Chapter 12

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.

The following note contains the chief points of interest:--

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

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

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

Otto of Friesingen[TN-101] and Gotfried of Viterbo both mention her in their histories.

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

William Ocham alludes to the story.

Thomas de Elmham repeats it (1422).

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

Others insist that her name was Gilberta.

In the _Annalês Augustani_ (1135), we are told her papal name was John VIII., and that she it was who conscrated[TN-102] Louis II., of France.

Arguments in favor of the allegation are given by Spanheim, _Exercit. de Papa Fæmina_, ii. 577; in Lenfant, _Historie de la Papesse Jeanne_.

Arguments against the allegation are given by Allatius or Allatus, _Confutatio Fabulæ de Johanna Papissa_; and in Lequien,[TN-103] _Oriens Christianus_, iii. 777.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The successors of Socrătês formed ... the Academy, the Porch, the Garden.--Professor Seeley, _Ecce Homo_.

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

=Porcius=, son of Cato, of Utĭca (in Africa), and brother of Marcus. Both brothers were in love with Lucia; but the hot-headed, impulsive Marcus, being slain in battle, the sage and temperate Porcius was without a rival.--J. Addison, _Cato_ (1713).

When Sheridan reproduced _Cato_, Wignell, who acted “Porcius,” omitted the prologue, and began at once with the lines, “The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers....” “The prologue! the prologue!” shouted the audience; and Wignell went on in the same tone, as if continuing his speech:

Ladies and gentleman, there has not been A prologue spoken to this play for years-- And heavily on clouds brings on the day, The great, th’ important day, big with the fate Of Cato and of Rome.

_History of the Stage._

=Porcupine= (_Peter_). William Cobbett, the politician, published _The Rushlight_ under this pseudonym in 1860.

=Pornei´us= (3 _syl._), Fornication personified; one of the four sons of Anag´nus (_inchastity_), his brothers being Mæ´chus (_adultery_), Acath´arus, and Asel´gês (_lasciviousness_). He began the battle of Mansoul by encountering Parthen´ia (_maidenly chastity_), but “the martial maid” slew him with her spear. (Greek, _porneia_, “fornication.”).

In maids his joy; now by a maid defied, His life he lost and all his former pride. With women would he live, now by a woman died.

Phineas Fletcher, _The Purple Island_, xi. (1633).

=Porphyrius=, in Dryden’s drama of _Tyrannic Love_.

Valeria, daughter of Maximin, having killed herself for the love of Porphyrus, was on one occasion being carried off by the bearers, when she started up and boxed one of the bearers on the ears, saying to him:

Hold! are you mad, you damned confounded dog? I am to rise and speak the epilogue.

W. C. Russell, _Representative Actors_, 456.

=Porphyro-Genitus= (“_born in the Porphyra_”), the title given to the kings of the Eastern empire, from the apartments called Porphyra, set apart for the empresses during confinement.

There he found Irene, the empress, in travail, in a house anciently appointed for the empresses during childbirth. They call that house “Porphyra,” whence the name of the Porphyro-geniti came into the world.--See Selden, _Titles of Honor_, v. 61 (1614).

=Porrex=, younger son of Gorboduc, a legendary king of Britain. He drove his elder brother, Ferrex, from the kingdom, and, when Ferrex returned with a large army, defeated and slew him. Porrex was murdered while “slumbering on his careful bed,” by his own mother, who stabbed[TN-104] him to the heart with a knife.”--Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, _Gorboduc_ (a tragedy, 1561-2).

=Por´sena=, a legendary king of Etruria, who made war on Rome to restore Tarquin to the throne.

Lord Macaulay has made this the subject of one of his _Lays of Ancient Rome_ (1842).

=Port´amour=, Cupid’s sheriff’s officer, who summoned offending lovers to “Love’s Judgment Hall.”--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, vi. 7 (1596).

=Porteous= (_Captain John_), an officer of the city guard. He is hanged by the mob (1736).

_Mrs. Porteous_, wife of the captain.--Sir W. Scott, _The Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.)

=Porter= (_Sir Joseph_), K. C. B. The admiral who “stuck close to his desk, and never went to sea.” His reward was the appointment as “ruler of the Queen’s navee.”--W. S. Gilbert, _Pinafore_.

=Portia=, the wife of Pontius Pilate, in Klopstock’s _Messiah_.

_Portia_, wife of Marcus Brutus. Valerius Maximus says: “She, being determined to kill herself, took hot burning coals into her mouth, and kept her lips closed till she was suffocated by the smoke.”

With this she fell distract, And, her attendants absent, swallowed fire.

Shakespeare, _Julius Cæsar_, act iv. sc. 3 (1607).

_Portia_, a rich heiress, in love with Bassa´nio; but her choice of a husband was restricted by her father’s will to the following condition: Her suitors were to select from three caskets, one of gold, one of silver, and one of lead, and he who selected the casket which contained Portia’s picture, was to claim her as his wife. Bassanio chose the lead, and being successful, became the espoused husband. It so happened that Bassanio had borrowed 3,000 ducats, and Antonio, a Venetian merchant, was his security. The money was borrowed of Shylock, a Jew, on these conditions: If the loan was repaid within three months, only the principal would be required; if not, the Jew should be at liberty to claim a pound of flesh from Antonio’s body. The loan was not repaid, and the Jew demanded the forfeiture. Portia, in the dress of a law doctor, conducted the defence, and saved Antonio by reminding the Jew that a pound of _flesh_ gave him no drop of blood, and that he must cut neither more nor less than an exact pound, otherwise his life would be forfeited. As it would be plainly impossible to fulfill these conditions, the Jew gave up his claim, and Antonio was saved.--Shakespeare, _Merchant of Venice_ (1598).

=Portsmouth= (_The duchess of_), “La Belle Louise de Querouaille,” one of the mistresses of Charles II.--Sir W. Scott, _Perveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

=Portuguese Cid= (_The_), Nunez Alvarez Pereria (1360-1431).

=Portuguese Horace= (_The_), Antonio Ferreira (1528-1569).

“=Posson Jone=,” a gigantic parson from “up the river” who has “been to Mobile on business for Bethesdy Church.” His sojourn in New Orleans on his way home is marked by divers adventures. He is beguiled into a gambling den, drugged and made drunk. While intoxicated, he visits a circus and has a scene with the showman and his tiger; he is locked up and awakes in his senses and penitent. His simplicity of self-condemnation, his humility and fortitude move his tempter to restore the $500 of church-money he has “borrowed” from the confiding victim whose transport of pious gratitude overwhelms the world-hardened man with shame and inspires him to new resolves.--George W. Cable, “_Posson Jone_” (1879).

=Posthu´mus= [LEONATUS] married Imogen, daughter of Cymbeline, king of Britain, and was banished the kingdom for life. He went to Italy, and there, in the house of Philario, bet a diamond ring with Iachimo that nothing could seduce the fidelity of Imogen. Iachimo accepted the bet, concealed himself in a chest in Imogen’s chamber, made himself master of certain details and also of a bracelet, and with these vouchers claimed the ring. Posthūmus now ordered his servant, Pisanio, to inveigle Imogen to Milford Haven under the promise of meeting her husband, and to murder her on the road; but Pisanio told Imogen to assume boy’s apparel, and enter the service of the Roman general in Britain, as a page. A battle being fought, the Roman general, Iachimo, and Imogen were among the captives; and Posthumus, having done great service in the battle on Cymbeline’s behalf, was pardoned. The Roman general prayed that the supposed page might be set at liberty, and the king told her she might also claim a boon, whereupon she asked that Iachimo should state how he became possessed of the ring he was wearing. The whole villainy being thus exposed, Imogen’s innocence was fully established, and she was re-united to her husband.--Shakespeare, _Cymbeline_ (1605).

=Potage= (_Jean_), the French “Jack Pudding;” similar to the Italian “Macaroni,” the Dutch “Pickel-herringe,” and the German “Hanswurst.” Clumsy, gormandizing clowns, fond of practical jokes, especially such as stealing eatables and drinkables.

=Pother= (_Doctor_), an apothecary, “city register, and walking story-book.” He had a story _à propos_ of every remark made and of every incident; but as he mixed two or three together, his stories were pointless and quite unintelligible. “I know a monstrous good story on that point He! he! he” “I tell you a famous good story about that, you must know. He! he! he!...” “I could have told a capital story, but there was no one to listen to it. He! he! he!” This is the style of his chattering ... “speaking professionally--for anatomy, chemistry, pharmacy, phlebotomy, oxygen, hydrogen, caloric, carbonic, atmospheric, galvanic. Ha! ha! ha! Can tell you a prodigiously laughable story on the subject. Went last summer to a watering-place--lady of fashion--feel pulse--not lady, but lap-dog--talk Latin--prescribed galvanism--out jumped Pompey plump into a batter pudding, and lay like a toad in a hole. Ha! ha! ha!”--Dibdin, _The Farmer’s Wife_ (1780).

⁂ Colman’s “Ollapod” (1802) was evidently copied from Dibdin’s “Doctor Pother.”

=Potiphar= (_Mr._), freshly-made man intensely uncomfortable in his plated harness. His ideas of art are grounded upon a dim picture in his wife’s drawing-room, called by him “Giddo’s Shay Doover.”

_Mrs. Potiphar_, shoddy of shoddys. Purse-proud, affected, pretentious and ambitious, and even less fit for her position than her husband for his.--George William Curtis, _Potiphar Papers_ (1853).

=Potiphar’s Wife=, Zoleikha or Zuleika; but some call her Raïl.--Sale, _Al Korân_, xii. note.

=Pott= (_Mr._), the librarian at the Spa.

_Mrs. Pott_, the librarian’s wife.--Sir W. Scott, _St. Roman’s Well_ (time, George III.).

=Potteries= (_Father of the_), Josiah Wedgewood (1730-1795).

=Pounce= (_Mr. Peter_), in _The Adventures of Joseph Andrews_, by Fielding (1742).

=Poundtext= (_Peter_), an “indulged pastor” in the covenanters’ army.--Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

=Pourceaugnac= [_Poor-sone-yak_], the hero of a comedy so called. He is a pompous country gentleman, who comes to Paris to marry Julie, daughter of Oronte (2 _syl._); but Julie loves Eraste (2 _syl._), and this young man plays off so many tricks, and devises so many mystifications upon M. de Pourceaugnac, that he is fain to give up his suit.--Molière, _M. de Pourceaugnac_ (1669).

=Poussin= (_The British_), Richard Cooper (*-1806).

_Poussin_ (_Gaspar_). So Gaspar Dughet, the French painter, is called (1613-1675).

=Powell= (_Mary_), the first wife of John Milton.

=Powheid= (_Lazarus_), the old sexton in Douglas.--Sir W. Scott, _Castle Dangerous_ (time, Henry I.).

=Poyning’s Law=, a statute to establish the English jurisdiction in Ireland. The parliament that passed it was summoned in the reign of Henry VII. by Sir Edward Poynings, governor of Ireland (1495).

=Poyser= (_Mrs._), shrewd, capable and ready-tongued wife of a British yeoman, and aunt of Hetty Sorrel.--George Eliot, _Adam Bede_.

=P. P.=, “Clerk of the Parish,” the feigned signature of Dr. Arbuthnot, subscribed to a volume of _Memoirs_ in ridicule of Burnet’s _History of My Own Times_.

Those who were placed around the dinner-table had those feelings of awe with which _P. P._, _Clerk of the Parish_, was oppressed when he first uplifted the psalm in presence of ... the wise Mr. Justice Freeman, the good Lady Jones, and the great Sir Thomas Truby.--Sir W. Scott.

=Pragmatic Sanction.= The word _pragmaticus_ means “relating to State affairs,” and the word _sanctio_ means “an ordinance” or “decree.” The four most famous statutes so called are:

1. _The Pragmatic Sanction of St. Louis_ (1268), which forbade the court of Rome to levy taxes or collect subscriptions in France without the express permission of the king. It also gave French subjects the right of appealing, in certain cases, from the ecclesiastical to the civil courts of the realm.

2. _The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges_, passed by Charles VII. of France, in 1438. By this ordinance the power of the people in France was limited and defined. The authority of the National Council was declared superior to that of the pope. The French clergy were forbidden to appeal to Rome on any point affecting the secular condition of the nation; and the Roman pontiff was wholly forbidden to appropriate to himself any vacant living, or to appoint to any bishopric or parish church in France.

3. _The Pragmatic Sanction of Kaiser Karl VI. of Germany_ (in 1713), which settled the empire on his daughter, the Archduchess Maria Theresa, wife of François de Loraine. Maria Theresa ascended the throne in 1740, and a European war was the result.

4. _The Pragmatic Sanction of Charles III. of Spain_ (1767). This was to suppress the Jesuits of Spain.

What is meant emphatically by _The Pragmatic Sanction_ is the third of these ordinances, viz., settling the line of succession in Germany on the house of Austria.

=Pramnian Mixture= (_The_), any intoxicating draught; so called from the Pramnian grape, from which it was made. Circê gave Ulysses “Pramnian wine” impregnated with drugs, in order to prevent his escape from the island.

And for my drink prepared The Pramnian mixture in a golden cup, Impregnating (on my destruction bent) With noxious herbs the draught.

Homer, _Odyssey_, x. (Cowper’s trans.).

=Prasildo=, a Babylonish nobleman, who falls in love with Tisbi´na, wife of his friend Iroldo. He is overheard by Tisbina threatening to kill himself, and, in order to divert him from his guilty passion she promises to return his love on condition of his performing certain adventures which she thinks to be impossible. However, Prasildo performs them all, and then Tisbina and Iroldo, finding no excuse, take poison to avoid the alternative. Prasildo resolves to do the same, but is told by the apothecary that the “poison” he had supplied was a harmless drink. Prasildo tells his friend, Iroldo quits the country, and Tisbina marries Prasildo. Time passes on and Prasildo hears that his friend’s life is in danger, whereupon he starts forth to rescue him at the hazard of his own life.--Bojardo, _Orlando Innamorato_ (1495).

=Prasu´tagus= or =Præsu´tagus=, husband of Bonduica or Boadicēa, queen of the Icēni.--Richard of Cirencester, _History_, xxx. (fourteenth century).

Me, the wife of rich Prasutagus; me the lover of liberty.-- Me, they seized, and me they tortured!

Tennyson, _Boadicea_.

=Prate´fast= (_Peter_), who “in all his life spake no word in waste.” His wife was Maude, and his eldest son, Sym Sadle Gander, who married Betres (daughter of Davy Dronken Nole, of Kent, and his wife, Al´yson).--Stephen Hawes, _The Passe-tyme of Plesure_, xxix. (1515).

=Prattle= (_Mr._), medical practitioner, a voluble gossip, who retails all the news and scandal of the neighborhood. He knows everybody, everybody’s affairs, and everybody’s intentions.--G. Colman, Sr, _The Deuce is in Him_ (1762).

=Pre-Adamite Kings=, Soliman Raad, Soliman Daki, and Soliman de Gian ben Gian. The last named, having chained up the dives (1 _syl._) in the dark caverns of Pâf, became so presumptuous as to dispute the Supreme Power. All these kings maintained great state [before the existence of that contemptible being denominated by us “The Father of Mankind”]; but none can be compared with the eminence of Soliman ben Daoud.

=Pre-Adamite Throne= (_The_). It was Vathek’s ambition to gain the pre-Adamite throne. After long search, he was shown it at last in the abyss of Eblis; but being there, return was impossible, and he remained a prisoner without hope forever.

They reached at length the hall [_Argenk_] of great extent, and covered with a lofty dome.... A funereal gloom prevailed over it. Here, upon two beds of incorruptible cedar, lay recumbent the fleshless forms of the pre-Adamite kings, who had once been monarchs of the whole earth.... At their feet were inscribed the events of their several reigns, their power, their pride, and their crimes. [_This was the pre-Adamite throne, the ambition of the Caliph Vathek._]--W. Beckford, _Vathek_ (1784).

=Preacher= (_The_) Solomon, the son of David, author of _The Preacher_ (i. e. _Ecclesiastes_).

Thus saith the Preacher, “Nought beneath the sun Is new;” yet still from change to change we run.

Byron.

_Preacher_ (_The Glorious_), St. Chrys´ostom (347-407). The name means “Golden mouth.”

_Preacher_ (_The Little_), Samuel de Marets, Protestant controversialist (1599-1663).

_Preacher_ (_The Unfair_). Dr. Isaac Barrow was so called by Charles II., because his sermons were so exhaustive that they left nothing more to be said on the subject, which was “unfair” to those that came after him.

=Preachers= (_The King of_), Louis Bourdaloue (1632-1704).

=Précieuses Ridicules= (_Les_), a comedy by Molière, in ridicule of the “_precieuses_,” as they were styled, forming the coterie of the Hotel de Rambouillet in the seventeenth century. The _soirées_ held in this hotel were a great improvement on the licentious assemblies of the period; but many imitators made the thing ridiculous, because they wanted the same presiding talent and good taste.

The two girls of Molière’s comedy are Madelon and Cathos, the daughter and niece of Gorgibus, a bourgeois. They change their names to Polixène and Aminte, which they think more genteel, and look on the affectations of two flunkies as far more _distingué_ than the simple, gentlemanly manners of their masters. However, they are cured of their folly, and no harm comes of it (1659).

=Preciosa=, the heroine of Longfellow’s _Spanish Student_, in love with Victorian, the student.

=Precocious Genius.=

JOHANN PHILIP BARATIER, a German, at the age of five years, knew Greek, Latin, and French, besides his native German. At nine he knew Hebrew and Chaldaic, and could translate German into Latin. At thirteen he could translate Hebrew into French, or French into Hebrew (1721-1740).

⁂ The life of this boy was written by Formey. His name is enrolled in all biographical dictionaries.

CHRISTIAN HENRY HEINECKEN, at one year old, knew the chief events of the Pentatauch!! at thirteen months he knew the history of the Old Testament!! at fourteen months he knew the history of the New Testament!! at two and a half years he could answer any ordinary question of history or geography; and at three years old knew French and Latin as well as his native German (1721-1725).

⁂ The life of this boy was written by Schœneich, his teacher. His name is duly noticed in biographical dictionaries.

=Pressæus= (“_eater of garlic_”), the youngest of the frog chieftains.

The pious ardor young Pressæus brings, Betwixt the fortunes of contending kings; Lank, harmless frog! with forces hardly grown, He darts the reed in combats not his own, Which, faintly tinkling on Troxartas’ shield, Hangs at the point and drops upon the field.

Parnell, _Battle of the Frogs and Mice_, iii. (about 1712).

=Prest=, a nickname given by Swift to the duchess of Shrewsbury, who was a foreigner.

=Prester John=, a corruption of _Belul Gian_, meaning “precious stone.” Gian (pronounced _zjon_) has been corrupted into John, and Belul, translated into “precious;” in Latin _Johannes preciosus_ (“precious John”) corrupted into “Presbyter Joannes.” The kings of Ethiopia or Abyssinia, from a gemmed ring given to Queen Saba, whose son by Solomon was king of Ethiopia, and was called Melech, with the “precious stone,” or Melech _Gian-Belul_.

Æthiopes regem suum, quem nos vulgo “Prete Gianni” corrupte dicimus, quatour appellant nominibus, quorum primum est “Belul Giad,” hoc est _lapis preciosus_. Ductum est autem hoc nomen ab _annulo Salomonis_ quem ille filio ex regina Saba, ut putant genito, dono dedisse, quove omnes postea reges usos fuisse describitor.... Cum vero eum coronant, appellant “Neghuz.” Postremo cum vertice capitis in coronæ modum abraso, ungitur a patriarcha, vocant “Masih,” hoc est _unctum_. Hæc autem regiæ dignitatis nomina omnibus communia sunt.--Quoted by Selden, from a little annal of the Ethiopian kings (1552), in his _Titles of Honor_, v. 65 (1614).

⁂ As this title was like the Egyptian _Pharaoh_, and belonged to whole lines of kings, it will explain the enormous diversity of time allotted by different writers to “Prester John.”

Marco Polo says that Prester John was slain in battle by Jenghiz Khan; and Gregory Bar-Hebræus says, “God forsook him because he had taken to himself a wife of the Zinish nation, called Quarakhata.[TN-105]

Bishop Jordānus, in his description of the world, sets down Abyssinia as the kingdom of Prester John. Abyssinia used to be called “Middle India.”

