=Mercu´tio=, kinsman of Prince Escalus, and Romeo’s friend. An airy, sprightly, elegant young nobleman, so full of wit and fancy that Dryden says Shakespeare was obliged to kill him in the third act, lest the poet himself should have been killed by Mercutio.--Shakespeare, _Romeo and Juliet_ (1598). =Mercutio of Actors= (_The_), William Lewis (1748-1811). =Mercy=, a young pilgrim, who accompanied Christiana in her walk to Zion. When Mercy got to the Wicket Gate, she swooned from fear of being refused admittance. Mr. Brisk proposed to her, but being told that she was poor, left her, and she was afterwards married to Matthew, the eldest son of Christian.--Bunyan, _Pilgrim’s Progress_, ii. (1684). =Merdle= (_Mr._), banker, a skit on the directors of the Royal British bank, and on Mr. Hudson, “the railway king.” Mr. Merdle, of Harley Street, was called the “Master Mind of the Age.” He became insolvent, and committed suicide. Mr. Merdle was a heavily made man, with an obtuse head, and coarse, mean, common features. His chief butler said of him, “Mr. Merdle never was a gentleman, and no ungentlemanly act on Mr. Merdle’s part would surprise me.” The great banker was “the greatest forger and greatest thief that ever cheated the gallows.” Lord Decimus [_Barnacle_] began waving Mr. Merdle about ... as Gigantic Enterprise. The wealth of England, Credit, Capital, Prosperity, and all manner of blessings.--Bk. ii. 24. _Mrs. Merdle_, wife of the bank swindler. After the death of her husband, society decreed that Mrs. Merdle should still be admitted among the sacred few; so Mrs. Merdle was still received and patted on the back by the upper ten.--C. Dickens, _Little Dorrit_ (1857). =Meredith= (_Mr._), one of the conspirators with Redgauntlet.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.). _Meredith_ (_Mr. Michael_), “the man of mirth,” in the managing committee of the Spa hotel.--Sir. W. Scott, _St. Ronan’s Well_. (time, George III.). _Meredith_ (_Sir_), a Welsh knight.--Sir W. Scott, _Castle Dangerous_ (time, Henry I.). _Meredith_ (_Owen_), pseudonym of the Hon. Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton (Lord Lytton), author of _The Wanderer_ (1859), etc. This son of Lord Bulwer Lytton, poet and novelist, succeeded to the peerage in 1873. =Me´rida= (_Marchioness_), betrothed to Count Valantia.--Mrs. Inchbald, _Child of Nature_. =Meridarpax=, the pride of mice. Now nobly towering o’er the rest, appears A gallant prince that far transcends his years; Pride of his sire, and glory of his house, And more a Mars in combat than a mouse; His action bold, robust his ample frame, And Meridarpax his resounding name. Parnell, _The Battle of the Frogs and Mice_, iii. (about 1712).