher kinds of poetry. It deals in a modern spirit with the Greek myths and legends. Other works are A Vision of Saints, Gwen, The Ode of Life, and Gycia, a tragedy.

Morris, William (1834-1896).—Poet, artist, and socialist, born at Walthamstow, and educated at Marlborough School and Oxford After being articled as an architect he was for some years a painter, and then joined in founding the manufacturing and decorating firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co., in which Rossetti, Burne-Jones, and other artists were partners. By this and other means he did much to influence the public taste in furnishing and decoration. He was one of the originators of the Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, to which he contributed poems, tales, and essays, and in 1858 he published Defence of Guenevere and other Poems. The Life and Death of Jason followed in 1867, The Earthly Paradise in 1868-70, and Love is Enough in 1875. In the last mentioned year he made a translation in verse of Virgil’s Æneid. Travels in Iceland led to the writing of Three Northern Love Stories, and the epic of Sigurd the Volsung (1876). His translation of the Odyssey in verse appeared 1887. A series of prose romances began with The House of the Wolfings (1889), and included The Roots of the Mountains, Story of the Glittering Plain. The Wood beyond the World, The Well at the World’s End (1896), and posthumously The Water of the Wondrous Isles, and Story of the Sundering Flood. In addition to poems and tales Morris produced various illuminated manuscripts, including two of Fitzgerald’s Omar Khayyam, and many controversial writings, among which are tales and tracts in advocacy of Socialism. To this class belong the Dream of John Ball (1888), and News from Nowhere (1891). In 1800 Morris started the Kelmscott Press, for which he designed type and decorations. For his subjects as a writer he drew upon classic and Gothic models alike. He may perhaps be regarded as the chief of the modern romantic school, inspired by the love of beauty for its own sake; his poetry is rich and musical, and he has a power of description which makes his pictures live and glow, but his narratives sometimes suffer from length and slowness of movement.

Life by J. W. Mackail (2 vols., 1899), The Books of W. Morris, Forman, etc.

Morton, Thomas (1764-1838).—Dramatist, born in Durham, came to London to study law, which he discarded in favour of playwriting. He wrote about 25 plays, of which several had great popularity. In one of them, Speed the Plough, he introduced Mrs. Grundy to the British public.

Motherwell, William (1797-1835).—Poet, born and educated in Glasgow, he held the office of depute sheriff-clerk at Paisley, at the same time contributing poetry to various periodicals. He had also antiquarian tastes, and a deep knowledge of the early history of Scottish ballad literature, which he turned to account