They are called mendacious, lying, because many of them
shall be counterfeit.
Sheldon. Mirror of Antichrist, (1616,) p. 63.
In that sense it must have the operation of mendacity;
there must be a lie told in it.
State Trials. Chas. II. an. 12. John Cook.

And that we shall not deny, if we call to mind the menda-
city of Greece, from whom we have received most relations,
and that a considerable part of ancient times, was by the
Greeks themselves termed uvekov, that is, made up or
stuffed out with fables.-Brown. Vulg. Errours, b. i. c. 6.

mind, or have in mind, (mens) to put in mind, (monere); to intend, to design, to wish or will. Vossius explains,-Monumentum aliquid scriptum aut factum memoriæ causa: and Regimen,-any thing meant, intended, or designed, as a rule or regulation. See MONEY, and MENTAL.

MENTAL.) Fr. Mental; It. Mentale; Sp. MENTALLY. Mental, from the Lat. Mens, the mind, (qv.) Mental is one of those adjectived signs which we have borrowed from the Latin, without borrowing the unadjectived sign. Mens is from Gr. Mevos, impetus, (sc.) animi, and hence, animus. Mevos, from uev-ev, manere, to remain. (See Vossius and Lennep.) May not the A.S. Man-an, be the radical word?

Id. The Sompnoures Tale, v. 7494. variety of the seasons of the year depending thereupon.
Ray. On the Creation, pt. i.
And but for that, whatever he may vaunt,
Who knows a monk had been mendicant.

Mirrour for Magistrates, p. 355. during a month.

MERCANTILE. Fr. Mercantil, merchantly, MERCANTANTE.merchantlike, (Cotgrave.) See MERCHANT. Marcantant; It. Mercatante. The latter (the It.) is frequent in old plays for merchant, (Steevens.)

The only procede (that I may use the mercantile term) you can expect is thanks, and this way shall not be wanting

to make you rich returns.-Howell, b. i. s. 1. Let. 29.

Tra. What is he, Biondello?

Bia. Master, a marcantant, or a pedant,

I know not what.—Shakes. Taming the Shrew, Activ. sc.2.

Je Sp.

ms, the

Fectived

Latin

Mens

MERCENARY, adj.

MERCENARY, n.

MERCENARINESS.

Fr. Mercenaire; It. Mercenario; Sp. Mercenario; Lat. Merce

aris, from merces, a reward or payment.

One who takes payment, hire, or wages, a hireng; one who acts, who works, for the sake of reward or of gain.

He was a shepherd, and no mercenarie.

Chaucer. Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, v. 516. That is a mercennary preacher and an hired, which seeketh ha own temporal aduaŭtage & commoditie.

Sir T. More. Workes, p. 507.

The Almaygnes, and mercenaries of strange countreis, I

e not name at this present tyme.

Berners. Froissart. Cronycle, vol. i. c. 205.

For God forbid I should my papers blot

With mercenary lines, with servile pen; Pruising virtues in them that have them not,

Basely attending on the hopes of men.-Daniel, son. 55.

This is to show, both how tyranny grows to stand in need drcenary soldiers, and how those mercenaries are, by tal obligation, firmly assured unto the tyrant.

Ralegh. History of the World, b. v. c. 2. s. 2.

Thas needy wits a vile revenue made,

And verse became a mercenary trade.

Dryden. The Art of Poetry, c. 4.

Ahly, it [charity] casts out all mercenariness, and self-
king-The Whole Duty of Man. Sunday 16.

Fra heaven so considered, to forego readily all the plea-
of the senses, and undergo chearfully all the hardships
dangers, that are wont to attend a holy life, is such a
mercenariness as none, but a resigned, noble, and
keving soul is likely to be guilty of.
Boyle. Works, vol. i. p. 281.

MERCER.
Fr. Mercier; It. Merciajo,
MERCERY.
merciadro; Sp. Mercero, from
MERCERSHIP. the Lat. Merx, q. d. mercia-
e. minutarum mercium venditor, a seller of
alwares, or articles of merchandise, (Skinner.)
A dealer in various articles of merchandise.
In
English it is now restricted (perhaps not entirely

to a dealer in silken wares.

I have made meny knyght, bothe mercer and draper.
Piers Plouhman, p. 99.

The chanmen of suche mercerie,

Wch fraude, and with supplantarie,

So many shulden by and selle

That he ne maie for shame telle

Gower, Con. A. b. ii.

So foule a sinne in man's ere.
Amarkette place, to be kept enery Tuesday and Saturday,
debe and fyssh, mercery ware, &c.

Berners. Froissart. Cronycle, vol. i. c. 133. And they had in their hoost all thynges plentyfull, market cate, furres, and other mercery.-Id. Ib. vol. i. c. 403.

