but the public have not been of this opinion. 12. "Historia mulierum philosopharum," Lugd. 1690, 12mo. This is reprinted in Meibom's Diogenes Laertius. 13. "AntiBaillet," 1690: a criticism of the "Jugemens des Sçavans" of M. Baillet, who in that work had spoken of Menage in a manner that displeased him. 14. "Menagiana," not published till after his death, and printed at first in one volume, afterwards in two. But M. de la Monnoye published an edition with great additions, at Paris, 1715, in 4 vols. 12mo. This is a very amusing collection, but will admit of abridgment without any injury to the memory of Menage.

Menage was possessed of a most tenacious memory, which he retained, except during a short interval, to a great age. Among his "Poems" is one addressed to the goddess of memory, petitioning her to restore to him her former favours; and another, in which he pours forth his gratitude for the welcome return. This uncommon talent of memory made Menage a very agreeable companion to the ladies, in whose company he took delight, and for whose amusement he repeated, with great readiness and humour, all the anecdotes, verses, &c. which he thought would entertain the company.'

MENANDER, one of the most celebrated of the ancient Greek poets, was born at Athens in the year 342 before the Christian æra. He was educated in the school of Theophrastus the peripatetic, Aristotle's successor, and began to write for the stage at the early age of twenty, when his passions seem to have been no less forward and impetuous than his genius. His attachment to the fair sex, and especially to his mistress Glycera, is upon record, and was vehement in the extreme; several, of his epistles to that celebrated courtezan, written in a very ardent style, were collected and made public after his decease; his genius, however, is thought to have been a greater recommendation to Glycera's favour, than his personal merit, which has not been represented as favourable to his addresses, although he is said to have added the recommendations of luxurious dress and manners. His intrigues, however, are of little importance compared to the fame he acquired as one, if not the principal, of the authors of the new comedy, which if it possessed less wit and fire than the

1 Gen. Dict.-Niceron, vol. I. and X.-Dict. Hist.-Menagianą.

old, was superior to it in delicacy, regularity, and decorum, came nearer to nature, and to what we conceive of the legitimate drama. Among his contemporaries, who wrote upon this reformed plan, were Philemon, Diphilus, Apollodorus, Philippides and Posidippus; and from many fragments which remain, it appears that they were not only bold declaimers against the vice and immorality of the age they lived in, but that they ventured upon truths and doctrines in religion totally irreconcileable to the popular superstition and idolatries of the heathen world; and therefore, says Cumberland, or rather Bentley, we cannot but admire at the extraordinary toleration of their pagan audiences.

By the lowest account Menander wrote eighty plays; but some authorities more than double them, an improbable number to have been composed by a poet who died at the age of fifty, or very little after; whatever their number, it has been thought that morality, taste, and literature, scarcely ever suffered more irreparably than by the loss of them. A few fragments only remain, which, says Warton, ought "to be as highly prized by the curious, as was the Coan Venus, which Apelles left imperfect and unfinished." Terence is supposed to have copied all his comedies from Menander, except the "Phormio" and "Hecyra;" and therefore from him we are enabled to form some idea of Menander's manner. His general character we must still take from his contemporaries, or immediate successors; for all that we can deduce from his fragments will not raise him to the high rank to which he belongs. Some of these are excellent morals, and some of a more elevated cast, but the greater part are of a morose, gloomy, and acrimonious character."

We have many testimonies to the admiration in which he was held during his life-time. Pliny informs us that the kings of Egypt and Macedon gave a noble testimony to his merit, by sending ambassadors to invite him to their courts, and even fleets to convey him; but that Menauder preferred the free enjoyment of his studies to the promised favours of the great. Yet the envy and corruption of his countrymen sometimes denied his merit the justice at home, which it found abroad; for he is said to have won but eight prizes, though he wrote at least fourscore, if not, according to some accounts, above an hundred plays. Philemon, a contemporary and much inferior dramatic poet, by the partiality

the judges, often disappointed him of the prize; which made Menander once say to him, "Tell me fairly, Philemon, if you do not blush when the victory is decreed to you against me?" The ancient critics have bestowed the highest praises on Menander, as the true pattern of every beauty and every grace of public speaking. Quintilian declares that a careful imitation of Menander only will enable a writer to comply with all the rules in his Institutions. It is in Menander, that he would have his orator search for copiousness of invention, an elegance of expres sion, and especially for that universal genius, which is able to accommodate itself to persons, things, and affections. Menander's wonderful talent at expressing nature in every condition, and under every accident of life, gave occasion to that extraordinary question of Aristophanes the grammarian: "O Menander and Nature, which of you copied your pieces from the other's work?" And Ovid has made choice of the same excellency to support the immor tality he has given him :

"Dum fallax servus, durus pater, improba læna,

Vivet: dum meretrix blanda, Menander erit."

Menander was drowned in the harbour of Piræus, in the year 293 B. C. according to some accounts, which make him only forty-nine years of age, but others, as we have noticed, think he was a little above fifty. His tomb, in the time of Pausanias, was to be seen at Athens, in the way from Piræus to the city, close by the honorary monument of Euripides. The fragments and sentences of Menander were first collected by Morel, 1553, Paris, and again edited by Henry Stephens, Grotius, &c. but the best edition is that by Le Clerc at Amsterdam, in 1709. To which the "Emendationes" of Phileleutherus Lipsiensis," that is, Dr. Bentley, the "Infamia emendationum," Leiden, 1710, by J. Gronovius, and "Philargyrius Cantabrigiensis," by De Pauw, must be considered as indispensable supplements, although it is somewhat difficult to collect the four.

