MOTTEUX, PIERRE ANTOINE (1663–1718), English translator and dramatist, of French parentage, was born at Rouen on the 25th of February 1663. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes he settled in London with his kinsman and godfather, Paul Dominique Motteux. He acted as an auctioneer of pictures, and in 1706 he had a shop in Leadenhall Street for the sale of lace, stuffs, Chinese and Japanese commodities, duly advertised in the Spectator by his friend Richard Steele. He had not been six years in England when he obtained sufficient mastery of the language to edit the monthly The Gentleman’s Journal, which contained verses by himself and by the chief wits of the day. In 1693 he edited the third book, hitherto unpublished, of Sir Thomas Urquhart’s translation of Rabelais, and in the next year printed the first and second books of Urquhart’s translation. In 1694 he completed Urquhart’s work by a translation of the fourth and fifth books, which, although not to be compared with the racy, nervous writing of Urquhart, shows a perfect mastery of colloquial English and an intimate and adequate sense of Rabelais’s meaning. The complete translation appeared in five volumes in 1693–1694, and was reprinted as The Whole Works of Francis Rabelais, M.D. (2 vols., 1708), described as the work of “Sir T. Urchard, Knight, Mr Motteux and others.” His first play, a comedy in five acts entitled Love’s Jest, was produced at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1696, and next year followed The Loves of Mars and Venus. He wrote other works for the stage of no great consequence. More important than his dramatic work is his History of the Renowned Don Quixote de la Mancha (4 vols., 1701; 2nd ed., 1712), “translated from the original by many hands and published by Peter Motteux,” one of the most masterly and spirited translations in English. His later years appear to have been given to the shop in Leadenhall Street. He was murdered on the 18th of February 1718 at a house of ill fame in Star Court, near St Clement’s Church, London, under circumstances which have never come to light. The manner of his death was no criterion of his life, which appears to have been sober and decent.
An excellent life by Henri van Laun is prefixed to the 1880 reprint (4 vols.) of J. G. Lockhart’s edition of Motteux’s Don Quixote. See also a prefatory note by Charles Whibley in vol. iii. of Sir T. Urquhart’s Rabelais (Tudor Translations, 1900), reprinted from a rare 1693–1694 edition.
MOTTEVILLE, FRANÇOISE BERTAUT DE (c. 1621–1689),
French memoir writer, was the daughter of Pierre Bertaut, a
gentleman of the king’s chamber, and niece of the bishop-poet
Jean Bertaut. Her mother, a Spaniard, was the friend and
private secretary of Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII. At the
age of seven Françoise was also made a member of the queen’s
household and given a pension. The influence of Richelieu,
however, who wished to separate the queen from her Spanish
connexions, exiled mother and daughter to Normandy, where
in 1639 the young girl was married to Nicolas Langlois, seigneur
de Motteville, president of the Chambre des Comptes of Rouen.
He died two years later at the age of eighty-two, and in 1642
the queen summoned Mme de Motteville to court, being
now her own mistress by the death of Richelieu and Louis XIII.
Through all the intrigues and troubles of the Fronde Mme de
Motteville preserved the honourable reputation of being devoted
to her mistress without any party ties or interests. Some
letters of hers are preserved—especially a curious correspondence
with “La Grande Mademoiselle” on marriage, but her chief
work is her Mémoires, which are in effect a history of Anne of
Austria, written briefly till the date of Mme de Motteville’s
return to court, and then with fullness. They give a faithful
picture of the life of the court at that time.
The best edition of her Mémoires is that of M. F. Riaux (2nd ed., Paris, 1891, 4 vols.), containing the essay by Sainte-Beuve from vol. v. of his Causeries du lundi. The Memoirs were translated into English in 1726 and again by K. P. Wormeley in 3 vols., 1902. For details concerning her family see Recherches sur Madame de Motteville et sur sa famille, by Charles de Beaurepaire (Rouen, 1900).
