Part 204

=Oldbuck, Jonathan.=--_Antiquary_, Scott. The character whose whimsies gave name to the novel. He is represented as devoted to the study and accumulation of old coins, medals, and relics. He is irritable, sarcastic, and cynical from an early disappointment in love, but full of humor and a faithful friend.

=Old Curiosity Shop, The.=--A tale by Charles Dickens. An old man, having run through his fortune, opened a curiosity shop in order to earn a living and brought up a granddaughter, named Nell [Trent], fourteen years of age. The child was the darling of the old man, but, deluding himself with the hope of making a fortune by gaming, he lost everything, and went forth, with the child, a beggar. Their wanderings and adventures are recounted till they reach a quiet country village, where the old clergyman gives them a cottage to live in. Here Nell soon dies, and the grandfather is found dead upon her grave. The main character, next to Nell, is that of a lad named Kit [Nubbles], employed in the curiosity shop, who adored Nell as “an angel.” This boy gets in the service of Mr. Garland, a genial, benevolent, well-to-do man, in the suburbs of London; but Quilp hates the lad, and induces Brass, a solicitor of Bevis Marks, to put a five pound banknote in the boy’s hat, and then accuse him of theft. Kit is tried, and condemned to transportation; but, the villainy being exposed by a girl-of-all-work nicknamed “The Marchioness,” Kit is liberated and restored to his place, and Quilp drowns himself.

=Old Man of the Sea.=--In the _Arabian Nights_, a monster encountered by Sindbad the sailor in his fifth voyage. After carrying him upon his shoulders a long time, Sindbad at last succeeds in intoxicating him, and effects his escape. The _Old Man of the Sea_ was also made the title of a humorous and well-known poem by O. W. Holmes.

=Old Mortality=, the best of Scott’s historical novels. Morton is the best of his young heroes, and serves as an excellent foil to the fanatical and gloomy Burley. The two classes of actors, _viz._, the brave and dissolute cavaliers, and the resolute oppressed covenanters, are drawn in bold relief. The most striking incidents are the terrible encounter with Burley in his rocky fastness; the dejection and anxiety of Morton on his return from Holland; and the rural comfort of Cuddie Headrigg’s cottage on the banks of the Clyde, with its thin blue smoke among the trees, “showing that the evening meal was being made ready.” Old Mortality is an itinerant antiquary, whose craze is to clean the moss from gravestones, and keep their letters and effigies in good condition.

=Old Red Sandstone.=--One of the most noted of Hugh Miller’s famous writings on geological subjects. It revealed his discovery of fossils in a formation which, up to that time, had been deemed almost destitute of them.

=Oliver.=--_As You Like It_, Shakespeare. Son and heir of Sir Rowland de Bois, who hated his youngest brother, Orlando, and whom he planned to murder by indirect methods. Orlando, finding it impossible to live in his brother’s house, fled to the forest of Arden, where he joined the society of the banished duke. Oliver pursued him, and as he slept in the forest a snake and a lioness lurked near to make him their prey. Orlando chanced to be passing, slew the two monsters, and then found that the sleeper was his brother Oliver. Oliver’s feelings underwent a change, and he loved his brother as much as he had before hated him. In the forest the two brothers met Rosalind and Celia. The former, who was the daughter of the banished duke, married Orlando; and the latter, who was the daughter of Frederick, the usurping duke, married Oliver.

=Oliver Twist.=--A novel by Charles Dickens. Thackeray, writing of this novel, in the character of “Ikey Solomons,” says: “The power of the writer is so amazing that the reader at once becomes his captive, and must follow him whithersoever he leads: and to what are we led? Breathless to watch all the crimes of Fagin, tenderly to deplore the errors of Nancy, to have for Bill Sikes a kind of pity and admiration, and an absolute love for the society of the Dodger. All these heroes stepped from the novel on to the stage; and the whole London public, from peers to chimney sweeps, were interested about a set of ruffians whose occupations are thievery, murder, and prostitution.” A remarkable feature of the work, and one which, on its publication, brought considerable odium on the writer, was its unsparing exposure of the poor-law and the workhouse system, which led to its representation on the stage being forbidden for a time.

=Olivia.=--_Twelfth Night_, Shakespeare. A rich countess, whose love was sought by Orsino, duke of Illyria; but, having lost her brother, Olivia lived for a time in entire seclusion, and in no wise reciprocated the duke’s love. Olivia fell in love with Viola, who was dressed as the duke’s page, and sent her a ring. Mistaking Sebastian (Viola’s brother) for Viola, she married him out of hand.

