Selected Writings (Dario, Ruben), page 55
Maeterlinck, Maurice: (Belgium; 1862-1949) Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1911. Maeterlinck’s writing (poetry, drama, and essays) is distinguished by a preoccupation with the mystery of existence, expressed through symbolic and somewhat dreamy images and language.
Maistre, de: Either Joseph (1754-1821) or his younger brother Xavier (1763-1852), though probably Xavier, who, though not as well known, wrote works that one might, stretching, call journalism: Voyage autour de ma chambre (Voyage around my Room; sufficiently famous to be alluded to by Borges in “The Aleph”); Le Prisonniers du Caucase; Le Jeune Sibrienne. Both brothers were anti-Revolutionaries and staunch, even fierce, Catholics; Joseph wrote political theory and was adamantly papist and counter-Enlightenment.
Malachi: An Israelite prophet of the fifth century B.C.; one of the “minor” prophets, the last prophet before the coming of John the Baptist four hundred years later; author of the book of Malachi in the Old Testament. Nothing is known of his life.
Mallarmé, Stéphane: (France; 1842-1898) Leader of the Symbolists and formulator of the Symbolist theories, though he, in turn, was influenced by Baudelaire, Poe, VERLAINE, and the Pre-Raphaelites. Mallarmé’s poetry is characterized by a density and compactness of expression, with unorthodox syntax; it is unfailingly evocative and stirring.
mandinga: A descendant of an African slave originally from the Western part of Sudan.
Manzoni, Alessandro: (1785-1873) Italian novelist, poet, and playwright, a central figure in Italian Romanticism. Known especially for his historical novel I promessi sposi. A religious man, a Catholic, Manzoni was concerned to show the workings of providence in the everyday lives of people. His language was subtle and refined, and it became the model for modern Italian prose. Verdi honored him with the Manzoni Requiem (1874).
Maragall, Joan: (Catalonia, Spain; 1860-1911) Catalonian modernista poet, essayist, and translator, some of whose poems have been set to music to become songs and anthems very well known in Catalonia and Spain. He was very active in the founding and development of the modernista movement in Catalonia, where he and RUSIÑOL were often allies, especially against the attacks of the Noucentistes.
Marat, Jean-Paul: (1743-1793) French revolutionary who was banished to England for his incendiary writing and later stabbed to death in his bath in Paris by a promonarchist assassin.
Marcel, Etienne: (France; 1315-1358) A wealthy, influential French merchant, Marcel was an antiroyalist, and in 1358 he led an uprising against the crown.
Mardrus, J. C.: (1868-1949) French Arabist, translator of many works, including (in addition to the Thousand and One Nights) “The Queen of Sheba,” “The Muslim Paradise,” “Toute-puissance de l’adepte; transcription des hautes texts initiatiques de l’Égypte; le livre de la verité de parole,” etc. His translation was used by Powys Mathers for Mathers’ English translation of the Nights.
Marinetti, Filippo: (1876-1944) Marinetti was an Italian poet and publicist associated, as Darío indicates, with the Futurist movement. Unfortunately, “his career reached its apogee in friendship with Mussolini,” as the Penguin Dictionary of Art and Artists tells us.
Marquis de Sade: (See SADE.)
Mars: Roman god of spring, growth, and fertility, but also of death and war. Reputed to be the father of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome.
Martí, José: (Cuba; 1853-1895) Martí is known as the “apostle of Cuban independence”; he vehemently opposed Spanish rule over the island, and indeed was killed in an insurrection he helped mount. As a poet, Martí is ardent, romantic, sometimes almost mystical, and is concerned with love, freedom, and death; he is seen as a precursor of Modernismo in Latin America. His prose essays are inspiring tributes to his faith in the greatness of Spanish America; he was also a keen critic of U.S. culture and politics.
Martínez Campos, Arsenio: (Spanish; 1831-1900) Spanish colonial ruler of Cuba before the Spanish-American War, but resigned before that war took place. He fought not against the Americans, but instead against the Cuban rebels seeking independence from Spain. He resigned in 1896, in acknowledgment of his inability to win against the rebels, and was succeeded by the more heavy-handed Valeriano Weyler. Thus, Martínez Campos was military ruler of Cuba when José Marti’s remains were displayed for viewing.
