=Prynne= (_Hester_). Handsome, haughty gentlewoman of English birth,
married to a deformed scholar, whom she does not love. She comes alone
to Boston, meets Arthur Dimmesdale, a young clergyman, and becomes his
wife in all except in name. When her child is born she is condemned to
stand in the pillory, holding it in her arms, to be reprimanded by
officials, civic and clerical, and to wear, henceforward, upon her
breast, the letter “A” in scarlet. Her fate is more enviable than that
of her undiscovered lover, whose vacillations of dread and despair and
determination to reveal all but move Hester to deeper pity and stronger
love. She is beside him when he dies in the effort to bare his bosom and
show the cancerous _Scarlet Letter_ that has grown into his flesh while
she wore hers outwardly.--Nathaniel Hawthorne, _The Scarlet Letter_
(1850).
=Psalmist= (_The_). King David is called “The Sweet Psalmist of Israel” (2
_Sam._ xxiii. 1). In the compilation called _Psalms_, in the Old
Testament, seventy-three bear the name of David, twelve were composed by
Asaph, eleven by the sons of Korah, and one (_Psalm_ xc.) by Moses.
=Psycarpax= (_i. e._ “_granary-thief_”), son of Troxartas, king of the
mice. The frog king offered to carry the young Psycarpax over a lake;
but a water-hydra made its appearance, and the frog-king, to save
himself, dived under water, whereby the mouse prince lost his life. This
catastrophe brought about the fatal _Battle of the Frogs and Mice_.
Translated from the Greek into English verse by Parnell (1679-1717).
=Psyche= [_Si´.ke_], a most beautiful maiden, with whom Cupid fell in
love. The god told her she was never to seek to know who he was; but
Psychê could not resist the curiosity of looking at him as he lay sleep.
A drop of the hot oil from Psychê’s lamp falling on the love-god, woke
him, and he instantly took to flight. Psychê now wandered from place to
place, persecuted by Venus; but after enduring ineffable troubles, Cupid
came at last to her rescue, married her, and bestowed on her
immortality.
This exquisite allegory is from the _Golden Ass_ of Apulēios. Lafontaine
has turned it into French verse. M. Laprade (born 1812) has rendered it
into French most exquisitely. The English version, by Mrs. Tighe, in six
cantos, is simply unreadable.
=Pternog´lyphus= (“_bacon-scooper_”), one of the mouse
chieftains.--Parnell, _Battle of the Frogs and Mice_, iii. (about 1712).
=Pternoph´agus= (“_bacon-eater_”), one of the mouse chieftains.
But dire Pternophagus divides his way
Thro’ breaking ranks, and leads the dreadful day.
No nibbling prince excelled in fierceness more,--
His parents fed him on the savage boar.
Parnell, _Battle of the Frogs and Mice_, iii. (about 1712).
=Pternotractas= (“_bacon-gnawer_”), father of “the meal-licker,” Lycomĭlê
(wife of Troxartas, “the bread-eater”). Psycarpas, the king of the mice,
was son of Lycomĭlê, and grandson of Pternotractas.--Parnell, _Battle of
the Frogs and Mice_, i. (about 1712).
=Public Good= (_The League of the_), a league between the dukes of
Burgundy, Brittany, and other French princes against Louis XI.
=Public´ola=, of the _Despatch Newspaper_, was the _nom de plume_ of Mr.
Williams, a vigorous political writer.
=Publius=, the surviving son of Horatius after the combat between the
three Horatian brothers against the three Curiatii of Alba. He
entertained the Roman notion that “a patriot’s soul can feel no ties but
duty, and know no voice of kindred” if it conflicts with his country’s
weal. His sister was engaged to Caius Curiatius, one of the three Alban
champions; and when she reproved him for “murdering” her betrothed, he
slew her, for he loved Rome more than he loved friend, sister, brother,
or the sacred name of father.--Whitehead, _The Roman Father_ (1714).
