Matthew Lock

Matthew Lock, an English composer, born in Exeter about 1635, died in London in 1G7T. He was a pupil of Edward Gibbons, organist of Exeter cathedral, and was brought into prominence by composing the music for the ceremonies attending the restoration of Charles II., in whose court he obtained the post of composer in ordinary. Though he wrote both for the opera and the church, he is chiefly known at the present day from having composed the incidental music to " Macbeth " and the " Tempest" which is still given when those plays are performed. He wrote also several musical treatises, which were controversial in their character and of little value.

Matthew Paris

See Matthew Paris.

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole, an English clergyman, born in York in 1624, died in Amsterdam in 1679. He was educated at Emmanuel college, Cambridge, took orders, and in 1648 was rector of St. Michael le Quern, London, but resigned upon the passage of the uniformity act in 1662. He engaged in the nonconformity controversies of his time; and wrote much in opposition to the Roman Catholic church. His last years were spent in Holland. His principal work is the Synopsis Criticorum Biolicorum (5 vols, fol., 1669-'76), a digest of the Critici Sacri (1660), presenting in a condensed form the views of 150 commentators.

Matthew Thornton

Matthew Thornton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, born in Ireland in 1714, died in Newburyport, Mass., June 24, 1803. His father emigrated to America about 1717. The son was educated at Worcester, Mass., studied medicine, and commenced practice at Londonderry, N. II. In 1745, as a surgeon, he joined a New Hampshire division of 500 men in the expedition against Louisburg. At the beginning of the revolutionary war Dr. Thornton was a colonel in the militia. When a provincial convention was called, he was chosen its president; but he was immediately appointed to represent New Hampshire in the congress, and was permitted to sign the Declaration of Independence after taking his seat in September, 1776. Subsequently he was chief justice of the court of common pleas in New Hampshire, and later a judge of the superior court. He removed from Londonderry to Exeter, and finally fixed his residence at Merrimack, where he purchased a large estate.

Matthias Claudius

Matthias Claudius, called Asmus, or the Wandsheck messenger (Der Wandsbecker Bote), from his connection with the periodical of that name, a popular German writer, born near Lubeck about 1740, died in Hamburg, Jan. 21, 1815. His poems were originally fugitive pieces which appeared from time to time in various periodicals. These he collected in 1775 and subsequent years, and gave to the world under the title of Asmus Omnia sua se-cum portans (last ed., Hamburg, 1844). Many of his songs have been set to music. The most popular of them is the song on Rhine wine (Rheinweinlied), which is still sung at the German festivals. In the latter part of his life he became a convert to religious mysticism.