=Melibee=, a shepherd, and the reputed father of Pastorella. Pastorella married Sir Calidore.--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, vi. 9 (1596). “Melibee” is Sir Francis Walsingham. In the _Ruins of Time_, Spenser calls him “Melibœ.” Sir Philip Sidney (the “Sir Calidore” of the _Faëry Queen_) married his daughter Frances. Sir Francis Walsingham died in 1590, so poor that he did not leave enough to defray his funeral expenses. =Melibœus=, one of the shepherds in _Eclogue_ i. of Virgil. Spenser, in the _Ruins of Time_ (1591), calls Sir Francis Walsingham “the good Melibœ;” and in the last book of the _Faëry Queen_ he calls him “Melibee.” =Melin´da=, cousin of Sylvia. She loves Worthy, whom she pretends to dislike, and coquets with him for twelve months. Having driven her modest lover to the verge of distraction, she relents, and consents to marry him.--G. Farquhar, _The Recruiting Officer_ (1705). =Mel´ior=, a lovely fairy, who carried off, in her magic bark, Parthen´opex, of Blois, to her secret island.--_Parthenopex de Blois_ (a French romance, twelfth century). =Melisen´dra= (_The princess_), natural daughter of Marsilio, and the “supposed daughter of Charlemagne.” She eloped with Don Gayferos. The king, Marsilio, sent his troops in pursuit of the fugitive. Having made Melisendra his wife, Don Gayferos delivered her up captive to the Moors at Saragossa. This was the story of the puppet-show of Master Peter, exhibited to Don Quixote and his squire at “the inn beyond the hermitage.”--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. ii. 7 (1615). =Melissa=, a prophetess who lived in Merlin’s cave. Bradamant gave her the enchanted ring to take to Roge´ro; so, under the form of Atlantês, she went to Alcīna’s isle, delivered Rogēro, and disenchanted all the captives in the island. In bk. xix. Melissa, under the form of Rodŏmont, persuaded Agramant to break the league which was to settle the contest by single combat, and a general battle ensued.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516). ⁂ This incident of bk. xix. is similar to that in Homer’s _Iliad_, iii. iv., where Paris and Menelāos agree to settle the contest by single combat; but Minerva persuades Pandăros to break the truce, and a general battle ensues. =Me´lita= (now _Malta_). The point to which the vessel that carried St. Paul was driven was the “Porto de San Paolo,” and according to tradition, the cathedral of Citta Vecchia stands on the site of the house of Publius, the Roman governor. St. Paul’s grotto, a cave in the vicinity, is so named in honor of this great apostle. =Meli´tus=, a gentleman of Cyprus, in the drama called _The Laws of Candy_, by Beaumont and Fletcher (1647). =Melizyus=, king of Thessaly, in the golden era of Saturn. He was the first to tame horses for the use of man. _Melizyus_ (_King_) held his court in the Tower of Chivalry, and there knighted Graunde Amoure, after giving him the following advice: