Part 23

=Patterson= (_Elizabeth_). One of the most remarkable women of this century. The beautiful daughter of a Baltimore merchant prince, she captivated Jerome Bonaparte, (then a minor, and dependent on his brother), who was visiting America. In the face of parental opposition, she married him Dec. 24, 1803. Napoleon (First Consul) promptly repudiated the marriage, ordered his brother home, and forbade all French vessels to receive as a passenger, “_the young person_ with whom Citizen Joseph has connected himself.” In October, 1804, the young couple sailed for France in the ship _Philadelphia_, but were blown ashore at Lewes, Del. In March, 1805, they embarked again, reaching Lisbon, April 2. Napoleon (now emperor) refused to allow them to enter France, but sent to know “what he could do for _Miss Patterson_.” She replied that “Madame Bonaparte demanded her rights as one of the imperial family.” The contest was unequal. She was sent back to America, and the marriage declared null and void. Her son, Jerome, was born in England, July 7, 1805. She was never allowed to see her husband again, yet her ambitious projects for “Bo,” as she called her son, were unremitting until the downfall of the Bonarparte[TN-72] family. After this, she aimed to ally him with the English nobility, a design thwarted by his love-match with a lovely Baltimorean. She was an able financier, and became one of the richest women in Baltimore. Retaining her mind and many traces of her extraordinary beauty to the last, she died, April 3, 1879, at the age of ninety-four.

“By the laws of justice and of the Church she was a queen, although she was never allowed to reign.... There was about her the brilliancy of courts and palaces, the enchantment of a love-story, the suffering of a victim of despotic power.”--Eugene Dìdier, _Life and Letters of Madame Bonaparte_ (1879).

=Patty=, “the maid of the mill,” daughter of Fairfield, the miller. She was brought up by the mother of Lord Aimworth, and was promised by her father in marriage to Farmer Giles; but she refused to marry him, and became the bride of Lord Aimworth. Patty was very clever, very pretty, very ingenuous, and loved his lordship to adoration.--Bickerstaff, _The Maid of the Mill_ (1765).

=Pattypan= (_Mrs._), a widow who keeps lodgings, and makes love to Tim Tartlet, to whom she is ultimately engaged.

By all accounts, she is just as loving now as she was thirty years ago.--James Cobb, _The First Floor_, i. 2 (1756-1818).

=Patullo= (_Mrs._), waiting-woman to Lady Ashton.--Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

=Pau-Puk-Keewis=, a cunning mischief-maker, who taught the North American Indians the game of hazard, and stripped them, by his winnings, of all their possessions. In a mad freak Pau-Puk-Keewis entered the wigwam of Hiawatha and threw everything into confusion; so Hiawatha resolved to slay him. Pau-Puk-Keewis, taking to flight, prayed the beavers to make him a beaver ten times their own size. This they did; but when the other beavers made their escape, at the arrival of Hiawatha, Pau-Puk-Keewis was hindered from getting away by his great size; and Hiawatha slew him. His spirit, escaping, flew upwards, and prayed the storm-fools to make him a “brant” ten times their own size. This was done, and he was told never to look downwards, or he would lose his life. When Hiawatha arrived, the “brant” could not forbear looking at him; and immediately he fell to earth, and Hiawatha transformed him into an eagle.

Now in winter, when the snowflakes Whirl in eddies round the lodges,... “There,” they cry, “comes Pau-Puk-Keewis; He is dancing thro’ the village, He is gathering in his harvest.”

Longfellow, _Hiawatha_, xvii. (1855).

=Paul=, the love-child of Margaret, who retired to Port Louis, in the Mauritius, to bury herself, and bring up her only child. Hither came Mde. de la Tour, a widow, and was confined of a daughter, whom she named Virginia. Between these neighbors a mutual friendship arose, and the two children became playmates. As they grew in years their fondness for each other developed into love. When Virginia was 15, her mother’s aunt adopted her, and begged she might be sent to France to finish her education. She was above two years in France; and as she refused to marry a count of the “aunt’s” providing, she was disinherited and sent back to her mother. When within a cable’s length of the island a hurricane dashed the ship to pieces, and the dead body of Virginia was thrown upon the shore. Paul drooped from grief, and within two months followed her to the grave.--Bernardin de St. Pierre, _Paul et Virgine_ (1788).

In Cobb’s dramatic version, Paul’s mother (Margaret) is made a faithful domestic of Virginia’s parents. Virginia’s mother dies, and commits her infant daughter to the care of Dominique, a faithful old negro servant, and Paul and Virginia are brought up in the belief that they are brother and sister. When Virginia is 15 years old, her aunt, Leonora de Guzman, adopts her, and sends Don Antonio de Guardes 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 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; but Antonio is drowned (1756-1818).