=Pucel.= _La bel Pucel_ lived in the tower of “Musyke.” Graunde Amoure,
sent thither by Fame to be instructed by the seven ladies of science,
fell in love with her, and ultimately married her. After his death,
Remembrance wrote his “epitaphy on his graue.”--S. Hawes, _The
Passe-tyme of Pleasure_ (1506, printed 1515).
=Pucelle= (_La_), a surname given to Joan of Arc, the “Maid of Orleans”
(1410-1431).
=Puck=, generally called Hobgoblin. Same as Robin Goodfellow. Shakespeare,
in _Midsummer Night’s Dream_, represents him as “a very Shetlander among
the gossamer-winged, dainty-limbed fairies, strong enough to knock all
their heads together, a rough, knurly-limbed, fawn-faced, shock-pated,
mischievous little urchin.”
He [_Oberon_] meeteth Puck, which most men call
Hobgoblin, and on him doth fall,
With words from phrenzy spoken.
“Hoh! hoh!” quoth Hob; “God save your grace....”
Drayton, _Nymphidia_ (1593).
=Pudding= (_Jack_), a gormandizing clown. In French he is called _Jean
Potage_; in Dutch, _Pickle-Herringe_; in Italian, _Macarōni_; in German,
_John Sausage_ (Hanswurst).
=Puff=, servant of Captain Loveit, and husband of Tag, of whom he stands
in awe.--D. Garrick, _Miss in Her Teens_ (1753).
_Puff_ (_Mr._), a man who had tried his hand on everything to get a
living, and at last resorts to criticism. He says of himself, “I am a
practitioner in panegyric, or to speak more plainly, a professor of the
art of puffing.”
“I open,” says Puff, “with a clock striking, to beget an awful
attention in the audience; it also marks the time, which is four
o’clock in the morning, and saves a description of the rising sun,
and a great deal about gilding the eastern hemisphere.”--Sheridan,
_The Critic_, i. 1 (1779).
“God forbid,” says Mr. Puff, “that in a free country, all the fine
words in the language should be engrossed by the highest characters
of the piece.”--Sir W. Scott, _The Drama_.
_Puff_, publisher. He says:
“Panegyric and praise! and what will that do with the public? Why,
who will give money to be told that Mr. Such-a-one is a wiser and
better man than himself? No, no! ’tis quite, and clean out of
nature. A good, sousing satire, now, well powdered with personal
pepper, and seasoned with the spirit of party, that demolishes a
conspicuous character, and sinks him below our own level--there,
there, we are pleased; there we chuckle and grin, and toss the
half-crowns on the counter.”--Foote, _The Patron_ (1764).
=Pug=, a mischievous little goblin, called “Puck” by Shakespeare.--B.
Jonson, _The Devil is an Ass_ (1616).
=Puggie-Orrock=, a sheriff’s officer at Fairport.--Sir W. Scott, _The
Antiquary_ (time, George III.).
=Pul´ci= (_L._), poet of Florence (1432-1487), author of the heroï-comic
poem called _Morgantê Maggiorê_, a mixture of the bizarre, the serious,
and the comic, in ridicule of the romances of chivalry. This _Don Juan_
class of poetry has since been called _Bernesque_, from Francesco Berni,
of Tuscany, who greatly excelled in it.
Pulci was sire of the half-serious rhyme,
Who sang when chivalry was more quixotic,
And revelled in the fancies of the time,
True knights, chaste dames, huge giants, kings despotic.
Byron, _Don Juan_, iv. 6 (1820).
=Pulia´no=, leader of the Nasamo´ni. He was slain by Rinaldo.--Ariosto,
_Orlando Furioso_ (1516).
=Pumblechook=, uncle to Joe Gargery, the blacksmith. He was a well-to-do
corn-chandler, and drove his own chaise-cart. A hard-breathing,
middle-aged, slow man was uncle Pumblechook, with fishy eyes and sandy
hair, inquisitively on end. He called Pip, in his facetious way,
“six-pen’orth of h’pence;” but when Pip came into his fortune, Mr.
