Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 3 (part 3)

Trudchen or Gertrude Pavillon, their daughter, betrothed to Hans Glover.—Sir W. Scott, Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).

Pawkins (Major), a huge, heavy man, “one of the most remarkable of the age.” He was a great politician and great patriot, but generally under a cloud, wholly owing to his distinguished genius for bold speculations, not to say “swindling schemes.” His creed was “to run a moist pen slick through everything, and start afresh.”—C. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).

Pawnbrokers’ Balls. The gilded balls, the sign of pawnbrokers, are the pills on the shield of the Medici family. Its founder, Cosmo, named after Saint Cosmo, the patron of physicians, joined the guild of the doctors (Medici), as every Florentine enrolled himself in one of these charitable societies. The Medici family became great money-lenders, and their shield with the “balls” or “pills” was placed over the doors of their agents.

Paynim Harper (The), referred to by Tennyson in the Last Tournament, was Orpheus.

Swine, goats, asses, rams and geese
Troop’d round a Paynim harper once ...
Then were swine, goats, asses, geese
The wiser fools, seeing thy Paynim bard
Had such a mastery of his mystery
That he could harp his wife up out of hell.

Tennyson, The Last Tournament (1859).

Peace (Prince of the), Don Manuel Godoy, born at Badajoz. So called because he concluded the “peace of Basle” between the French and Spanish nations in 1795 (1767-1851).

Peace (The Father of), Andrea Doria (1469-1560).

Peace (The Surest Way to). Fox, afterwards bishop of Hereford, said to Henry VIII., The surest way to peace is a constant preparation for war. The Romans had the axiom, Si vis pacem, para bellum. It was said of Edgar, surnamed “the Peaceful,” king of England, that he preserved peace in those turbulent times “by being always prepared for war” (reigned 959-975.)

Peace Thirlmore, ambitious daughter of a scholarly recluse near New Haven. She marries a clever student, who becomes a sensational preacher, then farmer, then an army officer. His wife passes through many stages of belief and emotion, emerging at last into the sunshine.—W. M. Baker, His Majesty, Myself (1879).

Peace at any Price. Mézeray says of Louis XII., that he had such detestation of war that he rather chose to lose his duchy of Mĭlan than burden his subjects with a war-tax.—Histoire de France (1643).

Peace of Antal´cidas, the peace concluded by Antalcidas, the Spartan, and Artaxerxes (B.C. 387).

Peace of God, a peace enforced by the clergy on the barons of Christendom, to prevent the perpetual feuds between baron and baron (1035).

Peach´um, a pimp, patron of a gang of thieves, and receiver of their stolen goods. His house is the resort of thieves, pickpockets, and villains of all sorts. He betrays his comrades when it is for his own benefit, and even procures the arrest of Captain Macheath.

Mrs. Peachum, wife of Peachum. She recommends her daughter Polly to be “somewhat nice in her deviations from virtue.”

Polly Peachum, daughter of Peachum. (See Polly.)—J. Gay, The Beggar’s Opera (1727).

Pearl (Little), illegitimate child of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. A piquant, tricksy sprite, as naughty as she is bewitching—a creature of fire and air, more elfish than human, at once her mother’s torment and her treasure.—Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850).

Pearl. It is said that Cleopatra swallowed a pearl of more value than the whole of the banquet she had provided in honor of Antony. This she did when she drank to his health. The same sort of extravagant folly is told of Æsopus, son of Clodius Æsopus, the actor (Horace, Satire, ii. 3).

A similar act of vanity and folly is ascribed to Sir Thomas Gresham, when Queen Elizabeth dined at the City banquet, after her visit to the Royal Exchange.

Here £15,000 at one clap goes
Instead of sugar; Gresham drinks the pearl
Unto his queen and mistress.

Thomas Heywood.

Pearson (Captain Gilbert), officer in attendance on Cromwell.—Sir W. Scott, Woodstock (time, Commonwealth).

Peasant-Bard (The), Robert Burns (1859-1796).

Peasant-Painter of Sweden, Hörberg. His chief paintings are altar-pieces.

The altar-piece painted by Hörberg.

Longfellow, The Children of the Lord’s Supper.

Peasant Poet of Northamptonshire, John Clare (1793-1864).

Peasant of the Danube (The), Louis Legendre, a member of the French National Convention (1755-1797); called in French Le Paysan du Danube, from his “éloquence sauvage.”

Peau de Chagrin, a story by Balzac. The hero becomes possessed of a magical wild ass’s skin, which yields him the means of gratifying every wish; but for every wish thus gratified, the skin shrank somewhat, and at last vanished, having been wished entirely away. Life is a peau d’ane, for every vital act diminishes its force, and when all its force is gone, life is gone (1834).

Peckhams (The), Silas Peckham, “a thorough Yankee, born on a windy part of the coast, and reared chiefly on salt-fish; keeps a young ladies’ school exactly as he would have kept a hundred head of cattle—for the simple, unadorned purpose of making just as much money in just as few years as can be safely done.”

Mrs. Peckham’s specialty is “to look after the feathering, cackling, roosting, rising, and general behavior of these hundred chicks. An honest, ignorant woman, she could not have passed an examination in the youngest class.”—Oliver Wendell Holmes Elsie Venner (1861).

Peck´sniff, “architect and land surveyor,” at Salisbury. He talks homilies even in drunkenness, prates about the beauty of charity, and duty of forgiveness, but is altogether a canting humbug, and is ultimately so reduced in position that he becomes a “drunken, begging, squalid, letter-writing man,” out at elbows, and almost shoeless. Pecksniff’s specialty is the “sleek, smiling abominations of hypocrisy.”

If ever man combined within himself all the mild qualities of the lamb with a considerable touch of the dove, and not a dash of the crocodile, or the least possible suggestion of the very mildest seasoning of the serpent, that man was Mr. Pecksniff, “the messenger of peace.”

Charity and Mercy Pecksniff, the two daughters of the “architect and land surveyor.” Charity is thin, ill-natured, and a shrew, eventually jilted by a weak young man, who really loves her sister. Mercy Pecksniff, usually called “Merry,” is pretty and true-hearted; though flippant and foolish as a girl, she becomes greatly toned down by the troubles of her married life.—C. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit (1843).

Peculiar, negro slave, endowed with talent, ambitious of an opportunity to develop and use these, but hopeless of gaining it, until emancipated by the Civil War between the United States and the Southern Confederacy.—Epes Sargent, Peculiar.

Pedant, an old fellow set up to personate Vincentio in Shakespeare’s comedy called The Taming of the Shrew (1695).

Pèdre (Don), a Sicilian nobleman, who has a Greek slave of great beauty, named Isidore (3 syl.). This slave is loved by Adraste (2 syl.), a French gentleman, who gains access to the house under the guise of a portrait-painter. He next sends his slave, Zaïda, to complain to the Sicilian of ill-treatment, and Don Pèdre volunteers to intercede on her behalf. At this moment Adraste comes up, and demands that Zaïde be given up to deserved chastisement. Pedrè pleads for her, Adraste appears to be pacified, and Pedrè calls for Zaïde to come forth. Isidore, in the veil of Zaïde, comes out, and Pedrè says, “There, take her home, and use her well.” “I will do so,” says Adraste, and leads off the Greek slave.—Molière, Le Sicilien ou L’Amour Peintre (1667).

Pedrillo, the tutor of Don Juan. After the shipwreck, the men in the boat, being wholly without provisions, cast lots to know which should be killed as food for the rest, and the lot fell on Pedrillo, but those who feasted on him most ravenously went mad.

His tutor, the licentiate Pedrillo,
Who several languages did understand.

Byron, Don Juan, ii. 25; see 76-79 (1819).

Pedro, “the pilgrim,” a noble gentleman servant to Alinda (daughter of Lord Alphonso).—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Pilgrim (1621).

Pedro (Don), prince of Aragon.—Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing (1600).

Pedro (Don), father of Leonora.—R. Jephson, Two Strings to your Bow (1792).

Pedro (Don), a Portuguese nobleman, father of Donna Violante.—Mrs. Centlivre, The Wonder (1714).

Pedro (Dr.), whose full name was Dr. Pedro Rezio de Aguero, court physician in the island of Barataria. He carried a whalebone rod in his hand, and whenever any dish of food was set before Sancho Panza, the governor, he touched it with his wand, that it might be instantly removed, as unfit for the governor to eat. Partridges were “forbidden by Hippoc´ratês,” olla podridas were “most pernicious,” rabbits were “a sharp-haired diet,” veal might not be touched, but “a few wafers, and a thin slice or two of quince,” might not be harmful.

The governor, being served with some beef hashed with onions, ... fell to with more avidity than if he had been set down to Milan godwits, Roman pheasants, Sorrento veal, Moron partridges, or green geese of Lavajos; and turning to Dr. Pedro, he said, “Look you, signor doctor, I want no danties, ... for I have always been used to beef, bacon, pork, turnips and onions.”—Cervantes, Don Quixote, II. iii. 10, 12 (1615).

Peebles (Peter), the pauper litigant. He is vain, litigious, hard-hearted, and credulous; a liar, a drunkard, and a pauper. His “ganging plea” is worthy of Hogarth.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Peecher (Miss), a schoolmistress, in the flat country where Kent and Surrey meet. “Small, shining, neat, methodical, and buxom was Miss Peecher; cherry-cheeked and tuneful of voice. A little pincushion, a little hussie, a little book, a little work-box, a little set of tables and weights and measures, and a little woman all in one. She could write a little essay on any subject exactly a slate long, and strictly according to rule. If Mr. Bradley Headstone had proposed marriage to her, she would certainly have replied ‘yes,’ for she loved him;” but Mr. Headstone did not love Miss Peecher—he loved Lizzie Hexam, and had no love to spare for any other woman.—C. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, ii. 1 (1864).

Peel-the-Causeway (Old), a smuggler. Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Peeler (Sir), any crop which greatly impoverishes the ground. To peel is to impoverish soil, as “oats, rye, barley, and grey wheat,” but not peas (xxxiii. 51).

Wheat doth not well,
Nor after Sir Peeler he loveth to dwell.

T. Tusser, Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, xviii. 12 (1557).

Peelers, the constabulary of Ireland, appointed under the Peace Preservation Act of 1814, proposed by Sir Robert Peel. The name was subsequently given to the new police of England, who are also called “Bobbies” from Sir Robert Peel.

Peep-o’-Day Boys, Irish insurgents of 1784, who prowled about at day-break, searching for arms.

Peeping Tom of Coventry. Lady Godiva earnestly besought her husband (Leofric, earl of Mercia) to relieve the men of Coventry of their grievous oppressions. Leofric, annoyed at her importunity, told her he would do so when she had ridden on horseback, naked, through the town. The countess took him at his word, rode naked through the town, and Leofric was obliged to grant the men of Coventry a charter of freedom.—Dugdale.

Rapin says that the countess commanded all persons to keep within doors and away from windows during her ride. One man, named Tom of Coventry, took a peep of the lady on horseback, but it cost him his life.

* Tennyson, in his Godiva, has reproduced this story.

Peerage of the Saints. In the preamble of the statutes instituting the Order of St. Michael, founded by Louis XI in 1469, the archangel is styled “my lord,” and created a knight. The apostles had been already ennobled and knighted. We read of “the Earl Peter,” “Count Paul,” “the Baron Stephen,” and so on. Thus, in the introduction of a sermon upon St. Stephen’s Day, we have these lines:

Entendes toutes a chest sermon,
Et clair et lai tules environ;
Contes vous vueille la pation
De St. Estieul le baron.

Peerce (1 syl.), a generic name for a farmer or ploughman. Piers the plowman is the name assumed by Robert or William Langland, in a historico-satirical poem so called.

And yet, my priests, pray you to God for Peerce ...
And if you have a “pater noster” spare,
Then you shal pray for saylers.

G. Gascoigne, The Steele Glas (died 1577).

Peery (Paul), landlord of the Ship, Dover.

Mrs. Peery, Paul’s wife.—G. Colman, Ways and Means (1788).

Peerybingle (John), a carrier, “lumbering, slow, and honest; heavy, but light of spirit; rough upon the surface, but gentle at the core; dull without, but quick within; stolid, but so good. O, Mother Nature, give thy children the true poetry of heart that hid itself in this poor carrier’s breast, and we can bear to have them talking prose all their life long!”

Mrs. [Mary] Peerybingle, called by her husband “Dot.” She was a little chubby, cheery, young wife, very fond of her husband, and very proud of her baby; a good housewife, who delighted in making the house snug and cozy for John, when he came home after his day’s work. She called him “a dear old darling of a dunce,” or “her little goosie.” She sheltered Edward Plummer in her cottage for a time, and got into trouble; but the marriage of Edward with May Fielding cleared up the mystery, and John loved his little Dot more fondly than ever.—C. Dickens, The Cricket on the Hearth (1845).

Peg. Drink to your peg. King Edgar ordered “that pegs should be fastened into drinking-horns at stated distances and whoever drank beyond his peg at one draught should be obnoxious to a severe punishment.”

I had lately a peg-tankard in my hand. It had on the inside a row of eight pins, one above another, from bottom to top. It held two quarts, so that there was a gill of liquor between peg and peg. Whoever drank short of his pin or beyond it, was obliged to drink to the next, and so on till the tankard was drained to the bottom.—Sharpe, History of the Kings of England.

Peg-a-Ramsey, the heroine of an old song. Percy says it was an indecent ballad. Shakespeare alludes to it in his Twelfth Night, act ii. sc. 3 (1614).

James I. had been much struck with the beauty and embarrassment of the pretty Peg-a-Ramsey? as he called her.—Sir W. Scott.

Peg´asus, the winged horse of the Muses. It was caught by Bellerophon, who mounted thereon, and destroyed the Chimæra; but when he attempted to ascend to heaven, he was thrown from the horse, and Pegasus mounted alone to the skies, where it became the constellation of the same name.

To break Pegasus’s neck, to write halting poetry.

Some, free from rhyme or reason, rule or check,
Break Priscian’s head, and Pegasus’s neck.

Pope, The Dunciad, iii. 161 (1728).

* To “break Priscian’s head,” is to write ungrammatically. Priscian was a great grammarian of the fifth century.

Pegg (Catharine), one of the mistresses of Charles II. She was the daughter of Thomas Pegg, Esq., of Yeldersay, in Derbyshire.

Peggot´ty (Clara), servant of Mrs. Copperfield, and the faithful old nurse of David Copperfield. Her name “Clara” was tabooed, because it was the name of Mrs. Copperfield. Clara Peggotty married Barkis, the carrier.

Being very plump, whenever she made any little exertion after she was dressed, some of the buttons on the back of her gown flew off.—Ch. ii.

Dan’el Peggotty, brother of David Copperfield’s nurse. Dan’el was a Yarmouth fisherman. His nephew, Ham Peggotty, and his brother-in-law’s child, “little Em’ly,” lived with him. Dan’el himself was a bachelor, and Mrs. Gummidge (widow of his late partner) kept house for him. Dan’el Peggotty was most tender-hearted, and loved little Em’ly with all his heart.

Ham Peggotty, nephew of Dan’el Peggotty, of Yarmouth, and son of Joe, Dan’el’s brother. Ham was in love with little Em’ly, daughter of Tom (Dan’s brother-in-law), but Steerforth stepped in between them, and stole Em’ly away. Ham Peggotty is represented as the very beau-ideal of an uneducated, simple-minded, honest, and warm-hearted fisherman. He was drowned in his attempt to rescue Steerforth from the sea.

Em’ly Peggotty, daughter of Dan’s brother-in-law, Tom. She was engaged to Ham Peggotty; but being fascinated with Steerforth, ran off with him. She was afterwards reclaimed, and emigrated to Australia with Dan’el and Mrs. Gummidge.—C. Dickens, David Copperfield (1849).

Peggy, grandchild of the old widow Maclure, a covenanter.—Sir W. Scott, Old Mortality (time, Charles II.).

Peggy, the laundry-maid of Colonel Mannering, at Woodburne.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

Peggy (Shippen). A love-letter from Benedict Arnold to this young lady is extant in which after telling her that he has presumed to write to her papa and has requested his sanction to his addresses, Arnold goes on to protest.

“May I perish if I would give you one moment’s inquietude, to purchase the greatest possible felicity to myself. Whatever my fate may be, my most ardent wish is for your happiness, and my latest breath will be to implore the blessing of heaven on the idol and only wish of my soul.” September 26, 1778.

Peggy [Thrift), the orphan daughter of Sir Thomas Thrift, of Hampshire, and the ward of Moody, who brings her up in seclusion in the country. When Moody is 50, and Peggy 19, the guardian tries to marry her, but “the country girl” outwits him, and marries Belville, a young man of more suitable age. Peggy calls her guardian “Bud.” She is very simple but sharp, ingenuous but crafty, lively and girlish.—The Country Girl (Garrick altered from Wycherly’s Country Wife, 1675).

Peggy. Dream-wife about whom cluster the imaginations of the bachelor over the fire of green wood.

“Smoke always goes before blaze, and doubt before decision.”—Ik. Marvel (Donald G. Mitchell), Reveries of a Bachelor (1850).

Pegler (Mrs.), mother of Josiah Boundderby, Esq., banker and mill-owner, called “The Bully of Humility.” The son allows the old woman £30 a year to keep out of sight.—C. Dickens. Hard Times (1854).

Peg Woffington, celebrated English actress, intriguante, but kind of heart. Sir Charles Vane is one of her lovers, but after the appearance of his simple-hearted wife upon the scene, the actress dismisses her admirer, and induces him to return to domestic life.—Charles Reade, Peg Woffington.

Pek´uah, the attendant of Princess Nekayah, of the “happy valley.” She accompanied the princess in her wanderings, but refused to enter the great pyramid, and, while the princess was exploring the chambers, was carried off by some Arabs. She was afterwards ransomed for 200 ounces of gold.—Dr. Johnson, Rasselas (1759).

Pelay´o (Prince), son of Favil´a, founder of the Spanish monarchy after the overthrow of Roderick, last of the Gothic kings. He united, in his own person, the royal lines of Spain and of the Goths.

In him the old Iberian blood,
Of royal and remotest ancestry
From undisputed source, flowed undefiled ...
He, too, of Chindasuintho’s regal line
Sole remnant now, drew after him the love
Of all true Goths.

Southey, Roderick, etc., viii. (1814).

Pelham, the hero of a novel by Lord Lytton, entitled Pelham, or The Adventures of a Gentleman (1828).

Pelham (M.), one of the many aliases of Sir R. Phillips, under which he published The Parent’s and Tutor’s First Catechism. In the preface he calls the writer authoress. Some of his other names are Rev. David Blair, Rev. C. C. Clarke, Rev. J. Goldsmith.

Pel´ian Spear (The), the lance of Achillês which wounded and cured Te´lephos. So called from Peleus, the father of Achillês.

Such was the cure the Arcadian hero found—
The Pelian spear that wounded, made him sound.

Ovid, Remedy of Love.

Peli´des (3 syl.), Achillês, son of Peleus (2 syl.), chief of the Greek warriors at the siege of Troy.—Homer, Iliad.

When, like Pelidês, bold beyond control,
Homer raised high to heaven the loud impetuous song.

Beattie, The Minstrel (1773-4).

Pe´lion (“mud-sprung”), one of the frog chieftains.

A spear at Pelion, Troglodytês cast
The missive spear within the bosom past
Death’s sable shades the fainting frog surround,
And life’s red tide runs ebbing from the wound.

Parnell, Battle of the Frogs and Mice, iii. (about 1712).

Pell (Solomon), an attorney in the Insolvent Debtors’ court. He has the very highest opinions of his own merits, and by his aid Tony Weller contrives to get his son Sam sent to the Fleet for debt, that he may be near Mr. Pickwick to protect and wait upon him.—C. Dickens, The Pickwick Papers (1836).

Pelleas (Sir), lord of many isles, and noted for his great muscular strength. He fell in love with Lady Ettard, but the lady did not return his love. Sir Gaw´ain promised to advocate his cause with the lady, but played him false. Sir Pelleas caught them in unseemly dalliance with each other, but forbore to kill them. By the power of enchantment, the lady was made to dote on Sir Pelleas; but the knight would have nothing to say to her, so she pined and died. After the Lady Ettard played him false, the Damsel of the Lake “rejoiced him, and they loved together during their whole lives.”—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 79-82 (1470).

* Sir Pelleas must not be confounded with Sir Pelles (q.v.).

Pellegrin, the pseudonym of de la Motte Fouqué (1777-1843).

Pelles (Sir), of Corbin Castle, “king of the foragn land and nigh cousin of Joseph of Arimathy.” He was father of Sir Eliazar, and of the Lady Elaine, who fell in love with Sir Launcelot, by whom she became the mother of Sir Galahad, “who achieved the quest of the Holy Graal.” This Elaine was not the “lily maid of Astolat.”

While Sir Launcelot was visiting King Pelles, a glimpse of the Holy Graal was vouchsafed them:

For when they went into the castle to take their repast ... there came a dove to the window, and in her bill was a little censer of gold, and there withall was such a savour as though all the spicery of the world had been there ... and a damsel, passing fair, bare a vessel of gold between her hands, and thereto the king kneeled devoutly and said his prayers.... “Oh, mercy!” said Sir Launcelot, “what may this mean?” ... “This,” said the king, “is the Holy Sancgreall which ye have seen.”—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, iii. 2 (1470).

Pellinore (Sir), king of the isles and knight of the Round Table (pt. i. 57). He was a good man of power, was called “The Knight with the Stranger Beast,” and slew King Lot of Orkney, but was himself slain ten years afterwards by Sir Gawain, one of Lot’s sons (pt. i. 35). Sir Pellinore (3 syl.) had, by the wife of Aries, the cowherd, a son named Sir Tor, who was the first knight of the Round Table created by King Arthur (pt. i. 47, 48); one daughter, Elein, by the Lady of Rule (pt. iii. 10); and three sons in lawful wedlock; Sir Aglouale (sometimes called Aglavale, probably a clerical error), Sir Lamorake Dornar (also called Sir Lamorake de Galis), and Sir Percivale de Gralis (pt. ii. 108). The widow succeeded to the throne (pt. iii. 10).—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur (1470).

Milton calls the name “Pellenore” (2 syl.).

Fair damsels, met in forests wide
By knights of Logres, or of Lyones,
Lancelot, or Pelleas, or Pellenore.

Milton.

Pelob´ates (4 syl.), one of the frog champions. The word means “mud-wader.” In the battle he flings a heap of mud against Psycarpax, the Hector of the mice, and half blinds him; but the warrior mouse heaves a stone “whose bulk would need ten degenerate mice of modern days to lift,” and the mass, falling on the “mud-wader,” breaks his leg.—Parnell, Battle of the Frogs and Mice, iii. (about 1712).

Pel´ops’ Shoulder, ivory. The tale is that Demēter ate the shoulder of Pelops when it was served up by Tan´talos for food. The gods restored Pelops to life by putting the dismembered body into a caldron, but found that it lacked a shoulder; whereupon Demeter supplied him with an ivory shoulder, and all his descendants bore this distinctive mark.

N.B.—It will be remembered that Pythag´oras had a golden thigh.

Your forehead high,
And smooth as Pelop’s shoulder.

John Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess, ii. 1 (1610).

Pelos, father of Physigna´thos, king of the frogs. The word means “mud.”—Parnell, Battle of the Frogs and Mice (about 1712).

Pembroke (The earl of), uncle to Sir Aymer de Valence.—Sir W. Scott, Castle Dangerous (time, Henry I.).

Pembroke (the Rev. Mr.), chaplain at Waverley Honor.—Sir W. Scott, Waverley (time, George II.).

Pen, Philemon Holland, translator-general of the classics. Of him was the epigram written:

Holland, with his translations doth so fill us,
He will not let Suetonius be Tranquillus.

(The point of which is, of course, that the name of the Roman historian was C. Suetonius Tranquillus.)

Many of these translations were written from beginning to end with one pen, and hence he himself wrote:

With one sole pen I writ this book,
Made of a grey goose-quill;
A pen it was when it I took,
And a pen I leave it still.

Pendennis (Arthur), pseudonym of W. M. Thackeray in The Newcomes (1854).

Pendennis, a novel by Thackeray (1849), in which much of his own history and experience is recorded with a novelist’s license. Pendennis stands in relation to Thackeray as David Copperfield to Charles Dickens.

Arthur Pendennis, a young man of ardent feelings and lively intellect, but conceited and selfish. He has a keen sense of honor, and a capacity for loving, but altogether he is not an attractive character.

Laura Pendennis. This is one of the best of Thackeray’s characters.

Major Pendennis, a tuft-hunter, who fawns on his patrons for the sake of wedging himself into their society.—History of Pendennis, published originally in monthly parts, beginning in 1849.

Pendrag´on, probably a title meaning “chief leader in war.” Dragon is Welsh for a “leader in war,” and pcn for “head” or “chief.” The title was given to Uther, brother of Constans, and father of Prince Arthur. Like the word “Pharaoh,” it is used as a proper name without the article.—Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chron., vi. (1142).

Once I read,
That stout Pendragon in his litter, sick,
Came to the field, and vanquished his foes.

Shakespeare, 1 Henry VI. act iii. sc. 2 (1589)

Penel´ope’s Web, a work that never progresses. Penelopê, the wife of Ulysses, being importuned by several suitors during her husband’s long absence, made reply that she could not marry again, even if Ulysses were dead, till she had finished weaving a shroud for her aged father-in-law. Every night she pulled out what she had woven during the day, and thus the shroud made no progress towards completion.—Greek Mythology.

The French say of a work “never ending, still beginning,” c’est l’ouvrage de Pénélope.

Penelope Lapham, vivacious, but not pretty daughter of Silas Lapham. Her wit wins the love her sister’s beauty could not capture. Penelope’s unintentional conquest brings painful perplexity to herself, with anguish to her sister. Still she yields finally to Irene’s magnanimity and her suitor’s persuasions, and weds Tom Corey.—W. D. Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham (1887).

Penel´ophon, the beggar loved by King Cophetua. Shakespeare calls the name Zenelophon in Love’s Labor’s Lost, act iv. sc. 1 (1594).—Percy, Reliques, I. ii. 6 (1765).

Penelva (The Exploits and Adventures of), part of the series called Le Roman des Romans, pertaining to “Am´adis of Gaul.” This part was added by an anonymous Portuguese (fifteenth century).

Penfeather (Lady Penelope), the Lady Patroness at the Spa.—Sir W. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well (time, George III.).

Pengwern (The Torch of), prince Gwenwyn of Powys-land.—Sir W. Scott, The Betrothed (time, Henry II.).

Pengwinion (Mr.), from Cornwall; a Jacobite conspirator with Mr. Redgauntlet.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Peninsular War (The), the war carried on by Sir Arthur Wellesley against Napoleon in Portugal and Spain (1808-1814).

Southey wrote a History of the Peninsular War (1822-32).

Penitents of Love (Fraternity of the), an institution established in Languedoc, in the thirteenth century, consisting of knights and esquires, dames and damsels, whose object was to prove the excess of their love by bearing, with invincible constancy, the extremes of heat and cold. They passed the greater part of the day abroad, wandering about from castle to castle, wherever they were summoned by the inviolable duties of love and gallantry; so that many of these devotees perished by the inclemency of the weather, and received the crown of martyrdom to their profession.—See Warton, History of English Poetry (1781).

Pen´lake (Richard), a cheerful man, both frank and free, but married to Rebecca, a terrible shrew. Rebecca knew if she once sat in St. Michael’s chair (on St. Michael’s Mount, in Cornwall), that she would rule her husband ever after; so she was very desirous of going to the mount. It so happened that Richard fell sick, and both vowed to give six marks to St. Michael if he recovered. Richard did recover, and they visited the shrine; but while Richard was making the offering, Rebecca ran to seat herself in St. Michael’s chair; but no sooner had she done so, than she fell from the chair, and was killed in the fall.—Southey, St. Michael’s Chair (a ballad, 1798).

Penniless (The), Maximilian I., emperor of Germany (1459, 1493-1519).

Penniman (Wolfert). Young captain of the Mayga in Outward Bound.—W. T. Adams (Oliver Optic).

Penny (Jock), a highwayman.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

Penruddock (Roderick), a “philosopher,” or rather a recluse, who spent his time in reading. By nature gentle, kind-hearted, and generous, but soured by wrongs. Woodville, his trusted friend, although he knew that Arabella was betrothed to Roderick, induced her father to give his daughter to himself, the richer man; and Roderick’s life was blasted. Woodville had a son, who reduced himself to positive indigence by gambling. Sir George Penruddock was the chief creditor. Sir George dying, all his property came to his cousin, Roderick, who now had ample means to glut his revenge on his treacherous friend; but his heart softened. First, he settled all “the obligations, bonds, and mortgages, covering the whole Woodville property,” on Henry Woodville, that he might marry Emily Tempest; and next, he restored to Mrs. Woodville “her settlement, which in her husband’s desperate necessity, she had resigned to him;” lastly, he sold all his own estates, and retired again to a country cottage to his books and solitude.—Cumberland, The Wheel of Fortune (1779).

Pentap´oliff, “with the naked arm,” king of the Garaman´teans, who always went to battle with his right arm bare. Alifanfaron, emperor of Trap´oban, wished to marry his daughter, but, being refused, resolved to urge his suit by the sword. When Don Quixote saw two flocks of sheep coming along the road in opposite directions, he told Sancho Panza they were the armies of these two puissant monarchs met in array against each other.—Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. iii. 4 (1605).

Pentecôte Vivante (La), Cardinal Mezzofanti, who was the master of fifty or fifty-eight languages (1774-1849).

Penthe´a, sister of Ith´oclês, betrothed to Or´gilus by the consent of her father. At the death of her father, Ithoclês compelled her to marry Bass´anes, whom she hated, and she starved herself to death.—John Ford, The Broken Heart (1633).

Penthesile´a, queen of the Amazons, slain by Achilles. S. Butler calls the name “Penthes´ilê.”

And laid about in fight more busily
Than th’ Amazonian dame Penthesile.

S. Butler, Hudibras.

Pen´theus (3 syl.), a king of Thebes, who tried to abolish the orgies of Bacchus, but was driven mad by the offended god. In his madness he climbed into a tree to witness the rites, and being descried was torn to pieces by the Bacchantes.

As when wild Pentheus, grown mad with fear,
Whole troops of hellish hags about him spies.

Giles Fletcher, Christ’s Triumph over Death (1610).

Pentheus (2 syl.), a king of Thebes, resisted the introduction of the worship of Dyoni´sos (Bacchus) into his kingdom, in consequence of which the Bacchantes pulled his palace to the ground, and Pentheus, driven from the throne, was torn to pieces on Mount Cithæron by his own mother and her two sisters.

He the fate [may sing]
Of sober Pentheus.

Akenside, Hymn to the Naiads (1767).

Pentweazel (Alderman), a rich city merchant of Blowbladder Street. He is wholly submissive to his wife, whom he always addresses as “Chuck.”

Mrs. Pentweazel, the alderman’s wife, very ignorant, very vain, and very conceitedly humble. She was a Griskin by birth, and “all her family by the mother’s side were famous for their eyes.” She had an aunt among the beauties of Windsor, “a perdigious fine woman. She had but one eye, but that was a piercer, and got her three husbands. We was called the gimlet family.” Mrs. Pentweazel says her first likeness was done after “Venus de Medicis, the sister of Mary de Medicis.”