Otto of Freisingen is the first author to mention him. This Otto wrote a chronicle to the date 1156. He says that John was of the family of the Magi, and ruled over the country of these Wise Men. Otto tells us that Prester John had “a sceptre of emeralds.”

Maimonĭdês, about the same time (twelfth century), mentions him, but calls him “Prester-Cuan.”

Before 1241 a letter was addressed by “Prester John” to Manuel Comnēnus, emperor of Constantinople. It is preserved in the _Chronicle_ of Albericus Trium Fontium, who gives for its date 1165.

Mandeville calls Prester John a lineal descendant of Ogier, the Dane. He tells us that Ogier, with fifteen others, penetrated into the north of India, and divided the land amongst his followers. John was made sovereign of Teneduc, and was called “Prester” because he converted the natives to the Christian faith.

Another tradition says that Prester John had seventy kings for his vassals, and was seen by his subjects only three times in a year.

In _Orlando Furioso_, Prester John is called by his subjects “Senāpus, king of Ethiopia.” He was blind, and though the richest monarch of the world, he pined with famine, because harpies flew off with his food by way of punishment for wanting to add paradise to his empire. The plague, says the poet, was to cease “when a stranger appeared on a flying griffin.” This stranger was Astolpho, who drove the harpies to Cocy´tus. Prester John, in return for this service, sent 100,000 Nubians to the aid of Charlemagne. Astolpho supplied this contingent with horses by throwing stones into the air, and made transport-ships to convey them to France by casting leaves into the sea. After the death of Agramant, the Nubians were sent home, and then the horses became stones again, and the ships became leaves (bks. xvii.-xix.).

=Pretender= (_The Young_), Prince Charles Edward Stuart, son of James Francis Edward Stuart (called “The _Old_ Pretender”). James Francis was the son of James II., and Charles Edward was the king’s grandson.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

Charles Edward was defeated at Cullōden in 1746, and escaped to the Continent.

God bless the king--I mean the “Faith’s defender;” God bless--no harm in blessing--the Pretender. Who that Pretender is, and who is king, God bless us all! that’s quite another thing.

Ascribed by Sir W. Scott to John Byrom (in _Redgauntlet_).

The mistress of Charles Edward Stuart was Miss Walkingshaw.

=Prettyman= (_Prince_), in love with Cloris. He is sometimes a fisherman, and sometimes a prince.--Duke of Buckingham, _The Rehearsal_ (1671).

⁂ “Prince Prettyman” is said to be a parody on “Leonidas” in Dryden’s _Marriage-à-la-mode_.

=Pri´amus= (_Sir_), a knight of the Round Table. He possessed a phial, full of four waters that came from paradise. These waters instantly healed any wounds which were touched by them.

“My father,” says Sir Priamus, “is lineally descended of Alexander and of Hector by right line. Duke Josuê and Machabæus were of our lineage. I am right inheritor of Alexandria, and Affrike of all the out isles.”

And Priamus took from his page a phial, full of four waters that came out of paradise; and with certain balm nointed he their wounds, and washed them with that water, and within an hour after they were both as whole as ever they were.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 97 (1470).

=Price= (_Matilda_), a miller’s daughter; a pretty, coquettish young woman, who marries John Browdie, a hearty Yorkshire corn-factor.--C. Dickens, _Nicholas Nickleby_ (1838).

=Pride= (_Sir_), first a drayman, then a colonel in the parliamentary army.--S. Butler, _Hudibras_ (1663-78).

=Pride of Humility.= Antisthĕnês, the Cynic, affected a very ragged coat; but Socrătês said to him, “Antisthenês, I can see your vanity peering through the holes of your coat.”

=Pride’s Purge=, a violent invasion of parliamentary rights by Colonel Pride, in 1649. At the head of two regiments of soldiers he surrounded the House of Commons, seized forty-one of the members and shut out 160 others. None were allowed into the House but those most friendly to Cromwell. This fag-end went by the name of “the Rump.”

=Pridwin= or PRIWEN, Prince Arthur’s shield.

Arthur placed a golden helmet upon his head, on which was engraven the figure of a dragon; and on his shoulders his shield, called Priwen, upon which the picture of the blessed Mary, mother of God, was painted; then, girding on his Caliburn, which was an excellent sword, made in the isle of Avallon; he took in his right hand his lance, Ron, which was hard, broad, and fit for slaughter.--Geoffrey, _British History_, ix. 4 (1142).

=Priest of Nature=, Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727).

Lo! Newton, priest of nature, shines afar, Scans the wide world, and numbers every star.

Campbell, _Pleasures of Hope_, i. (1799).

=Prig=, a knavish beggar.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Beggars’ Bush_ (1622).

_Prig_ (_Betsey_), an old monthly nurse, “the frequent pardner” of Mrs. Gamp; equally ignorant, equally vulgar, equally selfish, and brutal to her patients.

“Betsey,” said Mrs. Gamp, filling her own glass, and passing the teapot [_of gin_], “I will now propoge a toast: ‘My frequent pardner, Betsey Prig.’” “Which, altering the name to Sairah Gamp, I drink,” said Mrs. Prig, “with love and tenderness.”--C. Dickens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_, xlix. (1843).

=Prim´er= (_Peter_), a pedantic country schoolmaster, who believes himself to be the wisest of pedagogues.--Samuel Foote, _The Mayor of Garratt_ (1763).

=Primitive Fathers= (_The_). The five apostolic fathers contemporary with the apostles (viz., Clement of Rome, Barnăbas, Hermas, Ignatius and Polycarp), and the nine following, who all lived in the first three centuries:--Justin, Theoph´ilus of Antioch, Irenæus, Clement of Alexandria, Cyprian of Carthage, Orĭgen, Gregory “Thaumatur´gus,” Dionysius of Alexandria and Tertullian.

⁂ For the “Fathers” of the fourth and fifth centuries see GREEK CHURCH, LATIN CHURCH.

=Primrose= (_The Rev. Dr. Charles_), a clergyman rich in heavenly wisdom, but poor indeed in all worldly knowledge. Amiable, charitable, devout, but not without his literary vanity, especially on the Whistonian theory about second marriages. One admires his virtuous indignation against the “washes,” which he deliberately demolished with the poker. In his prosperity his chief “adventures were by the fireside, and all his migrations were from the blue bed to the brown.”

_Mrs._ [_Deborah_] _Primrose_, the doctor’s wife, full of motherly vanity, and desirous to appear _genteel_. She could read without much spelling, prided herself on her housewifery, especially on her gooseberry wine, and was really proud of her excellent husband.

(She was painted as “Venus,” and the vicar, in gown and bands, was presenting to her his book on “second marriages,” but when complete the picture was found to be too large for the house.)

_George Primrose_, son of the vicar. He went to Amsterdam to teach the Dutch English, but never once called to mind that he himself must know something of Dutch before this could be done. He becomes Captain Primrose, and marries Miss Wilmot, an heiress.

(Goldsmith himself went to teach the French English under the same circumstances.)

_Moses Primrose_, younger son of the vicar, noted for his greenness and pedantry. Being sent to sell a good horse at a fair, he bartered it for a gross of green spectacles, with copper rims and shagreen cases, of no more value than Hodge’s razors (ch. xii.).

_Olivia Primrose_, the eldest daughter of the doctor. Pretty, enthusiastic, a sort of Hebê in beauty. “She wished for many lovers,” and eloped with Squire Thornhill. Her father found her at a roadside inn called the Harrow, where she was on the point of being turned out of the house. Subsequently, she was found to be legally married to the squire.

_Sophia Primrose_, the second daughter of Dr. Primrose. She was “soft, modest, and alluring.” Not like her sister, desirous of winning all, but fixing her whole heart upon one. Being thrown from her horse into a deep stream, she was rescued by Mr. Burchell (_alias_ Sir William Thornhill), and being abducted, was again rescued by him. She married him at last.--Goldsmith, _Vicar of Wakefield_ (1766).

=Prince of Alchemy=, Rudolph II., kaiser of Germany; also called “The German Trismegistus” (1552, 1576-1612).

=Prince of Angels=, Michael.

So spake the prince of angels. To whom thus The Adversary [i.e. _Satan_].

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, vi. 281 (1665).

=Prince of Celestial Armies=, Michael, the archangel.

Go, Michael, of celestial armies prince.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, vi. 44 (1665).

=Prince of Darkness=, Satan (_Eph._ vi 12).

Whom thus the prince of darkness answered glad: “Fair daughter, High proof ye now have given to be the race Of Satan (I glory in the name).”

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, x, 383 (1665).

=Prince of Hell=, Satan.

And with them comes a third of regal port, But faded splendor wan; who by his gait And fierce demeanor seems the prince of Hell.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, iv. 868 (1665).

=Prince of Life=, a title given to Christ (_Acts_ iii. 15).

=Prince of Peace=, a title given to the Messiah (_Isaiah_ ix. 6).

_Prince of Peace_, Don Manuel Godoy, of Badajoz. So called because he concluded the “peace of Basle” in 1795, between France and Spain (1757-1851).

=Prince of the Air=, Satan.

... Jesus, son of Mary, second Eve, Saw Satan fall, like lightning, down from heaven, Prince of the air.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, x. 185 (1665).

=Prince of the Devils=, Satan (_Matt._ xii. 24).

=Prince of the Kings of the Earth=, a title given to Christ (_Rev._ i. 5).

=Prince of the Power of the Air=, Satan (_Eph._ ii. 2).

=Prince of this World=, Satan (_John_ xiv. 30).

=Princes.= It was Prince Bismarck, the German Chancellor, who said to a courtly attendant, “Let princes be princes, and mind your own business.”

=Prince’s Peers=, a term of contempt applied to peers of low birth. The phrase arose in the reign of Charles VII., of France, when his son Louis (afterwards Louis XI.) created a host of riff-raff peers, such as tradesmen, farmers, and mechanics, in order to degrade the aristocracy, and thus weaken its influence in the state.

=Printed Books.= The first book produced in England, was printed in England in 1477, by William Caxton, in the Almonry, at Westminster, and was entitled _The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers_.

The Rev. T. Wilson says: “The press at Oxford existed ten years before there was any press in Europe, except those of Haarlem and Mentz.” The person who set up the Oxford press was Corsellis, and his first printed book bore the date of 1468. The colophon of it ran thus: “Explicit exposicio Sancti Jeronimi in simbolo apostolorum ad papam laurēcium. Impressa Oxonii Et finita Anno Domini Mcccclxviij., xvij. die Decembris.” The book is a small quarto of forty-two leaves, and was first noticed in 1664 by Richard Atkins in his _Origin and Growth of Printing_. Dr. Conyers Middleton, in 1735, charged Atkins with forgery. In 1812, S. W. Singer defended the book. Dr. Cotton took the subject up in his _Typographical Gazetteer_ (first and second series).

=Prior= (_Matthew_). The monument to this poet in Westminster Abbey was by Rysbrack; executed by order of Louis XIV.

=Priory= (_Lord_), an old-fashioned husband, who actually thinks that a wife should “love, honor, and obey” her husband; nay, more, that “forsaking all others, she should cleave to him so long as they both should live.”

_Lady Priory_, an old-fashioned wife, but young and beautiful. She was, however, so very old-fashioned that she went to bed at ten and rose at six; dressed in a cap and gown of her own making; respected and loved her husband; discouraged flirtation; and when assailed by any improper advances, instead of showing temper or conceited airs, quietly and tranquilly seated herself to some modest household duty till the assailant felt the irresistible power of modesty and virtue.--Mrs. Inchbald, _Wives as They Were and Maids as They Are_ (1797).

=Priscian=, a great grammarian of the fifth century. The Latin phrase, _Diminuĕre Prisciani caput_ (“to break Priscian’s head”), means to “violate the rules of grammar.” (See PEGASUS.)

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

Pope, _The Dunciad_, iii. 161 (1728).

Quakers (that like to lanterns, bear Their light within them) will not swear And hold no sin so deeply red As that of breaking Priscian’s head.

Butler, _Hudibras_, II. ii. 219, etc. (1664).

=Priscilla=, daughter of a noble lord. She fell in love with Sir Aladine, a poor knight.--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, vi. 1 (1596).

_Priscilla_, the beautiful puritan in love with John Alden. When Miles Standish, a bluff old soldier, in the middle of life, wished to marry her, he asked John Alden to go and plead his cause; but the puritan maiden replied archly, “Why don’t you speak for yourself, John?” Upon this hint, John did speak for himself, and Priscilla listened to his suit.--Longfellow, _The Courtship of Miles Standish_ (1858).

_Priscilla._ Fragile, pretty, simple girl, whom Hollingsworth and Coverdale love, instead of falling victims to the superb Zenobia. She is thin-blooded and weak-limbed, and her very helplessness charms the strong men, who suppose themselves proof against love of the ordinary kind.--Nathaniel Hawthorne, _The Blithedale Romance_ (1852).

=Prison Life Endeared.= The following are examples of prisoners who, from long habit, have grown attached to prison life:--

Comte de Lorge was confined for thirty years in the Bastile, and when liberated (July 14, 1789) declared that freedom had no joys for him. After imploring in vain to be allowed to return to his dungeon, he lingered for six weeks and pined to death.

Goldsmith says, when Chinvang the Chaste, ascended the throne of China, he commanded the prisons to be thrown open. Among the prisoners was a venerable man of 85 years of age, who implored that he might be suffered to return to his cell. For sixty-three years he had lived in its gloom and solitude, which he preferred to the glare of the sun and the bustle of a city.--_A Citizen of the World_ lxxiii. (1759).

Mr. Cogan once visited a prisoner of state in the King’s Bench prison, who told him he had grown to like the subdued light and extreme solitude of his cell; he even liked the spots and patches on the wall, the hardness of his bed, the regularity, and the freedom from all the cares and worries of active life. He did not wish to be released, and felt sure he should never be so happy in any other place.

A woman of Leyden, on the expiration of a long imprisonment, applied for permission to return to her cell, and added, if the request was refused as a favor, she would commit some offence which should give her a title to her old quarters.

A prisoner condemned to death had his sentence commuted to seven years’ close confinement on a bed of nails. After the expiration of five years, he declared, if ever he were released, he should adopt from choice what habit had rendered so agreeable to him.

=Prisoner of Chillon=, Françoise de Bonnivard, a Frenchman, who resided at Geneva, and made himself obnoxious to Charles III., duc de Savoie, who incarcerated him for six years in a dungeon of the Château de Chillon, at the east end of the lake of Geneva. The prisoner was ultimately released by the Bernese, who were at war with Savoy.

Byron has founded on this incident his poem entitled _The Prisoner of Chillon_, but has added two brothers, whom he supposes to be imprisoned with Françoise, and who die of hunger, suffering, and confinement. In fact, the poet mixes up Dantê’s tale about Count Ugolino with that of Françoise de Bonnivard, and has produced a powerful and affecting story, but it is not historic.

=Prisoner of State= (_The_), Ernest de Fridberg. E. Sterling has a drama so called. (For the plot, see ERNEST DE FRIDBERG.)

=Pritchard= (_William_), commander of H.M. sloop, the _Shark_.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

=Priu´li=, a senator of Venice, of unbending pride. His daughter had been saved from the Adriatic by Jaffier, and gratitude led to love. As it was quite hopeless to expect Priuli to consent to the match, Belvidera eloped in the night, and married Jaffier. Priuli now discarded them both. Jaffier joined Pierre’s conspiracy to murder the Venetian senators, but in order to save his father-in-law, revealed to him the plot under the promise of a general free pardon. The promise was broken, and all the conspirators except Jaffier were condemned to death by torture. Jaffier stabbed Pierre, to save him from the wheel, and then killed himself. Belvidera went mad and died. Priuli lived on, a broken-down old man, sick of life, and begging to be left alone in some “place that’s fit for mourning.” “There, all leave me:

Sparing no tears when you this tale relate, But bid all cruel fathers dread my fate.”

T. Otway, _Venice Preserved_, v. the end (1682).

=Privolvans=, the antagonists of the Subvolvans.

These silly, ranting Privolvans Have every summer their campaigns, And muster like the warlike sons Of Rawhead and of Bloody-bones.

S. Butler, _The Elephant in the Moon_, v. 85 (1754).

=Probe= (1 _syl._), a priggish surgeon, who magnifies mole-hill ailments into mountain maladies, in order to enhance his skill and increase his charges. Thus, when Lord Foppington received a small flesh-wound in the arm from a foil, Probe drew a long face, frightened his lordship greatly, and pretended the consequences might be serious; but when Lord Foppington promised him £500 for a cure, he set his patient on his legs the next day.--Sheridan, _A Trip to Scarborough_ (1777).

=Procida= (_John of_), a tragedy by S. Knowles (1840). John of Procida was an Italian gentleman of the thirteenth century, a skillful physician, high in favor with King Fernando II., Conrad, Manfred, and Conrad´ine. The French invaded the island, put the last two monarchs to the sword, usurped the sovereignty, and made Charles d’Anjou king. The cruelty, licentiousness, and extortion of the French being quite unbearable, provoked a general rising of the Sicilians, and in one night (_Sicilian Vespers_, March 30, 1282), every Frenchman, Frenchwoman, and French child in the whole island was ruthlessly butchered. Procĭda lost his only son Fernando, who had just married Isoline (3 _syl._), the daughter of the French governor of Messina. Isoline died broken-hearted, and her father, the governor, was amongst the slain. The crown was given to John of Procida.

=Procris=, the wife of Cephălos. Out of jealousy she crept into a wood to act as a spy upon her husband. Cephalos, hearing something move, discharged an arrow in the direction of the rustling, thinking it to be caused by some wild beast, and shot Procris. Jupiter, in pity, turned Procris into a star.--_Greek and Latin Mythology._

_The unerring dart of Procris._ Diana gave Procris a dart which never missed its aim, and after being discharged returned back to the shooter.

=Procrus´tes= (3 _syl._), a highwayman of Attica, who used to place travellers on a bed; if they were too short he stretched them out till they fitted it, if too long he lopped off the redundant part. _Greek Mythology._

Critic, more cruel than Procrustes old, Who to his iron bed by torture fits Their nobler parts, the souls of suffering wits.

Mallet, _Verbal Criticism_ (1734).

=Proctor’s Dogs= or _Bull-Dogs_, the two “runners” or officials who accompany a university proctor in his rounds, to give chase to recalcitrant gownsmen.

And he had breathed the proctor’s dogs [_was a member of Oxford or Cambridge University_].

Tennyson, prologue of _The Princess_ (1830).

=Prodigal= (_The_), Albert VI. duke of Austria (1418, 1439-1463).

=Prodigy of France= (_The_). Guillaume Budé was so called by Erasmus (1467-1540).

=Prodigy of Learning= (_The_). Samuel Hahnemann, the German, was so called by J. P. Richter (1755-1843).

=Professor= (_The_). The most important member of the party gathered about the social board in O. W. Holmes’s _Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table_ (1858).

=Profound= (_The_), Richard Middleton, an English scholastic divine (*-1304).

=Profound Doctor= (_The_), Thomas Bradwardine, a schoolman. Also called “The Solid Docter”[TN-106] (*-1349).

Ægidius de Columna, a Sicilian schoolman, was called “The Most Profound Doctor” (*-1316).

=Progne= (2 _syl._), daughter of Pandīon, and sister of Philomēla. Prognê was changed into a swallow, and Philomela into a nightingale.--_Greek Mythology._

As Prognê or as Philomela mourns ... So Bradamant laments her absent knight.

Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_, xxiii. (1516).

=Prome´thean Unguent= (_The_), made from the extract of a herb on which some of the blood of Promētheus (3 _syl._), had fallen. Medea gave Jason some of this unguent, which rendered his body proof against fire and warlike instruments.

=Prome´theus= (3 _syl._) taught man the use of fire, and instructed him in architecture, astronomy, mathematics, writing, rearing cattle, navigation, medicine, the art of prophecy, working metal, and, indeed, every art known to man. The word means “forethought,” and forethought is the father of invention. The tale is that he made man of clay, and, in order to endow his clay with life, stole fire from heaven and brought it to earth in a hollow tube. Zeus, in punishment, chained him to a rock, and sent an eagle to consume his liver daily; during the night it grew again, and thus his torment was ceaseless, till Herculês shot the eagle, and unchained the captive.

Learn the while, in brief, That all arts come to mortals from Prometheus.

