century. The poem, as a whole, is tedious; yet its dignified expression of patriotic spirit has won the admiration of Spaniards from Cervantes’ time to our own.
A critical edition of the Laberinto has been issued by R. Foulché-Delbosc (Mâcon, 1904).
MENA, PEDRO DE (d. 1693), Spanish sculptor, was born in Adra. He was a pupil of his father as well as of Alonzo Cano.
His first conspicuous success was achieved in work for the convent
El Angel at Granada, including figures of St Joseph,
St Antony of Padua, St Diego, St Pedro Meantara, St Franciscus
and Santa Clara. In 1658 he signed a contract for sculptural
work on the choir stalls of the cathedral at Malaga—this work
extending over four years. Other works are, statues of the
Madonna and child and of St Joseph in Madrid, the polychromatic
figures in the church of St Isodoro, the Magdalena and the
Gertrudis in the church of St Martin (Madrid), the crucifixion
in the Nuestra Senora de Gracia (Madrid), the statuette of St Francis
of Assisi in Toledo, and of St Joseph in the St Nicholas
church in Murcia. Between 1673 and 1679 Mena worked at
Cordova. About 1680 he was in Granada, where he executed
a half-length Madonna and child (seated) for St Dominicos. Mena
died in Malaga in 1693. He and Mora (q.v.) may be regarded as
artistic descendants of Montanes and Alonzo Cano, but in technical
skill and the expression of religious motive his statues are
unsurpassed in the sculpture of Spain. His feeling for the nude
was remarkable. Like his immediate predecessors he excelled in
the portrayal of contemplative figures and scenes; Mena’s
drawing of Santiago leaping upon his charger is good, and the
carving admirable, but the necessary movement for so spirited
an action is lacking.
See B. Haendcke, Studien zur Geschichte der spanischen Plastik (Strassburg, 1900).
MENABREA, LUIGI FEDERICO, Marquis of Valdora (1809–1896), Italian general and statesman, was born at Chambéry on
the 4th of September 1809. He was educated at the university
of Turin, where he qualified as an engineer and became a doctor
of mathematics. As an officer of engineers he replaced Cavour
in 1831 at the fortress of Bardo. He then became professor of
mechanics and construction at the military academy and at the
university of Turin. King Charles Albert sent him in 1848 on
diplomatic missions to secure the adhesion of Modena and Parma
to Sardinia. He entered the Piedmontese parliament, and was
attached successively to the Ministries of War and Foreign
Affairs. He belonged to the right centre, and until the events
of 1859 he believed in the possibility of a compromise between the
Vatican and the state. He was major-general and commander-in-chief
of the engineers in the Lombard campaign of 1859.
He superintended the siege works against Peschiera, was present
at Palestro and Solferino, and repaired the fortifications of
some of the northern fortresses. In 1860 he became lieutenant-general
and conducted the siege of Gaeta. He was appointed
senator and received the title of count. Entering the Ricasoli
cabinet of 1861 as minister of marine, he held the portfolio of
public works until 1864 in the succeeding Farini and Minghetti
cabinets. After the war of 1866 he was chosen as Italian
plenipotentiary for the negotiation of the treaty of Prague and
for the transfer of Venetia to Italy. In October 1867 he succeeded
Rattazzi in the premiership, and was called upon to deal
with the difficult situation created by Garibaldi’s invasion of the
Papal States and by the catastrophe of Mentana. Menabrea
disavowed Garibaldi and instituted judicial proceedings against
him; but in negotiations with the French government he protested
against the retention of the temporal power by the pope
and insisted on the Italian right of interference in Rome. He
was in the secret of the direct negotiations between Victor
Emanuel and Napoleon III. in June 1869, and refused to entertain
the idea of a French alliance unless Italy were allowed to
occupy the Papal States, and, on occasion, Rome itself. On the
eve of the assembly of the Oecumenical Council at Rome Menabrea
reserved to the Italian government its right in respect of
any measures directed against Italian institutions. He withdrew
from seminary students in 1869 the exemption from military
service which they had hitherto enjoyed. Throughout his
term of office he was supported by the finance minister Count
Cambray Digny, who forced through parliament the grist tax
proposed by Quintino Sella, though in an altered form from the
earlier proposal. After a series of changes in the cabinet, and
many crises, Menabrea resigned in December 1869 on the election
of a new chamber in which he did not command a majority. He
was made marquis of Valdora in 1875. His successor in the
premiership, Giovanni Lanza, in order to remove him from his
influential position as aide-de-camp to the king, sent him to
London as ambassador, where he remained until in 1882 he
replaced General Cialdini at the Paris Embassy. Ten years
later he withdrew from public life, and died at Saint Capin on
the 24th of May 1896.
