Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 3: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's HandbookBrewer, Ebenezer Cobham
General
Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 3: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook
Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham
Allusions; Fiction -- Dictionaries; Literature -- Dictionaries
=Mohocks=, a class of ruffians who at one time infested the streets of
London. So called from the Indian Mohocks. At the Restoration, the
street bullies were called Muns and Tityre Tus; they were next called
Hectors and Scourers; later still, Nickers and Hawcabites; and lastly,
Mohocks.
Now is the time that rakes their revels keep,
Kindlers of riot, enemies of sleep;
His scattered pence the flying Nicker flings,
And with the copper shower the casement rings;
Who has not heard the Scowerer’s midnight fame?
Who has not trembled at the Mohock’s name?
Gay, _Trivia_, iii. 321, etc. (1712).
=Mohun= (_Lord_), the person who joined Captain Hill in a dastardly attack
on the actor, Mountford, on his way to Mrs. Bracegirdle’s house, in
Howard Street. Captain Hill was jealous of Mountford, and induced Lord
Mohun to join him in this “valiant exploit.” Mountford died next day,
Captain Hill fled from the country, and Mohun was tried but acquitted.
The general features of this cowardly attack are very like that of the
Count Koningsmark on Thomas Thynne of Lingleate Hill. Count Koningsmark
was in love with Elizabeth Percy (widow of the earl of Ogle), who was
contracted to Mr. Thynne; but before the wedding day arrived, the count,
with some hired ruffians, assassinated his rival in his carriage as it
was passing down Pall Mall.
⁂ Elizabeth Percy, within three months of the murder, married the duke
of Somerset.
=Moidart= (_John of_), captain of the clan Ronald, and a chief in the army
of Montrose.--Sir W. Scott, _Legend of Montrose_, (time, Charles I.).
=Moi´na= (2 _syl._), daughter of Reutha´mir, the principal man of
Balclu´tha, a town on the Clyde, belonging to the Britons. Moina married
Clessammor (the maternal uncle of Fingal), and died in childbirth of her
son Carthon, during the absence of her husband.--Ossian, _Carthon_.
=Mokanna=, the name given to Hakem ben Haschem, from a silver gauze veil
worn by him “to dim the lustre of his face,” or rather to hide its
extreme ugliness. The history of this impostor is given by D’Herbelot,
_Bibliothèque Orientale_ (1697).
⁂ Mokanna forms the first story of _Lalla Rookh_ (“The Veiled Prophet of
Khorassan”), by Thomas Moore (1817).
=Mokattam= (_Mount_), near Cairo (Egypt), noted for the massacre of the
Caliph Hakem B’amr-ellah, who was given out to be incarnate deity, and
the last prophet who communicated between God and man (eleventh
century). Here, also;[TN-16] fell in the same massacre his chief prophet,
and many of his followers. In consequence of this persecution, Durzi,
one of the “prophet’s” chief apostles, led the survivors into Syria,
where they settled between the Libanus and Anti-Libanus, and took the
name of Durzis, corrupted into Druses.
As the khalif vanished erst,
In what seemed death to uninstructed eyes,
On red Mokattam’s verge.
Robert Browning, _The Return of the Druses_, i.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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