Then is there heere one Mr. Caper, at the suite of Master Pe. the mercer, for some foure suites of peached satten.-Shakes. Measure for Measure, Act iv. sc. 3. Fm Roe is returned from the wars, but he is grown in one of his arms, so he hath no mind to bear arms ; he confesses himself to be an egregious fool to mercership, and go to be a musqueteer. Howell, b. ii. Let. 62.

For ge ben men beter ytagt to schouele and to spade,
To cartestaf and to plowstaf, and a fischyng to wade,
To hamer, and to nedle, and to marchandise also,
Than with swerd or hauberk eny batail to do.

R. Gloucester, p. 99.
"Do com," said Statyn, "burgeis & merchant,
& knyght & squiere."
R. Brunne, p. 168.
If a chapman wille not leue of his merchaundie.
Id. p. 328.
For thi marchauntis weren prynces of the erthe.
Wiclif. Apocalips, c. 18.
For thy marchauntes were the great men of the earth.
Bible, 1551. Ib.
And nyle ye make the hous of my fadir an hous of mar-
chaundise.-Wiclif. Jon, c 2.

Make not my father's house an house of marchaundyse.
Bible, 1551. Ib.

A marchant was ther with a forked berd,
In mottelee, and highe on hors he sat.
And on his hed a Flaundrish bever hat.

Chaucer. Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, v.254.
For when we out of Rome in marchentfare went,
To purchase botirfliis was our most entent.

The Marchauntes Second Tale, imputed to Chaucer.
And was so full of faith,
That the greatest of Barbarie
Of hem, whiche vse marchandie
She hath conuerted.

Gower. Con. A. b. ii.

And cleped hym [Mercury] in the beleues,
The god of marchantes and of theues.-Id. Ib. A. b. v.
For it is to be beleued that the duke of Lacastre and the
duches his wyfe had rather marchant with you and with
your sonne than with the duke of Berrey.

Berners. Froissart. Cronycle, vol. ii. c. 129.

And [Ferdinando] marchanded at this time with France, for the restoring of the counties of Russignon and Perpignian, oppignorated to the French.-Bacon. Hen. VII. p. 99. For were it not for this lazie trade of vsury, money would not lie still, but would, in great part, be imployed upon merchandizing.-Id. Essay on Vsury.

Now look into the statutes of subsidy of tonnage and cepted, the poundage equal upon alien and subject. poundage, and you shall find, a few merchandize only ac

Id. Argument concerning Impositions on Merchandizes. And for merchandizing, it may be a question, whether that the companies of the merchant adventures, of the Turkey merchants, and the Muscovy merchants, if they shall be continued, should not be compounded of merchants of both

nations, English and Scottish.-Id. Union of Eng. & Scoll.

Therefore, when merchant-like I sell reuenge,
Broke be my sword, my armes torne and defac'd,
And I proclam'd a coward through the world.

Shakespeare. 2 Pt. Hen. VI. Act iv. sc. 1.
Poets hereafter for pensions need not care,
Who call you beggars, you may call them lyers,
Verses are grown such merchantable ware,
That now for sonnets sellers are the buyers.

Harrington, b. i. Epig. 40.
Only there passed a law, at the suit of the merchant aduen-
turers of England, against the merchant aduenturers of Lon-
don, for monopolizing and exacting vpon the trade.
Bacon. Hen. VII. p. 163.

For the employment of the procedure of forraine commo-
dities, brought in by merchant-strangers, vpon the native
commodities of the realme.-Id. Ib. p. 66.

Now, why they placed this invention upon the Beaver,
beside the medicall and merchantable commodity of Casto-
sagacity and wisdom of that animal.
reum, or parts conceived to be bitten away, might be the
Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. iii. c. 4.
See a merchant in a storm at sea, and what he values most
he will be sure to throw overboard last. -
South, vol. iv. Ser. 12.
Mr. Hastings says he has two hundred and fifty of that
kind of raw materials, who expect to be speedily manufac-
tured into the merchantable quality I mention.
Burke. On Mr. Fox's East India Bill.

MERCURY, v.
Fr. Mercurial; It. Mer-
MERCURIAL, adj. curiale: Sp. Mercurial;
MERCURIAL, N.
Lat. Mercurialis; of or
MERCURIALIST.
pertaining to Mercury,
MERCURIFY, J. the heathen god; or the
MERCURIOUSNESS. mineral quicksilver. As
MERCURIFICATION. the Fr.-
Phoenician or Hebrew. Mera, born under the planet Mercury; hence humorous,
Mercuriale," of mercury; made of mercury;
de- fantastical; also crafty, subtle, deceitful, thievish,"

MERCHANT. MERCHANTABLE.

Lat.

dea, mercaderia;
Mercari, which Vossius

thinks has been rightly

bed from mercari, by others from the Gr. Mepos, (Cotgrave.) From the

quia res per partes venditur. To merchand,— To buy and sell, to trade, to traffic.

A mercury,—a messenger, a bearer, a vender of

news.

