Part 12 (1/2)

Merlin died spell-bound, but the author and manner of his death are given differently by different authorities. Thus, in the _History of Prince Arthur_ (Sir T. Malory, 1470), we are told that the enchantress Nimue or Ninive inveigled the old man, and ”covered him with a stone under a rock.” In the _Morte d'Arthur_ it is said ”he sleeps and sighs in an old tree, spell-bound by Vivien.” Tennyson, in his _Idylls_ (”Vivien”), says that Vivien induced Merlin to take shelter from a storm in a hollow oak tree, and left him spell-bound. Others say he was spell-bound in a hawthorn bush, but this is evidently a blunder. (See MERLIN THE WILD.)

? Merlin made ”the fountain of love,” mentioned by Bojardo in _Orlando Innamorato_, l. 3.

Ariosto, in _Orlando Furioso_, says he made ”one of the four fountains”

(ch. xxvi).

He also made the Round Table at Carduel for 150 knights, which came into the possession of King Arthur on his marriage with Queen Guinever; and brought from Ireland the stones of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain.

Allusion is made to him in the _Faery Queen_; in Ellis's _Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances_; in Drayton's _Polyolbion_; in _Kenilworth_, by Sir W. Scott, etc. T. Heywood has attempted to show the fulfilment of Merlin's prophecies.

Of Merlin and his skill what region doth not hear?...

Who of a British nymph was gotten, whilst she played With a seducing sprite ...

But all Demetia thro' there was not found her peer.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, v. (1612).

_Merlin_ (_The English_), W. Lilly, the astrologer, who a.s.sumed the _nom de plume_ of ”Mer'linus Anglicus” (1602-1681).

=Merlin the Wild=, a native of Caledonia, who lived in the sixteenth century, about a century after the great Ambrose Merlin, the sorcerer.

Fordun, in his _Scotichronicon_, gives particulars about him. It was predicted that he would die by earth, wood, and water, which prediction was fulfilled thus: A mob of rustics hounded him, and he jumped from a rock into the Tweed, and was impaled on a stake fixed in the river bed.

His grave is still shown beneath an aged hawthorn bush at Drummelzier, a village on the Tweed.

=Merlin's Cave=, in Dynevor, near Carmarthen, noted for its ghastly noises of rattling iron chains, brazen caldrons, groans, strokes of hammers, and ringing of anvils. The cause is this: Merlin set his spirits to fabricate a brazen wall to encompa.s.s the city of Carmarthen, and as he had to call on the Lady of the Lake, bade them not to slacken their labor till he returned; but he never did return, for Vivien by craft got him under the enchanted stone, and kept him there. Tennyson says he was spell-bound by Vivien in a hollow oak tree, but the _History of Prince Arthur_ (Sir T. Malory) gives the other version.--Spenser, _Faery Queen_, iii. 3 (1590).

=Merop's Son=, a n.o.body, a _terrae filius_, who thinks himself somebody.

Thus Phaeton (Merop's son), forgetting that his mother was an earthborn woman, thought he could drive the horses of the sun, but not being able to guide them, nearly set the earth on fire. Many presume like him, and think themselves capable or worthy of great things, forgetting all the while that they are only ”Merop's son.”

Why, Phaeton (for thou art Merop's son), Wilt thou aspire to guide the heavenly car, And with thy daring folly burn the world?

Shakespeare, _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, act iii. sc. 1 (1594).

=Merrilees= (_Meg_), a half-crazy woman, part sibyl and part gypsy. She is the ruler and terror of the gypsy race. Meg Merrilees was the nurse of Harry Bertram.--Sir W. Scott, _Gay Mannering_ (time, George II.).

In the dramatized version of Scott's novel, Miss Cushman [1845-9]

made ”Meg Merrilees” her own. She showed therein indisputably the attributes of genius. Such was her power over the intention and feeling of the part, that the mere words were quite a secondary matter. It was the figure, the gait, the look, the gesture, the tone, by which she put beauty and pa.s.sion into language the most indifferent.--Henry Morley.

=Merry Andrew=, Andrew Borde, physician to Henry VIII. (1500-1549).

? Prior has a poem on _Merry Andrew_.