| De branche in brancham degringolat, et faciens pouf Ex ormo cadit, et clunes obvertit Olympo. |
Molière employed macaronic verse in the ceremonial scene with the doctors in Le Malade imaginaire. Works in macaronic prose are rarer. An Anti-Clopinus by Antony Hotman may be mentioned and the amusing Epistolae obscurorum virorum (1515). Macaronic prose was not unknown as an artifice of serious oratory, and abounds (e.g.) in the sermons of Michel Menot (1440-1518), who says of the prodigal son, Emit sibi pulcheras caligas d’écarlate, bien tirées.
The use of true macaronics has never been frequent in Great Britain, where the only prominent example of it is the Polemo-Middinia ascribed to William Drummond of Hawthornden. This short epic was probably composed early in the 17th century, but was not published until 1684. The Polemo-Middinia follows the example set by Arena, and describes with burlesque solemnity a quarrel between two villages on the Firth of Forth. Drummond shows great ingenuity in the tacking on of Latin terminations to his Lowland Scots vernacular:—
| Lifeguardamque sibi saevas vocat improba lassas, Maggaeam, magis doctam milkare cowaeas, Et doctam sweepare flooras, et sternere beddas, Quaeque novit spinnare, et longas ducere threedas. |
There is a certain macaronic character about many poems of Skelton and Dunbar, as well as the famous Barnabae itinerarium (1638) of Richard Brathwait (1588-1673), but these cannot be considered legitimate specimens of the type as laid down by Folengo.
See Ch. Nodier, Du Langage factice appelé macaronique (1834); Genthe, Histoire de la poésie macaronique (1831).
(E. G.)
MACARSCA (Serbo-Croatian, Makarska), the chief town of an administrative district in Dalmatia, Austria; situated opposite to the island of Brazza, about 32 m. S.E. of Spalato. Pop. (1900), of town 1805; of commune, 11,016, chiefly Serbo-Croatian. Macarsca is a port of call for the Austrian Lloyd steamers, and has a brisk trade in wine, grain and fruit. Under the name of Mocrum, Macarsca was a thriving Roman city, and a bishopric until 639, when it was destroyed by the Avars. In the 10th century it is mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenitus as a city of the pagan Narentines. Its bishopric was revived in 1320, but the bishops resided at Almissa. In 1481 the city was purchased from the duke of Herzegovina by Venice; in 1499 it was conquered by the Turks; and in 1646, after a successful revolt, it again welcomed the sovereignty of Venice. The see of Macarsca was merged in that of Spalato in 1830.