Sol gold is, and Luna silver we threpe;

Mars iren, Mercurie quicksilver we clepe.

Chaucer. The Chanones Yemannes Tale, v. 16,295.

Canis minor

The whiche sterre is mercuriall
By way of kynde.
Gower. Con. A. b. vii.
As gold falls sick being stung with mercury.

Donne. Anatomy of the World, an. 1.
And O! how this (deare prince) the people charmes,
Who flock about thee oft in ravish'd bands,
To see thee yong, yet manage so thine armes,
Have a mercuriall mince and martiall hands.
Stirling. A Parænesis to Prince Henry.
Mercurialists are solitary, much in contemplation, sub-
tile, poets, philosophers, and musing much about such
matters. Burton. Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 190.

In memory of which service he [Thomas Milles] had given him for the crest of his arms, a chapeau with wings, to denote the mercuriousnesse of this messenger.

Fuller. Worthies. Kent.

It cannot be said, as in the former cases (wherein a part only of the metal is mercurified) it may be, that the obtained quicksilver consists of the more solid and ponderous parts of the metal.-Boyle. Works, vol. i. p. 641.

It remains, that I perform the promise I made, of adding the ways of mercurification (as cnymists speak) above referred to, as delivered by Paracelsus, Helmont, and Lully. Id. Ib. vol. i. p. 643. But his mind being more martial than mercurial, he [W. Morison] applied himself to sea-service. Wood. Athena Oxon. vol. i.

Pigott being a more forward and mercurial man got
glory of it among most scholars.-Id. Fasti Oxon. vol. ii.
Thus tickling, lying evasion, with several other such like
cardinal virtues, are a sort of properties pertaining to the
practice of the law, as well as to the mercurial profession.
P. Whitehead. The Gymnasiad, b. i. Note.

But if mercurial scribblers pant for fame,
Those I inspire, and Nonsense is my name.

MERCY, v.
ME'RCY.
ME'RCIABLE.
ME'RCEMENT.
MERCIFUL.
MERCIFULLY.
MERCIFULNESS.
MERCILESS.

MERCILESSLY.
MERCILESSNESS.

MERCIFY, V.

Blacklock. The Gencalogy of Nonsense.

See AMERCE, and the quotation from Rastall. Fr. Mercie It. Merce;-contracted from misericordia, or from miseresce,-say different etymologists; or, adds Skinner, it is from the Lat. Merx. And from the Lat. Merx it has no doubt proceeded through the Low Lat. Merciare, amerciare. Nor. Fr. Amercier, to amerce, to merce, or to mercy, to impose or exact a recompense, to impose a fine: and, as fines were accepted in commutation for life forfeited to the law, or over which power had been obtained in battle; to mercy, to grant mercy, that is, to grant that mercy or fine should be imposed and received as a ransom for life forfeited, was benefit or beneficence to the party to whom the punishment of death was remitted; and was ascribed to-benevolence or willingness to spare and save,-to-clemency, kindness, compassion, pity. (See Caseneuve in Menage.) Further, to cry mercy, in our old chronicles, is to cry ransom; which was acceded to or not, " ' according as it fortuned to fall in the handes of them that were cruel or courtesse." Courtesy, aided by covetousness, commonly prevailed, for mercy paid in ransom was an important portion of the booty in the constant predatory scrimysshes, recorded (by Froissart especially ;) there was nothing gained by slaughter. Thus to cry mercy, was (consequentially) to beg for life; and to grant mercy, was to spare life; and, as this forbearance was attributed wholly to courtesy, and covetousness allowed no share in it, hence the general application of mercy, to—

A willingness to spare and save, to pardon and forgive; to kindness, clemency, compassion, sympathy, pity.

Minshew produces from an old statute of mercie of the king, i. e. to be in hazard of a great Henry VI. the expression,-"to be in grievous penaltie." And yet by our law writers mercie is

retranslated into the Lat. Misericordia. To be in mercy, (see the quotation from Blackstone,) is to be "under fine." To merce, see To AMERce.

Dung, excrement, ordure.

Disputare de nobilitate generis, sine divitiis, est disputare de nobilitate stercoris, saith Nevisanus the lawyer, to dispute of gentry without wealth, is (saving your reverence) to discusse the originall of a mard. Burton. Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 197. Haire o' th' head, burnt clouts, chalk, merds, and clay, &c. B. Jonson. The Alchymist, Act ii. sc. 3. MERE, or A. S. Mare, ge-mare; Dut. MEARE, n. & v. § Meer. Skinner and Minshew think-meare-stones are mark-stones; Dut. Maark steen; Ger. Marck stein, lapides terminales; stones placed to mark the bounds or boundaries; yet Skinner refers meere to the Gr. Meip-ew, to divide: but there are no intermediate steps. To mere,To mark, to bound, to limit, to divide.