Sukey Pentweazel, daughter of the alderman, recently married to Mr. Deputy Dripping, of Candlewick Yard.

Carel Pentweazel, a schoolboy, who had been under Dr. Jerks, near Doncaster, for two years and a quarter, and had learnt all As in Præsenti by heart. The terms of this school were £10 a year for food, books, board, clothes and tuition.—Foote, Taste (1753).

People (Man of the), Charles James Fox (1749-1806).

Pepin (William), a White Friar and most famous preacher at the beginning of the sixteenth century. His sermons, in eight volumes quarto, formed the grand repertory of the preachers of those times.

Pepita, Spanish beauty of whom the poet sings:

I, who dwell over the way
Watch where Pepita is hid,
Safe from the glare of the day,
Like an eye under its lid;
Over and over I say—
Name like the song of a bird,
Melody shut in a word—
“Pepita!”

Frank Dempster Sherman, Madrigals and Catches (1887).

Pepperpot (Sir Peter), a West Indian epicure, immensely rich, conceited and irritable.—Foote, The Patron (1764).

Peppers. (See White Horse of the Peppers.)

Peps (Dr Parker), a court physician who attended the first Mrs. Dombey on her death-bed. Dr. Peps always gave his patients (by mistake, of course), a title, to impress them with the idea that his practice was exclusively confined to the upper ten thousand.—C. Dickens, Dombey and Son (1846).

Perceforest (King), the hero of a prose romance “in Greek.” The MS. is said to have been found by Count William of Hainault in a cabinet at “Burtimer” Abbey, on the Humber; and in the same cabinet was deposited a crown, which the count sent to King Edward. The MS. was turned into Latin by St. Landelain, and thence into French under the title of La Tres Elegante Deliceux Melliflue et Tres Plaisante Hystoire du Tres Noble Roy Perceforest (printed at Paris in 1528).

(Of course, this pretended discovery is only an invention. An analysis of the romance is given in Dunlop’s History of fiction.)

He was called “Perceforest,” because he dared to pierce, almost alone, an enchanted forest, where women and children were most evilly treated. Charles IX., of France, was especially fond of this romance.

Perch, messenger in the house of Mr. Dombey, merchant, whom he adored, and plainly showed by his manner to the great man: “You are the light of my eyes,” “You are the breath of my soul.”—C. Dickens, Dombey and Son (1846).

Perche Notary (A), a lawyer who sets people together by the ears, one who makes more quarrels than contracts. The French proverb is, Notaire du Perche, qui passe plus d’échalliers que de contrat.

Le Perche, qui se trouve partagé entre les départements de l’Orne et d’Eure-et-Loir, est un contrée fort boisée, dans laquelle la plupart des champs sont entourés de haies dans lesquelles sont ménagées certaines ouvertures propres à donner passage aux piétons seulement, et que l’on nomme échalliers.—Hilaire le Gai.

Percinet, a fairy prince, in love with Graciosa. The prince succeeds in thwarting the malicious designs of Grognon, the step-mother of the lovely princess.—Percinet and Graciosa (a fairy tale).

Percival (Sir), the third son of Sir Pellinore, king of Wales. His brothers were Sir Aglavale and Sir Lamorake Dornar, usually called Sir Lamorake de Galis (Wales). Sir Tor was his half-brother. Sir Percival caught a sight of the Holy Graal after his combat with Sir Ector de Maris (brother of Sir Launcelot), and both were miraculously healed by it. Crétien de Troyes wrote the Roman de Perceval (before 1200), and Menessier produced the same story in a metrical form. (See Parzival.)

Sir Percivale had a glimmering of the Sancgreall and of the maiden that bare it, for he was perfect and clean. And forthwith they were both as whole of limb and hide as ever they were in their life days. “O, mercy!” said Sir Percival, “what may this mean?” ... “I wot well,” said Sir Ector ... “it is the holy vessel, wherein is a part of the holy blood of our blessed Saviour; but it may not be seen but by a perfect man.”—Pt. iii. 14.

Sir Percival was with Sir Bors and Sir Galahad, when the visible Saviour went into the consecrated wafer which was given to them by the bishop. This is called the achievement of the quest of the Holy Graal (pt. iii. 101, 102.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur (1470).

Percival Glyde (Sir). Rascally husband of Laura Fairlie. To possess himself of her fortune, he incarcerates her in an insane asylum, gives out that she is dead, and uses the corpse of her half-sister to confirm the rumor.—Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White.

Percy Arundel (Lord Ashdale), son of Lady Arundel, by her second husband. A hot, fiery youth, proud and overbearing. When grown to manhood, a “sea-captain” named Norman, made love to Violet, Lord Ashdale’s cousin. The young “Hotspur” was indignant and somewhat jealous, but discovered that Norman was the son of Lady Arundel by her first husband, and the heir to the title and estates. In the end, Norman agreed to divide the property equally, but claimed Violet for his bride.—Lord Lytton, The Sea-Captain (1839).

Per´dita, the daughter of the Queen Hermionê, born in prison. Her father, King Leontês, commanded the infant to be cast on a desert shore, and left to perish there. Being put to sea, the vessel was driven by a storm to the “coast” of Bohemia, and the infant child was brought up by a shepherd, who called its name Perdĭta. Flor´izel, the son of the Bohemian king, fell in love with Perdita, and courted her under the assumed name of Doriclês; but the king, having tracked his son to the shepherd’s hut, told Perdita that if she did not at once discontinue this foolery, he would command her and the shepherd too to be put to death. Florizel and Perdita now fled from Bohemia to Sicily, and being introduced to the king, it was soon discovered that Perdita was Leontês’s daughter. The Bohemian king, having tracked his son to Sicily, arrived just in time to hear the news, and gave his joyful consent to the union which he had before forbidden.—Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale (1604).

Perdita, Mrs. Mary Robinson (born Darby), the victim of George IV., while prince of Wales. She first attracted his notice while acting the part of “Perdĭta,” and the prince called himself “Florizel.” George, prince of Wales, settled a pension for life on her, £500 a year for herself, and £200 a year for her daughter. She caught cold one winter, and losing the use of her limbs, could neither walk nor stand (1758-1799, not 1800 as is given usually).

Perdrix, toujours Perdrix! Walpole tells us that the confessor of one of the French kings, having reproved the monarch for his conjugal infidelities, was asked what dish he liked best. The confessor replied, “Partridges;” and the king had partridges served to him every day, till the confessor got quite sick of them. “Perdrix, toujours perdrix!” he would exclaim, as the dish was set before him. After a time, the king visited him, and hoped his favorite dish had been supplied him. “Mais oui,” he replied, “toujours perdrix, toujours perdrix!” “Ah, ah!” said the amorous monarch, “and one mistress is all very well, but not perdrix, toujours perdrix!”—See Notes and Queries, 337, October 23, 1869).

The story is at least as old as the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, compiled between 1450-1461, for the amusement of the dauphin of France, afterwards Louis XI. (Notes and Queries, November 27, 1869).

* Farquhar parodies the French expression into “Soup for breakfast, soup for dinner, soup for supper, and soup for breakfast again.”—Farquhar, The Inconstant, iv. 2 (1702).

Père Duchesne (Le), Jacques René Hébert; so called from the Père Duchesne, a newspaper of which he was the editor (1755-1794).

Pereard (Sir), the Black Knight of the Black Lands. Called by Tennyson “Night” or “Nox.” He was one of the four brothers who kept the passages to Castle Perilous, and was overthrown by Sir Gareth.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 126 (1470); Tennyson, Idylls (“Gareth and Lynette”).

Peredur (Sir), son of Evrawe, called “Sir Peredur of the Long Spear,” one of the knights of the Round Table. He was for many years called “The Dumb Youth,” from a vow he made to speak to no Christian till Angharad of the Golden Hand loved him better than she loved any other man. His great achievements were: (1) the conquest of the Black Oppressor, “who oppressed every one and did justice to no one;” (2) killing the Addanc of the Lake, a monster that devoured daily some of the sons of the king of Tortures. This exploit he was enabled to achieve by means of a stone which kept him invisible; (3) slaying the three hundred heroes privileged to sit round the countess of the Achievements; on the death of these men the seat next the countess was freely given to him; (4) the achievement of the Mount of Mourning, where was a serpent with a stone in its tail which would give inexhaustible wealth to its possessor; Sir Peredur killed the serpent, but gave the stone to his companion, Earl Etlym of the east country. These exploits over, Sir Peredur lived fourteen years with the Empress Cristinobyl the Great.

Sir Peredur is the Welsh name for Sir Percival of Wales.—The Mabinogion (from the Red Book of Hergest, twelfth century).

Per´egrine (3 syl.), a sentimental prig, who talks by the book. At the age of 15 he runs away from home, and Job Thornberry lends him ten guineas, “the first earnings of his trade as a brazier.” After thirty years absence, Peregrine returns just as the old brazier is made a bankrupt “through the treachery of a friend.” He tells the bankrupt that his loan of ten guineas has by honest trade grown to 10,000, and these he returns to Thornberry as his own by right. It turns out that Peregrine is the eldest brother of Sir Simon Rochdale, J. P., and when Sir Simon refuses justice to the old brazier Peregrine asserts his right to the estate, etc. At the same time, he hears that the ship he thought was wrecked has come safe into port, and has thus brought him £100,000.—G. Colman, junior, John Bull (1805).

Peregrine Pickle, the hero and title of a novel by Smollett (1751). Peregrine Pickle is a savage, ungrateful spendthrift, fond of practical jokes, and suffering with evil temper the misfortunes brought on himself by his own wilfulness.

Peregri´nus Proteus, a cynic philosopher, born at Parium, on the Hellespont. After a youth spent in debauchery and crimes, he turned Christian, and, to obliterate the memory of his youthful ill practices, divided his inheritance among the people. Ultimately he burned himself to death in public at the Olympic games, A.D. 165. Lucan has held up this immolation to ridicule in his Death of Peregrinus; and C. M. Wieland has an historic romance in German entitled Peregrinus Proteus (1733-1813).

Per´es (Gil), a canon, and the eldest brother of Gil Blas’ mother. Gil was a little punchy man, three feet and a half high, with his head sunk between his shoulders. He lived well, and brought up his nephew and godchild, Gil Blas. “In so doing, Perês taught himself also to read his breviary without stumbling.” He was the most illiterate canon of the whole chapter.—Lesage, Gil Blas, i. (1715).

Perez (Michael), the “copper captain,” a brave Spanish soldier, duped into marrying Estifania, a servant of intrigue, who passed herself off as a lady of property. Being reduced to great extremities, Estifania pawned the clothes and valuables of her husband; but these “valuables” were but of little worth—a jewel which sparkled as the “light of a dark lanthorn,” a “chain of whitings’ eyes” for pearls, and as for his clothes, she tauntingly says to her husband:

Put these and them [his jewels] on, and you’re a man of copper,
A copper, copper captain.

Beaumont and Fletcher, Rule a Wife and Have a Wife (1640).

Peri, (plu., Peris), gentle, fairy-like beings of Eastern mythology, offspring of the fallen angels, and constituting a race of beings between angels and men. They direct with a wand the pure-minded the way to heaven, and dwell in Shadu´kiam´ and Am´bre-abad, two cities subject to Eblis.

Are the peries coming down from their spheres?

W. Beckford, Vathek (1786).

Pe´richole (La), the heroine of Offenbach’s comic opera (opera bouffe) of that name. She was originally a street-singer of Lima, the capital of Peru, but became the mistress of the viceroy. She was not a native of Lima and offended the Creole ladies by calling them, in her bad Spanish, pericholas, “flaunting, bedizened creatures,” and they, in retaliation, called her “La Périchole,” i.e., “the flaunting one par excellence.”

Pericles, the Athenian who raised himself to royal supremacy (died B.C. 429). On his death-bed he overheard his friends recalling his various merits, and told them they had forgotten his greatest praise, viz., that no Athenian through his administration had had to put on mourning, i.e. he had caused no one to be put to death.

Perī´cles was a famous man of warre ...
Yet at his death he rather did rejoice
In clemencie.... “Be still,” quoth he, “you grave Athenians”
(Who whisperèd and told his valiant acts);
“You have forgot my greatest glorie got:
For yet by me nor mine occasion
Was never sene a mourning garment worn.”

G. Gascoigne, The Steele Glas (died 1577).

Per´icles, prince of Tyre, a voluntary exile, in order to avert the calamities which Anti´ochus, emperor of Greece, vowed against the Tyrians. Pericles, in his wanderings, first came to Tarsus, which he relieved from famine, but was obliged to quit the city to avoid the persecution of Antiochus. He was then shipwrecked, and cast on the shore of Pentap´olis, where he distinguished himself in the public games, and being introduced to the king, fell in love with the Princess Thaïs´a, and married her. At the death of Antiochus, he returned to Tyre; but his wife, supposed to be dead in giving birth to a daughter (Marina), was thrown into the sea. Periclês entrusted his infant child to Cleon (governor of Tarsus), and his wife, Dionysia, who brought her up excellently well till she became a young woman, when Dionysia employed a man to murder her; and when Periclês came to see her, he was shown a splendid sepulchre which had been raised to her honor. On his return home, the ship stopped at Metalinê, and Marina was introduced to Periclês to divert his melancholy. She told him the tale of her life, and he discovered that she was his daughter. Marina was now betrothed to Lysim´achus, governor of Metalinê; and the party, going to the shrine of Diana of Ephesus to return thanks to the goddess, discovered the priestess to be Thaïsa, the wife of Periclês, and mother of Marina.—Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1608).

* This is the story of Ismene and Ismenias by Eustathius. The tale was known to Gower by the translation of Godfrey Viterbo.

Perigort (Cardinal). Previous to the battle of Poitiers, he endeavors to negotiate terms with the French king, but the only terms he can obtain, he tells Prince Edward, are:

That to the castles, towns, and plunder ta’en,
And offered now by you to be restored,
Your royal person with a hundred knights
Are to be added prisoners at discretion.

Shirley, Edward the Black Prince, iv. 2 (1640).

Peri´got (the t pronounced, so as to rhyme with not), a shepherd in love with Am´oret; but the shepherdess Amaryllis also loves him, and, by the aid of the Sullen Shepherd, gets transformed into the exact likeness of the modest Amoret. By her wanton conduct she disgusts Perigot, who casts her off; and by and by, meeting Amoret, whom he believes to be the same person, rejects her with scorn, and even wounds her with intent to kill. Ultimately the truth is discovered by Clor´in, “the faithful shepherdess,” and the lovers, being reconciled, are married to each other.—John Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess (1610).

Periklym´enos, son of Neleus (2 syl.). He had the power of changing his form into a bird, beast, reptile, or insect. As a bee, he perched on the chariot of Heraklês (Herculês), and was killed.

Peril´los, of Athens, made a brazen bull for Phal´aris, tyrant of Agrigentum, intended for the execution of criminals. They were to be shut up in the bull, and the metal of the bull was to be made red hot. The cries of the victims inside were so reverberated as to resemble the roarings of a gigantic bull. Phalaris made the first experiment by shutting up the inventor himself in his own bull.

What’s a protector?
A tragic actor, Cæsar in a clown;
He’s a brass farthing stamped with a crown;
A bladder blown with other breaths puffed full;
Not a Perillus, but a Perillus’ bull.

John Cleveland, A Definition of a Protector (died 1650).

Perilous Castle. The castle of Lord Douglas was so called in the reign of Edward I., because the good Lord Douglas destroyed several English garrisons stationed there, and vowed to be revenged on any one who dared to take possession of it. Sir W. Scott calls it “Castle Dangerous” in his novel so entitled.

* In the story of Gareth and Linet, the castle in which Lionês was held prisoner by Sir Ironside, the Red Knight of the Red Lands, was called Castle Perilous. The passages to the castle were held by four knights, all of whom Sir Gareth overthrew; lastly he conquered Sir Ironside, liberated the lady, and married her.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 120-153 (1470).

Perimo´nes (Sir), the Red Knight, one of the four brothers who kept the passages to Castle Perilous. He was overthrown by Sir Gareth. Tennyson calls him “Noonday Sun” or “Meridies.”—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 129 (1470); Tennyson, Idylls (“Gareth and Lynette”).

Per´ion, king of Gaul, father of Am´adis of Gaul. His “exploits and adventures” form part of the series called Le Roman des Romans. This part was added by Juan Diaz (fifteenth century).

* It is generally thought that “Gaul” in this romance is the same as Galis, that is “Wales.”

Perissa, the personification of extravagance, step-sister of Elissa (meanness) and of Medi´na (the golden mean); but they never agreed in any single thing. Perissa’s suitor is Sir Huddibras, a man “more huge in strength than wise in works.” (Greek, perissos, “extravagant,” perissotês, “excess.”).—Spenser, Faëry Queen, ii. 2 (1590).

Per´iwinkle (Mr.), one of the four guardians of Anne Lovely, the heiress. He is a silly, half-witted virtuoso, positive and surly; fond of everything antique and foreign; and wears clothes of the last century. Mr. Periwinkle dotes upon travellers, and believes more of Sir John Mandeville than he does of the Bible. Colonel Feignwell, to obtain his consent to his marriage with Mr. Periwinkle’s ward, disguised himself as an Egyptian, and passed himself off as a great traveller. His dress, he said, “belonged to the famous Claudius Ptolemēus, who lived in the year 135.” One of his curiosities was poluflosboio, “part of those waves which bore Cleopatra’s vessel, when she went to meet Antony.” Another was the moros musphonon, or girdle of invisibility. His trick, however, miscarried, and he then personated Pillage, the steward of Periwinkle’s father, and obtained Periwinkle’s signature to the marriage by a fluke.—Mrs. Centlivre, A Bold Stroke For a Wife (1717).

Perker (Mr.), the lawyer employed for the defence in the famous suit of “Bardell v. Pickwick” for the breach of promise.—C. Dickens, The Pickwick Papers (1836).

Perkin Warbeck, an historic play or “chronicle history,” by John Ford (1635).

Perley Kelso. A woman with “a weakness for an occupation, who suffers passions of superfluous life. At the Cape she rebelled because Providence did not create her a bluefisher. In Paris, she would make muslin flowers, and learn the métier to-morrow.”—Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, The Silent Partner (1871).

Pernelle (Madame), mother of Orgon; a regular vixen, who interrupts every one, without waiting to hear what was to have been said to her.—Molière, Tartuffe (1664).

Peronella, a pretty country lass, who changes places with an old decrepit queen. Peronella rejoices for a time in the idolatry paid to her rank, but gladly resumes her beauty, youth, and rags.—A Fairy Tale.

Perrette and her Milk-Pail. Perrette, carrying her milk-pail well-poised upon her head, began to speculate on its value. She would sell the milk and buy eggs; she would set the eggs and rear chickens; the chickens she would sell and buy a pig; this she would fatten and change for a cow and calf, and would it not be delightful to see the little calf skip and play? So saying, she gave a skip, let the milk-pail fall, and all the milk ran to waste. “Le lait tombe. Adieu, veau, vache, cochon, couvée,” and poor Perrette “va s’excuser à son mari, en grand danger d’etre battue.”

Quel esprit ne bat la campagne?
Qui ne fait château en Espagne?
Picrochole [q.v.], Pyrrhus, la laitière, enfin tous,
Autant les sages que les fous....
Quelque accident fait-il que je rentre en moi-même;
Je suis Gros-Jean comme devant.

Lafontaine, Fables (“La Laitière et le Po tau Lait,” 1668).

(Dodsley has this fable, and makes his milkmaid speculate on the gown she would buy with her money. It should be green, and all the young fellows would ask her to dance, but she would toss her head at them all—but ah! in tossing her head, she tossed over her milk-pail.)

* Echephron, an old soldier, related this fable to the advisers of King Picrochole, when they persuaded the king to go to war: A shoemaker bought a ha’p’orth of milk; this he intended to make into butter, and with the money thus obtained he would buy a cow. The cow in due time would have a calf, the calf was to be sold, and the man when he became a nabob would marry a princess; only the jug fell, the milk was spilt, and the dreamer went supperless to bed.—Rabelais, Gargantua, i. 33 (1533).

In a similar day-dream, Alnaschar invested all his money in a basket of glassware, which he intended to sell, and buy other wares, till by barter he became a princely merchant, when he should marry the vizier’s daughter. Being offended with his wife, he became so excited that he kicked out his foot, smashed all his wares, and found himself penniless.—Arabian Nights (“The Barber’s Fifth Brother”).

Perrin, a peasant, the son of Thibaut.—Molière, Le Médecin Malgré Lui (1666).

Persaunt of India (Sir), the Blue Knight, called by Tennyson “Morning Star,” or “Phosphŏrus.” One of the four brothers who kept the passages to Castle Perilous. Overthrown by Sir Gareth.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 131 (1470); Tennyson, Idylls.

“Then, at his call, ‘O, daughters of the Dawn,
And servants of the Morning Star, approach,
Arm me,’ from out the silken curtain-folds
Bare-footed and bare-headed three fair girls
In gilt and rosy raiment came; their feet
In dewy grasses glisten’d; and the hair
All over glanced with dewdrop or with gem,
Like sparkles in the stone Avanturine.
These arm’d him in blue arms, and gave a shield,
Blue also, and thereon the morning star.”

Tennyson, Gareth and Lynette.

Perseus [Per.suce], a famous Argive hero, whose exploits resemble those of Herculês, and hence he was called “The Argive Herculês.”

Benvenuto Cellini made a bronze statue of Perseus, which is in the Loggia dei Lanzi, in Florence.

Perseus’s Horse, a ship. Perseus having cut off Medusa’s head, made the ship Pegasê, the swiftest ship hitherto known, and generally called “Perseus’s flying horse.”

The thick-ribbed bark thro’ liquid mountains cut ...
Like Perseus’ horse.

Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, act i. sc. 3 (1602).

Persian Creed (The). Zoroaster supposes there are two gods or spirit-principles—one good and the other evil. The good is Yezad, and the evil, Ahriman.

Perth (The Fair Maid of), Catharine, or Katie Glover, “universally acknowledged to be the most beautiful young woman of the city or its vicinity.” Catharine was the daughter of Simon Glover (the glover of Perth), and married Henry Smith, the armorer.—Sir W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).

Pertinax (Sir). (See MacSycophant.)

Pertolope (Sir), the Green Knight. One of the four brothers who kept the passages to Castle Perilous. He was overthrown by Sir Gareth. Tennyson calls him “Evening Star,” or “Hesperus.”—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 127 (1470); Tennyson, Idylls.

“For there, beyond a bridge of treble bow,
All in a rose-red from the west, and all
Naked it seem’d, and glowing in the broad,
Deep-dimpled current underneath, the knight
That named himself the Star of Evening, stood,
And Gareth, ‘Wherefore waits the madman there
Naked in open dayshine?’ ‘Nay,’ she cried,
‘Not naked, only wrapt in harden’d skins
That fit him like his own; and so ye cleave
His armor off him, these will turn the blade.’”

Tennyson, Gareth and Lynette.

Perviz (Prince), son of the Sultan Khrosru-schar of Persia. At birth he was taken away by the sultana’s sisters, and set adrift on a canal, but was rescued and brought up by the superintendent of the sultan’s gardens. When grown to manhood, “the talking-bird” told the sultan that Pervis was his son, and the young prince, with his brother and sister, were restored to their rank and position in the empire of Persia.—Arabian Nights (“The Two Sisters”).

Prince Perviz’s String of Pearls. When Prince Perviz went on his exploits, he gave his sister, Parizādê, a string of pearls, saying, “So long as these pearls move readily on the string, you will know that I am alive and well; but if they stick fast and will not move, it will signify that I am dead.”—Arabian Nights (“The Two Sisters”).

* Birtha’s emerald ring, and Prince Bahman’s knife gave similar warning. (See Birtha and Bahman.)

Pescec´ola, a famous diver, whose English name was Fish (Italian, Pesce = fish). He dived in the pool of Charybdis and returned. King Frederick then threw a golden cup into the pool; Pescecola dived for it, and was drowned.

Schiller, in The Diver, tells the story, but gives the diver no name.

Pest (Mr.), a barrister.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Pet, a fair girl, with rich brown hair hanging free in natural ringlets. A lovely girl, with a free, frank face, and most wonderful eyes—so large, so soft, so bright, and set to perfection in her kind, good face. She was round, and fresh, and dimpled, and spoilt, most charmingly timid, most bewitchingly self-willed. She was the daughter of Mr. Meagles, and married Henry Gowan.—C. Dickens, Little Dorrit (1857).

Pétaud (King), king of the beggars.

“It is an old saying,” replied the Abbé Huet, “Petaud being derived from the Latin peto, ‘I beg.’”—Asylum Christi, ii.

The court of King Pétaud, a disorderly assembly, a place of utter confusion, a bear-garden.

On n’y respecte rien, chacun y parle haut,
Et c’est tout justement le cour du roi Pétaud.

Molière Tartuffe, i. 1 (1664).

Le cour du roi Pétaud, où chacun est maitre.—French Proverb.

Petella, the waiting-woman of Rosalura and Lillia-Bianca, the two daughters of Nantolet.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Wild-goose Chase (1652).

Peter, the stupid son of Solomon, butler of the Count Wintersen. He grotesquely parrots in an abridged form whatever his father says. Thus: Sol. “we are acquainted with the reverence due to exalted personages.” Pet. “Yes, we are acquainted with exalted personages.” Again: Sol. “Extremely sorry it is not in my power to entertain your lordship.” Pet. “Extremely sorry.” Sol. “Your lordship’s most obedient, humble, and devoted servant.” Pet. “Devoted servant.”—Benjamin Thompson, The Stranger (1797).

Peter, the pseudonym of John Gibson Lockhart, in a work entitled Peter’s Letters to his Kinsfolk (1819).

Peter (Lord), the pope of Rome.—Dean Swift, Tale of a Tub (1704).

Peter Botte, a steep, almost perpendicular “mountain” in the Mauritius, more than 2800 feet in height. It is so called from Peter Botte, a Dutch sailor, who scaled it and fixed a flag on its summit, but lost his life in coming down.

Peter Parley, the nom de plume of Samuel G. Goodrich, an American, whose books for children had an enormous circulation in the middle of the nineteenth century (1793-1860).

The name was pirated by numerous persons. Darton and Co., Simkins, Bogue, Tegg, Hodson, Clements, etc., brought out books under the name, but not written by S. G. Goodrich.

Peter Peebles, a litigious, hard-hearted drunkard, noted for his lawsuit.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Peter Pindar, the pseudonym of Dr. John Wolcot, of Dodbrooke, Devonshire (1738-1819).

Peter Plymley’s Letters, attributed to the Rev. Sydney Smith (1769-1845).

Peter Porcupine, William Cobbett, when he was a tory. He brought out Peter Porcupine’s Gazette, The Porcupine Papers, etc. (1762-1835).

Peter Wilkins, the hero of a tale of adventures, by Robert Pultock, of Clifford’s Inn. His “flying woman” (gawreys) suggested to Southey the “glendoveer” in The Curse of Kehama.

Peter of Provence and the Fair Magalo´na, the chief characters of a French romance so called. Peter comes into possession of Merlin’s wooden horse.

Peter the Great of Egypt, Mehemet Ali (1768-1848.

Peter the Hermit, a gentleman of Amiens, who renounced the military life for the religious. He preached up the first crusade, and put himself at the head of 100,000 men, all of whom, except a few stragglers, perished at Nicea.

He is introduced by Tasso in Jerusalem Delivered (1575); and by Sir W. Scott in Count Robert of Paris, a novel laid in the time of Rufus. A statue was erected to him at Amiens in 1854.

Peter, the Wild Boy, a savage discovered in November, 1725, in the forest of Hertswold, Hanover. He walked on all fours, climbed trees like a monkey, ate grass and other herbage. Efforts were made to reclaim him, but without success. He died February, 1785.

Peter’s Gate (St.), the gate of purgatory, guarded by an angel stationed there by St. Peter. Virgil conducted Dantê through hell and purgatory, and Beatrice was his guide through the planetary spheres. Dantê says to the Mantuan bard:

... lead me,
That I St. Peter’s gate may view ...
Onward he moved, I close his steps pursued.

Dantê, Hell, i. (1300).

Peterborough, in Northamptonshire; so called from Peada (son of Pendar, king of Mercia), who founded here a monastery in the seventh century. In 1541 the monastery (then a mitred abbey) was converted by Henry VIII. into a cathedral and bishop’s see. Before Peada’s time, Peterborough was a village called Medhamsted.—See Drayton, Polyolbion, xxiii. (1622).

Peters (Dr.), benevolent, eccentric physician, who is a sympathetic fellow-sinner to the most depraved of his patients, going through it all “with a grimly humorous hope that some good, in some unseen direction, may come of it.” The waif, Midge, committed by fate to his guardianship, steals his heart, and finally wrings it to bleeding by marrying another man.—H. C. Bunner, The Midge (1886).

Peterson, a Swede, who deserts from Gustavus Vasa to Christian II., king of Denmark.—H. Brooke, Gustavus Vasa (1730).

Petit André, executioner.—Sir W. Scott, Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).

Petit Perroquet, a king’s gardener, with whom the king’s daughter fell in love. It so happened that a prince was courting the lady, and, being jealous of Petit Perroquet, said to the king that the young man boasted he could bring hither Tartaro’s horse. Now Tartaro was a huge giant and a cannibal. Petit Perroquet, however, made himself master of the horse. The prince next told the king that the young gardener boasted he could get possession of the giant’s diamond. This he also contrived to make himself master of. The prince then told the king that the young man boasted he could bring hither the giant himself; and the way he accomplished the feat was to cover himself first, with honey, and then with feathers and horns. Thus disguised, he told the giant, to get into the coach he was driving, and he drove him to the king’s court, and then married the princess.—Rev. W. Webster, Basque Legends (1877).

Pe´to, lieutenant of “Captain” Sir John Falstaff’s regiment. Pistol was his ensign or ancient, and Bardolph his corporal.—Shakespeare, 1 and 2 Henry IV. (1597-8).

Petow´ker (Miss Henrietta), of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. She marries Mr. Lillyvick, the collector of water-rates, but elopes with an officer.—C. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby (1838).

Petrarch (The English). Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) is so called by Sir Walter Raleigh.

Petrarch and Laura. Laura was a lady of Avignon, the wife of Hugues de Sade, née Laura de Noves, the mistress of the poet Petrarch. (See Laura and Petrarch.)

Petrarch of Spain, Garcilaso de la Vega, born at Toledo (1530-1568, or, according to others, 1503-1536).

Petro´nius (C. or T.), a kind of Roman “beau Brummell” in the court of Nero. He was a great voluptuary and profligate, whom Nero appointed Arbiter Elegantiæ, and considered nothing comme il faut till it had received the sanction of this dictator-in-chief of the imperial pleasures. Tigellinus accused him of treason, and Petronius committed suicide by opening his veins (A.D. 66).

Behold the new Petronius of the day,
The arbiter of pleasure and of play.

Byron, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809).

Petruccio = Pe.truch´.e.o, governor of Bologna.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Chances (1620).

