Macpherson, James
mak-fer'son, James (1736-1796), a Scottish author and member of Parliament. He issued two or three volumes of poetry purporting to be translations from the Gaelic of fragmentary poems by Ossian, an alleged third century Scottish Homer. According to Macpherson's story, he had gathered these traditional fragments with incredible industry among the fishermen and peasantry of the Western Isles. He made much of storm-clouds, of rolling waves, of deep, resounding caverns, of shaggy warriors, of fighting, and of feasting, using enough incident and scenery to have supplied William Black with material for a dozen novels. His work was pronounced a forgery. Had he possessed a trifle more of literary ability--that is to say, had he written more simply--and had he sent out his volumes as his own conception of third century life in the Western Isles of Scotland, Macpherson would have won fame. If, instead of pretending that he gave literal translations of poetry that had been passed from bard and minstrel to mother and child for fourteen centuries, the deluded writer had been honest and had published his conception of prehistoric Scottish ministrelsy, the name of Macpherson would have had standing; but, as the case was, his pretense was soon discovered and his rhapsodical verses fell short of success by the narrow margin that separates the sublime from the ridiculous. The poems of Ossian are now a mere literary curiosity. See Ireland
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Macquarie
a tribu tary of the Darling, a river in Aus tralia and a island in the South Pacific, belonging to Tasmania, named from Gen. Lachlan Macquarie, governor of New South Wales 1809-1821.
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Macrauchenia
a genus of South American fossil herbivorous animals forming a connecting link between the palæotherium and the camel family; in form they nearly resemble the llama, but were as large as a hippopotamus.
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Macready, William Charles
mak-re'di, William Charles (1793-1873), a celebrated English actor. He received his early training in a theater at Birmingham of which his father was the manager. He appeared at Covent Garden Theater, London, in 1816. His early competitors were Kean, Young, and Kemble. He became the manager of the Covent Garden Theater, and in 1841 he took charge of Drury Lane Theater. He toured the large cities of Great Britain and appeared in France. He made several visits to America. While playing in the Astor Place Opera House, May 10, 1849, a riot was precipitated by the adherents of Edwin Forest, a rival American actor. The disturbance was quelled by the militia. Twenty-two persons were killed and many injured. Macready's favorite characters were Macbeth, King Lear , Iago, Virginius, and Richelieu.
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Macreaty
WILLIAM CHARLES (-rē'di), an English tragedian; born in London, England, March 3, 1793. His father, the lessee and manager of several provincial theaters, sent him to Rugby and Oxford to be educated, but his circumstances became embarrassed, and the youth had to join his father's company at Birmingham in 1810. Afterward he played in the provinces with considerable success, and appeared at Covent Garden in 1816. In 1820 he made his first visit to America, and in 1828 played in Paris, with great success in both countries. He undertook the management of Covent Garden in 1837, and Drury Lane in 1842, but though he did much to reform the stage and cultivate the public taste for Shakespearean drama in both theaters (he himself taking the leading parts in Shakespeare's plays), his pecuniary losses required him to retire from managership. He revisited the United States in 1849; returned to England; gave a series of farewell performances, and finally retired from the stage in 1861. He died in Cheltenham, England, April 27, 1873. His "Reminiscences" appeared in 1875.
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Macrobius
A Latin writer who died A. D. 415. He has rendered himself famous for a composition called Saturnalia, a miscellaneous collection of antiquarian and critical literature.
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Macrocosm, The
The whole universe (Greek Macros, long, Kosmos the world (f. "Microcosm"). A six-pointed star, formed of two triangles, and the sacred symbol of Solomon 's seal. It represents the infinite and the absolute that is, the most simple and complete abridgment of the science of all things. Paracelsus states that every magical figure and kabalistic sign of the pantacles which compel spirits may be reduced to two-the Macrocosm and the Microcosm (q.v.) It is the emblem of the world.
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Macrocystis
a genus of Fucaceæ, family or tribe Laminaridæ. M. pyrifera is a giant seaweed, with a stem 700 feet long, no thicker than the finger. The branches are as slender as packthreads; the leaves long and narrow, each has at its base a vesicle filled with air, enabling the plant to float. It is met with in the ocean in the S. temperate and S. polar zones.
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Macropodide
or MACROPIDE, in zoölogy, a family of Marsupials, section Phytophaga, or in Owens' classification Diprododontia. There are six incisors in the upper jaw, and two in the iower; the canines in the upper jaw are small and wanting in the lower one; the molars are five on each side above and below. The anterior feet, which are small, have five toes, each armed with a claw; the hinder ones, which are very large, powerful, and well adapted for leaping, have but four, the inner one, or great toe, being absent. Found in Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea. Huge Macropi are found in the post-Tertiary of Australia with representatives of the other genera. Kangaroos, one of genera, seem to have been limited to Australia before the human period began.
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Macroprosopus, The
One of the four magical elements in the Kabala; and probably representing one of the four simple elements, air, water, earth, or fire. Macroprosopus means "creator of the great world."
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Macropus
the generic name of the kangaroos, applied to them in allusion to their elongated hind feet. See KANGAROO..
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Macrura
or MACROURA (-krör'ä), long-tailed Crustaceans; lobsters, a suborder of Decapoda, having the abdomen greatly developed, cylindrical, the segments short, flattened, and expanded laterally; the whole terminated by a broad swimming tail. The antennæ are usually large. The feet are terminated by nipping claws. The young, on being hatched, are not very different in form from their parents. They abound in both salt and fresh water. The sub-order contains the families Crangonidæ, Astacidæ, Thalassinidæ, and Palinuride. They came into existence in Palæozoic times.
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