When that brave honour of the Latine name,
Which mear'd her rule with Africa, and Byze
With Thames inhabitants of noble fame,
And they which see the dawning day arise.
Spenser. The Ruines of Rome.

Why should he follow?
The itch of his affection should not then
Haue nickt his captainship, at such a point,
When half to half the world oppos'd, he being
The meered question?

Shakespeare. Antony & Cleopatra, Act iii. sc. 2.
So huge a mind could not in lesser rest,
Ne in small meares containe his glory great,
That Albion had conquered first by warlike feat.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. iii. c. 10.

To guide my course aright
What mound or steddy mere is offer'd to my sight
Upon this outstreach'd arm, whilst sailing here at ease.
Drayton. Poly Olbion, s. 1.
The mislaier of a meere stone is to blame. But it is the

unjust judge, that is the capitall remover of land-markes, when he defineth amisse of lands and property.

Bacon. Ess. of Judicature. The descendants of the brave nobility of Holland had, more than all the canals, meeres, and inundations of their country, protected their independence.

Burke. A Letter to a Noble Lord.

Fr. Mère; It. and Sp. Mero; Lat. ME'RELY. Merus, which Vossius thinks is either from μovos, solus, or from μeip-eobal, to divide or separate for merum is that which is divided or

Mid-day,-when the sun is the highest; hence highest or supreme point;-when the sun to those on this side the equator is in the south; hence, southern.

And tables as wel for the gouernacion of the clocke, as for to finde the altitude meridian.-Chaucer. The Astrolabie. Phebus hath left the angle meridional.

Id. The Squieres Tale, v. 10,577.

For of meridians and parallels,

Man hath weav'd out a net, and this net thrown
Upen the heav'ns; and now they are his own.

Donne. The first Anniversary.

The true meridian is a major circle passing through the pies of the world, and the zenith or vertex of any place, exactly dividing the east from the west.

Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. ii. c. 2.

-His grieved look he fixes sad,
Sometimes towards heav'n and the full-blazing sun,
Which now set high in his meridian towre.

Milton. Paradise Lost, b. iv.

In this gate none pass
The vigilance here plac't, but such as come
Well known from heav'n; and since meridian hour
No creature thence.
Id. Ib.

La the circirnations and sphærical rounds of onyons, the circles of the orbes are ofttimes larger, and the meridional Les stand wider upon one side then the other.

Brown. Cyrus' Garden, c. 4. Who the Jewes] reverentially declining the situation of their Temple, nor willing to lye as that stood; doe p...ce their beds from north to south, and delight to sleep meridion-Id Vulgar Errours, b. ii. c. 3.

Christ here discover'd himself after his rising, not to all sapostles at once, nor to any of them with the same evience at first, but by several ascending instances and arguents; till in the end he shone out in his full meridian, made the proof of his resurrection complete in his ascrain-South, vol. v. Ser. 4.

MERIT, v.

The meridional (which they of the Ocean call south, and those of the Mediterranean Sea, Zezzo Giorno) commonly is ay, and boisterous, and in the same city whereof I speak, is wholesome and pleasant.-Boyle. Works, vol. ii. p. 611. Fr. Mériter, mérite; It. Meritare, merito; Sp. Meritar, mèrito; Lat. Meritum, past. part. of Merere, from Gr. Meip-ewv, dividere, whence Mepos, a part or share; meritum ferè partium est, sive labor, sive

MERIT, A. MERITABLE. MERITEDLY. MERITURY. MERITORIOUS. MERITORIOUSLY. MERITORIOUSNESS.

pretium spectetur, (Vossius.)

Merit, the part or share, (sc.) deserved, i. e. arned, gained, by service. Hence to merit generally is

To earn, gain, or acquire by service; to deserve, to possess or obtain a right or claim to-by service, or in return for service; any thing promised in return for service, for any thing done performed: good or ill. And merit,Desert, (sc.) for good or ill done, for good or qualities attained or possessed.

For if thou yeuest it in lening,

I hold it but wretched thing:

Therefore yene it whole and quite.
And thou shalt haue the more merile.

Chaucer. Rom. of the Rose. Arast glotonie the remedie is abstinence, as sayth Galien: holde not meritorie, if he do it only for the hele

body-Id. The Persones Tale.

Wheref the perfite of her lawe

Fre then forth hem was withdrawe,

So that thei stonde in no merite.-Gower. Con. A. b. v.

How meritory is thilke dede

charitee to clothe and fede

The poore folke.

Id. Ib. Prol.

And yet he bode the do it, and they were boude to obay,

dergled and deserued by their obedience.
Sir T. More. Workes, p. 496.

They bring argumentes to proue that it is more meritorious
State fish then flesh.-Tyndall. Workes, p. 171.

Here ye perceive good readers, that to belieue merito

so as it shal be rewarded with saluació, may not be

alone, but fayth with woorking loue.

Sir T. More. Workes, p. 1050.

