14 m. N. of Fribourg or 1814 m. W. of Bern. In 1900 its population was 2263, of whom 1840 were German-speaking and 1969 were Protestants. It is a most picturesque little town, overlooked by the 13th-century castle and the quaint tower of the Rathhaus, while it is still surrounded by its 15th century walls that are studded at intervals with watch towers. In 1264 it exchanged its position as a free imperial city (enjoyed since 1218) for the rule of the count of Savoy. In 1475 it was taken by the Swiss at the commencement of their war with Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, whose ally was the duchess of Savoy. But in 1476 it was besieged by Charles, though it held out till the Swiss army arrived in haste and utterly defeated (22nd June) the Burgundians. An obelisk a little way south-west of the town stands on the site of the bone-house (destroyed by the French in 1798, wherein the remains of many victims had been collected. Morat was ruled in common from 1475 to 1798 by Bern and Fribourg, being finally annexed to Fribourg in 1814. The Lake of Morat has an area of 1012 sq. m., and is connected with that of Neuchâtel by way of the Broye canal. On its shores many lake dwellings have been found.
See F. L. Engelhard, Der Stadt Murten Chronik (Bern, 1828); G. F. Ochsenbein, Die Urkunden der Belagerung u. Schlacht von Murten (Freiburg, 1876); H. Wattelet, Die Schlacht bei Murten (Fribourg, 1894). (W. A. B. C.)
MORATA, OLYMPIA FULVIA (1526–1555), Italian classical scholar, was born at Ferrara. Her father, who had been tutor to the young princes of the ducal house of Este, was on intimate terms with the most learned men of Italy, and the daughter grew up in an atmosphere of classical learning. At the age of twelve she was able to converse fluently in Greek and Latin. About this time she was summoned to the palace as companion and instructress of the younger but equally gifted Anne, daughter of Renée, duchess of Ferrara. Olympia’s father having died a convert to Protestantism, she met with a cold reception at the palace, and withdrew to her mother’s house. Olympia now embraced the doctrines of Luther and Calvin. About the end of 1550 she married a young student of medicine and philosophy, Andrew Grunthler of Schweinfurt in Bavaria. In 1554 she accompanied Grunthler to his native place, where he had been appointed physician to the garrison of Spanish troops. In 1553 the margrave Albert of Brandenburg on one of his plundering expeditions took possession of Schweinfurt, and was in turn, besieged by the Protestants. At length Albert evacuated the place, and Olympia and her husband made their escape. They finally succeeded in reaching Heidelberg (1554), where a medical lectureship had been obtained for Grunthler through the influence of the Erbach family, by whom they had been hospitably entertained during their flight. Here she died on the 25th of October in the following year.
Bibliography.—The scanty remains of her works—letters, dialogues, Greek verses—were collected and published by Celio Secundo Curione (1558). Monographs by Caroline Bowles, wife of Robert Southey the poet (1834), J. Bonnet (1850; Eng. trans., Edinburgh, 1854), and R. Turnbull (Boston, 1846); see also Caroline Gearey, Daughters of Italy (1886).
MORATALLA, a town of eastern Spain, in the province of Murcia, 40 m. W.N.W. of the city of Murcia. Pop. (1900), 12,689. Moratalla is built on a mountainous peninsula, almost surrounded by the Grande and Benamor, small rivers which meet and flow eastward to join the Segura. The town is a labyrinth of narrow, crooked streets, and some of its houses are Moorish in character. Its chief buildings are the modern hospital and theatre, and the 17th-century church. It has manufactures of coarse cloth, spirits and soap. The nearest railway station is Calasparra, 6 m. east, on the Murcia-Albacete railway.