_Paul_ (_Father_), Paul Sarpi (1552-1628).

_Paul_ (_St._). The very sword which cut off the head of this apostle is preserved at the convent of La Lisla, near Tolēdo, in Spain. If any one doubts the fact he may, for a gratuity, see a “copper sword, twenty-five inches long and three and a half broad, on one side of which is the word MUCRO (‘a sword’), and on the other PAULUS ... CAPITE.” Can anything be more convincing?

_Paul_ (_The Second St._). St[TN-73] Remi or _Remigius_, “The Great Apostle of the French.” He was made bishop of Rheims when only 22 years old. It was St[TN-73] Remi who baptized Clovis, and told him that henceforth he must worship what he hitherto had hated, and abjure what he had hitherto adored (439-535).

⁂ The cruse employed by St. Remi in the baptism of Clovis was used through the French monarchy in the anointing of all the kings.

=Paul Pry=, 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.”--John Poole, _Paul Pry_.

Thomas Hill, familiarly called “Tommy Hill,” was the original of this character, and also of “Gilbert Gurney,” by Theodore Hook. Planché says of Thomas Hill:

His _specialité_ was the accurate information he could impart on all the petty details of the domestic economy of his friends, the contents of their wardrobes, their pantries, the number of pots of preserves in their store-closets, and of the table-napkins in their linen-presses, the dates of their births and marriages, the amounts of their tradesmen’s bills, and whether paid weekly or quarterly. He had been on the press, and was connected with the _Morning Chronicle_. He used to drive Mathews crazy by ferreting out his whereabouts when he left London, and popping the information into some paper.--_Recollections_, i. 131-2.

=Paul Rushleigh=, son of a wealthy manufacturer, and in love from boyhood with Faith Gartney. She can give him only sisterly affection in return, but her refusal makes a man of the boy. Ten years afterwards, as General Rushleigh, a noble, high-minded patriot, he meets Margaret Regis and marries her.--A. D. T. Whitney, _Sights and Insights_ (1876).

=Pauletti= (_the Lady Erminia_), ward of Master George Heriot, the king’s goldsmith.--Sir W. Scott, _The Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

=Pauli´na=, the noble-spirited wife of Antig´onus, a Sicilian lord, and the kind friend of Queen Hermi´onê. When Hermionê gave birth in prison to a daughter, Paulina undertook to present it to King Leontês, hoping that his heart would be softened at the sight of his infant daughter; but he commanded the child to be cast out on a desert shore, and left there to perish. The child was drifted to the “coast” of Bohemia, and brought up by a shepherd, who called it Perdĭta. Florizel, the son of king Polixĕnês, fell in love with her, and fled with her to Sicily, to escape the vengeance of the angry king. The fugitives being introduced to Leontês, it was soon discovered that Perdita was the king’s daughter, and Polixenês consented to the union he had before forbidden. Paulina now invited Leontês and the rest to inspect a famous statue of Hermionê, and the statue turned out to be the living queen herself.--Shakespeare, _The Winter’s Tale_ (1604).

=Pauline=, “The Beauty of Lyons,” daughter of M. Deschappelles, a Lyonese merchant; “as pretty as Venus, and as proud as Juno.” Pauline rejected the suits of Beauseant, Glavis and Claude Melnotte; and the three rejected lovers combined on vengeance. To this end, Claude, who was a gardener’s son, pretended to be the Prince Como, and Pauline married him, but was indignant when she discovered the trick which had been played upon her. Claude left her, and entered the French army, where in two years and a half he rose to the rank of colonel. Returning to Lyons, he found his father-in-law on the eve of bankruptcy, and Pauline about to be sold to Beauseant for money to satisfy the creditors. Being convinced that Pauline really loved him, Claude paid the money required, and claimed the lady as his loving and grateful wife.--Lord L. B. Lytton, _The Lady of Lyons_ (1838).

_Pauline_ (_Mademoiselle_) or MONNA PAULA, the attendant of Lady Erminia Pauletti, the goldsmith’s ward.--Sir W. Scott, _The Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

=Pauline Pavlovna=, heroine of T. B. Aldrich’s drama of that name (1890).

=Pauli´nus= of York, christened 10,000 men, besides women and their children in one single day in the Swale. (Altogether some 50,000 souls, _i.e._ 104 every minute, 6,250 every hour, supposing he worked eight hours without stopping.)

When the Saxons first received the Christian faith, Paulinus of old York, the zealous bishop then, In Swale’s abundant stream christened ten thousand men, With women and their babes, a number more besides, Upon one happy day.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xxviii. (1622).

=Paulo=, the cardinal and brother of Count Guido Franceschi´ni. He advised the count to repair his bankrupt fortune by marrying an heiress.--R. Browning, _The Ring and the Book_.

