Morris (Peter), the pseudonym of John G. Lockhart, in Peter’s Letters to His Kinsfolk (1819).
Morris (Dinah). Beautiful gospeller, who marries Adam Bede, after the latter recovers from his infatuation for pretty Hetty Sorrel. Hetty is seduced by the young squire, murders her baby, and is condemned to die for the crime. Dinah visits the doomed girl in prison, wins her to a confession and repentance, and accompanies her in the gallows-cart. They are at the scaffold when a reprieve arrives.—George Eliot, Adam Bede.
Morris-Dance, a comic representation of every grade of society. The characters were dressed partly in Spanish and partly in English costume. Thus, the huge sleeves were Spanish, but the laced stomacher English. Hobby-horse represented the king and all the knightly order; Maid Marian, the queen; the friar, the clergy generally; the fool, the court jester. The other characters represented a franklin or private gentleman, a churl or farmer, and the lower grades were represented by a clown. The Spanish costume is to show the origin of the dance.
A representation of a morris-dance may still be seen at Betley, in Staffordshire, in a window placed in the house of George Tollet, Esq., in about 1620.
Morrison (Hugh), a Lowland drover, the friend of Robin Oig.—Sir W. Scott, The Two Drovers (time, George III.).
Mortality (Old), a religious itinerant who frequented country churchyards and the graves of covenanters. He was first discovered in the burial ground at Gandercleugh, clearing the moss from the gray tombstones, renewing with his chisel the half-defaced inscriptions, and repairing the decorations of the tombs.—Sir W. Scott, Old Mortality (time, Charles II.).
*** “Old Mortality” is said to be meant for Robert Patterson.
Morta´ra, the boy who died from being covered all over with gold-leaf by Leo XII., to adorn a pageant.
Mortcloke (Mr.), the undertaker at the funeral of Mrs. Margaret Bertram of Singleside.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).
Morte d’Arthur, a compilation of Arthurian tales, called on the title-page The History of Prince Arthur, compiled from the French by Sir Thomas Malory, and printed by William Caxton in 1470. It is divided into three parts. The first part contains the birth of King Arthur, the establishment of the Round Table, the romance of Balin and Balan, and the beautiful allegory of Gareth and Linet´. The second part is mainly the romance of Sir Tristram. The third part is the romance of Sir Launcelot, the quest of the Holy Graal, and the death of Arthur, Guenever, Tristram, Lamorake, and Launcelot.