=Ophelia= (_ō-fē´liä_).--_Hamlet_, Shakespeare. Daughter of Polonius, the chamberlain. Hamlet fell in love with her, but, after his interview with the Ghost, finds that his plans must lead away from her. During his real or assumed madness, he treats her with undeserved and angry rudeness, and afterward, in a fit of inconsiderate rashness, kills her father, the old Polonius. The terrible shock given to her mind by these events completely shatters her intellect, and leads to her accidental death by drowning.

=Organon= (_ôr´ga-non_).--The name given to the first work on logic by Aristotle. He is said to have created the science of logic. The _Organon_ has been enlarged and recast by some modern authors, especially by Mr. John Stuart Mill in his _System of Logic_, into a structure commensurate with the vast increase of knowledge and extension of positive method belonging to the present day.

=Origin of Species, The.=--A work by Charles Robert Darwin, in which he put forward his theory of “natural selection.” It was published in 1859, and by many is regarded as the most important scientific work of the nineteenth century.

=Orlando Furioso= (_or-län´dō fö-rē-ō´sō_).--An epic poem in forty-six cantos, by Ariosto, which occupied his leisure for eleven years, and was published in 1516. This poem, which celebrates the semi-mythical achievements of the paladins of Charlemagne in the wars between the Christians and the Moors, became immediately popular, and has since been translated into all European languages, and passed through innumerable editions.

=Ormulum= (_ôr´mū-lum_).--The _Ormulum_ is a collection of metrical homilies, one for each day of the year; but the single existing copy gives the homilies for thirty-two days only. There are very few French words in the poem, but Scandinavian words and constructions abound. The writer, Orm, or Ormin, belonged to the east of England, and he and his brother Walter were Augustinian monks. He makes no use of rhyme, but his verses are smooth and regular.

=Osbaldistone= (_os-bâl´dis-ton_).--_Rob Roy_, Scott. A family name in the story which tells of nine of the members: (1) the London merchant and Sir Hildebrand, the heads of two families; (2) the son of the merchant is Francis; (3) the offspring of the brother are Percival, the sot; Thorncliffe, the bully; John, the gamekeeper; Richard, the horse-jockey; Wilfred, the fool; and Rashleigh, the scholar, by far the worst of all. This last worthy is slain by Rob Roy, and dies cursing his cousin Frank, whom he had injured.

=O’Shanter.=--See _Tam O’Shanter_.

=Osman= (_os-män´_).--Sultan of the East, conqueror of the Christians, a magnanimous man. He loved Yara, a young Christian captive. This forms the subject of a once famous ballad.

=Osrick= (_oz´rik_).--A court fop in Shakespeare’s _Hamlet_. He is made umpire by Claudius in the combat between Hamlet and Laertes.

=Osseo.=--_Hiawatha_, Longfellow. Son of the Evening Star. When broken with age, he married Oweenee, one of ten daughters of a northland hunter. She loved him in spite of his ugliness and decrepitude, because “all was beautiful within him.” As he was walking with his nine sisters-in-law and their husbands, he leaped into the hollow of an oak tree and came out strong and handsome; but Oweenee at the same moment was changed into a weak old woman. But the love of Osseo was not weakened. The nine brothers and sisters-in-law were transformed into birds. Oweenee, recovering her beauty, had a son, whose delight was to shoot the birds that mocked his father and mother. An Algonquin legend gave the foundation of the story.

=Othello= (_ō-thel´ō_).--A tragedy by Shakespeare. The chief character is a Moor of Venice, who marries Desdemona, the daughter of a Venetian senator, and is led by his ensign, Iago, a consummate villain, to distrust her fidelity and virtue. Iago hated the Moor both because Cassio, a Florentine, was preferred to the lieutenancy instead of himself, and also from a suspicion that the Moor had tampered with his wife; but he concealed his hatred so well that Othello wholly trusted him. Iago persuaded Othello that Desdemona intrigued with Cassio, and urged him on till he murdered his bride.

