and soon obtained paramount influence over the mind of the princess, who almost worshipped her imperious favourite. All ceremony and all titles were dropped in their confidential intercourse. Anne became plain Mrs. Morley, and the favourite, Mrs. Freeman. Through the influence of Lady Churchill the princess was induced to join in the plot against her father, and to make her escape from Whitehall during the crisis of the Revolution, and to take refuge in the camp of the prince of Orange. But, after the final settlement of the crown, the caprice and violent temper of the favourite and her unbounded sway over her mistress caused repeated and serious annoyance to William and Mary, especially after Marlborough had entered into a treasonable correspondence with the exiled monarch. At length Queen Mary, provoked beyond bearing by the perfidy of Marlborough and the insolence of his wife, commanded her to leave the palace; and the princess, rather than be separated from her friend, retired with her family to Sion house. On the accession of Anne to the throne. Lady Marlborough's authority became paramount at court, and honours, places, and pensions were heaped upon her husband. But at length in April, 1710, her own violent and domineering temper, the influence of the new favourite, Mrs. Masham, and the intrigues of the tory party, brought about an entire alienation between the duchess and the queen. In 1711 the former resigned her office of groom of the stole, and a few months later the duke after enduring a series of mean and spiteful insults, was deprived of all his employment. On the death of the duke in 1722, he left his widow in possession of enormous wealth, which enabled her to indulge in every whim and caprice which her unbridled temper dictated. This remarkable woman survived until 1744, having outlived both her enemies and her friends. Her later years were spent in violent hostilities not only with her opponents, but even with her own children and grand-children. Pope's masterly delineation of her character under the name of Atossa is well known.—J. T.
MARLOWE, Christopher, the dramatist, was born in 1564, and educated at the grammar-school of Canterbury, and afterwards at Cambridge. He soon afterwards settled in London, and found employment as an actor and a writer for the stage. He was a man of very loose life, and is charged by contemporary writers with atheism. After a career of low debauchery, he lost his life in a tavern brawl in 1593. His licentiousness Marlowe had in common with too many of his profession in that age; but he was gifted with so powerful and brilliant a genius as is granted to but few. He is the only English dramatic writer of great merit previous to Shakspeare; and he shares with Greene and Peele the honour of having laid the foundations on which our great poet erected so stately an edifice. The most important of Marlowe's tragedies are, "Tamburlaine;" the "Jew of Malta;" "Edward II.;" and "Faustus." The authenticity of the first has been doubted, but apparently on insufficient grounds; though absurdly bombastic, it manifests a vigorous imagination. "Edward II." is preferred in some respects by Charles Lamb to the Richard II. of Shakspeare. A large part of the Henry VI. of Shakspeare, including some of the finest passages, is assigned to Marlowe by some critics. That Shakspeare has frequently imitated Marlowe is sufficiently obvious upon a comparison of their writings. Besides his plays, Marlowe translated three books of Ovid's Elegies, and the first book of Lucan's Pharsalia. He also commenced an imitation of the Hero and Leander of Musæus in six books, which was completed after his death by Chapman, the translator of Homer. It is a very beautiful poem, but, like his translations from Ovid, extremely licentious. His dramas have been thus criticised by Mr. Hallam:—"The first two acts of the 'Jew of Malta' are more vigorously conceived, both as to character and circumstances, than any other Elizabethan play, except those of Shakspeare; and perhaps we may think that Barabbas, though not the prototype of Shylock—a praise of which he is unworthy—may have suggested some few ideas to the inventor. But the latter acts, as is usual with our old dramatists, are a tissue of uninteresting crimes and slaughter. The savage character of 'Tamburlaine,' and the want of interest as to every other, render this tragedy a failure in comparison with the rest. 'Faustus' is better known; it contains nothing perhaps so dramatic as the first part of the 'Jew of Malta;' yet the occasional glimpses of repentance and struggles of alarmed conscience in the chief character are finely brought in. It is full of poetical beauties; but a mixture of buffoonery weakens the effect, and leaves it on the whole rather a sketch by a great genius than a finished performance. There is an awful melancholy about Marlowe's Mephistophiles, perhaps more impressive than the malignant mirth of that fiend in the renowned work of Göthe; but the fair form of Margaret is wanting, and Marlowe has hardly earned the credit of having breathed a few casual inspirations into a greater mind than his own." Some good remarks on the life and character of Marlowe will be found in Scott's Fortunes of Nigel. He was justly celebrated as a poet by subsequent writers, particularly Ben Jonson, Drayton, Shakspeare. A useful edition of his works in 3 vols., was published by Pickering, London, 1826.—G.
