*** They have been adopted by pawnbrokers as a symbol of their trade.
Muggins (Dr.), a sapient physician, who had the art “to suit his physic to his patients’ taste;” so when King Artaxaminous felt a little seedy after a night’s debauch, the doctor prescribed to his majesty “to take a morning whet.”—W. B. Rhodes, Bombastes Furioso (1790).
Muhldenau, the minister of Mariendorpt, and father of Meeta and Adolpha. When Adolpha was an infant, she was lost in the siege of Magdeburg; and Muhldenau, having reason to suppose that the child was not killed went to Prague in search of her. Here Muhldenau was seized as a spy, and condemned to death. Meeta, hearing of his capture, walked to Prague to beg him off, and was introduced to the governor’s supposed daughter, who, in reality, was Meeta’s sister, Adolpha. Rupert Roselheim, who was betrothed to Meeta, stormed the prison and released Muhldenau.—S. Knowles, The Maid of Mariendorpt (1838).
Mulatto, a half-caste. Strictly speaking, Zambo is the issue of an Indian and a Negress; Mulatto, of a White man and a Negress; Terzeron, of a White man and a Mulatto woman; Quadroon, of a Terzeron and a White.
Mul´ciber, Vulcan, who was blacksmith, architect, and god of fire.
In Ausonian land
Men called him Mulciber; and how he fell
From heaven, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove
Sheer o’er the crystal battlements; from morn
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,
A Summer’s day; and with the setting sun
Dropt from the Zenith like a falling star,
On Lemnos, the Ægean isle.
Milton, Paradise Lost, 739, etc. (1665).
Muley Bugentuf, king of Morocco, a blood-and-thunder hero. He is the chief character of a tragedy of the same name, by Thomas de la Fuenta.
In the first act, the king of Morocco, by way of recreation, shot a hundred Moorish slaves with arrows; in the second, he beheaded thirty Portuguese officers, prisoners of war; and in the third and last act, Muley, mad with his wives, set fire with his own hand to a detached palace, in which they were shut up, and reduced them all to ashes.... This conflagration, accompanied with a thousand shrieks, closed the piece in a very diverting manner.—Lesage, Gil Blas, ii. 9 (1715).
Mull Sack. John Cottington, in the time of the Commonwealth, was so called, from his favorite beverage. John Cottington emptied the pockets of Oliver Cromwell when lord protector; stripped Charles II. of £1500; and stole a watch and chain from Lady Fairfax.
*** Mull sack is spiced sherry negus.