Critical and Historical Essays. Volume 1

Moore, Dr., father of Sir John Moore, European traveller, and author of the novel Zeluco.

Moorish Envoy, Algerine in Humphrey Clinker.

Mountain of Light, the Koh-i-noor, which after many adventures is now one of the English crown jewels.

Mucius, a Roman, who, when condemned to the stake, thrust his right hand unflinchingly into a fire lit for a sacrifice. He was spared and given the name Scaevola, i. e. left-handed.

Murray, orator; afterwards Earl of Mansfield, and Lord Chief Justice (1705-93).

NAPIER, COLONEL, served under Sir John Moore. Like Southey he wrote a History of the Peninsular War.

Nimeguen, treaty of; by this it was agreed that France should restore all her Dutch conquests, but should keep the Spanish conquest of Franche-Comte, a clause which naturally incensed the Emperor and the King of Spain.

Nollekens, Joseph, the eminent English sculptor, and friend of George III. (1737-1823).

Nuzzurs, presents to persons in authority.

OATES, Bedloe, Dangerfield, in 1678 pretended to have discovered a “Popish Plot” which aimed at overthrowing the King and Protestantism.

Odoacer, a Hun, who became emperor in 476 and was assassinated by his colleague, Theodoric (ib.) the Ostrogoth in 493.

O’Meara, Barry Edward, Napoleon’s physician in St. Helena, and author of A Voice from St. Helena; or, Napoleon in Exile.

Onomasticon, a Greek dictionary of antiquities, in ten books, arranged according to subject-matter.

Onslow, Arthur, Speaker of the House of Commons from 1728 to 1761.

Oromasdes and Arimanes, Ormuzd and Ahriman, the embodiments of the principles of good and evil respectively, in the Zoroastrian religion.

Oxenstiern, Chancellor to Gustavus Adolphus and the director of the negotiations which led to the Peace of Westphalia and the close of the Thirty Years’ War.

PAGE, SIR FRANCIS, a judge whose “reputation for coarseness and brutality (e.g. Pope, Dunciad, iv. 2730) is hardly warranted by the few reported cases in which he took part.” (1661?-1741).

Palais Royal, in Paris, formerly very magnificent.

Pannonia, roughly equivalent to the modern Hungary.

Pasquin, Anthony, a fifteenth-century Italian tailor, noted for his caustic wit.

Pastor Fido, a pastoral play, composed in 1585 by Guarini on the model of Aminta.

Patna, massacre of.

Peacock Throne, a gilded and jewelled couch with a canopy, described by a French jeweller named Tavernier, who saw it in 1665, and possibly the present throne of the Shah of Persia.

Perceval, Spencer, supported the Tory party, and became its leader in 1809; assassinated in the Commons Lobby, 1812.

Perwannahs, magisterial documents containing instructions or orders.

Peters, Hugh, a famous Independent divine and chaplain to the Parliamentary forces, executed in 1660 for his alleged share in the death of Charles 1. He was an upright and genial man, but somewhat lacking in moderation and taste.

Petit Trianon, a chateau built for Madame du Barry by Louis XV, and afterwards the favourite resort of Marie Antoinette. In a subsequent edition Macaulay substituted Versailles.

Phalaris, a tyrant of Agrigentum in Sicily (sixth century).

Pigot, Governor of Madras when Clive was in Bengal, and also, as Lord Pigot, in the time of Warren Hastings.

Pinto, Fernandez Mendez, a Portuguese traveller (d. 1583), who visited the Far East and possibly landed in the Gulf of Pekin.

Politian, one of the early scholars of the Renaissance; patronized by Lorenzo de Medici (1454-94).

Pontiff, that inglorious, Peter Marone (Celestine V.), who was tricked into abdicating the papacy for Boniface VIII, and died in prison.

Porto Novo and Pollilore, where Coote defeated Hyder Ali in July and August 1781, and so finished a long campaign in the Carnatic.

Powis, Lord, Edward Clive, created Earl of Powis in 1804.

Powle, a leading Politician and lawyer in the events connected with the accession Of William III.

Prynne, William, a Puritan, who attacked the stage and the Queen’s virtue, and suffered by order of the Star Chamber. In late life he changed his opinions, was imprisoned by Cromwell, and favoured by Charles II.

