Chapter 14

The chapel, had been built early in the 15th century by Felice Michele di Piuvichese Brancacci, a noble Florentine. Masaccio’s work in it began probably in 1423, and continued at intervals untilhe finally quitted Florence in 1428. There is a whole library-shelf of discussion as to what particular things were done by Masaccio and what by Masolino, and long afterwards by Filippino Lippi, in the Brancacci Chapel, and also as to certain other paintings by Masaccio in the Carmine. He began with a trial piece, a majestic figure of St Paul, not in the chapel; this has perished. A monochrome of the Procession for the Consecration of the Chapel, regarded as a wonderful example, for that early period, of perspective and of grouping, has also disappeared; it contains portraits of Brunelleschi, Donatello and many others. In the cloister of the Carmine was discovered in recent years a portion of a fresco by Masaccio representing a procession; but this, being in colours and not in monochrome, does not appear to be the Brancacci procession. As regards the works in the Brancacci chapel itself, the prevalent opinion now is that Masolino, who used to be credited with a considerable portion of them, did either nothing, or at most the solitary compartment which represents St Peter restoring Tabitha to life, and the same saint healing a cripple. The share which Filippino Lippi bore in the work admits of little doubt; to him are due various items on which the fame of Masaccio used principally to be based—as for instance the figure of St Paul addressing Peter in prison, which Raphael partly appropriated; and hence it may be observed that an eloquent and often-quoted outpouring of Sir Joshua Reynolds in praise of Masaccio ought in great part to be transferred to Filippino. What Masaccio really painted in the chapel appears with tolerable certainty to be as follows, and is ample enough to sustain the high reputation he has always enjoyed:—(1) The “Temptation of Adam and Eve”; (2) “Peter and the Tribute-Money”; (3) The “Expulsion from Eden”; (4) “Peter Preaching”; (5) “Peter Baptizing”; (6) “Peter Almsgiving”; (7) “Peter and John curing the Sick”; (8) “Peter restoring to Life the Son of King Theophilus of Antioch” was begun by Masaccio, including the separate incident of “Peter Enthroned,” but a large proportion is by Filippino; (9) the double subject already allotted to Masolino may perhaps be by Masaccio, and in that case it must have been one of the first in order of execution. A few words may be given to these pictures individually. (1) The “Temptation” shows a degree of appreciation of nude form, corresponding to the feeling of the antique, such as was at that date unexampled in painting. (2) The “Tribute-Money,” a full, harmonious and expressive composition, contains a head reputed to be the portrait of Masaccio himself—one of the apostles, with full locks, a solid resolute countenance and a pointed beard. (3) The “Expulsion” was so much admired by Raphael that, with comparatively slight modifications, he adopted it as his own in one of the subjects of the Logge of the Vatican. (5) “Peter Baptizing” contains some nude figures of strong naturalistic design; that of the young man, prepared for the baptismal ceremony, who stands half-shivering in the raw air, has always been a popular favourite and an object of artistic study. (8) The restoration of the young man to life has been open to much discussion as to what precise subject was in view, but the most probable opinion is that the legend of King Theophilus was intended.

In 1427 Masaccio was living in Florence with his mother, then for the second time a widow, and with his younger brother Giovanni, a painter of no distinction; he possessed nothing but debts. In 1428 he was working, as we have seen, in the Brancacci chapel. Before the end of that year he disappeared from Florence, going, as it would appear, to Rome, to evade the importunities of creditors. Immediately afterwards, in 1429, when his age was twenty-seven or twenty-eight, he was reported dead. Poisoning by jealous rivals in art was rumoured, but of this nothing is known. The statement that several years afterwards, in 1443, he was buried in the Florentine Church of the Carmine, without any monument, seems to be improbable, and to depend upon a confused account of the dates, which have now, after long causing much bewilderment, been satisfactorily cleared up from extant documents.

It has been said that Masaccio introduced into painting the plastic boldness of Donatello, and carried out the linear perspective of Paolo Uccello and Brunelleschi (who had given him practical instruction), and he was also the first painter who made some considerable advance in atmospheric perspective. He was the first to make the architectural framework of his pictures correspond in a reasonable way to the proportions of the figures. In the Brancacci chapel he painted with extraordinary swiftness. The contours of the feet and articulations in his pictures are imperfect; and his most prominent device for giving roundness to the figures (a point in which he made a great advance upon his predecessors) was a somewhat mannered way of putting the high lights upon the edges. His draperies were broad and easy, and his landscape details natural, and superior to his age. In fact, he led the way in representing the objects of nature correctly, with action, liveliness and relief. Soon after his death, his work was recognized at its right value, and led to notable advances; and all the greatest artists of Italy, through studying the Brancacci chapel, became his champions and disciples.

