Maximil´ian (son of Frederick III.), the hero of the Teuerdank, the Orlando Furioso of the Germans, by Melchior Pfinzing.
.... [here] in old heroic days
Sat the poet Melchoir, singing Kaiser Maximilian’s praise.
Longfellow, Nuremberg.
Maximin, a Roman tyrant.—Dryden, Tyrannic Love, or the Royal Martyr.
Maximus, (called by Geoffrey, “Maximian”), a Roman senator, who in 381, was invited to become king of Britain. He conquered Armorica (Bretagne), and “published a decree for the assembling together there of 100,000 of the common people of Britain, to colonize the land, and 30,000 soldiers to defend the colony.” Hence Armorica was called, “The other Britain” or “Little Britain.”—Geoffrey, British History, v. 14 (1142).
Got Maximus at length the victory in Gaul,
... where after Gratian’s fall.
Armorica to them the valiant victor gave....
Which colony ... is “Little Britain” called.
Drayton, Polyolbion, ix. (1612).
Maxwell, deputy chamberlain at Whitehall.—Sir W. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel (time, James I.).
Maxwell (Mr. Pate), laird of Summertrees, called “Pate in Peril;” one of the papist conspirators with Redgauntlet.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).
Maxwell (The Right Hon. William), Lord Evandale, an officer in the king’s army.—Sir W. Scott, Old Mortality (time, Charles II.).
May, a girl who married January, a Lombard baron 60 years old. She loved Damyan, a young squire; and one day the baron caught Damyan and May fondling each other, but the young wife told her husband his eyes were so defective that they could not be trusted. The old man accepted the solution—for what is better than “a fruitful wife and a confiding spouse?”—Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (“The Merchant’s Tale,” 1388).
May unlucky for Brides. Mary, queen of Scotland, married Bothwell, the murderer of her husband, Lord Darnley, on May 12.