more care than those of the other unfortunate beings who inhabited this sad abode. He was not permitted to cross the courts, and he could not take off his mask even before his physician. In other respects, the greatest attention was shown him, and nothing which he requested was refused him. He was fond of fine linen and lace, and was very attentive to his whole personal appearance. His education appeared to have been carefully attended to; and he amused his leisure by reading, and playing upon the guitar. The physician of the Bastile related that this unknown person was admirably formed, and that he had a very fine skin, although rather brown. He interested by the mere sound of his voice, never complaining of his situation, and never giving any hint of his character. This unknown person died Nov. 19, 1703, at ten o'clock in the evening, without having undergone any severe sickness. He was buried the next day, at four o'clock in the afternoon, in the cemetery of the church of St. Paul. He was, it is said, about 60 years of age, although the record of his decease, in which he is mentioned under the name of Marthioli, makes him only about 45. Orders were given to burn every thing which had been employed in his service. The walls of the chamber which he had occupied were rubbed down and whitewashed. The precautions were carried so far, that the tiles of his room were removed, in the fear that he might have displaced some of them, to conceal a letter behind them. Voltaire, from whom the greater part of these particulars is borrowed, remarks, that at the period when the prisoner was confined, no person of importance disappeared from Europe; and yet it cannot be doubted that he must have been one. The marks of respect which Louvois showed him, prove this sufficiently. Conjecture has exhausted itself to discover who this mysterious personage might be. Laborde, first valet de chambre of Louis XV, and who had received from this prince many proofs of confidence, showed a desire to discover him. The king replied, "I pity him, but his detention injures only himself, and has prevented great misfortunes; you cannot know him." The king himself had not learned the history of the iron mask till his majority, and he never intrusted it to any one. The author of Secret Memoirs, to serve for the History of Persia (Pecquet), is the first writer who has attempted to raise the veil which covers the unknown prisoner. In this book, published in 1745, he pretends that

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it is the count of Vermandois, who was arrested, it was said, for having given a blow to the dauphin; but it is known that the count of Vermandois died in 1683, at the siege of Courtrai. Lagrange Chancel, in a letter to Fréron, attempts to prove that the prisoner is the duke of Beaufort, and that he was falsely reported to have been killed at the siege of Candia. Saint Foix, in 1768, wished to prove, in his turn, that it was the duke of Monmouth, who was said to have been beheaded at London, but who had been withdrawn from punishment. Le P. Griffet, who held the office of confessor to the prisoners of the Bastile, from Dec. 3, 1745, to 1764, has examined these different opinions in the Treatise upon the Proofs which serve to establish the Truth of History, chap. xiv; and he adds that all the probabilities are in favor of the count of Vermandois. Voltaire has proved (Philosoph. Dict., art. Ana, Anecdotes) that the unknown prisoner could be no one of the personages just mentioned, but does not declare who he was. "The writer of this article," adds he, “knows, perhaps, more of him than P. Griffet, and will not say more of him." Voltaire, doubtless, knew that the report was spread that the prisoner was a count Girolamo Magni, or Mattioli, first minister of the duke of Mantua, who had been removed from Turin in 1685, or rather 1679, by order of the cabinet of Versailles, because it was feared that his dexterity might defeat the negotiations entered into with the court of Piedmont. Delort, Hist. du Masque de Fer, published at Paris 1825, likewise maintains this opinion. Dutens, nevertheless, reproduced it in 1789, in his Intercepted Correspondence, Lett. 6, and again in 1806, in the Memoirs of a Traveller in Repose, vol. ii, p. 204— 210; and two other writers, in 1801 and 1802, endeavored to establish this opinion, with a great array of evidence. The abbé Soulavie, editor of the Memoirs of the Marshal de Richelieu, inserted in them, vol. iii, p. 75, a History of the Iron Mask, written by his Keeper. This account was said to have been given by the regent to his daughter, who communicated it to the marshal. According to this account, the Iron Mask was a twin brother of Louis XIV. Before the birth of this prince, two herdsmen announced to Louis XIII, that the queen would give birth to two dauphins, who would occasion a civil war, which would convulse the whole kingdom; and this prince immediately formed the resolution of removing him who should be born second,

