Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/543

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OF CELEBRATED WOMEN.
529

her answers. They say also, that Homer has ornamented his works with many of her verses.

F. C.



MANTOVANA (DIANA),

A beautiful girl, whom Vasari saw at Mantua, in the year 1366; and at the sight of whose finely cut intaglios, he expressed the greatest surprise and delight.

Abec. Pitt,



MARCH (AGNES, COUNTESS OF),

A Scotch heroine, called by her countrymen, Black Agnes, defended the castle of Dunbar successfully against the English, in about 1340. When a bulwark was battered by them, she would order her waiting-maids to brush off the dust with their handkerchiefs; and when a dreadful engine approached, "Montague," she cried to the English commander, "beware!" and straightway it was crushed by an enormous mass of rock.

Andrew's Great Britain.



MARCHEBRUSC (M. CHABOT, MOTHER OF), called likewise Marchabruna, a Lady of the ancient House of Chabot, in Poitou, who came to live in Provence.

Learned and polite, she had great talents for poetry, and versified equally well in the Provençal and other living languages. Having chosen Avignon for her residence, she held there what was called a court of love, which seems to have been an institution to criticize and

encourage