MASSON. 170 MAST. I860. In 1852 he succeeded C'loiij;li in the chair ■of English literature at University College ; and in IStio retired to accept the professorship of rhetoric and English literature in the University of Jylinhurgh. In 1893 he became Histo- riographer Koyal for Scotland. Masson is wide- ly known for his studies in Milton, comprising an exhaustive account of the life and times of the poet (() vols.. 18.")il-80: 1st vol. enlarged 18S1 ; inde.x, 1894) ; and at least four editions of his poems: the Camliridge edition (3 vols., 1874). re- vised as the Cabinet edition (1890) ; the Golden Treasury edition (2 vols.. 1874), the Globe edi- tion (1 vol., 1877), an intermediate between the Cambridge and the (Jolden Treasuiy (3 vols., 1882). The same careful scholarship is dis- played in lives of Drumniond of Hawtliornden ( 1873) and De Quincey ( 1878 ) , and in an edition of De (,)uincey's W(irks'( 14 vols.. 18S9-91). Among Jlasson's other writings are: I-^snai/s. Biof/raplii- cal and Crilical (18.50: reprint, with additions, 1874-7()) ; ISiitish SorcUsts (18.59) ; Recent Brit- ish I'hilosophu (1805) ; Edinburgh Sketches and Memories ( 1892) . MASSON, mii'sox', Loris Francois Rod- RKiii-: ( l.s.i:! — ). A Canadian statesman, born in Terrebonne. ti)uebec. In 1859 he was admitted to the bar, and he sat in the Canadian Parlia- ment for Terrebonne from lS(i7 to 1882. From 1878 to 1880 he was Minister of Militia and Defense, in 1880 was ])resident of the council, and from 1.SS4 to 1887 was Uieitenant-Governor of Quebec Province. In 1882 and again in 1892 he was summoned to the Senate. He was mayor of Terrebonne, ami ]iublished Lcs bourgeois de la coiiiixjiiiiir ilu (jri:l-Ouest (1889). MASSO'RAH. See M..sora. MASSOWAH, nu'is-sou'a. or MASSAWA. The chief town and formerly the capital of the Italian colony of Eritrea l(|.v.). It is situated parth' on the mainland, partly on two small isl- ands on the west shore of the Red Sea. 350 miles northwest of the Strait of Hab-el-Mamleb (Maj): Africa, .1 3). It is a fortilied military station, and its commercial importance is very consider- able o%ing to its being the natural port for the northern part of Abyssinia. The town in it- self is of little conseipience. The climate is e.- oessively hot. The coninterce is chietly with Arabia, Bombay, and the interior of Abyssinia, the chief exports being ivory, cofVee, tobacco, wax, and ostrich feathers. Massowah has steamship connection with Egypt. Italy, and Austria-Hun- gary, and is the terminus of a tnilitary railway into the interior. The population is about 8000. of which about (100 ;u'C Europeans, the rest be- ing nearly all Mohammedans of various African and .siatic races. Massowah f<irmerly belonged to Egypt and was taken by Italy in 1885. MASSYS, masN'. MATSYS, m;U-sTs'. MES- SYS, mi's-si-', or METSYS, met-sis'. Qiintkx (c. I4(!0-1530) . . liililical. genre, and portrait painter of the Flemish school. His birthjilace is disputed, being variously ascribed to Antwerp and Lonvain: he died at the fornuT place in 1530. According to tradition lie was a locksmith by trade, but upon his marriage in 1480 to a paint- er's daughter, he changed his vocation. He stud- ied luider a local master, ami in 1491 was on- rolled in the Guild of Saint I.uke at . twerp. Mnssys is important as being the earliest lepre- .sontativc of the new era. in which the human figure first comes into marked prominence in painting. Heretofore the luunan figure had only held a place equal in importance to landscape and architecture, but ilassys subordinates these and gives his actors preeminence, endowing them with individuality, character, and dramatic ex- pression. His figures are well modeled, although they are sometimes lean and angular, and his composition is not always harmonious. One of his greatest surviving wiu-ks is the altar-piece for the Church of Saint Peter at Louvain, now in the Brussels Jluseum. completed in 1509. The subject of the centre panel is the Holy Family; the figures are nobly and solidly represented, but without dramatic expression. On the other hand, the scenes from the "Life of the Virgin" on the wings of the altar are strong- ly dramatic. His masterpiece is the great triptych in the Antwerp .Miiseiiiii, representing the •'•Burial of Christ," Hanked by the -Martyr- dom of the Two Johns." The action of this work is intense, and the color, though gor- geous, is well harmonized. His other works in- clude an "Enthroned "irgin." Berlin (iallery; •'The Virgin in (ilory," Hermitage. Saint IVters- burg; and two half-lengtli devotional figures of ••Christ" and the ••Virgin" at .iitwerp, of which there are copies in the National (iallery. Massys is also well known as the originator of a class of genre pictures — character studies of burghers of Antwerp, representing money- changers or misers, in couples or grou])s, Beated at tables. An important example is in the Louvre, dated 1514. His few surviving ]i(utraits are strong and realistic, and show a skillful ren- dition of character. Genuine exani])Ies are those of -Egidius at Longford Castle; of .lean Caron- delet III the Pinakothek. Munich: and a mutilated portrait of a young man in the Berlin .Museum. MAST (AS. nirrfif. OIIG. must. Ger. M<isl; probalily connected ultimately with Lat. mnlus, ]iole). The upriglit spar on which sail is set. In large ships masts are in several lengths. In fore-and-aft rigged vessels the mast is c'oiiinionly in two parts called the lower mast and the top- ma.st ; in large square-rigged vessels the masts are in three sections, the lower mast, topmast, and topgallantmast. That part of the topgallant- mast above the eyes of the topgallant rigging and below the royal rigging is called the rovalmast; if skysails are carried the part of the topgallant- mast above the eyes of the royal rigging is called the skysailmast or skysail pole. Large lower masts are either of iron or steel or built up of many timbers whose edges niii't in radial planes. These timbers are bolted to- gether and further held by circular bands of iron or steel. They are joined to the limbers above and below by scarfs and the scarfs 'break joints' (i.e. no two scarfs are abreast each other horizontally) . The parts of a mast are the head, hmuids, boily, partners, and heel. The head is the tipper ])art; the hounds are the enlarged parts just be- low the eyes of the rigging: the body is the part between the hounds and the cleek ; the partners the portion which pas.ses through a deck; and the heel is the lower end. Lower masts alone have p;irtncrs (since the upper masts do not pass tliiiiiigh decks) ami they have tenons at the heel which fit in the mast step on the keelson. They are held in position bv wedges at the part- ners and by the rigging. Of the latter, the