MÉNAGE, GILLES (1613–1692), French scholar, son of
Guillaume Ménage, king’s advocate at Angers, was born in that
city on the 15th of August 1613. A tenacious memory and an
early enthusiasm for learning carried him speedily through his
literary and professional studies, and he practised at the bar at
Angers as early as 1632. In the same year he pleaded several
causes before the parlement of Paris, but illness induced him to
abandon the legal profession for the church. He became prior
of Montdidier without taking holy orders, and lived for some
years in the household of Cardinal de Retz (then coadjutor to
the archbishop of Paris), where he had leisure for literary pursuits.
Some time after 1648 he quarrelled with his patron and
withdrew to a house in the cloister of Notre-Dame, where he
gathered round him on Wednesday evenings those literary
assemblies which he called “Mercuriales.” Chapelain, Pellisson,
Conrart, Sarrazin and Du Bos were among the habitués. He was
admitted to the Della Cruscan Academy of Florence, but his
caustic sarcasm led to his exclusion from the French Academy.
Ménage made many enemies and suffered under the satire of
Boileau and of Molière. Molière immortalized him as the
pedant Vadius in Les Femmes savantes, a portrait Ménage
pretended to ignore. He died in Paris on the 23rd of
July 1692.
Of his works the following may be mentioned: Poemata latina, gallica, graeca, et italica (1656); Origini della lingua italiana (1669); Dictionnaire étymologique (1650 and 1670); Observations sur la langue française (1672–1676), and Anti-Baillet (1690).
MENAGERIE, a collection of wild animals kept for show or exhibition. The word is particularly applied to travelling
exhibitions of wild animals, attached to a circus or other show,
“zoological gardens” (q.v.) being the term generally applied to
large stationary and permanent exhibitions, arranged on a
scientific system. The French ménagerie (from ménage, O. Fr.
mesnage, Lat. mansionaticum, mansio, house, cf. “manage”)
originally meant the administration of a household or farm, with
special reference to the live stock.
MENAHEM (Hebrew for “consoler”), a king of Israel. He was the son of Gadi (i.e. perhaps, a man of Gad), and during the disturbances at the death of Jeroboam II. seized the throne and reigned ten years (2 Kings xv. 14–18). The scene of his revolt was Tirzah, the old seat of the kings of Israel between
Jeroboam I. and Omri (which period the present closely resembles), and it was only after perpetrating nameless cruelties at Tappuah[1] on the border of Ephraim and Mannasseh that the counter revolt of Shallum, son of Jabesh (perhaps a Gileadite), was suppressed. Towards the end of his reign, Tiglath-Pileser IV. marched against north Syria, and among his tributaries mentions Menahem[2] together with Rezin of Damascus, and kings of Tyre, Gebal, &c. (c. 738 B.C.). According to the Old Testament account the Assyrian king even advanced against Israel, and only withdrew in consideration
of a tribute amounting to about £400,000. A thousand talents (i.e. about 3,000,000 shekels) was raised by assessing every wealthy person at 50 shekels. The act was hardly popular, and the internal troubles which he had quelled