=Outre-Mer= (_ōōtr-mèr_).--_A Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea._--A series of prose tales and sketches by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, published in 1835. “The Pays d’Outre-Mer,” says the writer, “is a name by which the pilgrims and crusaders of old designated the Holy Land. I, too, in a certain sense, have been a pilgrim of Outre-Mer; for to my youthful imagination the Old World was a kind of Holy Land, lying afar off beyond the blue horizon of the ocean. In this, my pilgrimage, I have traversed France from Normandy to Navarre; smoked my pipe in a Flemish inn; floated through Holland in a Trekschuit; trimmed my midnight lamp in a German university; wandered and mused amid the classic scenes of Italy; and listened to the gay guitar and merry castanet on the borders of the blue Guadalquivir.”

=P=

=Pacolet= (_pak´ō-let_).--In _Valentine and Orson_, an old romance, a character who owned an enchanted steed, often alluded to by early writers. The name of Pacolet was borrowed by Steele for his familiar spirit in the _Tatler_. The French have a proverb, “It is the horse of Pacolet;” that is, it is one that goes very fast.

=Page.=--_Merry Wives of Windsor_, Shakespeare. Name of a family of Windsor, conspicuous in the play. When Sir John Falstaff made love to Mrs. Page, Page himself assumed the name of Brook. Sir John told the supposed Brook his whole “course of wooing.”

=Page, Anne.=--Daughter of the above, in love with Fenton. Slender calls her “the sweet Anne Page.”

=Page, Mrs.=--Wife of Mr. Page, of Windsor. When Sir John Falstaff made love to her, she joined with Mrs. Ford to dupe him and punish him.

=Palamon.=--(1) A character in _The Knight’s Tale_ in Chaucer’s _Canterbury Tales_, in love with Emilia, who is also beloved by Palamon’s friend, Arcite. (2) In Falconer’s poem of _The Shipwreck_, is in love with the daughter of Albert, the commander of the vessel in which he sails. (3) In Thomson’s poem of _Autumn_ in _The Seasons_, is a young man, “the pride of swains,” in love with Lavinia. He is a poetical representation of Boaz, while Lavinia is intended for Ruth.

=Pangloss= (_pan´glos_), =Doctor.=--(1) A poor pedant, in Colman the Younger’s comedy of the _Heir at Law_, who has been created an _Artium Societatis Socius_ (_A. S. S._). He is remarkable for the aptness, if triteness, of his quotations. (2) An optimist philosopher in Voltaire’s _Candide_.

=Pantagruelian= (_pan-tag´rö-el-an_) =Law Case.=--_Pantagruel_, Rabelais. This case, having nonplused all the judges in Paris, was referred to Lord Pantagruel for decision. After much “statement” the bench declared, “We have not understood one single circumstances of the defense.” Then Pantagruel gave sentence, but his judgment was as unintelligible as the case itself. So, as no one understood a single sentence of the whole affair, all were perfectly satisfied.

=Paracelsus= (_par-a-sel´sus_).--A dramatic poem by Robert Browning, published in 1835. It is a work of singular beauty, and is replete with lofty and solemn thoughts on the fate of genius and the chance and change of life. The Paracelsus of the poem is a very different person from the Paracelsus of history--the brilliant and daring quack who professed to have discovered the philosopher’s stone, but who, by the introduction of opium among the remedies of the _Pharmacopæia_, in some wise made amends for his absurd extravagance.

=Paradise and the Peri.=--The second tale in Moore’s poetical romance of _Lalla Rookh_. The Peri laments her expulsion from heaven, and is told that she will be readmitted if she will bring to the gate of heaven the “gift most dear to the Almighty.” After several failures the Peri offered the “Repentant Tear,” and the gates flew open to receive the gift.

=Paradise Lost.=--An epic poem by Milton. The poem opens with the awaking of the rebel angels in hell after their fall from heaven, the consultation of their chiefs how best to carry on the war with God, and the resolve of Satan to go forth and tempt newly created man to fall. Satan reaches Eden, and finds Adam and Eve in their innocence. This is told in the first four books. The next four books contain the Archangel Raphael’s story of the war in heaven, the fall of Satan, and the creation of the world. The last four books describe the temptation and the fall of man, and tell of the redemption of man by Christ, and the expulsion from Paradise.

=Paradise Regained.=--An epic by Milton on the redemption of man. In this poem the author tells of the journey of Christ into the wilderness after his baptism, and its four books describe the temptation of Christ by Satan.