Pumblechook was the most servile of the servile, and ended every
sentence with, “May I, Mr. Pip?” _i.e_,[TN-111] have the honor of shaking
hands with you again.--C. Dickens, _Great Expectations_ (1860).
=Pumpernickel= (_His Transparency_), a nickname by which the _Times_
satirized the minor German princes.
Some ninety men and ten drummers constitute their whole embattled
host on the parade-ground before their palace; and their whole
revenue is supplied by a percentage on the tax levied on strangers
at the Pumpernickel kursaal.--_Times_, July 18, 1866.
=Pumpkin= (_Sir Gilbert_), a country gentleman plagued with a ward (Miss
Kitty Sprightly) and a set of servants all stage mad. He entertains
Captain Charles Stanley, and Captain Harry Stukely at Strawberry Hall,
when the former, under cover of acting, makes love to Kitty (an
heiress), elopes with her, and marries her.
_Miss Bridget Pumpkin_, sister of Sir Gilbert, of Strawberry Hall. A
Mrs. Malaprop. She says, “The Greeks, the Romans, and the Irish are
barbarian nations who had plays;” but Sir Gilbert says, “they were all
Jacobites.” She speaks of “taking a degree at our principal adversity;”
asks “if the Muses are a family living at Oxford,” if so, she tells
Captain Stukely, she will be delighted to “see them at Strawberry Hall,
with any other of his friends.” Miss Pumpkin hates “play acting,” but
does not object to love-making.--Jackman, _All the World’s a Stage_.
=Punch=, derived from the Latin _Mimi_, through the Italian
_Pullicenella_. It was originally intended as a characteristic
representation. The tale is this: Punch, in a fit of jealousy, strangles
his infant child, when Judy flies to her revenge. With a bludgeon she
belabors her husband, till he becomes so exasperated that he snatches
the bludgeon from her, knocks her brains out, and flings the dead body
into the street. Here it attracts the notice of a police officer, who
enters the house, and Punch flies to save his life. He is, however,
arrested by an officer of the Inquisition, and is shut up in prison,
from which he escapes by a golden key. The rest of the allegory shows
the triumph of Punch over slander, in the shape of a dog, disease in the
guise of a doctor death, and the devil.
_Pantalone_ was a Venetian merchant; _Dottore_ a Bolognese physician;
_Spaviento_ a Neapolitan braggadocio; _Pullicinella_ a wag of Apulia;
_Giangurgolo_ and _Coviello_ two clowns of Calabria; _Gelsomino_ a Roman
beau; _Beltrame_ a Milanese simpleton; _Brighella_ a Ferrarese pimp; and
_Arlecchino_ a blundering servant of Bergamo. Each was clad in an
appropriate dress, had a characteristic mask, and spoke the dialect of
the place he represented.
Besides these there were _Amorosos_ or _Innamoratos_, with their
servettas, or waiting-maids, as _Smeraldina_, _Columbina_, _Spilletta_,
etc., who spoke Tuscan.--Walker, _On the Revival of the Drama in Italy_,
249.
_Punch_, the periodical. The first cover was designed by A. S. Henning;
the present one by R. Doyle.
=Pure= (_Simon_), a Pennsylvanian Quaker. Being about to visit London to
attend the quarterly meeting of his sect he brings with him a letter of
introduction to Obadiah Prim, a rigid, stern Quaker, and the guardian of
Anne Lovely, an heiress worth £30,000. Colonel Feignwell, availing
himself of this letter of introduction, passes himself off as Simon
Pure, and gets established as the accepted suitor of the heiress.
Presently the real Simon Pure makes his appearance, and is treated as an
impostor and swindler. The colonel hastens on the marriage arrangements,
and has no sooner completed them than Master Simon re-appears, with
witnesses to prove his identity; but it is too late, and Colonel
Feignwell freely acknowledges the “bold stroke he has made for a
wife.”--Mrs. Centlivre, _A Bold Stroke for a Wife_ (1717).