Petru´chio, a gentleman of Vero´na who undertakes to tame the haughty Katharina, called “the Shrew.” He marries her, and, without the least personal chastisement, reduces her to lamb-like submission. Being a fine compound of bodily and mental vigor, with plenty of wit, spirit, and good-nature, he rules his subordinates dictatorially, and shows he will have his own way, whatever the consequences.—Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew (1594).

Beaumont and Fletcher wrote a comedy called The Tamer Tamed, in which Petruchio is supposed to marry a second wife, by whom he is hen-pecked (1647).

Pet´ulant, an “odd sort of small wit,” “without manners or breeding.” In controversy he would bluntly contradict, and he never spoke the truth. When in his “club,” in order to be thought a man of intrigue, he would steal out quietly, and then in disguise return and call for himself, or leave a letter for himself. He not unfrequently mistook impudence and malice for wit, and looked upon a modest blush in woman as a mark of “guilt or ill-breeding.”—W. Congreve, The Way of the World (1700).

Peu-à-Peu. So George IV. called Prince Leopold. Stein, speaking of the prince’s vacillating conduct in reference to the throne of Greece, says of him, “He has no color,” i.e. no fixed plan of his own, but is blown about by every wind.

Peveril (William), natural son of William the Conqueror, and ancestor of Peveril of the Peak.

Sir Geoffrey Peveril, a cavalier, called “Peveril of the Peak.”

Lady Margaret Peveril, wife of Sir Geoffrey.

Julian Peveril, son of Sir Geoffrey; in love with Alice Bridgenorth. He was named by the author after Julian Young, son of the famous actor.—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

“Whom is he called after!” said Scott. “It is a fancy name,” said Young: “in memoriam of his mother, Julia Ann.” “Well, it is a capital name for a novel, I must say,” he replied. In the very next novel by the author of Waverley, the hero’s name is “Julian.” I allude, of course, to Peveril of the Peak.—J. Young, Memoirs, 91.

Peveril of the Peak, the hero of Sir W. Scott’s novel of that name (1823).

Peyton (Dunwoodie), fine young fellow, major in the American army, and in love with Frances Wharton. Yet, when forced to choose between marrying her at once or doing his duty in keeping her brother under arrest, he plays the man of honor and true soldier. After many vicissitudes he becomes the husband of Frances.

Peyton (Miss Jeannette), sister-in-law to Mr. Wharton, relative of Major Dunwoodie, and affectionate guardian of her nieces. A warm friend of Dr. Sitgreaves, the American surgeon.—James Fennimore Cooper, The Spy.

Phædra, daughter of Minos, and wife of Theseus. (See Phedre.)

Phædra, waiting-woman of Alcme´na (wife of Amphit´ryon). A type of venality of the lowest and grossest kind. Phædra is betrothed to Judge Gripus, a stupid magistrate, ready to sell justice to the highest bidder. Neither Phædra nor Gripus forms any part of the dramatis personæ of Molière’s Amphitryon (1668).—Dryden, Amphitryon (1690).

Phædria, the impersonation of wantonness. She is handmaid of the enchantress Acrasia, and sails about Idle Lake in a gondola. Seeing Sir Guyon, she ferries him across the lake to the floating island, where he is set upon by Cymoch´les. Phædria interposes, and ferries Sir Guyon (the Knight Temperance) over the lake again.—Spenser, Faëry Queen, ii. (1590).

Pha´eton (3 syl.), son, of Helĭos and Clymēnê. He obtained leave to drive his father’s sun-car for one day, but was overthrown, and nearly set the world on fire. Jove or Zeus (1 syl.) struck him with a thunderbolt for his presumption, and cast him into the river Po.

Phal´aris, tyrant of Agrigentum, in Sicily. When Perillos, the brass-founder of Athens, brought to him a brazen bull, and told the tyrant it was intended for the punishment of criminals, Phalăris inquired into its merits. Perillos said the victim was to be enclosed in the bull, and roasted alive, by making the figure red hot. Certain tubes were so constructed as to make the groans of the victim resemble the bellowings of a mad bull. The tyrant much commended the ingenuity, and ordered the invention to be tried on Perillos himself.

Letters of Phalaris, certain apocryphal letters ascribed to Phalaris, the tyrant, and published at Oxford, in 1718, by Charles Boyle. There was an edition in 1777 by Walckenaer; another in 1823, by G. H. Schæfer, with notes by Boyle and others. Bentley maintained that the letters were forgeries, and no doubt Bentley was right.

Phallas, the horse of Heraclius (Greek, phalios, “a grey horse.”).

Pha´on, a young man who loved Claribel, but being told that she was unfaithful to him, watched her. He saw, as he thought, Claribel holding an assignation with some one he supposed to be a groom. Returning home, he encountered Claribel herself, and “with wrathfull hand he slew her innocent.” On the trial for murder, “the lady” was proved to be Claribel’s servant. Phaon would have slain her also, but while he was in pursuit of her he was attacked by Furor.—Spenser, Faëry Queen, ii. 4, 28, etc. (1590).

* Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing is a similar story. Both are taken from a novel by Belleforest, copied from one by Bandello. Ariosto, in his Orlando Furioso, has introduced a similar story (bk. v.), and Turbervil’s Geneura is the same tale.

Pharamond, king of the Franks, who visited, incognito, the court of King Arthur, to obtain by his exploits a place among the knights of the Round Table. He was the son of Marcomir, and father of Clodion.

Calprenède has an heroic romance so called, which (like his Cleopatra and Cassandra) is a Roman de Longue Haleine (1612-1666).

Pharamond, prince of Spain, in the drama called Philaster, or Love Lies a-bleeding, by Beaumont and Fletcher (date uncertain, probably about 1662).

Pharaoh, the titular name of all the Egyptian kings till the time of Solomon, as the Roman emperors took the titular name of Cæsar. After Solomon’s time, the titular name Pharaoh never occurs alone, but only as a forename, as Pharaoh Necho, Pharaoh Hophra, Pharaoh Shishak. After the division of Alexander’s kingdom, the kings of Egypt were all called Ptolemy, generally with some distinctive after-name, as Ptolemy Philadelphos, Ptolemy Euergetês, Ptolemy Philopător, etc.—Selden, Titles of Honor, v. 50 (1614).

Pharaohs before Solomon (mentioned in the Old Testament):

1. Pharaoh contemporary with Abraham (Gen. xii. 15). This may be Osirtesen I. (dynasty xii.).

2. The good Pharaoh who advanced Joseph (Gen. xli.). This was, perhaps, Apōphis (one of the Hyksos).

3. The Pharaoh who “knew not Joseph” (Exod. i. 8). This may be Amen´ophis I. (dynasty xviii.). The king, at the flight of Moses, I think, was Thothmes II.

4. The Pharaoh drowned in the Red Sea. As this was at least eighty years after the persecutions began, probably this was another king. Some say it was Menephthes, son of Ram´eses II., but it seems quite impossible to reconcile the account in Exodus with any extant historical account of Egypt (Exod. xiv. 28). Was it Thothmes III.?

5. The Pharaoh who protected Hadad (1 Kings xi. 19).

6. The Pharaoh whose daughter Solomon married (1 Kings iii. 1; ix. 16). I think this was Psusennes I. (dynasty xxi.).

Pharaohs after Solomon’s time (mentioned in the Old Testament):

1. Pharaoh Shishak, who warred against Rehoboam (1 Kings xiv. 25, 26; 2 Chron. xii. 2).

2. The Pharaoh called “So” king of Egypt, with whom Hoshea made an alliance (2 Kings xvii. 4).

3. The Pharaoh who made a league with Hezekiah against Sennacherib. He is called Tirhākah (2 Kings, xviii. 21; xix. 9).

4. Pharaoh Necho, who warred against Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 29, etc.).

5. Pharaoh Hophra, the ally of Zedekiah. Said to be Pharaoh Apries, who was strangled, B.C. 569-525 (Jer. xliv. 30).

* Bunsen’s solution of the Egyptian dynasties cannot possibly be correct.

Pharaohs noted in romance:

1. Cheops, or Suphis I., who built the great pyramid (dynasty iv.).

2. Cephrenês, or Suphis II., his brother, who built the second pyramid.

3. Mencherês, his successor, who built the most beautiful, though not the largest, of the pyramids.

4. Memnon, or A-menophis III., whose musical statue is so celebrated (dynasty xviii.).

5. Sethos I. the Great, whose tomb was discovered by Belzoni (dynasty xix.).

6. Sethos II., called “Proteus,” who detained Helen and Paris in Egypt (dynasty xix.).

7. Phuōris or Thuōris, who sent aid to Priam in the siege of Troy.

8. Rampsinītus or Rameses Nēter, the miser, mentioned by Herodotus (dynasty xx.).

9. Osorthon IV. (or Osorkon), the Egyptian Herculês (dynasty xxiii.).

Pharaoh’s Daughter. The daughter of Pharaoh, who brought up Moses, was Bathia.

Pharaoh’s Wife, Asia, daughter of Mozâhem. Her husband cruelly tormented her because she believed in Moses. He fastened her hands and feet to four stakes, and laid a millstone on her as she lay in the hot sun with her face upwards; but angels shaded off the sun with their wings, and God took her, without dying, into Paradise.—Sale, Al Korân, lxvi. note.

Among women, four have been perfect; Asia, wife of Pharaoh; Mary, daughter of Imràn; Khadîjah, daughter of Khowailed, Mahomet’s first wife; and Fâtima, Mahomet’s daughter.—Attributed to Mahomet.

* There is considerable doubt respecting the Pharaoh meant—whether the Pharaoh, whose daughter adopted Moses, or the Pharaoh who was drowned in the Red Sea. The tale suits the latter king far better than it does the first.

Pharsa´lia (The), a Latin epic in ten books, by Lucan, the subject being the fall and death of Pompey. It opens with the passage of Cæsar across the Rubĭcon. This river formed the boundary of his province, and his crossing it was virtually a declaration of war (bk. i.). Pompey is appointed by the senate general of the army to oppose him (bk. v.). Cæsar retreats to Thessaly; Pompey follows (bk. vi.), and both prepare for war. Pompey, being routed in the battle of Pharsalia, flees (bk. vii.), and seeking protection in Egypt, is met by Achillas, the Egyptian general, who murders him, cuts off his head, and casts his body into the sea (bk. viii.). Cato leads the residue of Pompey’s army to Cyrēnê, in Africa (bk. ix.); and Cæsar, in pursuit of Pompey, landing at Alexandria, is hospitably entertained by Cleopatra (bk. x.). While here, he tarries in luxurious dalliance, the palace is besieged by Egyptians, and Cæsar with difficulty escapes to Pharos. He is closely pursued, hemmed in on all sides, and leaps into the sea. With his imperial robe held between his teeth, his commentaries in his left hand, and his sword in his right, he buffets the waves. A thousand javelins are hurled at him, but touch him not. He swims for empire, he swims for life; ’tis Cæsar and his fortunes that the waves bear on. He reaches his fleet; is received by his soldiers with thundering applause. The stars in their courses fought for Cæsar. The sea-gods were with him, and Egypt with her host was a by-word and a scorn.

* Bk. ix. contains the account of the African serpents, by far the most celebrated passage of the whole poem. The following is a pretty close translation of the passage in question. It would have occupied too much room to give their onslaught also:—

Here all the serpent deadly brood appears;
First the dull Asp its swelling neck uprears;
The huge Hemor´rhoïs, vampire of the blood;
Chersy´ders, that pollute both field and flood;
The Water-serpent, tyrant of the lake;
The hooded Cobra; and the Plantain snake;
Here with distended jaws the Prester strays;
And Seps, whose bite both flesh and bone decays;
The Amphisbæna with its double head,
One on the neck, and one of tail instead;
The horned Cerastês; and the Hammodyte,
Whose sandy hue might balk the keenest sight;
A feverish thirst betrays the Dipsas’ sting;
The Scytăla, its slough that casts in spring;
The Natrix here the crystal streams pollutes;
Swift thro’ the air the venomed Javelin shoots;
Here the Parēas, moving on its tail,
Marks in the sand its progress by its trail;
The speckled Cenchris darts its devious way,
Its skin with spots as Theban marble gay;
The hissing Sibīla; and Basilisk,
With whom no living thing its life would risk,
Where’er it moves none else would dare remain,
Tyrant alike and terror of the plain.

E. C. B.

In this battle Pompey had 45,000 legionaries, 7000 horse, and a large number of auxiliaries. Cæsar had 22,000 legionaries, and 1000 horse. Pompey’s battle cry was Herculês invictus! That of Cæsar was Venus victrix! Cæsar won the battle.

Phebe (2 syl.), a shepherdess beloved by the shepherd Silvius. While Rosalind was in boy’s clothes, Phebe fell in love with the stranger, and made a proposal of marriage; but when Rosalind appeared in her true character, and gave her hand to Orlando, Phebe was content to accept her old love, Silvius.—Shakespeare, As You Like It (1600).

Phedre (or Phædra), daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and wife of Theseus. She conceived a criminal love for Hippolytos, her step-son, and, being repulsed by him, accused him to her husband of attempting to dishonor her. Hippolytos was put to death, and Phædra, wrung with remorse, strangled herself.

This has been made the subject of tragedy by Eurip´idês in Greek, Sen´eca in Latin, Racine in French (1677). “Phèdre” was the great part of Mdlle. Rachel; she first appeared in this character in 1838.

(Pradon, under the patronage of the duchess de Bouillon and the duc de Nevers, produced, in 1677, his tragedy of Phèdre in opposition to that of Racine. The duke even tried to hiss down Racine’s play, but the public judgment was more powerful than the duke; and, while it pronounced decidedly for Racine’s chef d’œuvre, it had no tolerance for Pradon’s production.)

Phelis “the Fair,” the wife of Sir Guy, earl of Warwick.

Phid´ias (The French), (1) Jean Goujon; also called “The Correggio of Sculptors.” He was slain in the St. Bartholomew Massacre (1510-1572). (2) J. B. Pigalle (1714-1785).

Phil (Little), the lad of John Davies, the old fisherman.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Philaminte (3 syl.), wife of Chrysale, the bourgeois, and mother of Armande, Henrietta, Ariste, and Bélise.—Molière, Les Femmes Savantes (1672).

Philan´der, of Holland, was a guest at the house of Arge´o, baron of Servia, and the baron’s wife, Gabri´na, fell in love with him. Philander fled the house, and Gabrina told her husband he had abused her, and had fled out of fear of him. He was pursued, overtaken, and cast into a dungeon. One day Gabrina visited him there and asked him to defend her against a wicked knight. This he undertook to do, and Gabrina posted him in a place where he could make his attack. Philander slew the knight, but discovered that it was Argeo. Gabrina now declared she would give him up to justice unless he married her; and Philander, to save his life, did so. But in a very short time the infamous woman tired of her toy, and cut him off by poison.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

Philander, a dawdling lover; so called from Philander, the Dutch knight mentioned above, who was wooed by Gabrina. To “philander” is to hang about a woman in a half-hearted way; to toy.

Yes, I’ll baste you together, you and your Philander.—W. Congreve, The Way of the World (1700).

Philander, prince of Cyprus, passionately in love with the Princess Ero´ta.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Laws of Candy (1647).

Philanthropist (The), John Howard (1726-1790).

Philario, an Italian, at whose house Posthumus made his silly wager with Iachimo. (See Posthumus.)—Shakespeare, Cymbeline (1605).

Philario, an Italian improvisatore, who remained faithful to Fazio even in disgrace.—Dean Milman, Fazio (1815).

Philaster (Prince), heir to the crown of Messi´na. Euphra´sia, who was in love with Philaster, disguised herself as a boy, and, assuming for the nonce the name of Bellario, entered the prince’s service. Philaster, who was in love with the Princess Arethu´sa, transferred Bellario to her service, and then grew jealous of Arethusa’s love for the young page.—Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster, or Love Lies a-bleeding (? 1622).

There is considerable resemblance between Euphrasia and “Viola” in Twelfth Night (Shakespeare, 1614).

Philax, cousin of the Princess Imis. The fay Pagan shut them up in the “Palace of Revenge,” a superb crystal palace, containing every delight except the power of leaving it. In the course of a few years Imis and Philax longed as much for a separation as at one time they had wished for a union.—Comtesse D’Aunoy, Fairy Tales (“Palace of Revenge,” 1682).

Phile´mon (3 syl.), an aged rustic who, with his wife, Baucis, hospitably received Jupiter and Mercury, after every one else had refused to receive them. The gods sent an inundation to destroy the inhospitable people, but saved Baucis and Philemon, and converted their cottage into a magnificent temple. At their own request the aged couple died on the same day, and were changed into two trees, which stood before the temple.—Greek Mythology.

Philinte (2 syl.), friend of Alceste (2 syl.)—Molière, Le Misanthrope (1666).

Philip, father of William Swidger. His favorite expression was, “Lord, keep my memory green. I am 87.”—C. Dickens, The Haunted Man (1848).

Philip, the butler of Mr. Peregrine Lovel; a hypocritical, rascally servant, who pretends to be most careful of his master’s property, but who in reality wastes it most recklessly, and enriches himself with it most unblushingly. Being found out, he is summarily dismissed.—Rev. J. Townley, High Life Below Stairs (1759).

Philip (Father), sacristan of St. Mary’s.—Sir W. Scott, The Monastery (time, Elizabeth).

Philip Augustus, king of France, introduced by Sir W. Scott in The Talisman (time, Richard I.).

Philip Nolan, officer in U. S. Navy, condemned by president of court martial for complicity with Aaron Burr, and for swearing at the United States, “never to hear the name of the United States again.” He is passed from one man-of-war to another, never allowed to converse upon national affairs, to see a U. S. newspaper or read a history of the United States, until homesick and heartsick, after an exile of fifty-five years, he dies, praying for the country that had disowned him.—Edward Everett Hale, The Man Without a Country (1863).

Philip Nye, brought up for the Anglican Church, but became a Presbyterian, and afterwards an independent. He was noted for the cut of his beard.

This reverend brother, like a goat,
Did wear a tail upon his throat.
But set in such a curious frame,
As if ’twere wrought in filograin,
And cut so even, as if ’t had been
Drawn with a pen upon his chin.

S. Butler, On Philip Nye’s Thanksgiving Beard (1652).

Philip Ogden, lover and hero in Blanche Willis Howard’s One Summer. He is nearly blinded by the point of Leigh’s umbrella at their first meeting, and after an idyllic courtship they are wedded (1875).

Philip Quarl, a castaway-sailor, who becomes a hermit. His “man Friday” is a chimpanzee.—Philip Quarl (1727).

Philip’s Four Daughters. We are told, in Acts xxi. 9, that Philip, the deacon or evangelist, had four daughters which did prophesy.

Helen, the mother of great Constantine,
Nor yet St. Philip’s daughters, were like thee [Joan of Arc].

Shakespeare, 1 Henry VI. act i. sc. 2 (1589).

Philippe, a parched and haggard wretch, infirm and bent beneath a pile of years, yet shrewd and cunning, greedy of gold, malicious, and looked upon by the common people as an imp of darkness. It was this old villain who told Thancmar that the provost of Bruges was the son of a serf on Thancmar’s estates.—S. Knowles, The Provost of Bruges (1836).

Philippe Egalité, (4 syl.), Louis Philippe, duc d’Orléans (1747-1793).

Philipson (The elder), John, earl of Oxford, an exiled Lancastrian, who goes to France disguised as a merchant.

Arthur Philipson, Sir Arthur de Vere, son of the earl of Oxford, whom he accompanies to the court of King René of Provence.—Sir W. Scott, Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).

Phil´isides (3 syl.), Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586).

It was the harp of Phil´isides, now dead....
And now in heaven a sign it doth appear,
The Harp well known beside the Northern Bear.

Spenser, The Ruins of Time (1591).

* Phili[p] Sid[ney], with the Greek termination, makes Phili-sides. Bishop Hall calls the word Phil-is´-ides: “Which sweet Philis´ides fetched of late from France.”

Philistines, a title complacently bestowed, in England and America, by the advance-guard in literature and art, on the Conservatives. The French equivalent is “les bourgeois.”

Demonstrative and offensive whiskers, which are the special inheritance of the British Philistines.—Mrs. Oliphant, Phœbe, Junr., i. 2.

Phillips (Jessie), the title and chief character of a novel by Mrs. Trollope, the object being an attack on the new poor-law system (1843).

Phillis, a drama written in Spanish, by Lupercio Leonardo, of Argensola.—Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605-15).

Phillis, a pastoral name for a maiden.

Where Corydon and Thyrsis met,
Are at their savory dinner set,
Of herbs and other country messes,
Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses.

Milton, L’Allegro (1638).

Phillis, “the Exigent,” asked “Damon thirty sheep for a kiss;” next day, she promised him thirty kisses for a sheep;” the third day, she would have given “thirty sheep for a kiss;” and the fourth day, Damon bestowed his kisses for nothing on Lizette.—C. Rivière Dufresny, La Coquette de Village (1715).

Philo, a Pharisee, one of the Jewish sanhedrim, who hated Caiaphas, the high priest, for being a Sadducee. Philo made a vow in the judgment hall, that he would take no rest till Jesus was numbered with the dead. In bk. xiii. he commits suicide, and his soul is carried to hell by Obaddon, the angel of death.—Klopstock, The Messiah, iv. (1771).

Philoc´lea, one of the heroines in Sir Philip Sidney’s “Arcadia.” It has been sought to identify her with Lady Penelopê Devereux, with whom Sidney was thought to be in love.

Philocte´tes (4 syl.) one of the Argonauts, who was wounded in the foot while on his way to Troy. An oracle declared to the Greeks that Troy could not be taken “without the arrows of Herculês,” and as Herculês at death had given them to Philoctētês, the Greek chiefs sent for him, and he repaired to Troy in the tenth and last year of the siege.

All dogs have their day, even rabid ones. Sorrowful, incurable Philoctetês Marat, without whom Troy cannot be taken.—Carlyle.

Philomel, daughter of Pandīon, king of Attica. She was converted into a nightingale.

Philosopher (The), Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the Roman emperor, was so called by Justin Martyr (121, 161-180).

Leo VI., emperor of the East (866, 886-911).

Porphyry, the Neoplatonist (223-304).

Alfred or Alured, surnamed “Anglicus,” was also called “The Philosopher” (died 1270).

Philosopher of China, Confucius (B.C. 551-479).

Philosopher of Ferney, Voltaire, who lived at Ferney, near Geneva, for the last twenty years of his life (1694-1778).

Philosopher of Malmesbury, Thomas Hobbs, author of Leviathan. He was born at Malmesbury (1588-1679).

Philosopher of Persia (The), Abou Ebn Sina, of Shiraz (died 1037).

Philosopher of Sans Souci, Frederick the Great of Prussia (1712, 1740-1786).

* Frederick, elector of Saxony, was called “The Wise” (1463, 1544-1554).

Philosopher of Wimbledon (The), John Horne Tooke, author of the Diversions of Purley. He lived at Wimbledon, near London (1736-1812).

(For the philosophers of the different Greek sects, as the Cynic, Cyrenaic, Eleac, Eleatic, Epicurean, Haraclitian, Ionic, Italic, Megaric, Peripatetic, Sceptic, Socratic, Stoic, etc., see Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 680-1.)

Philosophers (The five English): (1) Roger Bacon, author of Opus Majus (1214-1292; (2) Sir Francis Bacon, author of Novum Orgănum (1561-1626); (3) the Hon. Robert Boyle (1627-1691; (4) John Locke, author of a treatise on the Human Understanding and Innate Ideas (1632-1704); (5) Sir Isaac Newton, author of Princip´ia (1641-1727).

Philosophy (The Father of), (1) Albrecht von Haller, of Berne (1708-1777). (2) Roger Bacon is also so called (1214-1292).

Philosophy (The Father of Inductive), Francis Bacon [Lord Verulam] (1561-1626).

Philosophy (The Father of Roman), Cicero, the orator (B.C.) 106-43).

Philosophy (The Nursing Mother of). Mde. de Boufflers was so called by Marie Antoinette.

Phil´ostrate (3 syl.), master of the revels to Theseus (2 syl.) king of Athens.—Shakespeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream (1592).

Philo´tas, son of Parmenio, and commander of the Macedonian cavalry. He was charged with plotting against Alexander the Great. Being put to the rack, he confessed his guilt, and was stoned to death.

The king may doom to me a thousand tortures,
Ply me with fire, and rack me like Philotas,
Ere I will stoop to idolize his pride.

N. Lee, Alexander the Great, i. 1 (1678).

Philot´ime (4 syl., “love of glory”), daughter of Mammon, whom the money-god offers to Sir Guyon for a wife; but the knight declines the honor, saying he is bound by love-vows to another.—Spenser, Faëry Queen, ii. 7 (1590).

Philot´imus, Ambition personified. (Greek, Philo-tīmus, “ambitious, covetous of honor.”)—Phineas Fletcher, The Purple Island, viii. (1633).

Philotimus, steward of the house in the suite of Gargantua.—Rabelais, Gargantua, i. 18 (1533).

Philpot (Senior), an avaricious old hunks, and father of George Philpot. The old city merchant cannot speak a sentence without bringing in something about money. “He wears square-toed shoes with little tiny buckles, a brown coat with small brass buttons.... His face is all shrivelled and pinched with care, and he shakes his head like a mandarin upon a chimney-piece” (act i. 1).

When I was very young, I performed the part of “Old Philpot,” at Brighton, with great success, and next evening I was introduced into a club-room full of company. On hearing my name announced, one of the gentlemen laid down his pipe, and taking up his glass, said, “Here’s to your health, young gentleman, and to your father’s, too. I had the pleasure of seeing him last night in the part of ‘Philpot,’ and a very nice, clever old gentleman he is. I hope, young sir, you may one day be as good an actor as your worthy father.”—Munden.

George Philpot. The profligate son of old Philpot, destined for Maria Wilding, but the betrothal is broken off, and Maria marries Beaufort. George wants to pass for a dashing young blade, but is made the dupe of every one. “Bubbled at play; duped by a girl to whom he paid his addresses; cudgelled by a rake; laughed at by his cronies; snubbed by his father, and despised by every one.”—Murphy, The Citizen (1757 or 1761).

Philtra, a lady of large fortune, betrothed to Bracĭdas; but, seeing the fortune of Amĭdas daily increasing, and that of Bracidas getting smaller and smaller, she forsook the declining fortune of her first lover, and attached herself to the more prosperous younger brother.—Spenser, Faëry Queen, v. 4 (1596).

Phineus [Fi´.nuce], a blind soothsayer, who was tormented by the harpies. Whenever a meal was set before him, the harpies came and carried it off, but the Argonauts delivered him from these pests in return for his information respecting the route they were to take in order to obtain the golden fleece. (See Tiresias.)

Tiresias and Phineus, prophets old.

Milton, Paradise Lost, iii. 36 (1665).

Phiz, the pseudonym of Hablot K. Browne, who illustrated the Pickwick Papers (1836), Nicholas Nickleby, and most of Charles Dickens’s works of fiction. He also illustrated the Abbotsford edition of the Waverley Novels.

Phleg´rian Size, gigantic. Phlegra, or the Phlegræ´an plain, in Macedon, is where the giants attacked the gods, and were defeated by Hercŭlés. Drayton makes the diphthong æ a short i:

Whose only love surprised those of the Phlegrian size,
The Titanois, that once against high heaven durst rise.

Polyolbion, vi. (1612).

Phobbs. Captain and Mrs. Phobbs, with Mrs. Major Phobbs, a widow, sister-in-law to the captain, in Lend Me Five Shillings, by J. M. Morton.

Pho´cion, husband of Euphra´sia, “the Grecian daughter.”—A. Murphy, The Grecian Daughter (1772).

Pho´cyas, general of the Syrian army in the siege of Damascus. Phocyas was in love with Eudo´cia, daughter of Eu´menês, the governor, but when he asked the governor’s consent, Eumenês sternly refused to give it. After gaining several battles, Phocyas fell into the hands of the Arabs, and consented to join their army to revenge himself on Eumenês. The Arabs triumphed, and Eudocia was taken captive, but she refused to wed a traitor. Ultimately, Phocyas died, and Eudocia entered a convent.—John Hughes, Siege of Damascus (1720).

Phœbe, village girl seduced and afterward married by Barry Crittenden. He takes her to the cottage allotted him by his father, and introduces her to his mother and sisters. She tries diligently to adapt herself to her new sphere until she becomes jealous of a woman whom she imagines Barry once fancied, and now loves. Phœbe flees secretly to her mother’s cottage, taking her child with her, and refuses to return to her husband, until accident reveals the causelessness of her jealousy.—Miriam Coles Harris, Phœbe (1884).

Phœbus, the sun-god. Phœbe (2 syl.), the moon-goddess.—Greek Mythology.

Phœbus’s Son. Pha´ĕton obtained permission of his father to drive the sun-car for one day, but, unable to guide the horses, they left their usual track, the car was overturned, and both heaven and earth were threatened with destruction. Jupiter struck Phaeton with his thunderbolt, and he fell headlong into the Po.

... like Phœbus fayrest childe,
That did presume his father’s fiery wayne,
And flaming mouths of steeds unwonted wilde,
Thro’ highest heaven with weaker hand to rayne; ...
He leaves the welkin way most beaten playne,
And, wrapt with whirling wheels, inflamed the skyen
With fire not made to burne, but fayrely for to shyne.

Spenser, Faëry Queen, i. 4, 10 (1590).

Phœbus. Gaston de Foix was so called, from his great beauty (1488-1512).

Phœbus (Captain), the betrothed of Fleur de Marie. He also entertains a base love for Esmeralda, the beautiful gypsy girl.—Victor Hugo, Notre Dame de Paris (1831).

Phœnix (The), is said to live 500 (or 1,000) years, when it makes a nest of spices, burns itself to ashes, and comes forth with renewed life for another similar period. There never was but one phœnix.

The bird of Arabye ... Can never dye,
And yet there is none, But only one,
A phœnix ... Plinni showeth al In his Story Natural,
What he doth finde Of the phœnix kinde.

J. Skelton, Philip Sparow (time, Henry VIII.).

Phœnix Tree, the raisin, an Arabian tree. Floro says: “There never was but one, and upon it the phœnix sits.”—Dictionary (1598).

Pliny thinks the tree on which the phœnix was supposed to perch is the date tree (called in Greek phoinix), adding that “the bird died with the tree, and revived of itself as the tree revived.”—Nat. Hist., xiii. 4.

Now I will believe
That there are unicorns; that in Arabia
There is one tree, the phœnix’ throne; one phœnix
At this hour reigning there.

Shakespeare, The Tempest, act iii. sc. 3 (1609).

Phorcus, “the old man of the sea.” He had three daughters, with only one eye and one tooth between ’em.—Greek Mythology.

This is not “the old man of the sea” mentioned in the Arabian Nights (“Sindbad the Sailor”).

Phor´mio, a parasite, who is “all things to all men.”—Terence, Phormio.

Phosphor, the light-bringer or morning star; also called Hespĕrus, and by Homer and Hesiod Heôs-phŏros.

Bright Phosphor, fresher for the night,
Sweet Hesper-Phosphor, double name.

Tennyson, In Memoriam, cxxi. (1850).

