Part 6 (1/2)

Do despise me; I'm the prouder for it. I like to be despised.--I.

Bickerstaff, _The Hypocrite_, ii. 1 (1768).

=Max=, a huntsman, and the best marksman in Germany. He was plighted to Agatha, who was to be his wife, if he won the prize in the annual match.

Caspar induced Max to go to the wolf's glen at midnight and obtain seven charmed b.a.l.l.s from Samiel, the Black Huntsman. On the day of contest, while Max was shooting, he killed Caspar, who was concealed in a tree, and the king in consequence abolished this annual _fete_.--Weber, _Der Freischutz_ (an opera, 1822).

=Maxime= (2 _syl._), an officer of the Prefect Almachius. He was ordered to put to death Valerian and Tibur'ce, because they refused to wors.h.i.+p the image of Jupiter; but he took pity on them, took them to his house, became converted and was baptized. When Valerian and Tiburce were afterwards martyred, Maxime said he saw angels come and carry them to heaven, whereupon Almachius caused him to be beaten with rods ”til he his lif gan lete.”--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (”Second Nun's Tale,”

1388).

? This is based on the story of ”Cecilia” in the _Legenda Aurea_; and both are imitations of the story of Paul and the jailer of Philippi (_Acts_ xvi. 19-34).

=Maximil'ian= (son of Frederick III.), the hero of the _Teuerdank_, the _Orlando Furioso_ of the Germans, by Melchior Pfinzing.

....[_here_] in old heroic days Sat the poet Melchoir, singing Kaiser Maximilian's praise.

Longfellow, _Nuremberg_.

=Maximin=, a Roman tyrant.--Dryden, _Tyrannic Love_, or _the Royal Martyr_.

=Maximus=, (called by Geoffrey, ”Maximian”), a Roman senator, who in 381, was invited to become king of Britain. He conquered Armorica (_Bretagne_), and ”published a decree for the a.s.sembling together there of 100,000 of the common people of Britain, to colonize the land, and 30,000 soldiers to defend the colony.” Hence Armorica was called, ”The other Britain” or ”Little Britain.”--Geoffrey, _British History_, v. 14 (1142).

Got Maximus at length the victory in Gaul, ... where after Gratian's fall.

Armorica to them the valiant victor gave....

Which colony ... is ”Little Britain” called.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, ix. (1612).

=Maxwell=, deputy chamberlain at Whitehall.--Sir W. Scott, _Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

_Maxwell_ (_Mr. Pate_), laird of Summertrees, called ”Pate in Peril;”

one of the papist conspirators with Redgauntlet.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

_Maxwell_ (_The Right Hon. William_), Lord Evandale, an officer in the king's army.--Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

=May=, a girl who married January, a Lombard baron 60 years old. She loved Damyan, a young squire; and one day the baron caught Damyan and May fondling each other, but the young wife told her husband his eyes were so defective that they could not be trusted. The old man accepted the solution--for what is better than ”a fruitful wife and a confiding spouse?”--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (”The Merchant's Tale,” 1388).

=May unlucky for Brides.= Mary, queen of Scotland, married Bothwell, the murderer of her husband, Lord Darnley, on May 12.

Mense malum Maio nubere vulgus ait.

Ovid, _Fasti_, v.