MONTGOMERIE, ALEXANDER (1545?-1610?).—­Poet, probably b. in Ayrshire, was in the service of the Regent Morton and James VI., by whom he was pensioned.  He is sometimes styled “Captain,” and was laureate of the Court.  He appears to have fallen on evil days, was imprisoned on the Continent, and lost his pension.  His chief work is The Cherrie and the Slae (1597), a somewhat poor allegory of Virtue and Vice, but with some vivid description in it, and with a comparatively modern air.  He also wrote Flyting (scolding) betwixt Montgomerie and Polwart, pub. 1621, and other pieces.

MONTGOMERY, JAMES (1771-1854).—­Poet, s. of a pastor and missionary of the Moravian Brethren, was b. at Irvine, Ayrshire, and ed. at the Moravian School at Fulneck, near Leeds.  After various changes of occupation and abode, he settled in Sheffield in 1792 as clerk to a newspaper.  In 1796 he had become ed. of the Sheffield Iris, and was twice imprisoned for political articles for which he was held responsible.  In 1797 he pub. Prison Amusements; but his first work to attract notice was The Wanderer of Switzerland (1806).  It was followed by The West Indies (1809), The World before the Flood (1812), Greenland (1819), and The Pelican Island (1828), all of which contain passages of considerable imaginative and descriptive power, but are lacking in strength and fire.  He himself expected that his name would live, if at all, in his hymns, and in this his judgment has proved true.  Some of these, such as For ever with the Lord, Hail to the Lord’s Anointed, and Prayer is the Soul’s sincere Desire, are sung wherever the English language is spoken.  M. was a good and philanthropic man, the opponent of every form of injustice and oppression, and the friend of every movement for the welfare of the race.  His virtues attained wide recognition.

MONTGOMERY, ROBERT (1807-1855).—­Poet, a minister of the Scottish Episcopal Church, wrote some ambitious religious poems, including The Omnipresence of the Deity and Satan, which were at first outrageously puffed, and had a wide circulation.  Macaulay devoted an essay to the demolition of the author’s reputation, in which he completely succeeded.

MOORE, EDWARD (1712-1757).—­Fabulist and dramatist, s. of a dissenting minister, was b. at Abingdon.  After being in business as a linen-draper, in which he was unsuccessful, he took to literature, and wrote a few plays, of which The Gamester (1753) had a great vogue, and was translated into various languages.  He is best known by his Fables for the Female Sex (1744), which rank next to those of Gay (q.v.).