Phos´phorus, a knight called by Tennyson “Morning Star,” but, in the History of Prince Arthur, “Sir Persaunt of India, or the Blue Knight.” One of the four brothers who kept the passages to Castle Perilous.—Tennyson, Idylls (“Gareth and Lynette”); Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 131 (1470).

* It is evidently a blunder to call the Blue Knight “Morning Star,” and the Green Knight “Evening Star.” In the old romance, the combat with the “Green Knight,” is at dawn, and with the “Blue Knight” at nightfall. The error arose from not bearing in mind that our forefathers began the day with the preceding eve, and ended it at sunset.

Phraortes (3 syl.), a Greek admiral.—Sir W. Scott, Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).

Phry´ne (2 syl.), an Athenian courtezan of surpassing beauty. Apellês’s celebrated picture of “Venus Anadyomĕnê” was drawn from Phrynê, who entered the sea with hair dishevelled for a model. The “Cnidian Venus” of Praxitĕlês was also taken from the same model.

Some say Campaspê was the academy figure of the “Venus Anadyomenê.” Pope has a poem called Phryne.

Phyllis, a Thracian, who fell in love with Demoph´oön. After some months of mutual affection, Demophoon was obliged to sail for Athens, but promised to return within a month. When a month had elapsed, and Demophoon did not put in an appearance, Phyllis so mourned for him that she was changed into an almond tree, hence called by the Greeks Phylia. In time, Demophoon returned, and, being told the fate of Phyllis, ran to embrace the tree, which though bare and leafless at the time, was instantly covered with leaves, hence called Phylla by the Greeks.

Let Demophoon tell
Why Phyllis by a fate untimely fell.

Ovid, Art of Love, iii.

Phyllis, a country girl in Virgil’s third and fifth Eclogues. Hence a rustic maiden. Also spelt Phillis (q.v.).

Phyllis, in Spenser’s eclogue, Colin Clout’s Come Home Again, is Lady Carey, wife of Sir George Carey (afterwards Lord Hunsdon, 1596). Lady Carey was Elizabeth, the second of the six daughters of Sir John Spenser, of Althorpe, ancestor of the noble houses of Spenser and Marlborough.

No less praiseworthy are the sisters three,
The honor of the noble family
Of which I, meanest, boast myself to be, ...
Phyllis, Charyllis, and sweet Amaryllis:
Phyllis the fair is eldest of the three.

Spenser, Colin Clout’s Come Home Again (1594).

Phyllis and Brunetta, rival beauties. Phyllis procured for a certain festival some marvellous fabric of gold brocade in order to eclipse her rival, but Brunetta dressed the slave who bore her train, in a robe of the same material and cut in precisely the same fashion, while she herself wore simple black. Phyllis died of mortification.—The Spectator (1711, 1712, 1714).

Phynnodderee, a Manx spirit, similar to the Scotch brownie. Phynnodderee is an outlawed fairy, who absented himself from Fairy-court on the great levée day of the harvest moon. Instead of paying his respects to King Oberon, he remained in the glen of Rushen, dancing with a pretty Manx maid whom he was courting.

Physic a Farce is (His). Sir John Hill began his career as an apothecary in St. Martin’s Lane, London; became author, and amongst other things wrote farces. Grarrick said of him:

For physic and farces, his equal there scarce is:
His farces are physic, his physic a farce is.

Physician (The Beloved), St. Luke, the evangelist (Col. iv. 14).

Physicians (The prince of), Avicenna, the Arabian (980-1037).

Physigna´thos, king of the frogs, and son of Pelus (“mud”). Being wounded in the battle of the frogs and mice by Troxartas, the mouse king, he flees ingloriously to a pool, “and half in anguish of the flight, expires” (bk. iii. 112). The word means “puffed chaps.”

Great Physignathos I from Pelus’ race,
Begot in fair Hydromedê’s embrace.

Parnell, Battle of the Frogs and Mice, i. (about 1712).

Pibrac (Seigneur de), poet and diplomatist, author of Cinquante Quatrains (1574). Gorgibus bids his daughter to study Pibrac instead of trashy novels and poetry.

Lisez-moi, comme il faut, au lieu de ces sornettes,
Les Quatrains de Pibrac, et les doctes Tablettes
Du conseiller Matthieu; l’ouvrage est de valeur, ...
La Guide des pécheurs est encore un bon livre.

Molière, Sganarelle, i. 1 (1660).

(Pierre Matthieu, poet and historian, wrote Quatrains de la Vanité du Monde, 1629.)

Picanninies (4 syl.), little children; the small fry of a village.—West Indian Negroes.

There were at the marriage the picanninies and the Joblilies, but not the Grand Panjandrum.—Yonge.

Pic´atrix, the pseudonym of a Spanish monk; author of a book on demonology.

When I was a student ... that same Rev. Picatrix ... was wont to tell us that devils did naturally fear the bright flashes of swords as much as he feared the splendor of the sun.—Rabelais, Pantag´ruel, iii. 23 (1545).

Picciola, flower that, springing up in the court-yard of his prison, cheers and elevates the lonely life of the prisoner whom X. B. Saintine makes the hero of his charming tale, Picciola (1837).

Piccolino, an opera by Mons. Guiraud (1875); libretto by MM. Sardou and Nuittier. This opera was first introduced to an English audience in 1879. The tale is this: Marthé, an orphan girl adopted by a Swiss pastor, is in love with Frédéric Auvray, a young artist, who “loved and left his love.” Marthé plods through the snow from Switzerland to Rome to find her young artist, but, for greater security, puts on boy’s clothes, and assumes the name of Piccolino. She sees Frédéric, who knows her not; but, struck with her beauty, makes a drawing of her. Marthé discovers that the faithless Frédéric is paying his addresses to Elena (sister of the Duke Strozzi). She tells the lady her love-tale; and Frédéric, deserted by Elena, forbids Piccolino (Marthé) to come into his presence again. The poor Swiss wanderer throws herself into the Tiber, but is rescued. Frédéric repents, and the curtain falls on a reconciliation and approaching marriage.

Pickel-Herringe (5 syl.), a popular name among the Dutch for a buffoon; a corruption of pickle-härin (“a hairy sprite”), answering to Ben Jonson’s Puck-hairy.

Pickle (Peregrine), a savage, ungrateful spendthrift, fond of practical jokes, delighting in tormenting others; but suffering with ill temper the misfortunes which result from his own wilfulness. His ingratitude to his uncle, and his arrogance to Hatchway and Pipes, are simply hateful.—T. Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751).

Pickwick (Samuel), the chief character of The Pickwick Papers, a novel by C. Dickens. He is general chairman of the Pickwick Club. A most verdant, benevolent elderly gentleman, who, as member of a club instituted “for the purpose of investigating the source of the Hampstead ponds,” travels about with three members of the club, to whom he acts as guardian and adviser. The adventures they encounter form the subject of the Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1836).

The original of Seymour’s picture of “Pickwick” was a Mr. John Foster (not the biographer of Dickens, but a friend of Mr. Chapman’s, the publisher). He lived at Richmond, and was “a fat old beau,” noted for his “drab tights and black gaiters.”

Pickwickian Sense (In a), an insult whitewashed. Mr. Pickwick accused Mr. Blotton of acting in “a vile and calumnious manner;” whereupon Mr. Blotton retorted by calling Mr. Pickwick “a humbug,” But it finally was made to appear that both had used the offensive words only in a parliamentary sense, and that each entertained for the other “the highest regard and esteem.” So the difficulty was easily adjusted, and both were satisfied.

Lawyers and politicians daily abuse each other in a Pickwickian sense.—Bowditch.

Pic´rochole, king of Lernê, noted for his choleric temper, his thirst for empire, and his vast but ill-digested projects.—Rabelais, Gargantua, i. (1533).

Supposed to be a satire on Charles V. of Spain.

Picrochole’s Counsellors. The duke of Smalltrash, the earl of Swashbuckler, and Captain Durtaille, advised King Picrochole to leave a small garrison at home, and to divide his army into two parts—to send one south, and the other north. The former was to take Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany (but was to spare the life of Barbarossa), to take the islands of the Mediterranean, the Morea, the Holy Land, and all Lesser Asia. The northern army was to take Belgium, Denmark, Prussia, Poland, Russia, Norway, Sweden, sail across the Sandy Sea, and meet the other half at Constantinople, when king Picrochole was to divide the nations amongst his great captains. Echephron said he had heard about a pitcher of milk which was to make its possessor a nabob, and give him for wife a sultan’s daughter; only the poor fellow broke his pitcher, and had to go supperless to bed. (See Bobadil.)—Rabelais, Pantagruel, i. 33 (1533).

A shoemaker bought a ha’p’orth of milk; with this he intended to make butter, the butter was to buy a cow, the cow was to have a calf, the calf was to be sold, and the man to become a nabob; only the poor dreamer cracked the jug, and spilt the milk and had to go supperless to bed.—Pantagruel, i. 33.

Picts, the Caledonians or inhabitants of Albin, i.e. northern Scotland. The Scots came from Scotia, north of Ireland, and established themselves under Kenneth M’Alpin in 843.

The etymology of “Picts” from the Latin picti (“painted men”) is about equal to Stevens’s etymology of the word “brethren” from tabernacle “because we breathe-therein.

Picture (The), a drama by Massinger (1629). The story of this play (like that of the Twelfth Night, by Shakespeare) is taken from the novelette of Bandello, of Piedmont, who died 1555.

Pi´cus, a soothsayer and augur; husband of Canens. In his prophetic art he made use of a woodpecker (picus), a prophetic bird sacred to Mars. Circé fell in love with him, and as he did not requite her advances, she changed him into a woodpecker, whereby he still retained his prophetic power.

“There is Picus,” said Maryx. “What a strange thing is tradition! Perhaps it was in this very forest that Circê, gathering her herbs, saw the bold friend of Mars on his fiery courser, and tried to bewitch him, and, failing, metamorphosed him so. What, I wonder, ever first wedded that story to the woodpecker?”—Ouida, Ariadnê, i. 11.

Pied Horses, Motassem had 130,000 pied horses, which he employed to carry earth to the plain of Catoul; and having raised a mound of sufficient height to command a view of the whole neighborhood, he built thereon the royal city of Shamarah´.—Khondemyr, Khelassat al Akhbar (1495).

The Hill of the Pied Horses, the site of the palace of Alkoremmi, built by Motassem, and enlarged by Vathek.

Pied Piper of Hamelin (3 syl.), a piper named Bunting, from his dress. He undertook, for a certain sum of money, to free the town of Hamelin, in Brunswick, of the rats which infested it; but when he had drowned all the rats in the river Weser, the townsmen refused to pay the sum agreed upon. The piper, in revenge, collected together all the children of Hamelin, and enticed them by his piping into a cavern in the side of the mountain Koppenberg, which instantly closed upon them, and 130 went down alive into the pit (June 26, 1284). The street through which Bunting conducted his victims was Bungen, and from that day to this no music is ever allowed to be played in this particular street.—Verstegan, Restitution of Decayed Intelligence (1634).

Robert Browning has a poem entitled The Pied Piper.

Erichius, in his Exodus Hamelensis, maintains the truth of this legend; but Martin Schoock, in his Fabula Hamelensis, contends that it is a mere myth.

“Don’t forget to pay the piper” is still a household expression in common use.

* The same tale is told of the fiddler of Brandenberg. The children were led to the Marienberg, which opened upon them and swallowed them up.

* When Lorch was infested with ants, a hermit led the multitudinous insects by his pipe into a lake, where they perished. As the inhabitants refused to pay the stipulated price, he led their pigs the same dance, and they, too, perished in the lake.

Next year, a charcoal-burner cleared the same place of crickets; and when the price agreed upon was withheld, he led the sheep of the inhabitants into the lake.

The third year came a plague of rats, which an old man of the mountain piped away and destroyed. Being refused his reward, he piped the children of Lorch into the Tannenberg.

* About 200 years ago, the people of Ispahan were tormented with rats, when a little dwarf named Giouf, not above two feet high, promised, on the payment of a certain sum of money, to free the city of all its vermin in an hour. The terms were agreed to, and Giouf, by tabor and pipe, attracted every rat and mouse to follow him to the river Zenderou, where they were all drowned. Next day, the dwarf demanded the money; but the people gave him several bad coins, which they refused to change. Next day, they saw with horror an old black woman, fifty feet high, standing in the market-place with a whip in her hand. She was the genie Mergian Banou, the mother of the dwarf. For four days she strangled daily fifteen of the principal women, and on the fifth day led forty others to a magic tower, into which she drove them, and they were never after seen by mortal eye.—T. S. Gueulette, Chinese Tales (“History of Prince Kader-Bilah,” 1723).

* The syrens of classic story had, by their weird spirit-music, a similar irresistible influence.

(Weird music is called Alpleich or Elfenseigen.

Pierre [Peer], a blunt, bold, outspoken man, who heads a conspiracy to murder the Venetian senators, and induces Jaffier to join the gang. Jaffier (in order to save his wife’s father, Priuli), reveals the plot, under promise of free pardon; but the senators break their pledge, and order the conspirators to torture and death. Jaffier, being free, because he had turned “king’s evidence” stabs Pierre, to prevent his being broken on the wheel, and then kills himself.—T. Otway, Venice Preserved (1682).

Pierre, a very inquisitive servant of M. Darlemont, who long suspects his master has played falsely with his ward, Julio, count of Harancour.—Thomas Holcroft, The Deaf and Dumb (1785).

Pierre Alphonse (Rabbi Moïse Sephardi), a Spanish Jew converted to Christianity in 1062.

All stories that recorded are
By Pierre Alfonse he knew by heart.

Longfellow, The Wayside Inn (prelude).

Pierre du Coignet or Coignères, an advocate-general in the reign of Philippe de Valois, who stoutly opposed the encroachments of the Church. The monks, in revenge, nicknamed those grotesque figures in stone (called “gargoyles”), pierres du coignet. At Notre Dame de Paris there were at one time gargoyles used for extinguishing torches, and the smoke added not a little to their ugliness.

You may associate them with Master Pierre du Coignet, ... which perform the office of extinguishers.—Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel (1533-45).

Pierrot [Pe´-er-ro], a character in French pantomime, representing a man in stature and a child in mind. He is generally the tallest and thinnest man in the company, and appears with his face and hair thickly covered with flour. He wears a white gown, with very long sleeves, and a row of big buttons down the front. The word means “Little Peter.”

Piers and Palinode, two shepherds in Spenser’s fifth eclogue, representing the Protestant and the Catholic priest.

Piers or Percy again appears in ecl. x. with Cuddy, a poetic shepherd. This noble eclogue has for its subject “poetry.” Cuddy complains that poetry has no patronage or encouragement, although it comes by inspiration. He says no one would be so qualified as Colin to sing divine poetry, if his mind were not so depressed by disappointed love.—Spenser, The Shepheardes Calendar (1579).

Pie´tro (2 syl.), the putative father of Pompilia. This paternity was a fraud to oust the heirs of certain property which would otherwise fall to them.—R. Browning, The Ring and the Book, ii. 580.

Pig. Phædrus tells a tale of a popular actor who imitated the squeak of a pig. A peasant said to the audience that he would himself next night challenge and beat the actor. When the night arrived, the audience unanimously gave judgment in favor of the actor, saying that his squeak was by far the better imitation; but the peasant presented to them a real pig, and said, “Behold, what excellent judges are ye!”

Pigal (Mons. de), the dancing-master who teaches Alice Bridgenorth.—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Pigeon and Dove (The). Prince Constantio was changed into a pigeon, and the Princess Constantia into a dove, because they loved, but were always crossed in love. Constantio found that Constantia was sold by his mother for a slave, and in order to follow her, he was converted into a pigeon. Constantia was seized by a giant, and in order to escape him was changed into a dove. Cupid then took them to Paphos, and they became “examples of a tender and sincere passion; and ever since have been the emblems of love and constancy.”—Comtesse D’Aunoy, Fairy Tales (“The Pigeon and Dove,” 1682).

Pigmy, a dwarf. (See Pygmy.)

Pigott Diamond (The), brought from India by Lord Pigott. It weighs 82-1/4 carats. In 1818 it came into the hands of Messrs. Rundell and Bridge.

Pigrogrom´itus, a name alluded to by Sir Andrew Ague-cheek.

In sooth thou wast in very gracious fooling last night when thou spokest of Pigrogromitus, of the Vapian passing the equinoctial of Queubus. ’Twas very good, i’ faith.—Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, act ii. sc. 3 (1614).

Pigwig´gen, a fairy knight, whose amours with Queen Mab, and furious combat with Oberon, form the subject of Drayton’s Nymphidia (1593).

Pike (Gideon), valet to old Major Bellenden.—Sir W. Scott, Old Mortality (time, Charles II.).

Pila´tus (Mount), in Switzerland. The legend is that Pontius Pilate, being banished to Gaul by the Emperor Tiberius, wandered to this mount, and flung himself into a black lake at the summit of the hill, being unable to endure the torture of conscience for having given up the Lord to crucifixion.

Pilgrim Fathers. They were 102 puritans (English, Scotch, and Dutch), who went, in December, 1620, in a ship called the Mayflower, to North America, and colonized Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. These states they called “New England.” New Plymouth (near Boston) was the second colony planted by the English in the New World.

Men in the middle of life, austere and grave in deportment....
God had sifted three kingdoms to find the wheat for this planting.

Longfellow, Courtship of Miles Standish, iv. (1858).

Pilgrim—Palmer. Pilgrims had dwellings, palmers had none. Pilgrims went at their own charge, palmers professed willing poverty, and lived on charity. Pilgrims might return to a secular life, palmers could not. Pilgrims might hold titles and follow trades, palmers were wholly “religious” men.

Pilgrim to Compostella. Some pilgrims on their way to Compostella, stopped at a hospice in La Calzāda. The daughter of the innkeeper solicited a young Frenchman to spend the night with her, but he refused; so she put in his wallet a silver cup, and when he was on the road, she accused him to the alcaydê of theft. As the property was found in his possession, the alcaydê ordered him to be hung. His parents went on their way to Compostella, and returned after eight days, but what was their amazement to find their son alive on the gibbet, and uninjured. They went instantly to tell the alcaydê; but the magistrate replied, “Woman, you are mad! I would just as soon believe these pullets, which I am about to eat, are alive, as that a man who has been gibbeted eight days is not dead.” No sooner had he spoken than the two pullets actually rose up alive. The alcaydê was frightened out of his wits, and was about to rush out of doors, when the heads and feathers of the birds came scampering in to complete the resuscitation. The cock and hen were taken in grand procession to St. James’s Church of Compostella, where they lived seven years, and the hen hatched two eggs, a cock and a hen, which lived just seven years, and did the same. This has continued to this day, and pilgrims receive feathers from these birds as holy relics; but no matter how many feathers are given away, the plumage of the sacred fowls is never deficient.

* This legend is also seriously related by Bishop Patrick, Parable of the Pilgrims, xxxv. 430-4. Udal ap Rhys repeats it in his Tour through Spain and Portugal, 35-8. It is inserted in the Acta Sanctorum, vi. 45. Pope Calixtus II. mentions it among the miracles of Santiago.

Pilgrim (A Passionate), American who visits England, as one seeks the home he has loved throughout a tedious exile. It is like the return of a weary child to his mother’s arms, as night comes on. He lingers upon each feature of the landscape as upon the face of his beloved, and counts the rest of the world but “a garish” place.—Henry James, Jr., A Passionate Pilgrim.

Pilgrim’s Progress (The), by John Bunyan. Pt. i., 1670; pt. ii., 1684. This is supposed to be a dream, and to allegorize the life of a Christian, from his conversion to his death. His doubts are giants, his sins a pack, his Bible a chart, his minister, Evangelist, his conversion a flight from the City of Destruction, his struggle with besetting sins a fight with Apollyon, his death a toilsome passage over a deep stream, and so on.

The second part is Christiana and her family led by Greatheart through the same road, to join Christian who had gone before.

Pillar of the Doctors (La Colonne des Docteurs), William de Champeaux (*-1121).

Pilot (The), an important character and the title of a nautical burletta by E. Fitzball, based on the novel so called by J. Fenimore Cooper, of New York. “The pilot” turns out to be the brother of Colonel Howard, of America. He happened to be in the same vessel which was taking out the colonel’s wife and only son. The vessel was wrecked, but “the pilot” (whose name was John Howard) saved the infant boy, and sent him to England to be brought up, under the name of Barnstable. When young Barnstable was a lieutenant in the British navy, Colonel Howard seized him as a spy, and commanded him to be hung to the yardarm of an American frigate, called the Alacrity. At this crisis, “the pilot” informed the colonel that Barnstable was his own son, and the father arrived just in time to save him from death.

Pilpay´, the Indian Æsop. His compilation was in Sanskrit, and entitled Pantschatantra.

It was rumored he could say ...
All the “Fables” of Pilpay.

Longfellow, The Wayside Inn (prelude).

Pilum´nus, the patron god of bakers and millers, because he was the first person who ever ground corn.

Then there was Pilumnus, who was the first to make cheese, and became the god of bakers.—Ouida, Ariadnê, i. 40.

Pinabello, son of Anselmo (king of Maganza). Marphi´sa overthrew him, and told him he could not wipe out the disgrace till he had unhorsed a thousand dames and a thousand knights. Pinabello was slain by Brad´amant.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

Pinac, the lively, spirited fellow-traveller of Mirabel, “the wild goose.” He is in love with the sprightly Lillia-Bianca, a daughter of Nantolet.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Wild Goose Chase (1652).

Pinch, a schoolmaster and conjuror, who tries to exorcise Antiph´olus (act iv. sc. 4).—Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors (1593).

Pinch (Tom), clerk to Mr. Pecksniff “architect and land surveyor.” Simple as a child, green as a salad, and honest as truth itself. Very fond of story-books, but far more so of the organ. It was the seventh heaven to him to pull out the stops for the organist’s assistant at Salisbury Cathedral; but when allowed, after service, to finger the notes himself, he lived in a dreamland of unmitigated happiness. Being dismissed from Pecksniff’s office, Tom was appointed librarian to the Temple Library, and his new catalogue was a perfect model of workmanship.

Ruth Pinch, a true-hearted, pretty girl, who adores her brother, Tom, and is the sunshine of his existence. She marries John Westlock.—C. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).

Pinchbeck. Sham doctor and matrimonial agent in John Brougham’s play, Playing With Fire.

Pinchbeck (Lady), with whom Don Juan placed Leila to be brought up.

Olden she was—but had been very young;
Virtuous she was—and had been, I believe ...
She merely now was amiable and witty.

Byron, Don Juan, xii. 43, 47 (1824).

Pinchwife (Mr.), the town husband of a raw country girl, wholly unpractised in the ways of the world, and whom he watches with ceaseless anxiety.

Lady Drogheda ... watched her town husband assiduously as Mr. Pinchwife watched his country wife.—Macaulay.

Mrs. Pinchwife, the counterpart of Molière’s “Agnes,” in his comedy entitled L’école des Femmes. Mrs. Pinchwife is a young woman wholly unsophisticated in affairs of the heart.—Wycherly, The Country Wife (1675).

* Garrick altered Wycherly’s comedy to The Country Girl.

Pindar (Peter), the pseudonym of Dr. John Wolcot (1738-1819).

Pindar (The British), Thomas Gray (1716-1771). On his monument in Westminster Abbey is inscribed these lines:

No more the Grecian muse unrivalled reigns;
To Britain let the nations homage pay:
She felt a Homer’s fire in Milton’s strains,
A Pindar’s rapture in the lyre of Gray.

Pindar (The French), (1) Jean Dorat (1507-1588); (2) Ponce Denis Lebrun (1719-1807).

Pindar (The Italian), Gabriello Chiabrera (1552-1637).

Pindar of England. Cowley was preposterously called by the duke of Buckingham “The Pindar, Horace and Virgil of England.” Posterity has not endorsed this absurd eulogium (1618-1667).

Pindar of Wakefield (The), George-a-Green, pinner of the town of Wakefield—that is, keeper of the public pound for the confinement of estrays.—The History of George-a-Green, Pindar of the Town of Wakefield (time, Elizabeth).

Pindo´rus and Aride´us, the two heralds of the Christian army in the siege of Jerusalem.—Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered (1575).

Pine-Bender (The), Sinis, the Corinthian robber who used to fasten his victims to two pine trees bent towards the earth, and leave them to be torn to pieces by the rebound.

Pingree (Nancy), called “Old Lady Pingree” because of her pride and black lace turban. She lives by herself in the lower part of the old Pingree house, and is so poor that to give an egg to the lodgers above stairs is an act of self-denying generosity. She has money and burial-clothes laid away for her funeral, yet when the neighbor upstairs dies, Nancy “lends” it to the daughter to keep her mother out of the Potter’s field. A sudden rise in property brings Nancy a few hundreds, and enables her to face death with calm certainty of an independent burial in the Pingree lot.—Mary E. Wilkins, A Humble Romance, and Other Stories (1887).

Pinkerton (Miss), a most majestic lady, tall as a grenadier, and most proper. Miss Pinkerton kept an academy for young ladies on Chiswick Mall. She was “the Semiramis of Hammersmith, the friend of Dr. Johnson, and the correspondent of Mrs. Chapone.” This very distinguished lady “had a Roman nose, and wore a solemn turban.” Amelia Sedley was educated at Chiswick Mall academy, and Rebecca Sharp was a pupil-teacher there.—Thackeray, Vanity Fair, i. (1848).

Pinnit (Orson), keeper of the bears.—Sir W. Scott, Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).

Pinto (Ferdinand Mendez), a Portuguese traveller, whose “voyages” were at one time wholly discredited, but have since been verified (1509-1583).

Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, thou liar of the first magnitude.—W. Congreve, Love for Love (1695).

Pious (The), Ernst I., founder of the house of Gotha (1601-1674).

Robert, son of Hugues Capet (971, 996-1031).

Eric IX. of Sweden (*, 1155-1161).

Pip, the hero of Dickens’s novel called Great Expectations. His family name was Pirrip, and his Christian name Philip. He was enriched by a convict named Abel Magwitch; and was brought up by Joe Gargery, a smith, whose wife was a woman of thunder and lightning, storm and tempest. Magwitch, having made his escape to Australia, became a sheep farmer, grew very rich, and deposited £500 a year with Mr. Jaggers, a lawyer, for the education of Pip, and to make a gentleman of him. Ultimately, Pip married Estella, the daughter of Magwitch, but adopted from infancy by Miss Havisham, a rich banker’s daughter. His friend, Herbert Pocket, used to call him “Handel.”—C. Dickens, Great Expectations (1860).

Pipchin (Mrs.), an exceedingly “well-connected lady,” living at Brighton, where she kept an establishment for the training of enfants. Her “respectability” chiefly consisted in the circumstance of her husband having broken his heart in pumping water out of some Peruvian mines (that is, in having invested in these mines and been let in). Mrs. Pipchin was an ill-favored old woman, with mottled cheeks and grey eyes. She was given to buttered toast and sweetbreads, but kept her enfants on the plainest possible fare.—C. Dickens, Dombey and Son (1846).

Piper (Tom), one of the characters in a morris-dance.

So have I seen
Tom Piper stand upon our village green,
Backed with the May-pole.

William Browne, Shepherd’s Pipe (1614).

Piper (Paddy, the), an Irish piper, supposed to have been eaten by a cow. Going along one night during the “troubles,” he knocked his head against the body of a dead man dangling from a tree. The sight of the “iligant” boots was too great a temptation: and as they refused to come off without the legs, Paddy took them too, and sought shelter for the night in a cowshed. The moon rose, and Paddy, mistaking the moon-light for the dawn, started for the fair, having drawn on the boots and left the “legs” behind. At daybreak, some of the piper’s friends went in search of him, and found, to their horror, that the cow, as they supposed, had devoured him with the exception of his legs—clothes, bags, and all. They were horror-struck, and of course the cow was condemned to be sold; but while driving her to the fair, they were attracted by the strains of a piper coming towards them. The cow startled, made a bolt, with a view, as it was supposed, of making a meal on another piper. “Help, help!” they shouted; when Paddy himself ran to their aid. The mystery was soon explained over a drop of the “cratur,” and the cow was taken home again.—S. Lover, Legends and Stories of Ireland (1834).

Piper of Hamelin (The Pied), Bunting, who first charmed the rats of Hamelin into the Weser, and then allured the children (to the number of 130) to Koppenberg Hill, which opened upon them. (See Pied Piper of Hamelin.)

Piperman, the factotum of Chalomel, chemist and druggist. He was “so handy” that he was never at his post; and being “so handy,” he took ten times the trouble of doing anything that another would need to bestow. For the self-same reason, he stumbled and blundered about, muddled and marred everything he touched, and being a Jack-of-all-trades was master of none.

There has been an accident because I am so handy. I went to the dairy at a bound, came back at other, and fell down in the open street, where I spilt the milk. I tried to bale it up—no go. Then I ran back or ran home, I forget which, and left the money somewhere; and then, in fact, I have been four times to and fro, because I am so handy.—J. R. Ware, Piperman’s Predicament.

Pipes (Tom), a retired boatswain’s mate, living with Commodore Trunnion to keep the servants in order. Tom Pipes is noted for his taciturnity.—Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751).

(The incident of Tom Pipes concealing in his shoe his master’s letter to Emilia was suggested by Ovid.

Cum possit solea chartas celare ligatas,
Et vincto blandas sub pede ferre notas,

Art of Love.

Pippa. Peasant maid who sings in tripping through the streets on the morning of her holiday. The song reaches the windows of those who sorrow, doubt and sin, and thus influences other lives than her own.—Robert Browning, Pippa Passes (1842).

Pirate (The), a novel by Sir W. Scott (1821). In this novel we are introduced to the wild sea scenery of the Shetlands; the primitive manners of the old udaller, Magnus Troil, and his fair daughters Minna and Brenda; lovely pictures, drawn with nice discrimination, and most interesting.

* A udaller is one who holds his lands on allodial tenure.

Pirner (John), a fisherman at Old St. Ronan’s.—Sir W. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well (time, George III.).

Pisa. The banner of Pisa is a cross on a crimson field, said to have been brought from heaven by Michael the archangel, and delivered by him to St. Efeso, the patron saint of that city.

Pisanio, servant of Posthu´mus. Being sent to murder Imogen, the wife of Posthumus, he persuades her to escape to Milford Haven in boy’s clothes, and sends a bloody napkin to Posthumus, to make him believe that she has been murdered. Ultimately, Imogen becomes reconciled to her husband. (See Posthumus.)—Shakespeare, Cymbeline (1605).

Pisis´tratos, of Athens, being asked by his wife to punish with death a young man who had dared to kiss their daughter, replied, “How shall we requite those who wish us evil, if we condemn to death those who love us?” This anecdote is referred to by Dantê, in his Purgatory, xv.—Valerius Maximus, Memorable Acts and Sayings, v.

Pisis´tratos and His Two Sons. The history of Pisistratos and his two sons is repeated in that of Cosmo de Medici, of Florence, and his two grandsons. It would be difficult to find a more striking parallel, whether we regard the characters or the incidents of the two families.

