Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3a.pdf/503

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
MOR
461
MOS

of commons on theatrical literature, Morton stated (Gentleman's Magazine, December, 1838) that the lowest price he had ever received for a piece was £90 or £100, the highest £300. He added that he had never seen one of his own plays acted, though some of them had been represented fifty nights in succession. He died in 1838. A few of his more popular pieces, such as "Speed the Plough" and "A Roland for an Oliver," kept possession of the stage until a comparatively recent date, and are even yet occasionally performed.—F. E.

MORVEAU, L. B. G. See Guyton de Morveau.

MORVILLE, Charles Jean Baptiste Fleuriau, Comte de, was born at Paris in 1686, and held various judicial and political appointments. He was successively councillor to the parliament of Paris and procureur-général to the council. In 1718 he was ambassador to Holland, when he induced the states-general to sign the quadruple alliance; in 1723 he was elected a member of the Academy, and in 1724 he succeeded Cardinal Dubois as minister of foreign affairs. Died in 1732.—W. J. P.

MORYSON or MORISON, Fines, born in Lincolnshire in 1560 became a fellow of Cambridge, and after making some progress in the study of civil law he obtained leave from the master and fellows of his college to travel abroad. At the end of ten years, in 1598, he returned home, went over to Ireland, and was made secretary to the lord-deputy. Sir Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy. He published first in Latin and afterwards in English "An Itinerary, containing ten years' travels through the twelve dominions of Germany," and "The History of Ireland from 1599 to 1603, with a short narration of the state of the kingdom from the year 1169, to which is added a description of Ireland," 2 vols. 8vo, Dublin, 1735. He was a brother of Sir Richard Morrison, who at the time of Fines' settling in Ireland was vice-president of Munster.

MORYSON or MORRISON, Sir Richard. See Morrison.

MOSCHELES, Ignace, the celebrated professor of the pianoforte, was born at Prague in 1794. His father, a merchant, being musical, the child almost as a matter of course imbibed his parent's taste, which was manifest at a very early age. His first good master was Dionys Weber, the celebrated theorist, and when he had attained only his eleventh year he ranked as the best pianist in the capital of Bohemia. At the age of fourteen he went to Vienna and became the disciple of Albrechtsberger, but took lessons also of Salieri in order to make himself acquainted with the nature of Italian vocal composition. He then commenced his musical travels, and at the courts of Saxony and Bavaria was received in the most flattering manner. In 1820 he set out on a tour through Holland, France, and England, and finally made the latter place his future residence. In London Moscheles had acquired an established position, and his public pianoforte playing was always attended with brilliant success. He divided the crown with Hummel, Cramer having retired; but possessing all the executive power of the former, he had greater energy, and a more vigorous and original imagination. As professor in the Royal Academy of Music, he was long employed in the tuition of the most advanced scholars. To his connection with the Philharmonic Society we owe his symphony and his overture to Schiller's Maid of Orleans, which was produced there in 1835. Moscheles was latterly professor in the conservatory of Leipsic, where he had the finest field for the exercise of his sound influence in art. He died in March, 1870.—E. F. R.

MOSCHEROSCH, Hans Michael, a German satirist, was born at Wilstädt, grand duchy of Baden, on the 5th March, 1600, and after a life full of vicissitudes died at Worms, 4th April, 1669. From 1645 he was a member of the Fruitful Society. His most important work, published under the assumed name of Philander von Sittewald, is his "Wunderliche und wahrhafte Gesichte," the groundwork of which he borrowed from Quevedo. It is a collection of satirical pieces in the form of visions, which enjoyed great popularity.—K. E.

MOSCHION, supposed to have lived in the beginning of the second century, is the author of a treatise, "De mulierum passionibus," which we now possess only in a Greek translation.

