*** Also Hippoc´rates, of Cos (B.C. 460-357).
Medina, the Golden Mean personified, Step-sister of Elissa (parsimony) and Perissa (extravagance). The three sisters could never agree on any subject.—Spenser, Faëry Queen, ii. (1590).
Medley (Matthew), the factotum of Sir Walter Waring. He marries Dolly, daughter of Goodman Fairlop, the woodman.—Sir H. P. Dudley, The Woodman (1771).
Medo´ra, the beloved wife of Conrad, the corsair. When Conrad was taken captive by the Pacha Seyd, Medora sat day after day expecting his return, and feeling the heart-anguish of hope deferred. Still he returned not, and Medora died. In the mean time, Gulnare, the favorite concubine of Seyd, murdered the pacha, liberated Conrad, and sailed with him to the corsair’s island home. When, however, Conrad found his wife dead, he quitted the island, and went no one knew whither. The sequel of the story forms the poem called Lara.—Byron, The Corsair (1814).
Medo´ro, a Moorish youth of extraordinary beauty, but of humble race; page to Agramante. Being wounded, Angelica dressed his wounds, fell in love with him, married him, and retired with him to Cathay, where, in right of his wife, he became a king. This was the cause of Orlando’s madness.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).
When Don Roldan [Orlando] discovered in a fountain proofs of Angelica’s dishonorable conduct with Medoro, it distracted him to such a degree that he tore up huge trees by the roots, sullied the purest streams, destroyed flocks, slew shepherds, fired their huts, pulled houses to the ground, and committed a thousand other most furious exploits worthy of being reported in fame’s register.—Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. iii. 11 (1605).
Medu´sa (The soft), Mary Stuart, queen of Scots (1545-1577).
Rise from thy bloody grave,
Thou soft Medusa of the “Fated Line,”
Whose evil beauty looked to death the brave!
Lord Lytton, Ode, i. (1839).
Meeta, the “maid of Mariendorpt,” a true woman and a true heroine. She is the daughter of Mahldenau, minister of Mariendorpt, whom she loves almost to idolatry. Her betrothed is Major Rupert Roselheim. Hearing of her father’s captivity at Prague, she goes thither on foot to crave his pardon.—S. Knowles, The Maid of Mariendorpt (1838).
Meg, a pretty, bright, dutiful girl, daughter of Toby Veck, and engaged to Richard, whom she marries on New Year’s Day.—C. Dickens, The Chimes (1844).