Chapter XIX: Part 19

MASSICUS, MONS, a mountain ridge of ancient Italy, in the territory of the Aurunci, and on the border of Campania and Latium adjectum--attributed by most authors to the latter. It projects south-west from the volcanic system of Rocca Monfina (see SUESSA AURUNCA) as far as the sea, and separates the lower course of the Liris from the plain of Campania. It consists of limestone, with a superstratum of pliocenic and volcanic masses, and was once an island; its highest point is 2661 ft. above sea-level.

It was very famous for its wine in ancient times. There was just room
along the coast for the road to pass through; the pass was guarded by
the Auruncan town of Vescia (probably on the mountain side), which
ceased to exist in 314 B.C. after the defeat of the Ausones, but left
its name to the spot. Its successor, Sinuessa, on the coast, a station
on the Via Appia, was constructed in 312 B.C., and a colony was
founded there in 295 B.C. It is not infrequently mentioned by
classical writers as a place in which travellers halted. Here Virgil
joined Horace on the famous journey to Brundusium. Domitian
considerably increased its importance by the construction of the Via
Domitiana, which left the Via Appia here and ran to Cumae and Puteoli,
and it was he, no doubt, who raised it to the position of _colonia
Flavia_. The town was destroyed by the Saracens, but some ruins of it
are still visible two miles north-west of the modern village of
Mondragone. The mineral springs which still rise here were frequented
in antiquity.

MASSIF, a French term, adopted in geology and physical geography for a mountainous mass or group of connected heights, whether isolated or forming part of a larger mountain system. A "massif" is more or less clearly marked off by valleys.

MASSILLON, JEAN BAPTISTE (1663-1742), French bishop and preacher, was born at Hyères on the 24th of June 1663, his father being a royal notary of that town. At the age of eighteen he joined the Congregation of the Oratory and taught for a time in the colleges of his order at Pézenas, and Montbrison and at the Seminary of Vienne. On the death of Henri de Villars, archbishop of Vienne, in 1693, he was commissioned to deliver a funeral oration, and this was the beginning of his fame. In obedience to Cardinal de Noailles, archbishop of Paris, he left the Cistercian abbey of Sept-Fonds, to which he had retired, and settled in Paris, where he was placed at the head of the famous seminary of Saint Magloire. He soon gained a wide reputation as a preacher and was selected to be the Advent preacher at the court of Versailles in 1699. He was made bishop of Clermont in 1717, and two years later was elected a member of the French Academy. The last years of his life were spent in the faithful discharge of his episcopal duties; his death took place at Clermont on the 18th of September 1742. Massillon enjoyed in the 18th century a reputation equal to that of Bossuet and of Bourdaloue, and has been much praised by Voltaire, D'Alembert and kindred spirits among the _Encyclopaedists_. His popularity was probably due to the fact that in his sermons he lays little stress on dogmatic questions, but treats generally of moral subjects, in which the secrets of the human heart and the processes of man's reason are described with poetical feeling. He has usually been contrasted with his predecessor Bourdaloue, the latter having the credit of vigorous denunciation, Massillon that of gentle persuasiveness. Besides the _Petit Carême_, a sermon which he delivered before the young king Louis XV. in 1718, his sermons on the Prodigal Son, on the small number of the elect, on death, for Christmas Day, and for the Fourth Sunday in Advent, may be perhaps cited as his masterpieces. His funeral oration on Louis XIV. is only noted now for the opening sentence: "Dieu seul est grand." But in truth Massillon is singularly free from inequality. His great literary power, his reputation for benevolence, and his known toleration and dislike of doctrinal disputes caused him to be much more favourably regarded than most churchmen by the _philosophes_ of the 18th century.

The first edition of Massillon's complete works was published by his
nephew, also an Oratorian (Paris, 1745-1748), and upon this, in the
absence of MSS., succeeding reprints were based. The best modern
edition is that of the Abbé Blampignon (Paris, 1865-1868, 4 vols.; new
ed. 1886).

See Abbé Blampignon, _Massillon, d'après des documents inédits_
(Paris, 1879); and _L'Épiscopat de Massitlon d'après des documents
inédits, suivi de sa correspondance_ (Paris, 1884); F. Brunetière
"L'Éloquence de Massillon" in _Études critiques_ (Paris, 1882); Père
Ingold, _L'Oratoire et le jansénisme au temps de Massitlon_ (Paris,
1880); and Louis Petit de Julleville's _Histoire de la langue et de la
littérature française_, v. 372-385 (Paris, 1898).

MASSILLON, a city of Stark county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the Tuscarawas river and the Ohio canal, 8 m. W. of Canton, and about 50 m. S. by E. of Cleveland. Pop. (1900), 11,944 (1693 foreign-born); (1910), 13,879. It is served by the Pennsylvania (Pittsburg, Ft Wayne & Chicago Division), the Baltimore & Ohio and the Wheeling & Lake Erie railways. Massillon is built among hills in a part of the state noted for its large production of coal and wheat and abounding in white sandstone, iron ore and potter's clay. The city has various manufactures, including iron, engines, furnaces, reapers, threshers and bottles. The total value of the factory products in 1905 was $3,707,013, an increase of 34.8% over that of 1900. The first settlement was made in 1825; in 1826 the town was laid out and named in honour of Jean Baptiste Massillon; it was incorporated a village in 1853, and became a city in 1868.