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in order to prevent these troubles. The opinion entertained by a certain party, that the unknown prisoner was the offspring of a criminal intercourse between the queen and the duke of Buckingham, has been sufficiently disproved. At the time of the destruction of the Bastile, in July, 1789, there were not wanting curious persons, who sought, in the archives of this fortress, to discover some notices which might throw light upon this historical problem. In the last number of the journal entitled Leisure Hours of a French Patriot, p. 386, dated August 13, 1789, is mentioned a note written upon a card, which a man, inspecting the Bastile, took up at random, with several papers. The card contains the number 64,389,000, an unintelligible cipher, and the following note-" Foucquet, arriving from the isle of Marguerite, with an iron mask." Afterwards X... X... X..., and below "Kersadwin." The journalist declares that he has seen this card. The romance of M. Regnault Warin, entitled The Man with the Iron Mask (in 4 vols., 12mo., published in 1804, and the fourth edition of which appeared in 1816), is preceded by a dissertation of twenty-eight pages, in which the author endeavors to prove that this mysterious personage was the son of Buckingham and Anne of Austria. He goes so far as to give the portrait of the prisoner. The Mélanges d'Histoire et de Litérature (Paris, 1817, 8vo.) contains a Dissertation upon the Man in the Iron Mask, p. 77-156, in which the various hypotheses are judiciously discussed, even that of the chevalier de Taules, French consul in Syria, in the year 1771, who, in a memoir (published in Paris 1825), seeks to prove that the man in the iron mask was a patriarch of the Armenians, named Awediks, removed from Constantinople at the instigation of the Jesuits, several years after the death of cardinal Mazarin. He has no difficulty in refuting this fable, and finishes by saying-“After an impartial investigation, and having weighed all the circumstances, I cannot doubt that he was the son of Anne of Austria, but without being able to determine at what period he was born." It has also been maintained that this prisoner was don John of Gonzaga, natural brother of Charles Ferdinand, duke of Mantua. A letter of Barbesieux, of Nov. 17, 1697, in which he says to Saint Mars" without explaining yourself to any one whatsoever with regard to what your ancie prisoner has done,”- -seems

to overturn all the hypotheses, accord

ing to which this unhappy man owed his misfortune only to the accident of his birth.

An

MASKS, OF LARVÆ (q. v.), were used in the most ancient times, particularly in the processions and ceremonies attending the orgies of Bacchus. As there were in the ceremonies three degrees, those of Satyrs, Sileni and the bearded Bacchus, so each degree had its peculiar and characteristic mask. These are often found represented on ancient vases. On account of this religious signification, it is not strange that they were used in connexion with the Phallus, the symbol of fruitfulness, as an effectual defence against witchcraft. old writer explains the power of the mask to protect against enchantment, in this way: that its ridiculous distortion, drawing upon itself the pernicious glance of the sorcerer, averts it from the person for whom it was intended. It was natural that the Greeks, whose highest aim was beauty, should elevate the character of the mask; thus, at length, there sprung from this fashion of misshapen masks the more pleasing Sileni and Satyr masks, and other sportive fancies of artists, which, in time, produced the grotesque and arabesque, As the origin of Grecian tragedy was closely connected with the worship of Bacchus, masks were used in it, even in the beginning. Who first introduced them into comedy is unknown. shall err if we consider the Grecian and Roman masks exactly like those of the modern Italian: these latter only cover the face; the former were a covering for the whole head, and represented, with the features, the head, hair and eyes. They were, at first, made of the bark of trees, then of leather, afterwards of wood, which the artist fashioned according to the design of the poet. Tragic masks were distinguished by great, open mouths, and a frightful appearance; comic, by a laughing countenance: there were, also, Satyr masks and orchestric, or those with regular features, for dancers. They had mostly very large, open mouths, within which were metallic bars, or other sounding bodies, to strengthen the voice of the speaker-a contrivance which was required by the construction and immense size of the old theatres. Many critics (so called), ignorant of the peculiarities of the Grecian stage, are unsparing in their censures of the ancients for the introduction of masks into their plays, because, say they, all imitation of nature, and even the flexibility of voice necessary for the expression of passion, were thus rendered

