incantations. Malone subsequently changed his opinion, for in a posthumous edition of his Esssay on the Chronological Order he has maintained that the "Witch" was a later production than Macbeth."—(Knight's Studies of Shakspeare), However this may be, Middleton enjoys the honour of having his lyrics sung in the representations of Macbeth in place of those of Shakspeare; but, as it has been remarked by the author of the Studies, "those who sing Locke's music are not the witches of Shakspeare." Middleton died in 1627.
MIDDLETON, Thomas Fanshawe, the first bishop of Calcutta, was born at Kedleston, Derbyshire, 26th January, 1769. He was admitted into Christ's hospital in 1789, and having obtained an exhibition entered Pembroke hall, Cambridge. He took his degree of B.A. with honours in 1792, and on going into holy orders he became curate of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, where he edited a periodical paper entitled the Country Spectator, of which thirty-three numbers were published. In 1794 Dr. Pretyman, archdeacon of Lincoln, selected him as tutor to his sons, and he obtained soon after the rectory of Tansor in Nottinghamshire, to which was added in 1802 the rectory of Little and Castle Bytham. In 1797 he married Elizabeth, daughter of John Maddison, Esq., of Gainsborough. The union was not only a happy one, but brought him the assistance of an excellent and indefatigable amanuensis. He took his degree of D.D. in 1808; and his treatise on the "Greek Article" appeared in the same year. He was next promoted to a stall in Lincoln in 1809, and was presented also in those days of pluralities to the vicarage of St. Pancras and the rectory of Puttenham. In 1812 he became archdeacon of Huntingdon; and on being selected for the first Indian bishopric, or that of Calcutta, he was consecrated at Lambeth on the 8th of May, 1814. In November of the same year he arrived at Calcutta, and at once devoted himself to his novel and arduous labours. He set his heart zealously on the promotion of education. A college was instituted at Calcutta for the education specially of missionaries, and he laid the first stone of the building on 15th of December, 1820. He made three visitations of his large diocese, and forgot not the Syrian christians on the coast of Malabar. But his useful life was cut short by fever, and he died on the 8th July, 1822, in the fifty-fourth year of his age. As his will directed that his papers should be destroyed, no posthumous works of his have appeared; but some sermons, charges, and minor pieces were collected into a volume, and edited with a life by H. R. Bonney, archdeacon of Bedford, London, 1824. A second edition of the "Doctrine of the Greek Article" was published by Professor Scholefield in 1828, and a third and improved edition by the Rev. Hugh James Rose in 1833. The volume on the Greek article manifests no little learning and subtlety. His theory is elaborated with great ingenuity and erudition, though it may not on all points be defended, and many of his canons require new and fuller investigation. His illustrative notes on portions of the New Testament, are often happy, though it is alleged against him that, to secure support for his rules, he chose his MSS., or preferred those various readings which gave countenance to his views.—J. E.
MIEL or MIELE, Jan, called by the Italians, Giovanni della Vite, an eminent Flemish painter, was born in the neighbourhood of Antwerp in 1599. He studied under G. Seghers at Antwerp; went to Rome, where he entered the academy of A. Sacchi; and then proceeded to Parma and Bologna to copy the works of Correggio and the Carracci. He at first painted historical subjects: among others, painting one of large size, "Moses Striking the Rock," for Pope Alexander VII., and several frescoes for churches in Rome. But the Italians criticising these works somewhat roughly, he abandoned history for genre. At the invitation of Duke Charles Emmanuel of Savoy he went to Turin, to paint a series of hunting pieces which are among the painter's best works. Jan Miel's most admired pictures are subjects of low life—fairs, village festivals, or scenes with peasants, beggars, itinerant musicians, and the like; great importance being given to the landscape, which he painted with much skill. His pictures are pleasing in effect and well coloured; but the imitation of Italian art, which ultimately brought about the ruin of the Netherland schools, is very apparent. Miel left a few etchings. His pictures are found in most of the public collections of the continent. He died in 1644.—J. T—e.
