Part 25
=Perche Notary= (_A_), a lawyer who sets people together by the ears, one who makes more quarrels than contracts. The French proverb is, _Notaire du Perche, qui passe plus d’échalliers que de contrat_.
Le Perche, qui se trouve partagé entre les départements de l’Orne et d’Eure-et-Loir, est un contrée fort boisée, dans laquelle la plupart des champs sont entourés de haies dans lesquelles sont ménagées certaines ouvertures propres à donner passage aux piétons seulement, et que l’on nomme _échalliers_.--_Hilaire le Gai._
=Percinet=, a fairy prince, in love with Graciosa. The prince succeeds in thwarting the malicious designs of Grognon, the step-mother of the lovely princess.--_Percinet and Graciosa_ (a fairy tale).
=Percival= (_Sir_), the third son of Sir Pellinore, king of Wales. His brothers were Sir Aglavale and Sir Lamorake Dornar, usually called Sir Lamorake de Galis (_Wales_). Sir Tor was his half-brother. Sir Percival caught a sight of the Holy Graal after his combat with Sir Ector de Maris (brother of Sir Launcelot), and both were miraculously healed by it. Crétien de Troyes wrote the _Roman de Perceval_ (before 1200), and Menessier produced the same story in a metrical form. (See PARZIVAL.)
Sir Percivale had a glimmering of the Sancgreall and of the maiden that bare it, for he was perfect and clean. And forthwith they were both as whole of limb and hide as ever they were in their life days. “O, mercy!” said Sir Percival, “what may this mean?” ... “I wot well,” said Sir Ector ... “it is the holy vessel, wherein is a part of the holy blood of our blessed Saviour; but it may not be seen but by a perfect man.”--Pt. iii. 14.
Sir Percival was with Sir Bors and Sir Galahad, when the visible Saviour went into the consecrated wafer which was given to them by the bishop. This is called the achievement of the quest of the Holy Graal (pt. iii. 101, 102.[TN-82]--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_ (1470).
=Percival Glyde= (_Sir_). Rascally husband of _Laura Fairlie_. To possess himself of her fortune, he incarcerates her in an insane asylum, gives out that she is dead, and uses the corpse of her half-sister to confirm the rumor.--Wilkie Collins, _The Woman in White_.
=Percy Arundel= (_Lord Ashdale_), son of Lady Arundel, by her second husband. A hot, fiery youth, proud and overbearing. When grown to manhood, a “sea-captain” named Norman, made love to Violet, Lord Ashdale’s cousin. The young “Hotspur” was indignant and somewhat jealous, but discovered that Norman was the son of Lady Arundel by her first husband, and the heir to the title and estates. In the end, Norman agreed to divide the property equally, but claimed Violet for his bride.--Lord Lytton, _The Sea-Captain_ (1839).
=Per´dita=, the daughter of the Queen Hermionê, born in prison. Her father, King Leontês, commanded the infant to be cast on a desert shore, and left to perish there. Being put to sea, the vessel was driven by a storm to the “coast” of Bohemia, and the infant child was brought up by a shepherd, who called its name Perdĭta. Flor´izel, the son of the Bohemian king, fell in love with Perdita, and courted her under the assumed name of Doriclês; but the king, having tracked his son to the shepherd’s hut, told Perdita that if she did not at once discontinue this foolery, he would command her and the shepherd too to be put to death. Florizel and Perdita now fled from Bohemia to Sicily, and being introduced to the king, it was soon discovered that Perdita was Leontês’s daughter. The Bohemian king, having tracked his son to Sicily, arrived just in time to hear the news, and gave his joyful consent to the union which he had before forbidden.--Shakespeare, _The Winter’s Tale_ (1604).
_Perdita_, Mrs. Mary Robinson (born Darby), the victim of George IV., while prince of Wales. She first attracted his notice while acting the part of “Perdĭta,” and the prince called himself “Florizel.” George, prince of Wales, settled a pension for life on her, £500 a year for herself, and £200 a year for her daughter. She caught cold one winter, and losing the use of her limbs, could neither walk nor stand (1758-1799, not 1800 as is given usually).
