When he had spoken, John Alden, the fair-haired, taciturn stripling, All aghast at his words, surprised, embarrassed, bewildered, Trying to mask his dismay by treating the subject with lightness, Trying to smile, and yet feeling his heart stand still in his bosom, Just as a timepiece stops in a house that is stricken by lightning, Thus made answer and spake, or rather stammered than answered: "Such a message as that, I am sure I should mangle and mar it; If you would have it well done,-I am only repeating your maxim,- You must do it yourself, you must not leave it to others!"
"The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow"
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
In fact they obeyed Knox's epistle to England of January 1559. "Mingle- mangle ministry, Popish order, and Popish apparel," they will not bear.
"John Knox and the Reformation"
Andrew Lang
The consequence is, that many passages in these sermons are what Latimer would call a "mingle-mangle," or what we should call in this day "a complete mess."
"A Sketch of the Life and Labors of George Whitefield"
John Charles Ryle