apathy and other causes weakened his hands, and in December he found
himself with 25,000 men at Astorga, a French force of 70,000 advancing
against him; retreat was necessary, but disastrous; he was overtaken by
Soult at Coruna in the act of embarking; the victory lay with the
English, but Moore was killed (1761-1808).

MOORE, THOMAS, the Bard of Erin, born in Dublin, the son of a
grocer, studied at Trinity College; went to London with a translation of
"Anacreon," which gained him favour and a valuable appointment in the
Bermudas in 1803; fought a duel with Jeffrey in 1806, began his "Irish
Melodies" in 1807, and published "The Twopenny Postbag" in 1812; in 1817
appeared "Lalla Rookh," a collection of Oriental tales, and in 1818 a
satiric piece "The Fudge Family," and published a Life of Byron in 1830;
Moore's songs were written to Irish airs, and they contributed much to
ensure Catholic emancipation (1779-1852).

MOORS, a general term for tribes in North Africa descended from Arab
and Berber stock; they were Christians for several centuries, but on
their conquest by Arabs in 647 embraced Mohammedanism; the town Moors do
not hold before European settlers, but the nomad tribes show more
vitality; Moorish peoples seized and settled in Spain early in the 8th
century, and, introducing a civilisation further advanced than that in
Europe generally with respect to science, art, and industry alike,
maintained a strong rule till the 11th century; then the Spaniards
gradually recovered the peninsula; Toledo was taken in 1085, Saragossa in
1118, Valencia in 1238, Seville in 1248, Murcia in 1260, and Granada in
1492; Turkish successes in the East came too late to save the Moors, and
the last were banished from the country in 1609.

MORAINES, masses of rock which become detached from the hill-side
and find lodgment on a glacier are so called, and are further described
as lateral, medial, terminal, or ground moraines, according as they lie
along its edges, its middle, are piled up in mounds at its end, or
falling down crevasses, are ground against the rock underneath.

MORALITIES, didactic dramas, following in order of time the miracle
plays and mysteries, in which the places of saints and biblical
personages in them were taken by characters representing different
virtues and vices, and the story was of an allegorical nature; were the
immediate precursors of the secular drama.

MORAVIA (2,277), a crownland in the N. of