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 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 In 1693 he edited the third book, hitherto unpublished, of Sir Thomas Urquhart’s translation of Rabelais, and in the next year printed the first and second books of Urquhart’s translation.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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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