=Purefoy= (_Master_), former tutor of Dr. Anthony Rochecliffe, the
plotting royalist.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).
=Purgatory=, by Dantê, in thirty-three cantos (1308). Having emerged from
Hell, Dantê saw in the southern hemisphere four stars, “ne’er seen
before, save by our first parents.” The stars were symbolical of the
four cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance).
Turning round, he observed old Cato, who said that a dame from Heaven
had sent him to prepare the Tuscan poet for passing through Purgatory.
Accordingly, with a slender reed, old Cato girded him, and from his face
he washed “all sordid stain,” restoring to his face “that hue which the
dun shades of Hell had covered and concealed” (canto i.). Dantê then
followed his guide, Virgil, to a huge mountain in mid-ocean antipodal to
Judea, and began the ascent. A party of spirits were ferried over at the
same time by an angel, amongst whom was Casella, a musician, one of
Dantê’s friends. The mountain, he tells us, is divided into terraces,
and terminates in Earthly Paradise, which is separated from it by two
rivers--Lethê and Eu´noe (3 _syl._). The first eight cantos are occupied
by the ascent, and then they come to the gate of Purgatory. This gate is
approached by three stairs (faith, penitence and piety); the first stair
is transparent white marble, as clear as crystal; the second is black
and cracked; and the third is of blood-red porphyry (canto ix.). The
porter marked on Dantê’s forehead seven P’s (_peccata_, “sins”), and
told him he would lose one at every stage, till he reached the river
which divided Purgatory from Paradise. Virgil continued his guide till
they came to Lethê, when he left him during sleep (canto xxx.). Dantê
was then dragged through the river Lethê, drank of the waters of Eunŏe,
and met Beatrice, who conducted him till he arrived at the “sphere of
unbodied light,” when she resigned her office to St. Bernard.
=Purgon=, one of the doctors in Molière’s comedy of _Le Malade
Imaginaire_. When the patient’s brother interfered, and sent the
apothecary away with his clysters, Dr. Purgon got into a towering rage,
and threatened to leave the house and never more visit it. He then said
to the patient “Que vous tombiez dans la bradypepsie ... de la
bradypepsie dans la dyspepsie ... de la dyspepsie dans l’apepsie ... de
l’apepsie dans la lienterie ... de la lienterie dans la dyssenterie ...
de la dyssenterie dans l’hydropisie ... et de l’hydropisie dans la
privation de la vie.”
=Purita´ni= (_I_), “the puritans,” that is Elvi´ra, daughter of Lord
Walton, also a puritan, affianced to Ar´turo (_Lord Arthur Talbot_) a
cavalier. On the day of espousals, Arturo aids Enrichetta (_Henrietta,
widow of Charles I._), to escape; and Elvira, supposing that he is
eloping, loses her reason. On his return, Arturo explains the facts to
Elvira, and they vow nothing on earth shall part them more, when Arturo
is arrested for treason, and led off to execution. At this crisis, a
herald announces the defeat of the Stuarts, and Cromwell pardons all
political offenders, whereupon Arturo is released, and marries
Elvira.--Bellini’s opera, _I Puritani_ (1834).
=Purley= (_Diversions of_), a work on the analysis and etymology of
English words, so called from Purley, where it was written by John
Horne. In 1782 he assumed the name of Tooke, from Mr. Tooke, of Purley,
in Surrey, with whom he often stayed, and who left him £8000 (vol. i,
1785; vol. ii., 1805).
=Purple Island= (_The_), the human body. It is the name of a poem in
twelve cantos, by Phineas Fletcher (1633). Canto i. Introduction. Cantos
ii.-v. An anatomical description of the human body, considered as an
island kingdom. Cantos vi. The “intellectual” man. Cantos vii. The
“natural man,” with its affections and lusts. Canto viii. The world, the
flesh, and the devil, as the enemies of man. Cantos ix., x. The friends
of man who enable him to overcome these enemies. Cantos xi., xii. The
battle of “Mansoul,” the triumph, and the marriage of Eclecta. The whole
is supposed to be sung to shepherds by Thirsil, a shepherd.