MASSIMO, or MASSIMI, a Roman princely family of great antiquity, said to be descended from the ancient Maximi of republican Rome. The name is first mentioned in 1012 in the person of Leo de Maximis, and the family played a considerable part in the history of the city in the middle ages. The brothers Pietro and Francesco Massimi acquired fame by protecting and encouraging the German printer Ulrich Hahn, who came to Rome in 1467. In the 16th century the Massimi were the richest of the Roman nobles. A marquisate was conferred on them in 1544, and the lordship of Arsoli in 1574. To-day there are two branches of the Massimi, viz. the Principi Massimo, descended from Camillo Massimiliano (1770-1840), and the dukes of Rignano, descended from Francesco Massimo (1773-1844). One of the sons of the present Prince Camillo Carlo Alberto, Don Fabrizio, married Princess Beatrice, daughter of Don Carlos of Bourbon (duke of Madrid), the pretender to the Spanish throne. The Palazzo Massimo in Rome was built by Baldassare Peruzzi by order of Pietro Massimo, on the ruins of an earlier palace destroyed in the sack of Rome in 1527.

See F. Gregorovius, _Geschichte der Stadt Rom_ (Stuttgart, 1880); A.
von Reumont, _Geschichte der Stadt Rom_ (Berlin, 1868); _Almanach de
Gotha_; J. H. Douglas, _The Principal Noble Families of Rome_ (Rome,
1905).

MASSINGER, PHILIP (1583-1640), English dramatist, son of Arthur Massinger or Messanger, was baptized at St Thomas's, Salisbury, on the 24th of November 1583. He apparently belonged to an old Salisbury family, for the name occurs in the city records as early as 1415. He is described in his matriculation entry at St Alban Hall, Oxford (1602), as the son of a gentleman. His father, who had also been educated at St Alban Hall, was a member of parliament, and was attached to the household of Henry Herbert, 2nd earl of Pembroke, who recommended him in 1587 for the office of examiner in the court of the marches. The 3rd earl of Pembroke, the William Herbert whose name has been connected with Shakespeare's sonnets, succeeded to the title in 1601. It has been suggested that he supported the poet at Oxford, but the significant omission of any reference to him in any of Massinger's prefaces points to the contrary. Massinger left Oxford without a degree in 1606. His father had died in 1603, and he was perhaps dependent on his own exertions. The lack of a degree and the want of patronage from Lord Pembroke may both be explained on the supposition that he had become a Roman Catholic. On leaving the university he went to London to make his living as a dramatist, but his name cannot be definitely affixed to any play until fifteen years later, when _The Virgin Martyr_ (ent. at Stationers' Hall, Dec. 7, 1621) appeared as the work of Massinger and Dekker. During these years he worked in collaboration with other dramatists. A joint letter, from Nathaniel Field, Robert Daborne and Philip Massinger, to Philip Henslowe, begs for an immediate loan of five pounds to release them from their "unfortunate extremitie," the money to be taken from the balance due for the "play of Mr Fletcher's and ours." A second document shows that Massinger and Daborne owed Henslowe £3 on the 4th of July 1615. The earlier note probably dates from 1613, and from this time Massinger apparently worked regularly with John Fletcher, although in editions of Beaumont and Fletcher's works his co-operation is usually unrecognized. Sir Aston Cokayne, Massinger's constant friend and patron, refers in explicit terms to this collaboration in a sonnet addressed to Humphrey Moseley on the publication of his folio edition of Beaumont and Fletcher (_Small Poems of Divers Sorts_, 1658), and in an epitaph on the two poets he says:--

"Plays they did write together, were great friends,
And now one grave includes them in their ends."

After Philip Henslowe's death in 1616 Massinger and Fletcher began to write for the King's Men. Between 1623 and 1626 Massinger produced unaided for the Lady Elizabeth's Men then playing at the Cockpit three pieces, _The Parliament of Love_, _The Bondman_ and _The Renegado_. With the exception of these plays and _The Great Duke of Florence_, produced in 1627 by the Queen's servants, Massinger continued to write regularly for the King's Men until his death. The tone of the dedications of his later plays affords evidence of his continued poverty. Thus in the preface to _The Maid of Honour_ (1632) he wrote, addressing Sir Francis Foljambe and Sir Thomas Bland: "I had not to this time subsisted, but that I was supported by your frequent courtesies and favours." The prologue to _The Guardian_ (licensed 1633) refers to two unsuccessful plays and two years of silence, when the author feared he had lost the popular favour. S. R. Gardiner, in an essay on "The Political Element in Massinger" (_Contemp. Review_, Aug. 1876), maintained that Massinger's dramas are before all else political, that the events of his day were as openly criticized in his plays as current politics are in the cartoons of _Punch_. It is probable that this break in his production was owing to his free handling of public matters. In 1631 Sir Henry Herbert, the master of the revels, refused to license an unnamed play by Massinger because of "dangerous matter as the deposing of Sebastian, King of Portugal," calculated presumably to endanger good relations between England and Spain. There is little doubt that this was the same piece as _Believe as You List_, in which time and place are changed, Antiochus being substituted for Sebastian, and Rome for Spain. In the prologue Massinger ironically apologizes for his ignorance of history, and professes that his accuracy is at fault if his picture comes near "a late and sad example." The obvious "late and sad example" of a wandering prince could be no other than Charles I.'s brother-in-law, the elector palatine. An allusion to the same subject may be traced in _The Maid of Honour_. In another play by Massinger, not extant, Charles I. is reported to have himself struck out a passage put into the mouth of Don Pedro, king of Spain, as "too insolent." The poet seems to have adhered closely to the politics of his patron, Philip Herbert, earl of Montgomery, and afterwards 4th earl of Pembroke, who had leanings to democracy and was a personal enemy of the duke of Buckingham. In _The Bondman_, dealing with the history of Timoleon, Buckingham is satirized as Gisco. The servility towards the Crown displayed in Beaumont and Fletcher's plays reflected the temper of the court of James I. The attitude of Massinger's heroes and heroines towards kings is very different. Camiola's remarks on the limitations of the royal prerogative (_Maid of Honour_, act iv. sc. v.) could hardly be acceptable at court.

