A-Z Browse

Previous Next

Martyrdom of St. Andrew (painting by Bourdon)
...In 1643 he was commissioned to paint St. Peter’s martyrdom for Notre-Dame, and he completed several other works during this time, including the decoration of the Hôtel de Grammont and the “Martyrdom of St. Andrew” for the chapter of the Church of Saint-André in Chartres. In 1648 Bourdon was one of the founders of the French Royal Academy, in which he became......
Martyrdom of St. Erasmus, The (work by Poussin)
...Cassiano dal Pozzo, who was destined to become his chief Italian patron and one of his closest friends. One year later, Pozzo assisted him in securing the commission for The Martyrdom of St. Erasmus, an altarpiece for St. Peter’s. Poussin’s altarpiece did not meet with critical acclaim, however, and it effectively helped to end his career as a public pa...
Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, The (painting by Foppa)
...receptive to the Renaissance style, influenced by Donato Bramante, Andrea Mantegna, and Leonardo da Vinci. This influence appears in the modeling and perspective of his best-known fresco, “The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian” (1485)....
Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, The (painting by Pollaiuolo)
...was a painter, sculptor, engraver, and architect. His work indicates his fascination with muscles in action, and he is said to have been the first artist to dissect the human body. In the altarpiece “The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian” (1475; National Gallery, London) he presents the archers from two points of view to demonstrate their muscular activity. His painting (formerly in the....
Martyrdom of St. Stephen (painting by Fontana)
...work was introduced to Rome; she moved to Rome three years later and continued painting portraits and altarpieces. In 1604 she painted her largest work, the Martyrdom of St. Stephen, an altarpiece for San Paolo Fuori le Mura in Rome, a basilica that was destroyed in the fire of 1823. Her Visit of the Queen of Sheba to......
martyriai (music)
...Unlike western European neumes, they do not designate pitch; rather, they show the musical interval from the previous tone. The pitch and length of the starting tone were shown by signs called martyriai, abbreviations of well-known melodies that provided an initial intonation....
Martyrs Memorial Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster (church, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom)
...son of a maverick Baptist minister, Paisley was ordained by his father in 1946. He cofounded and became moderator of his own church, the Free Presbyterian Church, in 1951. In 1969 he founded the Martyrs Memorial Free Presbyterian Church in Belfast, Northern Ireland. From 1961 to 1991 membership in his churches increased 10-fold, though the 1991 census indicated that they attracted less than......
Martyr’s Monument (monument, Baghdad, Iraq)
Two monuments are dedicated to war dead. A large modernistic shield, built by Khālid al-Raḥḥāl in 1982, commemorates the Unknown Soldier. The Martyr’s Monument, a 150-foot (50-metre) split dome built in 1983, commemorates the casualties of the Iran-Iraq War (1980–90). The Victory Arches (1988), which consist of two enormous sets of crossed swords nearly 15...
Martyrs of Granada (painting by Pacheco)
Such paintings as the Last Judgment (1614) in the convent of Santa Isabel and the Martyrs of Granada are highly imitative and rigid works, monumental but unimpressive. Although Velázquez became Pacheco’s son-in-law, he was uninfluenced by his father-in-law’s art....
Maru (work by Head)
Maru (1971), a novel by Bessie Head, tells a story about the liberation of the San people from ethnic and racial oppression and about the liberation of the Tswana people of Dilepe from their prejudices and hatreds. It is a story of a flawed world and the attempts of two mythic people, Maru and Margaret Cadmore, to restore it to its former perfection. It is also a love......
Marua (Cameroon)
town located in northern Cameroon. It is situated in the foothills of the Mandara Mountains, along the Mayo (“River”) Kaliao. An important marketing centre, it lies at the intersection of roads from Mokolo (northwest), Bogo (northeast), and Garoua (southwest). The town’s agricultural exports are shipped by road to Garoua...
Marugame (Japan)
city, Kagawa ken (prefecture), Shikoku, Japan, on the coast of the Inland Sea. Founded as a castle town in 1597, Marugame flourished from the Tokugawa period (1603–1867) to the early Meiji period (1868–1912) as a sea terminal for p...
marujada (dance)
Perhaps the most widespread dance ritual of Latin America derives from the dance of Moors and Christians (la danza de Moros y Cristianos), which was performed at major religious festivals in medieval Spain. The dance was based on an older form of religious street theatre, autos sacramentales (“mystery......
