applause.--_Dictionary of Musicians._

=Meagles= (_Mr._), an eminently "practical man," who, being well off,
travelled over the world for pleasure. His party consisted of himself,
his daughter Pet, and his daughter's servant called Tatty-coram. A jolly
man was Mr. Meagles; but clear-headed, shrewd, and persevering.

_Mrs. Meagles_, wife of the "practical man," and mother of Pet.--C.
Dickens, _Little Dorrit_ (1857).

=Meal-Tub Plot=, a fictitious conspiracy concocted by Dangerfield for the
purpose of cutting off those who opposed the succession of James, duke
of York, afterwards James II. The scheme was concealed in a meal-tub in
the house of Mrs. Cellier (1685).

=Measure for Measure.= There was a law in Vienna that made it death for a
man to live with a woman not his wife; but the law was so little
enforced that the mothers of Vienna complained to the duke of its
neglect. So the duke deputed Angelo to enforce it, and, assuming the
dress of a friar, absented himself awhile, to watch the result. Scarcely
was the duke gone, when Claudio was sentenced to death for violating
the law. His sister Isabel went to intercede on his behalf, and Angelo
told her he would spare her brother if she would give herself to him.
Isabel told her brother he must prepare to die, as the conditions
proposed by Angelo were out of the question. The duke, disguised as a
friar, heard the whole story, and persuaded Isabel to "assent in words,"
but to send Mariana (the divorced wife of Angelo), to take her place.
This was done; but Angelo sent the provost to behead Claudio, a crime
which "the friar" contrived to avert. Next day, the duke returned to the
city, and Isabel told her tale. The end was, the duke married Isabel,
Angelo took back his wife, and Claudio married Juliet, whom he had
seduced.--Shakespeare, _Measure for Measure_ (1603).

[Asterism] This story is from Whetstone's _Heptameron_ (1578). A similar
story is given also in Giraldi Cinthio's third decade of stories.

=Medam'othi=, the island at which the fleet of Pantag'ruel landed on the
fourth day of their voyage. Here many choice curiosities were bought,
such as "the picture of a man's voice," an "echo drawn to life,"
"Plato's ideas," some of "Epicurus's atoms," a sample of "Philome'la's
needlework," and other objects of _vertu_ to be obtained nowhere
else.--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, iv. 3 (1545).

[Asterism] _Medamothi_ is a compound Greek word, meaning "never in any
plac