MOTTL, FELIX (1856–), German conductor and composer,
was born near Vienna, and had a successful career at the
Vienna Conservatoire. He became known as a gifted conductor
of Wagner’s music, and in 1876 was engaged for the Ring des Nibelungen
at Bayreuth. From 1881 to 1903 he was conductor
at the Carlsruhe Opera, and made a wide reputation for his
activity there, particularly in producing the works of Wagner
and Berlioz. In 1886 he directed the performance of Tristan und Isolde
at Bayreuth. In later years he visited London
and New York, and became known as one of the most brilliant
conductors of his day; and in 1904 he was made a director of
the Academy of Music at Berlin. He composed some operas,
of which Agnes Bernauer (Weimar, 1880) was the most successful,
and numerous songs and other music.
MOTTO (an Italian word, from Late Lat. muttum, a low
sound, a mutter or murmur, cf. mutere, to mutter; the Latin
word also gives Fr. mot, word), a “legend” consisting of a
significant phrase or sentence, sometimes even of a single word
attached to an emblem or device, and, in heraldry, placed on
a scroll below the achievement or above the crest. Mottoes
express sometimes a sentiment, a favourite principle, emphasize
the meaning or symbolism of the emblem or device, and, in
heraldry, often allude to one or more of the “charges” in the
coat of arms, &c.
There are many publications which give lists of some of the best-known mottoes, such as Fairbairn, Book of Family Crests, 1856; Wachbourne, Book of Family Crests (2 vols., 1882); Chassant and Tansin, Dictionnaire des devises historiques et héraldiques, &c. (1878); Dielitz, Die Wahl- und Denksprüche, Feldgeschreie, Losungen, Schlacht- und Volksrufe, besonders des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit (4 vols., 1888). Gatfield’s Guide to Printed Books and MSS. relating to Heraldry (1892) contains a bibliography.
MOTYA, an ancient Phoenician settlement in Sicily, on a
low island [mod. S. Pantaleo], 5 m. north of Lilybaeum [mod.
Marsala]. It was the centre of the Phoenician trade in Sicily.
It was accessible from the mainland by a mole, which is still
used as a track for wagons. The line of the city wall, of rough
rectangular blocks of stone without mortar, may still be traced
all round the coast, with two gates, one on the north towards
the mole, which is still in part preserved, and one on the south.
The date of its foundation is uncertain. In 398 B.C. it was taken
after a desperate struggle (which, owing to the height and
strength of the houses, continued even after a breach had
been made in the city wall) by Dionysius of Syracuse, but
recovered in the next year: it was, however, abandoned by
the Carthaginians, and its place taken by Lilybaeum on the
mainland. (T. As.)
MOUCHEZ, AMÉDÉE ERNEST BARTHÉLÉMY (1821–1892),
French astronomer, was born at Madrid of French parents on
the 24th of August 1821. At the age of sixteen he entered the
naval school at Brest, and after serving with distinction in
various ships, was appointed in 1856 to the command of the
“Bisson.” Towards the close of the Franco-Prussian War he
made an admirable defence of Brest, and his organization of
the French expedition to the island of St Paul to observe the
transit of Venus in 1874 obtained his election to the Academy
of Sciences and his promotion as commander of the Legion
of Honour. On the 27th of June 1878 he succeeded Urbain
Leverrier as director of the National Observatory of Paris, and
was raised to the rank of rear-admiral. The fourteen years of
his directorship were marked by a great increase in the activity
of the institution. The observatory grounds were enlarged;
two powerful instruments of the novel kind known as coudé
equatorials were installed; a spectroscopic department was
established, and the gigantic task of re-observing all Lalande’s
stars was completed. He published twenty-one volumes of
Annales, as well as the first two volumes of the great Catalogue
de l’observatoire de Paris; founded the Bulletin astronomique,
and set on foot two schools of practical astronomy, one at Paris,
the other at Montsouris, for the special instruction of naval
and military officers, explorers and surveyors. His most
memorable work, however, was the inauguration of international
operations for charting the heavens. The advances in stellar
photography made by Paul and Prosper Henry and others
suggested to him the magnificent idea of obtaining, through
the collaboration of astronomers in all parts of the world, an
