Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 34.djvu/398

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Miss Betham-Edwards's Preface to Selection from Poems by Owen Meredith; information from some of Lord Lytton's colleagues in the government of India.]

R. G.

LYTTON, ROSINA BULWER-LYTTON, Lady (1802–1882), novelist. [See under Lytton, Edward George Earl Lytton Bulwer-, 1803–1873.]

LYVEDEN, Lord. [See Smith, Robert Vernon, 1800–1873.]

LYZARDE, NICHOLAS (d. 1571), sergeant-painter, served as painter to the court in the time of Henry VIII, and as second painter under Anthony Toto [q. v.] to Edward VI and Mary. By the latter he was appointed sergeant-painter, with a fee of 10l. a year levied on the customs. In 1556 he presented the queen on New-year's day with ‘a table painted with a maundy.’ He was continued in his place by Elizabeth, and in 1558 presented her on New-year's day ‘a table painted of the history of Ashuerus,’ receiving a gilt cruse in return. Lyzarde died in April 1571, and was buried on 5 April in the church of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, London. In his will, dated 14 Feb. 1570–1 (P.C.C. Holney, 18), he mentions five sons and four daughters, and also his wife Margaret.

[Walpole's Anecd. of Painting; Archæologia, xxxix. 44.]

L. C.

MAAS, JOSEPH (1847–1886), vocalist, descended from an old Dutch family, was born at Dartford, Kent, on 30 Jan. 1847. His voice was a fine treble. At the age of ten he became a chorister at Rochester Cathedral, and was soloist there for five years. Leaving the cathedral he became a clerk in Chatham Dockyard, but continued his musical studies. In 1869 he went to Milan, where he studied singing for two years under San Giovanni. In February 1871 he appeared for Mr. Sims Reeves at St. James's Hall with great success, and on 29 Aug. 1872 made his début on the stage at Covent Garden as Prince Babil in Boucicault's ‘Babil and Bijou.’ Soon after he joined the Kellogg English opera company in America, where he was well received. Returning to England in 1877, he became a member of the Carl Rosa company, with which he was connected as principal tenor for three years, and was next engaged by Mr. Mapleson for Her Majesty's Opera. In 1883 he appeared in Wagner's ‘Lohengrin,’ and that exacting music, it was generally admitted, had never been sung before with such admirable style and method. He appeared in Paris in 1884, and in Brussels at the Bach and Handel festival of 1885. In May 1885 he ‘created’ the part of the Chevalier des Grieux in Massenet's ‘Manon’ at Drury Lane. He was an indifferent actor, but he had a deliciously pure tenor voice, of considerable power and compass, which he managed with ease and feeling. In Handel's oratorios and in English ballads he was almost without a rival. In this capacity he was often engaged in London and the provinces, his last important appearance being at the Birmingham festival of 1885. He died in London of rheumatic fever on 16 Jan. 1886, and was buried at Child's Hill cemetery, Hampstead, where his grave is marked by a monument erected by friends and admirers to the memory of a great singer and good man’ (inscription). He was married to a daughter of Mr. J. H. Ball, J.P., of Stroud, by whom he had one daughter.

[Musical Times, February 1886, p. 93; Athenæum, 23 Jan. 1886; Musical Standard, 23 Jan. 1886; Grove's Dictionary of Music, iv. 706; personal recollections.]

J. C. H.

MAB or MABBE, JAMES (1572–1642?), Spanish scholar, son of James Mab and Martha, daughter of William Denham of London, was born in Surrey in 1572. His grandfather, John Mab [q. v.], was chamberlain of London. He matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, 9 Feb. 1588, demy 1586–94, B.A. 8 Feb. 1594, fellow 1594–1633, M.A. 17 Oct. 1598. In 1605 he spoke an oration before Prince Henry upon the occasion of his matriculating at Magdalen College. He was junior proctor of the university in 1606, senior dean of arts 1607–8, junior dean of arts 1609–10. In 1609 he supplicated for the degree of D.C.L. He was bursar of his college in 1617, 1618, 1620, 1623, 1627, and 1630.

Mab accompanied Sir John Digby as his secretary when he went as ambassador to Madrid in 1611, and upon his return in 1613, although he was in orders, he was made one of the lay prebendaries of Wells. He was in residence at Magdalen College in 1626, but afterwards lived in the family of Sir John Strangwayes, at Abbotsbury in Dorset, where he died, and was buried about 1642.