Of the works attributed to Masaccio in public or private galleries hardly any are authentic. The one in the Florentine Academy, the “Virgin and Child in the Lap of St Anna,” is an exception. The so-called portrait of Masaccio in the Uffizi Gallery is more probably Filippino Lippi; and Filippino, or Botticelli, may be the real author of the head, at first termed a Masaccio, in the National Gallery, London.An early work on Masaccio was that of T. Patch,Life with Engravings(Florence, 1770-1772). See Layard,The Brancacci Chapel, &c. (1868); H. Eckstein,Life of Masaccio, Giotto, &c. (1882); Charles Yriarte,Tommaso dei Guidi(1894).

An early work on Masaccio was that of T. Patch,Life with Engravings(Florence, 1770-1772). See Layard,The Brancacci Chapel, &c. (1868); H. Eckstein,Life of Masaccio, Giotto, &c. (1882); Charles Yriarte,Tommaso dei Guidi(1894).

(W. M. R.)

MASAI,an Eastern Equatorial African people of Negro-Hamitic stock, speaking a Nilotic language. The Hamitic element, which is not great, has probably been derived from the Galla. The Masai were probably isolated in the high mountains or plateaus which lie between the Nile and the Karamojo country. There they originally had their home, and there to-day the Latuka, who show affinities with them, still live. Famine or inter-tribal wars drove the Masai in the direction of Mount Elgon and Lake Rudolf. After a long settlement there they split into two groups, the Masai proper and the Wa-Kuafi or agricultural Masai, and this at no very remote date, as the two tribes speak practically the same language. The more powerful Masai were purely nomadic and pastoral, their wealth consisting in enormous herds. The Wa-Kuafi, losing their cattle to their stronger kinsmen, split up again into the Burkeneji, the Gwas Ngishu, and the Nyarusi (Enjamusi) and settled as agriculturists. Meantime the Masai became masters of the greater part of inner East Africa from Ugogo and the Unyamwezi countries on the south and west to Mount Kenya and Galla-land on the north, and eastward to the hundred-mile strip of more or less settled Bantu country on the coast of the Indian Ocean.

The Masai physical type is slender, but among the finest in Africa. A tall, well-made people, the men are often well over six feet, with slim wiry figures, chocolate-coloured, with eyes often slightly oblique like the Mongolians, but the nose especially being often almost Caucasian in type, with well formed bridge and finely cut nostrils. Almost all the men and women knock out the two lower incisor teeth. For this custom they give the curious explanation that lockjaw was once very common in Masai-land, and that it was found to be easy to feed the sufferer through the gap thus made. All the hair on the body of both sexes is pulled out with iron tweezers; a Masai with a moustache or beard is unknown. The hair of the head is shaved in women and married men; but the hair of a youth at puberty is allowed to grow till it is long enough to have thin strips of leather plaited into it. In this way the hair, after a coating of red clay and mutton fat, is made into pigtails, the largest of which hangs down the back, another over the forehead, and one on each side. The warriors smear their whole bodies with the clay and fat, mixed in equal proportion.

No tattooing or scarring is performed on the men, but Sir Harry Johnston noticed women with parallel lines burnt into the skin round the eyes. In both sexes the lobes of the ears are distended into great loops, through holes in which large disks of wood are thrust. Bead necklaces, bead and wood armlets are worn by men, and before marriage the Masai girl has thick iron wire wound round her legs so tightly as to check the calf development. The women wear dressed hides or calico; the old men wear a skin or cloth cape. The warriors wind red calico round their waists, a circle of ostrich feathers round their face (or a cap of lion or colobus skin) and fringes of long white fur round the knee. Masai houses are of two kinds. The agricultural tribes build round huts with walls of reeds or sticks, and conical, grass-thatched roofs. The true Masai nomads, however, have houses unlike those of any other neighbouring negro tribe. Long, low (not more than 6 ft. high), flat-roofed, they are built on a framework of sticks with strong partitions dividing the structure into separate compartments, each a dwelling, with low, oblong door. Mud and cow-dung are plastered on to the brushwood used in the roofing. Beds are made of brushwood neatly stacked and covered with hides. The fireplace is a circle of stones. The only furniture, besides cooking-pots, consists of long gourds used as milkcans, half-gourds as cups, and small three-legged stools cut out of a single blockof wood and used by the elder men to sit on. The Masai are not hunters of big game except lions, but they eat the eland and kudu. The domestic animals are cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys and dogs. Only women and the married men smoke. The dead are ordinarily not buried, but the bodies are carried a short distance from the village and left on the ground to be devoured by hyenas, jackals and vultures. Important chiefs are buried, however, and a year later the eldest son or successor recovers the skull, which is treasured as a charm. The medicine men of Masai are often the chiefs, and the supreme chief is almost always a medicine man.The Masai believe in a nature-god as a supreme being—Ngai (“sky”)—and his aid is invoked in cases of drought by a ceremonial chant of the children, standing in a circle after sunset, each with a bunch of grass in its hand. They have creation-myths involving four gods, the black, white, grey and red deities. They believe there is no future for women or common people, but that such distinction is reserved for chiefs. Pythons and a species of snake are revered as the reincarnated forms of their more celebrated ancestors. A kind of worship is paid to the hyena in some districts: the whole tribe going into mourning if the beast crosses their path. The Masai also have a vague tree-worship, and grass is a sacred symbol. When making peace a tuft is held in the right hand, and when the warriors start out on a raid their sweethearts throw grass after them or lay it in the forks of trees. But the oddest of their superstitious customs is the importance attached to spitting. To spit upon a person or thing is regarded as a sign of reverence and goodwill, as among other Nilotic tribes. Newly born children are spat on by every one who sees them. Johnston states that every Masai before extending his hand to him spat on it first. They spit when they meet and when they part, and bargains are sealed in this way. Joseph Thomson writes, “being regarded as a wizard of the first water, the Masai flocked to me ... and the more copiously I spat on them the greater was their delight.” The Masai has no love for work, and practises no industries. The women attend to his personal needs; and trades such as smelting and forging are left to enslaved tribes such as the Dorobo (Wandorobo). These manufacture spears with long blades and butts and the peculiar swords orsiméslike long slender leaves, very narrow towards the hilt and broad at the point. Most of the Masai live in the British East Africa Protectorate.See A. C. Hollis,The Masai, their Language and Folklore(1905); M. Merker,Die Nasai(1904); Sir H. H. Johnston,Kilimanjaro Expedition(1886) andUganda Protectorate(1902); Joseph Thomson,Through Masai-land(1885); O. Baumann,Durch Massai-land zur Nilquelle(1894); F. Kallenberg,Auf dem Kriegspfad gegen die Massai(1892).