E. B. Browning, _Prometheus Bound_ (1850).

Truth shall restore the light by Nature given, And, like Prometheus, bring the fire from heaven.

Campbell, _Pleasures of Hope_, i. (1700).

⁂ Percy B. Shelley has a classical drama entitled _Prometheus Unbound_ (1819).

James Russell Lowell has a noble poem entitled _Prometheus_, beginning,--

“One after one the stars have risen and set, Sparkling upon the hoarfrost on my chain.”

=Prompt=, the servant of Mr. and Miss Blandish. General Burgoyne, _The Heiress_ (1781).

=Pronando= (_Rast_). The early lover of Anne Douglas. He is handsome, weak, and attractive in disposition, a favorite with all his friends. His pliant character and good-natured vanity make him a prey to the whimsical fascinations of Tita, Anne’s “little sister,” whom he marries instead of his first betrothed.--Constance Fenimore Woolson, _Anne_ (1882).

=Pronouns.= It was of Henry Mossop, tragedian (1729-1773), that Churchill wrote the two lines:

In monosyllables his thunders roll-- He, she, it, and we, ye, they, fright the soul;

because Mossop was fond of emphasizing his pronouns and little words.

=Prophecy.= Jourdain, the wizard, told the duke of Somerset, if he wished to live, to “avoid where castles mounted stand.” The duke died in an ale-house called the Castle, in St. Alban’s.

... underneath an ale-house’ paltry sign, The Castle, in St. Alban’s, Sumerset Hath made the wizard famous in his death.

Shakespeare, 2 _Henry VI._ act v. sc. 2 (1591).

Similar prophetic equivokes were told to Henry IV., Pope Sylvester II., and Cambysês (see JERUSALEM).

Aristomĕnês was told by the Delphic oracle to “flee for his life when he saw a goat drink from the river Neda.” Consequently, all _goats_ were driven from the banks of this river; but one day, Theŏclos observed that the branches of a fig tree bent into the stream, and it immediately flashed into his mind that the Messenian word for _fig tree_ and _goat_ was the same. The pun or equivoke will be better understood by an English reader if for _goat_ we read _ewe_, and bear in mind that _yew_ is to the ear the same word; thus:

When an _ewe_ [_yew_] stops to drink of the “Severn,” then fly, And look not behind, for destruction is nigh.

=Prophetess= (_The_), Ayē´shah, the second and beloved wife of Mahomet. It does not mean that she prophesied, but, like _Sultana_, it is simply a title of honor. He was the _Prophet_, she the _Prophēta_ or Madam Prophet.

=Prose= (_Father of English_), Wycliffe (1324-1384).

_Prose_ (_Father of Greek_), Herodotus (B.C. 484-408).

_Prose_ (_Father of Italian_), Boccaccio (1313-1375).

=Pros´erpine= (3 _syl._), called _Proserpĭna_ in Latin, and “Proser´pin” by Milton, was daughter of Ce´rês. She went to the field of Enna to amuse herself by gathering asphodels, and being tired, fell asleep. Dis, the god of Hell, then carried her off, and made her queen of the infernal reions.[TN-107] Cerês wandered for nine days over the world disconsolate, looking for her daughter, when Hec´ate (2 _syl._) told her she had heard the girl’s cries, but knew not who had carried her off. Both now went to Olympus, when the sun-god told them the true state of the case.

N.B.--This is an allegory of seed-corn.

Not that fair field Of Enna, where Proser´pin, gathering flowers, Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis Was gathered--which cost Cerês all that pain To seek her thro’ the world.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, iv. 268 (1665).

=Prosperity Robinson=, Frederick Robinson, afterwards Viscount Goderich and earl of Ripon, chancellor of the exchequer in 1823. So called by Cobbett, from his boasting about the prosperity of the country just a little before the great commercial crisis of 1825.

=Pros´pero=, the banished duke of Milan, and father of Miranda. He was deposed by his brother, Antonio, who sent him to sea with Miranda in a “rotten carcass of a boat,” which was borne to a desert island. Here Prospero practised magic. He liberated Ariel from the rift of a pine tree, where the witch Syc´orax had confined him for twelve years, and was served by that bright spirit with true gratitude. The only other inhabitant of the island was Calĭban, the witch’s “welp.” After a residence in the island of sixteen years, Prospero raised a tempest by magic to cause the shipwreck of the usurping duke and of Ferdinand, his brother’s son. Ferdinand fell in love with his cousin, Miranda, and eventually married her.--Shakespeare, _The Tempest_ (1609).

Still they kept limping to and fro, Like Ariels round old Prospero, Saying, “Dear master, let us go.” But still the old man answered, “No!”

T. Moore, _A Vision_.

=Pross= (_Miss_), a red-haired, ungainly creature, who lived with Lucie Manette, and dearly loved her. Miss Pross, although eccentric, was most faithful and unselfish.

Her character (dissociated from stature) was shortness.... It was characteristic of this lady that whenever her original proposition was questioned, she exaggerated it.--C. Dickens, _A Tale of Two Cities_, ii. 6 (1859).

=Proterius= of Cappadōcia, father of Cyra. (See SINNER SAVED.)

=Protesila´os=, husband of Laodamīa. Being slain at the siege of Troy, the dead body was sent home to his wife, who prayed that she might talk with him again, if only for three hours. Her prayer was granted, but when Protesilāos returned to death, Laodamia died also.--_Greek Mythology._

In Fénelon’s _Télémaque_ “Protésilaos” is meant for Louvois, the French minister of state.

=Protestant Duke= (_The_), James, duke of Monmouth, a love-child of Charles II. So called because he renounced the Roman faith, in which he had been brought up, and became a Protestant (1619-1685).

=Protestant Pope= (_The_), Gian Vincenzo Ganganelli, Pope Clement XIV. So called from his enlightened policy, and for his bull suppressing the Jesuits (1705, 1769-1774).

=Proteus= [_Pro-tuce_], a sea-god who resided in the Carpathian Sea. He had the power of changing his form at will. Being a prophet also, Milton calls him “the Carpathian wizard.”--_Greek Mythology._

By hoary Nereus’ wrinkled look, And the Carpathian wizard’s hook [_or trident_].

Milton, _Comus_ (1634).

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

Aristogīton, from being dipped in the Achelōus (4 _syl._), received the power of changing his form at will.--Fénelon, _Télémaque_, xx. (1700).

The genii, both good and bad, of Eastern mythology, had the power of changing their form instantaneously. This is powerfully illustrated by the combat between the queen of Beauty and the son of Eblis. The genius first appeared as an enormous lion, but the queen of Beauty plucked out a hair which became a scythe, with which she cut the lion in pieces. The head of the lion now became a scorpion, and the princess changed herself into a serpent; but the scorpion instantly made itself an eagle, and went in pursuit of the serpent. The serpent, however, being vigilant, assumed the form of a white cat; the eagle in an instant changed to a wolf, and the cat, being hard pressed, changed into a worm; the wolf changed to a cock, and ran to pick up the worm, which, however, became a fish before the cock could pick it up. Not to be outwitted, the cock transformed itself into a pike to devour the fish, but the fish changed into a fire, and the son of Eblis was burnt to ashes before he could make another change.--_Arabian Nights_ (“The Second Calender”).

_Proteus_ or _Protheus_, one of the two gentlemen of Verona. He is in love with Julia. His servant is Launce, and his father Anthonio or Antonio. The other gentleman is called Valentine, and his lady love is Silvia.--Shakespeare, _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_ (1594).

Shakespeare calls the word _Pro-tĕ-us_. Malone, Dr. Johnson, etc., retain the _h_ in both names, but the Globe edition omits them.

=Protevangelon= (“_first evangelist_”), a gospel falsely attributed to St. James the Less, first bishop of Jerusalem, noted for its minute details of the Virgin and Jesus Christ. Said to be the production of L. Carīnus, of the second century.

First of all we shall rehearse ... The nativity of our Lord, As written in the old record Of the _Protevangelon_.

Longfellow, _The Golden Legend_ (1851).

=Protocol= (_Mr. Peter_), the attorney in Edinburgh, employed by Mrs. Margaret Bertram, of Singleside.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

=Protosebastos= (_The_), or SEBASTOCRATOR, the highest State officer in Greece.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).

=Protospathaire= (_The_), or general of Alexius Comnēnus, emperor of Greece. His name is Nicanor.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).

=Proud= (_The_). Tarquin II. of Rome, was called _Superbus_ (reigned B.C. 535-510, died 496).

Otho IV., kaiser of Germany, was called “The Proud” (1175, 1209-1218).

=Proud Duke= (_The_), Charles Seymour, duke of Somerset. His children were not allowed to sit in his presence; and he spoke to his servants by signs only (*-1748).

=Proudfute= (_Oliver_), the boasting bonnet-maker at Perth.

_Magdalen_ or _Maudie Proudfute_, Oliver’s widow.--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

=Proudie= (_Dr._), hen-pecked bishop of Barchester. A martinet in his diocese, a serf in his home.

_Proudie_ (_Mrs._), strong-willed, strong-voiced help-mate of the bishop. She lays down social, moral, religious and ecclesiastical laws with equal readiness and severity.--Anthony Trollope, _Framley Parsonage_ and _Barchester Towers_.

=Prout= (_Father_), the pseudonym of Francis Mahoney, a humorous writer in _Fraser’s Magazine_, etc. (1805-1866).

=Provis=, the name assumed by Abel Magwitch, Pip’s benefactor. He was a convict, who had made a fortune, and whose chief desire was to make his protegé[TN-108] a gentleman.--C. Dickens, _Great Expectations_ (1860).

=Provoked Husband= (_The_), a comedy by Cibber and Vanbrugh. The “provoked husband” is Lord Townly, justly annoyed at the conduct of his young wife, who wholly neglects her husband and her home duties for a life of gambling and dissipation. The husband seeing no hope of amendment, resolves on a separate maintenance; but then the lady’s eyes are opened--she promises amendment, and is forgiven[TN-109]

⁂ This comedy was Vanbrugh’s _Journey to London_, left unfinished at his death. Cibber took it, completed it, and brought it out under the title of _The Provoked Husband_ (1728).

=Provoked Wife= (_The_), Lady Brute, the wife of Sir John Brute, is, by his ill manners, brutality, and neglect, “provoked” to intrigue with one Constant. The intrigue is not of a very serious nature, since it is always interrupted before it makes head. At the conclusion, Sir John says:

Surly, I may be stubborn, I am not, For I have both forgiven and forgot.

Sir J. Vanbrugh (1697).

=Provost of Bruges= (_The_), a tragedy based on “The Serf,” in Leitch Ritchie’s _Romance of History_. Published anonymously in 1836; the author is S. Knowles. The plot is this: Charles “the Good,” earl of Flanders, made a law that a serf is always a serf till manumitted, and whoever marries a serf, becomes thereby a serf. Thus, if a prince married the daughter of a serf, the prince becomes a serf himself, and all his children were serfs. Bertulphe, the richest, wisest, and bravest man in Flanders, was provost of Bruges. His beautiful daughter, Constance, married Sir Bouchard, a knight of noble descent; but Bertulphe’s father had been Thancmar’s serf, and, according to the new law, Bertulphe, the provost, his daughter, Constance, and the knightly son-in-law were all the serfs of Thancmar. The provost killed the earl, and stabbed himself; Bouchard and Thancmar killed each other in fight; and Constance died demented.

=Prowler= (_Hugh_), any vagrant or highwayman.

For fear of Hugh Prowler, get home with the rest.

T. Tusser, _Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry_, xxxiii. 25 (1557).

=Prudence= (_Mistress_), the lady attendant on Violet, ward of Lady Arundel. When Norman, “the sea-captain,” made love to Violet, Mistress Prudence remonstrated, “What will the countess say if I allow myself to see a stranger speaking to her ward?” Norman clapped a guinea on her left eye, and asked, “What see you now?” “Why, nothing with my left eye,” she answered, “but the right has still a morbid sensibility.” “Poor thing!” said Norman; “this golden ointment soon will cure it. What see you now, my Prudence?” “Not a soul,” she said.--Lord Lytton, _The Sea-Captain_ (1839).

=Prudhomme= (_Joseph_), “pupil of Brard and Saint-Omer,” caligraphist[TN-110] and sworn expert in the courts of law. Joseph Prudhomme is the synthesis of bourgeois imbecility; radiant, serene, and self-satisfied; letting fall from his fat lips “one weak, washy, everlasting flood” of puerile aphorisms and inane circumlocutions. He says, “The car of the state floats on a precipice.” “This sword is the proudest day of my life.”--Henri Monnier, _Grandeur et Décadence de Joseph Prudhomme_ (1852).

=Pruddoterie= (_Madame de la_). Character in comedy of _George Dandin_, by Molière.

=Prue= (_Miss_), a schoolgirl still under the charge of a nurse, very precocious and very injudiciously brought up. Miss Prue is the daughter of Mr. Foresight, a mad astrologer, and Mrs. Foresight, a frail nonentity.--Congreve, _Love for Love_ (1695).

_Prue._ Wife of “I”; a dreamer. “Prue makes everything think well, even to making the neighbors speak well of her.”

Of himself Prue’s husband says:

“How queer that a man who owns castles in Spain should be deputy book-keeper at $900 per annum!”--George William Curtis, _Prue and I_ (1856).

=Prunes and Prisms=, the words which give the lips the right plie of the highly aristocratic mouth, as Mrs. General tells Amy Dorrit.

“’Papa’ gives a pretty form to the lips. ‘Papa,’ ‘potatoes,’ ‘poultry,’ ‘prunes and prisms.’ You will find it serviceable if you say to yourself on entering a room, ‘Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prisms.’”--C. Dickens, _Little Dorrit_ (1855).

General Burgoyne, in _The Heiress_, makes Lady Emily tell Miss Alscrip that the magic words are “nimini pimini;” and that if she will stand before her mirror and pronounce these words repeatedly, she cannot fail to give her lips that happy plie which is known as the “Paphian mimp.”--_The Heiress_, iii. 2 (1781).

=Pru´sio=, king of Alvarecchia, slain by Zerbi´no.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

=Pry= (_Paul_), one of those idle, meddling fellows, who, having no employment of their own, are perpetually interfering in the affairs of other people.--John Poole, _Paul Pry_.

=Prydwen= or PRIDWIN (_q.v._), called in the _Mabinogion_, the ship of King Arthur. It was also the name of his shield. Taliessin speaks of it as a ship, and Robert of Gloucester as a shield.

Hys sseld that het Prydwen. Myd ye suerd he was ygurd, that so strong was and kene; Calybourne yt was ycluped, nas nour no such ye wene. In ys right hond ys lance he nom, that ycluped was Ron.

I. 174.

=Prynne= (_Hester_). Handsome, haughty gentlewoman of English birth, married to a deformed scholar, whom she does not love. She comes alone to Boston, meets Arthur Dimmesdale, a young clergyman, and becomes his wife in all except in name. When her child is born she is condemned to stand in the pillory, holding it in her arms, to be reprimanded by officials, civic and clerical, and to wear, henceforward, upon her breast, the letter “A” in scarlet. Her fate is more enviable than that of her undiscovered lover, whose vacillations of dread and despair and determination to reveal all but move Hester to deeper pity and stronger love. She is beside him when he dies in the effort to bare his bosom and show the cancerous _Scarlet Letter_ that has grown into his flesh while she wore hers outwardly.--Nathaniel Hawthorne, _The Scarlet Letter_ (1850).

=Psalmist= (_The_). King David is called “The Sweet Psalmist of Israel” (2 _Sam._ xxiii. 1). In the compilation called _Psalms_, in the Old Testament, seventy-three bear the name of David, twelve were composed by Asaph, eleven by the sons of Korah, and one (_Psalm_ xc.) by Moses.

=Psycarpax= (_i. e._ “_granary-thief_”), son of Troxartas, king of the mice. The frog king offered to carry the young Psycarpax over a lake; but a water-hydra made its appearance, and the frog-king, to save himself, dived under water, whereby the mouse prince lost his life. This catastrophe brought about the fatal _Battle of the Frogs and Mice_. Translated from the Greek into English verse by Parnell (1679-1717).

=Psyche= [_Si´.ke_], a most beautiful maiden, with whom Cupid fell in love. The god told her she was never to seek to know who he was; but Psychê could not resist the curiosity of looking at him as he lay sleep. A drop of the hot oil from Psychê’s lamp falling on the love-god, woke him, and he instantly took to flight. Psychê now wandered from place to place, persecuted by Venus; but after enduring ineffable troubles, Cupid came at last to her rescue, married her, and bestowed on her immortality.

This exquisite allegory is from the _Golden Ass_ of Apulēios. Lafontaine has turned it into French verse. M. Laprade (born 1812) has rendered it into French most exquisitely. The English version, by Mrs. Tighe, in six cantos, is simply unreadable.

=Pternog´lyphus= (“_bacon-scooper_”), one of the mouse chieftains.--Parnell, _Battle of the Frogs and Mice_, iii. (about 1712).

=Pternoph´agus= (“_bacon-eater_”), one of the mouse chieftains.

But dire Pternophagus divides his way Thro’ breaking ranks, and leads the dreadful day. No nibbling prince excelled in fierceness more,-- His parents fed him on the savage boar.

Parnell, _Battle of the Frogs and Mice_, iii. (about 1712).

=Pternotractas= (“_bacon-gnawer_”), father of “the meal-licker,” Lycomĭlê (wife of Troxartas, “the bread-eater”). Psycarpas, the king of the mice, was son of Lycomĭlê, and grandson of Pternotractas.--Parnell, _Battle of the Frogs and Mice_, i. (about 1712).

=Public Good= (_The League of the_), a league between the dukes of Burgundy, Brittany, and other French princes against Louis XI.

=Public´ola=, of the _Despatch Newspaper_, was the _nom de plume_ of Mr. Williams, a vigorous political writer.

=Publius=, the surviving son of Horatius after the combat between the three Horatian brothers against the three Curiatii of Alba. He entertained the Roman notion that “a patriot’s soul can feel no ties but duty, and know no voice of kindred” if it conflicts with his country’s weal. His sister was engaged to Caius Curiatius, one of the three Alban champions; and when she reproved him for “murdering” her betrothed, he slew her, for he loved Rome more than he loved friend, sister, brother, or the sacred name of father.--Whitehead, _The Roman Father_ (1714).

=Pucel.= _La bel Pucel_ lived in the tower of “Musyke.” Graunde Amoure, sent thither by Fame to be instructed by the seven ladies of science, fell in love with her, and ultimately married her. After his death, Remembrance wrote his “epitaphy on his graue.”--S. Hawes, _The Passe-tyme of Pleasure_ (1506, printed 1515).

=Pucelle= (_La_), a surname given to Joan of Arc, the “Maid of Orleans” (1410-1431).

=Puck=, generally called Hobgoblin. Same as Robin Goodfellow. Shakespeare, in _Midsummer Night’s Dream_, represents him as “a very Shetlander among the gossamer-winged, dainty-limbed fairies, strong enough to knock all their heads together, a rough, knurly-limbed, fawn-faced, shock-pated, mischievous little urchin.”

He [_Oberon_] meeteth Puck, which most men call Hobgoblin, and on him doth fall, With words from phrenzy spoken. “Hoh! hoh!” quoth Hob; “God save your grace....”

Drayton, _Nymphidia_ (1593).

=Pudding= (_Jack_), a gormandizing clown. In French he is called _Jean Potage_; in Dutch, _Pickle-Herringe_; in Italian, _Macarōni_; in German, _John Sausage_ (Hanswurst).

=Puff=, servant of Captain Loveit, and husband of Tag, of whom he stands in awe.--D. Garrick, _Miss in Her Teens_ (1753).

_Puff_ (_Mr._), a man who had tried his hand on everything to get a living, and at last resorts to criticism. He says of himself, “I am a practitioner in panegyric, or to speak more plainly, a professor of the art of puffing.”

“I open,” says Puff, “with a clock striking, to beget an awful attention in the audience; it also marks the time, which is four o’clock in the morning, and saves a description of the rising sun, and a great deal about gilding the eastern hemisphere.”--Sheridan, _The Critic_, i. 1 (1779).

“God forbid,” says Mr. Puff, “that in a free country, all the fine words in the language should be engrossed by the highest characters of the piece.”--Sir W. Scott, _The Drama_.