Maximilian: (1832-1867) Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph, Archduke of Austria, became Emperor of Mexico when Napoleon III sought to extend French imperial power. Assured a French army, and believing that his appointment had a popular base, the idealistic young aristocrat and his wife, Carlota, were crowned in Mexico City on June 10, 1864. Almost immediately, Maximilian’s policies antagonized his backers, as he upheld Benito Juárez’s land reforms, educated the Indians and the poor, and encouraged U.S. Confederates to immigrate to Mexico. Too late, he acknowledged that his government was bankrupt. By the spring of 1865, the venture had failed. But when the French finally left Mexico in March of 1867, Maximilian remained behind, refusing to desert “his people” when Juárez and his army returned. Two months later, Maximilian was court-martialed, condemned to death, and executed.
Mendès, Catulle: (France; 1841-1909) French poet, critic, and novelist of the PARNASSIAN school. Though born in Bordeaux, he moved early to Paris, where he became notorious after the publication of his Roman d’une nuit (1861), which earned him a month’s imprisonment and a fine of five hundred francs. His critics claim that his elegant verse is marked more by skillful imitation of other poets than by originality, but he was also well known for his critical writings and his fiction. Some of his work was made into operas, as for example Ariane, by Massenet. He married JUDITH GAUTIER, but the marriage did not last. In February of 1909 he was found dead in a railway tunnel in Saint-Germain.
Menéndez Pelayo, Marcelino: (Spain; 1856-1912) Recognized by many as the finest critic and historian of literature in nineteenth-century Spain. He produced anthologies in which he introduced and commented on lyrical and classical poetry, as well as countless volumes of erudite literary studies on an immense variety of subjects. One of the most respected academics and men of letters in all of the Spanish-speaking world.
Mercury: Messenger of the gods, also known as Hermes, and the god of commerce. Mercury guided mortals such as Orpheus and Dante in their descents into Hades.
Minerva: Roman goddess of wisdom, medicine, and the arts, but also of war.
Mitre, Bartolomé: (Argentina; 1821-1906) Statesman, general, historian, intellectual. As a young man, Mitre earned the hatred of perennial dictator Juan Manuel Rosas and went into exile in Chile, Bolivia, and Peru, but he returned in 1852 and took part in the overthrow of Rosas led by Urquiza. Mitre opposed joining Buenos Aires to the new Republic of Argentina, but in 1859 Mitre’s troops were defeated by Urquiza’s and Buenos Aires was, indeed, made part of the nation. Mitre became governor of the Buenos Aires province in 1860 and the next year became president of the republic. In 1870, he founded the important newspaper La Nación. In 1874 and again in 1891 he was defeated in runs for the presidency. He left many historical writings, among them the Historia de Belgrano y de la independencia argentina (1857; 1876-77) and the Historia de San Martín y de la emancipación sudamericana (1887-1890).
Moctezuma: (1466-1520) Aztec emperor during the invasion by Spain.
Montagne Pelée: A volcano in Martinique, also known as Mont Pelée, which erupted disastrously in 1902, killing some thirty thousand people. Only two persons are known to have survived. The town of Saint Pierre, once called “Little Paris,” was now called the West Indian Pompeii.
Moréas, Jean: (b. Athens, naturalized French; 1856-1910) Original name: Iannis Papadiamantopoulos. Moréas went to Paris in 1872, at the age of sixteen. He wrote two volumes of Symbolist verse, Les Syrtes (1884) and Le Pèlerin passionné (1891). With the publication of Enone au clair visage (1894) and Eriphyle (1894) Moréas returned to classical style, and in Les Stances (1899-1901) and his play Iphigénie (1903) he clearly reacted against the new movements in poetry.
Mucha, Alphonse: (1860-1939) Born in Moravia (part of later Czechoslovakia), Mucha went to Paris at age seventeen, where he studied for a while, then lived the life (literally) of a starving artist in a garret. In 1895, having created a poster for a play starring the legendary Sarah Bernhardt, he presented his “Art Nouveau” to the Paris public. The poster, Gismonda, is one of the most famous posters in history, making both him and Bernhardt icons. He was immensely successful, but always considered his success as for Czechoslovakia, not so much for Paris. Later in life, his nouveau art was not so new, and so he fell out of favor, although he was still important enough to be arrested by the Gestapo when they invaded Prague in 1939. Having been subjected to an interrogation and then released, Mucha died at his home some hours later.