Pyrenees, treaty of the, closed the war between France and Spain (1660), which had continued twelve years after the Peace of Westphalia was signed. For the other treaties mentioned here see the essay on “The War of the Spanish Succession,” in vol. ii.

RAPIN, a Huguenot who joined the army of William of Orange, and wrote a Histoire d’Angleterre which surpassed all its predecessors.

Ricimer, a fifth-century Swabian soldier who deposed the Emperor Avitus, and then set up and deposed Majorian, Libius Severus and Anthemius, and finally set up Olybrius.

Rix dollar, a Scandinavian coin worth between three and four shillings.

Roe, Sir Thomas, an English traveller who, in 1615, went on an embassy to Jehangir at Agra.

Rohilcund, north-west of Oude.

Rohillas, Mussulman mountaineers inhabiting Rohilcund (q.v.).

Russell, Lord William, the Hampden of the Restoration period. Fought hard for the exclusion of James II. from the crown; unjustly executed for alleged share in the “Rye House Plot” (1639-83). Algernon Sydney (1621-83) was a fellow-worker and sufferer.

SACHEVERELL, Henry, a famous divine of Queen Anne’s reign, who was impeached by the Whigs for forwardly preaching the doctrine of non-resistance.

Sackville, Lord George, the general commanding the British cavalry at Minden. Nervousness led to his disobeying a critical order to charge, which would have completed the French rout, and he was court-martialled and degraded.

Saint Cecilia, Mrs. Sheridan, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in this character because of her love of, and skill in, music.

Salmacius, the Latin name of Claude de Saumaise an eminent French scholar and linguist (1588-1653), whose Defence of Charles 1. provoked Milton’s crushing reply, Defensio Pro populo Anglicano.

Sandys, Samuel, opposed Sir R. Walpole, on whose retirement he became Chancellor of the Exchequer, and afterwards a peer.

Sattara, a fortified town c. one hundred miles southeast from Bombay.

Saxe, the foremost French general in the War of the Austrian Succession (1696-1750.)

Scaligers, Julius Caesar S., a learned Italian writer and classical scholar (1484-1558) and his son Joseph Justus S., who lived in France and was also an eminent scholar.

Schedules A and B. In the Reform Act Of 1832 Schedule A comprised those boroughs which were no longer to be represented, B those which were to send one member instead of two.

Scroggs, the infamous Chief-Justice of the King’s Bench in the reign of Charles II., impeached in 680, and pensioned by Charles.

Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1758 to 1768.

Seigneur Oreste and Madame Andromaque. See Racine’s Andromaque.

Settle, Elkanah. See Flecknoe and Settle.

Sidney, Algernon, condemned and executed on scanty and illegal evidence on a charge of implication in the Rye House Plot of 1683.

Somers, President of the Council (1708-10) a great Whig leader (he had defended the Seven Bishops) and patron of literature (1650-1716).

Spinola, Spanish marquis and general who served his country with all his genius and fortune for naught (1571-1630).

Sporus, a favourite of Nero. Owing to his resemblance to that emperor’s wife he was, after her death, dressed as a woman, and went through a marriage ceremony with Nero.

Stafford, Lord, executed in 1680, on a false charge of complicity in Oates’s Popish Plot.

Stanley, Mr., fourth Earl of Derby, the “Rupert of Debate.”

Stella, Esther Johnson, the daughter of one of Lady Giffard’s friends.

St. Martin’s Church, the site of the present G. P. 0., formerly a monastery, church, and “sanctuary.”

Sudbury and Old Sarum, rotten boroughs, the one in Suffolk disfranchised in 1844, the other near Salisbury in 1832.

Sudder Courts, courts of criminal and civil jurisdiction which, in Macaulay’s day, existed alongside the Supreme Court, but which, since 1858, have with the Supreme Court, been merged in the “High Courts.”

Sunnuds, certificates of possession.

Surajah Dowlah, better Suraj-ud-daulah.

Swan River, in the S.W. of Australia, to which country the name of New Holland was at first given.

Switzer, that brave, Ulrich Zwingli, the Swiss reformer, who fell at Cappel in 1531.

TALLEYRAND, French diplomatist (1754-1831), rendered good service to the Revolution, was influential under Buonaparte and Louis Philippe’s ambassador to England.

