Critical and Historical Essays - Volume 1 by Thomas Babbington Macaulay (christmas read aloud .TXT) 📕

in the abolition of slavery.

Latitudinarians, the school of Cudworth and Henry More (end of seventeenth century), who sought to affiliate the dogmas of the Church to a rational philosophy,

Law Mr., afterwards Edward (first) Lord Ellenborough.

Lee, Nathaniel, a minor play-writer (1653-92).

Legge, son of the Earl of Dartmouth. Lord Of the Admiralty 1746, of the Treasury 1747, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1754 (1708- 64).

Lennox, Charlotte, friend of Johnson and Richardson, wrote The Female Don Quixote and Shakespeare Illustrated.

Lenthal, Speaker, who presided at the trial of Charles I.

Leo, tenth pope (1513-21) of the name, Giovanni de Medici, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and patron of art, science, and letters.

Lingard, Dr. Job., a Roman Catholic priest who wrote a history of England to the Accession of William and Mary (d. 1851).

Locusta, a famous female poisoner employed by Agrippina and Nero.

Lothario, a loose character in Rowe's tragedy of The Fair Penitent.

Lucan, the Roman epic Poet whose Pharsalia describes the struggle between Caesar and Pompey and breathes freedom throughout.

Ludlow, Edmund, a member of the Court that condemned Charles I. An ardent republican, he went into exile when Cromwell was appointed Protector.


MACKENZIE, HENRY, author of The Man of Feeling and other sentimental writings.

Maccaroni, an eighteenth-century term for a dandy or fop.

Maecenas, patron of literature in the Augustan age of Rome. Virgil and Horace were largely favoured by him,

Malebolge, i.e. the place of darkness and horror-the eighth Of the ten circles or pits in Dante's Inferno, and the abode of barterers, hypocrites, evil counsellors, etc.

Malwa, about 100 miles east from Baroda and nearly 350 miles north-cast from Bombay.

Marat, Jean Paul, a fanatical democrat whose one fixed idea was wholesale slaughter of the aristocracy; assassinated by Charlotte Corday (1743-93).

Mariendal, in Germany. Turenne's defeat here was an incident in the Thirty Years' War.

Marlborough, Nelson, Wellington, the first was made Prince of Mindelheim by Emperor Joseph I, the second Duke of Bronte by Ferdinand IV., the third Duke of Vittoria by Ferdinand VII.

Marli, a forest and village ten miles west from Paris, seat of a royal (now presidential) country-house.

Marten, Henry, one of the most extreme and most conspicuous members of the Parliamentary Party. Charles I insulted him in public and ordered him to be turned out of Hyde Park (1602-80). The Marten mentioned on p.4 as guilty of judicial misfeasance was his father (1562?-41).

Mason, William, friend and biographer of Gray; wrote Caractacus and some odes (1725-97).

Mathias, a noted Anabaptist who, with John of Leyden, committed great excesses in the endeavour to set up a Kingdom of Mount Zion in Munster, Westphalia (1535).

Maurice, Elector of Saxony (1521-23) and leader of the Protestants of Germany against the Emperor Charles V.

Mayor of the Palace, the chief minister of the Kings of France between 638 and 742.

Mayor of the Palace, the name given to the comptroller of the household of the Frankish kings. By successive encroachments these officials became at length more powerful than the monarchs, whom they finally ousted.

Mazarin(e) Cardinal, chief minister of France during the first eighteen years of Louis XIV.'s reign,

Memmius, Roman Governor of Bithynia, distinguished for his rhetorical and literary gifts, 270

Merovingian line, a dynasty of Frankish kings in the sixth and seventh centuries A.D. They were gradually superseded in power by their "Mayors of the Palace," and were succeeded by the Carolingians.

Middleton, Conyers, a Cambridge theologian who had some controversy with Bentley; distinguished for his "absolutely plain style" of writing (1683-50).

Miguel, Don, King of Portugal, whose usurpation of the throne, refusal to marry Maria, daughter of Don Pedro of Brazil, and general conduct of affairs, led to a civil war, as a result of which he had to withdraw to Italy (1802-66).