_Puff_, publisher. He says:

“Panegyric and praise! and what will that do with the public? Why, who will give money to be told that Mr. Such-a-one is a wiser and better man than himself? No, no! ’tis quite, and clean out of nature. A good, sousing satire, now, well powdered with personal pepper, and seasoned with the spirit of party, that demolishes a conspicuous character, and sinks him below our own level--there, there, we are pleased; there we chuckle and grin, and toss the half-crowns on the counter.”--Foote, _The Patron_ (1764).

=Pug=, a mischievous little goblin, called “Puck” by Shakespeare.--B. Jonson, _The Devil is an Ass_ (1616).

=Puggie-Orrock=, a sheriff’s officer at Fairport.--Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

=Pul´ci= (_L._), poet of Florence (1432-1487), author of the heroï-comic poem called _Morgantê Maggiorê_, a mixture of the bizarre, the serious, and the comic, in ridicule of the romances of chivalry. This _Don Juan_ class of poetry has since been called _Bernesque_, from Francesco Berni, of Tuscany, who greatly excelled in it.

Pulci was sire of the half-serious rhyme, Who sang when chivalry was more quixotic, And revelled in the fancies of the time, True knights, chaste dames, huge giants, kings despotic.

Byron, _Don Juan_, iv. 6 (1820).

=Pulia´no=, leader of the Nasamo´ni. He was slain by Rinaldo.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

=Pumblechook=, uncle to Joe Gargery, the blacksmith. He was a well-to-do corn-chandler, and drove his own chaise-cart. A hard-breathing, middle-aged, slow man was uncle Pumblechook, with fishy eyes and sandy hair, inquisitively on end. He called Pip, in his facetious way, “six-pen’orth of h’pence;” but when Pip came into his fortune, Mr. Pumblechook was the most servile of the servile, and ended every sentence with, “May I, Mr. Pip?” _i.e_,[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.

Swift, _Elegy, etc._

READ (_Sir William_), a tailor, who set up for oculist, and was knighted by Queen Anne. This quack was employed both by Queen Anne and George I. Sir William could not read. He professed to cure wens, wry-necks and hare-lips (died 1715).

... none their honors shall to merit owe-- That popish doctrine is exploded quite, Or Ralph had been no duke, and Read no knight; That none may virtue or their learning plead, This hath no _grace_, and that can hardly _read_.

_A Political Squib of the Period._

⁂ The “Ralph” referred to is Ralph Montagu, son of Edward Montagu, created viscount in 1682, and duke of Montagu in 1705 (died 1709).

ROCK (_Dr. Richard_), professed to cure every disease, at any stage thereof. According to his bills, “Be your disorder never so far gone, I can cure you.” He was short in stature and fat, always wore a white, three-tailed wig, nicely combed and frizzed upon each cheek, carried a cane, and waddled in his gait (eighteenth century).

Dr. Rock, F.U.N., never wore a hat. He is usually drawn at the top of his own bills sitting in an armchair, holding a little bottle between his finger and thumb, and surrounded with rotten teeth, nippers, pills and gallipots.--Goldsmith, _A Citizen of the World_, lxviii. (1759).

SMITH (_Dr._), who went about the country in the eighteenth century in his coach with four outriders. He dressed in black velvet, and cured any disease for sixpence. “His amusements on the stage were well worth the sixpence which he charged for his box of pills.”

As I was sitting at the George Inn I saw a coach, with six bay horses, a calash and four, a chaise and four, enter the inn, in yellow livery turned up with red; and four gentlemen on horseback, in blue trimmed with silver. As yellow is the color given by the dukes in England, I went out to see what duke it was, but there was no coronet on the coach, only a plain coat-of-arms, with the motto ARGENTO LABORAT FABER [_Smith works for money_]. Upon inquiry I found this grand equipage belonged to a mountebank named Smith.--_A Tour through England_ (1723).

SOLOMON (_Dr._), eighteenth century. His “anti-impetigines” was simply a solution of _bichloride of mercury_, colored.

TAYLOR (_Dr. Chevalier John_). He called himself “Opthalminator, Pontificial, Imperial, and Royal.” It is said that five of his horses were blind from experiments tried by him on their eyes (died 1767).

⁂ Hogarth has introduced Dr. Taylor in his “Undertakers’ Arms.” He is one of the three figures at the top, to the left hand of the spectator.

UNBORN DOCTOR (_The_), of Moorfields. Not being born a doctor, he called himself “The Un-born Doctor.”

WALKER (_Dr._), one of the three great quacks of the eighteenth century, the others being Dr. Rock and Dr. Timothy Franks. Dr. Walker had an abhorrence of quacks, and was for ever cautioning the public not to trust them, but come at once to him, adding, “there is not such another medicine in the world as mine.”

Not for himself but for his country he prepares his gallipot, and seals up his precious drops for any country or any town, so great is his zeal and philanthropy.--Goldsmith, _A Citizen of the World_, lxviii. (1759).

WARD (_Dr._), a footman, famous for his “friars’ balsam.” He was called in to prescribe for George II., and died 1761. Dr. Ward had a claret stain on his left cheek, and in Hogarth’s famous picture, “The Undertakers’ Arms,” the cheek is marked gules. He occupies the right hand side of the spectator, and forms one of the triumvirate, the others being Dr. Taylor and Mrs. Mapp.

Dr. Kirlëus and Dr. Tom Saffold are also known names.

=Quackleben= (_Dr. Quentin_), “the man of medicine,” one of the committee at the Spa.--Sir W. Scott, _St. Ronan’s Well_ (time, George III.).

=Quaint= (_Timothy_), servant of Governor Heartall. Timothy is “an odd fish, that loves to swim in troubled waters.” He says, “I never laugh at the governor’s good humors, nor frown at his infirmities. I always keep a steady, sober phiz, fixed as the gentleman’s on horseback at Charing Cross; and, in his worst of humors, when all is fire and faggots with him, if I turn round and coolly say, ‘Lord, sir, has anything ruffled you?’ he’ll burst out into an immoderate fit of laughter, and exclaim, ‘Curse that inflexible face of thine! Though you never suffer a smile to mantle on it, it is a figure of fun to the rest of the world.”--Cherry, _The Soldier’s Daughter_ (1804).

=Quaker Poet= (_The_), Bernard Barton (1784-1849).

=Quaker Widow.= Gentle old dame who, on the afternoon of her husband’s funeral, tells to a kindly visitor the simple story of her blameless life, its joys and sorrows, and of the light that comes at eventide.

“It is not right to wish for death; The Lord disposes best. His spirit comes to quiet hearts And fits them for His rest. And that He halved our little flock Was merciful, I see; For Benjamin has two in Heaven, And two are left with me.”

Bayard Taylor, _The Quaker Widow_.

=Quale= (_Mr._), a philanthropist, noted for his bald, shining forehead. Mrs. Jellyby hopes her daughter, Caddy, will become Quale’s wife.--Charles Dickens, _Bleak House_ (1853).

=Quarl= (_Philip_), a sort of Robinson Crusoe, who had a chimpanzee for his “man Friday.” The story consists of the adventures and sufferings of an English hermit named Philip Quarl (1727).

=Quasimo´do=, a foundling, hideously deformed, but of enormous muscular strength, adopted by Archdeacon Frollo. He is brought up in the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. One day, he sees Esmeralda, who had been dancing in the cathedral close, set upon by a mob as a witch, and he conceals her for a time in the church. When, at length, the beautiful gypsy girl is gibbeted, Quasimodo disappears mysteriously, but a skeleton corresponding to the deformed figure is found after a time in a hole under the gibbet.--Victor Hugo, _Notre Dame de Paris_ (1831).

=Quatre Filz Aymon= (_Les_), the four sons of the duke of Dordona (_Dordogne_). Their names are Rinaldo, Guicciardo, Alardo, and Ricciardetto (_i.e._ Renaud, Guiscard, Alard, and Richard), and their adventures form the subject of an old French romance by Huon de Villeneuve (twelfth century).

=Quaver=, a singing-master, who says “if it were not for singing-masters, men and women might as well have been born dumb.” He courts Lucy by promising to give her singing lessons.--Fielding, _The Virgin Unmasked_.

=Queechy.= Farmstead to which the Rossiters retired after the ruin of their fortunes in New York. Old-fashioned house and not productive land.--Susan Warner, _Queechy_ (1852).

=Queen= (_The Starred Ethiop_), Cassiopēia, wife of Cepheus (2 _syl._), king of Ethiopia. She boasted that she was fairer than the sea-nymphs, and the offended nereids complained of the insult to Neptune, who sent a sea-monster to ravage Ethiopia. At death, Cassiopeia was made a constellation of thirteen stars.

... that starred Ethiop queen that strove To set her beauty’s praise above The sea-nymphs, and their powers offended.

Milton, _Il Penseroso_, 19 (1638).

_Queen_ (_The White_), Mary queen of Scots, _La Reine Blanche_; so called by the French, because she dressed in white as mourning for her husband.

=Queen Dick=, Richard Cromwell (1626, 1658-1660, died 1712).

⁂ _It happened in the reign of Queen Dick_, never, on the Greek kalends. This does not refer to Richard Cromwell, but to Queen “Outis.” There never was a Queen Dick, except by way of joke.

=Queen Sarah=, Sarah Jennings, duchess of Marlborough (1660-1744).

Queen Anne only reigned while Queen Sarah governed.--_Temple Bar_, 208.

=Queen Square Hermit=, Jeremy Bentham, 1 Queen Square, London (1748-1832).

=Queen of Hearts=, Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James I., the unfortunate queen of Bohemia (1596-1662).

=Queen of Heaven=, Ashtoreth (“the moon”). Horace calls the moon “the two-horned queen of the stars.”

Some speak of the Virgin Mary as “the queen of heaven.”

=Queen of Queens.= Cleopatra was so called by Mark Antony (B.C. 69-30).

=Queen of Song=, Angelica Catala´ni; also called “the Italian Nightingale” (1782-1849).

=Queen of Sorrow=, the marble tomb at Delhi called the Taj-Mahul, built by Shah Jehan for his wife, Moomtaz-i-Mahul.

=Queen of Tears=, Mary of Mo´dena, second wife of James II. of England (1658-1718).

Her eyes became eternal fountains of sorrow for that crown her own ill policy contributed to lose.--Noble, _Memoirs, etc._ (1784).

=Queen of the East=, Zenobia, queen of Palmy´ra (*, 266-273).

=Queen of the South=, Maqueda, or Balkis, queen of Sheba, or Saba.

The queen of the south ... came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.--_Matt._ xii. 42; see also 1 _Kings_ x. 1.

⁂ According to tradition, the queen of the south had a son by Solomon, named Melech, who reigned in Ethiopia or Abyssinia, and added to his name the words Belul Gian (“precious stone”), alluding to a ring given to him by Solomon. Belul Gian translated into Latin, became _pretiosus Joannes_, which got corrupted into Prester John (_presbyter Johannes_), and has given rise to the fables of this “mythical king of Ethiopia.”

=Queen of the Swords.= Minna Troil was so called, because the gentlemen, formed into two lines, held their swords so as to form an arch or roof under which Minna led the ladies of the party.--Sir W. Scott, _The Pirate_ (time, William III.).

⁂ In 1877, W. Q. Orchardson, R. A., exhibited a picture in illustration of this incident.

=Queen= (_My_).

But thou thyself shall not come down From that pure region far above, But keep thy throne and wear thy crown, Queen of my heart and queen of love! A monarch in thy realm complete, And I a monarch--at thy feet!

William Winter, _Wanderers_ (1889).

=Queens= (_Four Daughters_). Raymond Ber´enger, count of Provence, had four daughters, all of whom married kings; Margaret married Louis IX. of France; Eleanor married Henry III. of England; Sancha married Henry’s brother, Richard, king of the Romans; and Beatrice married Charles I. of Naples and Sicily.

Four daughters were there born To Raymond Ber´enger, and every one Became a queen.

Dantê, _Paradise_, vi. (1311).

=Quentin= (_Black_), groom of Sir John Ramorny.--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

=Quentin Durward=, a novel by Sir W. Scott (1823). A story of French history. The delineations of Louis XI., and Charles the Bold, of Burgundy, will stand comparison with any in the whole range of fiction or history.

=Quern-Biter=, the sword of Haco I. of Norway.

Quern-biter of Hacon the Good Wherewith at a stroke he hewed The millstone thro’ and thro’.

Longfellow.

=Querno= (_Camillo_), of Apulia, was introduced to Pope Leo X., as a buffoon, but was promoted to the laurel. This laureate was called the “Antichrist of Wit.”

Rome in her capitol saw Querno sit, Throned on seven hills, the antichrist of wit.

Pope, _The Dunciad_, ii. (1728).

=Querpo= (_Shrill_), in Garth’s _Dispensary_, is meant for Dr. Howe.

To this design shrill Querpo did agree, A zealous member of the faculty, His sire’s pretended pious steps he treads, And where the doctor fails, the saint succeeds.

_Dispensary_, iv. (1699).

=Questing Beast= (_The_), a monster called Glatisaunt, that made a noise called questing, “like thirty couple of hounds giving quest” or cry. King Pellinore (3 _syl._) followed the beast for twelve months (pt. i. 17), and after his death Sir Palomidês gave it chase.

The questing beast had in shape and head like a serpent’s head, and a body like a libard, buttocks like a lion, and footed like a hart; and in his body there was such a noise as it had been the noise of thirty couple of hounds questing, and such a noise that beast made wheresoever he went; and this beast evermore Sir Palomides followed.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 17; ii. 53 (1470).

=Quiara and Mon´nema=, man and wife, the only persons who escaped the ravages of the small-pox plague which carried off all the rest of the Guara´ni race, in Paraguay. They left the fatal spot, settled in the Mondai woods, had one son, Yerūti, and one daughter, Mooma; but Quiāra was killed by a jagŭar before the latter was born.--Southey, _A Tale of Paraguay_ (1814). (See MONNEMA[TN-113] and MOOMA.)

=Quick= (_Abel_), clerk to Surplus, the lawyer.--J. M. Morton, _A Regular Fix_.

_Quick_ (_John_), called “The Retired Diocletian of Islington” (1748-1831).

Little Quick, the retired Diocletian of Islington, with his squeak like a Bart’lemew fiddle.--Charles Mathews.

=Quickly= (_Mistress_), servant-of-all-work, to Dr. Caius, a French physician. She says, “I wash, wring, brew, bake, scour, dress meat and drink, make the beds, and do all myself.” She is the go-between of three suitors for “sweet Anne Page,” and with perfect disinterestedness wishes all three to succeed, and does her best to forward the suit of all three, “but speciously of Master Fenton.”--Shakespeare, _Merry Wives of Windsor_ (1601).

_Quickly_ (_Mistress Nell_), a hostess of a tavern in East-cheap, frequented by Harry, prince of Wales, Sir John Falstaff, and all their disreputable crew. In _Henry V._ Mistress Quickly is represented as having married Pistol, the “lieutenant of Captain Sir John’s army.” All three die before the end of the play. Her description of Sir John Falstaff’s death (_Henry V._ act ii. sc. 3) is very graphic and true to nature. In 2 _Henry IV._ Mistress Quickly arrests Sir John for debt, but immediately she hears of his commission is quite willing to dismiss the bailiffs, and trust “the honey sweet” old knight again to any amount.--Shakespeare, 1 and 2 _Henry IV._ and _Henry V._

=Quid= (_Mr._), the tobacconist, a relative of Mrs. Margaret Bertram.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

=Quid Rides=, the motto of Jacob Brandon, tobacco-broker, who lived at the close of the eighteenth century. It was suggested by Harry Calendon of Lloyd’s coffee-house.

⁂ _Quid Ridês_ (Latin) means “Why do you laugh?” _Quid rides_, _i.e._ “the tobacconist rides.”

=Quidnunc= (_Abraham_), of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, an upholsterer by trade, but bankrupt. His head “runs only on schemes for paying off the National Debt, the balance of power, the affairs of Europe, and the political news of the day.”

⁂ The prototype of this town politician was the father of Dr. Arne (see _The Tatler_, No. 155).

_Harriet Quidnunc_, his daughter, rescued by Belmour from the flames of a burning house, and adored by him.

_John Quidnunc_, under the assumed name of Rovewell, having married a rich planter’s widow, returns to England, pays his father’s debts, and gives his sister to Mr. Belmour for wife.--Murphy, _The Upholsterer_ (1758).

=Quidnuncs=, a name given to the ancient members of certain political clubs, who were constantly inquiring, “Quidnunc? What news?”

This the Great Mother dearer held than all The clubs of Quidnuncs, or her own Guildhall.

Pope, _The Dunciad_, i. 269 (1728).

=Quidnunkis=, a monkey which climbed higher than its neighbors, and fell into a river. For a few moments the monkey-race stood panic-struck, but the stream flowed on, and in a minute or two the monkeys continued their gambols as if nothing had happened.--Gay, _The Quidnunkis_ (a fable, 1726).

=Quildrive= (2 _syl._), clerk to old Philpot “the citizen.”--Murphy, _The Citizen_ (1761).

=Quilp= (_Daniel_), a hideous dwarf, cunning, malicious, and a perfect master in tormenting. Of hard, forbidding features, with head and face large enough for a giant. His black eyes were restless, sly, and cunning; his mouth and chin bristly with a coarse, hard beard; his face never clean, but always distorted with a ghastly grin, which showed the few discolored fangs that supplied the place of teeth. His dress consisted of a large high-crowned hat, a worn-out dark suit, a pair of most capacious shoes, and a huge crumpled dirty white neck-cloth. Such hair as he had was a grizzled black, cut short but hanging about his ears in fringes. His hands were coarse and dirty; his fingernails crooked, long, and yellow. He lived on Tower Hill, collected rents, advanced money to seamen, and kept a sort of wharf, containing rusty anchors, huge iron rings, piles of rotten wood, and sheets of old copper, calling himself a ship-breaker. He was on the point of being arrested for felony, when he drowned himself.

He ate hard eggs, shell and all, for his breakfast, devoured gigantic prawns with their heads and tails on, chewed tobacco and water-cresses at the same time, drank scalding hot tea without winking, bit his fork and spoon till they bent again, and performed so many horrifying acts, that one might doubt if he were indeed human.--Ch. v.

_Mrs. Quilp_ (_Betsy_), wife of the dwarf, a loving, young, timid, obedient, and pretty blue-eyed little woman, treated like a dog by her diabolical husband, whom she really loved but more greatly feared.--C. Dickens, _The Old Curiosity Shop_ (1840).

=Quinnailon= (_Father_). Benevolent priest in Xerxes, a Western town. He succors the suffering of whatever creed and conditions, and shares his little all with the needy. When appointed bishop, he goes to Rome to beg for permission to decline the honor.

“I will fall at the feet of the Holy Father, and beseech him not to make a bishop out of a poor, simple old man who cannot bear so great a burden; but to let me come back and die among my dear people!”--Octave Thanet, _Quilters in the Sun_ (1877).

=Quinap´alus=, the Mrs. Harris of “authorities in citations.” If any one quotes from an hypothetical author, he gives Quinapalus as his authority.

What says Quinapalus: “Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.”--Shakespeare, _Twelfth Night_, act.[TN-114] i. sc. 5 (1614).

=Quinbus Flestrin= (_the “man-mountain”_). So the Lilliputians called Gulliver (ch. ii.).--Swift, _Gulliver’s Travels_ (“Voyage to Lilliput,” 1726).

=Quince= (_Peter_), a carpenter, who undertakes the management of the play called “Pyramus and Thisbê,” in _Midsummer Night’s Dream_. He speaks of “laughable tragedy,” “lamentable comedy,” “tragical mirth,” and so on.--Shakespeare, _Midsummer Night’s Dream_ (1592).

=Quino´nes= (_Suero de_), in the reign of Juan II. He, with nine other cavaliers, held the bridge of Orbigo against all comers for thirty-six days, and in that time they overthrew seventy-eight knights of Spain and France.

=Quintano´na=, the duenna of Queen Guinever or Ginebra.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. ii. 6 (1615).

=Quintessence= (_Queen_), sovereign of Entéléchie, the country of speculative science visited by Pantag´ruel and his companions in their search for “the oracle of the Holy Bottle.”--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, v. 19 (1545).

=Quin´tiquinies´tra= (_Queen_), a much-dreaded, fighting giantess. It was one of the romances of Don Quixote’s library condemned by the priest and barber of the village to be burnt.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. (1605).