Pisistratos was a great favorite of the Athenian populace; so was Cosmo de Medici with the populace of Florence. Pisistratos was banished, but, being recalled by the people, was raised to sovereign power in the republic of Athens; so Cosmo was banished, but, being recalled by the people, was raised to supreme power in the republic of Florence. Pisistratos was just and merciful, a great patron of literature, and spent large sums of money in beautifying Athens with architecture; the same may be said of Cosmo de Medici. To Pisistratos we owe the poems of Homer in a connected form; and to Cosmo we owe the best literature of Europe, for he spent fortunes in the copying of valuable MSS. The two sons of Pisistratos were Hipparchos and Hippias; and the two grandsons of Cosmo were Guiliano and Lorenzo. Two of the most honored citizens of Athens (Harmodios and Aristogīton) conspired against the sons of Pisistratos—Hipparchos was assassinated, but Hippias escaped; so Francesco Pazzi and the archbishop of Pisa conspired against the grandsons of Cosmo—Guiliano was assassinated, but Lorenzo escaped. In both cases it was the elder brother who fell, and the younger who escaped. Hippias quelled the tumult, and succeeded in placing himself at the head of Athens; so did Lorenzo in Florence.

Pistol, in The Merry Wives of Windsor and the two parts of Henry IV., is the ancient or ensign of Captain Sir John Falstaff. Peto is his lieutenant, and Bardolph his corporal. Peto being removed, (probably killed), we find in Henry V., Pistol is lieutenant, Bardolph ancient, and Nym corporal. Pistol is also introduced as married to Mistress Nell Quickly, hostess of the tavern in Eastcheap. Both Pistol and his wife die before the play is over; so does Sir John Falstaff; Bardolph and Nym are both hanged. Pistol is a model bully, wholly unprincipled, and utterly despicable; but he treats his wife kindly, and she is certainly fond of him.—Shakespeare.

Pistris, the sea-monster sent to devour Androm´eda. It had a dragon’s head and a fish’s tail.—Aratus, Commentaries.

Pithyrian [Pi.thirry.an], a pagan of Antioch. He had one daughter, named Mara´na, who was a Christian. A young dragon of most formidable character infested the city of Antioch, and demanded a virgin to be sent out daily for its meal. The Antioch´eans cast lots for the first victim, and the lot fell on Marana, who was led forth in grand procession as the victim of the dragon. Pithyrian, in distraction, rushed into a Christian church, and fell before an image which attracted his attention, at the base of which was the real arm of a saint. The sacristan handed the holy relic to Pithyrian, who kissed it, and then restored it to the sacristan; but the servitor did not observe that a thumb was missing. Off ran Pithyrian with the thumb, and joined his daughter. On came the dragon, with tail erect, wings extended, and mouth wide open, when Pithyrian threw into the gaping jaws the “sacred thumb.” Down fell the tail, the wings drooped, the jaws were locked, and up rose the dragon into the air to the height of three miles, when it blew up into a myriad pieces. So the lady was rescued, Antioch delivered; and the relic, minus a thumb, testifies the fact of this wonderful miracle.—Southey, The Young Dragon (Spanish legend).

Pitt Diamond (The), the sixth largest cut diamond in the world. It weighed 410 carats uncut, and 136-3/4 carats cut. It once belonged to Mr. Pitt, grandfather of the famous earl of Chatham. The duke of Orleans, regent of France, bought it for £135,000, whence it is often called “The Regent.” The French republic sold it to Treskon, a merchant of Berlin. Napoleon I. bought it to ornament his sword. It now belongs to the king of Prussia. (See Diamonds.)

Pizarro, a Spanish adventurer, who made war on Atali´ba, inca of Peru. Elvi´ra, mistress of Pizarro, vainly endeavored to soften his cruel heart. Before the battle, Alonzo, the husband of Cora, confided his wife and child to Rolla, the beloved friend of the inca. The Peruvians were on the point of being routed, when Rolla came to the rescue, and redeemed the day; but Alonzo was made a prisoner of war. Rolla, thinking Alonzo to be dead, proposed to Cora; but she declined his suit, and having heard that her husband had fallen into the hands of the Spaniards, she implored Rolla to set him free. Accordingly, he entered the prison where Alonzo was confined, and changed clothes with him, but Elvira liberated him on condition that he would kill Pizarro. Rolla found his enemy sleeping in his tent, spared his life, and made him his friend. The infant child of Cora being lost, Rolla recovered it, and was so severely wounded in this heroic act that he died. Pizarro was slain in combat by Alonzo; Elvira retired to a convent; and the play ends with a grand funeral march, in which the dead body of Rolla is borne to the tomb.—Sheridan, Pizarro (1814).

(Sheridan’s drama of Pizarro is taken from that of Kotzebue, but there are several alterations: Thus, Sheridan makes Pizarro killed by Alonzo, which is a departure both from Kotzebue and also from historic truth. Pizarro lived to conquer Peru, and was assassinated in his palace at Lima, by the son of his friend, Almagro.)

Pizarro, “the ready tool of fell Velasquez’ crimes.”—R. Jephson, Braganza (1775).

Pizarro, the governor of the State prison, in which Fernando Florestan was confined. Fernando’s young wife, in boy’s attire, and under the name of Fidelio, became the servant of Pizarro, who, resolving to murder Fernando, sent Fidelio and Rocco (the jailer) to dig his grave. Pizarro was just about to deal the fatal blow, when the minister of state arrived, and commanded the prisoner to be set free.—Beethoven, Fidelio (1791).

Place´bo, one of the brothers of January, the old baron of Lombardy. When January held a family conclave to know whether he should marry, Placebo told him “to please himself, and do as he liked.”—Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (“The Merchant’s Tale,” 1388).

Placid (Mr.), a hen-pecked husband, who is roused at last to be somewhat more manly, but could never be better than “a boiled rabbit without oyster sauce.” (See Pliant.)

Mrs. Placid, the lady paramount of the house, who looked quite aghast if her husband expressed a wish of his own, or attempted to do an independent act.—Inchbald, Every One Has His Fault (1794).

Plac´idas, the exact fac-simile of his friend, Amias. Having heard of his friend’s captivity, he went to release him, and being detected in the garden, was mistaken by Corflambo’s dwarf for Amias. The dwarf went and told Pæa´na (the daughter of Corflambo, “fair as ever yet saw living eye, but too loose of life and eke of love too light”). Placidas was seized and brought before the lady, who loved Amias, but her love was not requited. When Placidas stood before her, she thought he was Amias, and great was her delight to find her love returned. She married Placidas, reformed her ways, “and all men much admired the change, and spake her praise.”—Spenser, Faëry Queen, iv. 8, 9 (1596).

Plagiary (Sir Fretful), a playwright, whose dramas are mere plagiarisms from “the refuse of obscure volumes.” He pretends to be rather pleased with criticism, but is sorely irritated thereby. Richard Cumberland (1732-1811), noted for his vanity and irritability, was the model of this character.—Sheridan, The Critic, i. 1 (1779).

Herrick, who had no occasion to steal, has taken this image from Suckling, and spoilt it in the theft. Like Sir Fretful Plagiary, Herrick had not skill to steal with taste.—R. Chambers, English Literature, i. 134.

William Parsons [1736-1795] was the original “Sir Fretful Plagiary,” and from his delineation most of our modern actors have borrowed their idea.—Life of Sheridan.

Plaids et Gieux sous l’Ormel, a society formed by the troubadours of Picardy in the latter half of the twelfth century. It consisted of knights and ladies of the highest rank, exercised and approved in courtesy, who assumed an absolute judicial power in matters of the most delicate nature; trying with the most consummate ceremony, all causes in love brought before their tribunals.

This was similar to the “Court of Love,” established about the same time, by the troubadours of Provence.—Universal Magazine (March, 1792).

Plain (The), the level floor of the National Convention of France, occupied by the Girondists, or moderate republicans.

The red republicans occupied the higher seats, called “the mountain.” By a figure of speech, the Girondist party was called “the plain,” and the red republican party “the mountain.”

Plain and Perspicuous Doctor (The), Walter Burleigh (1275-1357).

Plain Dealer (The), a comedy by William Wycherly (1677).

The countess of Drogheda ... inquired for the Plain Dealer. “Madam,” said Mr. Fairbeard, ... “there he is,” pushing Mr. Wycherly towards her.—Cibber, Lives of the Poets, iii. 252.

(Wycherly married the countess in 1680. She died soon afterwards, leaving him the whole of her fortune.)

Plantagenet (Lady Edith), a kinswoman of Richard I. She marries the prince royal of Scotland (called Sir Kenneth, knight of the Leopard, or David, earl of Huntingdon).—Sir W. Scott, The Talisman (time, Richard I.).

Plato. The mistress of this philosopher was Archianassa; of Aristotle, Hepyllis; and of Epicurus, Leontium. (See Lovers.)

Plato (The German), Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743-1819).

Plato (The Jewish), Philo Judæus (fl. 30-40).

Plato (The Puritan), John Howe (1630-1706).

Plato and the Bees. It is said that when Plato was an infant, bees settled on his lips while he was asleep, indicating that he would become famous for his “honeyed words.” The same story is told of Sophoclês also.

And as when Plato did i’ the cradle thrive,
Bees to his lips brought honey from the hive;
So to this boy [Dor´idon] they came—I know not whether
They brought or from his lips did honey gather.

W. Browne, Brittania’s Pastorals, ii. (1613).

Plato and Homer. Plato greatly admired Homer, but excluded him from his ideal republic.

Plato, ’tis true, great Homer doth commend,
Yet from his common-weal did him exile.

Lord Brooke, Inquisition upon Fame, etc. (1554-1628).

Plato and Poets.

Plato, anticipating the Reviewers,
From his “republic,” banished without pity
The poets.

Longfellow, The Poet’s Tale.

Platonic Puritan (The), John Howe, the puritan divine (1630-1706).

Plausible (Counsellor) and Serjeant Eitherside, two pleaders in The Man of the World, by C. Macklin (1764).

Pleasant (Mrs.) in The Parson’s Wedding, by Tom Killigrew (1664).

Pleasures of Hope, a poem in two parts by Thomas Campbell (1799). It opens with a comparison between the beauty of scenery, and the ideal enchantments of fancy, in which hope is never absent, but can sustain the seaman on his watch, the soldier on his march, and Byron in his perilous adventures. The hope of a mother, the hope of a prisoner, the hope of the wanderer, the grand hope of the patriot, the hope of regenerating uncivilized nations, extending liberty, and ameliorating the condition of the poor. Pt. ii. speaks of the hope of love, and the hope of a future state, concluding with the episode of Conrad and Ellenore. Conrad was a felon, transported to New South Wales, but, though “a martyr to his crimes, was true to his daughter.” Soon, he says, he shall return to the dust from which he was taken;

But not, my child, with life’s precarious fire,
The immortal ties of Nature shall expire;
These shall resist the triumph of decay,
When time is o’er, and worlds have passed away.
Cold in the dust this perished heart may lie,
But that which warmed it once shall never die—
That spark, unburied in its mortal frame,
With living light, eternal, and the same,
Shall beam on Joy’s interminable years,
Unveiled by darkness, unassuaged by tears.

Pt. ii.

Pleasures of Imagination, a poem in three books, by Akenside (1744). All the pleasures of imagination arise from the perception of greatness, wonderfulness, or beauty. The beauty of greatness—witness the pleasures of mountain scenery, of astronomy, of infinity. The pleasure of what is wonderful—witness the delight of novelty, of the revelations of science, of tales of fancy. The pleasure of beauty, which is always connected with truth—the beauty of color, shape, and so on, in natural objects; the beauty of mind and the moral faculties. Bk. ii. contemplates accidental pleasures arising from contrivance and design, emotion and passion, such as sorrow, pity, terror, and indignation. Bk. iii. Morbid imagination the parent of vice; the benefits of a well-trained imagination.

Pleasures of Memory, a poem in two parts, by Samuel Rogers (1793). The first part is restricted to the pleasure of memory afforded by the five senses, as that arising from visiting celebrated places, and that afforded by pictures. Pt. ii. goes into the pleasures of the mind, as imagination and memory of past griefs and dangers. The poem concludes with the supposition that in the life to come this faculty will be greatly enlarged. The episode is this: Florio, a young sportsman, accidentally met Julia in a grot, and followed her home, when her father, a rich squire, welcomed him as his guest, and talked with delight of his younger days, when hawk and hound were his joy of joys. Florio took Julia for a sail on the lake, but the vessel was capsized, and, though Julia was saved from the water, she died on being brought to shore. It was Florio’s delight to haunt the places which Julia frequented.

Her charm around the enchantress Memory threw,
A charm that soothes the mind and sweetens too.

Pt. ii.

Pleiads (The), a cluster of seven stars in the constellation Taurus, and applied to a cluster of seven celebrated contemporaries. The stars were the seven daughters of Atlas: Maĭa, Electra, Taygĕtê, (4 syl.), Asterŏpê, Merŏpê, Alcyŏnê and Celēno.

The Pleiad of Alexandria consisted of Callimachos, Apollonios Rhodios, Arātos, Homer the Younger, Lycophron, Nicander, and Theocrĭtos. All of Alexandria, in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphos.

The Pleiad of Charlemagne consisted of Alcuin, called “Albīnus;” Angilbert, called “Homer;” Adelard, called “Augustine;” Riculfe, called “Damætas;” Varnefrid; Eginhard; and Charlemagne himself, who was called “David.”

The First French Pleiad (sixteenth century): Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay, Antoine de Baïf, Remi-Belleau, Jodelle, Ponthus de Thiard, and the seventh is either Dorat or Amadis de Jamyn. All under Henri III.

The Second French Pleiad (seventeenth century): Rapin, Commire, Larue, Santeuil, Ménage, Dupérier, and Petit.

We have also our English clusters. There were those born in the second half of the sixteenth century: Spenser (1553), Drayton (1563), Shakespeare and Marlowe (1564), Ben Jonson (1574), Fletcher (1576), Massinger (1585), Beaumont (Fletcher’s colleague) and Ford (1586). Besides these there were Tusser (1515), Raleigh (1552), Sir Philip Sidney (1554), Phineas Fletcher (1584), Herbert (1593), and several others.

Another cluster came a century later: Prior (1664), Swift (1667), Addison and Congreve (1672), Rowe (1673), Farquhar (1678), Young (1684), Gay and Pope (1688), Macklin (1690).

These were born in the latter half of the eighteenth century: Sheridan (1751), Crabbe (1754), Burns (1759), Rogers (1763), Wordsworth (1770), Scott (1771), Coleridge (1772), Southey (1774), Campbell (1777), Moore (1779), Byron (1788), Shelley and Keble (1792), and Keats (1796).

Butler (1600), Milton (1608), and Dryden (1630) came between the first and second clusters. Thomson (1700), Gray (1717), Collins (1720), Akenside (1721), Goldsmith (1728), and Cowper (1731), between the second and the third.

Pleonec´tes (4 syl.), Covetousness personified, in The Purple Island, by Phineas Fletcher (1633). “His gold his god” ... he “much fears to keep, much more to lose his lusting.” Fully described in canto viii. (Greek, pleonektês, “covetous.”)

Pleydell (Mr. Paulus), an advocate in Edinburgh, shrewd and witty. He was at one time the sheriff at Ellangowan.

Mr. Counsellor Pleydell was a lively, sharp-looking gentleman, with a professional shrewdness in his eye, and, generally speaking, a professional formality in his manner; but this he could slip off on a Saturday evening, when ... he joined in the ancient pastime of High Jinks.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering, xxxix. (time, George II.).

Pliable, a neighbor of Christian, whom he accompanied as far as the “Slough of Despond,” when he turned back.—Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, i. (1678).

Pliant (Sir Paul), a hen-pecked husband, who dares not even touch a letter addressed to himself till my lady has read it first. His perpetual oath is “Gadsbud!” He is such a dolt that he would not believe his own eyes and ears, if they bore testimony against his wife’s fidelity and continency. (See Placid.)

Lady Pliant, second wife of Sir Paul. “She’s handsome, and knows it; is very silly, and thinks herself wise; has a choleric old husband” very fond of her, but whom she rules with spirit, and snubs “afore folk.” My lady says, “If one has once sworn, it is most unchristian, inhuman, and obscene that one should break it.” Her conduct with Mr. Careless is most reprehensible.—Congreve, The Double Dealer (1694).

Pliny (The German), or “Modern Pliny,” Konrad von Gesner of Zurich, who wrote Historia Animalium, etc. (1516-1565).

Pliny of the East, Zakarija ibn Muhammed, surnamed “Kazwînî,” from Kazwîn, the place of his birth. He is so called by De Sacy (1200-1283).

Plon-Plon, Prince Napoleon Joseph Charles Bonaparte, son of Jerome Bonaparte by his second wife (the Princess Frederica Catherine of Würtemberg). Plon-Plon is a euphonic corruption of Craint-Plomb (“fear-bullet”), a nickname given to the prince in the Crimēan war (1854-6).

Plornish, plasterer, Bleeding-heart Yard. He was a smooth-cheeked, fresh-colored, sandy-whiskered man of 30. Long in the legs, yielding at the knees, foolish in the face, flannel-jacketed and lime-whitened. He generally chimed in conversation by echoing the words of the person speaking. Thus, if Mrs. Plornish said to a visitor, “Miss Dorrit dursn’t let him know;” he would chime in, “Dursn’t let him know.” “Me and Plornish says, ‘Ho! Miss Dorrit;’” Plornish repeated, after his wife, “Ho! Miss Dorrit.” “Can you employ Miss Dorrit?” Plornish repeated as an echo, “Employ Miss Dorrit?” (See Peter.)

Mrs. Plornish, the plasterer’s wife. A young woman, somewhat slatternly in herself and her belongings, and dragged by care and poverty already into wrinkles. She generally began her sentences with, “Well, not to deceive you.” Thus: “Is Mr. Plornish at home?” “Well, sir, not to deceive you, he’s gone to look for a job.” “Well, not to deceive you, ma’am, I take it kindly of you.”—C. Dickens, Little Dorrit (1857).

Plotting Parlor (The). At Whittington, near Scarsdale, in Derbyshire, is a farmhouse where the earl of Devonshire (Cavendish), the earl of Danby (Osborne), and Baron Delamer (Booth), concerted the Revolution. The room in which they met is called “The Plotting Parlor.”

Where Scarsdale’s cliffs the swelling pastures bound,
... there let the farmer hail
The sacred orchard which embowers his gate,
And shew to strangers, passing down the vale,
Where Cav’ndish, Booth, and Osborne sate
When, bursting from their country’s chain, ...
They planned for freedom this her noblest reign.

Akenside, Ode XVIII. v. 3 (1767).

Plotwell (Mrs.), in Mrs. Centlivre’s drama, The Beau’s Duel (1703).

Plough of Cincinnatus. The Roman patriot of this name, when sought by the ambassadors sent to entreat him to assume command of state and army, was found ploughing his field. Leaving the plough in the furrow, he accompanied them to Rome, and after a victorious campaign returned to his little farm.

Plousina, called Hebê, endowed by the fairy Anguilletta with the gifts of wit, beauty, and wealth. Hebê still felt she lacked something, and the fairy told her it was love. Presently came to her father’s court a young prince named Atimir, the two fell in love with each other, and the day of their marriage was fixed. In the interval, Atimir fell in love with Hebê’s elder sister Iberia; and Hebê, in her grief, was sent to the Peaceable Island, where she fell in love with the ruling prince, and married him. After a time, Atimir and Iberia, with Hebê and her husband, met at the palace of the ladies’ father, when the love between Atimir and Hebê revived. A duel was fought between the young princes, in which Atimir was slain, and the prince of the Peaceable Islands was severely wounded. Hebê, coming up, threw herself on Atimir’s sword, and the dead bodies of Atimir and Hebê were transformed into two trees called “charms.”—Countess D’Aunoy, Fairy Tales (“Anguilletta,” 1682).

Plowman (Piers), the dreamer, who, falling asleep on the Malvern Hills, Worcestershire, saw in a vision pictures of the corruptions of society, and particularly of the avarice and wantonness of the clergy. This supposed vision is formed into a poetical satire of great vigor, fancy, and humor. It is divided into twenty parts, each part being called a passus, or separate vision.—William [or Robert] Langland, The Vision of Piers the Plowman (1362).

Plumdamas (Mr. Peter), grocer.—Sir W. Scott, Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.).

Plume (Captain), a gentleman and an officer. He is in love with Sylvia, a wealthy heiress, and, when he marries her, gives up his commission.—G. Farquhar, The Recruiting Officer (1705).

Plummer (Caleb), a little old toy-maker, in the employ of Gruff and Tackleton, toy merchants. He was spare, gray-haired, and very poor. It was his pride “to go as close to Natur’ in his toys as he could for the money.” Caleb Plummer had a blind daughter, who assisted him in his toy-making, and whom he brought up under the belief that he himself was young, handsome, and well off, and that the house they lived in was sumptuously furnished and quite magnificent. Every calamity he smoothed over, every unkind remark of their snarling employer he called a merry jest; so that the poor blind girl lived in a castle of the air, “a bright little world of her own.” When merry or puzzled, Caleb used to sing something about “a sparkling bowl.”

Bertha Plummer, the blind daughter of the toy-maker, who fancied her poor old father was a young fop, that the sack he threw across his shoulders was a handsome blue great-coat, and that their wooden house was a palace. She was in love with Tackleton, the toy merchant, whom she thought to be a handsome young prince; and when she heard that he was about to marry May Fielding, she drooped and was like to die. She was then disillusioned, heard the real facts, and said, “Why, oh, why did you deceive me thus? Why did you fill my heart so full, and then come like death, and tear away the objects of my love?” However, her love for her father was not lessened, and she declared that the knowledge of the truth was “sight restored.” “It is my sight,” she cried. “Hitherto I have been blind, but now my eyes are open. I never knew my father before, and might have died without ever having known him truly.”

Edward Plummer, son of the toy-maker, and brother of the blind girl. He was engaged from boyhood to May Fielding, went to South America, and returned to marry her; but, hearing of her engagement to Tackleton, the toy merchant, he assumed the disguise of a deaf old man, to ascertain whether she loved Tackleton or not. Being satisfied that her heart was still his own, he married her, and Tackleton made them a present of the wedding-cake which he had ordered for himself.—C. Dickens, The Cricket on the Hearth (1845).

Plush (John), any gorgeous footman, conspicuous for his plush breeches and rainbow colors.

Plutarch (The Modern), Vayer, born at Paris. His name in full was Francis Vayer de la Mothe (1586-1672).

Pluto, the god of Hadês.

Brothers, be of good cheer, for this night we shall sup with Pluto.—Leonidas, To the Three Hundred at Thermopylæ.

Plutus, the god of wealth.—Classic Mythology.

Within a heart, dearer than Plutus’ mine.

Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar, act iv. sc. 3 (1607).

Po (Tom), a ghost. (Welsh, bo, “a hobgoblin.”)

He now would pass for spirit Po.

S. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 1 (1678).

Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan, an Indian chief of Virginia, who rescued Captain John Smith when her father was on the point of killing him. She subsequently married John Rolfe, and was baptized under the name of Rebecca (1595-1617).—Old and New London, ii. 481 (1876).

The Indian Princess is the heroine of John Brougham’s drama, Po-ca-hon-tas, or the Gentle Savage.

Pochet (Madame), the French “Mrs. Gamp.”—Henri Monnier.

Pochi Dana´ri (“the pennyless”). So the Italians call Maximilian I., emperor of Germany (1459, 1493-1519).

Pocket (Mr. Matthew), a real scholar, educated at Harrow, and an honor-man at Cambridge, but, having married young, he had to take up the calling of “grinder” and literary fag for a living. Mr. Pocket, when annoyed, used to run his two hands into his hair, and seemed as if he intended to lift himself by it. His house was a hopeless muddle, the best meals and chief expense being in the kitchen. Pip was placed under the charge of this gentleman.

Mrs. Pocket (Belinda), daughter of a City knight, brought up to be an ornamental nonentity, helpless, shiftless, and useless. She was the mother of eight children, whom she allowed to “tumble up” as best they could, under the charge of her maid, Flopson. Her husband, who was a poor gentleman, found life a very uphill work.

Herbert Pocket, son of Mr. Matthew Pocket, and an insurer of ships. He was a frank, easy young man, lithe and brisk, but not muscular. There was nothing mean or secretive about him. He was wonderfully hopeful, but had not the stuff to push his way into wealth. He was tall, slim, and pale; had a languor which showed itself even in his briskness; was most amiable, cheerful, and communicative. He called Pip “Handel,” because Pip had been a blacksmith, and Handel composed a piece of music entitled The Harmonious Blacksmith. Pip helped him to a partnership in an agency business.

Sarah Pocket, sister of Matthew Pocket, a little dry, brown, corrugated old woman, with a small face that might have been made of walnut-shell, and a large mouth, like a cat’s without the whiskers.—C. Dickens, Great Expectations (1860).

Podgers (The), lickspittles of the great.—J. Hollingshead, The Birthplace of Podgers.

Podsnap (Mr.), “a too, too smiling large man, with a fatal freshness on him.” Mr. Podsnap has “two little light-colored wiry wings, one on either side of his else bald head, looking as like his hair-brushes as his hair.” On his forehead are generally “little red beads,” and he wears “a large allowance of crumpled shirt-collar up behind.”

Mrs. Podsnap, a “fine woman for Professor Owen: quantity of bone, neck, and nostrils like a rocking-horse, hard features, and majestic head-dress in which Podsnap has hung golden offerings.”

Georgiana Podsnap, daughter of the above; called by her father “the young person.” She is a harmless, inoffensive girl, “always trying to hide her elbows.” Georgiana adores Mrs. Lammle, and when Mr. Lammle tries to marry the girl to Mr. Fledgeby, Mrs. Lammle induces Mr. Twemlow to speak to the father and warn him of the connection.

Poe (Edgar Allen). Poe’s parents were actors, and in 1885, the actors of America erected a monument to the memory of the unhappy poet. The poem read at the dedication of the memorial was by William Winter.

“His music dies not, nor can ever die,
Blown ’round the world by every wandering wind,
The comet, lessening in the midnight sky,
Still leaves its trail of glory far behind.”

Poem in Marble (A), the Taj, a mausoleum of white marble, raised in Agra, by Shah Jehan, to his favorite, Shahrina Moomtaz-i-Mahul, who died in childbirth of her eighth child. It is also called “The Marble Queen of Sorrow.”

Poet (The Quaker), Bernard Barton (1784-1849).

Poet Sire of Italy, Dantê Alighieri (1265-1321).

Poet Squab. John Dryden was so called by the earl of Rochester, on account of his corpulence (1631-1701).

Poet of France (The), Pierre Ronsard (1524-1585).

Poet of Poets, Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822).

Poet of the Poor, the Rev. George Crabbe (1754-1832).

Poets (The prince of). Edmund Spenser is so called on his monument in Westminster Abbey (1553-1598).

Prince of Spanish Poets. So Cervantês calls Garcilaso de la Vega (1503-1536).

Poets of England.

Addison, Beaumont, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Burns, Butler, Byron, Campbell, Chatterton, Chaucer, Coleridge, Collins, Congreve, Cowley, Cowper, Crabbe, Drayton, Dryden, Fletcher, Ford, Gay, Goldsmith, Gray, Mrs. Hemans, Herbert, Herrick, Hood, Ben Jonson, Keats, Keble, Landor, Marlowe, Marvel, Massinger, Milton, Moore, Otway, Pope, Prior, Rogers, Rowe, Scott, Shakespeare, Shelley, Shenstone, Southey, Spenser, Thomson, Waller, Wordsworth, Young. With many others of less celebrity.

Poets’ Corner, in the south transept of Westminster Abbey. No one knows who christened the corner thus. With poets are divines, philosophers, actors, novelists, architects and critics.

The “corner” contains a bust, statue, tablet, or monument, to five of our first-rate poets: viz., Chaucer (1400), Dryden (1700), Milton (1674), Shakespeare (1616), and Spenser (1598); and some seventeen of second or third class merit, as Addison, Beaumont (none to Fletcher), S. Butler, Campbell, Cowley, Cumberland, Drayton, Gay, Gray, Goldsmith, Ben Jonson, Macaulay, Prior, Rowe, Sheridan, Thomson and Wordsworth.

* Dryden’s monument was erected by Sheffield, duke of Buckingham. Wordsworth’s statue was erected by a public subscription.

Poetry (The Father of), Orpheus (2 syl.) of Thrace.

Father of Dutch Poetry, Jakob Maerlant; also called “The Father of Flemish Poetry” (1235-1300).

Father of English Poetry, Geoffrey Chaucer (1328-1400).

Father of Epic Poetry, Homer.

He compares Richardson to Homer, and predicts for his memory the same honors which are rendered to the Father of Epic Poetry.—Sir W. Scott.

Poetry—Prose. Pope advised Wycherly “to convert his poetry into prose.”

Poganuc, small Puritan town in New England as it was 100 years ago.—Harriet Beecher Stowe, Poganuc People (1876).

Po´gram (Elijah), one of the “master minds” of America, and a member of Congress. He was possessed with the idea that there was a settled opposition in the British mind against the institutions of his “free and enlightened country.”—C. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).

Poinder (George), a city officer.—Sir W. Scott, Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.).

Poins, a companion of Sir John Falstaff.—Shakespeare, 1 and 2 Henry IV. (1597, 1598).

The chronicles of that day contain accounts of many a mad prank which [Lord Warwick, Addison’s step-son] played ... [like] the lawless freaks of the madcap prince and Poins.—Thackeray.

Poison. It is said that Mithridātês VI., surnamed “the Great,” had so fortified his constitution that poisons had no baneful effect on him (B.C. 131, 120-63).

Poison of Khaïbar. By this is meant the poison put into a leg of mutton by Zaïnab, a Jewess, to kill Mahomet while he was in the citadel of Kha´ïbar. Mahomet partook of the mutton, and suffered from the poison all through life.

Poisoners (Secret).

1. Of Ancient Rome: Locusta, employed by Agrippi´na to poison her husband, the Emperor Claudius. Nero employed the same woman to poison Britannicus and others.

2. Of English History: the countess of Somerset, who poisoned Sir Thomas Overbury in the Tower of London. She also poisoned others.

Villiers, duke of Buckingham, it is said poisoned King James I.

3. Of France: Lavoisin and Lavigoreux, French midwives and fortune-tellers.

Catherine de Medicis is said to have poisoned the mother of Henri IV. with a pair of wedding-gloves, and several others with poisoned fans.

The marquise de Brinvilliers, a young profligate Frenchwoman, was taught the art of secret poisoning by Sainte-Croix, who learnt it in Italy.—World of Wonders, vii. 203.

4. Of Italy: Pope Alexander VI. and his children, Cæsar and Lucrezia [Borgia] were noted poisoners; so were Hieronyma Spara and Tofa´na.

Polexan´dre, an heroic romance by Gomberville (1632).

Policy (Mrs.), housekeeper at Holyrood Palace. She appears in the introduction.—Sir W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).

Pol´idore (3 syl.), father of Valère.—Molière, Le Dépit Amoureux (1654).

