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MACASSAR

1130

MACCABEES

Otis, placed in command of the army and made military governor. In February, 1901, he was promoted to major-general in the regular army and in time appointed assistant chief-of-staff. In 1906 he was promoted to lieutenant-general, and became ranking officer of the army of the United States.

Macassar (md-kds''ser), a strait about 400 miles long and from 100 to 200 wide, connects the Java and Celebes Seas, and separates Celebes from Java.

Macaula^ (md-ka'U), Thomas Babing=» ton, Lord, a great English historian and

essayist and the most pictorial prose-writer in English 1 i t e r a-ture, was born in Rothley, Leicestershire, Oct. 25, 1800. At 18 he entered Trinity College, C a m -bridge. His university career was very brilliant, in spite of his dislike to mathematics. Macaulay was admitted to the bar soon after graduation; but his love of literature was so great that he made no effort to secure a oractice. At 25 he published an essay on Milton in the Edinburgh Review, which at once placed him in the highest rank of literature, and for nearly 20 years he continued to be one of the principal writers for that magazine. In 1830 MacauUi/y entered parliament, where his powers as a debater and orator proved fully equal to his talent as a writer. In 1834 he accepted the position of legal adviser to the supreme council of India, at $50,000 a year. He remained four years, during which he wrote his essays on Bacon and Sir James Mackintosh. Macaulay was elected to parliament from Edinburgh the year after his return from India, and during his few years in public life greatly increased the fame he had previously won. In 1848 appeared the first two volumes of his great work — History of England from the Accession of James II. The popularity of this book was greater, perhaps, than was ever secured by any history. The third and fourth volumes appeared in 1855, and were received with the greatest favor and enthusiasm, both in England and America. In 1857 Macaulay was made a peer of the realm under the title of Baron Macaulay of Rothley. In the same year he was elected a foreign associate of the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. He died on Dec. 28, 1859, and was buried

LORD MACAULAY

in  Westminster   Abbey. See  Life   and Letters by Trevelyan

Macbeth', a Scottish king, whose name has been immortalized by Shakespeare in his matchless play of Macbeth. In 1040 he slew Duncan, king of Scotia, and succeeded him. His 17 years' reign is described in the chronicles as a time of plenty. Alone of ^cottish kings he made a pilgrimage to Rome (1050), where he gave very large alms to the poor. In 1057 Malcolm Duncan, who had fled to England after the murder of his father, returned to Scotland, and, marching a hostile force against Macbeth, defeated and killed him at the battle of Lumphanan, after which Malcolm was proclaimed king.

Macbeth, one of Shakespeare's most important tragedies, probably was written in 1605. It was acted as early as 1611 and published in 1623. King James I came to the throne two years before Macbeth was written, and possibly a desire to win court-favor influenced Shakespeare in producing this tragedy. A Scottish theme was admirable for this purpose. As a source for the plot Holinshed's Chronicle of Scottish History was used together with other Scottish sources. Banquo was a direct ancestor of James I, and he accordingly was portrayed in such a way as to arouse sympathy. Other touches in the play perhaps are attempts to please King James. The characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are skilfully depicted and their crimes and subsequent downfall appear as the necessary outcome of their devotion to the god of ambition. There is much evidence of interpolation and mutilation in the text. Macbeth is the shortest of Shakespeare's plays, and the action is swift and bold. The supernatural element in the play may be an indirect compliment to King James' belief in witches. At any rate it is effectively most used. In this play Shakespeare has relieved the heavy tragic parts by light comedy in a most adroit way. Lee, one of Shakespeare's biographers, justly says that this play ranks with the noblest tragedies, either of the modern or ancient world

Maccabasus, Judas, i2th of the English oratorios by Handel. Words by Doctor Morrell. First performance at Covent Garden, April i, 1747. The chorus, See the, Conquering Hero Comes, is incorporated in this work, which is one of the most brilliant and popular of Handel's oratorios.

Maccabees (mak'kd-bez), the name assumed by the patriotic Hebrew Mattathias (and his descendants), who first resisted the persecutions inflicted upon the Jewish people by the Syrian king, Antiochus Epi-phanes (175—164 B. C.)- Mattathias had retired with his five sons, at the beginning of these troubles, to a small place called Modin, between Jerusalem and Joppa, to mourn over the desolation of the city and