=Quintus Fixlein= [_Fix.line_], the title and chief character of a romance by Jean Paul Friedrich Richter (1796).

Francia, like Quintus Fixlein, had perennial fireproof joys, namely, employments.--Carlyle.

=Quiri´nus=, Mars.

Now, by our sire Quirīnus, It was a goodly sight To see the thirty standards Swept down the stream of flight.

Lord Macaulay, _Lays of Ancient Rome_ (“Battle of the Lake Regillus,” xxxvi., 1842).

=Quitam= (_Mr._), the lawyer at the Black Bear inn at Darlington.--Sir W. Scott, _Rob Roy_ (time, George I.).

⁂ The first two words in an action on a penal statute are _Qui tam_. Thus, _Qui tam pro domina regina, quam pro seipso, sequitur_.

=Quixa´da= (_Gutierre_), lord of Villagarcia. Don Quixote calls himself a descendant of this brave knight.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. (1605).

=Quixote= (_Don_), a gaunt country gentleman of La Mancha, about 50 years of age, gentle, and dignified, learned and high-minded; with strong imagination perverted by romance, and crazed with ideas of chivalry. He is the hero of a Spanish romance by Cervantes. Don Quixote feels himself called on to become a knight-errant to defend the oppressed, and succor the injured. He engages for his squire Sancho Panza, a middle-aged, ignorant rustic, selfish, but full of good sense, a gourmand, attached to his master, shrewd and credulous. The knight goes forth on his adventures, thinks _wind-mills_ to be giants, _flocks of sheep_ to be armies, _inns_ to be castles, and _galley-slaves_ oppressed gentlemen; but the squire sees them in their true light. Ultimately, the knight is restored to his right mind, and dies like a peaceful Christian. The object of this romance was to laugh down the romances of chivalry of the Middle Ages.

(Quixote means “armor for the thighs,” but Quixada means “lantern jaws.” Don Quixote’s favorite author was Feliciano de Sylva; his model knight was Am´adis de Gaul. The romance is in two parts, of four books each. Pt. I. was published in 1605, and pt. II. in 1615.)

The prototype of the knight was the duke of Lerma.

Don Quixote is a tall, meagre, lantern-jawed, hawk-nosed, long-limbed, grizzle-haired man, with a pair of large black whiskers, and he styles himself “The Knight of the Woeful Countenance.”--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. i. 14 (1615).

_Don Quixote’s Horse_, Rosinantê (4 _syl._), all skin and bone.

_Quixote_ (_The Female_), or _Adventures of Arabella_, a novel by Mrs. Lennox (1752).

=Quixote of the North= (_The_), Charles XII. of Sweden; sometimes called “The Madman” (1682, 1697-1718).

=Quodling= (_The Rev. Mr._), chaplain to the duke of Buckingham.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

=Quos Ego--=, a threat intended but withheld; a sentence broken off. Eŏlus, angry with the winds and storms which had thrown the sea into commotion without his sanction, was going to say he would punish them severely for this act of insubordination; but having uttered the first two words, “Whom I----,” he says no more, but proceeds to the business in hand.--Virgil, _Æneid_, i.

“Next Monday,” said he, “you will be a ‘substance,’ and then----;” with which _quos ego_ he went to the next boy.--Dasent, _Half a Life_ (1850).

=Quo´tem= (_Caleb_), a parish clerk or Jack-of-all-trades.--G. Colman, _The Review, or The Ways of Windsor_.

I resolved like Caleb Quotem, to have a place at the review.--Washington Irving.

=R= Neither Demosthĕnês nor Aristotle could pronounce the letter _r_.

_R_ (_rogue_), vagabonds, etc., who were branded on the left shoulder with this letter.

They ... may be burned with a hot burning iron, of the breadth of a shilling, with a great Roman R on the left shoulder, which letter shall remain as a mark of a rogue.--Pyrnne,[TN-115] _Histriomastix_, or _The Player’s Scourge_.

If I escape the halter with the letter R Printed upon it.

Massinger, _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_, iv. 2 (1629).

=Rab´agas=, an advocate and editor of a journal called the _Carmagnole_. At the same office was published another radical paper, called the _Crapaud Volant_. Rabagas lived in the kingdom of Monaco, and was a demagogue leader of the deepest red; but was won over to the king’s party by the tact of an American lady, who got him an invitation to dine at the palace, and made him chief minister of state. From this moment he became the most strenuous opponent of the “liberal” party.--M. Sardou, _Rabagas_ (1872).

=Rabbi Jehosha=, wise teacher, whose good words are recorded in James Russell Lowell’s poem “_What Rabbi Jehosha Said_.”

=Rabbi Abron of Trent=, a fictitious sage, and most wonderful linguist. “He knew the nature of all manner of herbs, beasts and minerals.”--_Reynard the Fox_, xii. (1498).

=Rabelais= (_The English_). Dean Swift was so called by Voltaire (1667-1745).

Sterne (1713-1768) and Thomas Amory (1699-1788) have also been so called.

_Rabelais_ (_The Modern_), William Maginn (1794-1842).

=Rabelais of Germany=, J. Fischart, called “Mentzer” (1550-1614).

=Rabelais’s Poison.= Rabelais, being at a great distance from Paris, and without money to pay his hotel bill or his fare, made up three small packets of brick-dust. One he labelled “Poison for the king,” another, “Poison for monsieur,” and the third, “Poison for the dauphin.” The landlord instantly informed against this “poisoner,” and the secretary of state removed him at once to Paris. When, however, the joke was found out, it ended only in a laugh.--_Spectator_ (“Art of Growing Rich”).

=Rab´ican= or =Rabica´no=, the horse of Astolpho. Its sire was Wind and its dam Fire. It fed on human food. The word means “short tail.”--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

⁂ Argalia’s horse is called by the same name in _Orlando Innamorato_ (1495).

=Rabisson=, a vagabond tinker and knife-grinder. He was the only person who knew about “the gold-mine” left to the “miller of Grenoble.” Rabisson was murdered for his secret by Eusebe Noel, the schoolmaster of Bout des Monde.--E. Stirling, _The Gold Mine_, or _Miller of Grenoble_ (1854).

=Rab´sheka= (in the Bible RABSHAKEH), in the satire of _Absalom and Achitophel_, by Dryden and Tate, is meant for Sir Thomas Player (2 _Kings_ xviii.).

Next him let railing Rabsheka have place-- So full of zeal, he has no need of grace.

Pt. ii. (1682).

=Raby= (_Aurora_), a rich young English orphan, Catholic in religion, of virgin modesty, “a rose with all its sweetest leaves yet folded.” She was staying in the house of Lord and Lady Amundeville during the parliamentary vacation. Here Don Juan, “as Russian envoy,” was also a guest, with several others. Aurora Raby is introduced in canto xv., and crops up here and there in the two remaining cantos; but, as the tale was never finished, it is not possible to divine what part the beautiful and innocent girl was designed by the poet to play. Probably Don Juan, having sowed his “wild oats,” might become a not unfit match for the beautiful orphan.--Byron, _Don Juan_ (1824).

_Raby_ (_The Rose of_), the mother of Richard III. She was Cecily, daughter of Ralph Nevyll de Raby, first earl of Westmoreland. Her husband was Richard, duke of York, who was slain at the battle of Wakefield in 1460. She died 1495.

=Rachael=, a servant-girl at Lady Peveril’s of the Peak.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

_Rachael_ (2 _syl._), one of the “hands” in Bounderby’s mill at Coketown. She loved Stephen Blackpool, and was greatly beloved by him in return; but Stephen was married to a worthless drunkard. After the death of Stephen, Rachael watched over the good-for-nothing young widow, and befriended her.--C. Dickens, _Hard Times_ (1854).

=Rachel Ffrench=, beautiful daughter of Haworth’s unworthy partner in the iron business. Haworth loves her, as does Murdoch, a young inventor who rises fast in Haworth’s employ. She seems to vacillate between the two men, but really loves Murdoch, although pride will not let her avow it. When he is on the point of embarking to America, with an assured future, she confesses all, only to learn from him that “it is all over.” Yet, in looking back at her “dark young face turned seaward” as his ship moves away, he mutters, “When I return it will be to you.”--Frances Hodgson Burnett, _Haworth’s_ (1879).

=Racine of Italy= (_The_), Metastasio (1698-1782).

=Racine of Music= (_The_), Antonio Gaspare Sacchini, of Naples (1735-1786).

=Racket= (_Sir Charles_), a young man of fashion, who married the daughter of a wealthy London merchant. In the third week of the honeymoon Sir Charles paid his father-in-law a visit, and quarrelled with his bride about a game of whist. The lady affirmed that Sir Charles ought to have played a diamond instead of a club. Sir Charles grew furious, and resolved upon a divorce; but the quarrel was adjusted, and Sir Charles ended by saying, “You may be as wrong as you please, but I’ll be cursed if I ever endeavor to set you right again.”

_Lady Racket_, wife of Sir Charles, and elder daughter of Mr. Drugget.--Murphy, _Three Weeks after Marriage_ (1776).

_Racket_ (_Widow_), a sprightly, good-natured widow and woman of fashion.

A coquette, a wit, and a fine lady.--Mrs. Cowley, _The Belle’s Stratagem_, ii. 1 (1780).

The “Widow Racket” was one of Mrs. Pope’s best parts. Her usual manner of expressing piquant carelessness consisted in tossing her head from right to left, and striking the palm of one hand with the back of the other [1740-1797].--James Smith.

=Rackrent= (_Sir Condy_), in Miss Edgeworth’s novel of _Castle Rackrent_ (1802).

=Raddle= (_Mrs._), keeper of the lodgings occupied by Bob Sawyer. The young medical practitioner invited Mr. Pickwick and his three friends to a convivial meeting; but the termagant Mrs. Raddle brought the meeting to an untimely end.--C. Dickens, _The Pickwick Papers_ (1836).

=Rad´egonde= (_St._) or ST. RADEGUND, queen of France (born 519, died 587). She was the daughter of Bertaire, king of Thuringia, and brought up a pagan. King Clotaire I. taught her the Christian religion, and married her in 538; but six years later she entered a nunnery, and lived in the greatest austerity.

There thou must walk in greatest gravity, And seem as saintlike as St. Radegund.

Spenser, _Mother Hubbard’s Tale_ (1591).

=Radigund= or RADEGONE, the proud queen of the Amăzons. Being rejected by Bellodant “the Bold,” she revenged herself by degrading all the men who fell into her power by dressing them like women, giving them woman’s work to do, such as spinning, carding, sewing, etc., and feeding them on bread and water to effeminate them (canto 4). When she overthrew Sir Artegal in single combat, she imposed on him the condition of dressing in “woman’s weeds,” with a white apron, and to spend his time in spinning flax, instead of in deeds of arms. Radigund fell in love with the captive knight, and sent Clarinda as a go-between; but Clarinda tried to win him for herself, and told the queen he was inexorable (canto 5). At length Britomart arrived, cut off Radigund’s head, and liberated the captive (canto 7).--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, v. 4-7 (1596).

=Rag and Famish= (_The_), the Army and Navy Club; so christened by _Punch_. The _rag_ refers to the flag, and the _famish_ to the bad cuisine.

=Ragged Regiment= (_The_), the wan figures in Westminster Abbey, in a gallery over Islip’s Chapel.

=Railway King= (_The_), George Hudson, of Yorkshire, chairman of the North Midland Company. In one day he cleared by speculation £100,000. It was the Rev. Sydney Smith who gave Hudson the title of “Railway king” (1800-1871).

=Raine= (_Old Roger_), the tapster, near the abode of Sir Geoffrey Peveril.

_Dame Raine_, old Roger’s widow; afterwards Dame Chamberlain.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

=Rainy-Day Smith=, John Thomas Smith, the antiquary (1766-1833).

=Rajah of Mattan= (_Borneo_), has a diamond which weighs 367 carats. The largest cut diamond in the world. It is considered to be a palladium. (See DIAMONDS.)

=Rake= (_Lord_), a nobleman of the old school, fond of debauch, street rows, knocking down Charlies, and seeing his guests drunk. His chief boon companions are Sir John Brute and Colonel Bully.--Vanbrugh, _The Provoked Wife_ (1697).

=Rakeland= (_Lord_), a libertine, who makes love to married women, but takes care to keep himself free from the bonds of matrimony.--Mrs. Inchbald, _The Wedding Day_ (1790).

=Rak´she= (2 _syl._), a monster, which lived on serpents and dragons.

=Raleigh= (_Sir Walter_), introduced by Sir W. Scott in _Kenilworth_. The tradition of Sir Walter laying down his cloak on a miry spot for the queen to step on, and the queen commanding him to wear the “muddy cloak till her pleasure should be further known,” is mentioned in ch. xv. (1821).

_Raleigh_ (_Sir Walter_). Jealous of the earl of Essex, he plots with Lord Burleigh to compass his death.--Henry Jones, _The Earl of Essex_ (1745).

=Ralph=, abbot of St. Augustine’s, expended £43,000 on the repast given at his installation.

It was no unusual thing for powerful barons to provide 30,000 dishes at a wedding breakfast. The coronation dinner of Edward III., cost £40,000, equal to half a million of money now. The duke of Clarence, at his marriage, entertained 1000 guests, and furnished his table with 36 courses. Archbishop Neville had 1000 egrettes served at one banquet, and the whole species seems to have been extirpated.

After this it will be by no means difficult to understand why Apicius despaired of being able to make two ends meet, when he had reduced his enormous fortune to £80,000, and therefore hanged himself.

⁂ After the winter of 1327 was over, the elder Spenser had left of the stores laid in by him the preceding November and salted down, “80 salted beeves, 500 bacons, and 600 muttons.”

_Ralph_, son of Fairfield, the miller. An outlandish, ignorant booby, jealous of his sister, Patty, because she “could paint picturs and strum on the harpsicols.” He was in love with Fanny, the gypsy, for which “feyther” was angry with him; but, “what argufies feyther’s anger?” However, he treated Fanny like a brute, and she said of him, “He has a heart as hard as a parish officer. I don’t doubt but he would stand by and see me whipped.” When his sister married Lord Aimworth, Ralph said:

Captain Ralph my lord will dub me, Soon I’ll mount a huge cockade; Mounseer shall powder, queue, and club me,-- ’Gad! I’ll be a roaring blade. If Fan should offer then to snub me, When in scarlet I’m arrayed; Or my feyther ’temp to drub me-- Let him frown, but who’s afraid?

Bickerstaff, _The Maid of the Mill_ (1647).

_Ralph_ or RALPHO, the squire of Hudibras. Fully described in bk. i. 457-644.--S. Butler, _Hudibras_ (1663-78).

The prototype of “Ralph” was Isaac Robinson, a zealous butcher, in Morefields. Ralph represents the independent party, and Hudibras the Presbyterian.

⁂ In regard to the pronunciation of this name, which, in 1878, was the subject of a long controversy in _Notes and Queries_, Butler says:

A squire he had whose name was Ralph, That in th’ adventure went his half: ... And when we can, with metre safe, We’ll call him Ralpho, or plain Ra’ph.

Bk. l. 456.

_Ralph_ (_Rough_), the helper of Lance Outram, park-keeper at Sir Geoffrey Peveril’s of the Peak.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

_Ralph_ (_James_), an American, who came to London and published a poem entitled _Night_ (1725).

Silence, ye wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls, Making night hideous; answer him ye owls.

Pope, _The Dunciad_, iii. 165 (1728).

_Ralph_ [DE LASCOURS], captain of the _Uran´ia_, husband of Louise de Lascours. Ralph is the father of Diana and Martha, _alias_ Orgari´ta. His crew having rebelled, Ralph, his wife, infant [Martha], and servant, Bar´abas, were put into a boat, and turned adrift. The boat ran on a huge iceberg, which Ralph supposed to be a small island. In time, the iceberg broke, when Ralph and his wife were drowned, but Martha and Barabas escaped. Martha was taken by an Indian tribe, who brought her up, and named her Orgarita (“withered corn”), because her skin was so white and fair.--E. Stirling, _Orphan of the Frozen Sea_ (1856).

=Ralph Roister Doister=, by Nicholas Udall, the first English comedy, about 1534. It contains nine male and four female characters. Ralph is a vain, thoughtless, blustering fellow, who is in pursuit of a rich widow named Custance, but he is baffled in his intention.

=Ramble= (_Sir Robert_), a man of gallantry, treats his wife with such supreme indifference that she returns to her guardian, Lord Norland, and resumes her maiden name of Marie Wooburn. Subsequently, however, she returns to her husband.

_Mrs. Ramble_, wife of Sir Robert, and ward of Lord Norland.--Inchbald, _Every One Has His Fault_ (1794).

=Ram´iel= (3 _syl._), one of the “atheist crew” overthrown by Ab´diel. (The word means, according to Hume, “one who exalts himself against God.”)--Milton, _Paradise Lost_, vi. 371 (1665).

=Raminago´bris.= Lafontaine, in his fables, gives this name to a cat. Rabelais, in his _Pantag´ruel_, iii. 21, satirizes under the same name Guillaume Crétin, a poet.

=Rami´rez=, a Spanish monk, and father confessor to Don Juan, duke of Braganza. He promised Velasquez, when he absolved the duke at bed-time, to give him a poisoned wafer prepared by the Carmelite Castruccio. This he was about to do, when he was interrupted, and the breaking out of the rebellion saved the duke from any similar attempt.--Robert Jephson, _Braganza_ (1775).

=Rami´ro= (_King_) married Aldonza, who, being faithless, eloped with Alboa´zar, the Moorish king of Gaya. Ramiro came disguised as a traveller to Alboazar’s castle, and asked a damsel for a draught of water, and when he lifted the pitcher to his mouth, he dropped in it his betrothal ring, which Aldonza saw and recognized. She told the damsel to bring the stranger to her apartment. Scarce had he arrived there when the Moorish king entered, and Ramiro hid himself in an alcove. “What would you do to Ramiro,” asked Aldonza, “if you had him in your power?” “I would hew him limb from limb,” said the Moor. “Then lo! Alboazar, he is now skulking in that alcove.” With this, Ramiro was dragged forth, and the Moor said, “And how would you act if our lots were reversed?” Ramiro replied, “I would feast you well, send for my chief princes and counsellors, and set you before them and bid you blow your horn till you died.” “Then be it so,” said the Moor. But when Ramiro blew his horn, his “merry men” rushed into the castle, and the Moorish king, with Aldonza and all their children, princes, and counsellors, were put to the sword.--Southey, _Ramiro_ (a ballad from the Portuguese, 1804).

=Ramona=, young Indian woman, who, in defiance of her duenna’s fierce opposition, goes out into the wide world with gallant Alessandro. The struggles and disappointments of the wedded pair, and their oppression by Indian agents are told in Helen Hunt Jackson’s novel, _Ramona_, (1884).

=Ramorny= (_Sir John_), a voluptuary, master of the horse to Prince Robert of Scotland.--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

=Ramsay= (_David_), the old watch-maker, near Temple Bar.

_Margaret Ramsay_, David’s daughter. She marries Lord Nigel.--Sir W. Scott, _Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

=Ramsbottom= (_Mrs._), a vile speller of the language. Theodore Hook’s pseudonym in the _John Bull_ newspaper, 1829.

⁂ Winifred Jenkins, the maid of Miss Tabitha Bramble (in Smollett’s _Humphrey Clinker_, 1770), rivals Mrs. Ramsbottom in bad spelling.

=Randal=, the boatman at Lochleven Castle.--Sir W. Scott, _The Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth).

=Randolph= (_Lord_), a Scotch nobleman, whose life was saved by young Norval. For this service, his lordship gave the youth a commission; but Glenalvon, the heir presumptive, hated the new favorite, and persuaded Lord Randolph that Norval was too familiar with his lady. Accordingly, Glenalvon and Lord Randolph waylaid the lad, who being attacked, slew Glenalvon in self-defence, but was himself slain by Lord Randolph. When the lad was killed, Lord Randolph learned that “Norval” was the son of Lady Randolph by Lord Douglas, her former husband. He was greatly vexed, and went to the war then raging between Scotland and Denmark, to drown his sorrow by activity and danger.

