Mulla’s Bard, Spenser, author of the Faëry Queen. The Mulla, a tributary of the Blackwater, in Ireland, flowed close by the spot where the poet’s house stood. He was born and died in London (1553-1599).
... it irks me while I write,
As erst the bard of Mulla’s silver stream,
Oft as he told of deadly dolorous plight
Sighed as he sung, and did in tears indite.
Shenstone, The Schoolmistress (1758).
Mulla. Thomas Campbell, in his poem on the Spanish Parrot, calls the island of Mull, “Mulla’s Shore.”
Mullet (Professor), the “most remarkable man” of North America. He denounced his own father for voting on the wrong side at an election for president, and wrote thunderbolts in the form of pamphlets, under the signature of “Suturb” or Brutus reversed.—C. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).
Mullins (Rev. Peter). A minister of the gospel, who holds so hard to the belief that the laborer is worthy of his hire, that he can see nothing but the hire.
“How am I to know whether my services are acceptable unless every year there is some voluntary testimonial concerning them? It seems to me that I must have such a testimonial. I find myself looking forward to it.”—Josiah Gilbert Holland, Arthur Bonnicastle (1873).
Mul´mutine Laws, the code of Dunvallo Mulmutius, sixteenth king of the Britons (about B.C. 400). This code was translated by Gildas from British into Latin, and by Alfred into English. The Mulmutine laws obtained in this country till the Conquest.—Holinshed, History of England, etc., iii. 1 (1577).
Mulmutius made our laws,
Who was the first of Britain which did put
His brows within a golden crown, and call’d
Himself a king.
Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act iii. sc. 1 (1605).
Mulmutius (Dunwallo), son of Cloten, king of Cornwall. “He excelled all the kings of Britain in valor and gracefulness of person.” In a battle fought against the allied Welsh and Scotch armies, Mulmutius tried the very scheme which Virgil (Æneid, ii.) says was attempted by Æneas and his companions—that is, they dressed in the clothes and bore the arms of the enemy slain, and thus disguised, committed very great slaughter. Mulmutius, in his disguise, killed both the Cambrian and Albanian kings, and put the allied army to thorough rout.—Geoffrey, British History, ii. 17.
Mulmutius this land in such estate maintained
As his great Belsire Brute.
Drayton, Polyolbion, viii. (1612).