Polinesso, duke of Albany, who falsely accused Geneura of incontinency, and was slain in single combat by Ariodantês.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

Polish Jew (The), also called The Bells, a melodrama by J. R. Ware, brought prominently into note by the acting of Henry Irving at the Lyceum. Mathis, a miller in a small German town, is visited on Christmas Eve by a Polish Jew, who comes through the snow in a sledge. After rest and refreshment he leaves for Nantzig, “four leagues off.” Mathis follows him, kills him with an axe, and burns the body in a lime-kiln. He then pays his debts, becomes a prosperous and respected man, and is made burgomaster. On the wedding night of his only child, Annette, he dies of apoplexy, of which he had ample warning by the constant sound of sledge-bells in his ears. In his dream he supposes himself put into a mesmeric sleep in open court, when he confesses everything and is executed (1874).

Polixène, the name assumed by Madelon Gorgibus, a shopkeeper’s daughter, as far more romantic and genteel than her baptismal name. Her cousin, Cathos, called herself Aminte (2 syl.).

Polix´enes (4 syl.), king of Bohemia, schoolfellow and old companion of Leontês, king of Sicily. While on a visit to the Sicilian king, Leontês grew jealous of him, and commanded Camillo to poison him; but Camillo only warned him of his danger, and fled with him to Bohemia. Polixenês’s son, Flor´izel, fell in love with Perdĭta, the supposed daughter of a shepherd; but the king threatened Perdita and the shepherd with death unless this foolish suit were given up. Florizel and Perdita now fled to Sicily, where they were introduced to King Leontês, and it was soon discovered that Perdita was his lost daughter. Polixenês, having tracked the fugitives to Sicily, learned that Perdita was the king’s daughter, and joyfully consented to the union he had before forbidden.—Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale (1604).

Poll Pineapple, the bumboat woman, once sailed in seaman’s clothes with Lieutenant Belaye (2 syl.), in the Hot Cross-Bun. Jack tars generally greet each other with “Messmate, ho! what cheer?” but the greeting on the Hot Cross-Bun was always, “How do you do, my dear?” and never was any oath more naughty than “Dear me!” One day, Lieutenant Belaye came on board and said to his crew, “Here, messmates, is my wife, for I have just come from church.” Whereupon they all fainted; and it was found the crew consisted of young women only, who had dressed like sailors to follow the fate of Lieutenant Belaye.—S. Gilbert, The Bab Ballads (“The Bumboat Woman’s Story”).

Pollente (3 syl.), a Saracen, lord of the Perilous Bridge. When his groom, Guizor, demands the “passage-penny” of Sir Artegal, the knight gives him a “stunning blow,” saying, “Lo! knave, there’s my hire;” and the groom falls down dead. Pollentê then comes rushing up at full speed, and both he and Sir Artegal fall into the river, fighting most desperately. At length Sir Artegal prevails, and the dead body of the Saracen is carried down “the blood-stained stream.”—Spenser, Faëry Queen, v. 2 (1596).

Upton conjectures that “Pollente” is intended for Charles IX. of France, and his groom, “Guizor” (he says), means the duke of Guise, noted for the part he took in the St. Bartholomew Massacre.

Polly, daughter of Peachum. A pretty girl, who really loved Captain Macheath, married him, and remained faithful even when he disclaimed her. When the reprieve arrived, “the captain” confessed his marriage, and vowed to abide by Polly for the rest of his life.—J. Gay, The Beggar’s Opera (1727).

Polly (Cousin), “a small, bright-eyed lady of indefatigable activity in sacrificing herself for the good of others.... In her trig person she embodied the several functions of housekeeper, nurse, confidante, missionary, parish-clerk, queen of the poultry-yard, and genealogist.”—Constance Cary Harrison, Flower de Hundred (1890).

Polly, the idolized pet of “the Colonel,” her grandfather. He will not let “Bob” marry her, but when the two elope together and present themselves as man and wife, on Christmas Day, and Polly’s face “like a dew-bathed flower” is pressed to his, he yields and takes both to his big heart.—Thomas Nelson Page, In Ole Virginia (1887).

Polo´nius, a garralous old chamberlain, of Denmark, and father of Laer´tês and Ophelia; conceited, politic, and a courtier. Polonius conceals himself, to overhear what Hamlet says to his mother, and, making some unavoidable noise, startles the prince, who, thinking it is the king concealed, rushes blindly on the intruder, and kills him; but finds too late he has killed the chamberlain, and not Claudius, as he hoped and expected.—Shakespeare, Hamlet (1596).

Polonius is a man bred in courts, exercised in business, stored with observations, confident of his knowledge, proud of his eloquence, and declining to dotage.—Dr. Johnson.

It was the great part of William Mynitt (1710-1763).

Soon after Munden retired from the stage, an admirer met him in Covent Garden. It was a wet day, and each carried an umbrella. The gentleman’s was an expensive silk one, and Joe’s an old gingham. “So you have left the stage, ... and ‘Polonius,’ ‘Jemmy Jumps,’ ‘Old Dornton,’ and a dozen others have left the world with you? I wish you’d give me some trifle by way of memorial, Munden!” “Trifle, sir? I’ faith, sir, I’ve got nothing. But, hold, yes, egad, suppose we exchange umbrellas.”—Theatrical Anecdotes.

Polwarth (Alick), a servant of Waverley’s.—Sir W. Scott, Waverley (time, George II.).

Polycle´tos (in Latin Polycletus), a statuary of Sicyon, who drew up a canon of the proportions of the several parts of the human body: as, twice round the thumb is once round the wrist; twice round the wrist is once round the neck; twice round the neck is once round the waist; once round the fist is the length of the foot; the two arms extended is the height of the body; six times the length of the foot, or eighteen thumbs, is also the height of the body.

Again, the thumb, the longest toe, and the nose should all be of the same length. The index finger should measure the breadth of the hand and foot, and twice the breadth should give the length. The hand, the foot, and the face should all be the same length. The nose should be one-third of the face; and, of course, the thumbs should be one-third the length of the hand. Gerard de Lairesse has given the exact measurements of every part of the human figure, according to the famous statues of “Antinöus, “Apollo Belvidere,” “Herculês,” and “Venus de’Medici.”

Polycrates (4 syl.), tyrant of Samos. He was so fortunate in everything, that Am´asis, king of Egypt, advised him to part with something he highly prized. Whereupon, Polycrătês threw into the sea an engraved gem of extraordinary value. A few days afterwards, a fish was presented to the tyrant, in which this very gem was found. Amasis now renounced all friendship with him, as a man doomed by the gods; and not long after this, a satrap, having entrapped the too fortunate despot, put him to death by crucifixion. (See Fish and the Ring.)—Herodotus, iii. 40.

Polyd´amas, a Thessalian athlete of enormous strength. He is said to have killed an angry lion, to have held by the heels a raging bull and thrown it helpless at his feet, to have stopped a chariot in full career, etc. One day, he attempted to sustain a falling rock, but was killed and buried by the huge mass.

Milo carried a bull, four years old, on his shoulders through the stadium at Olympia; he also arrested a chariot in full career. One day, tearing asunder a pine tree, the two parts, rebounding, caught his hands and held him fast, in which state he was devoured by wolves.

Polydore (3 syl.), the name by which Belarius called Prince Guiderius, while he lived in a cave in the Welsh mountains. His brother, Prince Arvirăgus, went by the name of Cadwal.—Shakespeare, Cymbeline (1605).

Polydore (3 syl.), brother of General Memnon, beloved by the Princess Calis, sister of Astorax, king of Paphos.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Mad Lover (1618).

Polydore (Lord), son of Lord Acasto, and Castalio’s younger brother. He entertained a base passion for his father’s ward Monimia, “the orphan,” and, making use of the signal (“three soft taps upon the chamber door”) to be used by Castalio, to whom she was privately married, indulged his wanton love, Monimia supposing him to be her husband. When, next day, he discovered that Monimia was actually married to Castalio, he was horrified, and provoked a quarrel with his brother; but as soon as Castalio drew his sword, he ran upon it and was killed.—Thomas Otway, The Orphan (1680).

Polydore (3 syl.), a comrade of Ernest of Otranto (page of Prince Tancred).—Sir W. Scott, Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).

Polyglot (Ignatius), the master of seventeen languages, and tutor of Charles Eustace (aged 24). Very learned, very ignorant of human life; most strict as a disciplinarian, but tender-hearted as a girl. His pupil has married clandestinely, but Polyglot offers himself voluntarily to be the scapegoat of the young couple, and he brings them off triumphantly.—J. Poole, The Scapegoat.

Polyglott (A Walking), Cardinal Mezzofanti, who knew fifty-eight different languages (1774-1849).

Polyolbion (the “greatly blessed”), by Michael Drayton, in thirty parts, called “songs,” It is a topographical description of England. Song i. The landing of Bruce. Song ii. Dorsetshire, and the adventures of Sir Bevis of Southampton. Song iii. Somerset. Song iv. Contention of the rivers of England and Wales respecting Lundy—to which country it belonged. Song v. Sabrina, as arbiter, decides that it is “allied alike both to Enggland and Wales;” Merlin and Milford Haven. Song vi. The salmon and beaver of Twy; the tale of Sabrina; the druids and bards. Song vii. Hereford. Song viii. Conquest of Britain by the Romans and by the Saxons. Song ix. Wales. Song x. Merlin’s prophecies; Winifred’s well; defence of the “tale of Brute” (1612). Song xi. Cheshire, the religious Saxon kings. Song xii. Shropshire and Staffordshire; the Saxon warrior kings; and Guy of Warwick. Song xiii. Warwick; Guy of Warwick concluded. Song xiv. Gloucestershire. Song xv. The marriage of Isis and Thame. Song xvi. The Roman roads and Saxon kingdoms. Song xvii. Surrey and Sussex; the sovereigns of England from William to Elizabeth. Song xviii. Kent; England’s great generals and sea-captains (1613). Song xix. Essex and Suffolk; English navigators. Song xx. Norfolk. Song xxi. Cambridge and Ely. Song xxii. Buckinghamshire, and England’s intestine battles. Song xxiii. Northamptonshire. Song xxiv. Rutlandshire; and the British saints. Song xxv. Lincolnshire. Song xxvi. Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire; with the story of Robin Hood. Song xxvii. Lancashire and the Isle of Man. Song xxviii. Yorkshire. Song xxix. Northumberland. Song xxx. Cumberland (1622).

Pol´ypheme (3 syl.), a gigantic cyclops of Sicily, who fed on human flesh. When Ulysses, on his return from Troy, was driven to this Island, he and twelve of his companions were seized by Polypheme, and confined in his cave, that he might devour two daily for his dinner. Ulysses made the giant drunk, and, when he lay down to sleep, bored out his one eye. Roused by the pain, the monster tried to catch his tormentors; but Ulysses and his surviving companions made their escape by clinging to the bellies of the sheep and rams when they were let out to pasture (Odyssey, ix.).

There is a Basque legend told of the giant Tartaro, who caught a young man in his snares, and confined him in his cave for dessert. When, however, Tartaro fell asleep, the young man made the giant’s spit red hot, bored out his one eye, and then made his escape by fixing the bell of the bell-ram round his neck, and a sheep-skin over his back. Tartaro seized the skin, and the man, leaving it behind, made off.—Basque Legends.

A very similar adventure forms the tale of Sindbad’s third voyage, in the Arabian Nights. He was shipwrecked on a strange island, and entered, with his companions, a sort of palace. At nightfall, a one-eyed giant entered, and ate one of them for supper, and another for breakfast next morning. This went on for a day or two, when Sindbad bored out the giant’s one eye with a charred olive stake. The giant tried in vain to catch his tormentors, but they ran to their rafts; and Sindbad, with two others, contrived to escape.

* Homer was translated into Syriac by Theophilus Edessenes in the caliphate of Hárun-ur-Ráshid (A.D. 786-809).

Polypheme and Galatea. Polypheme loved Galatēa, the sea-nymph; but Galatea had fixed her affections on Acis, a Sicilian shepherd. The giant, in his jealousy, hurled a huge rock at his rival, and crushed him to death.

The tale of Polypheme is from Homer’s Odyssey, ix. It is also given by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, xiv. Euripidês introduces the monster in his Cyclops; and the tragedy of Acis and Galatea is the subject of Handel’s famous opera so called.

(In Greek the monster is called Polyphêmos, and in Latin Polyphēmus.)

Polyphe´mus of Literature, Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784).

Polypho´nus (“big voiced”), the Kapăneus and most boastful of the frog heroes. He was slain by the mouse Artophăgus (“the bread-nibbler”).

But great Artophagus avenged the slain, ...
And Polyphōnus died, a frog renowned
For boastful speech and turbulence of sound.

Parnell, Battle of the Frogs and Mice, iii. (about 1712).

Polyx´ena, a magnanimous and most noble woman, wife of Charles Emmanuel, king of Sardinia (who succeeded to the crown in 1730).—R. Browning, King Victor and King Charles, etc.

Pomegranate Seed. When Perseph´onê was in Hadês, whither Pluto had carried her, the god, foreknowing that Jupiter would demand her release, gathered a pomegranate, and said to her, “Love, eat with me, this parting day, of the pomegranate seed;” and she ate. Demēter, in the mean time, implored Zeus (Jupiter) to demand Persephonê’s release; and the king of Olympus promised she should be set at liberty, if she had not eaten anything during her detention in Hadês. As, however, she had eaten pomegranate seeds, her return was impossible.

Low laughs the dark king on his throne—
“I gave her of pomegranate seeds” ...

And chant the maids of Enna still—
“O fateful flower beside the rill,
The daffodil, the daffodil.” (See Daffodil.)

Jean Ingelow, Persephone.

Pomoma. The incomparable maid-of-work, custodian, novelist, comedienne, tragedienne, and presiding genius of Rudder Grange. Her chef d’œuvre is the expedient of posting the premises “To be Sold for Taxes,” to keep away peddlers of trees, etc., in her employers’ absence.—Frank Stockton, Rudder Grange (1879).

Pompey, a clown; servant to Mrs. Overdone (a bawd).—Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (1603).

Pompey the Great, was killed by Achillas and Septimius, the moment the Egyptian fishing-boat reached the coast. Plutarch tells us they threw his head into the sea. Others say his head was sent to Cæsar, who turned from it with horror, and shed a flood of tears. Shakespeare makes him killed by “savage islanders” (2 Henry VI. act iv. sc. 1, 1598).

Pompil´ia, a foundling, the putative daughter of Pietro (2 syl.). She married Count Guido Franceschini, who treated her so brutally that she made her escape under the protection of a young priest named Caponsacchi. Pompilia subsequently gave birth to a son, but was slain by her husband.

The babe had been a find i’ the filth-heap, sir,
Catch from the kennel. There was found at Rome,
Down in the deepest of our social dregs,
A woman who professed the wanton’s trade ...
She sold this babe eight months before its birth
To our Violante (3 syl.), Pietro’s honest spouse, ...
Partly to please old Pietro,
Partly to cheat the rightful heirs, agape
For that same principal of the usufruct,
It vexed him he must die and leave behind.

R. Browning, The Ring and the Book, ii, 557, etc.

Ponce de Léon, the navigator who went in search of the Fontaine de Jouvence, “qui fit rajovenir la gent.” He sailed in two ships on this “voyage of discoveries,” in the sixteenth century.

Like Ponce de Léon, he wants to go off to the Antipodês in search of that Fontaine de Jouvence which was fabled to give a man back his youth.—Véra, 130.

Pongo, a cross between “a land-tiger and a sea-shark.” This terrible monster devastated Sicily, but was slain by the three sons of St. George.—R. Johnson, The Seven Champions, etc. (1617).

Ponoc´rates (4 syl.), the tutor of Gargantua.—Rabelais, Gargantua (1533).

Pontius Pilate’s Body-Guard, the 1st Foot Regiment. In Picardy the French officers wanted to make out that they were the seniors, and, to carry their point, vaunted that they were on duty on the night of the Crucifixion. The colonel of the 1st Foot replied, “If we had been on guard we should not have slept at our posts” (see Matt. xxviii. 13).

Pontoys (Stephen), a veteran in Sir Hugo de Lacy’s troop.—Sir W. Scott, The Betrothed (time, Henry II.).

Pony (Mr. Garland’s), Whisker (q.v.).

Poole (1 syl.), in Dorsetshire; once “a young and lusty sea-born lass,” courted by Great Albion, who had by her three children, Brunksey, Fursey and [St.] Hellen. Thetis was indignant that one of her virgin train should be guilty of such indiscretion; and, to protect his children from her fury, Albion placed them in the bosom of Poole, and then threw his arms around them.—M. Drayton, Polyolbion, ii. (1612).

Poor (Father of the), Bernard Gilpin. (1517-1583).

Poor Gentleman (The), a comedy by George Colman, the younger (1802). “The poor gentleman” is Lieutenant Worthington, discharged from the army on half-pay because his arm had been crushed by a shell in storming Gibraltar. On his half-pay he had to support himself, his daughter Emily, an old corporal and a maiden sister-in-law. Having put his name to a bill for £500, his friend died without effecting an insurance, and the lieutenant was called upon for payment. Imprisonment would have followed if Sir Robert Bramble had not most generously paid the money. With this piece of good fortune came another—the marriage of his daughter Emily to Frederick Bramble, nephew and heir of the rich baronet.

Poor Richard, the pseudonym of Benjamin Franklin, under which he issued a series of almanacs, which he made the medium of teaching thrift, temperance, order, cleanliness, chastity, forgiveness, and so on. The maxims or precepts of these almanacs generally end with the words, “as poor Richard says” (begun in 1732).

Poor Robin, the pseudonym of Robert Herrick, the poet, under which he issued a series of almanacs (begun in 1661).

Pope (to drink like a). Benedict XII. was an enormous eater, and such a huge wine-drinker that he gave rise to the Bacchanalian expression, Bibāmus papaliter.

Pope Changing His Name. Peter Hogsmouth, or, as he is sometimes called, Peter di Porca, was the first pope to change his name. He called himself Sergius II. (844-847). Some say he thought it arrogant to be called Peter II.

Pope-Fig-Lands, Protestant countries. The Gaillardets, being shown the pope’s image, said, “A fig for the pope!” whereupon their whole island was put to the sword, and the name changed to Pope-fig-land, the people being called “Pope-figs.”—Rabelais, Pantag´ruel, iv. 45 (1545).

The allusion is to the kingdom of Navarre, once Protestant; but in 1512 it was subjected to Ferdinand, the Catholic.

Pope-Figs, Protestants. The name was given to the Gaillardets for saying “A fig for the pope!”

They were made tributaries and slaves to the Papimans for saying “A fig for the pope’s image!” and never after did the poor wretches prosper, but every year the devil was at their doors, and they were plagued with hail, storms, famine, and all manner of woes, in punishment of this sin of their forefathers.—Rabelais, Pantagruel, iv. 45 (1545).

Pope Joan, between Leo IV. and Benedict III., and called John [VIII.]. The subject of this scandalous story was an English girl, educated at Cologne, who left her home in man’s disguise with her lover (the monk Folda), and went to Athens, where she studied law. She went to Rome and studied theology, earning so great a reputation that, at the death of Leo IV., she was chosen his successor. Her sex was discovered by the birth of a child, while she was going to the Lateran Basilica, between the Coliseum and the church of St. Clement. Pope Joan died, and was buried, without honors, after a pontificate of two years and five months (853-855).—Marianus Scotus (who died 1086).

The story is given most fully by Martinus Polonus, confessor to Gregory X., and the tale was generally believed till the Reformation. There is a German miracle-play on the subject, called The Canonization of Pope Joan (1480). David Blondel, a Calvinist divine, has written a book to confute the tale.

The following note contains the chief points of interest:—

Anastasius, the librarian, is the first to mention such a pope, A.D. 886, or thirty years after the death of Joan.

Marianus Scotus, in his Chronicle, says she reigned two years, five months and four days (853-855). Scotus died 1086.

Sigebert de Gemblours, in his Chronicle, repeats the same story (1112).

Otto of Friesingen and Gotfried of Viterbo both mention her in their histories.

Martin Polonus gives a very full account of the matter. He says she went by the name of John Anglus, and was born at Metz, of English parents. While she was pope, she was prematurely delivered of a child in the street “between the Coliseum and St. Clement’s Church.”

William Ocham alludes to the story.

Thomas de Elmham repeats it (1422).

John Huss tells us her baptismal name was not Joan, but Agnes.

Others insist that her name was Gilberta.

In the Annalês Augustani (1135), we are told her papal name was John VIII., and that she it was who conscrated Louis II., of France.

Arguments in favor of the allegation are given by Spanheim, Exercit. de Papa Fæmina, ii. 577; in Lenfant, Historie de la Papesse Jeanne.

Arguments against the allegation are given by Allatius or Allatus, Confutatio Fabulæ de Johanna Papissa; and in Lequien, Oriens Christianus, iii. 777.

Arguments on both sides are given in Cunningham’s translation of Geiseler, Lehrbuch, ii. 21, 22; and in La Bayle’s Dictionnaire, iii., art. “Papisse.”

* Gibbon says, “Two Protestants, Blondel and Bayle, have annihilated the female pope;” but the expression is certainly too strong, and even Mosheim is more than half inclined to believe there really was such a person.

Pope of Philosophy, Aristotle (B.C. 384-322).

Popes (Titles assumed by). “Universal Bishop,” prior to Gregory the Great. Gregory the Great adopted the style of “Servus Servorum” (591).

Martin IV. was addressed as “the lamb of God which takest away the sins of the world,” to which was added, “Grant us thy peace!” (1281).

Leo X. was styled, by the council of Lateran, “Divine Majesty,” “Husband of the Church,” “Prince of the Apostles,” “The Key of all the Universe,” “The Pastor, the Physician, and a God possessed of all power both in heaven and on earth” (1513).

Paul V. styled himself “Monarch of Christendom,” “Supporter of the Papal Omnipotence,” “Vice-God,” “Lord God the Pope” (1605).

Others, after Paul, “Master of the World,” “Pope the Universal Father,” “Judge in the place of God,” “Vicegerent of the Most High.”—Brady, Clavis Calendaria, 247 (1839).

The pope assumes supreme dominion, not only over spiritual but also over temporal affairs, styling himself “Head of the Catholic or Universal Church, Sole Arbiter of its rights, and Sovereign Father of all the Kings of the Earth.” From these titles, he wears a triple crown, one as High Priest, one as emperor, and the third as king. He also bears keys, to denote his privilege of opening the gates of heaven to all true believers.—Brady, 250-1.

* For the first five centuries the bishops of Rome wore a bonnet, like other ecclesiastics. Pope Hormisdas placed on his bonnet the crown sent him by Clovis; Boniface VIII. added a second crown during his struggles with Philip the Fair; and John XXII. assumed the third crown.

Popish Plot, a supposed Roman Catholic conspiracy to massacre the Protestants, burn London, and murder the king (Charles II.). This fiction was concocted by one Titus Oates, who made a “good thing” by his schemes; but being at last found out, was pilloried, whipped, and imprisoned (1678-9).

Poppy (Ned), a prosy old anecdote teller, with a marvellous tendency to digression.

Poquelin (Jean-ah), a wealthy Creole living in seclusion in an old house, attended only by a deaf-mute negro. The secrecy and mystery of his life excite all sorts of ugly rumors, and he is mobbed by a crowd of mischievous boys and loafers, receiving injuries that cause his death. The story that his house is haunted keeps intruders from the doors, but they venture near enough on the day of his funeral, to see the coffin brought out by the mute negro, and laid on a cart, and that the solitary mourner is Poquelin’s brother, long supposed to be dead. He is a leper, for whom the elder brother has cared secretly all these years, not permitting the knowledge of his existence to get abroad, lest the unfortunate man should be removed forcibly, and sent to what is the only asylum for him now that his guardian is dead—the abhorrent Terre aux Lepreux.—George W. Cable, Old Creole Days (1879).

Porch (The). The Stoics were so called, because their founder gave his lectures in the Athenian stoa, or porch, called “Pœ´cilê.”

The successors of Socrătês formed ... the Academy, the Porch, the Garden.—Professor Seeley, Ecce Homo.

George Herbert has a poem called The Church Porch (six-line stanzas). It may be considered introductory to his poem entitled The Church (Sapphic verse and sundry other metres).

Porcius, son of Cato, of Utĭca (in Africa), and brother of Marcus. Both brothers were in love with Lucia; but the hot-headed, impulsive Marcus, being slain in battle, the sage and temperate Porcius was without a rival.—J. Addison, Cato (1713).

When Sheridan reproduced Cato, Wignell, who acted “Porcius,” omitted the prologue, and began at once with the lines, “The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers....” “The prologue! the prologue!” shouted the audience; and Wignell went on in the same tone, as if continuing his speech:

Ladies and gentleman, there has not been
A prologue spoken to this play for years—
And heavily on clouds brings on the day,
The great, th’ important day, big with the fate
Of Cato and of Rome.

History of the Stage.

Porcupine (Peter). William Cobbett, the politician, published The Rushlight under this pseudonym in 1860.

Pornei´us (3 syl.), Fornication personified; one of the four sons of Anag´nus (inchastity), his brothers being Mæ´chus (adultery), Acath´arus, and Asel´gês (lasciviousness). He began the battle of Mansoul by encountering Parthen´ia (maidenly chastity), but “the martial maid” slew him with her spear. (Greek, porneia, “fornication.”).

In maids his joy; now by a maid defied,
His life he lost and all his former pride.
With women would he live, now by a woman died.

Phineas Fletcher, The Purple Island, xi. (1633).

Porphyrius, in Dryden’s drama of Tyrannic Love.

Valeria, daughter of Maximin, having killed herself for the love of Porphyrus, was on one occasion being carried off by the bearers, when she started up and boxed one of the bearers on the ears, saying to him:

Hold! are you mad, you damned confounded dog?
I am to rise and speak the epilogue.

W. C. Russell, Representative Actors, 456.

Porphyro-Genitus (“born in the Porphyra”), the title given to the kings of the Eastern empire, from the apartments called Porphyra, set apart for the empresses during confinement.

There he found Irene, the empress, in travail, in a house anciently appointed for the empresses during childbirth. They call that house “Porphyra,” whence the name of the Porphyro-geniti came into the world.—See Selden, Titles of Honor, v. 61 (1614).

Porrex, younger son of Gorboduc, a legendary king of Britain. He drove his elder brother, Ferrex, from the kingdom, and, when Ferrex returned with a large army, defeated and slew him. Porrex was murdered while “slumbering on his careful bed,” by his own mother, who stabbed him to the heart with a knife.”—Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, Gorboduc (a tragedy, 1561-2).

Por´sena, a legendary king of Etruria, who made war on Rome to restore Tarquin to the throne.

Lord Macaulay has made this the subject of one of his Lays of Ancient Rome (1842).

Port´amour, Cupid’s sheriff’s officer, who summoned offending lovers to “Love’s Judgment Hall.”—Spenser, Faëry Queen, vi. 7 (1596).

Porteous (Captain John), an officer of the city guard. He is hanged by the mob (1736).

Mrs. Porteous, wife of the captain.—Sir W. Scott, The Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.)

Porter (Sir Joseph), K. C. B. The admiral who “stuck close to his desk, and never went to sea.” His reward was the appointment as “ruler of the Queen’s navee.”—W. S. Gilbert, Pinafore.

Portia, the wife of Pontius Pilate, in Klopstock’s Messiah.

Portia, wife of Marcus Brutus. Valerius Maximus says: “She, being determined to kill herself, took hot burning coals into her mouth, and kept her lips closed till she was suffocated by the smoke.”

With this she fell distract,
And, her attendants absent, swallowed fire.

Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar, act iv. sc. 3 (1607).

Portia, a rich heiress, in love with Bassa´nio; but her choice of a husband was restricted by her father’s will to the following condition: Her suitors were to select from three caskets, one of gold, one of silver, and one of lead, and he who selected the casket which contained Portia’s picture, was to claim her as his wife. Bassanio chose the lead, and being successful, became the espoused husband. It so happened that Bassanio had borrowed 3,000 ducats, and Antonio, a Venetian merchant, was his security. The money was borrowed of Shylock, a Jew, on these conditions: If the loan was repaid within three months, only the principal would be required; if not, the Jew should be at liberty to claim a pound of flesh from Antonio’s body. The loan was not repaid, and the Jew demanded the forfeiture. Portia, in the dress of a law doctor, conducted the defence, and saved Antonio by reminding the Jew that a pound of flesh gave him no drop of blood, and that he must cut neither more nor less than an exact pound, otherwise his life would be forfeited. As it would be plainly impossible to fulfill these conditions, the Jew gave up his claim, and Antonio was saved.—Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice (1598).

Portsmouth (The duchess of), “La Belle Louise de Querouaille,” one of the mistresses of Charles II.—Sir W. Scott, Perveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Portuguese Cid (The), Nunez Alvarez Pereria (1360-1431).

Portuguese Horace (The), Antonio Ferreira (1528-1569).

“Posson Jone,” a gigantic parson from “up the river” who has “been to Mobile on business for Bethesdy Church.” His sojourn in New Orleans on his way home is marked by divers adventures. He is beguiled into a gambling den, drugged and made drunk. While intoxicated, he visits a circus and has a scene with the showman and his tiger; he is locked up and awakes in his senses and penitent. His simplicity of self-condemnation, his humility and fortitude move his tempter to restore the $500 of church-money he has “borrowed” from the confiding victim whose transport of pious gratitude overwhelms the world-hardened man with shame and inspires him to new resolves.—George W. Cable, “Posson Jone” (1879).

Posthu´mus [Leonatus] married Imogen, daughter of Cymbeline, king of Britain, and was banished the kingdom for life. He went to Italy, and there, in the house of Philario, bet a diamond ring with Iachimo that nothing could seduce the fidelity of Imogen. Iachimo accepted the bet, concealed himself in a chest in Imogen’s chamber, made himself master of certain details and also of a bracelet, and with these vouchers claimed the ring. Posthūmus now ordered his servant, Pisanio, to inveigle Imogen to Milford Haven under the promise of meeting her husband, and to murder her on the road; but Pisanio told Imogen to assume boy’s apparel, and enter the service of the Roman general in Britain, as a page. A battle being fought, the Roman general, Iachimo, and Imogen were among the captives; and Posthumus, having done great service in the battle on Cymbeline’s behalf, was pardoned. The Roman general prayed that the supposed page might be set at liberty, and the king told her she might also claim a boon, whereupon she asked that Iachimo should state how he became possessed of the ring he was wearing. The whole villainy being thus exposed, Imogen’s innocence was fully established, and she was re-united to her husband.—Shakespeare, Cymbeline (1605).

Potage (Jean), the French “Jack Pudding;” similar to the Italian “Macaroni,” the Dutch “Pickel-herringe,” and the German “Hanswurst.” Clumsy, gormandizing clowns, fond of practical jokes, especially such as stealing eatables and drinkables.

Pother (Doctor), an apothecary, “city register, and walking story-book.” He had a story à propos of every remark made and of every incident; but as he mixed two or three together, his stories were pointless and quite unintelligible. “I know a monstrous good story on that point He! he! he” “I tell you a famous good story about that, you must know. He! he! he!...” “I could have told a capital story, but there was no one to listen to it. He! he! he!” This is the style of his chattering ... “speaking professionally—for anatomy, chemistry, pharmacy, phlebotomy, oxygen, hydrogen, caloric, carbonic, atmospheric, galvanic. Ha! ha! ha! Can tell you a prodigiously laughable story on the subject. Went last summer to a watering-place—lady of fashion—feel pulse—not lady, but lap-dog—talk Latin—prescribed galvanism—out jumped Pompey plump into a batter pudding, and lay like a toad in a hole. Ha! ha! ha!”—Dibdin, The Farmer’s Wife (1780).