We

impracticable. They do not remember, that the tragic imitation of the ancients aimed at the highest dignity and grace, that is, was ideal, and the close representation of individual character, in which the moderns are accustomed to place the chief merit of the actor, would have seemed to them the last thing to be admitted in their tragic theatre. "The Greeks preferred beauty to liveliness of representation. The introduction of the mask was, on account of this feeling, not merely allowable, but essential, as they would have considered it little less than profanation for an actor, with common, ignoble features, bearing the stamp of his individual character, to have played Apollo or Hercules." To this may be added, that, from the colossal size of the Grecian theatres, the minute imitation of nature, in tone and countenance, which the moderns applaud, would have been lost. As the Roman theatre was, in almost all its parts, formed upon the Grecian, it differed little in the use of the mask. The work of Francesco de' Ficoroni, upon the stage masks and comic personages of ancient Rome, is instructive and highly interesting, from the copper-plate illustrations. The Italian popular theatre, called Commedia dell' Arte, which has a close resemblance to the old Roman mime and pantomime, still retains the use of the mask; for these drolleries of the old Roman stage, requiring no particular learning, or high cultivation, continued even under the government of the barbarians. As early as the twelfth century, when Irnerius established a new school of law in Bologna, we find the Bolognese doctor, also called Gratiano. He has a mask with a black nose and forehead, and red cheeks; his character is that of a pedantic and tedious proser. The Pantalone came upon the stage about the end of the fourteenth century. His part is that of the father; he represents a rich Venetian trader; his dress was, formerly, the zimarra, a sort of mantle with short sleeves and a small collar. This garment was worn by Venetian traders in their shops, and is still worn by lawyers. It was likewise a part of the costume of Pantalone, that the breeches and stockings should be in one piece; hence the origin of the name pantaloons. They were, in the old costume, always red, and the zimarra always black. When the republic of Venice lost the kingdom of Negropont to the Turks, the fashion of the under dress was changed from red to black, as a sign of mourning, and has remained the same since. In the

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mask there was nothing unusual; the beard was still worn, and the representation was that of a common old merchant. The beard of the new Pantalone mask is different: it passes round under the chin, and terminates at a point in the middle. The vest was lengthened, and the full pantaloons were tightened at the knee. The zimarra and slippers remained the same. The character of Pantalone is usually that of a good-natured simple old man. He is generally in love, and is continually imposed upon by a rival, son, or servant. In modern times, he is often a good father of a family, full of honor, and conscientiously observant of his word, and very strict to his children; but in the particular of being continually imposed on, he remains the same. He speaks in the Venetian dialect-the doctor in the Bolognese. Buffoons are likewise among the oldest masks of the Italian stage; one is Harlequin (q. v.), the other is Scapin, cunning and knavish servants of Pantalone and the Doctor. Brighella is not so old, as his garment, garnished with green ribbands, and made in the fashion of the middle ages, proves. Sismondi gives the following account of his origin, from the Chronicle of Malvezzi: "1200 of the nobility of Brescia wished to compel the citizens to take up arms against the people of Bergamo, and they resisted. A bloody battle ensued, in the streets of Brescia, in which the nobility were beaten; they fled to Cremona, where they formed a military band; the popular party formed a similar band, under the name of Brugella or Brighella." The name has been preserved on the stage, in a mask, which represents a proud, bold and crafty plebeian of Brescia. This derivation is opposed to the common account, according to which, Brighella sprung from Ferrara. The Doctor of Bologna, Pantalone of Venice, Harlequin of Bergamo, Brighella of Ferrara, and all the personages, who are best comprehended under the name of Zanneschi, the captains Spavento, Tracasso, Tempesta (who call to mind the Pyrgopolynices of Plautus), Trufaldin the Bergamese, have, therefore, all been on the stage from the fifteenth century. Besides these, the Romans had the don Pasquale and the Gelsonmi; the Florentines, the Pasquelle ; the Calabrians, the Giangurgolo; the Sicilians, the Travaglini; the Messenians, the Giovanelli; the Neapolitans, the Coviello, Pasquariello; the Milanese, the Girolamo; the Piedmontese, the Gianduja. Of the female masks, the Colombine of the Italian theatre is to be men

