MERRITT. 350 MERSEBURG. March-April, 18C5. For liis services he received the successive brevets of major, lieutenant - colonel, colonel, major-general of volunteers, and brigadier-general and major-general in the Reg- ular Army; and on A])ril 1, 18G5, was promoted to be major-general of volunteers. He acted as chief of cavalry of the military division of the Southwest from June 9 to duly 17, 1805, and conunaiuled the cavalry in the Department of Texas from July 28 to November 8, 1805. In' February, 18G0, he was mustered out of the volunteer service, and in July was appointed lieutenant-colonel in the Regular Army. He then served on frontier duty at various stations for several years, was promoted to be colonel of the Fifth Cavalry, July 1, 1870, and in the same year served against the Indians in Wyoming and Dakota. From 1882 to 1887 he was superintend- ent of the United States JliliUiry Acidemy, and in April, 1887, he was promoted to lie brigadier- general. He became a m.ajor-gcneral in April, 1895; was in command of t)ie Department of the East in 1897-98; was jjlaccd in command of the United States forces in the Philippine Islands (q.v.) in May, 1898: and later in the same year wa.s sunnnoiied to Paris to assist the American Peace Commissioners there. In June, 1900, he was retired from active service. MER'RY. Robert (1755-98). An English poet, born in London. He studied at Christ College, Cambridge, and began the study of law, hut was never called to the bar. In '(1775 he purchased a commission in the Horse Guards, but soon afterwards sold it. After leaving the service, Jlerry traveled extensively throughout Europe, an<l in Florence was made a member of the so-called Delia Cruscan Circle. He wrote much for the Florence MisrrUani). and after his return to Kngland published reams of affected and grandiloquent verse over the signature Delhi Crusca. His ambition was to form a new school, and his style is similar to that of Mrs. Piozzi and Bertie Greatheed, He also wrote a number of incoherent dramas, including: Lorenzo (1791) ; The Magician A'o Conjurer (1792) ; and The Ahheti of St. Auffuatine (1797). From 1790 he resided in the United States, MERRY, William Walter (18.35—). Rec- tor of l.iiKoln College, Oxford, He was born in A'orceslershire: eclucatcd at Cheltenham Col- lege and lialliol College. Oxford, where he gained the Chancellor's prize for a Latin essay in 1858. He was elected fellow and tutor of Lincoln College in 1859, an<l Vector in 1884; was pre- sented to the V'icarage of .Ml Saints, Oxford, in 1801 ; was appointed one of the select preachers to the university in 1878-79, and again in 1889; was elected public orator in the university in 1880: and in lS8.'?-84 was, by apimintment of the Hishop of London, one of the preachers in the Chapel l!oy;il, Whitehall, He has been promi- nent in teaching and ixnminiiig in the univer- sity, and has fre(|uently l)een classical moderator. He has been for many years engaged in the pre])aration of e<litions of the classical authors to be published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, Of these have so far appeared: Homer's Odi/ssei/ (books i. to xii., second edition, 1880; books xiii. to xxiv., 15th thousand, 1901); and a series of the plays of Aristophanes, begun in 1879, An- other work in classical literature is on The Greek Diah-ets (1875). MERRY DEVIL OF EDMONTON, The. An anonymous comedj- acted in 1007 and printed in 1008. It has been attril)Uted on slight evi- dence to Drayton by Coxeter, ;ind also ascribed to Shakespeare. Fleay tliinks the play, originally called .Sir John. Uldcaxtlc, was wrilt*-n by Dray- ton for the Chamberlain's Men before 1597, and that the prose story of the sanu? title by T, B,, 1008, is not to l)e identified with the play. It was very popular; Jonson remarks that it was the "dear delight of the public." Allusions to it are found in Grim, the Collier of Croyden,
- ind probably in Merry Wires of Windsor as well.
The hero, Fabel, whose tomb was at Edmonton, was said to have sold liis soul to the devil, but his wit proved too much for the purchaser. MERRY ENGLAND. An old popular name of England, in which the word merry has its early iiU'aiiiMg of 'pleasant.' MERRY MONARCH, The. A nickname of King Charles 11. uf England. MERRY MOUNT, The name of a settlement made by Thomas Morton within the limits of the present (Juincy, ilass. See .MoUTO.x, TliOMAS. MERRY ■WIVES OF -WINDSOR. The, A comtnly by Shakespeare, produci'd ]uobably in 1597, printed complete in l(i2:!. An imperfect copy, entitled .S'ir Jolin Falxtaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor, was printed by Thomas Creede in 1002, bearing evident marks of haste. The play was made for a Court performance, and is said to have been written at Qiieen Elizabeth's command, to show FalstafT in love. Some in- cidents of the plot are taken from two tales in Straparola's Xotli Piaeeroli ; from Tarleton's The Lovers of Pisa in his Xeires Out of I'ur- <iatorie : from Brainford's "Fishwife's Tale" in Westu-ard for Smells. The buck-basket found in the tale of Buciolo in Fiorentino's Pecorone is in the comedy the basket of soiled linen in which FalstatV hides. It is notably a play of middle-class [N'ople, and, like Mueh Ado .ibout Sothiny, is mostly prose, A version called The Comieal (lallant was made in 1702 by John Dennis, who is one authority for Elizabeth's connection with the plav. Another is Rowe in 1709. MERSCHEID, mer'shit. A town of Germany. See I iHI.lcs. MERSEBURG, m5r'ze-boorK, A town in the Province of Saxony, Prussia, situated on the Saale, aliout 20 miles west-northwest of Leip- zig (Map: Prussia, D .S). It is ancient in ap- pearance. It has a fine cathedral, begun in the eleventh and finished in the sixteenth cen- tury. The Gothic castle, the former residence of the bishops, is now used as an administration building. Other interesting buildings arc the Rathaus, the new assembly house, and the chap- ter house. The gymnasium, fouiuled in 1575. is the chief e(luc:itii)nal institution. .Mcrsclmrg juanufactures machinery, leather, iron juiiilucts, toys, textiles, etc. It is considered one of the oldest towns of Germany. .s early as the ninth century it was the residence of the coiuits of Merseburg. During the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries it was the favorite residence of the German emperors and the seat of many diets. ^Merseburg was the seat of an important bishopric in the .Middle .ges. With the intro- duction of Protestantism the sec passed to Sax-