=Parallel Lives of Greeks and Romans.=--A celebrated biographical work by Plutarch, consisting of forty-six comparisons. In spite of all exceptions on the score of inaccuracy, want of information, or prejudice, _Plutarch’s Lives_ must remain one of the most valuable relics of Greek literature, not only because they stand in the place of many volumes of lost history, but also because they are written with a graphic and dramatic vivacity such as we find in few biographies, ancient or modern; because they are replete with reflections which, if not profound, are always moderate and sensible; and because the author’s aim throughout is to enforce the highest standard of morality of which a heathen was capable. As one of his most enthusiastic admirers has said, “He stands before us as the legate, the ambassador, and the orator on behalf of those institutions whereby the old-time men were rendered wise and virtuous.”

=Partington= (_pär´ting-ton_), =Mrs.=--An imaginary old lady whose laughable sayings have been recorded by an American humorist, B. P. Shillaber.

=Paul and Virginia.=--A popular romance by Bernardin de St. Pierre. According to a tradition, or version, Paul and Virginia are brought up in the belief that they are brother and sister. Don Antonio is sent to bring her to Spain, and make her his bride. She is taken by force on board ship, but scarcely has the ship started, when a hurricane dashes it on the rocks and it is wrecked. Alhambra, a runaway slave, whom Paul and Virginia had befriended, rescues Virginia, who is brought to shore and married to Paul. Antonio is drowned.

=Pauline.=--The Lady of Lyons in Bulwer-Lytton’s play of this name. She was married to Claude Melnotte, a gardener’s son, who pretended to be a count.

=Paul Pry.=--_Paul Pry_, John Poole. An idle, inquisitive, meddlesome fellow, who has no occupation of his own, and is forever poking his nose into other people’s affairs. He always comes in with the apology “I hope I don’t intrude.”

=Peau de Chagrin= (_pō du shä-grin_), “_The Ass’ Skin._”--A story by Balzac. The hero becomes possessed of a magical wild ass’ skin, which yields him the means of gratifying every wish; but for every wish thus gratified the skin shrank somewhat, and at last vanished, having been wished entirely away. Life is a _peau d’âne_, for every vital act diminishes its force, and when all its force is gone, life is spent.

=Peeping Tom of Coventry.=--A tailor of Coventry, the only soul in the town mean enough to peep at the Lady Godiva as she rode naked through the streets to relieve the people from oppression.

=Peggotty= (_peg´o-ti_), =Clara.=--The nurse of David Copperfield in Dickens’ novel of this name. Being very plump, whenever she makes any exertion some of the buttons on the back of her dress fly off.

=Peggotty, Dan’l.=--Brother of David Copperfield’s nurse. Dan’l was a Yarmouth fisherman. His nephew, Ham Peggotty, and his brother-in-law’s child, “little Em’ly,” lived with him.

=Peggotty, Em’ly.=--She was engaged to Ham Peggotty; but being fascinated with Steerforth she eloped. She was afterward reclaimed, and emigrated to Australia.

=Peggotty, Ham.=--Represented as the very beau ideal of an uneducated, simple-minded, honest, and warm-hearted fisherman. He was drowned in his attempt to rescue Steerforth from the sea.

=Pendennis= (_pen-den´is_), =The History of.=--By William Makepeace Thackeray. The hero, Arthur Pendennis, reappears in the author’s _Adventures of Philip_, and is represented as telling the story of _The Newcomes_.

=Pendennis.=--Name of the hero of a novel by Thackeray, published in 1849 and 1850, the immediate successor of _Vanity Fair_. Literary life is described in the history of Pen, a hero of no very great worth.

=Pendennis, Laura.=--Sister of Arthur, considered one of the best of Thackeray’s characters.

=Pendennis, Major.=--A tuft-hunter, who fawns on his patrons for the sake of wedging himself into their society.

=Penseroso= (_pen-se-rō´sō_), =Il.=--A poem by John Milton, written as a companion to _L’Allegro_. The latter is composed in the character of a cheerful, the former in that of a melancholy man, and the whole tone of each poem is regulated accordingly. The one begins with the dawn, the other with evening. The one opens with the lark, the other with the nightingale, and so on.

=Pepys’= (_pēps_, or _pips_, or _pep´is_) =Diary.=--A book by Samuel Pepys, written in shorthand, and deciphered and published in 1825. It extends over the nine years from 1660 to 1669, and is the gossipy chronicle of that gay and profligate time. We have no other book which gives so lifelike a picture of that extraordinary state of society.