Massinger died suddenly at his house near the Globe theatre, and was buried in the churchyard of St Saviour's, Southwark, on the 18th of March 1640. In the entry in the parish register he is described as a "stranger," which, however, implies nothing more than that he belonged to another parish.

The supposition that Massinger was a Roman Catholic rests upon three of his plays, _The Virgin Martyr_ (licensed 1620), _The Renegado_ (licensed 1624) and _The Maid of Honour_ (c. 1621). The religious sentiment is certainly such as would obviously best appeal to an audience sympathetic to Roman Catholic doctrine. _The Virgin Martyr_, in which Dekker probably had a large share, is really a miracle play, dealing with the martyrdom of Dorothea in the time of Diocletian, and the supernatural element is freely used. Little stress can be laid on this performance as elucidating Massinger's views. It is not entirely his work, and the story is early Christian, not Roman Catholic. In _The Renegado_, however, the action is dominated by the beneficent influence of a Jesuit priest, Francisco, and the doctrine of baptismal regeneration is enforced. In _The Maid of Honour_ a complicated situation is solved by the decision of the heroine, Camiola, to take the veil. For this she is held up "to all posterity a fair example for noble maids to imitate." Among all Massinger's heroines Camiola is distinguished by genuine purity and heroism.

His plays have generally an obvious moral intention. He sets himself to work out a series of ethical problems through a succession of ingenious and effective plots. In the art of construction he has, indeed, few rivals. But the virtue of his heroes and heroines is rather morbid than natural, and often singularly divorced from common-sense. His _dramatis personae_ are in general types rather than living persons, and their actions do not appear to spring inevitably from their characters, but rather from the exigencies of the plot. The heroes are too good, and the villains too wicked to be quite convincing. Moreover their respective goodness and villainy are too often represented as extraneous to themselves. This defect of characterization shows that English drama had already begun to decline.

It seems doubtful whether Massinger was ever a popular playwright, for the best qualities of his plays would appeal rather to politicians and moralists than to the ordinary playgoer. He contributed, however, at least one great and popular character to the English stage. Sir Giles Overreach, in _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_, is a sort of commercial Richard III., a compound of the lion and the fox, and the part provides many opportunities for a great actor. He made another considerable contribution to the comedy of manners in _The City Madam_. In Massinger's own judgment _The Roman Actor_ was "the most perfect birth of his Minerva." It is a study of the tyrant Domitian, and of the results of despotic rule on the despot himself and his court. Other favourable examples of his grave and restrained art are _The Duke of Milan_, _The Bondman_ and _The Great Duke of Florence_.

Massinger was a student and follower of Shakespeare. The form of his verse, especially in the number of run-on lines, approximates in some respects to Shakespeare's later manner. He is rhetorical and picturesque, but rarely rises to extraordinary felicity. His verse is never mean, but it sometimes comes perilously near to prose, and in dealing with passionate situations it lacks fire and directness.

The plays attributed to Massinger alone are: _The Duke of Milan, a
Tragedy_ (c. 1618, pr. 1623 and 1638); _The Unnatural Combat, a
Tragedy_ (c. 1619, pr. 1639); _The Bondman, an Antient Storie_
(licensed 1623, pr. 1624); _The Renegado, a Tragaecomedie_ (lic. 1624,
pr. 1630); _The Parliament of Love_ (lic. 1624; ascribed, no doubt
erroneously, in the Stationers' Register, 1660, to W. Rowley; first
printed by Gifford from an imperfect MS. in 1805); _A New Way to Pay
Old Debts, a Comoedie_ (c. 1625, pr. 1632); _The Roman Actor. A
Tragaedie_ (lic. 1626, pr. 1629); _The Maid of Honour_ (dating perhaps
from 1621, pr. 1632); _The Picture, a Tragecomedie_ (lic. 1629, pr.
1630); _The Great Duke of Florence, a Comicall Historie_ (lic. 1627,
pr. 1635); _The Emperor of the East, a Tragaecomoedie_ (lic. and pr.
1631), founded on the story of Theodosius the Younger; _Believe as You
List_ (rejected by the censor in January, but licensed in May, 1631;
pr. 1848-1849 for the Percy Society); _The City Madam, a Comedie_
(lic. 1632, pr. 1658), which Mr Fleay (_Biog. Chron. of the Eng.
Drama_, i. 226), however, considers to be a _rifaciamento_ of an older
play, probably by Jonson; _The Guardian_ (lic. 1633, pr. 1655); and
_The Bashful Lover_ (lic. 1636, pr. 1655). _A Very Woman, or The
Prince of Tarent_, licensed in 1634 as the work of Massinger alone, is
generally referred to his collaboration with Fletcher. The "exquisite
temperance and justice" of this piece are, according to Swinburne,
foreign to Fletcher's genius, and afford a striking example of
Massinger's artistic skill and moderation.