* Colman’s “Ollapod” (1802) was evidently copied from Dibdin’s “Doctor Pother.”

Potiphar (Mr.), freshly-made man intensely uncomfortable in his plated harness. His ideas of art are grounded upon a dim picture in his wife’s drawing-room, called by him “Giddo’s Shay Doover.”

Mrs. Potiphar, shoddy of shoddys. Purse-proud, affected, pretentious and ambitious, and even less fit for her position than her husband for his.—George William Curtis, Potiphar Papers (1853).

Potiphar’s Wife, Zoleikha or Zuleika; but some call her Raïl.—Sale, Al Korân, xii. note.

Pott (Mr.), the librarian at the Spa.

Mrs. Pott, the librarian’s wife.—Sir W. Scott, St. Roman’s Well (time, George III.).

Potteries (Father of the), Josiah Wedgewood (1730-1795).

Pounce (Mr. Peter), in The Adventures of Joseph Andrews, by Fielding (1742).

Poundtext (Peter), an “indulged pastor” in the covenanters’ army.—Sir W. Scott, Old Mortality (time, Charles II.).

Pourceaugnac [Poor-sone-yak], the hero of a comedy so called. He is a pompous country gentleman, who comes to Paris to marry Julie, daughter of Oronte (2 syl.); but Julie loves Eraste (2 syl.), and this young man plays off so many tricks, and devises so many mystifications upon M. de Pourceaugnac, that he is fain to give up his suit.—Molière, M. de Pourceaugnac (1669).

Poussin (The British), Richard Cooper (*-1806).

Poussin (Gaspar). So Gaspar Dughet, the French painter, is called (1613-1675).

Powell (Mary), the first wife of John Milton.

Powheid (Lazarus), the old sexton in Douglas.—Sir W. Scott, Castle Dangerous (time, Henry I.).

Poyning’s Law, a statute to establish the English jurisdiction in Ireland. The parliament that passed it was summoned in the reign of Henry VII. by Sir Edward Poynings, governor of Ireland (1495).

Poyser (Mrs.), shrewd, capable and ready-tongued wife of a British yeoman, and aunt of Hetty Sorrel.—George Eliot, Adam Bede.

P. P., “Clerk of the Parish,” the feigned signature of Dr. Arbuthnot, subscribed to a volume of Memoirs in ridicule of Burnet’s History of My Own Times.

Those who were placed around the dinner-table had those feelings of awe with which P. P., Clerk of the Parish, was oppressed when he first uplifted the psalm in presence of ... the wise Mr. Justice Freeman, the good Lady Jones, and the great Sir Thomas Truby.—Sir W. Scott.

Pragmatic Sanction. The word pragmaticus means “relating to State affairs,” and the word sanctio means “an ordinance” or “decree.” The four most famous statutes so called are:

1. The Pragmatic Sanction of St. Louis (1268), which forbade the court of Rome to levy taxes or collect subscriptions in France without the express permission of the king. It also gave French subjects the right of appealing, in certain cases, from the ecclesiastical to the civil courts of the realm.

2. The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, passed by Charles VII. of France, in 1438. By this ordinance the power of the people in France was limited and defined. The authority of the National Council was declared superior to that of the pope. The French clergy were forbidden to appeal to Rome on any point affecting the secular condition of the nation; and the Roman pontiff was wholly forbidden to appropriate to himself any vacant living, or to appoint to any bishopric or parish church in France.

3. The Pragmatic Sanction of Kaiser Karl VI. of Germany (in 1713), which settled the empire on his daughter, the Archduchess Maria Theresa, wife of François de Loraine. Maria Theresa ascended the throne in 1740, and a European war was the result.

4. The Pragmatic Sanction of Charles III. of Spain (1767). This was to suppress the Jesuits of Spain.

What is meant emphatically by The Pragmatic Sanction is the third of these ordinances, viz., settling the line of succession in Germany on the house of Austria.

Pramnian Mixture (The), any intoxicating draught; so called from the Pramnian grape, from which it was made. Circê gave Ulysses “Pramnian wine” impregnated with drugs, in order to prevent his escape from the island.

And for my drink prepared
The Pramnian mixture in a golden cup,
Impregnating (on my destruction bent)
With noxious herbs the draught.

Homer, Odyssey, x. (Cowper’s trans.).

Prasildo, a Babylonish nobleman, who falls in love with Tisbi´na, wife of his friend Iroldo. He is overheard by Tisbina threatening to kill himself, and, in order to divert him from his guilty passion she promises to return his love on condition of his performing certain adventures which she thinks to be impossible. However, Prasildo performs them all, and then Tisbina and Iroldo, finding no excuse, take poison to avoid the alternative. Prasildo resolves to do the same, but is told by the apothecary that the “poison” he had supplied was a harmless drink. Prasildo tells his friend, Iroldo quits the country, and Tisbina marries Prasildo. Time passes on and Prasildo hears that his friend’s life is in danger, whereupon he starts forth to rescue him at the hazard of his own life.—Bojardo, Orlando Innamorato (1495).

Prasu´tagus or Præsu´tagus, husband of Bonduica or Boadicēa, queen of the Icēni.—Richard of Cirencester, History, xxx. (fourteenth century).

Me, the wife of rich Prasutagus; me the lover of liberty.—
Me, they seized, and me they tortured!

Tennyson, Boadicea.

Prate´fast (Peter), who “in all his life spake no word in waste.” His wife was Maude, and his eldest son, Sym Sadle Gander, who married Betres (daughter of Davy Dronken Nole, of Kent, and his wife, Al´yson).—Stephen Hawes, The Passe-tyme of Plesure, xxix. (1515).

Prattle (Mr.), medical practitioner, a voluble gossip, who retails all the news and scandal of the neighborhood. He knows everybody, everybody’s affairs, and everybody’s intentions.—G. Colman, Sr, The Deuce is in Him (1762).

Pre-Adamite Kings, Soliman Raad, Soliman Daki, and Soliman de Gian ben Gian. The last named, having chained up the dives (1 syl.) in the dark caverns of Pâf, became so presumptuous as to dispute the Supreme Power. All these kings maintained great state [before the existence of that contemptible being denominated by us “The Father of Mankind”]; but none can be compared with the eminence of Soliman ben Daoud.

Pre-Adamite Throne (The). It was Vathek’s ambition to gain the pre-Adamite throne. After long search, he was shown it at last in the abyss of Eblis; but being there, return was impossible, and he remained a prisoner without hope forever.

They reached at length the hall [Argenk] of great extent, and covered with a lofty dome.... A funereal gloom prevailed over it. Here, upon two beds of incorruptible cedar, lay recumbent the fleshless forms of the pre-Adamite kings, who had once been monarchs of the whole earth.... At their feet were inscribed the events of their several reigns, their power, their pride, and their crimes. [This was the pre-Adamite throne, the ambition of the Caliph Vathek.]—W. Beckford, Vathek (1784).

Preacher (The) Solomon, the son of David, author of The Preacher (i. e. Ecclesiastes).

Thus saith the Preacher, “Nought beneath the sun
Is new;” yet still from change to change we run.

Byron.

Preacher (The Glorious), St. Chrys´ostom (347-407). The name means “Golden mouth.”

Preacher (The Little), Samuel de Marets, Protestant controversialist (1599-1663).

Preacher (The Unfair). Dr. Isaac Barrow was so called by Charles II., because his sermons were so exhaustive that they left nothing more to be said on the subject, which was “unfair” to those that came after him.

Preachers (The King of), Louis Bourdaloue (1632-1704).

Précieuses Ridicules (Les), a comedy by Molière, in ridicule of the “precieuses,” as they were styled, forming the coterie of the Hotel de Rambouillet in the seventeenth century. The soirées held in this hotel were a great improvement on the licentious assemblies of the period; but many imitators made the thing ridiculous, because they wanted the same presiding talent and good taste.

The two girls of Molière’s comedy are Madelon and Cathos, the daughter and niece of Gorgibus, a bourgeois. They change their names to Polixène and Aminte, which they think more genteel, and look on the affectations of two flunkies as far more distingué than the simple, gentlemanly manners of their masters. However, they are cured of their folly, and no harm comes of it (1659).

Preciosa, the heroine of Longfellow’s Spanish Student, in love with Victorian, the student.

Precocious Genius.

Johann Philip Baratier, a German, at the age of five years, knew Greek, Latin, and French, besides his native German. At nine he knew Hebrew and Chaldaic, and could translate German into Latin. At thirteen he could translate Hebrew into French, or French into Hebrew (1721-1740).

* The life of this boy was written by Formey. His name is enrolled in all biographical dictionaries.

Christian Henry Heinecken, at one year old, knew the chief events of the Pentatauch!! at thirteen months he knew the history of the Old Testament!! at fourteen months he knew the history of the New Testament!! at two and a half years he could answer any ordinary question of history or geography; and at three years old knew French and Latin as well as his native German (1721-1725).

* The life of this boy was written by Schœneich, his teacher. His name is duly noticed in biographical dictionaries.

Pressæus (“eater of garlic”), the youngest of the frog chieftains.

The pious ardor young Pressæus brings,
Betwixt the fortunes of contending kings;
Lank, harmless frog! with forces hardly grown,
He darts the reed in combats not his own,
Which, faintly tinkling on Troxartas’ shield,
Hangs at the point and drops upon the field.

Parnell, Battle of the Frogs and Mice, iii. (about 1712).

Prest, a nickname given by Swift to the duchess of Shrewsbury, who was a foreigner.

Prester John, a corruption of Belul Gian, meaning “precious stone.” Gian (pronounced zjon) has been corrupted into John, and Belul, translated into “precious;” in Latin Johannes preciosus (“precious John”) corrupted into “Presbyter Joannes.” The kings of Ethiopia or Abyssinia, from a gemmed ring given to Queen Saba, whose son by Solomon was king of Ethiopia, and was called Melech, with the “precious stone,” or Melech Gian-Belul.

Æthiopes regem suum, quem nos vulgo “Prete Gianni” corrupte dicimus, quatour appellant nominibus, quorum primum est “Belul Giad,” hoc est lapis preciosus. Ductum est autem hoc nomen ab annulo Salomonis quem ille filio ex regina Saba, ut putant genito, dono dedisse, quove omnes postea reges usos fuisse describitor.... Cum vero eum coronant, appellant “Neghuz.” Postremo cum vertice capitis in coronæ modum abraso, ungitur a patriarcha, vocant “Masih,” hoc est unctum. Hæc autem regiæ dignitatis nomina omnibus communia sunt.—Quoted by Selden, from a little annal of the Ethiopian kings (1552), in his Titles of Honor, v. 65 (1614).

* As this title was like the Egyptian Pharaoh, and belonged to whole lines of kings, it will explain the enormous diversity of time allotted by different writers to “Prester John.”

Marco Polo says that Prester John was slain in battle by Jenghiz Khan; and Gregory Bar-Hebræus says, “God forsook him because he had taken to himself a wife of the Zinish nation, called Quarakhata.

Bishop Jordānus, in his description of the world, sets down Abyssinia as the kingdom of Prester John. Abyssinia used to be called “Middle India.”

Otto of Freisingen is the first author to mention him. This Otto wrote a chronicle to the date 1156. He says that John was of the family of the Magi, and ruled over the country of these Wise Men. Otto tells us that Prester John had “a sceptre of emeralds.”

Maimonĭdês, about the same time (twelfth century), mentions him, but calls him “Prester-Cuan.”

Before 1241 a letter was addressed by “Prester John” to Manuel Comnēnus, emperor of Constantinople. It is preserved in the Chronicle of Albericus Trium Fontium, who gives for its date 1165.

Mandeville calls Prester John a lineal descendant of Ogier, the Dane. He tells us that Ogier, with fifteen others, penetrated into the north of India, and divided the land amongst his followers. John was made sovereign of Teneduc, and was called “Prester” because he converted the natives to the Christian faith.

Another tradition says that Prester John had seventy kings for his vassals, and was seen by his subjects only three times in a year.

In Orlando Furioso, Prester John is called by his subjects “Senāpus, king of Ethiopia.” He was blind, and though the richest monarch of the world, he pined with famine, because harpies flew off with his food by way of punishment for wanting to add paradise to his empire. The plague, says the poet, was to cease “when a stranger appeared on a flying griffin.” This stranger was Astolpho, who drove the harpies to Cocy´tus. Prester John, in return for this service, sent 100,000 Nubians to the aid of Charlemagne. Astolpho supplied this contingent with horses by throwing stones into the air, and made transport-ships to convey them to France by casting leaves into the sea. After the death of Agramant, the Nubians were sent home, and then the horses became stones again, and the ships became leaves (bks. xvii.-xix.).

Pretender (The Young), Prince Charles Edward Stuart, son of James Francis Edward Stuart (called “The Old Pretender”). James Francis was the son of James II., and Charles Edward was the king’s grandson.—Sir W. Scott, Waverley (time, George II.).

Charles Edward was defeated at Cullōden in 1746, and escaped to the Continent.

God bless the king—I mean the “Faith’s defender;”
God bless—no harm in blessing—the Pretender.
Who that Pretender is, and who is king,
God bless us all! that’s quite another thing.

Ascribed by Sir W. Scott to John Byrom (in Redgauntlet).

The mistress of Charles Edward Stuart was Miss Walkingshaw.

Prettyman (Prince), in love with Cloris. He is sometimes a fisherman, and sometimes a prince.—Duke of Buckingham, The Rehearsal (1671).

* “Prince Prettyman” is said to be a parody on “Leonidas” in Dryden’s Marriage-à-la-mode.

Pri´amus (Sir), a knight of the Round Table. He possessed a phial, full of four waters that came from paradise. These waters instantly healed any wounds which were touched by them.

“My father,” says Sir Priamus, “is lineally descended of Alexander and of Hector by right line. Duke Josuê and Machabæus were of our lineage. I am right inheritor of Alexandria, and Affrike of all the out isles.”

And Priamus took from his page a phial, full of four waters that came out of paradise; and with certain balm nointed he their wounds, and washed them with that water, and within an hour after they were both as whole as ever they were.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 97 (1470).

Price (Matilda), a miller’s daughter; a pretty, coquettish young woman, who marries John Browdie, a hearty Yorkshire corn-factor.—C. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby (1838).

Pride (Sir), first a drayman, then a colonel in the parliamentary army.—S. Butler, Hudibras (1663-78).

Pride of Humility. Antisthĕnês, the Cynic, affected a very ragged coat; but Socrătês said to him, “Antisthenês, I can see your vanity peering through the holes of your coat.”

Pride’s Purge, a violent invasion of parliamentary rights by Colonel Pride, in 1649. At the head of two regiments of soldiers he surrounded the House of Commons, seized forty-one of the members and shut out 160 others. None were allowed into the House but those most friendly to Cromwell. This fag-end went by the name of “the Rump.”

Pridwin or Priwen, Prince Arthur’s shield.

Arthur placed a golden helmet upon his head, on which was engraven the figure of a dragon; and on his shoulders his shield, called Priwen, upon which the picture of the blessed Mary, mother of God, was painted; then, girding on his Caliburn, which was an excellent sword, made in the isle of Avallon; he took in his right hand his lance, Ron, which was hard, broad, and fit for slaughter.—Geoffrey, British History, ix. 4 (1142).

Priest of Nature, Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727).

Lo! Newton, priest of nature, shines afar,
Scans the wide world, and numbers every star.

Campbell, Pleasures of Hope, i. (1799).

Prig, a knavish beggar.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Beggars’ Bush (1622).

Prig (Betsey), an old monthly nurse, “the frequent pardner” of Mrs. Gamp; equally ignorant, equally vulgar, equally selfish, and brutal to her patients.

“Betsey,” said Mrs. Gamp, filling her own glass, and passing the teapot [of gin], “I will now propoge a toast: ‘My frequent pardner, Betsey Prig.’” “Which, altering the name to Sairah Gamp, I drink,” said Mrs. Prig, “with love and tenderness.”—C. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, xlix. (1843).

Prim´er (Peter), a pedantic country schoolmaster, who believes himself to be the wisest of pedagogues.—Samuel Foote, The Mayor of Garratt (1763).

Primitive Fathers (The). The five apostolic fathers contemporary with the apostles (viz., Clement of Rome, Barnăbas, Hermas, Ignatius and Polycarp), and the nine following, who all lived in the first three centuries:—Justin, Theoph´ilus of Antioch, Irenæus, Clement of Alexandria, Cyprian of Carthage, Orĭgen, Gregory “Thaumatur´gus,” Dionysius of Alexandria and Tertullian.

* For the “Fathers” of the fourth and fifth centuries see Greek Church, Latin Church.

Primrose (The Rev. Dr. Charles), a clergyman rich in heavenly wisdom, but poor indeed in all worldly knowledge. Amiable, charitable, devout, but not without his literary vanity, especially on the Whistonian theory about second marriages. One admires his virtuous indignation against the “washes,” which he deliberately demolished with the poker. In his prosperity his chief “adventures were by the fireside, and all his migrations were from the blue bed to the brown.”

Mrs. [Deborah] Primrose, the doctor’s wife, full of motherly vanity, and desirous to appear genteel. She could read without much spelling, prided herself on her housewifery, especially on her gooseberry wine, and was really proud of her excellent husband.

(She was painted as “Venus,” and the vicar, in gown and bands, was presenting to her his book on “second marriages,” but when complete the picture was found to be too large for the house.)

George Primrose, son of the vicar. He went to Amsterdam to teach the Dutch English, but never once called to mind that he himself must know something of Dutch before this could be done. He becomes Captain Primrose, and marries Miss Wilmot, an heiress.

(Goldsmith himself went to teach the French English under the same circumstances.)

Moses Primrose, younger son of the vicar, noted for his greenness and pedantry. Being sent to sell a good horse at a fair, he bartered it for a gross of green spectacles, with copper rims and shagreen cases, of no more value than Hodge’s razors (ch. xii.).

Olivia Primrose, the eldest daughter of the doctor. Pretty, enthusiastic, a sort of Hebê in beauty. “She wished for many lovers,” and eloped with Squire Thornhill. Her father found her at a roadside inn called the Harrow, where she was on the point of being turned out of the house. Subsequently, she was found to be legally married to the squire.

Sophia Primrose, the second daughter of Dr. Primrose. She was “soft, modest, and alluring.” Not like her sister, desirous of winning all, but fixing her whole heart upon one. Being thrown from her horse into a deep stream, she was rescued by Mr. Burchell (alias Sir William Thornhill), and being abducted, was again rescued by him. She married him at last.—Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield (1766).

Prince of Alchemy, Rudolph II., kaiser of Germany; also called “The German Trismegistus” (1552, 1576-1612).

Prince of Angels, Michael.

So spake the prince of angels. To whom thus
The Adversary [i.e. Satan].

Milton, Paradise Lost, vi. 281 (1665).

Prince of Celestial Armies, Michael, the archangel.

Go, Michael, of celestial armies prince.

Milton, Paradise Lost, vi. 44 (1665).

Prince of Darkness, Satan (Eph. vi 12).

Whom thus the prince of darkness answered glad:
“Fair daughter,
High proof ye now have given to be the race
Of Satan (I glory in the name).”

Milton, Paradise Lost, x, 383 (1665).

Prince of Hell, Satan.

And with them comes a third of regal port,
But faded splendor wan; who by his gait
And fierce demeanor seems the prince of Hell.

Milton, Paradise Lost, iv. 868 (1665).

Prince of Life, a title given to Christ (Acts iii. 15).

Prince of Peace, a title given to the Messiah (Isaiah ix. 6).

Prince of Peace, Don Manuel Godoy, of Badajoz. So called because he concluded the “peace of Basle” in 1795, between France and Spain (1757-1851).

Prince of the Air, Satan.

... Jesus, son of Mary, second Eve,
Saw Satan fall, like lightning, down from heaven,
Prince of the air.

Milton, Paradise Lost, x. 185 (1665).

Prince of the Devils, Satan (Matt. xii. 24).

Prince of the Kings of the Earth, a title given to Christ (Rev. i. 5).

Prince of the Power of the Air, Satan (Eph. ii. 2).

Prince of this World, Satan (John xiv. 30).

Princes. It was Prince Bismarck, the German Chancellor, who said to a courtly attendant, “Let princes be princes, and mind your own business.”

Prince’s Peers, a term of contempt applied to peers of low birth. The phrase arose in the reign of Charles VII., of France, when his son Louis (afterwards Louis XI.) created a host of riff-raff peers, such as tradesmen, farmers, and mechanics, in order to degrade the aristocracy, and thus weaken its influence in the state.

Printed Books. The first book produced in England, was printed in England in 1477, by William Caxton, in the Almonry, at Westminster, and was entitled The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers.

The Rev. T. Wilson says: “The press at Oxford existed ten years before there was any press in Europe, except those of Haarlem and Mentz.” The person who set up the Oxford press was Corsellis, and his first printed book bore the date of 1468. The colophon of it ran thus: “Explicit exposicio Sancti Jeronimi in simbolo apostolorum ad papam laurēcium. Impressa Oxonii Et finita Anno Domini Mcccclxviij., xvij. die Decembris.” The book is a small quarto of forty-two leaves, and was first noticed in 1664 by Richard Atkins in his Origin and Growth of Printing. Dr. Conyers Middleton, in 1735, charged Atkins with forgery. In 1812, S. W. Singer defended the book. Dr. Cotton took the subject up in his Typographical Gazetteer (first and second series).

Prior (Matthew). The monument to this poet in Westminster Abbey was by Rysbrack; executed by order of Louis XIV.

Priory (Lord), an old-fashioned husband, who actually thinks that a wife should “love, honor, and obey” her husband; nay, more, that “forsaking all others, she should cleave to him so long as they both should live.”

Lady Priory, an old-fashioned wife, but young and beautiful. She was, however, so very old-fashioned that she went to bed at ten and rose at six; dressed in a cap and gown of her own making; respected and loved her husband; discouraged flirtation; and when assailed by any improper advances, instead of showing temper or conceited airs, quietly and tranquilly seated herself to some modest household duty till the assailant felt the irresistible power of modesty and virtue.—Mrs. Inchbald, Wives as They Were and Maids as They Are (1797).

Priscian, a great grammarian of the fifth century. The Latin phrase, Diminuĕre Prisciani caput (“to break Priscian’s head”), means to “violate the rules of grammar.” (See Pegasus.)

Some, free from rhyme or reason, rule or check,
Break Priscian’s head, and Pegasus’s neck.

Pope, The Dunciad, iii. 161 (1728).

Quakers (that like to lanterns, bear
Their light within them) will not swear
And hold no sin so deeply red
As that of breaking Priscian’s head.

Butler, Hudibras, II. ii. 219, etc. (1664).

Priscilla, daughter of a noble lord. She fell in love with Sir Aladine, a poor knight.—Spenser, Faëry Queen, vi. 1 (1596).

Priscilla, the beautiful puritan in love with John Alden. When Miles Standish, a bluff old soldier, in the middle of life, wished to marry her, he asked John Alden to go and plead his cause; but the puritan maiden replied archly, “Why don’t you speak for yourself, John?” Upon this hint, John did speak for himself, and Priscilla listened to his suit.—Longfellow, The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858).

Priscilla. Fragile, pretty, simple girl, whom Hollingsworth and Coverdale love, instead of falling victims to the superb Zenobia. She is thin-blooded and weak-limbed, and her very helplessness charms the strong men, who suppose themselves proof against love of the ordinary kind.—Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance (1852).

Prison Life Endeared. The following are examples of prisoners who, from long habit, have grown attached to prison life:—

Comte de Lorge was confined for thirty years in the Bastile, and when liberated (July 14, 1789) declared that freedom had no joys for him. After imploring in vain to be allowed to return to his dungeon, he lingered for six weeks and pined to death.

Goldsmith says, when Chinvang the Chaste, ascended the throne of China, he commanded the prisons to be thrown open. Among the prisoners was a venerable man of 85 years of age, who implored that he might be suffered to return to his cell. For sixty-three years he had lived in its gloom and solitude, which he preferred to the glare of the sun and the bustle of a city.—A Citizen of the World lxxiii. (1759).

Mr. Cogan once visited a prisoner of state in the King’s Bench prison, who told him he had grown to like the subdued light and extreme solitude of his cell; he even liked the spots and patches on the wall, the hardness of his bed, the regularity, and the freedom from all the cares and worries of active life. He did not wish to be released, and felt sure he should never be so happy in any other place.

A woman of Leyden, on the expiration of a long imprisonment, applied for permission to return to her cell, and added, if the request was refused as a favor, she would commit some offence which should give her a title to her old quarters.

A prisoner condemned to death had his sentence commuted to seven years’ close confinement on a bed of nails. After the expiration of five years, he declared, if ever he were released, he should adopt from choice what habit had rendered so agreeable to him.

Prisoner of Chillon, Françoise de Bonnivard, a Frenchman, who resided at Geneva, and made himself obnoxious to Charles III., duc de Savoie, who incarcerated him for six years in a dungeon of the Château de Chillon, at the east end of the lake of Geneva. The prisoner was ultimately released by the Bernese, who were at war with Savoy.

Byron has founded on this incident his poem entitled The Prisoner of Chillon, but has added two brothers, whom he supposes to be imprisoned with Françoise, and who die of hunger, suffering, and confinement. In fact, the poet mixes up Dantê’s tale about Count Ugolino with that of Françoise de Bonnivard, and has produced a powerful and affecting story, but it is not historic.

Prisoner of State (The), Ernest de Fridberg. E. Sterling has a drama so called. (For the plot, see Ernest de Fridberg.)

Pritchard (William), commander of H.M. sloop, the Shark.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

Priu´li, a senator of Venice, of unbending pride. His daughter had been saved from the Adriatic by Jaffier, and gratitude led to love. As it was quite hopeless to expect Priuli to consent to the match, Belvidera eloped in the night, and married Jaffier. Priuli now discarded them both. Jaffier joined Pierre’s conspiracy to murder the Venetian senators, but in order to save his father-in-law, revealed to him the plot under the promise of a general free pardon. The promise was broken, and all the conspirators except Jaffier were condemned to death by torture. Jaffier stabbed Pierre, to save him from the wheel, and then killed himself. Belvidera went mad and died. Priuli lived on, a broken-down old man, sick of life, and begging to be left alone in some “place that’s fit for mourning.” “There, all leave me:

Sparing no tears when you this tale relate,
But bid all cruel fathers dread my fate.”

T. Otway, Venice Preserved, v. the end (1682).

Privolvans, the antagonists of the Subvolvans.

These silly, ranting Privolvans
Have every summer their campaigns,
And muster like the warlike sons
Of Rawhead and of Bloody-bones.

S. Butler, The Elephant in the Moon, v. 85 (1754).

Probe (1 syl.), a priggish surgeon, who magnifies mole-hill ailments into mountain maladies, in order to enhance his skill and increase his charges. Thus, when Lord Foppington received a small flesh-wound in the arm from a foil, Probe drew a long face, frightened his lordship greatly, and pretended the consequences might be serious; but when Lord Foppington promised him £500 for a cure, he set his patient on his legs the next day.—Sheridan, A Trip to Scarborough (1777).

Procida (John of), a tragedy by S. Knowles (1840). John of Procida was an Italian gentleman of the thirteenth century, a skillful physician, high in favor with King Fernando II., Conrad, Manfred, and Conrad´ine. The French invaded the island, put the last two monarchs to the sword, usurped the sovereignty, and made Charles d’Anjou king. The cruelty, licentiousness, and extortion of the French being quite unbearable, provoked a general rising of the Sicilians, and in one night (Sicilian Vespers, March 30, 1282), every Frenchman, Frenchwoman, and French child in the whole island was ruthlessly butchered. Procĭda lost his only son Fernando, who had just married Isoline (3 syl.), the daughter of the French governor of Messina. Isoline died broken-hearted, and her father, the governor, was amongst the slain. The crown was given to John of Procida.

Procris, the wife of Cephălos. Out of jealousy she crept into a wood to act as a spy upon her husband. Cephalos, hearing something move, discharged an arrow in the direction of the rustling, thinking it to be caused by some wild beast, and shot Procris. Jupiter, in pity, turned Procris into a star.—Greek and Latin Mythology.

The unerring dart of Procris. Diana gave Procris a dart which never missed its aim, and after being discharged returned back to the shooter.

Procrus´tes (3 syl.), a highwayman of Attica, who used to place travellers on a bed; if they were too short he stretched them out till they fitted it, if too long he lopped off the redundant part. Greek Mythology.

Critic, more cruel than Procrustes old,
Who to his iron bed by torture fits
Their nobler parts, the souls of suffering wits.

Mallet, Verbal Criticism (1734).

Proctor’s Dogs or Bull-Dogs, the two “runners” or officials who accompany a university proctor in his rounds, to give chase to recalcitrant gownsmen.

And he had breathed the proctor’s dogs [was a member of Oxford or Cambridge University].

Tennyson, prologue of The Princess (1830).

Prodigal (The), Albert VI. duke of Austria (1418, 1439-1463).

Prodigy of France (The). Guillaume Budé was so called by Erasmus (1467-1540).

Prodigy of Learning (The). Samuel Hahnemann, the German, was so called by J. P. Richter (1755-1843).

Professor (The). The most important member of the party gathered about the social board in O. W. Holmes’s Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858).

Profound (The), Richard Middleton, an English scholastic divine (*-1304).

Profound Doctor (The), Thomas Bradwardine, a schoolman. Also called “The Solid Docter” (*-1349).

Ægidius de Columna, a Sicilian schoolman, was called “The Most Profound Doctor” (*-1316).

Progne (2 syl.), daughter of Pandīon, and sister of Philomēla. Prognê was changed into a swallow, and Philomela into a nightingale.—Greek Mythology.

As Prognê or as Philomela mourns ...
So Bradamant laments her absent knight.

Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, xxiii. (1516).

Prome´thean Unguent (The), made from the extract of a herb on which some of the blood of Promētheus (3 syl.), had fallen. Medea gave Jason some of this unguent, which rendered his body proof against fire and warlike instruments.

Prome´theus (3 syl.) taught man the use of fire, and instructed him in architecture, astronomy, mathematics, writing, rearing cattle, navigation, medicine, the art of prophecy, working metal, and, indeed, every art known to man. The word means “forethought,” and forethought is the father of invention. The tale is that he made man of clay, and, in order to endow his clay with life, stole fire from heaven and brought it to earth in a hollow tube. Zeus, in punishment, chained him to a rock, and sent an eagle to consume his liver daily; during the night it grew again, and thus his torment was ceaseless, till Herculês shot the eagle, and unchained the captive.

Learn the while, in brief,
That all arts come to mortals from Prometheus.

E. B. Browning, Prometheus Bound (1850).

Truth shall restore the light by Nature given,
And, like Prometheus, bring the fire from heaven.

Campbell, Pleasures of Hope, i. (1700).