Maruki, Iri (Japanese painter)
Japanese painter with his wife, Toshi, of 15 murals and panels that depicted the bombing of Hiroshima (b. June 20, 1901--d. Oct. 18 or 19, 1995)....
maruko (Japanese art)
Fine, round grains of gold or silver (maruko) are usually used for fundamiji. Maruko can be produced by lightly grinding gold or silver flakes between two filelike steel surfaces. A sieve is used to separate the fine grains from the coarse. During the Heian period (794–1185), uneven grains of gold produced by filing solid gold were used; this technique was called......
marula (plant)
The Lowveld everywhere supports a parklike plant cover. In the higher areas the characteristic trees are acacia and marula, the latter bearing an intoxicating plumlike fruit. The open ground is dominated by red grass. In the lower areas, such as the Sabi and Limpopo river valleys, tufted finger grasses, euphorbias, and other succulents replace red grass; the acacias increase in number; and the......
Marulanda Vélez, Manuel (Colombian guerrilla leader)
May 12, 1930?Génova, Colom.March 26, 2008unknown mountain encampment, ColombiaColombian guerrilla leader who was a founder (1964) and commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), estimated to possess some 10,000 to 15,000 armed soldiers and thousands of supporters,...
Marulić, Marko (Croatian writer)
Croatian moral philosopher and poet whose vernacular verse marked the beginnings of a distinctive Croatian literature....
Marumi kumquat (fruit)
The oval, or Nagami, kumquat (F. margarita) is the most common species. It is native to southern China and bears yellow fruits that are about 3 cm in diameter. The round, or Marumi, kumquat is F. japonica; it is indigenous to Japan and has orangelike fruits that are about 2.5 cm in diameter. The egg-shaped Meiwa kumquat (F. crassifolia), in which both the pulp and the rind......
Marunouchi (district, Tokyo, Japan)
Most people would probably still put the centre of Tokyo much where the centre of Edo was, immediately to the east of the palace. Marunouchi, inside the outer castle moat (now filled in), is the entrepreneurial hub of the city and of Japan; it is where the prefectural offices were until 1991. Farther east, immediately beyond the avenue built on the filled-in moat, there has been a shift.......
Marusthali (region, India)
sand-dune-covered eastern portion of the Great Indian (Thar) Desert in western Rajasthan state, northwestern India. It extends over about 24,000 square miles (62,000 square km), north of the Luni River....
Mārūt (Islamic mythology)
in Islāmic mythology, two angels who unwittingly became masters of evil. A group of angels, after observing the sins being committed on earth, began to ridicule man’s weakness. God declared that they would act no better under the same circumstances and proposed that some angels be sent to earth to see how well they could resist idolatry, murder, fornication, and wine. No sooner did ...
Marut, Ret (American author)
novelist noted as a writer of adventure stories and as a chronicler of rural life in Mexico. A recluse, Traven refused personal data to publishers; hence many theories have arisen as to his parentage, his nationality, and his general identity. Most of his books were originally written in German and were first published in Germany....
Maruts (Hindu deities)
...and disease and who has to be implored not to slay or injure in his wrath. As a healer and a source of 1,000 remedies, he has also a beneficent aspect. He is also the father of the storm gods, the Rudras, sometimes called Maruts....
Maruyama Masao (Japanese political scientist and writer)
Japanese political scientist, writer, and educator (b. March 22, 1914, Osaka, Japan--d. Aug. 15, 1996, Tokyo, Japan), as one of Japan’s leading political thinkers, helped shape Japanese politics and thought following World War II. Maruyama, the son of a political journalist, graduated from the ...
Maruyama Masataka (Japanese painter)
A lineage that formed under the genius of Maruyama Ōkyo might be summarily described as lyrical realism. Yet his penchant for nature studies, whether of flora and fauna or human anatomy, and his subtle incorporation of perspective and shading techniques learned from Western examples perhaps better qualify him to be noted as the first of the great eclectic painters. In addition to......