Twelve plays of Massinger are said to be lost, but the titles of some
of these may be duplicates of those of existing plays. Five of these
lost plays were MSS. used by John Warburton's cook for pie-covers. The
numerous plays in which Massinger's co-operation with John Fletcher is
generally assumed are dealt with under BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. But it
may be here noted that Mr R. Boyle has constructed an ingenious case
for the joint authorship by Fletcher and Massinger of the two
"Shakespearian" plays, _Henry VIII._ and _Two Noble Kinsmen_ (see the
New Shakspere Society's _Transactions_, 1884 and 1882). Mr Boyle sees
the touch of Massinger in the first two acts of the _Second Maiden's
Tragedy_ (Lansdowne MS., lic. 1611), a play with which the names of
Fletcher and Tourneur are also associated by different critics. _The
Fatall Dowry, a Tragedy_ (c. 1619, pr. 1632), which was adapted
without acknowledgment by Nicholas Rowe in his _Fair Penitent_, was
written in conjunction with Nathaniel Field; and _The Virgin Martir, a
Tragedie_ (lic. 1620, pr. 1621), with Thomas Dekker.

Massinger's independent works were collected by Coxeter (4 vols.,
1759, revised edition with introduction by Thomas Davies, 1779), by J.
Monck Mason (4 vols., 1779), by William Gifford (4 vols., 1805, 1813),
by Hartley Coleridge (1840), by Lieut.-Colonel Cunningham (1867), and
selections by Mr Arthur Symons in the _Mermaid Series_ (1887-1889).
Gifford's remains the standard edition, and formed the basis of
Cunningham's text. It contains "An Essay on the Dramatic Writings of
Massinger" by Dr John Ferriar.

Massinger has been the object of a good deal of criticism. A metrical
examination of the plays in which Massinger was concerned is given in
_Englische Studien_ (Halle, v. 74, vii. 66, viii. 39, ix. 209 and x.
383), by Mr R. Boyle, who also contributed the life of the poet in the
_Dictionary of National Biography_. The sources of his plays are dealt
with by E. Koeppel in _Quellen Studien zu den Dramen Chapman's,
Massinger's und Ford's_ (Strassburg, 1897). For detailed criticism,
beside the introductions to the editions quoted, see A. W. Ward,
_Hist. of Eng. Dram. Lit._ (1899), iii. 1-47, and F. G. Fleay, _Biog.
Chron. of the Eng. Drama_ (1891), under _Fletcher_; a general estimate
of Massinger, dealing especially with his moral standpoint, is given
in Sir Leslie Stephen's _Hours in a Library_ (3rd series, 1879);
Swinburne, in the _Fortnightly Review_ (July 1889), while
acknowledging the justice of Sir L. Stephen's main strictures, found
much to say in praise of the poet.

MASSINISSA (c. 238-149 B.C.), king of Massylian or eastern Numidia. He was educated, like many of the Numidian chiefs, at Carthage, learnt Latin and Greek, and was an accomplished as well as a naturally clever man. Although his kingdom was nominally independent of Carthage, it really stood to it in a relation of vassalage; it was directly under Carthaginian influences, and was imbued to a very considerable extent with Carthaginian civilization. It was to this that Massinissa owed his fame and success; he was a barbarian at heart, but he had a varnish of culture, and to this he added the craft and cunning in which Carthaginian statesmen were supposed to excel. While yet a young man (212) he forced his neighbour Syphax, prince of western Numidia, who had recently entered into an alliance with Rome, to fly to the Moors in the extreme west of Africa. Soon afterwards he appeared in Spain, fighting for Carthage with a large force of Numidian cavalry against the Romans under the two Scipios. The defeat of the Carthaginian army in 206 led him to cast in his lot with Rome. Scipio Africanus is said to have cultivated his friendship. Massinissa now quitted Spain for a while for Africa, and was again engaged in a war with Syphax in which he was decidedly worsted. Scipio's arrival in Africa in 204 gave him another chance, and no sooner had he joined the Roman general than he crushed his old enemy Syphax, and captured his capital Cirta (Constantine). Here occurs the romantic story of Sophonisba, daughter of the Carthaginian Hasdrubal, who had been promised in marriage to Massinissa, but had subsequently become the wife of Syphax. Massinissa, according to the story, married Sophonisba immediately after his victory, but was required by Scipio to dismiss her as a Carthaginian, and consequently an enemy to Rome. To save her from such humiliation he sent her poison, with which she destroyed herself. Massinissa was now accepted as a loyal ally of Rome, and was confirmed by Scipio in the possession of his kingdom. In the battle of Zama (202) (see PUNIC WARS), he commanded the cavalry on Scipio's right wing, and materially assisted the Roman victory. For his services he received the kingdom of Syphax, and thus under Roman protection he became master of the whole of Numidia, and his dominions completely enclosed the Carthaginian territories, now straitened and reduced at the close of the Second Punic War. It would seem that he had thoughts of annexing Carthage itself with the connivance of Rome. In a war which soon followed he was successful; the remonstrances of Carthage with Rome on the behaviour of her ally were answered by the appointment of Scipio as arbitrator; but, as though intentionally on the part of Rome, no definite settlement was arrived at, and thus the relations between Massinissa and the Carthaginians continued strained. Rome, it is certain, deliberately favoured her ally's unjust claims with the view of keeping Carthage weak, and Massinissa on his part was cunning enough to retain the friendship of the Roman people by helping them with liberal supplies in their wars against Perseus of Macedon and Antiochus. As soon as Carthage seemed to be recovering herself, and some of Massinissa's partisans were driven from the city into exile, his policy was to excite the fears of Rome, till at last in 149 war was declared--the Third Punic War, which ended in the final overthrow of Carthage. The king took some part in the negotiations which preceded the war, but died soon after its commencement in the ninetieth year of his age and the sixtieth of his reign.

