Mephostophilis, the attendant demon of Faustus, in Marlowe’s tragedy of Dr. Faustus (1589).
There is an awful melancholy about Marlowe’s “Mephostophilis,” perhaps more expressive than the malignant mirth of that fiend in the renowned work of Goethe.—Hallam.
Mephostophilus, the spirit or familiar of Sir John Faustus or [Dr.] John Faust (Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, 1596). Subsequently it became a term of reproach, about equal to “imp of the devil.”
Mercedes, Spanish woman, who, to disarm suspicion, drinks the wine poisoned for the French soldiery who have invaded the town. She is forced to let her baby drink it, also, and gives no sign of perturbation until the invaders, twenty in number, have partaken of the wine, and the baby grows livid and expires before their eyes.—Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Mercedes (drama, 1883).
Mercer (Major), at the presidency of Madras.—Sir W. Scott, The Surgeon’s Daughter (time, George II.).
Merchant of Venice (The), Antonio, who borrowed 3000 ducats for three months of Shylock, a Jew. The money was borrowed to lend to a friend named Bassanio, and the Jew, “in merry sport,” instead of interest, agreed to lend the money on these conditions: If Antonio paid it within three months, he should pay only the principal; if he did not pay it back within that time, the merchant should forfeit a pound of his own flesh, from any part of his body the Jew might choose to cut it off. As Antonio’s ships were delayed by contrary winds, he could not pay the money, and the Jew demanded the forfeiture. On the trial which ensued, Portia, in the dress of a law doctor, conducted the case, and, when the Jew was going to take the forfeiture, stopped him by saying that the bond stated “a pound of flesh,” and that, therefore, he was to shed no drop of blood, and he must cut neither more nor less than an exact pound, on forfeit of his life. As these conditions were practically impossible, the Jew was nonsuited and fined for seeking the life of a citizen.—Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice (1598).
The story is in the Gesta Romanorum, the tale of the bond being ch. xlviii., and that of the caskets ch. xcix.; but Shakespeare took his plot from a Florentine novelette called Il Pecorone, written in the fourteenth century, but not published till the sixteenth.
There is a ballad on the subject, the date of which has not been determined. The bargain runs thus:
“No penny for the loan of it,
For one year shall you pay—
You may do me a good turn
Before my dying day;
But we will have a merry jest,
For to be talkêd long;
You shall make me a bond,” quoth he,
“That shall be large or strong.”