Mississippi Scheme, a plan for reducing the French National Debt, similar in folly and in downfall to the South Sea Bubble.

Mite, Sir Matthew (see Foote's comedy, The Nabob).

Montague, Charles, Earl of Halifax, Chancellor of the Exchequer 1694; First Lord of Treasury 1697; impeached by the Tories for peculation and acquitted; Prime Minister 1714; reformed the currency.

Montezuma and Guatemozin, two of the native rulers of Mexico prior to its conquest by Cortez in 1519.

Montezuma, Emperor of Mexico, seized by Cortez in 1519.

Moro, the, a strong fort at the entrance to the harbour of Havana, taken after a hard struggle by the English under Admiral Sir George Pocock and General the Earl of Albemarle in July 1762.

Moore, Dr., father of Sir John Moore, European traveller, and author of the novel Zeluco.

Moorish Envoy, Algerine in Humphrey Clinker.

Mountain of Light, the Koh-i-noor, which after many adventures is now one of the English crown jewels.

Mucius, a Roman, who, when condemned to the stake, thrust his right hand unflinchingly into a fire lit for a sacrifice. He was spared and given the name Scaevola, i. e. left-handed.

Murray, orator; afterwards Earl of Mansfield, and Lord Chief Justice (1705-93).


NAPIER, COLONEL, served under Sir John Moore. Like Southey he wrote a History of the Peninsular War.

Nimeguen, treaty of; by this it was agreed that France should restore all her Dutch conquests, but should keep the Spanish conquest of Franche-Comte, a clause which naturally incensed the Emperor and the King of Spain.

Nollekens, Joseph, the eminent English sculptor, and friend of George III. (1737-1823).

Nuzzurs, presents to persons in authority.


OATES, Bedloe, Dangerfield, in 1678 pretended to have discovered a "Popish Plot" which aimed at overthrowing the King and Protestantism.

Odoacer, a Hun, who became emperor in 476 and was assassinated by his colleague, Theodoric (ib.) the Ostrogoth in 493.

O'Meara, Barry Edward, Napoleon's physician in St. Helena, and author of A Voice from St. Helena; or, Napoleon in Exile.

Onomasticon, a Greek dictionary of antiquities, in ten books, arranged according to subject-matter.

Onslow, Arthur, Speaker of the House of Commons from 1728 to 1761.

Oromasdes and Arimanes, Ormuzd and Ahriman, the embodiments of the principles of good and evil respectively, in the Zoroastrian religion.

Oxenstiern, Chancellor to Gustavus Adolphus and the director of the negotiations which led to the Peace of Westphalia and the close of the Thirty Years' War.


PAGE, SIR FRANCIS, a judge whose "reputation for coarseness and brutality (e.g. Pope, Dunciad, iv. 2730) is hardly warranted by the few reported cases in which he took part"(1661?-1741).

Palais Royal, in Paris, formerly very magnificent.

Pannonia, roughly equivalent to the modern Hungary.

Pasquin, Anthony, a fifteenth-century Italian tailor, noted for his caustic wit.

Pastor Fido, a pastoral play, composed in 1585 by Guarini on the model of Aminta.

Patna, massacre of.

Peacock Throne, a gilded and jewelled couch with a canopy, described by a French jeweller named Tavernier, who saw it in 1665, and possibly the present throne of the Shah of Persia.

Perceval, Spencer, supported the Tory party, and became its leader in 1809; assassinated in the Commons Lobby, 1812.

Perwannahs, magisterial documents containing instructions or orders.

Peters, Hugh, a famous Independent divine and chaplain to the Parliamentary forces, executed in 1660 for his alleged share in the death of Charles 1. He was an upright and genial man, but somewhat lacking in moderation and taste.

Petit Trianon, a chateau built for Madame du Barry by Louis XV, and afterwards the favourite resort of Marie Antoinette. In a subsequent edition Macaulay substituted Versailles.

Phalaris, a tyrant of Agrigentum in Sicily (sixth century).

