M A S M A S Gil notice of Gray, and through his influence was elected a fellow of Pembroke College. Mason was Gray s attached friend, admirer, and poetical pupil to the end of the greater poet s life. More fancy than judgment, and indolence in reading, were the chief faults that Gray found in his young friend. With his usual penetration, Gray discerned the defects of intellect that lie at the root of the weakness of Mason s poetry. He was painstaking enough and more than enough with his verses, his epithets, his phrases, his figures of speech, his rhymes ; but he was deficient in energy of thought, his intellectual grasp was feeble, and he accepted and polished the easy suggestions of fancy instead of exerting himself to find exact expression for his subject. For a modest youth, as Gray describes him, he formed a great ambition, nothing less than the recon ciliation of the modern with the ancient drama, to be effected by the strict observance of the unities and the restoration of the chorus. His Elfrida, a tragedy published in 1752 in pursuance of this ambition, is constructed elaborately upon deeply considered principles, but the principles are drawn from pedantic books and not from the dramatic needs of men, as may be judged from the dramatist s opinion that Shakespeare, " in compliance merely with the taste of the time, showed a disregard of all the necessary rules of the drama." Elfrida is highly "incorrect" in two respects one venial in a play, the other fatal ; it abounds in anachronistic allusions and moral improbabilities. Mason s second attempt, Caracfacus (published in 1759), is much stronger in construction and situation, but he did not possess the rare art of making his characters speak out of their own thoughts ; they only speak as Mason the poet might have done in their circum stances if his fancy had been quite cool. Both Elfrida, and Caractacus were acted in 1776, when Mason had made a considerable reputation by his English Garden (a poem in blank verse, first book published in 1772), his Heroic Epistle to Sir W. Chambers in 1773, and his Memoirs of Gray in 1775. The plays were not successful ; Mason did not expect success ; his plays were intended to be read as poems. The manager perhaps had hopes from the novelty of the choruses of Saxon maidens and Druids. The second book of the English Garden was issued in 1777, the third in 1779, the fourth in 1782. Mason took orders in 1754, and soon afterwards was presented to the vicarage of Ashton in Yorkshire, the canonry of York, the prebend of Driffield, and the precentorship of York cathedral. Ashton was his residence till his death in 1797. MASON AND DLXON S LINE, a line in the United States between Pennsylvania on the north and Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia on the south, coinciding with 39 43 26" 3 N. lat., and famous for a long time as the limit between the "free" and the "slave" States. It derives its name from Charles Mason, F.RS. (1730-87), and Jeremiah Dixon, two English astronomers who, between 17G3 and 1767, surveyed the line for 244 miles west from the Delaware river, leaving only 36 miles of the Pennsylvania boundary to be fixed in 1782-84. This line must not be confounded, as has often been done, with the parallel of 36 30 N. lat., which was assigned by the "Missouri compromise" of 1820 as the limit to the north of which slavery could not be introduced. MASS. See EUCHARIST and MISSAL. MASSA, or, to distinguish it from several places of the same name, MASSA CARRARA, a city of Italy, the chief town of the province of Massa, lies on the left bank of the Frigido, a small stream falling into the Gulf of Genoa about 3 miles lower down. It is 78- miles south-east of Genoa by rail, and 26 miles north of Pisa. The ancient part of the city stands on a hill. Among the objects of interest it is sufficient to mention the old ducal palace, | the new cathedral (erected instead of the building de- I stroyed by Elisa Bacciocchi because it interfered with ! the view from the palace windows), the technical school, | and the academy of science and literature, originally known as Dei Derelitti. Like Carrara, Massa is largely engaged in the marble trade; it also manufactures silk, oil, and paper. The population of the city was 4786 in 1871 ; that of the commune was 15,017 in 1861 and 18,031 in 1881. Massa is first mentioned in the 9th century. About the close of the 10th it was bestowed by Otho the Great on the bishops of Luni, and in consequence it came to be distinguished for a time as Massa Lunense. From the bishops it passed to the marquises of Luni (hence Massa del Marchcse), and more particularly to a branch of the Malaspina family. After a period in which Lucca, Pisa, the Visconti, the Fieschi, and others were successively in possession it returned, under Florentine protection, to Alberico Malaspina, and finally through the marriage of Ricciarda Mala spina with Lorenzo Cybo became (1519) Massa Cybca. Raised under Alberico Cybo from being little better than a feudal village to the rank of a fortified town, Massa was in 1568 made the capital of a principality by Maximilian II., and in 1664 the capital of a duchy by Leopold I. By the marriage of Maria Teresa dei Cybci with Duke Ercole III. of Modena it passed to the Este family ; and after the period of the French Revolution, during which it formed part of the duchy of Lucca assigned to Napoleon s sister and brother-in-law, it was restored by the congress of Vienna to Beatrice, duchess of Modena. Massa was made an episcopal see only in 1828, though the design of giving it this dignity had been entertained and almost realized in 1757. The total area of the duchy of Massa and Carrara was 62 square miles, of which 35 be longed to Massa. See Repetti, Diz. della Toscana ; Viani, MemoriedeUafamiglia Cybo ; Musellini, Ricciarda Malaspina e Lorenzo Cybo ; and Farsetti, Ragion storico int. della citta di Massa. MASSACHUSETTS Copt/right, 1882, by Justin Winsor. IV /TASSACHU SETTS, an Indian name originally applied r-late IX. i.VL to a small hillock bordering on Boston Harbour, and thence to a neighbouring tribe of Indians. It is the chief political division of New England, and one of the original thirteen States of the American Union. It lies for the most part between 40 and 42 45 N. lat., and 70 30 and 73 30 W. long. Physical Desertion. Its area, of about 7800 square miles, forms in the main a parallelogram, of 160 miles east and west, 50 miles north and south, with a projection at the south-east and a lesser one at the north-east, which gives a breadth of 90 miles at this part, where it borders upon the ocean, while the general irregularity of this coast-line gives a sea frontage of about 250 miles. No large navig able river flows in any part, though the Connecticut river, bisecting the State during 50 miles of its course, and fed within it by several lateral streams, has been made navig able for small craft. The Housatonic, a lesser stream, flows parallel with the Connecticut, farther west. The two valleys are separated by the Hoosac range (1200 to 1600 feet high) of the Berkshire Hills, a part of the Appalachian system, and a continuation of the Green Mountains of Vermont. These, with the Taconic range on the western side of the Housatonic valley, of which the highest peak is Greylock, or Saddleback (almost 3500 feet), in the extreme north-west corner of the State, form the only considerable elevated land. Bordering on the Connecticut, Mount Tom (1200 feet) and a few other hills form conspicuous landmarks. Wachusett (2018 feet), farther east, rises from a level country. The Blue Hills in Milton are the nearest elevation to the coast, and are conspicuous to navigators approaching Boston. The Merrimac runs for 35 miles through the north-east corner of the State, and affords valuable water-power at Lowell, Lawrence, and Haverhill. A few small streams, useful for mill purposes and irrigation, seek the ocean through Boston, Buzzard s, and Narragansett Bays, run
ning for the most part through a rolling country. The