www.alphadictionary.com

Ran across 'maugre' in Sir Walter Scott the other day.
Interesting word, obviously around for awhile, and I
wonder if it is still in use.

I (bold face and underlined) don't use it, mainly because this is the first time i've seen or heard of it. What, pray tell kind sir, meaneth it?

Well, as in discussion on "Petard" (I think) thread,
I guessed from the context, and then posted the
question. Looking it up in Merriam/Web just now
it says "archaic (go figure) for 'in spite of'". Could
not find the reference now in W.Scott if I wanted to.
That is what I guessed, but posted it here anyhow.

The Free Online Dictionary gives the following quote from Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe:

"By Saint Thomas of Kent", said he, "an I buckle to my gear, I will teach thee, sir lazy lover, to mell with thine own matters, maugre thine iron case there".

Excellent -
It was not Ivanhoe I was paging thru, but that is the
way it was used. Good job hunting. Really good.
It must have been a very common word to Scott.

Now let's see if he can find your "haunt" quote. I tried Google and Yahoo and got nowhere.

It's probably as old as W. Scott.
All I can remember was that it was funny and rambling,
and went on and on until: "A haunt can't haunt a haunt".
I appreciate your googling it, etc. Thanks.

Audiendus found it, and I am so very grateful.
Thanks again. I know it works better with two
voices, but the teacher was an expert at it, and
did it by himself.....my dear old man, was what
he said, this says 'good" but it does not matter.
It's like finding an old friend for some reason, and
it's just a crazy old poem, but it's been haunting
me decades. Thanks again.

References to Ivanhoe bring up bad memories. We read it as HS freshmen. I thought as I read that it was great, and the teacher couldn't mess it up. It had knights and fights, armor and lances. Was I ever wrong. One question on the test was what color was the scarf the gal gave Ivanhoe for his lance? Like who cares? Would the story be any different if it were red or blue instead of yellow? No wonder we read slowly, having learned to plod, asking at every point "will this be on the test."

Boy, yes, do I ever remember classes like that: pure tedium.
Never in the class for enjoyment, just to get a grade
and pass some #$%^ test.
What color was the scarf? Do you even remember?

In the Scott quote I gave, I was interested in the phrase "mell [meddle] with thine own matters", as it suggests the equivalent French phrase, mêlez-vous de vos affaires. "Maugre" is related to the French word malgré.

As far as the poem is concerned, I found it by googling "a haunt can't haunt a haunt" in quotation marks.

That simple ! ! !
I can't believe what you can find on this 'net.
Well, however you may have found it, as per example,
you could have given some highfalutin rendition of
searching giant tomes of poetry, I am still greatful,
and will use your explanation and try to find things
myself in the future.

Malgre: interesting, indeed.