Murillo, Bartolomé Esteban: (Spain; 1617/18-1682) The leading painter in Seville after Velázquez went to Madrid in 1623. A painter of religious subjects, especially Madonnas and Immaculate Conceptions, in a “warm style,” which was followed by a “vaporous style”; his later works, most famously of street urchins, are characterized by a high degree of sentimentalism.
Myron: Lemprière’s Classical Dictionary has the following charming entry on Myron: “A celebrated sculptor of Greece, peculiarly happy in imitating nature. His statue of the Discobolus, a youth throwing the discus, is famous; and he also made a cow so much resembling life, that even bulls were deceived and approached her as if alive, as is frequently mentioned by many epigrams in the [Greek] Anthology. He flourished about 442 years before Christ.”
Nakens, José: (1841-1926) Spanish journalist, fanatically republican and anticlerical. To combat the Restoration and the influence of the Church in Spanish politics and life generally, in 1881 Nakens established a newspaper, El Motin (The Riot), which he used to attack all those whom he saw as standing in the way of Spain’s return to Republicanism. Indeed, Nakens stated that he sought “a Republic brought forth by force—bloody, hard, avenging,” though he never found the man to lead that entity. When the Conservatives came to power, Nakens became their fiercest enemy: over a period of two years, 84 actions were brought against his newspaper for various crimes relating to publishing; its editors were jailed several times; and Nakens himself and others were hit by a total of 17 excommunications issued by various bishops. Due to Nakens’ fanaticism, the newspaper fell on hard times; it hardly sold on the street, and there were but a handful of subscribers; Nakens, however, blamed the Republicans, whom he saw as never sufficiently hard-line. (That is, he attacked his allies as ferociously as he did his enemies.) Nakens was involved in (some say framed for) the attempted assassination of Alfonso XIII in 1906 (in the least incriminating of the versions of the story he sheltered the young man who planted the bomb) and was sent to prison for two years. This “martyrdom” helped newspaper sales enormously, which skyrocketed to some twenty thousand copies per issue. Subsequently, the newspaper had a number of vicissitudes, but Nakens died at last without much recognition as a creator of the modern state of Spain; his views were simply too harsh, invective-laden, and alienating to be useful in any political way.
Nebuchadnezzar: (?-562 B.C.) King of Babylonia who conquered Jerusalem after Zedekiah had entered into an alliance with Egypt, against the advice of his prophet. Zedekiah was captured, blinded, and imprisoned for life.
Nemea: An upland valley in central Greece, near the Gulf of Corinth.
Nephelibata: Cloud-walker (Greek).
Nero (Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus): (Rome; 37-68 A.D.) Nero’s mother, Agrippina (the younger), was the daughter of Caesar Germanicus and the sister of madman-emperor Caligula, who banished the family. Upon Caligula’s death, Agrippina was recalled from exile and later she married her uncle, the emperor Claudius, and persuaded him to adopt Nero, whose name, originally Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, was changed to reflect his new status. Nero was educated by Lucius Annaeus Seneca, and at the age of twenty-one, in 58 A.D., he married Claudius’ daughter, his adoptive sister, Octavia. After Agripinna poisoned Claudius in 54, Nero became emperor. For the first five years of his rule, he was an exemplary ruler, abolishing capital punishment, outlawing bloodshed in the gladiatorial games, reducing taxes, and allowing slaves to take abusive masters to court. He was a patron of the arts and sponsored poetry competitions. In 59, however, he had his mother murdered (after several attempts to poison and strangle her, he finally managed to have her stabbed to death), and in 62 he divorced his wife to marry Poppaea Sabina, his mistress. These were the omens of the remainder of his rule, which was marked by cruelty, outrageous excess, and a hatred of Christians and Christianity. When Rome burned, in 64, he blamed the Christians, and ordered many killed in horrendous ways. In 65, he kicked his pregnant wife Poppaea to death because she had scolded him for coming home late, and a year later he married another woman, whose husband had just been murdered. In 66, he took the boy SPORUS as his lover, supposedly because of his resemblance to Poppaea. By this time, Nero’s excesses were about to catch up with him; his enemies both in the Senate and among the general population were growing in number and strength. Finally, even his Praetorian guard turned on him, and the Senate sentenced him to death. In 68, he fled Rome, but eventually committed suicide. His last words are reputed to have been “What an artist the world loses in me.”