Pigot, Governor of Madras when Clive was in Bengal, and also, as Lord Pigot, in the time of Warren Hastings.

Pinto, Fernandez Mendez, a Portuguese traveller (d. 1583), who visited the Far East and possibly landed in the Gulf of Pekin.

Politian, one of the early scholars of the Renaissance; patronized by Lorenzo de Medici (1454-94).

Pontiff, that inglorious, Peter Marone (Celestine V.), who was tricked into abdicating the papacy for Boniface VIII, and died in prison.

Porto Novo and Pollilore, where Coote defeated Hyder Ali in July and August 1781, and so finished a long campaign in the Carnatic.

Powis, Lord, Edward Clive, created Earl of Powis in 1804.

Powle, a leading Politician and lawyer in the events connected with the accession Of William III.

Prynne, William, a Puritan, who attacked the stage and the Queen's virtue, and suffered by order of the Star Chamber. In late life he changed his opinions, was imprisoned by Cromwell, and favoured by Charles II.

Pyrenees, treaty of the, closed the war between France and Spain (1660), which had continued twelve years after the Peace of Westphalia was signed. For the other treaties mentioned here see the essay on "The War of the Spanish Succession," in vol. ii.


RAPIN, a Huguenot who joined the army of William of Orange, and wrote a Histoire d'Angleterre which surpassed all its predecessors.

Ricimer, a fifth-century Swabian soldier who deposed the Emperor Avitus, and then set up and deposed Majorian, Libius Severus and Anthemius, and finally set up Olybrius.

Rix dollar, a Scandinavian coin worth between three and four shillings.

Roe, Sir Thomas, an English traveller who, in 1615, went on an embassy to Jehangir at Agra.

Rohilcund, north-west of Oude.

Rohillas, Mussulman mountaineers inhabiting Rohilcund (q.v.).

Russell, Lord William, the Hampden of the Restoration period. Fought hard for the exclusion of James II. from the crown; unjustly executed for alleged share in the "Rye House Plot" (1639- 83). Algernon Sydney (1621-83) was a fellow-worker and sufferer.


SACHEVERELL, Henry, a famous divine of Queen Anne's reign, who was impeached by the Whigs for forwardly preaching the doctrine of non-resistance.

Sackville, Lord George, the general commanding the British cavalry at Minden. Nervousness led to his disobeying a critical order to charge, which would have completed the French rout, and he was court-martialled and degraded.

Saint Cecilia, Mrs. Sheridan, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in this character because of her love of, and skill in, music.

Salmacius, the Latin name of Claude de Saumaise an eminent French scholar and linguist (1588-1653), whose Defence of Charles 1. provoked Milton's crushing reply, Defensio Pro populo Anglicano

Sandys, Samuel, opposed Sir R. Walpole, on whose retirement he became Chancellor of the Exchequer, and afterwards a peer.

Sattara, a fortified town c. one hundred miles southeast from Bombay.

Saxe, the foremost French general in the War of the Austrian Succession (1696-1750.)

Scaligers;, Julius Caesar S., a learned Italian writer and classical scholar (1484-1558) and his son Joseph Justus S., who lived in France and was also an eminent scholar.

Schedules A and B. In the Reform Act Of 1832 Schedule A comprised those boroughs which were no longer to be represented, B those which were to send one member instead of two.

Scroggs, the infamous Chief-Justice of the King's Bench in the reign of Charles II., impeached in 680, and pensioned by Charles.

Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1758 to 1768.

Seigneur Oreste and Madame Andromaque. See Racine's Andromaque.

Settle, Elkanah. See Flecknoe and Settle.

Sidney, Algernon, condemned and executed on scanty and illegal evidence on a charge of implication in the Rye House Plot of 1683.

Somers, President of the Council (1708-10) a great Whig leader (he had defended the Seven Bishops) and patron of literature (1650- 1716).

Spinola, Spanish marquis and general who served his country with all his genius and fortune for naught (1571-1630).

Sporus, a favourite of Nero. Owing to his resemblance