MORATÍN, LEANDRO ANTONIO EULOGIO MELITÓN FERNANDEZ DE
(1760–1828), Spanish dramatist and poet, the
son of N. F. de Moratín, was born at Madrid on the 10th of
March 1760. Though his poetical tastes were early developed,
his father apprenticed him to a jeweller. At the age of eighteen
Moratín won the second prize of the Academy for a heroic poem
on the conquest of Granada, and two years afterwards he attracted
more general attention with his Lección poética, a satire upon
the popular poets of the day. He was appointed secretary to
Cabarrús on a special mission to France in 1787. On his return
to Spain, Moratín was tonsured and presented to a sinecure
benefice in the diocese of Burgos, and in 1786 his first play,
El Viejo y la niña, was produced at the Teatro del Principe. Owing
to the opposition of the clerical party, it was speedily withdrawn.
The prose comedy, El Café ó la comedia nueva, given at the same
theatre six years afterwards, at once became popular. On the
fall of Florida Blanca, Moratín found another patron in Godoy,
who provided him with a pension and the means for foreign
travel; he accordingly visited England, where he began a prose
translation of Hamlet, printed in 1798 but never performed.
From England he passed to the Low Countries, Germany,
Switzerland and Italy, and on his return to the Peninsula in
1796 was appointed official translator to the foreign office. In
1803 he produced El Barón in its present form; originally written
(1791) as a zarzuela, it was shamelessly plagiarized by Andrés de
Mendoza, but the recast, a far more brilliant work, still keeps
the stage. It was followed in 1804 by La Mogigata, written
between 1797 and 1803. This piece was favourably received,
and an attempt to suppress it on religious grounds failed.
Moratín’s crowning triumph in original comedy was El Sí de las
Niñas (1806), which was performed night after night to crowded
houses, ran through several Spanish editions in a year, and
was soon translated into a number of foreign languages. In 1808
Moratín was involved in the fall of Godoy, but in 1811 accepted
the office of royal librarian under Joseph Bonaparte—a false
step, which alienated from him all sympathy and compelled
him to spend his last years in exile. In 1812 his Escuela de
los maridos, a translation of Molière’s École des maris, was
produced at Madrid, and in 1813 El Médico á Palos (a translation
of Le Médecin malgré lui) at Barcelona. From 1814 to 1828
Moratín lived in Italy and France, compiling a work on the
early Spanish drama (Orígenes del teatro español). He died
at Paris on the 21st of June 1828.
The most convenient edition of his works is that given in vol. ii. of the Biblioteca de autores españoles; this is supplemented by the Obras póstumas (3 vols., Madrid, 1867–1868).
MORATÍN, NICOLAS FERNANDEZ DE (1737–1780), Spanish
poet and dramatist, was born at Madrid in 1737. He was
educated at the Jesuit College in Calatayud and afterwards studied
law at the university of Valladolid. In 1772 he was called to
the bar; four years afterwards he was nominated to the chair
of poetry at the imperial college. He died on the 11th of May
1780. A partisan of French methods, Moratín published in 1762
his Desengaño al teatro español, a severe criticism of the national
drama, particularly of the auto sacramental; and his protests
were partly responsible for the prohibition of autos three years
afterwards (June 1765). In 1762 he also published a play entitled
La Petimetra. Neither the Petimetra nor the Lucrecia (1763), an
original tragedy still more strictly in accordance with French
conventions, was represented on the stage, and two subsequent
tragedies, Hormesinda (1770) and Guzmán el Bueno (1777), were
played with no great success. In 1764 Moratín published a
collection of pieces, chiefly lyrical, under the title of El Poeta,
and in 1765 a short didactic poem on the chase (Diana ó arte de la
caza). His “epic canto” on the destruction of his ships by
Cortés (Las Naves de Cortés destruidas) failed to win a prize offered
by the Academy in 1777, and was published posthumously
(1785). But a better idea of Moratín’s talent is afforded by his
anacreontic verses and by his Carta histórica sobre el origen y
progresos de las fiestas de toros eu España.
His works are included in the Biblioteca de autores españoles, vol. ii.
MORATORIUM (from Lat. morari, to delay), a term used to express a legal authorization postponing for a specified time the payment of debts or obligations. The term is also sometimes used to mean the period over which the indulgence or period of grace stretches, the authorization itself being called a moratory law. A moratory law is usually passed in some special period of political or commercial stress; for instance, on several occasions during the Franco-German War the French government passed