MENANDRINO (MARSILIO), better known by the name of Marsilius of Padua, the place of his birth, was one of the most celebrated philosophers and lawyers of the 14th

1 Vossius de Poet. Græc.-Burman's preface to Bentley's Emendationes, &c. -See an elegant paper by Warton, No. 105 of the Adventurer;- and two by Cumberland, i. e. Bentley, in the Observer, No. 149, 150.-Maty's Review, vol. IX. p. 299.

century. He was educated at the university of Orleans; was afterwards made counsellor to the emperor Louis of Bavaria; and wrote an apology entitled "Defensor pacis," for that prince, in 1324. In this extraordinary work, for such at that time it might well be deemed, he boldly maintained that the pope ought to submit to the emperor, not only in temporal affairs, but also in what regards the outward discipline of the church. He described in strong colours, the pride, the luxury, and other irregularities of the court of Rome; and shewed at large, that the pope could not, by divine right, claim any powers or prerogatives superior to those of other bishops. John XXII. at that time filled the papal chair, and was so provoked at this doctrine of Marsilius, as well as his manner of propagating it, that he issued out a long decree, in which he endeavoured to refute it, and by which he excommunicated the author, in 1327. Dupin relates, that on this book being translated into French without the author's name, pope Gregory XI. complained of it to the faculty of divinity at Paris; when the faculty declared, by an authentic act, that none of their members had any hand in that translation; and that neither Marsilius of Padua, nor John de Jande, who was likewise thought to have been concerned in the work, belonged to their body. Besides the "Defensor pacis, seu de re imperatoria et pontifica, adversus usurpatam Romani Pontificis jurisdictionem, libri tres," Marsilius wrote a treatise entitled "De translatione imperii *;" and also another, "De jurisdictione imperiali in causis matrimonialibus." He died at Montemalto, in 1328; and, however his memory may have been honoured elsewhere, was ranked at Rome among the heretics of the first class. '

MENARD (CLAUDE), a French magistrate and antiquary, was one of several authors of the name of Menard who obtained considerable reputation in France. Claude, who was born in 1582, had a situation in the magistracy of Angers (lieutenant de la prévôté), and was distinguished for his knowledge and virtue. Having had the misfortune to lose his wife towards the latter end of his career, he

*This work, which we have not been able to meet with, occurs in Brunet's "Manuel du Libraire," under the title of "Defensor pacis, sive Apologia pro Ludovico IV. imperatore Bavaro, tractatus de translatione imperii,

1 Gen.

ante trecentos prope annos scripta :" Ex bibliopolio Comeliniano, 1599, 8vo. But this seems to be the same with the "Defensor pacis," mentioned above, with the addition of the "apologia pro Ludovico."

Dict.

quitted the world, became an ecclesiastic, and led a very austere life. He was passionately attached to the study of antiquities, and rescued from oblivion several curious pieces. He died Jan. 20, 1652, at the age of seventytwo. He published, 1. "Joinville's History of St. Louis," 1617, 4to, with notes full of erudition and judgment. 2. "The two books of St. Austin against Julian," which he discovered in the library at Angers. 3. "Researches concerning the body of St. James the greater," who, as is pretended, was buried in the collegiate church of Angers. The credulity of this casts some shade upon his other works. It is also heavily written. 4. "History of Bertrand du Gueschlin," 1618, 4to. The learning of this author was great, but his style was heavy and bad. 1

He'

MENARD (NICHOLAS HUGUES), a writer on the history of the saints, was born at Paris in 1587, and became a Benedictine of the congregation of St. Maur, among whom he was one of the first who applied severely to study. died Jan. 21, 1644, at the age of fifty-seven. We have by him, 1. "Martyrologium Sanm, ordinis S. Benedicti," 1629. 2. "Concordia Regularum," a comparison of the life of St. Benedict, with the rules of his order. 3. "Sacramentarium Sancti Gregorii Magni," 1642, 4to. 4. "Diatriba de unico Dionysio," 1643, 8vo. All these works display a taste for research, and a talent for sound criticism. He found the epistle of St. Barnabas, in an ancient manuscript, in the abbey of Corbie."

MENARD (LEO), a counsellor in the presidial court at Nismes, was born at Tarascon, in 1706, and died in 1767. He lived chiefly at Paris, and employed himself in the study of history and antiquities, and in writing books, which, though approved for their learning, did not rescue him from the inconveniences of poverty. They are these: 1. "The civil, ecclesiastical, and literary History of the city of Nismes," 7 vols. 4to, published in 1750, and the following years. This work has no fault but that of prolixity. 2." Mœurs et Usages des Grecs," 1743, 12mo, a small and useful compilation. 3. "The Amours of Calisthenes and Aristoclea," 1766, 12mo, a novel, in which the author has skilfully painted the manners of Greece. 4. "A collection of fugitive pieces, illustrative of French history," 3 vols. 4to, published in 1748. The materials were 2 Niceron, vol. XXII.-Moreri.-Dict. Hist.

1 Moreri.-Dict. Hist.