Marwood (Mistress), jilted by Fainall, and soured against the whole male sex. She says, “I have done hating those vipers—men, and am now come to despise them;” but she thinks of marrying to keep her husband “on the rack of fear and jealousy.”—W. Congreve, The Way of the World (1700).
Mary, the pretty housemaid of the worshipful, the mayor of Ipswich (Nupkins). When Arabella Allen marries Mr. Winkle, Mary enters her service; but eventually marries Sam Weller, and lives at Dulwich, as Mr. Pickwick’s housekeeper.—C. Dickens, The Pickwick Papers (1836).
Mary, niece of Valentine, and his sister Alice. In love with Mons. Thomas.—Beaumont and Fletcher, Mons. Thomas (1619).
Mary. The queen’s Marys, four young ladies of quality, of the same age as Mary, afterwards “queen of Scots.” They embarked with her in 1548, on board the French galleys, and were destined to be her playmates in childhood, and her companions when she grew up. Their names were Mary Beaton (or Bethune), Mary Livingston (or Leuison), Mary Fleming (or Flemyng), and Mary Seaton (Seton or Seyton).
*** Mary Carmichael has no place in authentic history, although an old ballad says:
Yestrien the queen had four Marys;
This night she’ll hae but three:
There was Mary Beaton, and Mary Seaton,
And Mary Carmichael, and me.
*** One of Whyte Melville’s novels is called The Queen’s Marys.
Mary Anne, a slang name for the guillotine; also called L’abbaye de monte-à-regret (“the mountain of mournful ascent”). (See Marianne.)
Mary Anne, a generic name for a secret republican society in France. See Marianne.)—B. Disraeli, Lothair.
Mary Anne was the red-name for the republic years ago, and there always was a sort of myth that these secret societies had been founded by a woman.