Part 302 (1/2)
MARK ANTONY. See ANTONIUS, MARCUS.
MARK TWAIN. See CLEMENS.
MARKHAM, CLEMENTS ROBERT, traveller and author, born near York, son of a clergyman; served in the navy from 1844 to 1851, taking part in the Franklin search expedition; 1852-1854 he spent exploring Peru; he introduced the cinchona plant to India 1860, became secretary to the Royal Geographical Society 1863, served as geographer to the Abyssinian Expedition of 1867-68, and was then put at the head of the Geographical department of the India Office; among many books of travels may be named ”The Threshold of the Unknown Region” 1874, and among biographies ”Columbus,” 1892; _b_. 1830.
MARLBOROUGH (9), on the Kennet, 38 m. E. of Bristol, a Wilts.h.i.+re market-town, with sack and rope making, brewing, and tanning industries; has an old Norman church, the remains of an old royal residence, and a college, chiefly for sons of clergymen, founded in 1845.
MARLBOROUGH, JOHN CHURCHILL, DUKE OF, soldier and statesman, born in Devons.h.i.+re; joined the Guards as ensign, and served in Tangiers in 1667; sent in command of a company to help Louis XIV. in his Dutch wars, his courage and ability won him a colonelcy; he married Sarah Jennings in 1678, and seven years later became Baron Churchill on James II.'s succession; as general he was employed in putting down Monmouth's rebellion; he seceded to William of Orange in 1688, and received from him the earldom of Marlborough; he was in disfavour from 1694 till the outbreak of the Spanish Succession War, in which he gained his great renown; beginning by driving the Spaniards from the Netherlands in 1702, he won a series of important victories--Blenheim 1704, Ramillies 1706, Oudenard 1708, and Malplaquet 1709, contributed to enhance the military glory of England; Queen Anne loaded him with honours; large sums of money, Woodstock estate, Blenheim Palace, and a dukedom were bestowed on him; his wife was the Queen's closest friend, and the duke and d.u.c.h.ess virtually governed the country, till in 1711 the Queen threw off their influence, and charges of misappropriation of funds forced him into retirement; he was restored to many of his offices by George I. in 1714, but for the last six years of his life he sank into imbecility; one of England's greatest generals, he was also one of her meanest men (1650-1722).
MARLOWE, CHRISTOPHER, English dramatist and poet, precursor of Shakespeare; son of a shoemaker at Canterbury; besides a love poem ent.i.tled ”Hero and Leander,” he was the author of seven plays, ”Tamburlaine,” in two parts, ”Doctor Faustus,” ”The Jew of Malta,”
”Edward the Second,” ”The Ma.s.sacre of Paris,” and ”Dido,” the first four being romantic plays, the fifth a chronicle play, and the last two offering no particular talent; he dealt solely in tragedy, and was too devoid of humour to attempt comedy; ”In Marlowe,” says Prof. Saintsbury, ”two things never fail him long--a strange, not by any means impotent, reach after the infinite, and the command of magnificent verse”; his life was a short one (1564-1593).
MARMONT, Duke of Ragusa and marshal of France, served under Napoleon, and distinguished himself on many a battlefield; received the t.i.tle of duke for his successful defence of Ragusa against the Russians; was present at Wagram, Lutzen, Bautzen, and Dresden, but came to terms with the allies after the taking of Paris, which led to Napoleon's abdication in 1814; obliged to flee on Napoleon's return, he came back to France and gave his support to the Bourbons; left Memoirs (1774-1852).
MARMONTEL, JEAN FRANcOIS, French writer, born at Bort; author of ”Les Incas,” ”Belesaire,” and ”Contes Moraux;” ”was,” says Ruskin, ”a peasant's son, who made his way into Parisian society by gentleness, wit, and a dainty and candid literary power; he became one of the humblest yet honestest, placed scholars at the court of Louis XV., and wrote pretty, yet wise, sentimental stories in finished French, the sayings and thoughts in them, in their fine tremulous way, perfect like the blossoming heads of gra.s.s in May” (1723-1799).
MARMORA, SEA OF, 175 m. long and 50 broad, lies between Europe and Asia Minor, opening into the aegean through the Dardanelles and into the Baltic through the Bosphorus; the Gulf of Ismid indents the eastern coasts; Marmora, the largest island, has marble and alabaster quarries.
MARNE (435) and HAUTE-MARNE (244), contiguous departments in the N.E. of France, in the upper basin of the Marne River; in both cereals, potatoes, and wine are the chief products, the best champagne coming from the N. In the former, capital Chalons-sur-Marne, building stone is quarried; there are metal works and tanneries; in the latter, capital Chaumont, are valuable iron mines and manufactures of cutlery and gloves.
MAROCHETTI, BARON, Italian sculptor, born in Turin; after working in Paris, came to this country in 1848, and executed several public statues, one of the Queen among others (1805-1867).
MARONITES, a sect of Syrian Christians, numbering 200,000, dwelling on the eastern slopes of Lebanon, where they settled in the 7th century, and who joined the Roman Catholic Church in 1445, while they retain much of their primitive character; they maintained a long sanguinary rivalry with their neighbours the DRUSES (q. v.).
MAROONS, the name given to wild negro bands in Jamaica and Guiana; those in Jamaica left behind by the Spaniards on the conquest of the island by the English, 1655, escaped to the hills, and continued unsubdued till 1795; in Guiana they still maintain independent communities. To MAROON a seaman is to leave him alone on an uninhabited island, or adrift in a boat.
MAROT, CLEMENT, French poet, born at Cahors; was valet-de-chambre of Margaret of Valois; was a man of ready wit and a satirical writer, the exercise of which often brought him into trouble; his poems, which consist of elegies, epistles, rondeaux, madrigals, and ballads, have left their impress on both the language and the literature of France (1495-1544).
MARPRELATE TRACTS, a series of clever but scurrilous tracts published under the name of Martin Marprelate, but which are the work of different writers in the time of Elizabeth against prelacy, and which gave rise to great excitement and some inquisition as to their authors.h.i.+p.
MARQUE. See LETTER OF MARQUE.
MARQUESAS ISLANDS (5), a group of 13 small volcanic mountainous islands in the S. Pacific, 3600 m. W. of Peru, under French protection since 1842, are peopled by a handsome but savage race, which is rapidly dying out; Chinese immigrants grow cotton; the more southerly were discovered by Mendana in 1595, the more northerly by Ingraham, an American, in 1791.