Maruyama Ōkyo (Japanese painter)
A lineage that formed under the genius of Maruyama Ōkyo might be summarily described as lyrical realism. Yet his penchant for nature studies, whether of flora and fauna or human anatomy, and his subtle incorporation of perspective and shading techniques learned from Western examples perhaps better qualify him to be noted as the first of the great eclectic painters. In addition to......
Maruyama school (Japanese art)
Japanese school of naturalistic painting that was founded in the late 18th century by Maruyama Masataka (Ōkyo) and was made popular by his pupils, among them Matsumura Gekkei, called Goshun, from whose residence on Fourth Street (Shijō), in Kyōto, the movement took its name. Among the most important artists associated with the school were Matsumura Keibun an...
Maruyama-Shijō school (Japanese art)
Japanese school of naturalistic painting that was founded in the late 18th century by Maruyama Masataka (Ōkyo) and was made popular by his pupils, among them Matsumura Gekkei, called Goshun, from whose residence on Fourth Street (Shijō), in Kyōto, the movement took its name. Among the most important artists associated with the school were Matsumura Keibun an...
MaRV (military technology)
...the advances in ballistic missile defenses that were achieved even after the ABM treaty was signed, RVs remained vulnerable. Two technologies offered possible means of overcoming these difficulties. Maneuvering warheads, or MaRVs, were first integrated into the U.S. Pershing II IRBMs deployed in Europe from 1984 until they were dismantled under the terms of the INF Treaty. The warhead of the......
Marvak, Ann (American actress)
Sept. 16, 1930Ossining, N.Y.Jan. 2, 2011Santa Barbara, Calif.American actress who was a statuesque blonde whose movie and television roles ranged from a wide-eyed innocent, notably in the cult science-fiction film classic Forbidden Planet (1956), to a provocative femme fatale, especi...
Marvel, Carl Shipp (American chemist)
American chemist whose early research was in classic organic chemistry but who is best known for his contributions to polymer chemistry....
Marvel Comics (American company)
In 2004 Gaiman penned 1602 for Marvel Comics. The story reinterpreted classic Marvel superheroes and marked Gaiman’s first foray into the superhero genre since his run on the critically acclaimed but legally troubled Marvelman (known in the United States as Miracleman) in the early 1990s. Fittingly, the proceeds from 1602, one of that year...
Marvel, Ik (American writer)
American farmer and writer known for nostalgic, sentimental books on American life, especially Reveries of a Bachelor (1850)....
marvel-of-peru (plant)
(Mirabilis jalapa) ornamental perennial plant, of the family Nyctaginaceae, native to tropical America. Four-o’clock is a quick-growing species up to one metre (three feet) tall, with oval leaves on short leafstalks. The stems are swollen at the joints. The plant is called four-o’clock because its flowers, from white and yellow to shades of pink and red, s...
Marvelettes, the (American singing group)
American girl group formed in 1961 whose principal members were Gladys Horton (b. 1944Detroit, Mich., U.S.—d. Jan. 26, 2011Sherman Oaks, Calif.), Wanda Young ...
Marvell, Andrew (English poet)
English poet whose political reputation overshadowed that of his poetry until the 20th century. He is now considered to be one of the best Metaphysical poets....
Marvelman (comic by Gaiman)
...for Marvel Comics. The story reinterpreted classic Marvel superheroes and marked Gaiman’s first foray into the superhero genre since his run on the critically acclaimed but legally troubled Marvelman (known in the United States as Miracleman) in the early 1990s. Fittingly, the proceeds from 1602, one of that year’s best-selling comics, were u...
“Marvelous Journey, The” (work by Graça Aranha)
...in his own work with avant-garde literary techniques, he adopted the Modernist idiom, employing elliptical sentences and inventing new words in a novel published the year before his death, A viagem maravilhosa (1929; “The Marvelous Journey”). His aesthetic views were further publicized in his essays A estética da vida (1925; “The Aesthetics of......