_Lady Randolph_, daughter of Sir Malcolm, was privately married to Lord Douglas, and when her first boy was born, she hid him in a basket, because there was a family feud between Malcolm and Douglas. Soon after this, Douglas was slain in battle, and the widow married Lord Randolph. The babe was found by old Norval, a shepherd, who brought it up as his own son. When 18 years old, the lad saved the life of Lord Randolph, and was given a commission in the army. Lady Randolph, hearing of the incident, discovered that young Norval was her own son, Douglas. Glenalvon, who hated the new favorite, persuaded Lord Randolph that the young man was too familiar with Lady Randolph, and being waylaid, a fight ensued, in which Norval slew Glenalvon, but was himself slain by Lord Randolph. Lord Randolph being informed that the young man was Lady Randolph’s son, went to the wars to “drive away care;” and Lady Randolph, in her distraction, cast herself headlong from a steep precipice.--J. Home, _Douglas_ (1757).

The voice of Mrs. Crawford [1734-1801], when thrown out by the vehemence of strong feeling, seemed to wither up the hearer; it was a flaming arrow, a lighting of passion. Such was the effect of her almost shriek to old Norval, “Was he alive?” It was like an electric shock, which drove the blood back to the heart, and produced a shudder of terror through the crowded theatre.--Boaden, _Life of Kemble_.

=Random=, a man of fortune with a scapegrace son. He is pale and puffy, with gout and a tearing cough. Random goes to France to recruit his health, and on his return to England, gets arrested for debt by mistake for his son. He raves and rages, threatens and vows vengeance, but finds his son on the point of marrying a daughter of Sir David Dunder of Dunder Hall, and forgets his evils in contemplation of this most desirable alliance.--G. Colman, _Ways and Means_ (1788).

_Random_ (_Roderick_), a young Scotch scapegrace, in quest of fortune. At one time he revels in prosperity, at another he is in utter destitution. Roderick is led into different countries (whose peculiarities are described), and falls into the society of wits, sharpers, courtiers, and harlots. Occasionally lavish, he is essentially mean; with a dash of humor, he is contemptibly revengeful; and, though generous minded when the whim jumps with his wishes, he is thoroughly selfish. His treatment of Strap is revolting to a generous mind. Strap lends him money in his necessity, but the heartless Roderick wastes the loan, treats Strap as a mere servant, fleeces him at dice, and cuffs him when the game is adverse.--T. Smollett, _Roderick Random_ (1748).

=Ranger=, the madcap cousin of Clarinda, and the leading character in Hoadly’s _Suspicious Husband_ (1747).

=Ran´tipole= (3 _syl._), a madcap. One of the nicknames given to Napoleon III. (See NAPOLEON III.)

Dick, be a little rantipolish,[TN-116]

Colman, _Heir-at-Law_, i. 2 (1797).

=Raoul= [_Rawl_], the old huntsman of Sir Raymond Berenger.--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

=Raoul di Nangis= (_Sir_), the Huguenot in love with Valentina (daughter of the Comte de St. Bris, governor of the Louvre). Sir Raoul is offered the hand of Valentina in marriage, but rejects it because he fancies she is betrothed to the comte de Nevers. Nevers being slain in the Bartholomew Massacre, Raoul marries Valentina, but scarcely is the ceremony over when both are shot by the musketeers under the command of St. Bris.--Meyerbeer, _Les Huguenots_ (opera, 1836).

=Raphael= (2 or 3 _syl._), called by Milton, “The Sociable Spirit,” and “The Affable Archangel.” In the book of _Tobit_ it was Raphael who travelled with Tobias into Media and back again; and it is the same angel that holds discourse with Adam through two books of _Paradise Lost_, v. and vi. (1665).

_Raphael_, the guardian angel of John the Beloved.

⁂ Longfellow calls Raphael “The Angel of the Sun,” and says that he brings to man “the gift of faith.”--_Golden Legend_ (“Miracle-Play,” iii., 1851).

_Raphael_ (_The Flemish_), Frans Floris. His chief works are “St. Luke at His Easel,” and the “Descent of the Fallen Angels,” both in Antwerp Cathedral (1520-1570).

_Raphael_ (_The French_), Eustace Lesueur (1617-1655).

=Raphael of Cats= (_The_), Godefroi Mind, a Swiss painter, famous for his cats (1768-1814).

=Raphael of Holland= (_The_), Martin van Hemskerck (1498-1574).

=Raphael’s Enchanter=, La Fornarina, a baker’s daughter. Her likeness appears in several of his paintings. (See FORNARINA.)

=Rapier= (_The_) was introduced by Rowland York in 1587.

He [_Rowland York_] was a Londoner, famous among the cutters in his time for bringing in a new kind of fight--to run the point of a rapier into a man’s body ... before that time the use was with little bucklers, and with broadswords to strike and never thrust, and it was accounted unmanly to strike under the girdle.--Carleton, _Thankful Remembrance_ (1625).

=Rare Ben.= Ben Jonson, the dramatist, was so called by Robert Herrick (1574-1637).

=Raredrench= (_Master_), apothecary.--Sir W. Scott, _Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

=Rashleigh Osbaldistone=, called “the scholar,” an hypocritical and accomplished villain, killed by Rob Roy.--Sir W. Scott, _Rob Roy_ (time, George I.).

⁂ Surely never gentleman was plagued with such a family as Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone, of Osbaldistone Hall. (1) Percival, “the sot;” (2) Thorncliff, “the bully;” (3) John, “the gamekeeper;” (4) Richard, “the horse-jockey;” (5) Wilfred, “the fool;” (6) Rashleigh, “the scholar and knave.”

=Ras´selas=, prince of Abyssina, fourth son of the emperor. According to the custom of the country, he was confined in a private paradise, with the rest of the royal family. This paradise was in the valley of Amhara, surrounded by high mountains. It had only one entrance, which was by a cavern under a rock concealed by woods, and closed by iron gates. He escaped with his sister, Nekayah, and Imlac, the poet, and wandered about to find out what condition or rank of life was the most happy. After careful investigation he found no lot without its drawbacks, and resolved to return to the “happy valley.”--Dr. Johnson, _Rasselas_ (1759).

=Rats= (_Devoured by_). Archbishop Hatto, Count Graaf, Bishop Widerolf of Strasburg, Bishop Adolph of Cologne, Freiherr von Güttingen were all devoured by rats. (See HATTO.)

=Ratcliffe= (_James_), a notorious thief.--Sir W. Scott, _Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.).

_Ratcliffe_ (_Mr. Hubert_), a friend of Sir Edward Mauley, “the Black Dwarf.”--Sir W. Scott, _The Black Dwarf_ (time, Anne).

_Ratcliffe_ (_Mrs._), the widow of “Don Carlos,” who rescued Sheva at Cadiz from an _auto da fe_.

_Charles Ratcliffe_, clerk of Sir Stephen Bertram, discharged because he had a pretty sister, and Sir Stephen had a young son. Charles supported his widowed mother and his sister by his earnings. He rescued Sheva, the Jew, from a howling London mob, and was left the heir of the old man’s property.

_Miss [Eliza] Ratcliffe_, sister of Charles, clandestinely married to Charles Bertram, and given £10,000 by the Jew to reconcile Sir Stephen Bertram to the alliance. She was handsome, virtuous and elegant, mild, modest and gentle.--Cumberland, _The Jew_ (1776).

=Rath´mor=, chief of Clutha (_the Clyde_), and father of Calthon and Colmar. Dunthalmo, lord of Teutha, “came in his pride against him,” and was overcome, whereupon his anger rose, and he went by night with his warriors and slew Rathmor in his own halls, where his feasts had so often been spread for strangers.--Ossian, _Calthon and Colmal_.

=Rattlin= (_Jack_), a famous naval character in Smollett’s _Roderick Random_. Tom Bowling is in the same novel (1749).

=Rattray= (_Sir Runnion_), of Runnagullion; the duelling friend of Sir Mungo Malagrowther.--Sir W. Scott, _Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

=Raucocan´ti=, leader of a troupe of singers going to act in Sicily. The whole were captured by Lambro, the pirate, and sold in Turkey as slaves.

’Twould not become myself to dwell upon My own merits, and, tho’ young, I see, sir, you [_Don Juan_] Have got a travelled air, which shews you one To whom the opera is by no means new. You’ve heard of Raucocanti--I’m that man ... You was [_sic_] not last year at the fair of Lugo, But next, when I’m engaged to sing there--do go.

Byron, _Don Juan_, iv. 88 (1820).

=Raven= (_Barnaby’s_), Grip, a large bird of most impish disposition. Its usual phrases were: “I’m a devil!” “Never say die!” “Polly, put the kettle on!” He also uttered a cluck like cork-drawing, a barking like a dog, and a crowing like a cock. Barnaby Budge used to carry it about in a basket at his back. The bird drooped while it was in jail with his master, but after Barnaby’s reprieve

It soon recovered its good looks, and became as glossy and sleek as ever ... but for a whole year it never indulged in any other sound than a grave and decorous croak.... One bright summer morning ... the bird advanced with fantastic steps to the door of the Maypole, and then cried “I’m a devil!” three or four times, with extraordinary rapture ... and from that time constantly practised and improved himself in the vulgar tongue.--C. Dickens, _Barnaby Rudge_, ii. (1841).

_Raven_ (_The_), Edgar Allan Poe’s poem bearing this caption is the best known of his works, and one of the most remarkable in the English language (1845).

=Ravens of Owain= (_The_). Owain had in his army 300 ravens, who were irresistible. It is thought that these ravens were warriors who bore this device on their shields.

A man who caused the birds to fly upon the host Like the ravens of Owain, eager for prey.

Bleddynt Vardd, _Myvyrian Archaiology_, i. 365.

=Ravens once White.= One day a raven told Apollo that Coro´nis, a Thessalian nymph whom he passionately loved, was faithless. Apollo, in his rage, shot the nymph, but hated the raven, and “bade him prate in white plumes never more.”--Ovid, _Metam._, ii.

=Ravenswood= (_Allan, lord of_), a decayed Scotch nobleman of the royalist party.

_Master Edgar Ravenswood_, the son of Allan. In love with Lucy Ashton, daughter of Sir William Ashton, lord-keeper of Scotland. The lovers plight their troth at the “Mermaid’s Fountain,” but Lucy is compelled to marry Frank Hayston, laird of Bucklaw. The bride, in a fit of insanity, attempts to murder the bridegroom, and dies in convulsions. Bucklaw recovers, and goes abroad. Colonel Ashton appoints a hostile meeting with Edgar; but young Ravenswood, on his way to the place appointed, is lost in the quicksands of Kelpies Flow, in accordance with an ancient prophecy.--Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

⁂ In Donizetti’s opera of _Lucia di Lammermoor_, Bucklaw dies of the wound inflicted by the bride, and Edgar, heart-broken, comes on the stage and kills himself.

The catastrophe in the _Bride of Lammermoor_, where [_Edgar_] Ravenswood is swallowed up by a quicksand, is singularly grand in romance, but would be inadmissible in a drama.--_Encyc. Brit._, Art. “Romance.”

=Rawhead and Bloody-Bones=, two bogies or bugbears, generally coupled together. In some cases the phrase is employed to designate one and the same “shadowy sprite.”

Servants awe children ... by telling them of Rawhead and Bloody-bones.--Locke.

=Ray.= One of two brothers, divided by the civil war. Beltran is in the Southern army, Ray in the Northern. Both love the same woman whose heart is Beltran’s. The brothers met[TN-117] in battle and Beltran falls. Ray is wounded and left for dead; recovers and makes his way homeward. There he lives--undergoing volcanic changes, now passionless lulls, and now rages and spasms of grief; “gradually out of them all he gathers his strength about him,” and wins Vivia’s hand.--Harriet Prescott Spofford, _Ray_.

_Ray_ (_Will_), popular officer in a frontier brigade who steals through the deadly line of Cheyennes drawn about a handful of U. S. soldiers, and, followed by shots and yells, rides for his life and his comrades’ lives to the nearest encampment of troops and brings succor to the devoted little band with the dawn of the day that, but for him, would have been the last on earth for those left behind.--Charles King, _Marion’s Faith_ (1886).

=Rayland= (_Mrs._), the domineering lady of the _Old Manor-House_, by Charlotte Smith (1749-1806).

Mrs. Rayland is a sort of Queen Elizabeth in private life.--Sir W. Scott.

=Raymond=, count of Toulouse, the Nestor of the crusaders. He slays Aladine, king of Jerusalem, and plants the Christian standard on the tower of David.--Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_, xx. (1516).

⁂ Introduced by Sir W. Scott in _Count Robert of Paris_, a novel of the period of Rufus.

_Raymond_ (_Sir Charles_), a country gentleman, the friend and neighbor of Sir Robert Belmont.

_Colonel Raymond_, son of Sir Charles, in love with Rosetta Belmont. Being diffident and modest, Rosetta delights in tormenting him, and he is jealous even of William Faddle “a fellow made up of knavery, noise and impudence.”

_Harriet Raymond_, daughter of Sir Charles, whose mother died in giving her birth. She was committed to the care of a gouvernante, who changed her name to Fidelia, wrote to Sir Charles to say that she was dead, and sold her at the age of 12 to a villain named Villard. Charles Belmont, hearing her cries of distress, rescued her and took her home. The gouvernante at death confessed the truth, and Charles Belmont married her.--Edward Moore, _The Foundling_ (1748).

=Raz´eka=, the giver of food, one of the four gods of the Adites (2 _syl._).

We called on Razeka for food.

Southey, _Thalaba, the Destroyer_, i. 24 (1797).

=Razor=, a barber who could “think of nothing but old England.” He was the friend and neighbor of Quidnunc, the upholsterer, who was equally crazy about the political state of the nation, and the affairs of Europe in general.--Murphy, _The Upholsterer_ (1758).

_Razor_ (_To cut blocks with a_). Oliver Goldsmith said of Edward Burke, the statesman.

Too deep for his hearers, he went on refining, And thought of convincing, while they thought of dining: Tho’ equal to all things, to all things unfit; Too nice for a statesman, too proud for a wit; For a patriot too cool; for a drudge disobedient; And too fond of the _right_ to pursue the _expedient_. In short, ’twas his fate, unemployed or in place, sir, To eat mutton cold, and cut blocks with a razor.

_Retaliation_ (1774.)

=Read= (_Sir William_), a tailor, who set up for oculist, and was knighted by Queen Anne. This quack was employed both by Queen Anne and George I. Sir William could not read. He professed to cure wens, wry-necks, and hare-lips (died 1715).

None shall their rise to merit owe-- That popish doctrine is exploded quite, Or Ralph had been no duke, and Read no knight.

_A Political Squib of the Period._

⁂ The “Ralph” refered[TN-118] to is Ralph Montagu, created viscount in 1682, and duke of Montagu in 1705 (died 1709).

=Ready-to-Halt=, a pilgrim that journeyed to the Celestial City on crutches. He joined Mr. Greatheart’s party, and was carried to heaven in a chariot of fire.--Bunyan, _Pilgrim’s Progress_, ii. (1684).

=Reason= (_The goddess of_), in the French Revolution, some say, was the wife of Momoro, the printer; but Lamartine says it was Mdlle. Malliard, an actress.

=Rebecca=, leader of the Rebeccaïtes, a band of Welsh rioters, who, in 1843, made a raid upon toll-gates. The captain and his guard disguised themselves in female attire.

⁂ This name arose from a gross perversion of a text of Scripture: “And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, ... let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.” (_Gen._ xxiv. 60).

_Rebecca_, daughter of Isaac, the Jew; meek, modest, and high-minded. She loves Ivanhoe, who has shown great kindness to her and to her father; and when Ivanhoe marries Rowena, both Rebecca and her father leave England for a foreign land.--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

_Rebecca_ (_Mistress_), the favorite waiting-maid of Mrs. Margaret Bertram, of Singleside.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

=Record=, noted for his superlatives, “most presumptuous,” “most audacious,” “most impatient,” as:

Oh, you will, most audacious.... Look at him, most inquisitive.... Under lock and key, most noble.... I will, most dignified.--S. Birch, _The Adopted Child_.

=Recruiting Officer= (_The_), a comedy by G. Farquhar (1705). The “recruiting officer” is Sergeant Kite, his superior officer is Captain Plume, and the recruit is Sylvia, who assumes the military dress of her brother and the name of Jack Wilful, _alias_ Pinch. Her father, Justice Balance, allows the name to pass the muster, and when the trick is discovered, to prevent scandal, the justice gives her in marriage to the captain.

=Red Book of Hergest= (_The_), a collection of children’s tales in Welsh; so called from the name of the place where it was discovered. Each tale is called in Welsh a _Mabinogi_, and the entire collection is the _Mabinogion_ (from _nab_, “a child”). The tales relate chiefly to Arthur and the early British kings. A translation in three vols., with notes, was published by Lady Charlotte Guest (1838-49).

=Red-Cap= (_Mother_), an old nurse at the Hungerford Stairs.--Sir W. Scott, _Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

_Red-Cap_ (_Mother_). Madame Bufflon was so called, because her bonnet was deeply colored with her own blood in a street fight at the outbreak of the French Revolution.--W. Melville.

=Red Cross Knight= (_The_) represents St. George, the patron saint of England. His adventures, which occupy bk. i. of Spenser’s _Faëry Queen_, symbolize the struggles and ultimate victory of holiness over sin (or protestantism over popery). Una comes on a white ass to the court of Gloriana, and craves that one of the knights would undertake to slay the dragon which kept her father and mother prisoners. The Red Cross Knight, arrayed in all the armor of God (_Eph._ vi. 11-17), undertakes the adventure, and goes, accompanied for a time, with Una; but, deluded by Archimago, he quits the lady, and the two meet with numerous adventures. At last, the knight, having slain the dragon, marries Una; and thus holiness is allied to the Oneness of Truth (1590).

=Red Hand of Ulster.=

Calverley, of Calverley, Yorkshire. Walter Calverley, Esq., in 1605, murdered two of his children, and attempted to murder his wife and a child “at nurse.” This became the subject of _The Yorkshire Tragedy_. In consequence of these murders, the family is required to wear “the bloody hand.”

The Holt family, of Lancashire, has a similar tradition connected with their coat armor.

=Red Knight= (_The_), Sir Perimo´nês, one of the four brothers who kept the passages leading to Castle Perilous. In the allegory of Gareth, this knight represents noon, and was the third brother. Night, the eldest born, was slain by Sir Gareth; the Green Knight, which represents the young day-spring, was overcome, but not slain; and the Red Knight, being overcome, was spared also. The reason is this: darkness is _slain_, but dawn is only _overcome_ by the stronger light of noon, and noon decays into the evening twilight. Tennyson in his _Gareth and Lynette_, calls Sir Perimonês “Meridies,” or “Noonday Sun.” The Latin name is not consistent with a British tale.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 129 (1470); Tennyson, _Idylls_.

=Red Knight of the Red Lands= (_The_), Sir Ironside. “He had the strength of seven men, and every day his strength went on increasing till noon.” This knight kept the Lady Lionês captive in Castle Perilous. In the allegory of Sir Gareth, Sir Ironside represents death, and the captive lady “the Bride,” or Church triumphant. Sir Gareth combats with Night, Morn, Noon, and Evening, or fights the fight of faith, and then overcomes the last enemy, which is death, when he marries the lady, or is received into the Church, which is “the Lamb’s Bride.” Tennyson, in his _Gareth and Lynette_, makes the combat with the Red Knight (“Mors,” or “Death”) to be a single stroke; but the _History_ says it is endured from morn to noon, and from noon to night--in fact, that man’s whole life is a contest with moral and physical death.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 134-137 (1470); Tennyson, _Idylls_ (“Gareth and Lynette”).

=Red Pipe.= The Great Spirit long ago called the Indians together, and, standing on the red pipe-stone rock, broke off a piece, which he made into a pipe, and smoked, letting the smoke exhale to the four quarters. He then told the Indians that the red pipe-stone was their flesh, and they must use the red pipe when they made peace; and that when they smoked it, the war-club and scalping-knife must not be touched. Having so spoken, the Great Spirit was received up into the clouds.--_Indian Mythology._

The red pipe has blown its fumes of peace and war to the remotest corners of the continent. It visited every warrior, and passed through its reddened stem the irrevocable oath of war and desolation. Here, too, the peace-breathing calumet was born, and fringed with eagle’s quills, which has shed its thrilling fumes over the land, and soothed the fury of the relentless savage.--Catlin, _Letters on ... the North Americans_, ii. 160.