MIELICH or MÜLICH, Hans, an eminent early German painter, was born at Munich in 1515. He was painter to Duke Albert V. of Bavaria, and in great favour with the court. He painted religious and historical subjects; and there are still altarpieces attributed to him in the churches of Munich and Ingoldstadt. But his portraits, of which there are several in Munich, are much superior to his other works: they are in the old German style, quaint and hard, but clear in colour, and with well-marked character. Among the choicest treasures of the royal library at Munich is a superb illuminated MS. of the Seven Penitential Psalms of Orlando di Lasso, with miniatures by Hans Mielich. In the same library are some other miniatures by him. He died in 1572.—J. T—e.
MIEREVELD, Michiel, written also Mirevelt, was born at Delft in 1567, and was one of the best portrait-painters of his time; but as he produced an immense number of pictures, amounting it is said to some thousands, his works are unequal, some being very slightly executed: he seldom painted much more than the head. Miereveld's reputation was so great that Charles I. invited him to England in 1625; but he declined the invitation, being scared by the plague then said to be in England. He died at Delft in 1641. The museum of Amsterdam has a good collection of his works; among them an admirable portrait of Prince Maurice of Nassau.—His two sons, Pieter and Jan Michielsz, were also good portrait-painters: they both died young.—(Van Mander; Houbraken.)—R. N. W.
MIERIS, Frans van, the Old, a celebrated Dutch genre painter, was born at Leyden in 1635, and studied under Gerard Dow. He painted small conversation pieces and portraits; his figures are both well drawn and coloured, and altogether admirably finished. He is seen to best advantage at Dresden and Munich; his works are comparatively rare in this country. The Dresden gallery possesses two very interesting pictures by Miens; one representing his studio, and the other showing him painting his wife's portrait. In the same gallery is the picture of a "Tinker," an exquisite example of his treatment of common life. He died at Leyden in the prime of life in 1681.—His son, William van Mieris (1662-1747), also of Leyden, painted similar subjects; and he was the father of Frans van Mieris, the Young, who was born at Leyden in 1689, and died there in 1763. One hundred pictures attributed to the elder Mieris are described in Smith's Catalogue Raisonné.—R. N. W.
MIGNARD, Pierre, called "the Roman," was born at Troyes in 1610, and died at Paris in 1695. His proper name is said to be More, and his grandfather was an Englishman; the name of Mignard (gentle) was given to the painter's father—Pierre More—and his brothers by Henri IV., whose soldiers they were; he remarked that they were not Mores, but Mignards. Pierre Mignard studied first under a painter of the name of Boucher at Bourges, and afterwards entered the school of Vouet at Paris. In 1636 he visited Rome, where he resided many years; and he here formed a lasting friendship with the celebrated Du Fresnoy, well known for his poem on painting. At Rome Mignard executed many portraits and other studies—the popes Innocent X. and Alexander VII. being among his sitters. He was famous also for his pictures of the Virgin, called "Mignardes," by the Romans. After a residence of twenty years in Rome he was in 1657 recalled by Louis XIV. to France. He painted at Fontainebleau the portrait of the king, which was sent to the Infanta of Spain, with reference to the proposed marriage between Louis XIV. and that princess. Mignard became now the great portrait-painter of the French court; and about 1660 he was commissioned by the queen-mother, Anne of Austria, to paint in fresco the interior of the dome of the hospital of Val-de-Grâce, where he has represented Paradise; and this decorative work, which contains about two hundred colossal figures, created a great sensation in his own century. Moliere wrote an eloquent and spirited poem upon it, entitled La Gloire Du Val-de-Grâce; it is published in the life of the painter by the Abbé de Monville. In 1664 Mignard was elected president of the Academy of St. Luke at Rome. In 1665 he lost his friend Du Fresnoy; and in honour of his memory printed his unpublished Latin poem on painting, of which we have an English translation by Mason, with notes by Sir Joshua Reynolds. In 1690 he succeeded Le Brun as principal painter to the king; and at the same time was placed at once at the head of the Academy of Painting as chancellor; although, owing to his jealousy of Le Brun, he had had previously no connection with that institution. The favour which Mignard found with the minister Louvois is said to have hastened the death of Le Brun. Mignard's reputation has passed away;