=Pusil´lus=, Feeble-mindedness personified in _The Purple Island_, by
Phineas Fletcher (1633); “a weak, distrustful heart.” Fully described in
cantos viii. (Latin, _pusillus_, “pusillanimous.”)
=Puss-in-Boots=, from Charles Perrault’s tale _Le Chat Botté_ (1697).
Perrault borrowed the tale from the _Nights_ of Straparola, an Italian.
Straparola’s _Nights_ were translated into French in 1585, and
Perrault’s _Contes de Fées_ were published in 1697. Ludwig Tieck, the
German novelist, reproduced the same tale in his _Volksmärchen_ (1795),
called in German _Der Gestiefelte Kater_. The cat is marvellously
accomplished, and by ready wit or ingenious tricks secures a fortune and
royal wife for his master, a penniless young miller, who passes under
the name of the marquis de Car´abas. In the Italian tale, puss is called
“Constantine’s cat.”
=Pwyll’s Bag= (_Prince_), a bag that it was impossible to fill.
Come thou in by thyself, clad in ragged garments, and holding a bag
in thy hand, and ask nothing but a bagful of food, and I will cause
that if all the meat and liquor that are in these seven cantreves
were put into it, it would be no fuller than before.--_The
Mabinogion_ (Pwyll[TN-112] Prince of Dyved,” twelfth century).
=Pygma´lion=, a sculptor of Cyprus. He resolved never to marry, but became
enamored of his own ivory statue, which Venus endowed with life, and the
sculptor married. Morris has a poem on the subject in his _Earthly
Paradise_ (“August”), and Gilbert a comedy.
Fell in loue with these,
As did Pygmalion with his carvèd tree.
Lord Brooke, _Treatie on Human Learning_ (1554-1628).
⁂ Lord Brooke calls the statue “a carved tree.” There is a vegetable
ivory, no doubt, one of the palm species, and there is the _ebon tree_,
the wood of which is black as jet. The former could not be known to
Pygmalion, but the latter might, as Virgil speaks of it in his
_Georgics_, ii. 117, “India nigrum fert ebenum.” Probably Lord Brooke
blundered from the resemblance between _ebor_ (“ivory”) and _ebon_, in
Latin “ebenum.”
=Pygmy=, a dwarf. The pygmies were a nation of dwarfs always at war with
the cranes of Scythia. They were not above a foot high, and lived
somewhere at the “end of the earth”--either in Thrace, Ethiopia, India,
or the Upper Nile. The pygmy women were mothers at the age of three, and
old women at eight. Their houses were built of egg-shells. They cut down
a blade of wheat with an axe and hatchet, as we fell huge forest trees.
One day, they resolved to attack Herculês in his sleep, and went to work
as in a siege. An army attacked each hand, and the archers attacked the
feet. Herculês awoke, and with the paw of his lion-skin overwhelmed the
whole host, and carried them captive to King Eurystheus.
Swift has availed himself of this Grecian fable in his _Gulliver’s
Travels_ (“Lilliput,” 1726).
=Pyke and Pluck= (_Messrs._), the tools and toadies of Sir Mulberry Hawk.
They laugh at all his jokes, snub all who attempt to rival their patron,
and are ready to swear to anything Sir Mulberry wishes to have
confirmed.--C. Dickens, _Nicholas Nickleby_ (1838).
=Pylades and Orestes=, inseparable friends. Pyladês was a nephew of King
Agamemnon, and Orestês was Agamemnon’s son. The two cousins contracted a
friendship which has become proverbial. Subsequently, Pyladês married
Orestês’s sister, Electra.
Lagrange-Chancel has a French drama entitled _Oreste et Pylade_ (1695).
Voltaire also (_Oreste_, 1750). The two characters are introduced into a
host of plays, Greek, Italian, French, and English. (See ANDROMACHE.)