* Percy B. Shelley has a classical drama entitled Prometheus Unbound (1819).

James Russell Lowell has a noble poem entitled Prometheus, beginning,—

“One after one the stars have risen and set,
Sparkling upon the hoarfrost on my chain.”

Prompt, the servant of Mr. and Miss Blandish. General Burgoyne, The Heiress (1781).

Pronando (Rast). The early lover of Anne Douglas. He is handsome, weak, and attractive in disposition, a favorite with all his friends. His pliant character and good-natured vanity make him a prey to the whimsical fascinations of Tita, Anne’s “little sister,” whom he marries instead of his first betrothed.—Constance Fenimore Woolson, Anne (1882).

Pronouns. It was of Henry Mossop, tragedian (1729-1773), that Churchill wrote the two lines:

In monosyllables his thunders roll—
He, she, it, and we, ye, they, fright the soul;

because Mossop was fond of emphasizing his pronouns and little words.

Prophecy. Jourdain, the wizard, told the duke of Somerset, if he wished to live, to “avoid where castles mounted stand.” The duke died in an ale-house called the Castle, in St. Alban’s.

... underneath an ale-house’ paltry sign,
The Castle, in St. Alban’s, Sumerset
Hath made the wizard famous in his death.

Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI. act v. sc. 2 (1591).

Similar prophetic equivokes were told to Henry IV., Pope Sylvester II., and Cambysês (see Jerusalem).

Aristomĕnês was told by the Delphic oracle to “flee for his life when he saw a goat drink from the river Neda.” Consequently, all goats were driven from the banks of this river; but one day, Theŏclos observed that the branches of a fig tree bent into the stream, and it immediately flashed into his mind that the Messenian word for fig tree and goat was the same. The pun or equivoke will be better understood by an English reader if for goat we read ewe, and bear in mind that yew is to the ear the same word; thus:

When an ewe [yew] stops to drink of the “Severn,” then fly,
And look not behind, for destruction is nigh.

Prophetess (The), Ayē´shah, the second and beloved wife of Mahomet. It does not mean that she prophesied, but, like Sultana, it is simply a title of honor. He was the Prophet, she the Prophēta or Madam Prophet.

Prose (Father of English), Wycliffe (1324-1384).

Prose (Father of Greek), Herodotus (B.C. 484-408).

Prose (Father of Italian), Boccaccio (1313-1375).

Pros´erpine (3 syl.), called Proserpĭna in Latin, and “Proser´pin” by Milton, was daughter of Ce´rês. She went to the field of Enna to amuse herself by gathering asphodels, and being tired, fell asleep. Dis, the god of Hell, then carried her off, and made her queen of the infernal reions. Cerês wandered for nine days over the world disconsolate, looking for her daughter, when Hec´ate (2 syl.) told her she had heard the girl’s cries, but knew not who had carried her off. Both now went to Olympus, when the sun-god told them the true state of the case.

N.B.—This is an allegory of seed-corn.

Not that fair field
Of Enna, where Proser´pin, gathering flowers,
Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis
Was gathered—which cost Cerês all that pain
To seek her thro’ the world.

Milton, Paradise Lost, iv. 268 (1665).

Prosperity Robinson, Frederick Robinson, afterwards Viscount Goderich and earl of Ripon, chancellor of the exchequer in 1823. So called by Cobbett, from his boasting about the prosperity of the country just a little before the great commercial crisis of 1825.

Pros´pero, the banished duke of Milan, and father of Miranda. He was deposed by his brother, Antonio, who sent him to sea with Miranda in a “rotten carcass of a boat,” which was borne to a desert island. Here Prospero practised magic. He liberated Ariel from the rift of a pine tree, where the witch Syc´orax had confined him for twelve years, and was served by that bright spirit with true gratitude. The only other inhabitant of the island was Calĭban, the witch’s “welp.” After a residence in the island of sixteen years, Prospero raised a tempest by magic to cause the shipwreck of the usurping duke and of Ferdinand, his brother’s son. Ferdinand fell in love with his cousin, Miranda, and eventually married her.—Shakespeare, The Tempest (1609).

Still they kept limping to and fro,
Like Ariels round old Prospero,
Saying, “Dear master, let us go.”
But still the old man answered, “No!”

T. Moore, A Vision.

Pross (Miss), a red-haired, ungainly creature, who lived with Lucie Manette, and dearly loved her. Miss Pross, although eccentric, was most faithful and unselfish.

Her character (dissociated from stature) was shortness.... It was characteristic of this lady that whenever her original proposition was questioned, she exaggerated it.—C. Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, ii. 6 (1859).

Proterius of Cappadōcia, father of Cyra. (See Sinner Saved.)

Protesila´os, husband of Laodamīa. Being slain at the siege of Troy, the dead body was sent home to his wife, who prayed that she might talk with him again, if only for three hours. Her prayer was granted, but when Protesilāos returned to death, Laodamia died also.—Greek Mythology.

In Fénelon’s Télémaque “Protésilaos” is meant for Louvois, the French minister of state.

Protestant Duke (The), James, duke of Monmouth, a love-child of Charles II. So called because he renounced the Roman faith, in which he had been brought up, and became a Protestant (1619-1685).

Protestant Pope (The), Gian Vincenzo Ganganelli, Pope Clement XIV. So called from his enlightened policy, and for his bull suppressing the Jesuits (1705, 1769-1774).

Proteus [Pro-tuce], a sea-god who resided in the Carpathian Sea. He had the power of changing his form at will. Being a prophet also, Milton calls him “the Carpathian wizard.”—Greek Mythology.

By hoary Nereus’ wrinkled look,
And the Carpathian wizard’s hook [or trident].

Milton, Comus (1634).

Periklym´enos, son of Neleus (2 syl.), had the power of changing his form into a bird, beast, reptile, or insect. As a bee he perched on the chariot of Heraklês (Hercules), and was killed.

Aristogīton, from being dipped in the Achelōus (4 syl.), received the power of changing his form at will.—Fénelon, Télémaque, xx. (1700).

The genii, both good and bad, of Eastern mythology, had the power of changing their form instantaneously. This is powerfully illustrated by the combat between the queen of Beauty and the son of Eblis. The genius first appeared as an enormous lion, but the queen of Beauty plucked out a hair which became a scythe, with which she cut the lion in pieces. The head of the lion now became a scorpion, and the princess changed herself into a serpent; but the scorpion instantly made itself an eagle, and went in pursuit of the serpent. The serpent, however, being vigilant, assumed the form of a white cat; the eagle in an instant changed to a wolf, and the cat, being hard pressed, changed into a worm; the wolf changed to a cock, and ran to pick up the worm, which, however, became a fish before the cock could pick it up. Not to be outwitted, the cock transformed itself into a pike to devour the fish, but the fish changed into a fire, and the son of Eblis was burnt to ashes before he could make another change.—Arabian Nights (“The Second Calender”).

Proteus or Protheus, one of the two gentlemen of Verona. He is in love with Julia. His servant is Launce, and his father Anthonio or Antonio. The other gentleman is called Valentine, and his lady love is Silvia.—Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594).

Shakespeare calls the word Pro-tĕ-us. Malone, Dr. Johnson, etc., retain the h in both names, but the Globe edition omits them.

Protevangelon (“first evangelist”), a gospel falsely attributed to St. James the Less, first bishop of Jerusalem, noted for its minute details of the Virgin and Jesus Christ. Said to be the production of L. Carīnus, of the second century.

First of all we shall rehearse ...
The nativity of our Lord,
As written in the old record
Of the Protevangelon.

Longfellow, The Golden Legend (1851).

Protocol (Mr. Peter), the attorney in Edinburgh, employed by Mrs. Margaret Bertram, of Singleside.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

Protosebastos (The), or Sebastocrator, the highest State officer in Greece.—Sir W. Scott, Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).

Protospathaire (The), or general of Alexius Comnēnus, emperor of Greece. His name is Nicanor.—Sir W. Scott, Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).

Proud (The). Tarquin II. of Rome, was called Superbus (reigned B.C. 535-510, died 496).

Otho IV., kaiser of Germany, was called “The Proud” (1175, 1209-1218).

Proud Duke (The), Charles Seymour, duke of Somerset. His children were not allowed to sit in his presence; and he spoke to his servants by signs only (*-1748).

Proudfute (Oliver), the boasting bonnet-maker at Perth.

Magdalen or Maudie Proudfute, Oliver’s widow.—Sir W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).

Proudie (Dr.), hen-pecked bishop of Barchester. A martinet in his diocese, a serf in his home.

Proudie (Mrs.), strong-willed, strong-voiced help-mate of the bishop. She lays down social, moral, religious and ecclesiastical laws with equal readiness and severity.—Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage and Barchester Towers.

Prout (Father), the pseudonym of Francis Mahoney, a humorous writer in Fraser’s Magazine, etc. (1805-1866).

Provis, the name assumed by Abel Magwitch, Pip’s benefactor. He was a convict, who had made a fortune, and whose chief desire was to make his protegé a gentleman.—C. Dickens, Great Expectations (1860).

Provoked Husband (The), a comedy by Cibber and Vanbrugh. The “provoked husband” is Lord Townly, justly annoyed at the conduct of his young wife, who wholly neglects her husband and her home duties for a life of gambling and dissipation. The husband seeing no hope of amendment, resolves on a separate maintenance; but then the lady’s eyes are opened—she promises amendment, and is forgiven

* This comedy was Vanbrugh’s Journey to London, left unfinished at his death. Cibber took it, completed it, and brought it out under the title of The Provoked Husband (1728).

Provoked Wife (The), Lady Brute, the wife of Sir John Brute, is, by his ill manners, brutality, and neglect, “provoked” to intrigue with one Constant. The intrigue is not of a very serious nature, since it is always interrupted before it makes head. At the conclusion, Sir John says:

Surly, I may be stubborn, I am not,
For I have both forgiven and forgot.

Sir J. Vanbrugh (1697).

Provost of Bruges (The), a tragedy based on “The Serf,” in Leitch Ritchie’s Romance of History. Published anonymously in 1836; the author is S. Knowles. The plot is this: Charles “the Good,” earl of Flanders, made a law that a serf is always a serf till manumitted, and whoever marries a serf, becomes thereby a serf. Thus, if a prince married the daughter of a serf, the prince becomes a serf himself, and all his children were serfs. Bertulphe, the richest, wisest, and bravest man in Flanders, was provost of Bruges. His beautiful daughter, Constance, married Sir Bouchard, a knight of noble descent; but Bertulphe’s father had been Thancmar’s serf, and, according to the new law, Bertulphe, the provost, his daughter, Constance, and the knightly son-in-law were all the serfs of Thancmar. The provost killed the earl, and stabbed himself; Bouchard and Thancmar killed each other in fight; and Constance died demented.

Prowler (Hugh), any vagrant or highwayman.

For fear of Hugh Prowler, get home with the rest.

T. Tusser, Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, xxxiii. 25 (1557).

Prudence (Mistress), the lady attendant on Violet, ward of Lady Arundel. When Norman, “the sea-captain,” made love to Violet, Mistress Prudence remonstrated, “What will the countess say if I allow myself to see a stranger speaking to her ward?” Norman clapped a guinea on her left eye, and asked, “What see you now?” “Why, nothing with my left eye,” she answered, “but the right has still a morbid sensibility.” “Poor thing!” said Norman; “this golden ointment soon will cure it. What see you now, my Prudence?” “Not a soul,” she said.—Lord Lytton, The Sea-Captain (1839).

Prudhomme (Joseph), “pupil of Brard and Saint-Omer,” caligraphist and sworn expert in the courts of law. Joseph Prudhomme is the synthesis of bourgeois imbecility; radiant, serene, and self-satisfied; letting fall from his fat lips “one weak, washy, everlasting flood” of puerile aphorisms and inane circumlocutions. He says, “The car of the state floats on a precipice.” “This sword is the proudest day of my life.”—Henri Monnier, Grandeur et Décadence de Joseph Prudhomme (1852).

Pruddoterie (Madame de la). Character in comedy of George Dandin, by Molière.

Prue (Miss), a schoolgirl still under the charge of a nurse, very precocious and very injudiciously brought up. Miss Prue is the daughter of Mr. Foresight, a mad astrologer, and Mrs. Foresight, a frail nonentity.—Congreve, Love for Love (1695).

Prue. Wife of “I”; a dreamer. “Prue makes everything think well, even to making the neighbors speak well of her.”

Of himself Prue’s husband says:

“How queer that a man who owns castles in Spain should be deputy book-keeper at $900 per annum!”—George William Curtis, Prue and I (1856).

Prunes and Prisms, the words which give the lips the right plie of the highly aristocratic mouth, as Mrs. General tells Amy Dorrit.

“’Papa’ gives a pretty form to the lips. ‘Papa,’ ‘potatoes,’ ‘poultry,’ ‘prunes and prisms.’ You will find it serviceable if you say to yourself on entering a room, ‘Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prisms.’”—C. Dickens, Little Dorrit (1855).

General Burgoyne, in The Heiress, makes Lady Emily tell Miss Alscrip that the magic words are “nimini pimini;” and that if she will stand before her mirror and pronounce these words repeatedly, she cannot fail to give her lips that happy plie which is known as the “Paphian mimp.”—The Heiress, iii. 2 (1781).

Pru´sio, king of Alvarecchia, slain by Zerbi´no.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

Pry (Paul), one of those idle, meddling fellows, who, having no employment of their own, are perpetually interfering in the affairs of other people.—John Poole, Paul Pry.

Prydwen or Pridwin (q.v.), called in the Mabinogion, the ship of King Arthur. It was also the name of his shield. Taliessin speaks of it as a ship, and Robert of Gloucester as a shield.

Hys sseld that het Prydwen.
Myd ye suerd he was ygurd, that so strong was and kene;
Calybourne yt was ycluped, nas nour no such ye wene.
In ys right hond ys lance he nom, that ycluped was Ron.

I. 174.

Prynne (Hester). Handsome, haughty gentlewoman of English birth, married to a deformed scholar, whom she does not love. She comes alone to Boston, meets Arthur Dimmesdale, a young clergyman, and becomes his wife in all except in name. When her child is born she is condemned to stand in the pillory, holding it in her arms, to be reprimanded by officials, civic and clerical, and to wear, henceforward, upon her breast, the letter “A” in scarlet. Her fate is more enviable than that of her undiscovered lover, whose vacillations of dread and despair and determination to reveal all but move Hester to deeper pity and stronger love. She is beside him when he dies in the effort to bare his bosom and show the cancerous Scarlet Letter that has grown into his flesh while she wore hers outwardly.—Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850).

Psalmist (The). King David is called “The Sweet Psalmist of Israel” (2 Sam. xxiii. 1). In the compilation called Psalms, in the Old Testament, seventy-three bear the name of David, twelve were composed by Asaph, eleven by the sons of Korah, and one (Psalm xc.) by Moses.

Psycarpax (i. e. “granary-thief”), son of Troxartas, king of the mice. The frog king offered to carry the young Psycarpax over a lake; but a water-hydra made its appearance, and the frog-king, to save himself, dived under water, whereby the mouse prince lost his life. This catastrophe brought about the fatal Battle of the Frogs and Mice. Translated from the Greek into English verse by Parnell (1679-1717).

Psyche [Si´.ke], a most beautiful maiden, with whom Cupid fell in love. The god told her she was never to seek to know who he was; but Psychê could not resist the curiosity of looking at him as he lay sleep. A drop of the hot oil from Psychê’s lamp falling on the love-god, woke him, and he instantly took to flight. Psychê now wandered from place to place, persecuted by Venus; but after enduring ineffable troubles, Cupid came at last to her rescue, married her, and bestowed on her immortality.

This exquisite allegory is from the Golden Ass of Apulēios. Lafontaine has turned it into French verse. M. Laprade (born 1812) has rendered it into French most exquisitely. The English version, by Mrs. Tighe, in six cantos, is simply unreadable.

Pternog´lyphus (“bacon-scooper”), one of the mouse chieftains.—Parnell, Battle of the Frogs and Mice, iii. (about 1712).

Pternoph´agus (“bacon-eater”), one of the mouse chieftains.

But dire Pternophagus divides his way
Thro’ breaking ranks, and leads the dreadful day.
No nibbling prince excelled in fierceness more,—
His parents fed him on the savage boar.

Parnell, Battle of the Frogs and Mice, iii. (about 1712).

Pternotractas (“bacon-gnawer”), father of “the meal-licker,” Lycomĭlê (wife of Troxartas, “the bread-eater”). Psycarpas, the king of the mice, was son of Lycomĭlê, and grandson of Pternotractas.—Parnell, Battle of the Frogs and Mice, i. (about 1712).

Public Good (The League of the), a league between the dukes of Burgundy, Brittany, and other French princes against Louis XI.

Public´ola, of the Despatch Newspaper, was the nom de plume of Mr. Williams, a vigorous political writer.

Publius, the surviving son of Horatius after the combat between the three Horatian brothers against the three Curiatii of Alba. He entertained the Roman notion that “a patriot’s soul can feel no ties but duty, and know no voice of kindred” if it conflicts with his country’s weal. His sister was engaged to Caius Curiatius, one of the three Alban champions; and when she reproved him for “murdering” her betrothed, he slew her, for he loved Rome more than he loved friend, sister, brother, or the sacred name of father.—Whitehead, The Roman Father (1714).

Pucel. La bel Pucel lived in the tower of “Musyke.” Graunde Amoure, sent thither by Fame to be instructed by the seven ladies of science, fell in love with her, and ultimately married her. After his death, Remembrance wrote his “epitaphy on his graue.”—S. Hawes, The Passe-tyme of Pleasure (1506, printed 1515).

Pucelle (La), a surname given to Joan of Arc, the “Maid of Orleans” (1410-1431).

Puck, generally called Hobgoblin. Same as Robin Goodfellow. Shakespeare, in Midsummer Night’s Dream, represents him as “a very Shetlander among the gossamer-winged, dainty-limbed fairies, strong enough to knock all their heads together, a rough, knurly-limbed, fawn-faced, shock-pated, mischievous little urchin.”

He [Oberon] meeteth Puck, which most men call
Hobgoblin, and on him doth fall,
With words from phrenzy spoken.
“Hoh! hoh!” quoth Hob; “God save your grace....”

Drayton, Nymphidia (1593).

Pudding (Jack), a gormandizing clown. In French he is called Jean Potage; in Dutch, Pickle-Herringe; in Italian, Macarōni; in German, John Sausage (Hanswurst).

Puff, servant of Captain Loveit, and husband of Tag, of whom he stands in awe.—D. Garrick, Miss in Her Teens (1753).

Puff (Mr.), a man who had tried his hand on everything to get a living, and at last resorts to criticism. He says of himself, “I am a practitioner in panegyric, or to speak more plainly, a professor of the art of puffing.”

“I open,” says Puff, “with a clock striking, to beget an awful attention in the audience; it also marks the time, which is four o’clock in the morning, and saves a description of the rising sun, and a great deal about gilding the eastern hemisphere.”—Sheridan, The Critic, i. 1 (1779).

“God forbid,” says Mr. Puff, “that in a free country, all the fine words in the language should be engrossed by the highest characters of the piece.”—Sir W. Scott, The Drama.

Puff, publisher. He says:

“Panegyric and praise! and what will that do with the public? Why, who will give money to be told that Mr. Such-a-one is a wiser and better man than himself? No, no! ’tis quite, and clean out of nature. A good, sousing satire, now, well powdered with personal pepper, and seasoned with the spirit of party, that demolishes a conspicuous character, and sinks him below our own level—there, there, we are pleased; there we chuckle and grin, and toss the half-crowns on the counter.”—Foote, The Patron (1764).

Pug, a mischievous little goblin, called “Puck” by Shakespeare.—B. Jonson, The Devil is an Ass (1616).

Puggie-Orrock, a sheriff’s officer at Fairport.—Sir W. Scott, The Antiquary (time, George III.).

Pul´ci (L.), poet of Florence (1432-1487), author of the heroï-comic poem called Morgantê Maggiorê, a mixture of the bizarre, the serious, and the comic, in ridicule of the romances of chivalry. This Don Juan class of poetry has since been called Bernesque, from Francesco Berni, of Tuscany, who greatly excelled in it.

Pulci was sire of the half-serious rhyme,
Who sang when chivalry was more quixotic,
And revelled in the fancies of the time,
True knights, chaste dames, huge giants, kings despotic.

Byron, Don Juan, iv. 6 (1820).

Pulia´no, leader of the Nasamo´ni. He was slain by Rinaldo.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

Pumblechook, uncle to Joe Gargery, the blacksmith. He was a well-to-do corn-chandler, and drove his own chaise-cart. A hard-breathing, middle-aged, slow man was uncle Pumblechook, with fishy eyes and sandy hair, inquisitively on end. He called Pip, in his facetious way, “six-pen’orth of h’pence;” but when Pip came into his fortune, Mr. Pumblechook was the most servile of the servile, and ended every sentence with, “May I, Mr. Pip?” i.e, have the honor of shaking hands with you again.—C. Dickens, Great Expectations (1860).

Pumpernickel (His Transparency), a nickname by which the Times satirized the minor German princes.

Some ninety men and ten drummers constitute their whole embattled host on the parade-ground before their palace; and their whole revenue is supplied by a percentage on the tax levied on strangers at the Pumpernickel kursaal.—Times, July 18, 1866.

Pumpkin (Sir Gilbert), a country gentleman plagued with a ward (Miss Kitty Sprightly) and a set of servants all stage mad. He entertains Captain Charles Stanley, and Captain Harry Stukely at Strawberry Hall, when the former, under cover of acting, makes love to Kitty (an heiress), elopes with her, and marries her.

Miss Bridget Pumpkin, sister of Sir Gilbert, of Strawberry Hall. A Mrs. Malaprop. She says, “The Greeks, the Romans, and the Irish are barbarian nations who had plays;” but Sir Gilbert says, “they were all Jacobites.” She speaks of “taking a degree at our principal adversity;” asks “if the Muses are a family living at Oxford,” if so, she tells Captain Stukely, she will be delighted to “see them at Strawberry Hall, with any other of his friends.” Miss Pumpkin hates “play acting,” but does not object to love-making.—Jackman, All the World’s a Stage.

Punch, derived from the Latin Mimi, through the Italian Pullicenella. It was originally intended as a characteristic representation. The tale is this: Punch, in a fit of jealousy, strangles his infant child, when Judy flies to her revenge. With a bludgeon she belabors her husband, till he becomes so exasperated that he snatches the bludgeon from her, knocks her brains out, and flings the dead body into the street. Here it attracts the notice of a police officer, who enters the house, and Punch flies to save his life. He is, however, arrested by an officer of the Inquisition, and is shut up in prison, from which he escapes by a golden key. The rest of the allegory shows the triumph of Punch over slander, in the shape of a dog, disease in the guise of a doctor death, and the devil.

Pantalone was a Venetian merchant; Dottore a Bolognese physician; Spaviento a Neapolitan braggadocio; Pullicinella a wag of Apulia; Giangurgolo and Coviello two clowns of Calabria; Gelsomino a Roman beau; Beltrame a Milanese simpleton; Brighella a Ferrarese pimp; and Arlecchino a blundering servant of Bergamo. Each was clad in an appropriate dress, had a characteristic mask, and spoke the dialect of the place he represented.

Besides these there were Amorosos or Innamoratos, with their servettas, or waiting-maids, as Smeraldina, Columbina, Spilletta, etc., who spoke Tuscan.—Walker, On the Revival of the Drama in Italy, 249.

Punch, the periodical. The first cover was designed by A. S. Henning; the present one by R. Doyle.

Pure (Simon), a Pennsylvanian Quaker. Being about to visit London to attend the quarterly meeting of his sect he brings with him a letter of introduction to Obadiah Prim, a rigid, stern Quaker, and the guardian of Anne Lovely, an heiress worth £30,000. Colonel Feignwell, availing himself of this letter of introduction, passes himself off as Simon Pure, and gets established as the accepted suitor of the heiress. Presently the real Simon Pure makes his appearance, and is treated as an impostor and swindler. The colonel hastens on the marriage arrangements, and has no sooner completed them than Master Simon re-appears, with witnesses to prove his identity; but it is too late, and Colonel Feignwell freely acknowledges the “bold stroke he has made for a wife.”—Mrs. Centlivre, A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1717).

Purefoy (Master), former tutor of Dr. Anthony Rochecliffe, the plotting royalist.—Sir W. Scott, Woodstock (time, Commonwealth).

Purgatory, by Dantê, in thirty-three cantos (1308). Having emerged from Hell, Dantê saw in the southern hemisphere four stars, “ne’er seen before, save by our first parents.” The stars were symbolical of the four cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance). Turning round, he observed old Cato, who said that a dame from Heaven had sent him to prepare the Tuscan poet for passing through Purgatory. Accordingly, with a slender reed, old Cato girded him, and from his face he washed “all sordid stain,” restoring to his face “that hue which the dun shades of Hell had covered and concealed” (canto i.). Dantê then followed his guide, Virgil, to a huge mountain in mid-ocean antipodal to Judea, and began the ascent. A party of spirits were ferried over at the same time by an angel, amongst whom was Casella, a musician, one of Dantê’s friends. The mountain, he tells us, is divided into terraces, and terminates in Earthly Paradise, which is separated from it by two rivers—Lethê and Eu´noe (3 syl.). The first eight cantos are occupied by the ascent, and then they come to the gate of Purgatory. This gate is approached by three stairs (faith, penitence and piety); the first stair is transparent white marble, as clear as crystal; the second is black and cracked; and the third is of blood-red porphyry (canto ix.). The porter marked on Dantê’s forehead seven P’s (peccata, “sins”), and told him he would lose one at every stage, till he reached the river which divided Purgatory from Paradise. Virgil continued his guide till they came to Lethê, when he left him during sleep (canto xxx.). Dantê was then dragged through the river Lethê, drank of the waters of Eunŏe, and met Beatrice, who conducted him till he arrived at the “sphere of unbodied light,” when she resigned her office to St. Bernard.

Purgon, one of the doctors in Molière’s comedy of Le Malade Imaginaire. When the patient’s brother interfered, and sent the apothecary away with his clysters, Dr. Purgon got into a towering rage, and threatened to leave the house and never more visit it. He then said to the patient “Que vous tombiez dans la bradypepsie ... de la bradypepsie dans la dyspepsie ... de la dyspepsie dans l’apepsie ... de l’apepsie dans la lienterie ... de la lienterie dans la dyssenterie ... de la dyssenterie dans l’hydropisie ... et de l’hydropisie dans la privation de la vie.”

Purita´ni (I), “the puritans,” that is Elvi´ra, daughter of Lord Walton, also a puritan, affianced to Ar´turo (Lord Arthur Talbot) a cavalier. On the day of espousals, Arturo aids Enrichetta (Henrietta, widow of Charles I.), to escape; and Elvira, supposing that he is eloping, loses her reason. On his return, Arturo explains the facts to Elvira, and they vow nothing on earth shall part them more, when Arturo is arrested for treason, and led off to execution. At this crisis, a herald announces the defeat of the Stuarts, and Cromwell pardons all political offenders, whereupon Arturo is released, and marries Elvira.—Bellini’s opera, I Puritani (1834).

Purley (Diversions of), a work on the analysis and etymology of English words, so called from Purley, where it was written by John Horne. In 1782 he assumed the name of Tooke, from Mr. Tooke, of Purley, in Surrey, with whom he often stayed, and who left him £8000 (vol. i, 1785; vol. ii., 1805).

Purple Island (The), the human body. It is the name of a poem in twelve cantos, by Phineas Fletcher (1633). Canto i. Introduction. Cantos ii.-v. An anatomical description of the human body, considered as an island kingdom. Cantos vi. The “intellectual” man. Cantos vii. The “natural man,” with its affections and lusts. Canto viii. The world, the flesh, and the devil, as the enemies of man. Cantos ix., x. The friends of man who enable him to overcome these enemies. Cantos xi., xii. The battle of “Mansoul,” the triumph, and the marriage of Eclecta. The whole is supposed to be sung to shepherds by Thirsil, a shepherd.

Pusil´lus, Feeble-mindedness personified in The Purple Island, by Phineas Fletcher (1633); “a weak, distrustful heart.” Fully described in cantos viii. (Latin, pusillus, “pusillanimous.”)

Puss-in-Boots, from Charles Perrault’s tale Le Chat Botté (1697). Perrault borrowed the tale from the Nights of Straparola, an Italian. Straparola’s Nights were translated into French in 1585, and Perrault’s Contes de Fées were published in 1697. Ludwig Tieck, the German novelist, reproduced the same tale in his Volksmärchen (1795), called in German Der Gestiefelte Kater. The cat is marvellously accomplished, and by ready wit or ingenious tricks secures a fortune and royal wife for his master, a penniless young miller, who passes under the name of the marquis de Car´abas. In the Italian tale, puss is called “Constantine’s cat.”

Pwyll’s Bag (Prince), a bag that it was impossible to fill.

Come thou in by thyself, clad in ragged garments, and holding a bag in thy hand, and ask nothing but a bagful of food, and I will cause that if all the meat and liquor that are in these seven cantreves were put into it, it would be no fuller than before.—The Mabinogion (Pwyll Prince of Dyved,” twelfth century).

Pygma´lion, a sculptor of Cyprus. He resolved never to marry, but became enamored of his own ivory statue, which Venus endowed with life, and the sculptor married. Morris has a poem on the subject in his Earthly Paradise (“August”), and Gilbert a comedy.

Fell in loue with these,
As did Pygmalion with his carvèd tree.

Lord Brooke, Treatie on Human Learning (1554-1628).

* Lord Brooke calls the statue “a carved tree.” There is a vegetable ivory, no doubt, one of the palm species, and there is the ebon tree, the wood of which is black as jet. The former could not be known to Pygmalion, but the latter might, as Virgil speaks of it in his Georgics, ii. 117, “India nigrum fert ebenum.” Probably Lord Brooke blundered from the resemblance between ebor (“ivory”) and ebon, in Latin “ebenum.”

Pygmy, a dwarf. The pygmies were a nation of dwarfs always at war with the cranes of Scythia. They were not above a foot high, and lived somewhere at the “end of the earth”—either in Thrace, Ethiopia, India, or the Upper Nile. The pygmy women were mothers at the age of three, and old women at eight. Their houses were built of egg-shells. They cut down a blade of wheat with an axe and hatchet, as we fell huge forest trees.

One day, they resolved to attack Herculês in his sleep, and went to work as in a siege. An army attacked each hand, and the archers attacked the feet. Herculês awoke, and with the paw of his lion-skin overwhelmed the whole host, and carried them captive to King Eurystheus.

Swift has availed himself of this Grecian fable in his Gulliver’s Travels (“Lilliput,” 1726).

Pyke and Pluck (Messrs.), the tools and toadies of Sir Mulberry Hawk. They laugh at all his jokes, snub all who attempt to rival their patron, and are ready to swear to anything Sir Mulberry wishes to have confirmed.—C. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby (1838).

Pylades and Orestes, inseparable friends. Pyladês was a nephew of King Agamemnon, and Orestês was Agamemnon’s son. The two cousins contracted a friendship which has become proverbial. Subsequently, Pyladês married Orestês’s sister, Electra.