Massinissa was an able ruler and a decided benefactor to Numidia. He converted a plundering tribe into a settled and civilized population, and out of robbers and marauders made efficient and disciplined soldiers. To his sons he bequeathed a well-stored treasury, a formidable army, and even a fleet. Cirta (q.v.), his capital, became a famous centre of Phoenician civilization. In fact Massinissa changed for the better the whole aspect of a great part of northern Africa. He had much of the Arab nature, was singularly temperate, and equal to any amount of fatigue. His fidelity to Rome was merely that of temporary expediency. He espoused now one side, and now the other, but on the whole supported Rome, so that orators and historians could speak of him as "a most faithful ally of the Roman people."

See Livy xxiv. 49, xxviii. 11, 35, 42, xxix. 27, xxx. 3, 12, 28, 37,
xlii. 23, 29, xliii. 3; Polybius iii. 5, ix. 42, xiv. 1, xxxii. 2,
xxxvii. 3; Appian, _Hisp._ 37, _Punica_, 11, 27, 105; Justin xxxiii.
1; A. H. J. Greenidge, _Hist. of Rome_ (London, 1904).

MASSON, DAVID (1822-1907), Scottish man of letters, was born at Aberdeen on the 2nd of December 1822, and educated at the grammar school there and at Marischal College. Intending to enter the Church, he proceeded to Edinburgh University, where he studied theology under Dr Chalmers, whose friendship he enjoyed until the divine's death in 1847. However, abandoning his project of the ministry, he returned to his native city to undertake the editorship of the _Banner_, a weekly paper devoted to the advocacy of Free Kirk principles. After two years he resigned this post and went back to the capital, bent upon pursuing a purely literary career. There he wrote a great deal, contributing to _Fraser's Magazine_, _Dublin University Magazine_ (in which appeared his essays on Chatterton) and other periodicals. In 1847 he went to London, where he found wider scope for his energy and knowledge. He was secretary (1851-1852) of the "Society of the Friends of Italy." In a famous interview with Mrs Browning at Florence he contested her admiration for Napoleon III. He had known De Quincey, whose biography he contributed in 1878 to the "English Men of Letters" series, and he was an enthusiastic friend and admirer of Carlyle. In 1852 he was appointed professor of English literature at University College, London, in succession to A. H. Clough, and from 1858 to 1865 he edited the newly established _Macmillan's Magazine_. In 1865 he was selected for the chair of rhetoric and English literature at Edinburgh, and during the early years of his professorship actively promoted the movement for the university education of women. In 1879 he became editor of the Register of the Scottish Privy Council, and in 1893 was appointed Historiographer Royal for Scotland. Two years later he resigned his professorship. His _magnum opus_ in his _Life of Milton in Connexion with the History of His Own Time_ in six volumes, the first of which appeared in 1858 and the last in 1880. He also edited the library edition of Milton's _Poetical Works_ (3 vols., 1874), and De Quincey's _Collected Works_ (14 vols., 1889-1890). Among his other publications are _Essays, Biographical and Critical_ (1856, reprinted with additions, 3 vols., 1874), _British Novelists and their Styles_ (1859), _Drummond of Hawthornden_ (1873), _Chatterton_ (1873) and _Edinburgh Sketches_ (1892). He died on the 6th of October 1907. A bust of Masson was presented to the senate of the university of Edinburgh in 1897. Professor Masson had married Rosaline Orme. His son Orme Masson became professor of chemistry in the university of Melbourne, and his daughter Rosaline is known as a writer and novelist.

MASSON, LOUIS CLAUDE FRÉDÉRIC (1847- ), French historian, was born at Paris on the 8th of March 1847. His father, Francis Masson, a solicitor, was killed on the 23rd of June 1848, when major in the _garde nationale_. Young Masson was educated at the college of Sainte Barbe, and at the lycée Louis-le-Grand, and then travelled in Germany and in England; from 1869 to 1880 he was librarian at the Foreign Office. At first he devoted himself to the history of diplomacy, and published between 1877 and 1884 several volumes connected with that subject. Later he published a number of more or less curious memoirs illustrating the history of the Revolution and of the empire. But he is best known for his books connected with Napoleon. In _Napoléon inconnu_ (1895), Masson, together with M. Guido Biagi, brought out the unpublished writings (1786-1793) of the future emperor. These were notes, extracts from historical, philosophical and literary books, and personal reflections in which one can watch the growth of the ideas later carried out by the emperor with modifications necessitated by the force of circumstances and his own genius. But this was only one in a remarkable series: _Joséphine de Beauharnais, 1763-1796_ (1898); _Joséphine, impératrice et reine_ (1899); _Joséphine répudiée 1809-1814_ (1901); _L'Impératrice Marie Louise_ (1902); _Napoléon et les femmes_ (1894); _Napoléon et sa famille_ (9 vols., 1897-1907); _Napoléon et son fils_ (1904); and _Autour de l'Île d'Elbe_ (1908). These works abound in details and amusing anecdotes, which throw much light on the events and men of the time, laying stress on the personal, romantic and dramatic aspects of history. The author was made a member of the Académie française in 1903. From 1886 to 1889 he edited the review _Arts and Letters_, published in London and New York.

A bibliography of his works, including anonymous ones and those under
an assumed name, has been published by G. Vicaire (_Manuel de
l'amateur des livres du XIX^e siècle_, tome v., 1904). _Napoléon et
les femmes_ has been translated into English as _Napoleon and the Fair
Sex_ (1894).