=Peregrine Pickle= (_per´e-grin pik´l_).--The title of a novel by Smollett. Peregrine Pickle is a savage, ungrateful spendthrift, fond of practical jokes, and suffering with evil temper the misfortunes brought on himself by his own willfulness.

=Peter Bell.=--A tale in verse, by Wordsworth. A wandering tinker, subject of Wordsworth’s poem, whose hard heart was touched by the fidelity of an ass to its dead master. Shelley wrote a burlesque of this poem, entitled _Peter Bell the Third_, intended to ridicule the ludicrous puerility of language and sentiment which Wordsworth often affected. This burlesque was given the name of the _Third_ because it followed a parody already published as _Peter the Second_.

=Petruchio= (_pe-trö´chō_, or _ki-ō_).--A gentleman of Verona, in Shakespeare’s _Taming of the Shrew_. A very honest fellow, who hardly speaks a word of truth, and succeeds in all his tricks. He acts his assumed character to the life, with untired animal spirits, and without a particle of ill-humor.

=Phædo= (_fē´dō_), or =Phædon= (_fe´don_).--An ancient and well known work by Plato, in which the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is most fully set forth. It is in the form of a dialogue, which combines, with the abstract philosophical discussion, a graphic narrative of the last hours of Socrates, which, for pathos and dignity, is unsurpassed.

=Phédre= (_fā´dr_).--A tragedy by Racine, produced January 1, 1677. It was founded on the story of Phædra, daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and wife of Theseus. She conceived a criminal love for Hippolytus, her stepson, and, being repulsed by him, accused him to her husband of attempting to dishonor her. Hippolytus was put to death, and Phædra, wrung with remorse, strangled herself. _Phédre_ was the great part of Mdlle. Rachel; she first appeared in this character in 1838. It is unquestionably the most remarkable of Racine’s regular tragedies. By it the style must stand or fall, and a reader need hardly go farther to appreciate it. For excellence of construction, artful beauty of verse, skillful use of the limited means of appeal at the command of the dramatist, no play can surpass _Phédre_.

=Philip.=--_The Madness of Philip_, Josephine Daskam. A representation of the unregenerate child--“the child of strong native impulses who has not yet yielded to the shaping force of education; the child, therefore, of originality, of vivacity, of humor, and of fascinating power of invention in the field of mischief.”

=Philippics= (_fi-lip´iks_), =The.=--A group of nine orations of Demosthenes, directed against Philip of Macedon. The real adversary in all these famous speeches is not so much the king of Macedon as the sloth and supineness of the Athenians, and the influence of the peace party, whether honest or bribed by Philip. They are the first Philippic, urging the sending of a military force to Thrace, delivered 351 B. C; three orations in behalf of the city of Olynthus (destroyed by Philip), delivered in 349-348; the oration _On the Peace_, 346; the second Philippic, 344; the oration _On the Embassy_, 344; the speech _On the Chersonese_, 341; and the third Philippic, 341.

The name is also given to a series of fourteen orations of Cicero against Mark Antony, delivered 44-43 B. C.

=Philtra.=--_Faërie Queene_, Spenser. A lady of large fortune, betrothed to Bracidas; but, seeing the fortune of Amidas daily increasing, and that of Bracidas getting smaller, she attached herself to the more prosperous younger brother.

=Phineas= (_fin´e-as_).--_Uncle Tom’s Cabin_, Mrs. Stowe. The quaker, an “underground railroad” man who helped the slave family of George and Eliza to reach Canada, after Eliza had crossed the river on cakes of floating ice.

=Phyllis= (_fil´is_).--In Vergil’s _Eclogues_, the name of a rustic maiden. This name, also written Phillis, has been in common use as meaning any unsophisticated country girl.

=Pickwick= (_pik´wik_), =Mr. Samuel.=--The hero of the _Pickwick Papers_, by Charles Dickens. He is a simple-minded, benevolent old gentleman, who wears spectacles and short black gaiters. He founds a club, and travels with its members over England, each member being under his guardianship. They meet many laughable adventures.

=Pied Piper of Hameln= (_hä´meln_).--Old German legend. Robert Browning, in his poem entitled _The Pied Piper_, has given a metrical version. The legend recounts how a certain musician came into the town of Hameln, in the country of Brunswick, and offered, for a sum of money, to rid the town of the rats by which it was infested. Having executed his task, and the promised reward having been withheld, he in revenge blew again his pipe, and by its tones drew the children of the town to a cavern in the side of a hill, which, upon their entrance, closed and shut them in forever.