Talma, Francis Joseph, a famous French actor of tragic parts, who passed part of his life in England (1763-1826).

Talus, Sir Artegal’s iron man, who in Spenser’s Faery Queen, Book v., represents the executive power of State Justice.

Tamerlane, the Tartar who invaded India in 1398, and whose descendant, Baber, founded the Mogul dynasty.

Tanjore, a district of Madras, noted for its fertility; ceded to the East India Company by the Marathas in 1799. The town of Tanjore is about 300 miles south from Madras.

Temple, Lord Pitt’s brother-in-law. Cf. Macaulay’s severe description of him in the second “Essay on Chatham.” (vol. v. of this edition).

Themis, Justice.

Theodosius, emperor of the East 378-395, and for a short time of the West also. He partly checked the Goths’ advance.

Theramenes, Athenian philosopher and general (third century B.C.), unjustly accused and condemned to drink hemlock.

Theseus, the, one of the most perfect statues in the “Elgin marbles,” of the British Museum.

Thurtell, John, a notorious boxer and gambler (b. 1794), who was hanged at Hertford on January 9th, 1824, for the brutal murder of William Weare, one of his boon-companions.

Thirty-Ninth, i.e. the Dorsets.

Thyrsis, a herdsman in the Idylls of Theocritus; similarly a shepherd in Virgil’s Eclogues; hence a rustic or shepherd.

Timoleon, the Corinthian who expelled the tyrants from the Greek cities of Sicily (415-337 B.C.).

Tindal, Nicholas, clergyman and miscellaneous author (1687-1774).

Topehall, Smollett’s drunken fox-hunter in Roderick Random.

Torso, lit. “trunk,” a statue which has lost its head and members.

Torstenson, Bernard, pupil of Gustavus Adolphus, and General-in-Chief of the Swedish army from 1641. He carried the Thirty Years’ War into the heart of Austria.

Trapbois, the usurer in Scott’s Fortunes of Nigel ch. xvii.-xxv.

Trissotin, a literary fop in Moliere’s Les Femmes Savantes.

Turcaret, the title-character in one of Le Sage’s comedies.

Turgot, the French statesman (1727-81) who for two years managed the national finances under Louis XVI., and whose reforms, had they not been thwarted by the nobility and the king’s indecision, would have considerably mitigated the violence of the Revolution.

Turk’s Head. The most famous coffeehouse of this name was in the Strand, and was one of Johnson’s frequent resorts.

UGOLINO See Dante’s Inferno, xxxii., xxxiii.,

VANSITTART, was governor of Bengal in the interval between Clive’s first and second administrations.

Vattel, the great jurist whose Droit des Gens, a work on Natural Law and its relation to International Law, appeared in 1758.

Vellore, west of Arcot.

Verres, the Roman governor of Sicily (73-77 B.C.), for plundering which island he was brought to trial and prosecuted by Cicero.

Virgil’s foot race. In Aeneid v. 325 ff it is told how Nisus, who was leading, tripped Salius, his second, that his, friend Euryalus might gain the prize.

WALDEGRAVE, Lord, Governor to George III. before the latter’s accession; married Walpole’s niece.

Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland, the ablest commander on the Catholic side in the Thirty Years’ War.

Warburg, like Minden 1759, a victory gained by Ferdinand of Brunswick over the French (1760).

Watson, Admiral, made no protest against his name being signed, and claimed his share of the profits.

Western, Mrs. See Fielding’s Tom Jones.

Whithed, Mr. W., Poet-laureate from 1757 to 1785; author of the School for Lovers, etc.

Wild, Jonathan, a detective who turned villain and was executed for burglary in 1725; the hero of one of Fielding s stories.

Williams, Sir Charles Hanbury, Ambassador to Berlin (1746-49), His satires against Walpole’s opponents are easy and humorous (d. 1759).

Winnington. In turn Lord of the Admiralty, Lord of the Treasury, And Paymaster of the Forces. He had infinitely more wit than principle.

Wood’s patent the permission granted to Wood of Wolverhampton to mint copper coin for Ireland, which called forth Swift’s Drapier Letters.

YORKE, Attorney-General; Earl of Hardwicke (q.v.).

ZEMINDARS, landholders,

Zincke and Petitot, eighteenth and seventeenth century enamel painters who came to England from the Continent.