Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/566

Rh 538 M A K M A K consists of two portions united by a low and narrow isthmus, is generally mountainous, and attains its greatest elevation of 4630 feet in Mont Macanao. The pearls from which Margarita takes its name, and which proved a con siderable source of wealth in the 16th and 17th centuries, are no longer sought after ; but the ordinary fisheries are actively prosecuted, and since the War of Independence, agriculture, trade, and industry have all greatly improved. Pompatar is the only harbour, Pueblo del Norte and Pueblo de la Mar being rather open roadsteads. Asuncion, the chief town, contains about 3000 inhabitants. The popula tion of the island was 16,200 in 1807 (about 8000 being whites), and that of the state 30,983 in 1873. Discovered by Columbus in 1498, Margarita was in 1524 bestowed by Charles V. on Marceto Villalobos. la 1561 it was ravaged by Lopez de Aguirre, a notorious freebooter, and in 1662 the town of 1 ompatar was destroyed by the Dutch. Long included in the government of Cumana, Margarita attained administrative inde pendence only in the 18th century. In the War of Independence the inhabitants made an effective stand against Murillo ; and to this they owe the honour of having their island erected into the state of New Sparta. MARGARITA, ST, virgin and martyr, is celebrated by the Church of Rome on July 20, but her feast formerly fell on the 13th, and her story is almost identical, even in the proper names, with that of the Greek St Marina (July 17). She was of Antioch (in the Greek story Antioch of Pisidia), daughter of a priest JEdesius. She lived in the country with a foster mother, scorned by her father for her Christian faith, and keeping sheep. Olybrius the &quot; presses (Mentis &quot; sees her and offers his hand as the price of renunciation of Christianity. Her refusal leads to her being cruelly tortured, and after various miraculous in cidents, in which a heavenly dove plays a prominent part, she is put to death. Women prayed to St Margarita for easy deliverance. It has been shown by H. Usener (Legenden der heiligen Pelagia, Bonn, 1879) that this legend belongs to a group of curious narratives which all have their root in a transformation of the Semitic Aphrodite into a Christian penitent or saint. Of these legends that of ST PELAGIA (q.v.) is perhaps the most important. Marina is a translation of Pelagia, and both are epithets of Aphrodite as she was worshipped on the coasts of the Levant. Pelagia in the legend has Margarito as her second name. The association of the marine goddess with the pearl is obvious, and the images of Aphrodite were decked with these jewels. MARGATE, a municipal borough, market-town, and watering-place of Kent, England, is situated in the Isle of Thanet, 4 miles west of North Foreland, and by rail 90 miles east of London, with which it has also in summer daily steam communication by water. The streets of the town are regular and spacious, and there are many good villas in the suburbs. There is a marine terrace 2500 feet in length, parallel to which there is an esplanade. The pier, 900 feet long, was constructed by Rennie in 1810. A land ing-place permitting the approach of vessels at all tides was constructed in 1854, and enlarged in 1876. The church of St John the Baptist, founded in 1050, contains some portions of Norman architecture, the remainder being Decorated and Late Perpendicular. It possesses several fine brasses and monuments. Among the other public buildings are the new town-hall, the market, the assembly rooms, the deaf and dumb asylum, and the royal sea-bathing infirmary, which has lately been much enlarged through the munificence of Sir Erasmus Wilson. The old name of Margate was Mereyate, the entrance to the sea. Previous to the last century it was only a fishing village with a small coasting trade, but since then, owing principally to its fine stretch of sand, it has been steadily rising into favour as a watering-place, and is now one of the most favourite resorts of the middle classes of London. It received municipal privileges in 1857. The population of the municipal borough (384 acres) in 1871 was 11,995, and in 1881 it was 15,889. MARGHILAN, Baber s MARGHINAN, 40 28 N. lat., 71 45 E. long., now the administrative centre of the Russian province of FERGHANA (q.v.), a very old town, with high earthen walls and twelve gates, commanded by the fort of Yar Mazar, lies in a beautiful and extra ordinarily fertile district of the same name, irrigated by canals from the Shahimardan river. The heat in summer is excessive. Population about 40,000, chiefly Usbeg. The principal industry is the production and manufacture of silk ; camels hair and woollen fabrics are also made. The new Russian town, planned by General Skobeleff, is 15 versts distant. MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. The name Marguerite was common in the Valois dynasty, and during the 1 6th century there were three princesses, all of whom figure in the political as well as in the literary history of the time, and who have been not unfrequently confounded. The first and last are the most important, but all deserve some account. I. MARGUERITE D ANGOULEME (1492-1549). This, the most celebrated of the Marguerites, bore no less than four surnames. By family she was entitled to the name of Marguerite de Valois ; as the daughter of the Count d Angouleme she is more properly and by careful writers almost invariably called Marguerite d Angouleme. From her first husband she took during no small part of her life the appellation Marguerite d Alengon, and from her second, Henri d Albret, king of Navarre, that of Marguerite de Navarre. She was born at Angouleme on the 12th April 1492, and was two years older than her brother Francis I. She was betrothed early to Charles, Duke d Alengon, and married him in 1509. She was not very fortunate in this first marriage, but her brother s accession to the throne made her, with their mother Louise of Savoy, the most powerful woman of the kingdom. She became a widow in 1525, and was sought in marriage by many persons of distinction, including, it is said, Charles V. and Henry VIII. In 1527 she married Henri d Albret, titular king of Navarre, who was considerably younger than herself, and whose character was not faultless, but who seems on the whole, despite slander, to have both loved and valued his wife. Navarre was not reconquered for the couple as Francis had promised, but ample apanages were assigned to Marguerite, and at Nerac and Pau miniature courts were kept up, which yielded to none in Europe in the intellectual brilliancy of their frequenters. Marguerite was at once one of the chief patronesses of letters that France possessed, and the chief refuge and defender of advocates of the Reformed doctrines. Round her gathered Marot, Bonaven- ture Desperiers, Denisot, Peletier, Brodeau, and many other men of letters, while she protected Rabelais, Dolet, &c. For a time her influence with her brother was effectual, but latterly political rather than religious considerations made him discourage Lutheranism, and a fierce persecution was begun against both Protestants and freethinkers, a persecu tion which drove Desperiers to suicide and brought Dolet to the stake. Marguerite herself, however, was protected by her brother, and her personal inclinations seem to have been rather towards a mystical pietism than towards dogmatic Protestant sentiments. Nevertheless bigotry and the desire to tarnish the reputation of women of letters have led to the bringing of odious accusations against her character, for which there is not the smallest foundation. Marguerite died in 1549, By her first husband she had no children, by her second a son who died in infancy, and a daughter, Jeanne d Albret, who became the mother of Henry IV. Although the poets of the time are unwearied