The Masai believe in a nature-god as a supreme being—Ngai (“sky”)—and his aid is invoked in cases of drought by a ceremonial chant of the children, standing in a circle after sunset, each with a bunch of grass in its hand. They have creation-myths involving four gods, the black, white, grey and red deities. They believe there is no future for women or common people, but that such distinction is reserved for chiefs. Pythons and a species of snake are revered as the reincarnated forms of their more celebrated ancestors. A kind of worship is paid to the hyena in some districts: the whole tribe going into mourning if the beast crosses their path. The Masai also have a vague tree-worship, and grass is a sacred symbol. When making peace a tuft is held in the right hand, and when the warriors start out on a raid their sweethearts throw grass after them or lay it in the forks of trees. But the oddest of their superstitious customs is the importance attached to spitting. To spit upon a person or thing is regarded as a sign of reverence and goodwill, as among other Nilotic tribes. Newly born children are spat on by every one who sees them. Johnston states that every Masai before extending his hand to him spat on it first. They spit when they meet and when they part, and bargains are sealed in this way. Joseph Thomson writes, “being regarded as a wizard of the first water, the Masai flocked to me ... and the more copiously I spat on them the greater was their delight.” The Masai has no love for work, and practises no industries. The women attend to his personal needs; and trades such as smelting and forging are left to enslaved tribes such as the Dorobo (Wandorobo). These manufacture spears with long blades and butts and the peculiar swords orsiméslike long slender leaves, very narrow towards the hilt and broad at the point. Most of the Masai live in the British East Africa Protectorate.

See A. C. Hollis,The Masai, their Language and Folklore(1905); M. Merker,Die Nasai(1904); Sir H. H. Johnston,Kilimanjaro Expedition(1886) andUganda Protectorate(1902); Joseph Thomson,Through Masai-land(1885); O. Baumann,Durch Massai-land zur Nilquelle(1894); F. Kallenberg,Auf dem Kriegspfad gegen die Massai(1892).

MASANIELLO,an abbreviation ofTommaso Aniello(1622-1647), an Amalfi fisherman, who became leader of the revolt against Spanish rule in Naples in 1647. Misgovernment and fiscal oppression having aroused much discontent throughout the two Sicilies, a revolt broke out at Palermo in May 1647, and the people of Naples followed the example of the Sicilians. The immediate occasion of the latter rising was a new tax on fruit, the ordinary food of the poor, and the chief instigator of the movement was Masaniello, who took command of the malcontents. The outbreak began on the 7th of July 1647 with a riot at the city gates between the fruit-vendors of the environs and the customs officers; the latter were forced to flee, and the customs office was burnt. The rioters then poured into Naples and forced their way into the palace of the viceroy, the hated Count d’Arcos, who had to take refuge first in a neighbouring convent, then in Castel Sant’ Elmo, and finally in Castelnuovo. Masaniello attempted to discipline the mob and restrain its vandalic instincts, and to some extent he succeeded; attired in his fisherman’s garb, he gave audiences and administered justice from a wooden scaffolding outside his house. Several rioters, including the duke of Maddaloni, an opponent of the viceroy, and his brother Giuseppe Caraffa, who had come to Naples to make trouble, were condemned to death by him and executed. The mob, which every day obtained more arms and was becoming more intractable, terrorized the city, drove off the troops summoned from outside, and elected Masaniello “captain-general”; the revolt was even spreading to the provinces. Finally, the viceroy, whose negotiations with Masaniello had been frequently interrupted by fresh tumults, ended by granting all the concessions demanded of him. On the 13th of July, through the mediation of Cardinal Filomarino, archbishop of Naples, a convention was signed between D’Arcos and Masaniello as “leader of the most faithful people of Naples,” by which the rebels were pardoned, the more oppressive taxes removed, and the citizens granted certain rights, including that of remaining in arms until the treaty should have been ratified by the king of Spain. The astute D’Arcos then invited Masaniello to the palace, confirmed his title of “captain-general of the Neapolitan people,” gave him a gold chain of office, and offered him a pension. Masaniello refused the pension and laid down his dignities, saying that he wished to return to his old life as a fisherman; but he was entertained by the viceroy and, partly owing to the strain and excitement of the past days, partly because he was made dizzy by his astonishing change of fortune, or perhaps, as it was believed, because he was poisoned, he lost his head and behaved like a frenzied maniac. The people continued to obey him for some days, until, abandoned by his best friends, who went over to the Spanish party, he was murdered while haranguing a mob on the market-place on the 16th of July 1647; his head was cut off and brought by a band of roughs to the viceroy and the body buried outside the city. But the next day the populace, angered by the alteration of the measures for weighing bread, repented of its insane fury; the body of Masaniello was dug up and given a splendid funeral, at which the viceroy himself was represented.