Val. Ay, ever, ever; and the people generally are very
B. Jonson. The Case is Altered, Act ii. sc. 4.
The other half shall be employ'd in prayers,
That meritorious charge I'll be at also
Yet to confirm you christian.

acceptive, and apt to applaud any meritable work.

Beaum. & Fletch. The Woman's Prize, Act iv. sc. 4.
Fear not the anger of the wise to raise ;
Those best can bear reproof, who merit praise.

Pope. Essay on Criticism.
Merit is an unpardonable piece of popery, with respect to
men as well as to God, and to the rewards of this world, as
well as of the next.-South, vol. v. Ser. 10.

There Philaretus had the curiosity to visit the place on which stood Piur, a pleasant little town once esteemed for its deliciousness, but now much more and more meritedly famous for its ruin.—Boyle. Works, vol. i. The Life, p. xxiii.

They were not only egregious hypocrites, and gross violators of the law, but they also faced down the world, that they did well and meritoriously in those very things, in which their hypocrisy and violation of the law did consist. South, vol. iv. Ser. 3.

Our Saviour himself told his disciples, that men should kill them, and think that in so doing, they did God service. So that here (we see) was a full opinion and persuasion, and a very zealous one too, of the high meritoriousness of what they did.-Id. Ib. vol. ii. Ser. 12.

Had they no ground for hope, but merit, that is to say,
could they look for nothing more than what they should
strictly deserve, their prospect would be very uncomfortable.
Paley, Ser. 19.

MERLE. Fr. Mearle; It. Merla; Sp. Murla;
Lat. Merula. Merula quod mera, id est, sola
volitat, (Var. de Ling. Lat. b. iv.)
The blackbird.

Where thou were wont full merily in May
To walke, and take the dewe by it was day
And heare the merle and mavise many one.

Chaucer. The Complaint of Creseide.

But it was wonder like to bee
Song of mermaidens of the see,
That for hir singen is so clere :

Though we meremaidens clepe hem here,

In English, as is our vsaunce,

Men clepe hem Sereins in France.-Chaucer. R. of the R.
When downe the weedy Trophies, and herselfe,
Fell in the weeping brooke, her cloaths spread wide,
And mermaid-like, awhile they bore her vp.

Shakespeare. Hamlet, Act iv. sc. 7.

And as for the meremaides called Nereides, it is no fabulous tale that goeth of them: for looke how painters draw them, so they are indeed: only their bodie is rough and skaled all over, even in those parts wherein they resemble a woman. I am able to bring forth for mine authors divers knights of Rome right worshipfull persons and of good credite, who testifie that in the coast of the Spanish Ocean neare unto Gades, they haue seene a mereman [marinum

hominem] in every respect resembling a man as perfectly in

all parts of the bodie as might bee.

MERRY.
MERRILY,

Holland. Plinie, b. ix. c. 5. A. S. Myrig, mirige, hilaris, jucundus, lætus; A. S. Myrhth, hilaritas, jucunditas, lætitia. Skinner derives from the Ger. Mehren, augere, to magnify or dilate. Junius,-from the Gr. Mupi-Sew, to anoint, because the ancients anointed themselves at public festivities. Tooke derives from the Goth. Mer-yan; A. S. Merran, mirran, myrran, to dissipate, to disperse, to spread

MERRIMENT.
ME'RRINESS.
MERRIMAKE, v.
MERRIMAKE, N.
MIRTH, v.
MIRTH, 2.
MIRTHFUL.
MIRTHFULLY.

MIRTHLESS.

Le as these meritemongers doe which esteeme them- abroad, to scatter; and of this verb, he affirms

after their merits, think themselves perfect in

so

bat their workes shall not onely helpe themselves

Matters-Latimer,

Ser. 3. Upon the Lord's Prayer.

Extol not riches then, the toil of fools,

ise man's cumbrance if not snare, more apt

To slacken vertue, and abate her edge,

Then prompt her to do ought may merit praise.

mirth to be the third person, and to mean,

"That which dissipateth, viz. care, sorrow, melancholy." (See To MAR.) It is now consequentially applied to

A lightness, airiness, hilarity of spirit; free from all care or trouble, all seriousness or sadness;

Milton. Paradise Regained, b. ii. formerly, also, to a calmer feeling of pleasure or

Milton's epithet, most melancholy, applied to the nightingale, is evidently in correspondence with the context alluding to the metamorphosis of Philomela into that bird. He imagines her singing "in her sweetest, saddest plight." Chaucer's merry bird" is the true English songstress, rattling out her notes, and, like the lark, though at different hours, "startling the dull night;" or even like the cock, who with "lively din, scatters the rear of darkness thin." Such also was Chaucer's Chaunticlere: "His vois merier than the mery orgon." Milton might have prefixed the adj. merry" to the hounds and horn," which cheerly rouse the slumbering morn."

