=Mede´a and Absyr´tus.= When Medea fled with Jason from Colchis (in Asia), she murdered her brother, Absyrtus, and, cutting the body into several pieces, strewed the fragments about, that the father might be delayed in picking them up, and thus be unable to overtake the fugitives. Meet I an infant of the duke of York, Into as many gobbets will I cut it As wild Medea young Absyrtus did. Shakespeare, 2 _Henry VI._ act v. sc. 2 (1591). =Mede´a’s Kettle.= Medea, the sorceress, cut to pieces an old ram, threw the parts into her caldron, and by her incantations changed the old ram into a young lamb. The daughters of Pelias thought they would have their father restored to youth, as Æson had been. So they killed him, and put the body in Medea’s caldron; but Medea refused to utter the needful incantation, and so the old man was not restored to life. Change the shape, and shake off age. Get thee Medea’s kettle, and be boiled anew.--W. Congreve, _Love for Love_, iv. (1695). =Médecin Malgré Lui= (_Le_) a comedy by Molière (1666). The “enforced doctor” is Sganarelle, a faggot-maker, who is called in by Géronte to cure his daughter of dumbness. Sganarelle soon perceives that the malady is assumed in order to prevent a hateful marriage, and introduces her lover as an apothecary. The dumb spirit is at once exorcised, and the lovers made happy with “pills matrimoniac.” In 1723 Fielding produced a farce called _The Mock Doctor_, which was based on this comedy. The doctor he calls “Gregory,” and Géronte “Sir Jasper.” Lucinde, the dumb girl, he calls “Charlotte,” and Anglicizes her lover, Léandre, into “Leander.” =Medham= (“_the keen_”), one of Mahomet’s swords. =Medicine= (_The Father of_), Aretæos of Cappadocia (second and third centuries). ⁂ Also Hippoc´rates, of Cos (B.C. 460-357). =Medina=, the Golden Mean personified, Step-sister of Elissa (_parsimony_) and Perissa (_extravagance_). The three sisters could never agree on any subject.--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, ii. (1590). =Medley= (_Matthew_), the factotum of Sir Walter Waring. He marries Dolly, daughter of Goodman Fairlop, the woodman.--Sir H. P. Dudley, _The Woodman_ (1771). =Medo´ra=, the beloved wife of Conrad, the corsair. When Conrad was taken captive by the Pacha Seyd, Medora sat day after day expecting his return, and feeling the heart-anguish of hope deferred. Still he returned not, and Medora died. In the mean time, Gulnare, the favorite concubine of Seyd, murdered the pacha, liberated Conrad, and sailed with him to the corsair’s island home. When, however, Conrad found his wife dead, he quitted the island, and went no one knew whither. The sequel of the story forms the poem called _Lara_.--Byron, _The Corsair_ (1814).