. The
"maiden queen" is Elizabeth; the "soldan," Philip of Spain, and "Adicia"
is injustice, presumption, or the bigotry of popery.--Spenser, _Fa[:e]ry
Queen_, v. (1596).

=Mercu'tio=, kinsman of Prince Escalus, and Romeo's friend. An airy,
sprightly, elegant young nobleman, so full of wit and fancy that Dryden
says Shakespeare was obliged to kill him in the third act, lest the poet
himself should have been killed by Mercutio.--Shakespeare, _Romeo and
Juliet_ (1598).

=Mercutio of Actors= (_The_), William Lewis (1748-1811).

=Mercy=, a young pilgrim, who accompanied Christiana in her walk to Zion.
When Mercy got to the Wicket Gate, she swooned from fear of being
refused admittance. Mr. Brisk proposed to her, but being told that she
was poor, left her, and she was afterwards married to Matthew, the
eldest son of Christian.--Bunyan, _Pilgrim's Progress_, ii. (1684).

=Merdle= (_Mr._), banker, a skit on the directors of the Royal British
bank, and on Mr. Hudson, "the railway king." Mr. Merdle, of Harley
Street, was called the "Master Mind of the Age." He became insolvent,
and committed suicide. Mr. Merdle was a heavily made man, with an obtuse
head, and coarse, mean, common features. His chief butler said of him,
"Mr. Merdle never was a gentleman, and no ungentlemanly act on Mr.
Merdle's part would surprise me." The great banker was "the greatest
forger and greatest thief that ever cheated the gallows."

Lord Decimus [_Barnacle_] began waving Mr. Merdle about ... as
Gigantic Enterprise. The wealth of England, Credit, Capital,
Prosperity, and all manner of blessings.--Bk. ii. 24.

_Mrs. Merdle_, wife of the bank swindler. After the death of her
husband, society decreed that Mrs. Merdle should still be admitted among
the sacred few; so Mrs. Merdle was still received and patted on the back
by the upper ten.--C. Dickens, _Little Dorrit_ (1857).

=Meredith= (_Mr._), one of the conspirators with Redgauntlet.--Sir W.
Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

_Meredith_ (_Mr. Michael_), "the man of mirth," in the managing
committee of the Spa hotel.--Sir. W. Scott, _St. Ronan's Well_. (time,
George III.).

_Meredith_ (_Sir_), a Welsh knight.--Sir W. Scott, _Castle Dangerous_
(time, Henry I.).

_Meredith_ (_Owen_), pseudonym of the Hon. Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton
(Lord Lytton), author of _The Wanderer_ (1859), etc. This son of Lord
Bulwer Lytton, poet and novelist, succeeded to the peerage in