Tho me barnde grete townes & courtes day and nygt,
And thogte yt was mury joie, to se so fair alygt.
R. Gloucester, p. 69.
So that joye and murthe y now among hem was there.
Id. p. 50.

With joy and myrth, i now
Moche heighe folke of the londe sone to him drow.

Id. p. 466.
& ther oure Inglis men resceyued fulle miry.
R. Brunne, p. 308.
And somme murthes to make. as mynstrals conneth.
Piers Plouhman, p. 3.
And men enabitynge the erthe schulen haue ioie on hem,
and thei shulen make myrie.-Wiclif. Apocalips, c. 11.
Ioie we and make we myrthe and ghiue glorie to him.
Id. Ib. c. 19.

Blysse of my ioye, that ofte me murthed, is turned into galle, to thynke on thing that may not at my wil in armes me hent.-Chaucer. The Testament of Loue, b. i.

The nightingale with so merry a note
Answered hem, that all the wood runge.

Id. The Flower and the Leaf.
His vois [the cock's] was merier than the mery orgon
On Masse daies that in the churches gon.
Id. Nonnes Preestes Tale, v. 14,858.

A day or two ye shall have digestives :-
Or herbe ive growing in our yerd, that mery is:
Pike hem right as they grow and ete hem in,
Beth mery, husbond, for your father kin;
Dredeth no dreme I can say you no more.

Id. Ib. v. 14,974.

And was saluted at the entering into the towne of a mery
fellow, which sayd, Salue rex regis tui, atque regni sui:
Hayle both king of thy king, and also of his realme.
Tyndall. Workes, p. 370.
If anye of you be eueyll vexed, let hym praye, If anye of
you bee mery, let him sing psalmes.-Bible, 1551. James, c.5.
But whiles I doo these mirthless meeters vse,
This rashe conceite doth reue me from delight.
Gascoigne. Dan Bartholomew of Bathe.
There eke my feeble barke awhile may stay,
Till mery wynd and weather call her thence away.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. i. c. 12.
Loren. Come, hoe, and wake Diana with a hymne,
With sweetest tutches pearce your Mistresse eare,
And draw her home with Musicke.

Jessi. I am neuer merry when I heare sweete musicke.
Shakespeare. Merchant of Venice, Act v. sc. 1
But when he saw her, toy, and gibe, and geare,
And pass the bonds of modest merimake,
Her dalliaunce he despis'd, and follies did forsake.
Spenser. Faerie Queene. b. ii. c. 6.

That rownd about him dissolute did play
Their wanton follies, and light meriment.

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 6. Ber. Well, sir, be it as the stile shall give vs cause to clime in the merrinesse.

Shakespeare. Love's Labour Lost, Act i. sc. 1.

I'm wondrous merry-hearted, I could laugh now.
Beaum. & Fletch. Two Noble Kinsmen, Act ii. sc. 1.
Great joy was made that day of young and old,
And solemne feast proclayind throughout the land,
That their exceeding merth may not be told.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. i. c. 12.

The rest
Of our young ladies in their wanton blood,
Tell mirthful tales in course that fill the room
With laughter.

Beaum. & Fletch. The Maid's Tragedy, Act i. sc. 1. This nephta is an oily or fat liquid substance, in colour not unlike soft white clay; of quality hot and dry, so as it is apt to inflame with the sunbeams, or heat that issues from fire; as was mirthfully experimented upon one of Alexander's pages, who, being annointed, with much ado escaped burning.-Sir T. Herbert. Travels, p. 182.

Whilst his gamesome cut-tail'd cur
With his mirthless master plays.

Drayton. The Shepherd's Sirena.
Th' Italian merry-andrews took their place,
And quite debauch'd the Stage with lewd grimace.
Dryden, Epil. 23.
That any man should be merry, because another has
offended God, or undone himself, is certainly a thing very
unnatural.-South, vol. vii. Ser. 7.

For if these [great crimes and great miseries] be made the matter of our mirth, what can be the argument of our sorrow? Id. Ib.

I said: the feast was serv'd, the bowl was crown'd;
To the king's pleasure went the mirthful round.
Prior. Solomon, b. ii.
Conscious of her approach, the wanton birds,
Instinctive, carol forth, in livelier lays,
And merrier melody, their grateful hymn.
Thompson. Sickness, b. iv.
Steep'd grain, and curdled milk with dulcet cream
Soft temper'd, in full merriment they quaff,
And cast about their gibes.

Dyer. The Fleece, b. ii.

Nor doth his skilful hand refuse
Acquaintance with the tuneful muse,
When round the mirthful board the harp is borne.
West. Olympic Odes of Pindar, Ode 1.

This self-pleas'd king of emptiness permit
At the dear toilette harmlessly to sit;
As mirthless infants, idling out the day,
With wooden swords, or toothless puppies play.

Warton. Fashion, a Satire.