Masaniello’s insurrection appealed to the imagination of poets and composers, and formed the subject of several operas, of which the most famous is Auber’s La Muelle de Portici (1828).

See Saavedra,Insurreccion de Napoli en 1647(2 vols., Madrid, 1849); A. von Reumont,Die Caraffa von Maddaloni(2 vols., Berlin, 1849); Capasso,La Casa e famiglia di Masaniello(Naples, 1893); V. Spinazzola,Masaniello e la sua famiglia, secondo un codice bolognese del sec. xvi. (in the review Flegrea, 1900); A. G. Meissner,Masaniello(in German); E. Bourg,Masaniello(in French); F. Palermo,Documenti diversi sulle novità accadute in Napoli l’anno 1647(in theArchivio storico italiano, 1st series, vol. ix.). See alsoNaples.

MASAYA, the capital of the department of Masaya, Nicaragua, 13 m. W.N.W. of Lake Nicaragua and the city of Granada, on the eastern shore of Lake Masaya, and on the Granada-Managua railway. Pop. (1905), about 20,000. The city is built in the midst of a very fertile lowland region, which yields large quantities of tobacco. The majority of the inhabitants are Indians or half-castes. Lake Masaya occupies an extinct crater; the isolated volcano of Masaya (3000 ft.) on the opposite side of the lake was active at the time of the conquest of Nicaragua in 1522, and the conquerors, thinking the lava they saw was gold, had themselves lowered into the crater at the risk of their lives. The volcano was in eruption in 1670, 1782, 1857 and 1902.

MASCAGNI, PIETRO(1863- ), Italian operatic composer, was born at Leghorn, the son of a baker, and educated for the law; but he neglected his legal studies for music, taking secret lessons at the Instituto Luigi Cherubini. There a symphony by him was performed in 1879, and various other compositions attracted attention, so that money was provided by a wealthy amateur for him to study at the Milan Conservatoire. But Mascagni chafed at the teaching, and soon left Milan to become conductor to a touring operatic company. After a somewhat chequered period he suddenly leapt into fame by the production at Rome in 1890 of his one-act operaCavalleria Rusticana, containing a tuneful “intermezzo,” which became wildly popular. Mascagni was the musical hero of the hour, andCavalleria Rusticanawas performed everywhere. But his later work failed to repeat this success.L’Amico Fritz(1891),I Rantzau(1892),Guglielmo Ratcliff(1895),Silvano(1895),Zanetto(1896),Iris(1898),Le Maschere(1901), andAmica(1905), were coldly or adversely received; and thoughCavalleria Rusticana, with its catchy melodies, still held the stage, this succession of failures involved a steady decline in the composer’s reputation. From 1895 to 1903 Mascagni was director of the Pesaro Conservatoire, but in the latter year, having left his post in order to tour through the United States, he was dismissed from the appointment.

MASCARA, chief town of an arrondissement in the department of Oran, Algeria, 60 m. S.E. of Oran. It lies 1800 ft. above the sea, on the southern slope of a range forming part of the Little Atlas Mountains, and occupies two small hills separated by the Wad Tudman, which is crossed by three stone bridges. The walls, upwards of two miles in circuit, and strengthened by bastions and towers, give the place a somewhat imposingappearance. Mascara is a town of the French colonial type, few vestiges of the Moorish period remaining. Among the public buildings are two mosques, in one of which Abd-el-Kader preached thejihad. The town also contains the usual establishments attaching to the seat of a sub-prefect and the centre of a military subdivision. The principal industry is the making of wine, the white wines of Mascara being held in high repute. There is also a considerable trade in grains and oil. A branch railway eight miles long connects Mascara with the line from the seaport of Arzeu to Ain Sefra. Access is also gained by this line to Oran, Algiers, &c. Pop. (1906) of the town, 18,989; of the commune, which includes several villages, 22,934; of the arrondissement, comprising eleven communes, 190,154.