Netzahualcóyotl: (1402-1472) According to Miguel León-Portilla, Netzahuacóyotl of Texcoco was born in the year One-Rabbit and died in the year Six-Flint. As a ruler in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, he is known as a poet, architect, legislator, and tlamatini (one who knows). In keeping with Nahuatl thought, his poem/songs are like flowers, meditations on human transience and permanence.
Nicarao: The indigenous leader who had a famous, sophisticated philosophical dialogue with the Spanish conquistador Gil González Dávila on the shores of Nicaragua’s Gran Lago in April, 1523.
Nietzsche, Friedrich: (Germany; 1844-1900) Philosopher now perhaps most famous for his theory of the “Übermensch,” or superman, which he developed in Thus Spake Zarathustra. His work Beyond Good and Evil attempts, as does all his work, to go beyond the rational to the irrational. He rejected Christianity (“God is dead”), and was concerned with teaching people how to live in this world rather than prepare for the next. His values, then, were based on “survival,” one might say, and he exalted the will to power, along with strength and “virility.” These ideas (the race of supermen that would inherit the earth, the notion that “might makes right,” etc.) strongly influenced German thought in World War I and the theories of Hitler and the Nazis in World War II. He was insane for the last twelve years of his life.
Nimrod: One of the greatest warriors and city-builders of the ancient world. From the cities he founded, Babylon and Nineveh, the Babylonians and Assyrians went on to conquer Israel.
Nodier, Charles: (1788-1840) A French Romantic novelist to whom such luminaries as VICTOR HUGO, Alfred de Musset, and Saint-Beuve recognized a debt, Nodier wrote fantastical novels and stories, including some about vampires, ghosts, and fairies (not necessarily all in the same work).
Nordau, Max: (1849-1923) Nordau (born Simon Maximilian Suedfeld) was an early Zionist. Attracted by Theodor Herzl’s idea for a Jewish state, Nordau labored to found the World Zionist Organization. He achieved fame as a thinker and social critic with the publication of several volumes highly critical of society, religion, government, art, and literature. His works aroused much controversy and continued to be studied and discussed many years after their first appearance. Among his most famous publications are The Conventional Lies of Our Civilization (1883), Paradoxes (1896), and Degeneration (1895). He was a favorite of the authors of Modernismo.
Numa: Lemprière comes once more to our assistance: “Numa Pompilius, a celebrated philosopher, born at Cures, a village of the Sabines, on the day that Romulus laid the foundation of Rome. He married Tatia, the daughter of Tatius the king of the Sabines, and at her death he retired into the country to devote himself more freely to literary pursuits. At the death of Romulus, the Romans fixed upon him to be their new king, and two senators were sent to acquaint him with the decisions of the senate and of the people. Numa refused their offers, and it was only at the repeated solicitations and prayers of his friends that he was prevailed upon to accept the royalty. The beginning of his reign was popular, and he dismissed the 300 bodyguards that his predecessor had kept around his person, observing that he did not distrust a people who had compelled him to reign over them. He was not, like Romulus, fond of war and military expeditions, but instead applied himself to tame the ferocity of his subjects, to inculcate in their minds a reverence for the Deity, and to quell their dissensions by dividing all the citizens into different classes. He established different orders of priests and taught the Romans not to worship the Deity in images, and from his example no graven or painted statues appeared in the temples or sanctuaries of Rome for upwards of 160 years. He encouraged the report which was spread of his paying regular visits to the nymph Egeria, and made use of her name to give sanction to the laws and institutions which he had introduced. He established the college of the vestals, and told the Romans that the safety of the empire depended upon the preservation of the sacred ancile or shield which, as was generally believed, had dropped down from heaven. He dedicated a temple to Janus, which, during his whole reign, remained shut, as a mark of peace and tranquillity at Rome. Numa died after a reign of 43 years, in which he had given every possible encouragement to the useful arts, and in which he had cultivated peace, 672 B.C.” (Emphasis added.)