MAST (1) (O. Eng. _maest_; a common Teutonic word, cognate with Lat. _malus_; from the medieval latinized form _mastus_ comes Fr. _mât_), in nautical language, the name of the spar, or straight piece of timber, or combination of spars, on which are hung the yards and sails of a vessel of any size. It has been ingeniously supposed that man himself was the first mast. He discovered by standing up in his prehistoric "dugout," or canoe, that the wind blowing on him would carry his craft along. But the origin of the mast, like that of the ship, is lost in times anterior to all record. The earliest form of mast which prevailed till the close of the middle ages, and is still in use for small vessels, was and is a single spar made of some tough and elastic wood; the conifers supply the best timber for the purpose. In sketching the history of the development of the mast, we must distinguish between the increase in the number erected, and the improvements made in the mast itself. The earliest ships had only one, carrying a single sail. So little is known of the rigging of classical ships that nothing can be affirmed of them with absolute confidence. The Norse vessels carried one mast placed in the middle. The number gradually increased till it reached four or five. All were at first upright, but the mast which stood nearest the bow was by degrees lowered forward till it became the bow-sprit of modern times, and lost the name of mast. The next from the bows became the foremast--called in Mediterranean sea language _mizzana_, in French _misaine_. Then came the main-mast--in French _grand mât_; and then the mizen--in French, which follows the Mediterranean usage, the _artimon_, i.e. "next the rudder," _timon_. A small mast was sometimes erected in the very end of the ship, and called in English a "bonaventure mizen." It had a close resemblance to the jigger of yawl-rigged yachts. By the close of the 16th century it had become the established rule that a ship proper had three masts--fore, main and mizen. The third takes its name not as the other two do, from its place, but from the lateen sail originally hoisted on it (see RIGGING), which was placed fore and aft in the middle (Italian, _mizzo_) of the ship, and did not lie across like the courses and topsails. With the development of very large sailing clippers in the middle of the 19th century a return was made to the practice of carrying more than three masts. Ships and barques are built with four or five. Some of the large schooners employed in the American coast trade have six or seven, and some steamers have had as many.

The mast was for long made out of a single spar. Thence the
Mediterranean name of "palo" (spar) and the Spanish "arbol" (tree).
The typical Mediterranean mast of "lateen" (Latin) vessels is short
and bends forward. In other classes it is upright, or bends slightly
backwards with what is called a "rake." The mast is grounded, or in
technical language "stepped," on the kelson (or keelson), the solid
timber or metal beam lying parallel with, and above the keel. As the
15th century advanced the growth of the ship made it difficult, or
even impossible, to find spars large enough to make a mast. The
practice of dividing it into lower, and upper or topmast, was
introduced. At first the two were fastened firmly, and the topmast
could not be lowered. In the 16th century the topmast became movable.
No date can be given for the change, which was gradual, and was not
simultaneously adopted. When the masting of sailing ships was fully
developed, the division was into lower or standing mast, topmast,
topgallant mast, and topgallant royal. The topgallant royal is a small
spar which is often a continuation of the topgallant mast, and is
fixed. Increase of size also made it impossible to construct each of
these subdivisions out of single timbers. A distinction was made
between "whole" or single-spar masts and "armed" and "made masts." The
first were used for the lighter spars, for small vessels and the
Mediterranean craft called "polacras." Armed masts were composed of
two single timbers. Made masts were built of many pieces, bolted and
"coaked," i.e. dovetailed and fitted together, fastened round by iron
hoops, and between them by twelve or thirteen close turns of rope,
firmly secured. "Made masts" are stronger than those made of a single
tree and less liable to be sprung. The general principle of
construction is that it is built round a central shaft, called in
English the "spindle" or "upper tree," and in French the _mèche_ or
wick. The other pieces--"side trees," "keel pieces," "side fishes,"
"cant pieces" and "fillings" are "coaked," i.e. dovetailed and bolted
on to and around the "spindle," which itself is made of two pieces,
coaked and bolted. The whole is bound by iron bands, and between the
bands, by rope firmly "woulded" or turned round, and nailed tight. The
art of constructing made masts, like that of building wooden ships, is
in process of dying out. In sailing men-of-war the mizen-mast often
did not reach to the kelson, but was stepped on the orlop deck. Hollow
metal cylinders are now used as masts. In the case of a masted screw
steamer the masts abaft the engines could not be stepped on the kelson
because they would interfere with the shaft of the screw. It is
therefore necessary to step them on the lower deck, where they are
supported by stanchions, or on a horseshoe covering the screw shaft.
The size of masts naturally varies very much. In a 110-gun ship of
2164 tons the proportions of the mainmast were: for the lower mast,
length 117 ft., diameter 3 ft. 3 in.; topmast, 70 ft., and 20¾ in.;
topgallant mast, 35 ft., and 11(5/8) in., 222 ft. in all. At the other
end of the scale, a cutter of 200 tons had a lower mast of 88 ft., of
22 in. diameter, and a topgallant mast (there was no topmast between
them) of 44 ft., of 9¾ in. in diameter, 132 ft. in all; topgallant
mast of 44 ft., and 9¾ in. in diameter. The masts of a warship were
more lofty than those of a merchant ship of the same tonnage. At
present masts are only used by warships for signalling and military
purposes. In sailing merchant ships, the masts are more lofty than
they were about a century ago. A merchant ship of 1300 tons, in 1830,
had a mainmast 179 ft. in height; a vessel of the same size would have
a mast of 198 ft. to-day.

A "jury mast" is a temporary mast put up by the crew when the spars
nave been carried away in a storm or in action, or have been cut away
to relieve pressure in a storm. The word has been supposed without any
foundation to be short for "injury" mast; it may be a mere fanciful
sailor adaptation of "jury" in some connexion now lost. Skeat suggests
that it is short for O. Fr. _ajourie_, Lat. _adjutare_, to aid. There
is no reason to connect with _jour_, day.