MERSION. See MERGE. ME'SENTERY. Į Fr. Mésentère; It. MesenMESERA'ICK. terio; Sp. Mesenterio; Lat. Mesenterium; Gr. Merevтeptov, from μeros, middle, and EVTEрov, the intestine. See the quotation from Fletcher.

Meseraich, Gr. Μεσαραιον, μεσος, and αραία,

venter.

Or spreads his subtle nets from sight
With twinkling glasses, to betray
The larks that in the meshes light,
Or makes the fearful hare his prey.

Dryden. Horace, Epode 2.
And in his hand, of slightest texture, bore
A curious net, whose meshes, light and rare,
Scarce shone distinguish'd from th' unbodied air.

Cambridge. The Scribleriad, b. vi.
Now with barb'd hook, or meshy net, they try
From quiet floods to drag the scaly fry.

Hoole. Orlando Furioso, b. vii.

ME'SLINE. This word is variously written
maslin, mastline, mesline, and by Bacon misselane;
and his authority has suggested miscellane, Lat.
Miscellaneus, to be the true word. Hall writes
misceline and mesline.
Meslinge or meslange, a medley or mixture, from
It is more probably the Fr.
the verb meslanger, mesler, to meddle or mix. The
Dutch have Misschteluyn, from mischelen, to mix.
A medley or mixture, (sc.) of corn, metal, &c.
Hen. It must not be iron, for quicksilver is the tyrant of
metals, and will soon fret it.
Hen. Nor brass, nor copper, nor mastlin, nor mineral.
Brewer. Lingua, Act iv. sc. 1.
Herevnto likewise, bicause it is drie and brickle in the
working (for it will hardelie be made vp handsomelie into
loaues) some adde a portion of rie meale in our time, whereby
the rough drinesse or drie roughnes therof is somewhat
qualified, and then it is named miscelin, that is, bread made
of mingled corne.-Holinshed. Descrip. of Eng. b. ii. c. 6.

Take thee, therefore, all kinds of grain, wheat, and barley,
and beans, and lentiles, and fitches, and put them all toge-
ther, and make bread of this mesline, and eat thereof for the
space of three hundred and ninety days.
Bp. Hall. Hard Texts. Ezekiel, iv. 9.
For what reason is there, which should but induce, and
therefore much less inforce us to think that care of dissimi-
litude between the people of God and the heathen nations
about them, was any more the cause of forbidding them to
put on garments of sundry stuff, than in charging them
withal not to sow their fields with meslin.
Hooker. Ecclesiasticall Politie, b. iv. § 6.

It hath not been practised, but it is thought to be of use,
to make some missellane in corne; as if you sow a few
beans with wheat your wheat will be the better.
Bacon. Naturall Historie, § 670.
Mended (saith your doctor) and yet admitted the mis-
celine rabble for the prophane.
Bp. Hall. An Apologie against Brownists.

MESS, v. From Mes, metz; It. Messo.
MESS, n.
Skinner suggests-Bar. Lat. Mis-
ME'SSMATE. sus, q.d. cibus missus, meat or
food sent, sent round to those who were to eat it;
he seems, however, to suspect that it has some
connexion with meat; and Tooke considers it to
be the past part. of metsian cibare, to furnish meat
or food. By usage, to mess is—

To feed (sc.) together, as soldiers or sailors do. A mess,-food, a quantity of food: sometimes The mesenterium, (or midst amongst the entrails.) whence applied to a large quantity, or hotchpot, more than one can manage; and hence, (met.) the P. Fletcher. The Purple Island, c. 2. Note 46. common expression, to get into a mess, to get into But [pepper] being in greater quantity, dissipateth the difficulty, into a bad plight. wind; and itself getteth to the mesentery veines.

it takes the name, ties and knits the entrails together.

Bacon. Naturall Historie, Cent. 1. s. 44.

So that it (medicamentally) entreth not the veins with those electuaries wherein it is mixed: but taketh leave of the permeant parts, at the mouthes of the meseraicks, and accompanieth the inconvertible portion into the seige.

Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. ii. c. 5.

Dut. Masche; Fr. Maches, maile; It. Maglia; Lat. Macula; the hole ME SHY. of a net between thread and thread; applied to the entire net.

To take or catch in a net or snare, to ensnare, to entangle.

How smal a net may take and meash a hart of gentle kinde. Surrey. Description of the Fickle Affections, &c. Meashed in the breers, that erst was onely torne.

Wyatt. The Louer that fled Loue, &c.

The flies by chance mesht in the hair,
By the bright radiance thrown
From her clear eyes, rich jewels were,
They so like diamonds shone.

Drayton. The Shepherd's Sirena.
This but sweats thee
Like a mesh-nag.—Beaum & Fletch. Bonduca, Activ. sc. 1.

With your brode knyfe properly unclose the napkyn, that the bread is in, and set the bread all beneath the salt towards the seconde messe.

Leland. Collectanea. The Inthronization of Abp. Neville.
Better is a messe of potage with loue, than a fat oxe with
euel wyl.-Bible, 1551. Prouerbes, c. 16.

