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._)[TN-88]--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[TN-89] 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;[TN-90] (2) Sir Francis Bacon, author of _Novum

Orgănum_ (1561-1626); (3) the Hon. Robert Boyle (1627-1691;[TN-91] (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).[TN-92]

_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.[TN-93]

=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.[TN-94]

=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.[TN-95]

Cum possit solea chartas celare ligatas,

Et vincto blandas sub pede ferre notas,[TN-96]

_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[TN-97] 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,[TN-98] “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,”[TN-99] 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[TN-100] 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.