Mr. Beverley behaved like a father to me [B. Webster], and engaged me as a walking gentleman for his London theatre, where I made my first appearance as “Henry Morland,” in The Heir-at-Law, which, to avoid legal proceedings, he called The Lord’s Warming-pan.—Peter Paterson.
Morley (Mrs.), the name under which Queen Anne corresponded with Mrs. Freeman (The Duchess of Marlborough).
Morna, daughter of Cormac, king of Ireland. She was in love with Câthba, youngest son of Torman. Duchômar, out of jealousy, slew his rival, and then asked Morna to be his bride. She replied, “Thou art dark to me, O, Duchômar, and cruel is thine arm to Morna.” She then begged him for his sword, and when “he gave it to her she thrust it into his heart.” Duchômar fell, and begged the maid to pull out the sword that he might die, but when she did so, he seized it from her and plunged it into her side. Whereupon Cuthullin said:
“Peace to the souls of the heroes! Their deeds were great in fight. Let them ride around me in clouds. Let them show their features in war. My soul shall then be firm in danger, mine arm like the thunder of heaven. But be thou on a moonbeam, O, Morna, near the window of my rest, when my thoughts are at peace, when the din of war is past.”—Ossian, Fingal, i.
Morna, wife of Compal, and mother of Fingal. Her father was Thaddu, and her brother Clessammor.—Ossian.
Mornay, the old seneschal, at Earl Herbert’s tower at Peronne.—Sir W. Scott, Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).
Morning Star of the Reformation, John Wycliffe (1324-1384).
Morocco or Maroccus, the performing horse, generally called “Bankes’s Horse.” Among other exploits, we are told that “it went up to the top of St. Paul’s.” Both horse and man were burnt alive at Rome, by order of the pope, as magicians.—Don Zara del Fogo, 114 (1660).
*** Among the entries at Stationers’ Hall is the following:—Nov. 14, 1595: A Ballad showing the Strange Qualities of a Young Nagg called Morocco.
In 1595 was published the pamphlet Maroccus Extaticus, or Bankes’s Horse in a Trance.