=Paupiah=, the Hindû steward of the British governor of Madras.--Sir W. Scott, _The Surgeon’s Daughter_ (time, George II.).

=Pausa´nias= (_The British_), William Camden (1551-1623). Pausanias was a traveller and geographer in the 2d century A.D., who wrote an Itinerary of Greece. Camden wrote in Latin his “Brittania,” a survey of the British Isles.

=Pauvre Jacques.= When Marie Antoinette had her artificial Swiss village in the “Little Trianon,” a Swiss girl was brought over to heighten the illusion. She was observed to pine, and was heard to sigh out, _pauvre Jacques_! This little romance pleased the queen, who sent for Jacques, and gave the pair a wedding portion; while the Marchioness de Travanet wrote the song called _Pauvre Jacques_, which created at the time quite a sensation. The first and last verses run thus:

Pauvre Jacques, quand j’etais près de toi, Je ne sentais pas ma misère; Mais à présent que tu vis loin de moi, Je manque de tout sur la terre.

Poor Jack, while I was near to thee, Tho’ poor, my bliss was unalloyed; But now thou dwell’st so far from me, The world appears a lonesome void.

=Pa´via= (_Battle of_). Francis I. of France is said to have written to his mother these words, after the loss of this battle: “Madame, tout est perdu hors l’honneur;” but what he really wrote was: “Madame ... de toutes choses ne m’est demeuré pas que l’honneur et la vie.”

And with a noble siege revolted Pavia took.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xviii. (1613).

=Pavillon= (_Meinheer Hermann_), the syndic at Liège [_Le-aje_].

_Mother Mabel Pavillon_, wife of Meinheer Hermann.

_Trudchen_ or _Gertrude Pavillon_, their daughter, betrothed to Hans Glover.--Sir W. Scott, _Quentin Durward_ (time, Edward IV.).

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

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

=Paynim Harper= (_The_), referred to by Tennyson in the _Last Tournament_, was Orpheus.

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

Tennyson, _The Last Tournament_ (1859).

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

_Peace_ (_The Father of_), Andrea Doria (1469-1560).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_Polly Peachum_, daughter of Peachum. (See POLLY.)--J. Gay, _The Beggar’s Opera_ (1727).

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

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

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

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

Thomas Heywood.

=Pearson= (_Captain Gilbert_), officer in attendance on Cromwell.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).

=Peasant-Bard= (_The_), Robert Burns (1859-1796).

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

The altar-piece painted by Hörberg.

Longfellow, _The Children of the Lord’s Supper_.

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

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

=Peau de Chagrin=, a story by Balzac. The hero becomes possessed of a magical wild ass’s skin, which yields him the means of gratifying every wish; but for every wish thus gratified, the skin shrank somewhat, and at last vanished, having been wished entirely away. Life is a _peau d’ane_,[TN-74] for every vital act diminishes its force, and when all its force is gone, life is gone (1834).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

=Pèdre= (_Don_), a Sicilian nobleman, who has a Greek slave of great beauty, named Isidore (3 _syl._). This slave is loved by Adraste (2 _syl._), a French gentleman, who gains access to the house under the guise of a portrait-painter. He next sends his slave, Zaïda,[TN-75] to complain to the Sicilian of ill-treatment, and Don Pèdre volunteers to intercede on her behalf. At this moment Adraste comes up, and demands that Zaïde be given up to deserved chastisement. Pedrè[TN-76] pleads for her, Adraste appears to be pacified, and Pedrè[TN-76] calls for Zaïde to come forth. Isidore, in the veil of Zaïde, comes out, and Pedrè[TN-76] says, “There, take her home, and use her well.” “I will do so,” says Adraste, and leads off the Greek slave.--Molière, _Le Sicilien ou L’Amour Peintre_ (1667).

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

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

Byron, _Don Juan_, ii. 25; see 76-79 (1819).

=Pedro=, “the pilgrim,” a noble gentleman servant to Alinda (daughter of Lord Alphonso).--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Pilgrim_ (1621).

_Pedro_ (_Don_), prince of Aragon.--Shakespeare, _Much Ado about Nothing_ (1600).

_Pedro_ (_Don_), father of Leonora.--R. Jephson, _Two Strings to your Bow_ (1792).

_Pedro_ (_Don_), a Portuguese nobleman, father of Donna Violante.--Mrs. Centlivre, _The Wonder_ (1714).

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

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

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

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

=Peel-the-Causeway= (_Old_), a smuggler. Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

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

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

T. Tusser, _Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry_, xviii. 12 (1557).

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

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

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

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

⁂ Tennyson, in his _Godiva_, has reproduced this story.