Marvels, the (American singing group)
American girl group formed in 1961 whose principal members were Gladys Horton (b. 1944Detroit, Mich., U.S.—d. Jan. 26, 2011Sherman Oaks, Calif.), Wanda Young ...
Marville, Charles (French photographer)
...the 1850s the French government commissioned several photographers to document historical buildings. Working with cameras making photographs as large as 20 by 29 inches (51 by 74 cm), Henri Le Secq, Charles Marville, and Charles Nègre produced remarkable calotypes of the cathedrals of Notre-Dame (Paris), Chartres, and Amiens, as well as other structures that were being restored after......
Marville, Jean de (sculptor)
The archives in Dijon provide some information on Sluter’s sculptural commissions. In 1389 he succeeded Jean de Marville as chief sculptor to the duke, and in that year he began carving the portal sculptures, which had been planned as early as 1386. He replaced the portal’s damaged central canopy and by 1391 had completed the statues of the Virgin and Child and the two saints. By 139...
Marvin, Hank B. (British musician)
London-based instrumental rock group whose distinctive sound exerted a strong influence on young British musicians in the 1960s. The original members were Hank B. Marvin (original name Brian Robson Rankin; b. October 28, 1941Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England),......
Marvin, Lee (American actor)
rugged, durable American actor who was perhaps the quintessential cinematic “tough guy.”...
Marvin, Michelle Triola (American personality)
Nov. 13, 1933Los Angeles, Calif.Oct. 30, 2009Malibu, Calif.American personality who sued her former live-in lover, actor Lee Marvin, for the same sort of support that women regularly received from their former husband...
Marwah, Mount (hill, Mecca, Saudi Arabia)
...times around the Kaʿbah, a shrine within the mosque; the kissing and touching of the Black Stone (Ḥajar al-Aswad); and the ascent of and running between Mount Ṣafā and Mount Marwah (which are now, however, mere elevations) seven times. At the second stage of the ritual, the pilgrim proceeds from Mecca to Minā, a few miles away; from there he goes to......
Marwān I ibn al-Hakam (Umayyad caliph)
first of the Marwānid caliphs of the Umayyad dynasty (reigned 684–685)....
Marwān II (Umayyad caliph)
last of the Umayyad caliphs (reigned 744–750). He was killed while fleeing the forces of Abū al-ʿAbbās as-Saffāḥ, the first caliph of the ʿAbbāsid dynasty....
Marwanid (Islamic rulers)
...subdued Iraq, rebellions in the name of this or that relative of ʿAlī continued, attracting more and more non-Arab support and introducing new dimensions to his cause. In the Hejaz the Marwānid branch of the Umayyads, descendants of Marwān I who claimed the caliphate in 684, fought against ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr for years; by the time they defeated hi...
Marwari language (Indo-Aryan language)
...which comprise a group of Indo-Aryan languages and dialects derived from Dingal, a tongue in which bards once sang of the glories of their masters. The four main Rajasthani language groups are Marwari in western Rajasthan, Jaipuri or Dhundhari in the east and southeast, Malvi in the southeast, and, in the northeast, Mewati, which shades off into Braj Bhasa (a Hindi dialect) toward the......
Marwedel, Emma Jacobina Christiana (American educator)
German-born educator who was instrumental in promoting the kindergarten movement in the United States....
Marwell Zoological Park (zoo, Winchester, England, United Kingdom)
zoo in Winchester, Hampshire, Eng., that is known for its large breeding groups of hoofed stock and carnivores. It was opened in 1972 and occupies 99 acres (40 hectares) of attractive parkland. Its animal collection, comprising more than 960 specimens of some 145 species, is arranged zoogeographically. Most of the animals are exhibited in large enclosures, ungulates being kept in mixed species gr...
marwysgafn (Welsh religious ode)
(Welsh: “deathbed song”), religious ode in which the poet, sensing the approach of death, confesses his sins and prays for forgiveness. The marwysgafn was popular during the period of the Welsh court poets, called gogynfeirdd in the 12th–14th centuries. ...
Marx, Adolpho Arthur (American actor)
...York, New York, U.S.—d. October 11, 1961Hollywood, California), Harpo (original name Adolph Marx, later Arthur Marx; b. November 23, 1888New York City...