=Red Ridinghood= (_Little_), a child with a red cloak, who went to carry cakes to her grandmother. A wolf placed itself in the grandmother’s bed, and when the child remarked upon the size of its eyes, ears, and nose, replied it was the better to see, hear, and smell the little grandchild. “But, grandmamma,” said the child, “what a great mouth you have got!” “The better to eat you up,” was the reply, and the child was devoured by the wolf.

This nursery tale is, with slight variations, common to Sweden, Germany, and France. In Charles Perrault’s _Contes des Fées_ (1697) it is called “Le Petit Chaperon Rouge.”

=Red Swan= (_The_). Odjibwa, hearing a strange noise, saw in the lake a most beautiful red swan. Pulling his bow, he took deliberate aim, without effect. He shot every arrow from his quiver with the same result; then, fetching from his father’s medicine sack three poisoned arrows, he shot them also at the bird. The last of the three arrows passed through the swan’s neck, whereupon the bird rose into the air and sailed away towards the setting sun.--Schoolcraft, _Algic Researches_, ii. 9 (1839).

=Redgauntlet=, a story told in a series of letters, about a conspiracy formed by Sir Edward Hugh Redgauntlet, on behalf of the “Young Pretender,” Charles Edward, then above 40 years of age. The conspirators insist that the prince shall dismiss his mistress, Miss Walkingshaw, and, as he refuses to comply with this demand, they abandon their enterprise. Just as a brig is prepared for the prince’s departure from the island, Colonel Campbell arrives with the military. He connives, however, at the affair, the conspirators disperse, the prince embarks, and Redgauntlet becomes the prior of a monastery abroad. This is one of the inferior novels, but is redeemed by the character of Peter Peebles.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (1824).

_Redgauntlet_ embodies a great deal of Scott’s own personal history and experience.--Chambers, _English Literature_, ii. 589.

_Redgauntlet_ (_Sir Alberick_), an ancestor of the family.

_Sir Edward Redgauntlet_, son of Sir Alberick; killed by his father’s horse.

_Sir Robert Redgauntlet_, an old tory, mentioned in Wandering Willie’s tale.

_Sir John Redgauntlet_, son and successor of Sir Robert, mentioned in Wandering Willie’s tale.

_Sir Redwald Redgauntlet_, son of Sir John.

_Sir Henry Darsie Redgauntlet_, son of Sir Redwald.

_Lady Henry Darsie Redgauntlet_, wife of Sir Henry Darsie.

_Sir Arthur Darsie Redgauntlet_, alias _Darsie Latimer_, son of Sir Henry and Lady Darsie.

_Miss Lilias Redgauntlet_, alias _Green-mantle_, sister of Sir Arthur. She marries Allan Fairford.

_Sir Edward Hugh Redgauntlet_, the Jacobite conspirator. He is uncle to Darsie Latimer, and is called “Laird of the Lochs,” _alias_ “Mr. Herries of Birrenswark,” _alias_ “Master Ingoldsby.”--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

=Redi= (_Francis_), an Italian physician and lyric poet. He was first physician to the grand-duke of Tuscany (1626-1698).

Even Redi, tho’ he chanted Bacchus in the Tuscan valleys, Never drank the wine he vaunted In his dithyrambic sallies.

Longfellow, _Drinking Song_.

=Redlaw= (_Mr._), the “haunted man.” He was a professor of chemistry, who bargained with the spirit which haunted him to leave him, on condition of his imparting to others his own idiosyncrasies. From this moment the chemist carried with him the infection of sullenness, selfishness, discontent and ingratitude. On Christmas Day the infection ceased. Redlaw lost his morbid feelings, and all who suffered by his infection, being healed, were restored to love, mirth, benevolence and gratitude.--C. Dickens, _The Haunted Man_ (1848).

=Redmain= (_Sir Magnus_), governor of the town of Berwick (fifteenth century).

He was remarkable for his long red beard, and was therefore called by the English “Magnus Red-beard,” but by the Scotch, in derision, “Magnus Red-mane,” as if his beard had been a horse-mane.--Godscroft, 178.

=Redmond O’Neale=, Rokeby’s page, beloved by Rokeby’s daughter, Matilda, whom he marries. He turns out to be Mortham’s son and heir.--Sir W. Scott, _Rokeby_ (1812).

=Reece= (_Captain_), R.N., of the _Mantelpiece_; adored by all his crew. They had feather-beds, warm slippers, hot-water cans, brown Windsor soap, and a valet to every four, for Captain Reece said, “It is my duty to make my men happy, and I will.” Captain Reece had a daughter, ten female cousins, a niece and a ma, six sisters and an aunt or two, and, at the suggestion of William Lee, the coxswain, married these ladies to his crew--“It is my duty to make my men happy, and I will.” Last of all, Captain Reece married the widowed mother of his coxswain, and they were all married on one day--“It was their duty, and they did it.”--W. S. Gilbert, _The Bab Ballads_ (“Captain Reece, R.N.”).

=Reeve’s Tale= (_The_). Symond Symkyn, a miller of Trompington, near Cambridge, used to serve “Soler Hall College,” but was an arrant thief. Two scholars, Aleyn and John, undertook to see that a sack of corn sent to be ground was not tampered with; so one stood by the hopper, and one by the trough which received the flour. In the mean time the miller let their horse loose, and, when the young men went to catch it, purloined half a bushel of the flour, substituting meal instead. It was so late before the horse could be caught that the miller offered the two scholars a “shakedown” in his own chamber, but when they were in bed he began to belabor them unmercifully. A scuffle ensued, in which the miller, being tripped up, fell upon his wife. His wife, roused from her sleep, seized a stick, and, mistaking the bald pate of her husband for the night-cap of one of the young men, banged it so lustily that the man was almost stunned with the blows. In the mean time the two scholars made off without payment, taking with them the sack and also the half-bushel of flour, which had been made into cakes.--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (1388).

⁂ Boccaccio has a similar story in his _Decameron_. It is also the subject of a _fabliau_ entitled _De Gombert et des Deux Clers_. Chaucer borrowed his story from a _fabliau_ given by Thomas Wright in his _Anecdota Literaria_, 15.

=Reformation= (_The_). It was in germ in the early Lollards, and was radiant in the works of Wycliffe.

It was present in the pulpit of Pierre de Bruys, in the pages of Arnoldo da Brescia, in the cell of Roger Bacon.

It was active in the field with Peter Revel, in the castle of Lord Cobham, in the pulpit with John Huss, in the camp with John Ziska, in the class-room of Pico di Mirandola, in the observatory of Abraham Zacuto, and the college of Antonio di Lebrija, and it burst into full light through Martin Luther.

=Re´gan=, second daughter of King Lear, and wife of the duke of Cornwall. Having received the half of her father’s king-[TN-119] she refused to entertain him with his suite. On the death of her husband, she designed to marry Edmund, natural son of the earl of Gloster, and was poisoned by her elder sister, Goneril, out of jealousy. Regan, like Goneril, is proverbial for “filial ingratitude.”--Shakespeare, _King Lear_ (1605).

=Regent Diamond= (_The_). So called from the regent duke of Orleans. This diamond, the property of France, at first set in the crown, and then in the sword of state, was purchased in India by a governor of Madras, of whom the regent bought it for £80,000.

=Regillus= (_The Battle of Lake_). Regillus Lacus is about twenty miles east of Rome, between Gabii (north) and Lavīcum (south). The Romans had expelled Tarquin the Proud from the throne, because of the most scandalous conduct of his son Sextus, who had violated Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus. Thirty combined cities of Latium, with Sabines and Volscians, took the part of Tarquin, and marched towards Rome. The Romans met the allied army at the Lake Regillus, and here, on July 15, B.C. 499, they won the great battle which confirmed their republican constitution, and in which Tarquin, with his sons Sextus and Titus, was slain. While victory was still doubtful, Castor and Pollux, on their white horses, appeared to the Roman dictator, and fought for the Romans. The victory was complete, and ever after the Romans observed the anniversary of this battle with a grand procession and sacrifice. The procession started from the temple of Mars outside the city walls, entered by the Porta Capēna, traversed the chief streets of Rome, marched past the temple of Vesta in the Forum, and then to the opposite side of the “great square,” where they had built a temple to Castor and Pollux in gratitude for the aid rendered by them in this battle. Here offerings were made, and sacrifice was offered to the Great Twin-Brothers, the sons of Leda. Macaulay has a lay, called _The Battle of the Lake Regillus_, on the subject.

Where, by the Lake Regillus, Under the Porcian height, All in the land of Tusculum, Was fought the glorious fight.

Macaulay, _Lays of Ancient Rome_ (1842).

A very parallel case occurs in the life of Mahomet. The Koreishites had armed to put down “the prophet;” but Mahomet met them in arms, and on January 13, 624, won the famous battle of Bedr. In the _Korân_ (ch. iii.), he tells us that the angel Gabriel, on his horse, Haïzûm, appeared on the field with 3000 “angels,” and won the battle for him.

In the conquest of Mexico, we are told that St. James appeared on his grey horse at the head of the Castilian adventurers, and led them on to victory. Bernal Diaz, who was in the battle, saw the grey horse, but fancies the rider was Francesco de Morla, though, he confesses, “it might be the glorious apostle St. James” for aught he knew.

=Regimen of the School of Salerno=, a collection of precepts in Latin verse, written by John of Milan, a poet of the eleventh century, for Robert, the duke of Normandy.

A volume universally known As the “Regimen of the School of Salern.”

Longfellow, _The Golden Legend_ (1851).

=Reginald Archer.= A refined, debonnaire sensualist, courted by women and envied by men. He wooes and marries a gentle, pure heiress, and would, as her husband, break her heart were not the evil work cut short by his death at the hands of a man whose wife Reginald has lured from her allegiance to her lawful lord.--Anne Crane Seemuller, _Reginald Archer_ (1865).

=Region of Death=, (_Marovsthulli_), Thurr, near Delhi, fatal, from some atmospheric influence, especially about sunset.

=Regno= (_The_), Naples.

Are our wiser heads leaning towards an alliance with the pope and the Regno?--George Eliot (Marian Evans).

=Reg´ulus=, a Roman general, who conquered the Carthaginians (B.C. 256), and compelled them to sue for peace. While negotiation was going on, the Carthaginians, joined by Xanthippos, the Lacedemonian, attacked the Romans at Tunis, and beat them, taking Regulus prisoner. The captive was sent to Rome to make terms of peace and demand exchange of prisoners, but he used all his influence with the senate to dissuade them from coming to terms with their foe. On his return to captivity, the Cathaginians[TN-120] cut off his eyelids and exposed him to the burning sun, then placed him in a barrel armed with nails, which was rolled up and down a hill till the man was dead.

⁂ This subject has furnished Pradon and Dorat with tragedies (_French_), and Metastasio, the Italian poet, with an opera called _Regolo_ (1740).

“Regulus” was a favorite part of the French actor, François J. Talma.

=Rehearsal= (_The_), a farce by George Villiers, duke of Buckingham (1671). It was designed for a satire on the rhyming plays of the time. The chief character, Bayes (1 _syl._), is meant for Dryden.

The name of George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, demands cordial mention by every writer on the stage. He lived in an age when plays were chiefly written in rhyme, which served as a vehicle for foaming sentiment clouded by hyperbolê.... The dramas of Lee and Settle ... are made up of blatant couplets that emptily thundered through five long acts. To explode an unnatural custom by ridiculing it, was Buckingham’s design in _The Rehearsal_, but in doing this the gratification of private dislike was a greater stimulus than the wish to promote the public good.--W. C. Russell, _Representative Actors_.

=Reichel= (_Colonel_), in _Charles XII._, by J. R. Planché (1826).

=Rejected Addresses=, parodies on Wordsworth, Cobbett, Southey, Scott, Coleridge, Crabbe, Byron, Theodore Hook, etc., by James and Horace Smith; the copyright after the sixteenth edition was purchased by John Murray, in 1819, for £131. The directors of Drury Lane Theatre had offered a premium for the best poetical address to be spoken at the opening of the new building, and the brothers Smith conceived the idea of publishing a number of poems supposed to have been written for the occasion and rejected by the directors (1812).

“I do not see why they should have been rejected,” said a Leicestershire clergyman, “for I think some of them are very good.”--James Smith.

=Reksh=, Sir Rustam’s horse.

=Relapse=, (_The_), a comedy by Vanbrugh (1697). Reduced to three acts, and adapted to more modern times by Sheridan, under the title of _A Trip to Scarborough_ (1777).

=Rel´dresal=, principal secretary for private affairs in the court of Lilliput, and great friend of Gulliver. When it was proposed to put the Man-mountain to death for high treason, Reldresal moved as an amendment, that the “traitor should have both his eyes put out, and be suffered to live that he might serve the nation.”--Swift, _Gulliver’s Travels_ (“Voyage to Lilliput,” 1726).

⁂ Probably the dean had the Bible story of Samson and the Philistines in his thoughts.

=Relics.= The following relics are worthy of note, if for no other reason, because of the immense number of pilgrims who are drawn to them from all parts of the world.

1. THE HOUSE OF THE VIRGIN. This is now to be seen at Loreto, a town on the Adriatic, near Ancona, whither it was miraculously transported through the air by angels in the year 1294. It had been originally brought from Nazareth to Dalmatia in 1291, but after resting there for three years was again lifted up and placed where it now stands. It is a small brick structure surrounded by a marble screen designed by Bramante and decorated with carvings and sculptures by a number of celebrated sculptors. The church in which the house stands was built over it to protect it shortly after its arrival.

2. THE HOLY COAT. This is the seamless coat worn by Jesus, and for which the soldiers drew lots at his crucifixion. It is described by John alone of the evangelists: “Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.” John 19, 23. It is preserved at Treves in the cathedral, and is shown at long intervals to the faithful, attracting vast crowds of pilgrims from all parts of Europe and America. It was last shown in 1891. The village of Argenteuil, near Paris, disputes with Treves the possession of the true garment, insisting on its own superior claim, but the right of Treves is generally acknowledged by Catholics.

3. THE HOLY FACE. According to the legend, when Jesus was on His way to Calvary, one of the women standing by, whose name was Veronica, seeing Him sinking under the weight of the cross, gave Him her handkerchief to wipe the sweat from His face. When He returned it the impression of His face was left upon the cloth, and remains distinctly to be seen at the present day.

4. THE SAINTE CHAPELLE at Paris, one of the most beautiful Gothic buildings in Europe, was built as a shrine to contain the fragment of the true Cross and a thorn from the Crown of Thorns given by Louis IX. of France (Saint Louis). These relics have since been transferred to the Treasury of Notre Dame, at Paris. The church at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) also contains a fragment of the true Cross. In various churches of Italy, pictures of the Virgin Mary said to have been painted by Saint Luke (a painter as well as a physician, and the patron saint of both professions) are preserved, but no one of them has any fame above the rest.

=Remember, Thou Art Mortal!= When a Roman conqueror entered the city in triumph, a slave was placed in the chariot to whisper from time to time into the ear of the conqueror, “Remember, thou art a man!”

Vespasian, the Roman emperor, had a slave who said to him daily as he left his chamber, “Remember, thou art a man!”

In the ancient Egyptian banquets it was customary during the feast to draw a mummy, in a car, round the banquet hall, while one uttered aloud, “To this estate you must come at last!”

When the sultan of Serendib (_i.e._ Ceylon) went abroad, his vizier cried aloud, “This is the great monarch, the tremendous sultan of the Indies ... greater than Solimo or the grand Mihragê!” An officer behind the monarch then exclaimed, “This monarch, though so great and powerful, must die, must die, must die!”--_Arabian Nights_ (“Sindbad,” sixth voyage).

=Remois= (2 _syl._), the people of Rheims, in France.

=Remond=, a shepherd in _Britannia’s Pastorals_, by William Browne (1613).

Remond, young Remond, that full well could sing, And tune his pipe at Pan’s birth carolling; Who, for his nimble leaping, sweetest layes, A laurell garland wore on holidayes; In framing of whose hand Dame Nature swore, There never was his like, nor should be more.

_Pastoral_, i.

=Rem´ores=, birds which retard the execution of a project.

“Remores” aves in auspicio dicuntur quæ acturum aliquid remorari compellunt.--Festus, _De VerborumSignificatione_.[TN-121]

=Remus.= (See ROMULUS AND REMUS.)

_Remus_ (_Uncle_). Hero of many of Joel Chandler Harris’s tales of negro-life. His fables of “Brer Rabbit,” “Brer Bear,” and the like are curious relics of African folk-lore (1886).

=Re´naud=, one of the paladins of Charlemagne, always described with the properties of a borderer, valiant, alert, ingenious, rapacious, and unscrupulous. Better known in the Italian form _Rinaldo_ (_q.v._).

=Renault=, a Frenchman, and one of the chief conspirators in which Pierre was concerned. When Jaffier joined the conspiracy, he gave his wife, Belvide´ra, as surety of his fidelity, and a dagger to be used against her if he proved unfaithful. Renault attempted the honor of the lady, and Jaffier took her back in order to protect her from such insults. The old villain died on the wheel, and no one pitied him.--T. Otway, _Venice Preserved_ (1682).

=René=, the old king of Provence, father of Queen Margaret of Anjou (wife of Henry VI. of England). A minstrel-monarch, friend to the chase and tilt, poetry, and music. Thiebault says he gave in largesses to knights-errant and minstrels more than he received in revenue (ch. xxix.).--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).

_René_ (2 _syl._), the hero and title of a romance by Châteaubriand (1801). It was designed for an episode to his _Génie du Christianisme_ (1802). René is a man of social inaction, conscious of possessing a superior genius, but his pride produces in him a morbid bitterness of spirit.

_René_ [LEBLANC], notary public of Grand Pré, in Arcadia (_Nova Scotia_). Bent with age, but with long yellow hair flowing over his shoulders. He was the father of twenty children, and had a hundred grandchildren. When Acadia was ceded by the French to England, George II. confiscated the goods of the simple colonists, and drove them into exile. René went to Pennsylvania, where he died, and was buried.--Longfellow, _Evangeline_ (1849).

=Renton= (_Dr._). A Boston physician, whose best friend, dying, leaves a letter charging Renton, “_In the name of the Saviour, be true and tender to mankind_.” The doctor believes himself to be haunted by the ghost of this man, intent upon inforcing the admonition, and the needy and the afflicted profit by the hallucination.--William D. O’Connor, _The Ghost_.

=Rentowel= (_Mr. Jabesh_), a covenanting preacher.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

With vehemence of some pulpit-drumming Gowkthrapple, or “precious” Mr. Jabesh Rentowel.--Carlyle.

=Renzo and Lucia=, the hero and heroine of an Italian novel by Alessandro Manzoni, entititled[TN-122] _The Betrothed Lover_ (“I Promessi Sposi”). This novel contains an account of the Bread Riot and plague of Milan. Cardinal Borro´meo is also introduced. There is an English translation (1827).

=Republican Queen=, (_The_), Sophie Charlotte, wife of Frederick I. of Prussia.

=Resequenz=, wily major-domo to the duke of Romagna, audacious, unscrupulous and treacherous.--William Waldorf Astor, _Valentino_ (1886).

=Resolute= (_The_), John Florio, philologist (1545?-1625). Translated Montaigne’s Essays and wrote a French and English Dictionary called a _World of Words_. One of the few autographs of Shakespeare is in a copy of Florio’s Montaigne in the British Museum.

⁂ Florio is said to have been the prototype of Shakespeare’s “Holofernês,” in _Love’s Labour’s Lost_.

=Resolute Doctor= (_The_), John Baconthorpe (*-1346).

⁂ Guillaume Durandus de St. Pourçain was called “the Most Resolute Doctor[TN-123] (1267-1332).

=Restless= (_Sir John_), the suspicious husband of a suspicious wife.

_Lady Restless_, wife of Sir John. As she has a fixed idea that her husband is inconstant, she is always asking the servants, “Where is Sir John?” “Is Sir John returned?” “Which way did Sir John go?” “Has Sir John received any letters?” “Who has called?” etc.; and, whatever the answer, it is to her a confirmation of her surmises.--A. Murphy, _All in the Wrong_ (1761).

=Reuben Dixon=, a village schoolmaster of “ragged lads.”

’Mid noise, and dirt, and stench, and play, and prate, He calmly cuts the pen or views the slate.

Crabbe, _Borough_, xxiv. (1810).

