Chapter Mador to Magnano of M by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Mador to Magnano

Mador (Sir), a Scotch knight, who accused queen Guinever of having poisoned his brother. Sir Launcelot du Lac challenged him to single combat, and overthrew him; for which service king Arthur gave the queen’s champion La Joyeuse Garde as a residence.

Mæcenas (Caius Cilnius), a wealthy Roman nobleman, friend of Augustus, and liberal patron of Virgil, Horace, Propertius, and other men of genius. His name has become proverbial for a “munificent friend of literature” (died B.C. 8).

Are you not called a theatrical quidnunc and a mock Mæcenas to second-hand authors?—Sheridan: The Critic, i. 1 (1779).

Mæand, a Bacchant, plu. Mænads or Mænades . So called from the Greek, mainomai (“to be furious”), because they acted like mad women in their “religious” festivals.

Among the boughs did swelling Bacchus ride, Whom wild-grown Mænads bore.

P. Fletcher: The Purple Island, vii. (1633).

Mæonides . Homer is so called, either because he was son of Mæon, or because he was a native of Mæonia (Lydia). He is also called Mœonius Senex, and his poems Mœonian Lays.

When great Mæonides, in rapid song, The thundering tide of battle rolls along, Each ravished bosom feels the high alarms, And all the burning pulses beat to arms.

Falconer: The Shipwreck, iii. 1 (1756).

Mæviad, a satire by Gifford, on the Della Cruscan school of poetry (published 1796). The word is from Virgil’s Bucolics.

Qui Bavium non odit, amet tua carmina, Mævl, Atque idem jungat vulpes, et mulgeat hircos.

Virgil: Bucolics, iii. 90, 91.

Who hates not Bavius, or on Mævius dotes, Should plough with foxes, or should milk he-goats.

Mævius, any vile poet. (See Bavius, p. 97.)

But if fond Bavius vent his clouted song, Or Mævius chant his thoughts in brothel charm, The witless vulgar, in a numerous throng, Like summer flies about the dunghill swarm… Who hates not one may he the other love.

P. Fletcher: The Purple Island, i. (1633).

Magalona (The Fair), daughter of the king of Naples. She is the heroine of an old romance of chivalry, originally written in French, but translated into Spanish in the fifteenth century. Cervantes alludes to this romance in Don Quixote. The main incident of the story turns on a flying horse made by Merlin, which came into the possession of Peter of Provence.—The History of the Fair Magalona and Peter Son of the Count of Provence.

Tieck has reproduced the history of Magalona in German (1773–1853).

Mage Negro King, Gaspar king of Tarshish, a black Ethiop, and tallest of the three Magi. His offering was myrrh, indicative of death.

As the Mage negro king to Christ the babe.

R. Browning: Luria, i.