Marx Brothers (American actors)
American comedy team that was popular on stage, screen, and radio for 30 years. They were celebrated for their inventive attacks on the socially respectable and upon ordered society in general. Five Marx brothers became entertainers: Chico Marx (original name Leonard Marx; ...
Marx, Chico (American actor)
...and radio for 30 years. They were celebrated for their inventive attacks on the socially respectable and upon ordered society in general. Five Marx brothers became entertainers: Chico Marx (original name Leonard Marx; b. March 22, 1887New York, New York, U.S.—d. October 11,......
Marx, Groucho (American actor)
...November 23, 1888New York City—d. September 28, 1964Hollywood), Groucho (original name Julius Henry Marx; b. October 2, 1890New York City...
Marx, Gummo (American actor)
...2, 1890New York City—d. August 19, 1977Los Angeles, California), Gummo (original name Milton Marx; b. October 23, 1892New York City...
Marx, Harpo (American actor)
...York, New York, U.S.—d. October 11, 1961Hollywood, California), Harpo (original name Adolph Marx, later Arthur Marx; b. November 23, 1888New York City...
Marx, Herbert (American actor)
...York City—d. April 21, 1977Palm Springs, California), and Zeppo (original name Herbert Marx; b. February 25, 1901New York City—d. November...
Marx, Julius Henry (American actor)
...November 23, 1888New York City—d. September 28, 1964Hollywood), Groucho (original name Julius Henry Marx; b. October 2, 1890New York City...
Marx, Karl (German philosopher)
revolutionary, sociologist, historian, and economist. He published (with Friedrich Engels) Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei (1848), commonly known as The Communist Manifesto, the most celebrated pamphlet in the history of the socialist movement. He also was the author of the movement...
Marx, Karl Heinrich (German philosopher)
revolutionary, sociologist, historian, and economist. He published (with Friedrich Engels) Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei (1848), commonly known as The Communist Manifesto, the most celebrated pamphlet in the history of the socialist movement. He also was the author of the movement...
Marx, Leonard (American actor)
...and radio for 30 years. They were celebrated for their inventive attacks on the socially respectable and upon ordered society in general. Five Marx brothers became entertainers: Chico Marx (original name Leonard Marx; b. March 22, 1887New York, New York, U.S.—d. October 11,......
Marx, Milton (American actor)
...2, 1890New York City—d. August 19, 1977Los Angeles, California), Gummo (original name Milton Marx; b. October 23, 1892New York City...
Marx, Roberto Burle (Brazilian landscape architect)
Brazilian landscape architect who created many outstanding gardens in association with important modern buildings. He replaced European-style formal gardens with his own country’s lush tropical flora....
Marx, Wilhelm (German statesman)
German statesman, leader of the Roman Catholic Centre Party, and twice chancellor during the Weimar Republic....
Marx, Zeppo (American actor)
...York City—d. April 21, 1977Palm Springs, California), and Zeppo (original name Herbert Marx; b. February 25, 1901New York City—d. November...
Marxbrüder (fencing guild)
By the 15th century, guilds of fencing masters were formed throughout Europe, the most notable of which was the Marxbrüder (the Association of St. Marcus of Löwenberg), which was granted letters patent by the Emperor Frederick III in 1480. Early fencing methods as taught by the guilds were somewhat rough-and-tumble and included wrestling moves. The guilds jealously guarded their......
Marxism
a body of doctrine developed by Karl Marx and, to a lesser extent, by Friedrich Engels in the mid-19th century. It originally consisted of three related ideas: a philosophical anthropology, a theory of history, and an economic and political program. There is also Marxism as it has been understood and practiced by the various sociali...
Marxism: An Interpretation (work by MacIntyre)
MacIntyre’s early political allegiances and early scholarly work were oriented toward Marxism. (He published Marxism: An Interpretation [1953] when he was 24 years old.) But he became unsettled by what he took to be the inability of Marxists to respond cogently in moral terms to outrages perpetrated in nominally Marxist regimes. Given the Marxist critique of morality as......