Mascara (i.e.“mother of soldiers”) was the capital of a Turkish beylik during the Spanish occupation of Oran from the 16th to the close of the 18th century; but for the most of that period it occupied a site about two miles distant from the present position. On the removal of the bey to Oran its importance rapidly declined; and it was an insignificant place when in 1832 Abd-el-Kader, who was born in the neighbourhood, chose it as the seat of his power. It was laid in ruins by the French under Marshal Clausel and the duke of Orleans in 1835, the amir retreating south. Being reoccupied by Abd-el-Kader in 1838, Mascara was again captured in 1841 by Marshal Bugeaud and General Lamoricière.

MASCARENE ISLANDS(occasionallyMascarenhas), the collective title of a group in the Indian Ocean cast of Madagascar, viz. Mauritius, Réunion and Rodriguez (q.v.). The collective title is derived from the Portuguese navigator Mascarenhas, by whom Réunion, at first called Mascarenhas, was discovered.

MASCARON, JULES(1634-1703), French preacher, was the son of a barrister at Aix. Born at Marseilles in 1634, he early entered the French Oratory, and obtained great reputation as a preacher. Paris confirmed the judgment of the provinces; in 1666 he was asked to preach before the court, and became a great favourite with Louis XIV., who said that his eloquence was one of the few things that never grew old. In 1671 he was appointed bishop of Tulle; eight years later he was transferred to the larger diocese of Agen. He still continued, however, to preach regularly at court, being especially in request for funeral orations. A panegyric on Turenne, delivered in 1675, is considered his masterpiece. His style is strongly tinged withpréciosité; and his chief surviving interest is as a glaring example of the evils from which Bossuet delivered the French pulpit. During his later years he devoted himself entirely to his pastoral duties at Agen, where he died in 1703.

Six of his most famous sermons were edited, with a biographical sketch of their author, by the Oratorian Borde in 1704.

MASCHERONI, LORENZO(1750-1800), Italian geometer, was professor of mathematics at the university of Pavia, and published a variety of mathematical works, the best known of which is hisGeometria del compasso(Pavia, 1797), a collection of geometrical constructions in which the use of the circle alone is postulated. Many of the solutions are most ingenious, and some of the constructions of considerable practical importance.

There is a French translation by A. M. Carette (Paris, 1798), who also wrote a biography of Mascheroni. See Poggendorff,Biog. Lit. Handwörterbuch.

MASCOT(Fr. slang: perhaps from Port.mascotto, “witchcraft”), the term for any person, animal, or thing supposed to bring luck. The word was first popularized by Edmond Audran through his comic operaLa Mascotte(1880), but it had been common in France long before among gamblers. It has been traced back to a dialectic use in Provence and Gascony, where it meant something which brought luck to a household. The suggestion that it is frommasqué(masked or concealed), the provincial French for a child born with a caul, in allusion to the lucky destiny of such children, is improbable.

MASDEU, JUAN FRANCISCO(1744-1817), Spanish historian, was born at Palermo on the 4th of October 1744. He joined the Company of Jesus on the 19th of December 1759, and became professor in the Jesuit seminaries at Ferrara and Ascoli. He visited Spain in 1799, was exiled, and returned in 1815, dying at Valencia on the 11th of April 1817. HisStoria critica di Spagna e della cultura spagnuola in ogni genere(2 vols., 1781-1784) was finally expanded into theHistoria critica de España y de la cultura española(1783-1805), which, though it consists of twenty volumes, was left unfinished; had it been continued on the same scale, the work would have consisted of fifty volumes. Masdeu wrote in a critical spirit and with a regard for accuracy rare in his time; but he is more concerned with small details than with the philosophy of history. Still, his narrative is lucid, and later researches have not yet rendered his work obsolete.

MASERU,the capital of Basutoland, British South Africa. It is pleasantly situated on the left bank of the Caledon river, 90 m. by rail E. by S. of Bloemfontein, and 40 m. N.E. of Wepener. It is in the centre of a fertile grain-growing district. Pop. (1904), 862, of whom 99 were Europeans. The principal buildings are Government House, the church of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society, the hospital, and the railway station. (SeeBasutoland.)