MARMION, Shakerley, an English poet of the seventeenth century, was the son of a landed proprietor in the county of Northampton. He received his education at Oxford, and took his degree of M.A. in 1624. His extravagant habits having dissipated his patrimony, he went to the continent and served in the wars of the Low Countries. After his return home he obtained a commission in one of the troops raised to aid Charles I. against the Scottish presbyterians in 1639; but illness compelled him to return to London, and he died there in the course of that year. He was the author of some miscellaneous poems, and of three comedies, entitled "Holland's Leaguer," "A Fine Companion," and "The Antiquary."—W. B.
MARMONT, Auguste Frederique Louis Viesse de, Duc de Raguse, Marshal, the last survivor of Napoleon's marshals, was born at Chatillon-sur-Seine, 29th July, 1774. He was the son of an old officer of distinction, and entered the army at the age of eighteen, but passed some time at the military school of Chalons after receiving his commission. He was present at the siege of Toulon in 1793, made captain in 1794, and accompanied Napoleon to Italy. In the campaign of 1796 he acted as aid-de-camp to General Bonaparte, and went through the whole series of battles, attaining the rank of colonel. He next went to Egypt, and was made general of brigade. He was also one of the seven officers selected to attend Bonaparte, when the future emperor resolved to return to France. In 1800 Marmont superintended the conveyance of the artillery across the St. Bernard. At Marengo he attained the rank of general of division, and soon after was appointed inspector-general of artillery. In 1805 he was present at the capture of Ulm, and in 1806 commanded the army in Dalmatia. His title dates from his Dalmatian proceedings. Having completed a line of road upwards of two hundred miles in length, he was made Duc de Raguse in 1807. In 1809 he was called by Napoleon to the main army, which he joined the day before the battle of Wagram, defeating the Austrians several times on his way. After Wagram he received the marshal's baton, and soon after the treaty of Vienna which followed, he was appointed to govern the newly-acquired provinces, Dalmatia, Istria, Ragusa, and Croatia, which Napoleon had formed into a state, In 1811 he was sent to Spain to supersede General Massena, and was there present in several actions, and received several wounds. In the campaign of 1813 he was in Germany, and took the command of the second corps. He was present at Bautzen, Dresden, and Leipsic. At the latter four horses sunk under him, and he was twice wounded. In the retreat towards Paris in 1814 he was present in almost every engagement, and defended the capital to the last. Without waiting, however, for Napoleon's order he finally entered into treaty with the allies, and thus received into high favour by Louis XVIII., followed that monarch to Ghent in 1815, and returned with him to Paris. By Louis XVIII. and Charles X. he was employed in various high offices, and in 1830 was appointed to crush the revolution. This drew down on him the popular indignation, and on the establishment of the new government he was removed from the list of the French army, and ordered to leave the country. He visited various parts of Europe, and finally took up his residence at Venice, where he died on the 2nd March, 1852. During his exile he employed his leisure in writing on the military systems of the continent, and left also two volumes, the "Memoires du Duc de Raguse," which were published at Paris.—P. E. D.
MARMONTEL, Jean François, a French poet, novelist, and critic, was born of obscure parents at Bort, a small town of Limousin, on the 11th of July, 1723. He received an education at the Jesuit college in Mauriac, whence he proceeded to Clermont, and partly supported himself by instructing students less advanced than himself. His first literary production was an ode on the invention of gunpowder, which he brought for-
