Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3a.pdf/507

MOU through the body by Hill; he died next day. Hill escaped; and when tried by his peers, Mohun was acquitted on the charge of murder.—F. E.  MOURAD. See.  MOURAVIEFF,, a Russian writer, was born at Smolensk in 1757, and at the age of seventeen entered the imperial guard. His intellectual accomplishments, however, made the czarina choose him as tutor of her grandsons, Alexander and Constantine, for whose benefit he wrote several moral treatises, which are considered models in Russian literature. His subsequent career was one of advancement and prosperity. As curator of Moscow university he enjoyed deserved popularity. He died at St. Petersburg in 1807.—R. H.  * MOURAVIEFF,, General, a distinguished member of an illustrious Russian family, was born at Moscow in 1793, and entered the army of the Caucasus in 1810. In 1819 he was sent by General Yermoloff on a mission to Persia, of which he has published an account. In the Persian war of 1828 he served as major-general, and signalized himself before Kars and before Kalila. In 1830 he commanded the grenadiers of Lithuania in the Polish campaign, and by his conduct at the battle of Kazimiez earned his promotion to the rank of lieutenant-general. At the taking of Warsaw he commanded the right wing of the Russian army. His next public service was rendered in the character of a diplomatist in certain negotiations with Mehemet Ali in 1832, after which he again held various important military posts. In 1838 he incurred the displeasure of his imperious master the Czar Nicolas. Although a man of singular capacity and extensive knowledge. General Mouravieff is not a good courtier. He is said to have been so maladroit as to out-manœuvre the emperor in a sham campaign at Peterhof—an unpardonable offence in the eyes of that monarch. For a time the general acted as governor of Novgorod, but on the breaking out of the Crimean war his military talents were once more in request, and he returned to the scenes of former glory. His siege of Kars has been well described by more than one of the gallant English defenders of that citadel.—(See Sandwith's Kars; Williams' Siege of Kars; Lake's Kars, &c.)—R. H.  MOVERS,, a distinguished German linguist and antiquary, was born at Coesfeld, Westphalia, July 17, 1806. Having been trained for the Roman catholic church he successively held some livings in the vicinity of Cologne till in 1839 he was called to a chair in the Roman catholic faculty of Breslau, where he died September 28, 1856. The results of his researches were published in his excellent works on the Phœnicians, 2 vols.; and on Phœnician Texts, 2 vols.—K. E.  MOXON,, the Dodsley, as he has been called, of the last generation of London publishers, was a native of Wakefield, in Yorkshire, and was born about 1800 probably. His love of books induced his father to apprentice him to an eminent publishing house in the metropolis, and before his apprenticeship had expired he rushed into print. About 1824 he made the acquaintance of Charles Lamb, whose ward, Miss Isola, he married, and whose publisher he became. Moxon was a poet, as well as a publisher. His "Prospect, and other Poems" appeared in 1826, a volume of sonnets in 1830, and another so late as 1835. A dedication introduced him to the banker-poet Rogers, who aided him to establish himself in business, and gave him his illustrated Italy to publish. As a publisher Moxon was select, and the issue of the works of the elder D'Israeli, Charles Lamb, Leigh Hunt, Wordsworth, Barry Cornwall, Talfourd, and Tennyson, gave him a high position. He died in June, 1858.—F. E.  MOYLE,, a miscellaneous writer, was born in 1672, of a good Cornish family. Educated at Oxford, he studied for the bar in London, and mixed with literary society. As member for the Cornish borough of Saltash, he sat for some time in the house of commons, and then retired to his seat in Cornwall to devote himself to study. His "Remains" were collected in two volumes in 1721; and the pieces which he had published in his lifetime were reprinted in an additional volume in 1727, with a memoir by his friend Anthony Hammond (q.v.). Moyle's works include a translation of Xenophon's disquisition on the Athenian revenue, translations from Lucian, and an essay on the thundering legion, of which he took a sceptical view.—F. E.  MOYREAU,, a celebrated French engraver, was born at Orleans in 1692. He executed a large number of plates, including a Lion Hunt, after Rubens; Rebecca receiving Abraham's Presents, after P. Veronese; and several others after Rembrandt, Breughel, Claude, Bon Boulogne, Watteau, &c.; but is perhaps best known by his series of eighty-nine plates of the works of Ph. Wouvermans—a series of very unequal merit. Moyreau was nominated member of the French Academy in 1736, and died at Paris in 1762.