See L. Jal, _Glossaire Nautique_ (Paris, 1848); Sir Henry Manwayring,
_The Seaman's Dictionary_ (London, 1644); N. Hutchinson, _Treatise on
Naval Architecture and Practical Seamanship_ (Liverpool, 1777); David
Steel, _Elements and Practice of Rigging, Seamanship and Naval
Tactics_ (London, 1800); William Burney's _Falconer's Dictionary_
(London, 1830); Sir Gervais Nares's _Seamanship_ (Portsmouth, 1882);
and John Fincham, _On Masting Ships and Mast Making_ (London, 1829).
(D. H.)

MAST (2) (Anglo-Saxon _maest_, food, common to some Teutonic languages, and ultimately connected with "meat"), the fruit of the beech, oak, and other forest trees, used as food for swine.

MASTABA (Arab. for "bench"), in Egyptian architecture, the term given to the rectangular tombs in stone with raking sides and a flat roof. There were three chambers inside. In one the walls were sometimes richly decorated with paintings and had a low bench of stone in them on which incense was burnt. The second chamber was either closed, with holes pierced in the wall separating it from the first chamber, or entered through a narrow passage through which the fumes of the incense passed; this chamber contained the _serdab_ or figure of the deceased. A vertical well-hole cut in the rock descended to a third chamber in which the mummy was laid.

MASTER (Lat. _magister_, related to _magis_, more, as the corresponding _minister_ is to _minus_, less; the English form is due partly to the O. Eng. _maegister_, and partly to O. Fr. _maistre_, mod. _maître_; cf. Du. _meester_, Ger. _Meister_, Ital. _maestro_), one holding a position of authority, disposition or control over persons or things. The various applications of the word fall roughly into the following main divisions; as the title of the holder of a position of command or authority; as that of the holder of certain public or private offices, and hence a title of address; and as implying the relationship of a teacher to his pupils or of an employer to the persons he employs. As a title of the holder of an office, the use of the Lat. _magister_ is very ancient. _Magister equitum_, master of the horse, goes back to the early history of the Roman Republic (see DICTATOR; and for the British office, MASTER OF THE HORSE). In medieval times the title was of great frequency. In Du Cange (_Glossarium_) the article _magister_ contains over 120 sub-headings. In the British royal household most of the offices bearing this title are now obsolete. Of the greater offices, that of master of the buckhounds was abolished by the Civil List Act 1901. The master of the household, master of the ceremonies, master of the king's music still survive. Since 1870 the office of master of the mint has been held by the chancellor of the exchequer, all the administrative and other duties being exercised by the deputy master.

At sea, a "master" is more properly styled "master mariner." In the merchant service he is the commander of a ship, and is by courtesy known as the captain. In the British navy he was the officer entrusted with the navigation under the captain. He had no royal commission, but a warrant from the Navy Board. Very often he had been a merchant captain. His duties are now performed by the staff commander or navigating lieutenant. The master-at-arms is the head of the internal police of a ship; the same title is borne by a senior gymnastic instructor in the army. In the United States navy, the master is a commissioned officer below the rank of lieutenant.

"Master" appears as the title of many legal functionaries (for the masters of the supreme court see CHANCERY; and KING'S BENCH, COURT OF; for masters in lunacy see INSANITY: § _Law_, see also MASTER OF THE ROLLS, below). The "master of the faculties" is the chief officer of the archbishop of Canterbury in his court of faculties. His duties are concerned with the appointment of notaries and the granting of special licences of marriage. The duties are performed _ex officio_ by the judge of the provincial courts of Canterbury and York, who is also dean of Arches, in accordance with § 7 of the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874. The "master of the Temple" is the title of the priest-in-charge of the Temple Church in London. It was formerly the title of the grand master of the Knights Templars. The priest-in-charge of the Templars' Church was properly styled the _custos_, and this was preserved by the Knights Hospitallers when they were granted the property of the Templars at the dissolution of that order. The act of 1540 (32 Henry VIII.), which dissolved the order of the Hospitallers, wrongly styled the _custos_ master of the Temple, and the mistake has been continued. The proper title of a bencher of the Inns of Court is "master of the Bench" (see INNS OF COURT). The title of "Master-General of the Ordnance" was revived in 1904 for the head of the Ordnance Department in the British military administration.

"Master" is the ordinary word for a teacher, very generally used in the compound "schoolmaster." The word also is used in a sense transferred from this to express the relation between the founder of a school of religion, philosophy, science, art, &c., and his disciples. It is partly in this sense and partly in that of one whose work serves as a model or type of superlative excellence that such terms as "old masters" are used. In medieval universities _magister_ was particularly applied to one who had been granted a degree carrying with it the _licentia docendi_, the licence to teach. In English usage this survives in the faculty of arts. The degree is that of _artium magister_, master of arts, abbreviated M.A. In the other faculties the corresponding degree is doctor. Some British universities give a master's degree in surgery, _magister chirurgiae_, C.M. or M.Ch., and also in science, _magister scientiae_, M.Sc. The academic use of "master" as the title of the head of certain colleges at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge is to be referred to the frequent application of the term to the holder of a presiding office in an institution.

Master was the usual prefix of address to a man's name, though originally confined to people of some social standing. Probably under the influence of "mistress," it was corrupted in sound to "mister," and was abbreviated to "Mr." In the case of the puisne judges of the High Court "Mr Justice" is still used as the proper official form of written address. The Speaker of the House of Commons is also formally addressed as "Mr Speaker." In some Scottish peerages below the rank of earl, "master" is used in the courtesy title of the heir, e.g. the "Master of Ruthven."