=Pynchons= (_The_). _Mr. Pynchon_, a “representative of the highest and
noblest class” in the Massachusetts Colony; one of the first settlers in
Agawam (Springfield, Mass.).
_Mrs. Pynchon_ (a second wife), a woman of excellent sense, with
thorough reverence for her husband.
_Mary Pynchon_, beautiful and winning girl, afterward wedded to Elizur
Holyoke.
_John Pynchon_, a promising boy.--J. G. Holland, _The Bay Path_ (1857).
=Pyncheon= (_Col._). An old bachelor, possessed of great wealth, and of an
eccentric and melancholy turn of mind, the owner and tenant of the old
Pyncheon mansion. He dies suddenly, after a life of selfish devotion to
his own interests, and is thus found when the house is opened in the
morning.--Nathaniel Hawthorne, _The House of the Seven Gables_ (1851).
=Pyrac´mon=, one of Vulcan’s workmen in the smithy of Mount Etna. (Greek,
_pûr akmôn_, “fire anvil.”)
Far passing Bronteus or Pyracmon great,
The which in Lipari do day and night
Frame thunderbolts for Jove.
Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, iv. 5 (1596).
=Pyramid.= According to Diodo´rus Sic´ulus (_Hist._, i.), and Pliny (_Nat.
Hist._, xxxvi. 12), there were 360,000 men employed for nearly twenty
years upon one of the pyramids.
The largest pyramid was built by Cheops or Suphis, the next largest by
Cephrēnês or Sen-Suphis, and the third by Menchērês, last king of the
Fourth Egyptian dynasty, said to have lived before the birth of
Abraham.
_The Third Pyramid._ Another tradition is that the third pyramid was
built by Rhodŏpis or Rhodopê, the Greek courtezan. Rhodopis means the
“rosy-cheeked.”
The Rhodopê that built the pyramid.
Tennyson, _The Princess_, ii. (1830).
=Pyr´amos= (in Latin _Pyrămus_), the lover of Thisbê. Supposing Thisbê had
been torn to pieces by a lion, Pyramos stabs himself in his unutterable
grief “under a mulberry tree.” Here Thisbê finds the dead body of her
lover, and kills herself for grief on the same spot. Ever since then the
juice of this fruit has been blood-stained.--_Greek Mythology._
Shakespeare has introduced a burlesque of this pretty love story in his
_Midsummer Night’s Dream_, but Ovid has told the tale beautifully.
=Pyrgo Polini´ces=, an extravagant blusterer. (The word means “tower and
town taker.”)--Plautus, _Miles Gloriosus_.
If the modern reader knows nothing of Pyrgo Polinicês and Thraso,
Pistol and Parollês; if he is shut out from Nephelo-Coccygia, he
may take refuge in Lilliput.--Macaulay.
⁂ “Thraso,” a bully in Terence (_The Eunuch_); “Pistol,” in the _Merry
Wives of Windsor_ and 2 _Henry IV._; “Parollês,” in _All’s Well that
Ends Well_; “Nephelo-Coccygia,” or cloud cuckoo-town, in Aristophanê’s
(_The Birds_); and “Lilliput,” in Swift (_Gulliver’s Travels_).
=Py´rocles= (3 _syl._) and his brother, Cy´moclês (3 _syl._) sons of
Acratês (_incontinence_). The two brothers are about to strip Sir Guyon,
when Prince Arthur comes up and slays both of them.--Spenser, _Faëry
Queen_, ii. 8 (1590).
=Pyroc´les and Musidorous=, heroes, whose exploits are told by Sir Philip
Sidney in his _Arcadia_ (1581).
=Pyr´rho=, the founder of the sceptics or Pyrrhonian school of philosophy.
He was a native of Elis, in Peloponne´sus, and died at the age of 90
(B.C. 285).
It is a pleasant voyage, perhaps, to float,
Like Pyrrho, on a sea of speculation.
Byron, _Don Juan_, ix. 18 (1824).
⁂ “Pyrrhonism” means absolute and unlimited infidelity.
