Chapter Merlin the Wild to Metastasio of M by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Messiah, an oratorio by Handel (1749). The libretto was by Charles Jennens, nicknamed “Soliman the Magnificent.”

Messiah (The), a sacred eclogue by Pope, in imitation of Virgil’s Polio (1712).

Metamorphoses, a series of tales in Latin verse by Ovid, chiefly mythological (B. C. 43-A.D. 18). They are in Latin hexameters, in fifteen books. It begins with the creation of the world, and ends with the deification of Cæsar and the reign of Augustus. English version in rhymes, bks. ii., iii. by Addison, bk. iv. by Eusden, bk. v. by Mainwaring, bks. vi. and xi. by Croxall, bk. vii. by Tate and Stonestreet, bk. ix. by Gay and others, bk. x. by Congreve and others, bk. xiv. by Garth. The rest by Dryden, viz. bks. i. and xii., and by Dryden and others bks. viii., xiii., xv. All collected into a single volume (1716). Versions by Golding (1565), by Sandys (1626).

Metanoia, Repentance personified, by William Browne in Britannia’s Pastorals, v. (Greek, metanoia, “repentance.”)

Faire Metanoia is attending
To croune thee with those joys that know no ending.
   —Pastorals, v. I (1613).

Metastasio. The real name of this Italian poet was Trapassi (death). He was brought up by Gravina, who Grecized the name (1698–1782).

So “Melancthon” is the Greek form of Schwarzerde (“black earth”); “Œcolampadius” is the Greek form of the German name Hausschein; “Desiderius Erasmus” is Gheraerd Gheraerd (the first “Gheraerd” is Latinized into Desiderius, and the latter is Grecized into Erasmus).