Chapter Many Men, Many Minds to Mare's Nest of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Marchaundes Tale (in Chaucer) is substantially the same as the first Latin metrical tale of Adolfus, and is not unlike a Latin prose tale given in the appendix of T. Wright's edition of Æsop's Fables. (See January and May.)

Marching Watch A splendid pageant on Midsummer Eve, which Henry VIII. took Jane Seymour to Mercers' Hall to see. In 1547 Sir John Gresham, the Lord Mayor, restored the pageant, which had been discontinued on account of the sweating sickness.

Marchington (Staffordshire). Famous for a crumbling short cake. Hence the saying that a man or woman of crusty temper is “as short as Marchington wake-cake.”

Marchioness (The). The half-starved girl-of-all-work in The Old Curiosity Shop, by Charles Dickens.

Marchpane A confection of pistachio-nuts, almonds, and sugar; a corruption of the French masse-pain. (Italian, marzapan.)

Marcionites (3 syl.). An ascetic Gnostic sect, founded by Marcion in the second century.

Marck (William de la), or “The Wild Boar of Ardennes,” A French nobleman, called in French history Sanglier des Ardennes, introduced by Sir Walter Scott in Quentin Durward (1446-1485).

Marcley Hill (Herefordshire), on February 7th, 1571, at six o'clock in the evening, “roused itself with a roar, and by seven next morning had moved forty paces.” It kept on the move for three days, carrying with it sheep in their cotes, hedge-rows, and trees; overthrew Kinnaston chapel, and diverted two high roads at least 200 yards from their former route. The entire mass thus moved consisted of twenty-six acres of land, and the entire distance moved was 400 yards. (Speed: Herefordshire.)

Marcos de Obregon The model of Gil Blas, in the Spanish romance entitled Relaciones de la Vida del Escudero Marcos de Obregon.

Marcosians A branch of the Gnostics; so called from the Egyptian Marcus. They are noted for their apocryphal books and religious fables.

Mardi Gras The last day of the Lent carnival in France, when the prize ox is paraded through the principal streets of Paris, crowned with a fillet, and accompanied with mock priests and a band of tin instruments in imitation of a Roman sacrificial procession.

“Tous les ans on vient de la ville
Les marchands dans nos cantons,
Pour les mener aux Tuileries,
Au Mardi- Gras, devant le roi.
Et puit les vendre aux boucheries,
J'aime Jeanne ma femme, eh, ha! j'aimerais mieux
La voir mourir que voir mourir mes boeufs.”
Pierre Dupont: Les Boeufs.

Mardle To waste time in gossip. (Anglo-Saxon, mathel-ian to talk; methél, a discourse.)

Mardonius (Captain), in A King or No King, by Beaumont and Fletcher.

Mare The Cromlech at Gorwell, Dorsetshire, is called the White Mare; the barrows near Hambleton, the Grey Mare.
   Away the mare- i.e. Off with the blue devils, good-bye to care. This mare is the incubus called the nightmare.
   To cry the mare (Herefordshire and Shropshire). In harvesting, when the in-gathering is complete, a few blades of corn left for the purpose have their tops tied together. The reapers then place themselves at a certain distance, and fling their sickles at the “mare.” He who succeeds in cutting the knot cries out “I have her!” “What have you?” “A mare.” “Whose is she?” The name of some farmer whose field has been reaped is here mentioned. “Where will you send her?” The name of some farmer whose corn is not yet harvested is here given, and then all the reapers give a final shout.
   To win the