MOSCHOPULUS, Manuel, a Greek grammarian. There were two Moschopuli, uncle and nephew, both called Manuel. The uncle was a native of Crete, who lived in the middle of the thirteenth century. The nephew belonged to Constantinople, and flourished in the same century. Probably the Cretan wrote a commentary on Hesiod, referred to by Georgius Pachymeres; and it is also conjectured that the latter was one of his pupils. It is supposed that the younger Moschopulus was engaged in the religious discussions which were raised by the endeavour of Michael Palæologus to unite the Greek and Latin churches. Numerous writings, chiefly grammatical, are ascribed to the Moschopuli. Most of them are assigned to the nephew, but they rather belong to the uncle. Indeed Titze believes that all the grammatical treatises were composed by the uncle, the nephew writing only on theology. At the present time it is impossible to distribute them correctly between the two. About twelve have been published in a state more or less complete at different times. Many, however, are still in MS.—(Diatribe literaria de Moschopulis prefixed by Titze to his edition of the Nova grammatices epitome, 8vo, Leipsic, 1822.)—S. D.

MOSCHUS, an idyllic poet, was a native of Syracuse, and flourished about 250 b.c. Nothing is known of his life, but that he was a friend of the bucolic poet, Bion. Of his works four idyls and some fragments still remain, which are commonly printed in the editions of Theocritus. They are written in the Doric dialect, with the exception of one which is in the Ionic. The singular beauty of these poems makes us regret that so little of the author has survived. They have been imitated by some of our most illustrious English poets; among the rest Ben Jonson, Shelley, and Tennyson. A stanza in Tennyson's Palace of Art is almost a literal translation from Moschus.—G.

MOSELEY. See Moeser.

MOSELY, Benjamin, an English physician and medical writer, born in Essex. Going out to the West Indies he practised for several years at Kingston, Jamaica, as a surgeon apothecary. He returned, however, shortly to Europe, and repairing to Leyden, took his degree at that university. On his return to England, he obtained through the interest of Lord Mulgrave the post of physician to Chelsea hospital. He was a man of eccentric character, and wrote some virulent attacks upon the practice of vaccination. One treatise which he published in 1805, was translated into French, and formed a portion of a collection entitled "La Vaccine combattue dans le pays où elle a pris naissance." He is the author of a work on the dysentery of the West Indies; on the diseases of tropical climates; treatises on coffee, sugar, hydrophobia, &c. He died in 1819.—W. B—d.

MOSER, George Michael, R.A., was born in 1704 at Schaffhausen in Switzerland, but came to London very young to practise as a gold-chaser, an art then much in request, and in which considerable skill was required, as the chaser usually made his own designs. In this art Moser "was always considered," says Sir Joshua Reynolds, "to hold the first rank." To this he afterwards added enamel painting, chiefly for lockets and watch-cases, in connection with his own branch as a chaser. A clever draughtsman of the figure, when good figure draughtsmen were not numerous in London, he was elected manager successively of the Art-schools in Salisbury Court and St. Martin's Lane, and he taught design to the prince of Wales, afterwards George III. Moser was one of the founders and the first keeper of the Royal Academy, in which last capacity he was superintendent of the students in drawing from the antique. He died on the 23rd of January, 1783.—J. T—e.

MOSER, Johann Jakob, an immensely prolific German political writer, was born at Stuttgart, 18th January, 1701. Immediately after finishing his university career he was appointed professor extraordinary at Tübingen in 1720, which office, however, he resigned in the following year. He then successively entered the administrative service of several German principalities, but seems everywhere to have quarreled with the powers that be, and thus led a troubled and unsettled life. In 1759 he was even imprisoned for five years in the fortress of Hohentwiel, near Schaffhausen. At length (1770) he retired altogether from public life, and devoted the remaining years of his life exclusively to literary labours. He died at Stuttgart, 30th September, 1785. He has left upwards of four hundred volumes on different subjects of law and politics; most of them, however, are antiquated, being defective both in learning and judgment.—(See his Autobiography, 3rd edition, 4 vols.)—K. E.

MOSER, Mary, R.A., daughter of George Michael Moser, was born in 1774. She distinguished herself greatly as a flower-painter, and was much employed by George III. and Queen Charlotte. For the latter she decorated a room at Frogmore with flowers, for which she received £900. On her marriage to Mr. Lloyd she ceased to paint professionally. Mary Moser was one of the original members of the Royal Academy, and the only