Brewer's: Melibeus

or Melibe. A wealthy young man, married to Prudens. One day, when Melibeus “went into the fields to play,” some of his enemies got into his house, beat his wife, and wounded his daughter Sophie with five mortal wounds “in her feet, in her hands, in her ears, in her nose, and in her mouth,” left her for dead, and made their escape. When Melibeus returned home he resolved upon vengeance, but his wife persuaded him to forgiveness, and Melibeus, taking his wife's counsel, called together his enemies, and told them he forgave them “to this effect and to this ende, that God of His endeles mercy wole at the tyme of oure deyinge forgive us oure giltes that we have trespased to Him in this wreeched world.” (Chaucer: Canterbury Tales.)

N.B. This prose tale of Melibeus is a literal translation of a French story, of which there are two copies in the British Museum. (MS. Reg. 19. c. vii.; and MS. Reg. 19, c. xi.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894

Meliboean; Dye

Meliadus