Malengrin.—A character in Spenser’s Faërie Queene, who carried a net on his back “to catch fools with.” The name has grown to mean the personification of guile or flattery.
Malepardus.—The castle of Master Reynard, the Fox, in the beast epic of Reynard the Fox.
Malvoisin.—Ivanhoe, Scott. One of the challenging knights at the tournament (Sir Philip de Malvoisin). Sir Albert de Malvoisin was a preceptor of the Knights Templar.
Mambrino (mäm-brē´nō).—Poems, Ariosto, etc. A king of the Moors, who was the possessor of an enchanted golden helmet, which rendered the wearer invulnerable and which was the object of eager quest to the paladins of Charlemagne. This helmet was borne away by the knight Rinaldo. In Don Quixote we are told of a barber who was caught in a shower of rain, and who, to protect his hat, clapped his brazen basin on his head. Don Quixote insisted that this basin was the helmet of the Moorish king; and, taking possession of it, wore it as such.
Managarm.—Prose Edda. The largest and most formidable of the race of giants. He dwells in the Iron-wood, Jamvid. Managarm will first fill himself with the blood of man, and then he will swallow up the moon. This giant symbolizes war, and the iron wood in which he dwells is the wood of spears.
Manfred.—A poem by Byron. Manfred sold himself to the prince of darkness, and received from him seven spirits to do his bidding. They were the spirits of “earth, ocean, air, night, mountains, winds, and the star of his own destiny.” Wholly without human sympathies, the count dwelt in splendid solitude among the Alpine mountains. He loved Astarte, and was visited by her spirit after her death. In spirit form she told Manfred that he would die the following day; and, when asked if she loved him, she signed “Manfred,” and vanished.
Manon l’Escaut (mä-non´ les-kō).—A French novel by A. F. Prévost. Manon is the “fair mischief” of the story. Her charms seduce and ruin the chevalier des Grieux, who marries her. After marriage, the selfish mistress becomes converted into the faithful wife, who follows her husband into disgrace and banishment, and dies by his side in the wilds of America. The object of this novel, like that of La Dame aux Camélias, by Dumas fils, is to show how true hearted, how self-sacrificing, how attractive, a fille de joie may be.
Mantalini (man-ta-lē´nē).—Nicholas Nickleby, Dickens. The husband of madame; he is a man doll, noted for his white teeth, his oaths, and his gorgeous morning gown. This “exquisite” lives on his wife’s earnings, and thinks he confers a favor on her by spending. Madame Mantalini is represented as a fashionable dressmaker near Cavendish Square, London.
Marble Faun, The.—A romance by Hawthorne, published in 1860. The English edition, published in the same year, is called Transformation, or the Romance of Monte Beni. See Donatello. The sole idea of the Marble Faun is to illustrate the intellectually and morally awakening power of a sudden impulsive sin, committed by a simple, joyous, instinctive, “natural” man. The whole group of characters is imagined solely with a view to the development of this idea.
Marcellus (mär-sel´us).—Hamlet, Shakespeare. An officer of Denmark, to whom the ghost of the murdered king appeared before it presented itself to Prince Hamlet.