Marxism-Leninism
principles expounded by Vladimir I. Lenin, who was the preeminent figure in the Russian Revolution of 1917. Whether Leninist concepts represented a contribution to or a corruption of Marxist thought has been debated, but their influence on the subseque...
Marxist
principles expounded by Vladimir I. Lenin, who was the preeminent figure in the Russian Revolution of 1917. Whether Leninist concepts represented a contribution to or a corruption of Marxist thought has been debated, but their influence on the subseque...
Mary (duchess of Burgundy)
duchess of Burgundy (1477–82), daughter and heiress of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy; her crucial marriage to the archduke Maximilian (later Maximilian I), son of the Habsburg emperor Ferdinand III, resulted in Habsburg control of the Netherlands....
Mary (queen of Scotland)
queen of Scotland (1542–67) and queen consort of France (1559–60). Her unwise marital and political actions provoked rebellion among the Scottish nobles, forcing her to flee to England, where she was eventually beheaded as a Roman Catholic threat to the English throne....
Mary (work by Nabokov)
...several unproduced motion-picture scenarios. By 1925 he settled upon prose as his main genre. His first short story had already been published in Berlin in 1924. His first novel, Mashenka (Mary), appeared in 1926; it was avowedly autobiographical and contains descriptions of the young Nabokov’s first serious romance as well as of the Nabokov family estate, both of which are...
Mary (oblast, Turkmenistan)
oblast (province), southeastern Turkmenistan. It includes the basin of the Morghāb River, which diminishes in the Karakum Desert in the north. In the south, on the Afghanistan frontier, are spurs of the Selseleh-ye Safīd Kūh (Paropamisus Mountains)...
Mary (mother of Jesus)
the mother of Jesus, an object of veneration in the Christian church since the apostolic age, and a favourite subject in Western art, music, and literature. Mary is known from biblical references, which are, however, too sparse to construct a coherent biography. The development of the doctrine of Mary can be traced through titles that have been ascribed to her...
Mary (work by Asch)
...connections: Der man fun Netseres (1943; The Nazarene), a reconstruction of Christ’s life as expressive of essential Judaism; The Apostle (1943), a study of St. Paul; Mary (1949), the mother of Jesus seen as the Jewish “handmaid of the Lord”; and The Prophet (1955), on the Second (Deutero-) Isaiah, whose message of comfort and hope replace...
Mary (queen of Sicily)
Martin’s life was marked chiefly by the continued Aragonese intervention in Sicily. When Frederick III of Sicily died in 1377, leaving a daughter, Mary, as his heiress, there ensued a long period of disorder. Peter IV of Aragon, on the grounds that females were excluded from succession to the Sicilian crown, claimed it for himself as the nearest male heir; and Mary underwent a series of......
Mary (Turkmenistan)
city and administrative centre of Mary oblast (province), Turkmenistan, on the Morghāb River, at the intersection of the Karakum Canal and the Türkmenbashy–Tashkent railway. It was founded in 1884 on the site of a former Turkmen fort, 19 miles (30 ...
Mary Barton (novel by Gaskell)
first novel by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, published in 1848. It is the story of a working-class family that descends into desperation during the depression of 1839. With its vivid description of squalid slums, Mary Barton helped awaken the national conscience....
“Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life” (novel by Gaskell)
first novel by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, published in 1848. It is the story of a working-class family that descends into desperation during the depression of 1839. With its vivid description of squalid slums, Mary Barton helped awaken the national conscience....
Mary Chesnut’s Civil War (work by Woodward)
Woodward’s other works include The Battle for Leyte Gulf (1947), which was based on his experiences in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and Mary Chesnut’s Civil War (1981), a collection of original Civil War-era letters he edited and which earned him the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for history. His autobiography, Thinking Back: The Perils of Writing History, w...
Mary de Cervello, Saint (Spanish saint)
...the founder’s lifetime, the order freed 2,700 prisoners and, overall, claimed to have freed about 70,000 prisoners. In 1265 a second order of Mercedarians for women was founded in Spain by St. Mary de Cervello....
Mary Euphrasia, Sister (French nun)
...at Caen, Fr. This order, known as the Religious of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge, was virtually destroyed during the French Revolution. The Refuge at Tours was trying to reestablish itself when Rose-Virginie Pelletier entered the community in 1814 and took the name Sister Mary Euphrasia. By 1829 she had become superior of the community and founded a convent at Angers, followed in the next.....