MASTER AND SERVANT. These are scarcely to be considered as technical terms in English law. The relationship which they imply is created when one man hires the labour of another for a term. Thus it is not constituted by merely contracting with another for the performance of a definite work, or by sending an article to an artificer to be repaired, or engaging a builder to construct a house. Nor would the employment of a man for one definite act of personal service--e.g. the engagement of a messenger for a single occasion--generally make the one master and the other servant. It was held, however, in relation to the offence of embezzlement, that a drover employed on one occasion to drive cattle home from market was a servant within the statute. On the other hand, there are many decisions limiting the meaning of "servants" under wills giving legacies to the class of servants generally. Thus "a person who was not obliged to give his whole time to the master, but was yet in some sense a servant," was held not entitled to share in a legacy to the servants. These cases are, however, interpretations of wills where the intention obviously is to benefit domestic servants only. And so in other connexions questions may arise as to the exact nature of the relations between the parties--whether they are master and servant, or principal and agent, or landlord and tenant, or partners, &c.

The terms of the contract of service are for the most part such as the parties choose to make them, but in the absence of express stipulations terms will be implied by the law. Thus, "where no time is limited either expressly or by implication for the duration of a contract of hiring and service, the hiring is considered as a general hiring, and in point of law a hiring for a year." But "in the case of domestic and menial servants there is a well-known rule, founded solely on custom, that their contract of service may be determined at any time by giving a month's warning or paying a month's wages, but a domestic or other yearly servant, _wrongfully_ quitting his master's service, forfeits all claim to wages for that part of the current year during which he has served, and cannot claim the sum to which his wages would have amounted had he kept his contract, merely deducting therefrom one month's wages. Domestic servants have a right by custom to leave their situations at any time on payment of a calendar month's wages in advance, just as a master may discharge them in a similar manner" (Manley Smith's _Law of Master and Servant_, chs. ii. and iii.). The following are sufficient grounds for discharging a servant: (1) wilful disobedience of any lawful order; (2) gross moral misconduct; (3) habitual negligence; (4) incompetence or permanent disability caused by illness. A master has a right of action against any person who deprives him of the services of his servant, by enticing him away, harbouring or detaining him after notice, confining or disabling him, or by seducing his female servant. Indeed, the ordinary and only available action for seduction in English law is in form of a claim by a parent for the loss of his daughter's services. The death of either master or servant in general puts an end to the contract. A servant wrongfully discharged may either treat the contract as rescinded and sue for services actually rendered, or he may bring a special action for damages for the breach. The common law liabilities of a master towards his servants have been further regulated by the Workmen's Compensation Acts (see EMPLOYER'S LIABILITY). A master is bound to provide food for a servant living under his roof, and wilful breach of duty in that respect is a misdemeanour under the Offences against the Person Act 1861.

A servant has no right to demand "a character" from an employer, and if a character be given it will be deemed a privileged communication, so that the master will not be liable thereon to the servant unless it be false and malicious. A master by knowingly giving a false character of a servant to an intending employer may render himself liable--should the servant for example rob or injure his new master.

Reference may be made to the articles on LABOUR LEGISLATION for the
cases in which special terms have been introduced into contracts of
service by statute (e.g. Truck Acts).

MASTER OF THE HORSE, in England, an important official of the sovereign's household. The master of the horse is the third dignitary of the court, and is always a member of the ministry (before 1782 the office was of cabinet rank), a peer and a privy councillor. All matters connected with the horses and hounds of the sovereign, as well as the stables and coach-houses, the stud, mews and kennels, are within his jurisdiction. The practical management of the royal stables and stud devolves on the chief or crown equerry, formerly called the gentleman of the horse, who is never in personal attendance on the sovereign and whose appointment is permanent. The clerk marshal has the supervision of the accounts of the department before they are submitted to the Board of Green Cloth, and is in waiting on the sovereign on state occasions only. Exclusive of the crown equerry there are seven regular equerries, besides extra and honorary equerries, one of whom is always in attendance on the sovereign and rides at the side of the royal carriage. They are always officers of the army, and each of them is "on duty" for about the same time as the lords and grooms in waiting. There are also several pages of honour in the master of the horse's department, who must not be confounded with the pages of various kinds who are in the department of the lord chamberlain. They are youths aged from twelve to sixteen, selected by the sovereign in person, to attend on him at state ceremonies, when two of them, arrayed in an antique costume, assist the groom of the stole in carrying the royal train.

In France the master of the horse ("Grand Écuyer," or more usually
"Monsieur le grand") was one of the seven great officers of the crown
from 1617. As well as the superintendence of the royal stables, he had
that of the retinue of the sovereign, also the charge of the funds set
aside for the religious functions of the court, coronations, &c. On
the death of a sovereign he had the right to all the horses and their
equipment in the royal stables. Distinct from this officer and
independent of him, was the first equerry ("Premier Écuyer"), who had
charge of the horses which the sovereign used personally ("la petite
écurie"), and who attended on him when he rode out. The office of
master of the horse existed down to the reign of Louis XVI. Under
Louis XVIII. and Charles X. the duties were discharged by the first
equerry, but under Napoléon I. and Napoléon III. the office was
revived with much of its old importance.

In Germany the master of the horse (Oberststallmeister) is a high
court dignitary; but his office is merely titular, the superintendence
of the king's stables being carried out by the Oberstallmeister, an
official corresponding to the crown equerry in England.