=Pythag´oras=, the Greek philosopher, is said to have discovered the
musical scale from hearing the sounds produced by a blacksmith hammering
iron on his anvil.--See _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_, 722.
As great Pythagoras of yore,
Standing beside the blacksmith’s door.
And hearing the hammers, as he smote
The anvils with a different note ...
... formed the seven-chorded lyre.
Longfellow, _To a Child_.
Handel wrote an “air with variations” which he called _The Harmonious
Blacksmith_, said to have been suggested by the sounds proceeding from a
smithy, where he heard the village blacksmiths swinging their heavy
sledges “with measured beat and slow.”
=Pyth´ias=, a Syracusan soldier, noted for his friendship for Damon. When
Damon was condemned to death by Dionysius, the new-made king of
Syracuse, Pythias obtained for him a respite of six hours, to go and bid
farewell to his wife and child. The condition of this respite was that
Pythias should be bound, and even executed, if Damon did not return at
the hour appointed. Damon returned in due time, and Dionysius was so
struck with this proof of friendship, that he not only pardoned Damon,
but even begged to be ranked among his friends. The day of execution was
the day that Pythias was to have been married to Calanthê.--_Damon and
Pythias_, a drama by R. Edwards (1571), and another by John Banim in
1825.
=Python=, a huge serpent engendered from the mud of the deluge, and slain
by Apollo. In other words, pytho is the miasma or mist from the
evaporation of the overflow, dried up by the sun. (Greek, _puthesthai_,
“to rot;” because the serpent was left to rot in the sun.)
=Q= (_Old_), the earl of March, afterwards duke of Queensberry, at the
close of the last century and the beginning of this.
=Quacks= (_Noted_).
BECHIC, known for his “cough pills,” consisting of _digitalis_, _white
oxide of antimony_ and _licorice_. Sometimes, but erroneously, called
“Beecham’s magic cough pills.”
BOOKER (_John_), astrologer, etc. (1601-1667).
BOSSY (_Dr._), a German by birth. He was well known in the beginning of
the nineteenth century in Covent Garden, and in other parts of London.
BRODUM (eighteenth century). His “nervous cordial” consisted of _gentian
root_ infused in _gin_. Subsequently, a little _bark_ was added.
CAGLIOSTRO, the prince of quacks. His proper name was Joseph Balsamo,
and his father was Pietro Balsamo, of Palermo. He married Lorenza, the
daughter of a girdle-maker of Rome, called himself the Count Alessandro
di Cagliostro, and his wife the Countess Seraphina di Cagliostro. He
professed to heal every disease, to abolish wrinkles, to predict future
events, and was a great mesmerist. He styled himself “Grand Cophta,
Prophet, and Thaumaturge.” His “Egyptian pills” sold largely at 30_s._ a
box (1743-1795). One of the famous novels of A. Dumas is _Joseph
Balsamo_ (1845).
He had a flat, snub face; dew-lapped, flat-nosed, greasy, and
sensual. A forehead impudent, and two eyes which turned up most
seraphically languishing. It was a model face for a
quack.--Carlyle, _Life of Cagliostro_.
CASE (_Dr. John_), of Lime Regis, Dorsetshire. His name was Latinized
into _Caseus_, and hence he was sometimes called Dr. Cheese. He was born
in the reign of Charles II., and died in that of Anne. Dr. Case was the
author of the _Angelic Guide_, a kind of _Zadkiel’s Almanac_, and over
his door was this couplet:
Within this place
Lives Dr. Case.
Legions of quacks shall join us in this place,
From great Kirlëus down to Dr. Case.
Garth, _Dispensary_, iii. (1699).
CLARKE, noted for his “world-famed blood-mixture” (end of the nineteenth
century).
COCKLE (_James_), known for his anti-bilious pills, advertised as “the
oldest patent medicine” (nineteenth century).
FRANKS (_Dr. Timothy_), who lived in Old Bailey, was the rival of Dr.
Rock. Franks was a very tall man, while his rival was short and stout
(1692-1763).
