Chapter Monkey with a Long Tail to Montesinos of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

(1692-1740.)
   Monsieur le Grand. The Great Equerry of France.
   Monsieur le Prince. Prince de Condé(1621- 1686). (See Madame.)

Monsieur de Paris The public executioner or Jack Ketch of France.

“Riccardo de Albertes was a personal friend of all the `Messieurs de Paris,' who served the Republic. He attended all capital executions, and possesses a curious library.”- Newspaper Paragraph, January 25th, 1893.

Monsoon is a corruption of the Malay word mooseem (year or season). For six months it is a north-east trade-wind, and for six months a south-west.

Monster (The). Renwick Williams, a wretch who used to prowl about London, wounding respectable women with a double-edged knife. He was convicted of several offences in July, 1790.
   The green-eyed monster. Jealousy; so called by Shakespeare in Othello.

“Beware of Jealousy!
It is a green-eyed monster that doth mock
The meat it feeds on.” Act iii. 3.

Monsters See each under its name, as Cockatrice, Chichivache, Chimaera , etc.

Mont in chiromancy, is the technical word for the eminences at the roots of the fingers.
   That at the root of the
   thumb is the Mont de Mars.
   index finger is the Mont de Jupiter.
   long finger is the Mont de Saturne.
   ring finger is the Mont de Soleil.
   little finger is the Mont de Venus.
    There are two others: one between the thumb and index finger, called the Mont de Mercure, and one opposite called the Mont de Lune. (See Finger.)

Mont de Piete A pawn depôt. These depôts, called “monti di pietá” (charity loans), were first instituted under Leo X., at Rome, by charitable persons who wished to rescue the poor and needy from usurious money-lenders. They advanced small sums of money on the security of pledges, at a rate of interest barely sufficient to cover the working expenses of the institution. Both the name and system were introduced into France and Spain. The model Loan Fund of Ireland is formed on the same system. Public granaries for the sale of corn are called in Italian Monti frumentarii. “Monte” means a public or State loan; hence also a “bank.”

Mont St. Michel in Normandy, formerly called Belen. Here nine Druidesses sold to sailors the arrows to charm away storms. The arrows had to be discharged by a young man twenty-one years old.

Montagnards [the mountain party ]. The extreme democratic politicians in the French Revolution; so called because they occupied the highest tier of benches in the hall of the National Convention. The opposite party sat on the level of the floor, called the “plain.”

Montague (3 syl.). The head of a faction in Verona (Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet). The device of the family is a mountain with sharply-peaked crest (mont-agu or acu).

Montanists Heretics of the second century; so called from Montanus, a Phrygian, who asserted that he had received from the Holy Ghost special knowledge that had not been vouchsafed to the apostles.

Montanto Signior Montanto. A master of fence rather than a soldier; a tongue-doughty knight. It is a word of fence, and hence Ben Jonson says, “Your punto, your reverso, your stoccata, your imbrocata, your passada, your montanto. ” (Every Man in his Humour.)

Monteer Cap So called from monteros d'Espinoza (mountaineers), who once formed the interior guard of the palace of the Spanish king. The way they came to be appointed is thus accounted for:- Sanchica, wife of Don Sancho Garcia, Count of Castile, entered into a plot to poison her husband, but one of the mountaineers of Espinoza revealed the plot and saved the count's life. Ever after the sovereigns of Castile recruited their body-guards from men of this estate.