tioned. Of the other characters may be mentioned Pedrolino, Bertolino, Trivelino, Mezzolino and D. Plione Balanzoni, (Respecting the mask of Pulcinella, see this article.) Ruzzante, in 1530, is said to have introduced the masked characters into the higher comedy. Accurate representations of these masks are to be found in Riccoboni's History of the Italian Theatre (Paris, 1728, 2 vols., 8vo.) (See professor Franc. Valentini's Trattato sulla Commedia del Arte, ossia improvvisa, Maschere Italiane ed alcune Scene del Carnivale di Roma, Berlin, 1826, 4to., with 20 colored engravings. See, also, the article Carnival.) The mask used at masked balls, or masquerades, is a covering for the head and face, made from a light stuff, with which a man may disguise himself and remain unknown, or perhaps represent some other character. There are whole and half masks; for example, masks for the nose and the eyes. The best are of wax and fine linen; the poorer, of paper. The former are made very well in Berlin and Italy, particularly at Venice; the latter, in France, at Paris and Rouen. There are natural_masks, caricature masks (mascheracci), &c. Catharine of Medici is said to have first introduced masked balls. similar mummery was in fashion at the court of Henry VIII (1510—46), who liked the disguise.

Mask; a species of drama. Masque.)

A

(See

MASKELYNE, Nevil, an eminent mathematician and astronomer, born in London, in 1732, educated at Westminster and Cambridge, was chosen a fellow of the royal society, and, in 1761, deputed to proceed to the island of St. Helena, to observe the transit of Venus. During the voyage, he employed himself in making lunar observations, with a view to ascertaining the longitude. In 1763, he went to Barbadoes, to try the accuracy of Harrison's time-keeper. On the death of Mr. Bliss, he became royal astronomer; and, in 1767, commenced the publication of the Nautical Almanac, for which he published a volume of accompanying tables. (See Mason, Charles.) In 1774, doctor Maskelyne was employed in making observations on the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites at Greenwich; and the same year he went to Scotland, to ascertain the gravitative attraction of the mountain Schehallien, in Perthshire, of which he published an account in the Philosophical Transactions. He died in 1811. He was the author of the British Mariner's Guide, containing complete and easy instructions

for the discovery of the longitude at sea and land (1763, 4to.); and Astronomical Observations made at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich (1784–88, 3 vols., fol.); besides many papers in the Philosophical Transactions.

MASON, Charles; an English astronomer, an assistant of doctor Bradley at the royal observatory at Greenwich. He was employed to examine the lunar tables of Mayer, and the result of his labors appeared in Mayer's Lunar Tables, improved by C. Mason, published by order of the Commissioners of the Board of Longitude (London, 1787). Mr. Mason was sent to America with a grand sector, to determine the limits of the provinces of Maryland and Pennsylvania. He was accompanied by Mr. Dixon, in conjunction with whom he measured a degree of the meridian; and an account of their operations was published by doctor Maskelyne in the Philosophical Transactions for 1768. Mason died at Pennsylvania, in February, 1787. He communicated to the royal society an account of observations on the transit of Venus, June 3, 1769, made at Cavan in Ireland, and other papers, which may be found in the Philosophical Transactions.

MASON, William, a distinguished English poet, son of a clergyman in Yorkshire, was born in 1725. He studied at Cambridge, where he received a fellowship. His first appearance in the literary world was by the publication of Isis, a poem (1748), in which he satirized the Jacobitism and high-church principles which prevailed in the university of Oxford. This piece provoked a reply from Thomas Warton, entitled the Triumph of Isis. In 1752, he published his Elfrida, a tragedy with choral odes, on the ancient Greek model. Having taken orders in the church, he obtained the living of Aston in Yorkshire, and was appointed one of the royal chaplains. In 1759, appeared his Caractacus, a drama, on a kindred plan with the former. In 1762, Mr. Mason was made precentor of York. One of his principal works, the English Garden, a poem, in four books, appeared in 1772, 77, 79 and 81 (4to.); and a second edition, with a commentary and notes, by W. Burgh, was printed in 1785 (8vo.). This work was translated into French and German. In 1775, he published the poems of his friend Gray, with memoirs of his life. His principal subsequent publications are, Odes ; a translation of Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting, with sir Joshua Reynold's notes (1783, 4to.); the Life of William White