Dr. Franks, F.O.G.H., calls his rival “Dumplin’ Dick,”.... Sure the
world is wide enough for two great personages. Men of science
should leave controversy to the little world ... and then we might
see Rock and Franks walking together, hand-in-hand, smiling, onward
to immortality.--Goldsmith, _A Citizen of the World_, lxviii.
(1759).
GRAHAM (_Dr._), of the Temple of Health, first in the Adelphi, then in
Pall Mall. He sold his “elixir of life” for £1000 a bottle, was noted
for his mud baths, and for his “celestial bed,” which assured a
beautiful progeny. He died poor in 1784.
GRANT (_Dr._), first a tinker, then a Baptist preacher in Southwark,
then oculist to Queen Anne.
Her majesty sure was in a surprise,
Or else was very short-sighted,
When a tinker was sworn to look after her eyes,
And the mountebank tailor was knighted.
_Grub Street Journal._
(The “mountebank tailor” was Dr. Read.)
HANCOCK (_Dr._), whose panacea was cold water and stewed prunes.
⁂ Dr. Sandgrado prescribed hot water and stewed apples.--Lesage, _Gil
Blas_.
Dr. Rezio, of Barataria, would allow Sancho Panza to eat only “a few
wafers, and a thin slice or two of quince.”--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_,
II. iii. 10 (1615).
HANNES (_Dr._), knighted by Queen Anne. He was born in Oxfordshire.
The queen, like heaven, shines equally on all,
Her favors now without distinction fall,
Great Read, and slender Hannes, both knighted, show
That none their honors shall to merit owe.
_A Political Squib of the Period._
HOLLOWAY (_Professor_), noted for his ointment to cure all strumous
affections, his digestive pills, and his enormous expenditure in
advertising (nineteenth century). Holloway’s ointment is an imitation of
Albinolo’s; being analyzed by order of the French law-courts, it was
declared to consist of _butter_, _lard_, _wax_ and _Venice turpentine_.
His pills are made of _aloes_, _jalap_, _ginger_ and _myrrh_.
KATERFELTO (_Dr._), the influenza doctor. He was a tall man, dressed in
a black gown and square cap, and was originally a common soldier in the
Prussian service. In 1782 he exhibited in London his solar microscope,
and created immense excitement by showing the infusoria of muddy water,
etc. Dr. Katerfelto used to say that he was the greatest philosopher
since the time of Sir Isaac Newton.
And Katerfelto, with his hair on end,
At his own wonders, wondering for his bread.
Cowper, _The Task_ (“The Winter Evening,” 1782).
LILLY (_William_), astrologer, born at Diseworth, in Leicestershire
(1602-1681).
LONG (_St. John_), born at Newcastle, began life as an artist, but
afterwards set up as a curer of consumption, rheumatism and gout. His
profession brought him wealth, and he lived in Harley Street, Cavendish
Square. St. John Long died himself of rapid consumption (1798-1834).
MAPP (_Mrs._), bone-setter. She was born at Epsom, and at one time was
very rich, but she died in great poverty at her lodgings in Seven Dials,
1737.
⁂ Hogarth has introduced her in his heraldic picture, “The Undertakers’
Arms.” She is the middle of the three figures at the top, and is holding
a bone in her hand.
MOORE (_Mr. John_), of the Pestle and Mortar, Abchurch Lane,
immortalized by his “worm-powder,” and called the “Worm Doctor” (died
1733).
Vain is thy art, thy powder vain,
Since worms shall eat e’en thee.
Pope, _To Mr. John Moore_ (1723).
MORISON (_Dr._), famous for his pills (consisting of _aloes_ and _cream
of tartar_, equal parts). Professor Holloway, Dr. Morison, and Rowland,
maker of hair-oil and tooth-powder, were the greatest advertisers of
their generation.
PARTRIDGE, cobbler, astrologer, almanac-maker and quack (died 1708).
Weep, all you customers who use
His pills, his almanacs, or shoes.