The dame made a curtsey, the dog made a bow;
The dame said, “Your servant!” the dog said, “Bow, wow!”
A Nursery Tale in Rhyme.
Mother Hubberd, the supposed narrator of a tale called The Fox and the Ape, related to the poet Spenser to beguile the weary hours of sickness. Several persons told him tales, but
Amongst the rest a good old woman was
Hight Mother Hubberd, who did far surpass
The rest in honest mirth that seemed her well;
She, when her turn was come her tale to tell,
Told of a strange adventure that betided
Betwixt a fox and ape by him misguided;
The which, for that my sense it greatly pleased ...
I’ll write it as she the same did say.
Spenser.
Mother Hubberd’s Tale. A fox and an ape determined to travel about the world as chevaliers de l’industrie. First, Ape dressed as a broken-down soldier, and Fox as his servant. A farmer agreed to take them for his shepherds; but they devoured all his lambs and then decamped. They next “went in for holy orders.” Reynard contrived to get a living given him, and appointed the ape as his clerk; but they soon made the parish too hot to hold them, and again sheered off. They next tried their fortune at court; the ape set himself up as a foreigner of distinction with Fox for his groom. They played the part of rakes, but being found to be desperate rogues, had to flee with all despatch, and seek another field of action. As they journeyed on, they saw a lion sleeping, and Master Fox persuaded his companion to steal the crown, sceptre and royal robes. The ape, arrayed in these, assumed to be king, and Fox was his prime minister; but so ill did they govern, that Jupiter interfered, the lion was restored, and the ape was docked of his tail and had his ears cropt.
Since which, all apes but half their ears have left,
And of their tails are utterly bereft.
So Mother Hubberd her discourse did end.
Spenser, Mother Hubberd’s Tale.
Mother Shipton, T. Evan Preece, of South Wales, a prophetess, whose predictions (generally in rhymes) were at one time in everybody’s mouth in South Wales, especially in Glamorganshire.
*** She predicted the death of Wolsey, Lord Percy, and others. Her prophecies are still extant, and contain the announcement that “the end of the world shall come in eighteen hundred and eighty-one.”
Mother of the People (The), Marguerite of France, La Mère des Peuples, daughter of François I. (1523-1574).
Mould (Mr.), undertaker. His face had a queer attempt at melancholy, sadly at variance with a smirk of satisfaction which might be read between the lines. Though his calling was not a lively one, it did not depress his spirits, as in the bosom of his family he was the most cheery of men, and to him the “tap, tap” of coffin-making was as sweet and exhilarating as the tapping of a woodpecker.—C. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).
Mouldy (Ralph), “a good-limbed fellow, young, strong, and of good friends.” Ralph was pricked for a recruit in Sir John Falstaff’s regiment. He promised Bardolph forty shillings “to stand his friend.” Sir John being told this, sent Mouldy home, and when Justice Shallow remonstrated, saying that Ralph “was the likeliest man of the lot,” Falstaff replied, “Will you tell me, Master Shallow, how to choose a man? Care I for the limb, the thews, the stature, bulk, and big assemblance of a man? Give me the spirit, Master Shallow.”—Shakespeare, 2 Henry IV. act iii. sc. 2 (1598).