—J. T—e. <section end="507H" /> <section begin="507I" />MOYSES,, the author of a well-known historical work, was a native of Lanark in Scotland, and was born in 1573. At an early age he obtained the situation of page in the household of King James, whom he accompanied to England. He died, however, in his native country in 1630. He left behind him a MS. diary of the events which took place at court during his residence there, which was published at Edinburgh in 1753, under the title of "Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland from 1577 to 1603, with a discourse on the Gowrie conspiracy."—J. T. <section end="507I" /> <section begin="507Zcontin" />MOZART,, a musician, father of the illustrious composer, was born at Augsburg, November 14, 1719, and died at Saltzburg, May 28, 1787. He was the youngest son of a bookbinder, who had married the widow of a member of his own trade; and his brothers being trained to the business of their father, he was taught music as a means of livelihood, and gained his subsistence for a while by playing the violin at dancing parties. He was ambitious from the first of improving his social position; and feeling that he could only effect this object by means of moral conduct and intellectual cultivation, he early adopted the rigid rule of life from which nothing ever tempted him to deviate. He went to Saltzburg, and there studied jurisprudence; but being unable to obtain any employment in this profession, he engaged himself as valet to Count von Thurn, in whose service he had opportunity to develope his musical talent. This was observed by the prince-archbishop of Saltzburg, who in 1743 appointed him one of his court musicians; subsequently gave him the office of principal violinist and composer in his chapel; and finally, in 1762, made him his vice-kapellmeister. In November, 1747, he married Maria Anna Pertlin, and the bridal pair were counted the handsomest couple in Saltzburg. They had seven children, of whom only two survived their infancy. One of these, Maria Anna (the "Nannerl" to whom her brother addressed, under this pet name, countless loving letters), was born in August 29, 1751; wits the companion of this brother's early studies and first journeys; subsequently became a most esteemed pianoforte teacher at Saltzburg; then married an officer of the court, at whose death she returned to her profession; and died at an advanced age, totally blind. Leopold Mozart's travels with his son are recounted in the notice of this master's career; he retained his engagement under a change of archbishops in 1772, and his new patron, wholly wanting in the liberal spirit of the first, complained so severely of his long absences from his duties, that he was obliged to forego the satisfaction of accompanying his son, and remain in the fulfilment of his office. He was a devout but quite unbigoted Roman catholic; he considered the prodigious genius of his son to be a miraculous manifestation of the power of the Creator; and he felt it a religious duty to foster and develope this genius, and to bring it to the knowledge of the world. To his admirable technical training, and scarcely-less to his excellent moral culture, may mainly be ascribed the transcendant greatness of his son, whose preeminent powers might, but for the father's care, have remained undeveloped; and this alone is enough to command for Leopold Mozart the veneration of all musicians. His detestation of vulgar manners made him hold aloof from associates of his own rank, while persons in a superior station equally disdained to make him their companion; and thus his familiar circle was extremely circumscribed, and comprised only those whose society was a constant good example to his children. His services to the archbishop were ill paid, but very arduous. He had to write music for all public occasions in the cathedral, in the palace, and in the town; he left in MS. twelve oratorios and many minor pieces of sacred music, thirty symphonies, a vast number of pantomimes, marches, and dances; some operas are also ascribed to him, but it seems incorrectly. His only published music consists of six trios for string instruments, and twelve pieces for the harpsichord. His compositions are described by Schubart as antiquated in style, but profound, and rich in contrapuntal contrivance. He was well esteemed as a violinist, and his instruction-book for his instrument, "Versuch einer gründlichen Violin-schule," is pronounced by most competent judges to be the best work for its purpose of the time when it was produced. It was first published in the year of his son's birth, twice reprinted <section end="507Zcontin" />