head, with his poems (1788, 3 vols., 8vo.); and an Essay on Church Music. Besides his acknowledged works, Mason is supposed to have been the author of the Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers, and other satirical pieces, which were published under the signature of M'Gregor. At the beginning of the American war, Mr. Mason became so active an advocate for freedom as to give offence at court, and he was consequently dismissed from his chaplainship; but, alarmed by the French revolution, his zeal cooled in the latter part of his life. He died April 7, 1797.

MASON, John Mitchell, D. D.; an eminent American theologian and pulpit orator, was born in the city of New York, March 19, 1770. He entered Columbia college, in that city, and was graduated in May, 1789, with the reputation he ever afterwards sustained, of a thorough classical scholar. Under his father, a learned and respectable clergyman of the Presbyterian denomination, he then prepared himself for the sacred ministry, until the year 1791, when he left his native country, in order to complete his education at, the university of Edinburgh. Here he attended the most celebrated courses of lectures connected with divinity, and formed valuable and distinguished acquaintance. In the theological societies he made himself conspicuous by the vigor of his understanding, the energy of his elocution, and the rigor of his doctrines. Towards the end of the year 1792, he was obliged to return to New York, by the death of his father, whom he soon succeeded in the Scotch Presbyterian church in Cedar street. In this situation, he confined his attention almost entirely to the benefit of his immediate flock, until the year 1798, when he composed and published a series of Letters on Frequent Communion. It was, before, the practice of the associate reformed churches of North America, to commemorate the Redeemer's death only twice, and in some places only once, in each year. The effect of his able appeal was, that most of the churches relinquished their ancient practice, and adopted that of celebrating the Lord's supper four times, and, in other cases, six times, yearly. In 1800, he conceived the idea of a public theological seminary, to be established by the authority, and to continue under the superintendence, of the general synod of the associate reformed church. The plan which he digested was carried into operation, by his own agency and influence, in 1801.

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The synod appointed him their professor, and, with their sanction, he visited Europe for the purpose of procuring a library. After his return, he zealously discharged the duties of his office until he was constrained to leave it by the decline of his health. In 1810, he dissolved his pastoral relation with the Cedar street church, and formed a new congregation, with whom he took possession of the Murray street church, when it was opened, in 1812. In 1811, he accepted the appointment of provost of Columbia college a station which he filled for five years. The variety and severity of his labors at length affected his health so seriously, that he resigned his provostship, and, in 1816, repaired to Europe to recruit his debilitated frame. He returned towards the end of 1817, in better condition, and preached and taught again with characteristic force and success. But weakness and exhaustion soon recurred; two paralytic attacks in 1819, admonished him to seek comparative repose. In 1821, however, he undertook the charge of Dickinson college, in Pennsylvania, and in this his strength again failed. In the autumn of 1824, he returned to New York, where he lingered, the shadow of what he had been, until the period of his death, the last week of 1829, in the 60th year of his age. Doctor Mason possessed uncommon powers as a preacher and controversialist, acquired great celebrity for erudition and zeal as a teacher, and deserved esteem for his domestic virtues; but he was harsh and intolerant as a theologian, and of an overbearing spirit, proportioned, as it were, to the robustness of his faculties of mind and body.

The principal works of doctor Mason, besides his Letters on Frequent Communion, are a Plea for sacramental Communion on Catholic Principles (1816), Essays, Reviews, &c., which are to be found in the Christian's Magazine, together with a number of Sermons, Orations, &c., published at different times. funeral discourse on general Alexander Hamilton is a specimen of his ability in that department of composition.

His

MASON'S AND DIXON'S LINE. (See Mason, Charles.)

MASONRY, FREE; a term applied to the organization of a society, calling themselves free and accepted masons, and all the mysteries therewith connected. The society, if we can treat as one a number of societies, many of which are unconnected with each other, though they have the same origin, and a great similarity in their constitution,extends over almost all the