MASHAM, ABIGAIL,Lady(d. 1734), favourite of Anne, queen of England, was the daughter of Francis Hill, a London merchant, her mother being an aunt of Sarah Jennings, duchess of Marlborough. The family being reduced to poor circumstances through Hill’s speculations, Lady Churchill (as she then was), lady of the bedchamber to the Princess Anne, befriended her cousin Abigail, whom she took into her own household at St Albans, and for whom after the accession of the princess to the throne she procured an appointment in the queen’s household about the year 1704. It was not long before Abigail Hill began to supplant her powerful and imperious kinswoman in the favour of Queen Anne. Whether she was guilty of the deliberate ingratitude charged against her by the duchess of Marlborough is uncertain. It is not unlikely that, in the first instance at all events, Abigail’s influence over the queen was not so much due to subtle scheming on her part as to the pleasing contrast between her gentle and genial character and the dictatorial temper of the duchess, which after many years of undisputed sway had at last become intolerable to Anne. The first intimation of her protégé’s growing favour with the queen came to the duchess in the summer of 1707, when she learned that Abigail Hill had been privately married to a gentleman of the queen’s household named Samuel Masham, and that the queen herself had been present at the marriage. Inquiry then elicited the information that Abigail had for some time enjoyed considerable intimacy with her royal mistress, no hint of which had previously reached the duchess. Abigail was said to be a cousin of Robert Harley, earl of Oxford, and after the latter’s dismissal from office in February 1708 she assisted him in maintaining confidential relations with the queen. The completeness of her ascendancy was seen in 1710 when the queen compelled Marlborough, much against his will, to give an important command to Colonel John Hill, Abigail’s brother; and when Sunderland, Godolphin, and the other Whig ministers were dismissed from office, largely owing to her influence, to make way for Oxford and Bolingbroke. In the following year the duchess of Marlborough was also dismissed from her appointment at court, Mrs Masham taking her place as keeper of the privy purse. In 1711 the ministers, intent on bringing about the disgrace of Marlborough and arranging the Peace of Utrecht, found it necessary to secure their position in the House of Lords by creating twelve new peers; one of these was Samuel Masham, the favourite’s husband, though Anne showed some reluctance to raise her bedchamber woman to a position in which she might show herself less ready to give her personal services to the queen. Lady Masham soon quarrelled with Oxford, and set herself to foster by all the means in her power the queen’s growing personal distaste for her minister. Oxford’s vacillation between the Jacobites and the adherents of the Hanoverian succession to the Crown probably strengthened the opposition of Lady Masham, who now warmly favoured the Jacobite party led by Bolingbroke and Atterbury. Altercations took place in the queen’s presence between Lady Masham and the minister; and finally, on the 27th of July 1714, Anne dismissed Oxford from his office of lord high treasurer, and three days later gave the staff to the duke of Shrewsbury. Anne diedon the 1st of August, and Lady Masham then retired into private life. She died on the 6th of December 1734.

Lady Masham was by no means the vulgar, ill-educated person she was represented to have been by her defeated rival, the duchess of Marlborough; her extant letters, showing not a little refinement of literary style, prove the reverse. Swift, with whom both she and her husband were intimate, describes Lady Masham as “a person of a plain sound understanding, of great truth and sincerity, without the least mixture of falsehood or disguise.” The barony of Masham became extinct when Lady Masham’s son, Samuel, the 2nd baron, died in June 1776.

Authorities.—Gilbert Burnet,History of My Own Time, vol. vi. (2nd ed., 6 vols., Oxford, 1833); F. W. Wyon,History of Great Britain during the Reign of Queen Anne(2 vols., London, 1876); Earl Stanhope,History of England, comprising the Reign of Queen Anne until the Peace of Utrecht(London, 1870), andHistory of England from the Peace of Utrecht, vol. i. (7 vols., London, 1836-1854); Justin McCarthy,The Reign of Queen Anne(2 vols., London, 1902);An Account of the Conduct of the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough from first coming to Court to 1710, edited by Nathaniel Hooke, with an anonymous reply entitledA Review of a Late Treatise(London, 1842);Private Correspondence of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough(2 vols., London, 1838);Letters of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough(London, 1875); Mrs Arthur Colville,Duchess Sarah(London, 1904). Numerous references to Lady Masham will also be found scattered through Swift’sWorks(2nd ed., 19 vols., Edinburgh, 1824).

(R. J. M.)

MASHAM, SAMUEL CUNLIFFE LISTER,1st Baron(1815-1906), English inventor, born at Calverley Hall, near Bradford, on the 1st of January 1815, was the fourth son of Ellis Cunliffe (1774-1853), who successively took the names of Lister and Lister-Kay, and was the first member of parliament elected for Bradford after the Reform Act of 1832. It was at first proposed that he should take orders, but he preferred a business career and became a clerk at Liverpool. In 1838 he and his elder brother John started as worsted spinners and manufacturers in a new mill which their father built for them at Manningham, and about five years later he turned his attention to the problem of mechanical wool-combing, which, in spite of the efforts of E. Cartwright and numerous other inventors, still awaited a satisfactory solution. Two years of hard work spent in modifying and improving existing devices enabled him to produce a machine which worked well, and subsequently he consolidated his position by buying up rival patents, as well as by taking out additional ones of his own. His combing machines came into such demand that though they were made for only £200 apiece he was able to sell them for £1200, and the saving they effected in the cost of production not only brought about a reduction in the price of clothing, but in consequence of the increase in the sales created the necessity for new supplies of wool, and thus contributed to the development of Australian sheep-farming. In 1855 he was sent a sample of silk waste (the refuse left in reeling silk from the cocoons) and asked whether he could find a way of utilizing the fibre it contained. The task occupied his time for many years and brought him to the verge of bankruptcy, but at last he succeeded in perfecting silk-combing appliances which enabled him to make yarn that in one year sold for 23s. a pound, though produced from raw material costing only 6d. or 1s. a pound. Another important and lucrative invention in connexion with silk manufacture was his velvet loom for piled fabrics; and this, with the silk comb worked at his Manningham mill, yielded him an annual income of £200,000 for many years. But the business was seriously affected by the prohibitory duties imposed by America, and this was one reason why he was an early and determined critic of the British policy of free imports. In 1891 he was made a peer; he took his title from the little Yorkshire town of Masham, close to which is Swinton Park, purchased by him in 1888. In 1886 an Albert medal was awarded him for his inventions, which were mostly related to the textile industries, though he occasionally diverged to other subjects, such as an air-brake for railways. He was fond of outdoor sports, especially coursing and shooting, and was a keen patron of the fine arts. He died at Swinton Park on the 2nd of February 1906, and was succeeded in the title by his son.