Mary Glenn (work by Millin)
...(1924; new ed. 1951)—dealing with the problems of four generations of a half-black, half-white (“Coloured”) family in South Africa—that established her reputation. With Mary Glenn (1925), a study of a mother’s reaction to her child’s disappearance, she became one of the most popular South African novelists in English, identified by a nervous, sha...
Mary Gregory glass (decorative arts)
variety of glass produced in the United States toward the end of the 19th century in imitation of the then popular English cameo glass. It was named for Mary Gregory, an employee in the decorating department of the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company in Sandwich, Mass. Both transparent and coloured, the gla...
Mary Hamilton (ballad)
...particular variety of crime ballad, the “last goodnight”, represents itself falsely to be the contrite speech of a criminal as he mounts the scaffold to be executed. A version of “Mary Hamilton” takes this form, which was a broadside device widely adopted by the folk. “Tom Dooley” and “Charles Guiteau,” the scaffold confession of the assas...
Mary I (queen of England)
the first queen to rule England (1553–58) in her own right. She was known as Bloody Mary for her persecution of Protestants in a vain attempt to restore Roman Catholicism in England....
Mary II (queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland)
queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1689–94) and wife of King William III. As the daughter of King James II, she made it possible for her Dutch husband to become co-ruler of England after he had overthrown James’s government....
Mary Immaculate, Oblates of (Roman Catholic congregation)
(O.M.I.), one of the largest missionary congregations of the Roman Catholic Church, inaugurated at Aix-en-Provence, Fr., on Jan. 25, 1816, as the Missionary Society of Provence by Charles-Joseph-Eugène de Mazenod. By preaching...
Mary Kathleen (district, Queensland, Australia)
district and former mining settlement, northwestern Queensland, Australia, in the Selwyn Range. In 1954 a major deposit of uranium ore was discovered there near the Corella River. The town, named for the wife of Norman McConachy, who, with Clem Walton, discovered the ores, was built to house workers and their families; a processing plant was completed, and production begun in 19...
Mary, Legion of (Catholic organization)
A distinction is normally made between general and specialized Catholic Action. General Catholic Action organizations, such as the Holy Name Society or the Legion of Mary, are open to all Roman Catholics, or at least all of a given age. Specialized Catholic Action groups are limited to members of a given profession or interest group, such as workers, students, doctors, lawyers, or married......
Mary Magdalene, Saint (disciple of Jesus)
one of Jesus’ most celebrated disciples, famous, according to Mark 16:9–10 and John 20:14–17, for being the first person to see the resurrected Christ....
Mary of Burgundy (duchess of Burgundy)
duchess of Burgundy (1477–82), daughter and heiress of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy; her crucial marriage to the archduke Maximilian (later Maximilian I), son of the Habsburg emperor Ferdinand III, resulted in Habsburg control of the Netherlands....
Mary of Guise (queen consort of Scotland)
Mary Stuart was the only child of King James V of Scotland and his French wife, Mary of Guise. The death of her father six days after her birth left Mary as queen of Scotland in her own right. Although Mary’s great-uncle King Henry VIII of England made an unsuccessful effort to secure control of her (Mary inherited Tudor blood through her grandmother, a sister of Henry VIII), the regency of...
Mary of Guise (regent of Scotland)
regent of Scotland for her daughter, Mary Stuart, during the early years of the Scottish Reformation. A Roman Catholic, she pursued pro-French policies that involved her in civil war with Scotland’s Protestant nobles....
Mary of Hungary (regent of The Netherlands)
...crown to his many possessions. The emperor, who was almost always out of the country, placed the Low Countries under the rule of governors-general—first his aunt Margaret and later his sister Mary, who retained control and worked toward further centralization even when he was in the country....
Mary of Lorraine (regent of Scotland)
regent of Scotland for her daughter, Mary Stuart, during the early years of the Scottish Reformation. A Roman Catholic, she pursued pro-French policies that involved her in civil war with Scotland’s Protestant nobles....