I desyre but one messe onelye, I will thou geue me with-
out farther delay, John Baptist's head in a charger.
Udal. Mark, c. 6.
God uses us as Joseph did his brother Benjamin; we
have many changes of raiment, and our mess is five times
bigger than the provision made for our brothers of the crea-
tion.-Bp. Taylor, vol. ii. Ser. 26.

Of herbs, and other country messes,
Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses.

Milton. L'Allegro.

Cease, rude Boreas, blust'ring railer

List ye landsmen all to me!
Messmates, hear a brother sailor

Sing the dangers of the sea.-G. A. Stevens. The Storm 1 should only stipulate that these new mess Johns in robe and coronets should keep some sort of bounds in the demo cratick and levelling principles which are expected from their titled pulpits.-Burke. On the French Revolution.

MESSAGE. Fr. Message; It. Messaggio. ME'SSAGER, Or Sp. Mensage; from Low Lat. ME'SSENGER. Missaticum, and this (Menage) from missus, one sent in old Fr. Mes. (See Di Cange, in v. Missus.) The old Fr. Mes was applied both to the Message and messager. See in Roquefort. Serenius composes message of the Sw. Med, with, and sacga, to say or speak; though form. the Swedes have not the word in its compound

There is not the least thing in the world, which the tempter offers a man for nothing; not so much as a pitiful mess or morsel to relieve thy craving, starving appetites. South, vol. vi. Ser. 6. My friend Alcheic formed once a party for my entertainment, composed of all the prime wits and philosophers of Fourli, and each of us brought his mess along with him to the place where we assembled.

Hume. Essays, vol. ii. A Dialogue.

Any thing sent, (sc.) information, news; order
or request, sent by one to another. Messenger,--
One sent with, one who carries or conveys,
news or information, an errand.
Tho the Duc Wyllam wuste, that he was y come ney,
A moncke he sende hym in message.
R. Gloucester, p. 359
He lette send hys messageres in to al Grece wel wyde.
Id. p. 13
Id. p. 46

The emperoure's messengeres to Engelond hire com.

This was his message, his Danes wild he venge
Ageyn nim in bataile.
R. Brunne, p. 40
Messengers he sent thorghout Inglond.-Id. p. 2.
Therefore we usen message for Crist as if God monestit!
bi us, we bisechen for Crist be ghe recounceilid to God.
Wielif. 2 Corynth. c. 5
Now then are we messengers in the roume of Chryste euer
as though God did besech you thorow vs.-Bible, 1551. Ib.
And after this, beforn the highe bord
He with a manly vois sayd his message.

Chaucer. The Squieres Tale, v. 10,413

The eye is a good messenger,

Which can to the hart in such manner
Tidings sende, that hath sene

To void him of his paines clene.-Id. Rom. of the Rose.
The raynbowe is hir messagere.-Gower. Con. A. b. v.
But, eare he thus had sayd,
With flying speede, and seeming great pretence
Came running in, much like a man dismay'd,
A messenger with letters, which his message sayd.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. I. c. 12
How I begin

To verifie that solemn message late,
On which I sent thee to the Virgin pure
In Galilee, that she should bear a son
Great in renown, and call'd the Son of God.

Milton. Paradise Regained, b. i
For God will deigne

To visit oft the dwellings of just men
Delighted, and with frequent intercourse
Thither will send his winged messengers

On errands of supernal grace.-Id. Paradise Lost, b. vii
The angels are still dispatched by God upon all his grea
messages to the world: and therefore their very name in
Greek, which is Ayyeλos, signifies a messenger.

MESSIAS.
MESSI'ASHIP. S

teus.

South, vol. viii. Ser. 3 Heb. from nv, he anointed. See the quotation from Por

The womman seith to hym, I woot that Messias is comen that is seid Crist.-Wiclif. Jon, c. 4.

The woman sayd vnto hym: I wot well Messias shal come, whiche is called Christ.-Bible, 1551. Ib.

At thy nativity a glorious quire

Of angels in the fields of Bethlehem sung
To shepherds watching at their folds by night,
And told them the Messiah now was born.

Milton. Paradise Regained, b. i
There was such demonstration and evidence given t
Jesus's being the true Messias by his coming in the flesh
that it cast its discovering influence both backwards and
forwards; and equally baffled and confuted the pretences o
those who went before, and those who rose up after.
South, vol. iii. Ser. 7

A crown will not want pretenders to claim it, nor usurpers if their power serves them to possess it: and hereupon th Messiaship was pretended to by several impostors.-Id. I

The word Messiah signifies anointed; that is a perso appointed to some high station, dignity, or office; becaus originally among the Eastern nation's men so appointed (pa ticularly kings, priests, and prophets) were anointed wit oil.-Porteus. Truth and Divine Origin of the Christ. Rev.