MASHONA, a Bantu-negro people, inhabitants of Mashonaland, Southern Rhodesia. The name Mashona has been derived from the contemptuous termAmashuinaapplied by the Matabele to the aborigines owing to the habit of the latter of taking refuge in the rocky hills with which the country abounds. Before the Matabele invasion about 1840 most of Southern Rhodesia was occupied by the Makalanga, the Makorikori and the Banyai, all closely related. Most of them became subject to the Matabele, but although they suffered severely from their attacks, the Mashona preserved a certain national unity. In 1890 the Mashona came under British protection (seeRhodesia). They are in general a peaceful, mild-mannered people, industrious and successful farmers, skilful potters, and weavers of bark cloth.

The crafts, however, in which they excel are the smelting and forging of iron and wood-carving. They are also great hunters; and they are very fond of music, the most usual instrument being the “piano” with iron keys. Bows and arrows, assegais and axes are the native weapons, but all who can get them now use guns. Up to their conquest by the Matabele the Mashona worked the gold diggings which are scattered over their country; indeed as late as 1870 certain Mashona were still extracting gold from quartz (Geog. Jour.April 1906).

For the possible connexion of these people with the builders of the ruins at Zimbabwe and elsewhere, seeRhodesia:Archaeology; andZimbabwe.

MASK(Fr.masque, apparently from med. Lat.mascus, masca, spectre, through Ital.maschera, Span.mascara), a covering for the face, taking various forms, used either as a protective screen or as a disguise. In the latter sense masks are mostly associated with the artificial faces worn by actors in dramatic representations, or assumed for exciting terror (e.g.in savage rites). The spelling “masque,” representing the same word, is now in English used more specially for certain varieties of drama in which masks were originally worn (seeDrama); so also “masquerade,” particularly in the sense of a masked ball or an entertainment where the personages arc disguised. Both “mask” and “masquerade” have naturally passed into figurative and technical meanings, the former especially for various senses of face and head (head of a fox, grotesque faces in sculpture), or as equivalent to “cloak” or “screen” (as in fortification or other military uses, fencing, &c.). And in the case of “death-masks” the term is employed for the portrait-casts, generally of plaster or metallic foil, taken from the face of a dead person (also similarly from the living), an ancient practice of considerable interest in art. An interesting collection made by Laurence Hutton (see hisPortraits in Plaster, 1894), is at Princeton University in the United States. (For the historical mystery of the “man in the iron mask,” seeIron Mask.)

The ancient Greek and Roman masks worn by their actors—hollow figures of heads—had the double object of identifying the performers with the characters assumed, and of increasing the power of the voice by means of metallic mouthpieces. They were derived like the drama from the rural religious festivities, the wearing of mock faces or beards being a primitive custom, connected no doubt with many early types of folk-lore and religion. The use of the dramatic mask was evolved in the later theatre through the mimes and the Italian popular comedy into pantomime; and the masquerade similarly came from Italy, where thedominowas introduced from Venice. Thedomino(originally apparently an ecclesiastical garment) was a loose cloak with a small half-mask worn at masquerades and costume-balls by persons not otherwise dressed in character; and the word is applied also to the person wearing it.

See generally Altmann,Die Masken der Schauspieler(1875; new ed., 1896); and Dale,Masks, Labrets and Certain Aboriginal Customs(1885); alsoDrama.

MASKELYNE, NEVIL(1732-1811), English astronomer-royal, was born in London on the 6th of October 1732. Thesolar eclipse of 1748 made a deep impression upon him; and having graduated as seventh wrangler from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1754, he determined to devote himself wholly to astronomy. He became intimate with James Bradley in 1755, and in 1761 was deputed by the Royal Society to make observations of the transit of Venus at St Helena. During the voyage he experimented upon the determination of longitude by lunar distances, and ultimately effected the introduction of the method into navigation (q.v.). In 1765 he succeeded Nathaniel Bliss as astronomer-royal. Having energetically discharged the duties of his office during forty-six years, he died on the 9th of February 1811.