=Reuben and Seth=, servants of Nathan ben Israel, the Jew at Ashby, a friend of Isaac and Rebecca.--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

=Reullu´ra= (_i.e. “beautiful star”_), the wife of Aodh, one of the Culdees, or primitive clergy of Scotland, who preached the gospel of God in Io´na, an island south of Staffa. Here Ulvfa´gre, the Dane, landed, and, having put all who opposed him to death, seized Aodh, bound him in iron, carried him to the church, and demanded where the treasures were concealed. Just then appeared a mysterious figure all in white, who first unbound Aodh, and then taking the Dane by the arm, led him up to the statue of St. Columb, which immediately fell and crushed him to death. Then turning to the Norsemen, the same mysterious figure told them to “go back and take the bones of their chief with them;” adding, whoever lifted hand in the island again, should be a paralytic for life. “The[TN-124] “saint” then transported the remnant of the islanders to Ireland; but when search was made for Reullura, her body was in the sea, and her soul in heaven.--Campbell, _Reullura_.

=Reutha´mir=, the principal man of Balclutha, a town belonging to the Britons on the river Clyde. His daughter, Moina, married Clessammor (Fingal’s uncle on the mother’s side). Reuthamir was killed by Combal (Fingal’s father) when he attacked Balcutha and burned it to the ground.--Ossian, _Carthon_.

=Reutner= (_Karl_), young German, serving in the Federal army, finds, on the Gettysburg battle-field, a four-leafed clover, and waves it in the air. The gesture attracts a sharp-shooter, and Reutner falls insensible. He is taken from hospital to prison, and languishes for weeks, in delirium, all the while haunted by a vision of a woman, dark-eyed and beautiful, who brings him handfuls of four-leaved clover. When he reaches home, he recognizes her in Margaret Warren, a guest in his father’s house. The betrothal-ring bears a four-leaved clover of green enamel, set in diamonds.--Helen Hunt Jackson, _A Four-Leaved Clover_ (1886).

=Rev´eller= (_Lady_), cousin of Valeria, the blue-stocking. Lady Reveller is very fond of play, but ultimately gives it up, and is united to Lord Worthy.--Mrs. Centlivre, _The Basset Table_ (1706).

=Revenge= (_The_), a tragedy by Edward Young (1721). (For the plot, see ZANGA.)

_Revenge_ (_The_), the ship under the command of Sir Richard Grenville, anchored at Flores, in the Azores, when a fleet of fifty-three Spanish ships hove in sight. Lord Thomas Howard, with six men-of-war, sailed off; but Sir Richard stood his ground. He had only a hundred men, but with this crew and his one ship, he encountered the Spanish fleet. The fight was very obstinate. Some of the Spanish ships were sunk, and many shattered; but Sir Richard at length was wounded, and the surgeon shot while dressing the wound. “Sink the ship, master gunner!” cried Sir Richard; “sink the ship, and let her not fall into the hands of Spain!” But the crew were obliged to yield, and Sir Richard died. The Spaniards were amazed at Grenville’s pluck, and gave him all honors, as they cast his body into the sea. _The Revenge_ was then manned by Spaniards, but never reached the Spanish coast, for it was wrecked in a tempest, and went down with all hands aboard.--Tennyson, _The Revenge_, a ballad of the fleet (1878).

⁂ This sea-fight is the subject of one of Froude’s essays.

Canon Kingsley has introduced it in _Westward Ho!_ where he gives a description of Sir Richard Grenville.

Lord Bacon says the fight “was memorable even beyond credit, and to the height of heroic fable.”

Mr. Arber published three interesting contemporary documents relating to _The Revenge_, by Sir Walter Raleigh.

Gervase Markham wrote a long poem on the subject (two hundred stanzas of eight lines each).

_Revenge_ (_The Palace of_), a palace of crystal, provided with everything agreeable to life except the means of going out of it. The fairy Pagan made it, and when Imis rejected his suit because she loved Prince Philax, he shut them up in this palace out of revenge. At the end of a few years Pagan had his revenge, for Philax and Imis longed as eagerly for a separation as they had once done to be united.--Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“Palace of Revenge,” 1682).

=Revenons à nos Moutons=, let us return to the matter in hand. This phrase comes from an old French comedy of the fifteenth century, entitled _L’Avocat Patelin_, by Blanchet. A clothier, giving evidence against a shepherd who had stolen some sheep, is for ever running from the subject to talk about some cloth of which Patelin, his lawyer, had defrauded him. The judge from time to time pulls him up by saying, “Well, well! and about the sheep?” “What about the sheep!” (See PATELIN.)

=Revolutionary Songs.= By far the most popular were:

1. _La Marseillaise_, both words and music by Rouget de Lisle (1792).

2. _Veillons au Salut de l’Empire_, by Adolphe S. Boy (1791). Music by Dalayra. Very strange that men whose whole purpose was to _destroy_ the empire should go about singing “Let us guard it!”

3. _Ça Ira_, written to the tune of _Le Carillon National_, in 1789, while preparations were being made for the _Fête de la Féderation_. It was a great favorite with Marie Antoinette, who was for ever “strumming the tune on her harpsichord.”

4. _Chant du Départ_, by Marie Joseph de Chénier (1794). Music by Méhul. This was the most popular next to the _Marseillaise_.

5. _La Carmagnole._ “Madame Veto avait promis de faire égorger tout Paris ...” (1792). Probably so called from Carmagnole, in Piedmont. The burden of this dancing song is:

Danson la Carmagnole, Vive le son! Vive le son! Danson la Carmagnole, Vive le son du canon!

6. _La Vengeur_, a spirited story, in verse, about a ship so called. Lord Howe took six of the French ships, June 1, 1794; but _La Vengeur_ was sunk by the crew, that it might not fall into the hands of the English, and went down while the crew shouted “Vive la République!” The story bears a strong resemblance to that of “The Revenge,” Sir Richard Grenville’s ship. See _ante_.

In the second Revolution we have:

1. _La Parisienne_, called “The _Marseillaise_ of 1830,” by Casimir Delavigne, the same year.

2. _La France a l’Horreur du Servage_, by Casimir Delavigne (1843).

3. _Le Champ de Bataille_, by Emile Debreaux (about 1830).

The chief political songs of Béranger are: _Adieux de Marie Stuart_, _La Cocarde Blanche_, _Jacques_, _La Déesse_, _Marquis de Carabas_, _Le Sacre de Charles le Simple_, _Le Senateur_, _Le Vieux Caporal_, and _Le Vilain_.

In the American Revolution the air of _Yankee Doodle_ was sung to various sets of words, all derisive of the British and exhilarating to the Americans.

In the Civil War of the United States _The Star-Spangled Banner_, _Hail Columbia_, _Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!_ and Julia Ward Howe’s _Battle Hymn of the Republic_ to the air of _John Brown’s Body Lies Mouldering in the Ground_ were favorites with the Federal troops.

Among the Confederates, _Dixie_, and _Maryland, My Maryland_, were most popular.

=Rewcastle= (_Old John_), a Jedburgh smuggler, and one of the Jacobite conspirators with the laird of Ellieslaw.--Sir W. Scott, _The Black Dwarf_ (time, Anne).

=Reynaldo=, a servant to Polonius.--Shakespeare, _Hamlet_ (1596).

=Reynard the Fox=, the hero of the beast-epic so called. This prose poem is a satire on the state of Germany in the Middle Ages. Reynard represents the Church; Isengrin, the wolf (his uncle), typifies the baronial element; and Nodel, the lion, stands for the regal power. The plot turns on the struggle for supremacy between Reynard and Isengrin. Reynard uses all his endeavors to victimize every one, especially his uncle, Isengrin, and generally succeeds.--_Reinecke Fuchs_ (thierepos,[TN-125] 1498).

=Reynardine= (3 _syl._), eldest son of Reynard the Fox. He assumed the names of Dr. Pedanto and Crabron.--_Reynard the Fox_ (1498).

=Reynold of Montalbon=, one of Charlemagne’s paladins.

=Reynolds= (_Sir Joshua_), is thus described by Goldsmith:

Here Reynolds is laid; and, to tell you my mind, He has not left a wiser or better behind. His pencil was striking, resistless and grand; His manners were gentle, complying and bland ... To coxcombs averse, yet most civilly steering, When they judged without skill he was still hard of hearing; When they talked of their Raphaels, Corregios, and stuff, He shifted his trumpet, and only took snuff.

_Retaliation_ (1774).

N.B.--Sir Joshua Reynolds was hard of hearing, and used an ear-trumpet.

=Rez´io= (_Dr._) or “Pedro Rezio of Ague´ro,” the doctor of Barata´ria, who forbade Sancho Panza to taste any of the meats set before him. Roast partridge was “forbidden by Hippoc´ratês.” Podri´da was “the most pernicious food in the world.” Rabbits were “a sharp-haired diet.” Veal was “prejudicial to health.” But, he said, the governor might eat “a few wafers, and a thin slice or two of quince.”--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. iii. 10 (1615).

=Rhadaman´thus=, son of Jupiter and Euro´pa. He reigned in the Cycladês with such partiality, that at death he was made one of the judges of the infernal regions.

And if departed souls must rise again ... And bide the judgment of reward or pain ... Then Rhadamanthus and stern Minos were True types of justice while they livèd here.

Lord Brooke, _Monarchie_, i. (1554-1628).

=Rhampsini´tos=, king of Egypt, usually called Ram´esês III., the richest of the Egyptian monarchs, who amassed 72 millions sterling, which he secured in a treasury of stone. By an artifice of the builder, he was robbed every night.--_Herodotus_, ii. 121.

A parallel tale is told of Hyrieus [_Hy´.ri.uce_] of Hyrĭa. His two architects, Trophōnios and Agamēdês (brothers), built his treasure-vaults, but left one stone removable at pleasure. After great loss of treasure, Hyrieus spread a net, in which Agame´des was caught. To prevent recognition, Trophonios cut off his brother’s head.--Pausanias, _Itinerary of Greece_, ix. 37, 3.

A similar tale is told of the treasure-vaults of Augĕas, king of Elis.

=Rha´sis= or Mohammed Aboubekr ibn Zakaria el Razi, a noted Arabian physician. He wrote a treatise on small-pox and measles, with some 200 other treatises (850-923).

Well, error has no end; And Rhasis is a sage.

R. Browning, _Paracelsus_, iii.

=Rhea’s Child.= Jupiter is so called by Pindar. He dethroned his father, Saturn.

The child Of Rhea drove him [_Saturn_] from the upper sky.

Akenside, _Hymn to the Naiads_ (1767).

=Rheims= (_The Jackdaw of_), The cardinal-archbishop of Rheims made a great feast, to which he invited all the joblillies of the neighborhood. There were abbots and prelates, knights and squires, and all who delighted to honor the great panjandrum of Rheims. The feast over, water was served, and his lordship’s grace, drawing off his turquoise ring, laid it beside his plate, dipped his fingers into the golden bowl, and wiped them on his napkin; but when he looked to put on his ring, it was nowhere to be found. It was evidently gone. The floor was searched, the plates and dishes lifted up, the mugs and chalices, every possible and impossible place was poked into, but without avail. The ring must have been stolen. His grace was furious, and, in dignified indignation, calling for bell, book, and candle, banned the thief, both body and soul, this life and for ever. It was a terrible curse, but none of the guests seemed the worse for it--except, indeed, the jackdaw. The poor bird was a pitiable object, his head lobbed down, his wings draggled on the floor, his feathers were all ruffled, and with a ghost of a caw he prayed the company follow him; when lo! there was the ring, hidden in some sly corner by the jackdaw as a clever practical joke. His lordship’s grace smiled benignantly, and instantly removed the curse; when lo! as if by magic, the bird became fat and sleek again, perky and impudent, wagging his tail, winking his eye, and cocking his head on one side, then up he hopped to his old place on the cardinal’s chair. Never after this did he indulge in thievish tricks, but became so devout, so constant at feast and chapel, so well-behaved at matins and vespers, that when he died he died in the odor of sanctity, and was canonized, his name being changed to that of Jim Crow.--Barham, _Ingoldsby Legends_ (“Jackdaw of Rheims,” 1837).

=Rheingold.= The treasure given Siegfried by the dwarfs, and the cause of contention after his death.

=Rhesus= was on his march to aid the Trojans in their siege, and had nearly reached Troy, when he was attacked in the night by Ulysses and Diomed. In this surprise Rhesus and all his army were cut to pieces.--Homer, _Iliad_, x.

A parallel case was that of Sweno, the Dane, who was marching to join Godfrey and the crusaders, when he was attacked in the night by Solyman, and both Sweno and his army perished.--Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

=Rhiannon’s Birds.= The notes of these birds were so sweet that warriors remained spell-bound for eighty years together, listening to them. These birds are often alluded to by the Welsh bards. (Rhiannon was the wife of Prince Pwyll.)--_The Mabinogion_, 363 (twelfth century).

The snow-white bird which the monk Felix listened to, sang so enchantingly that he was spell-bound for a hundred years, listening to it.--Longfellow, _Golden Legend_.

=Rhodalind=, daughter of Aribert, king of Lombardy, in love with Duke Gondibert; but Gondibert preferred Birtha, a country girl, daughter of the sage, Astrăgon. While the duke is whispering sweet love-notes to Birtha, a page comes post-haste to announce to him that the king has proclaimed him his heir, and is about to give him his daughter in marriage. The duke gives Birtha an emerald ring, and says if he is false to her, the emerald will lose its lustre; then hastens to court, in obedience to the king’s summons. Here the tale breaks off, and was never finished.--Sir Wm. Davenant, _Gondibert_ (1605-1668).

=Rhodian Venus= (_The_). This was the “Venus” of Protog´enês mentioned by Pliny, _Natural History_, xxxv. 10.

When first the Rhodian’s mimic art arrayed The Queen of Beauty in her Cyprian shade, The happy master mingled in his piece Each look that charmed him in the fair of Greece.

Campbell, _Pleasures of Hope_, ii. (1799).

Prior (1664-1721) refers to the same painting in his fable of _Protogênes and Appellês_:

I hope, sir, you intend to stay To see our Venus; ’tis the piece The most renowned throughout all Greece.

=Rhod´ope= (3 _syl._), or =Rhod´opis=, a celebrated Greek courtezan, who afterwards married Psammetichus, king of Egypt. It is said she built the third pyramid.--Pliny, _Nat. Hist._, xxxvi. 12.

A statelier pyramis to her I’ll rear, Than Rhodope’s.

Shakespeare, _Henry VI._ act i. sc. 6 (1589).

=Rhombus=, a schoolmaster who speaks “a leash of languages at once,” puzzling himself and his hearers with a jargon like that of “Holofernês” in Shakespeare’s _Love’s Labor’s Lost_ (1594).--Sir Philip Sidney, _Pastoral Entertainment_ (1587).

_Rhombus_, a spinning-wheel or rolling instrument used by the Roman witches for fetching the moon out of heaven.

Quæ nunc Thessalico lunam deducere rhombo [_sciet_].--Martial, _Epigrams_, ix. 30.

=Rhone of Christian Eloquence= (_The_), St. Hilary (300-367).

=Rhone of Latin Eloquence= (_The_). St. Hilary is so called by St. Jerome (300-367).

=Rhongomyant=, the lance of King Arthur.--_The Mabinogion_ (“Kilhwch and Olwen,” twelfth century).

=Rhyming to Death.= In 1 _Henry VI._ act i. sc. 1, Thomas Beaufort, duke of Exeter, speaking about the death of Henry V., says, “Must we think that the subtle-witted French conjurors and sorcerers, out of fear of him, ‘by magic verses have contrived his end?’” The notion of killing by incantation was at one time very common.

Irishmen ... will not stick to affirme that they can rime either man or beast to death.--Reg. Scot, _Discoverie of Witchcraft_ (1564).

=Ribbon.= The _yellow_ ribbon, in France, indicates that the wearer has won a _médaille militaire_ (instituted by Napoleon III.) as a minor decoration of the Legion of Honor.

The _red_ ribbon marks a _chevalier_ of the Legion of Honor. A _rosette_ indicates a higher grade than that of _chevalier_.

=Ribemont= (3 _syl._), the bravest and noblest of the French host in the battle of Poitiers. He alone dares confess that the English are a brave people. In the battle he is slain by Lord Audley.--Shirley, _Edward the Black Prince_ (1640).

_Ribemont_ (_Count_), in _The Siege of Calais_, by Colman.

=Riccar´do=, commander of Plymouth fortress, a Puritan to whom Lord Walton has promised his daughter, Elvira, in marriage. Riccardo learns that the lady is in love with Arthur Talbot, and when Arthur is taken prisoner by Cromwell’s soldiers, Riccardo promises to use his efforts to obtain his pardon. This, however, is not needful, for Cromwell, feeling quite secure of his position, orders all the captives of war to be released. Riccardo is the Italian form of Sir Richard Forth.--Bellini, _I Puritani_ (opera, 1834).

=Ricciardetto=, son of Aymon, and brother of Bradamante.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

=Rice.= _Eating rice with a bodkin._ Aminê, the beautiful wife of Sidi Nouman, ate rice with a bodkin, but she was a ghoul. (See AMINE.)

=Richard=, a fine, honest lad, by trade a smith. He marries, on New Year’s Day, Meg, the daughter of Toby Veck.--C. Dickens, _The Chimes_ (1844).

_Richard_ (_Squire_), eldest son of Sir Francis Wronghead, of Bumper Hall. A country bumpkin, wholly ignorant of the world and of literature.--Vanbrugh and Cibber, _The Provoked Husband_ (1727).

Robert Wetherilt [1708-1745] came to Drury Lane a boy, where he showed his rising genius in the part of “Squire Richard.”--Chetwood, _History of the Stage_.

_Richard_ (_Prince_), eldest son of King Henry II.--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

_Richard_ “Cœur de Lion,” introduced in two novels by Sir W. Scott (_The Talisman_ and _Ivanhoe_). In the latter he first appears as “The Black Knight,” at the tournament, and is called _Le Noir Fainéant_, or “The Black Sluggard;” also “The Knight of the Fetter-lock.”

_Richard a Name of Terror._ The name of Richard I., like that of Attila, Bonaparte, Corvīnus, Narses, Sebastian, Talbot, Tamerlane, and other great conquerors, was at one time employed _in terrorem_ to disobedient children. (See NAMES OF TERROR.)

His tremendous name was employed by the Syrian mothers to silence their infants; and if a horse suddenly started from the way, his rider was wont to exclaim, “Dost thou think King Richard is in the bush?”--Gibbon, _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, xi. 146 (1776-88).

_The Daughters of Richard I._ When Richard was in France, Fulco, a priest, told him he ought to beware how he bestowed his daughters in marriage. “I have no daughters,” said the king. “Nay, nay,” replied Fulco, “all the world knows that you have three--Pride, Covetousness and Lechery.” “If these are my daughters,” said the king, “I know well how to bestow them where they will be well cherished. My eldest I give to the Knights Templars, my second to the monks; and my third I cannot bestow better than on yourself, for I am sure she will never be divorced nor neglected.”--Thomas Milles, _True Nobility_ (1610).

_The Horse of Richard I._, Fennel.

Ah, Fennel, my noble horse, thou bleedest, thou art slain!--_Cœur de Lion and His Horse._

_The Troubadour of Richard I._, Bertrand de Born.

=Richard Pennyroyal=, unhappy man whose weary indifference to his first wife heightens into aversion as she becomes insane. He is relieved when she drowns herself. His second wife, passionately beloved, is unfaithful to him, and loathes him as he drinks more and more to drown disappointment. His rival triumphs over him in a struggle for property, but Richard has his wife still. Straying one night toward the pool in which his first wife drowned herself, he comes upon the false wife and her lover, challenges the latter to a duel then and there, and is shot through the heart. His body is tossed into the pool and never discovered.--Julian Hawthorne, _Archibald Malmaison_ (1878).

=Richard II’s Horse=, Roan Barbary.--Shakespeare, _Richard II._ act v. sc. 5 (1597).

=Richard III.=, a tragedy by Shakespeare (1597). At one time parts of Rowe’s tragedy of _Jane Shore_ were woven in the acting edition, and John Kemble introduced other clap-traps from Colley Cibber. The best actors of this part were David Garrick (1716-1779), Henry Mossop (1729-1773) and Edmund Kean (1787-1833).

Richard III. was only 19 years old at the opening of Shakespeare’s play.--Sharon Turner.

_The Horse of Richard III._, White Surrey.--Shakespeare, _Richard III._