Part 11 (2/2)

=Mercutio of Actors= (_The_), William Lewis (1748-1811).

=Mercy=, a young pilgrim, who accompanied Christiana in her walk to Zion.

When Mercy got to the Wicket Gate, she swooned from fear of being refused admittance. Mr. Brisk proposed to her, but being told that she was poor, left her, and she was afterwards married to Matthew, the eldest son of Christian.--Bunyan, _Pilgrim's Progress_, ii. (1684).

=Merdle= (_Mr._), banker, a skit on the directors of the Royal British bank, and on Mr. Hudson, ”the railway king.” Mr. Merdle, of Harley Street, was called the ”Master Mind of the Age.” He became insolvent, and committed suicide. Mr. Merdle was a heavily made man, with an obtuse head, and coa.r.s.e, mean, common features. His chief butler said of him, ”Mr. Merdle never was a gentleman, and no ungentlemanly act on Mr.

Merdle's part would surprise me.” The great banker was ”the greatest forger and greatest thief that ever cheated the gallows.”

Lord Decimus [_Barnacle_] began waving Mr. Merdle about ... as Gigantic Enterprise. The wealth of England, Credit, Capital, Prosperity, and all manner of blessings.--Bk. ii. 24.

_Mrs. Merdle_, wife of the bank swindler. After the death of her husband, society decreed that Mrs. Merdle should still be admitted among the sacred few; so Mrs. Merdle was still received and patted on the back by the upper ten.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Little Dorrit_ (1857).

=Meredith= (_Mr._), one of the conspirators with Redgauntlet.--Sir W.

Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

_Meredith_ (_Mr. Michael_), ”the man of mirth,” in the managing committee of the Spa hotel.--Sir. W. Scott, _St. Ronan's Well_. (time, George III.).

_Meredith_ (_Sir_), a Welsh knight.--Sir W. Scott, _Castle Dangerous_ (time, Henry I.).

_Meredith_ (_Owen_), pseudonym of the Hon. Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton (Lord Lytton), author of _The Wanderer_ (1859), etc. This son of Lord Bulwer Lytton, poet and novelist, succeeded to the peerage in 1873.

=Me'rida= (_Marchioness_), betrothed to Count Valantia.--Mrs. Inchbald, _Child of Nature_.

=Meridarpax=, the pride of mice.

Now n.o.bly towering o'er the rest, appears A gallant prince that far transcends his years; Pride of his sire, and glory of his house, And more a Mars in combat than a mouse; His action bold, robust his ample frame, And Meridarpax his resounding name.

Parnell, _The Battle of the Frogs and Mice_, iii. (about 1712).

=Merid'ies= or ”Noonday Sun,” one of the four brothers who kept the pa.s.sages of Castle Perilous. So Tennyson has named him; but in the _History of Prince Arthur_, he is called ”Sir Permones, the Red Knight.”--Tennyson, _Idylls_ (”Gareth and Lynette”); Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 129 (1470).

=Merion= (_James_), New York lawyer, who plays the lover to three women, honestly believing himself enamoured of each.--Ellen Olney Kirke, _A Daughter of Eve_ (1889).

=Merle= (_Madame_), a plausible woman with an ambition to be thought the incarnation of propriety, who carries with her the knowledge that she is the mistress of a man who has a wife, and that Madame Merle's illegitimate daughter is brought up by the step-mother, who knows nothing of the shameful story.--Henry James, _The Portrait of a Lady_ (1881).

=Merlin= (_Ambrose_), prince of enchanters. His mother was Matilda, a nun, who was seduced by a ”guileful sprite,” or incubus, ”half angel and half man, dwelling in mid-air betwixt the earth and moon.” Some say his mother was the daughter of Pubidius, lord of Math-traval, in Wales; and others make her a princess, daughter of Demetius, king of Demet'ia.

Blaise baptized the infant, and thus rescued it from the powers of darkness.

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