Maskelyne’s first contribution to astronomical literature was “A Proposal for Discovering the Annual Parallax of Sirius,” published in 1760 (Phil. Trans.li. 889). Subsequent volumes of the same series contained his observations of the transits of Venus (1761 and 1769), on the tides at St Helena (1762), and on various astronomical phenomena at St Helena (1764) and at Barbados (1764). In 1763 he published theBritish Mariner’s Guide, which includes the suggestion that in order to facilitate the finding of longitude at sea lunar distances should be calculated beforehand for each year and published in a form accessible to navigators. This important proposal, the germ of theNautical Almanac, was approved of by the government, and under the care of Maskelyne theNautical Almanacfor 1767 was published in 1766. He continued during the remainder of his life the superintendence of this invaluable annual. He further induced the government to print his observations annually, thereby securing the prompt dissemination of a large mass of data inestimable from their continuity and accuracy. Maskelyne had but one assistant, yet the work of the observatory was perfectly organized and methodically executed. He introduced several practical improvements, such as the measurement of time to tenths of a second; and he prevailed upon the government to replace Bird’s mural quadrant by a repeating circle 6 ft. in diameter. The new instrument was constructed by E. Troughton; but Maskelyne did not live to see it completed. In 1772 he suggested to the Royal Society the famous Schehallion experiment for the determination of the earth’s density and carried out his plan in 1774 (Phil. Trans.1. 495), the apparent difference of latitude between two stations on opposite sides of the mountain being compared with the real difference of latitude obtained by triangulation. From Maskelyne’s observations Charles Hutton deduced a density for the earth 4.5 times that of water (ib. lxviii. 782). Maskelyne also took a great interest in various geodetical operations, notably the measurement of the length of a degree of latitude in Maryland and Pennsylvania (ibid. lviii. 323), executed by Mason and Dixon in 1766-1768, and later the determination of the relative longitude of Greenwich and Paris (ib. lxxvii. 151). On the French side the work was conducted by Count Cassini, Legendre, and Méchain; on the English side by General Roy. This triangulation was the beginning of the great trigonometrical survey which has since been extended all over the country. His observations appeared in four large folio volumes (1776-1811). Some of them were reprinted in S. Vince’sAstronomy(vol. iii.).

(A. M. C.)

MASOLINO DA PANICALE(1383-c.1445), Florentine painter, was said to have been born at Panicale di Valdelsa, near Florence. It is more probable, however, that he was born in Florence itself, his father, Cristoforo Fini, who was an “imbiancatore,” or whitewasher, having been domiciled in the Florentine quarter of S. Croce. There is reason to believe that Tommaso, nicknamed Masolino, was a pupil of the painter Starnina, and was principally influenced in style by Antonio Veneziano; he may probably enough have become in the sequel the master of Masaccio. He was born in 1383; he died later than 1429, perhaps as late as 1440 or even 1447. Towards 1423 he entered the service of Filippo Scolari, the Florentine-bornobergespannof Temeswar in Hungary, and stayed some time in that country, returning towards 1427 to Italy. The only works which can with certainty be assigned to him are a series of wall paintings executed towards 1428, commissioned by Cardinal Branda Castiglione, in the church of Castiglione d’Olona, not far from Milan, and another series in the adjoining baptistery. The first set is signed as painted by “Masolinus de Florentia.” It was recovered in 1843 from a coating of whitewash, considerably damaged; its subject matter is taken from the lives of the Virgin and of SS Lawrence and Stephen. The series in the baptistery relates to the life and death of John the Baptist. The reputation of Masolino had previously rested almost entirely upon the considerable share which he was supposed to have had in the celebrated frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel, in the Church of the Carmine in Florence; he was regarded as the precursor of Masaccio, and by many years the predecessor of Filippino Lippi, in the execution of a large proportion of these works. But from a comparison of the Castiglione with the Brancacci frescoes, and from other data, it is very doubtful whether Masolino had any hand at all in the latter series. Possibly he painted in the Brancacci Chapel certain specified subjects which are now either destroyed or worked over. Several paintings assigned to Masolino on the authority of Vasari are now ascribed to Masaccio.

(W. M. R.)

MASON, FRANCIS(1799-1874), American missionary, was born in York, England, on the 2nd of April 1799. His grandfather, Francis Mason, was the founder of the Baptist Society in York, and his father, a shoemaker by trade, was a Baptist lay preacher there. After working with his father as a shoemaker for several years, he emigrated in 1818 to the United States, and in Massachusetts was licensed to preach as a Baptist in 1827. In 1830 he was sent by the American Baptist Missionary Convention to labour among the Karens in Burma. Besides conducting a training college for native preachers and teachers at Tavoy, he translated the Bible into the two principal dialects of the Karens, the Sgaw and the Pwo (his translation being published in 1853), and Matthew, Genesis, and the Psalms into the Bghai dialect. He also publishedA Pali Grammar on the Basis of Kachchayano, with Chrestomathy and Vocabulary(1868). In 1852 he published a book of great value on the fauna and flora of British Burma, of which an improved edition appeared in 1860 under the titleBurmah, its People and Natural Productions, and a third edition (2 vols.) revised and enlarged by W. Theobald in 1882-1883. He died at Rangoon on the 3rd of March 1874.

Back to Index Next