=Perdrix, toujours Perdrix!= Walpole tells us that the confessor of one of the French kings, having reproved the monarch for his conjugal infidelities, was asked what dish he liked best. The confessor replied, “Partridges;” and the king had partridges served to him every day, till the confessor got quite sick of them. “Perdrix, toujours perdrix!” he would exclaim, as the dish was set before him. After a time, the king visited him, and hoped his favorite dish had been supplied him. “Mais oui,” he replied, “toujours perdrix, toujours perdrix!” “Ah, ah!” said the amorous monarch, “and one mistress is all very well, but not _perdrix, toujours perdrix!_”--See _Notes and Queries_, 337, October 23, 1869).[TN-83]
The story is at least as old as the _Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_, compiled between 1450-1461, for the amusement of the dauphin of France, afterwards Louis XI. (_Notes and Queries_, November 27, 1869).
⁂ Farquhar parodies the French expression into “Soup for breakfast, soup for dinner, soup for supper, and soup for breakfast again.”--Farquhar, _The Inconstant_, iv. 2 (1702).
=Père Duchesne= (_Le_), Jacques René Hébert; so called from the _Père Duchesne_, a newspaper of which he was the editor (1755-1794).
=Pereard= (_Sir_), the Black Knight of the Black Lands. Called by Tennyson “Night” or “Nox.” He was one of the four brothers who kept the passages to Castle Perilous, and was overthrown by Sir Gareth.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 126 (1470); Tennyson, _Idylls_ (“Gareth and Lynette”).
=Peredur= (_Sir_), son of Evrawe, called “Sir Peredur of the Long Spear,” one of the knights of the Round Table. He was for many years called “The Dumb Youth,” from a vow he made to speak to no Christian till Angharad of the Golden Hand loved him better than she loved any other man. His great achievements were: (1) the conquest of the Black Oppressor, “who oppressed every one and did justice to no one;” (2) killing the Addanc of the Lake, a monster that devoured daily some of the sons of the king of Tortures. This exploit he was enabled to achieve by means of a stone which kept him invisible; (3) slaying the three hundred heroes privileged to sit round the countess of the Achievements; on the death of these men the seat next the countess was freely given to him; (4) the achievement of the Mount of Mourning, where was a serpent with a stone in its tail which would give inexhaustible wealth to its possessor; Sir Peredur killed the serpent, but gave the stone to his companion, Earl Etlym of the east country. These exploits over, Sir Peredur lived fourteen years with the Empress Cristinobyl the Great.
Sir Peredur is the Welsh name for Sir Percival of Wales.--_The Mabinogion_ (from the Red Book of Hergest, twelfth century).
=Per´egrine= (3 _syl._), a sentimental prig, who talks by the book. At the age of 15 he runs away from home, and Job Thornberry lends him ten guineas, “the first earnings of his trade as a brazier.” After thirty years absence, Peregrine returns just as the old brazier is made a bankrupt “through the treachery of a friend.” He tells the bankrupt that his loan of ten guineas has by honest trade grown to 10,000, and these he returns to Thornberry as his own by right. It turns out that Peregrine is the eldest brother of Sir Simon Rochdale, J. P., and when Sir Simon refuses justice to the old brazier Peregrine asserts his right to the estate, etc. At the same time, he hears that the ship he thought was wrecked has come safe into port, and has thus brought him £100,000.--G. Colman, junior, _John Bull_ (1805).
=Peregrine Pickle=, the hero and title of a novel by Smollett (1751). Peregrine Pickle is a savage, ungrateful spendthrift, fond of practical jokes, and suffering with evil temper the misfortunes brought on himself by his own wilfulness.
=Peregri´nus Proteus=, a cynic philosopher, born at Parium, on the Hellespont. After a youth spent in debauchery and crimes, he turned Christian, and, to obliterate the memory of his youthful ill practices, divided his inheritance among the people. Ultimately he burned himself to death in public at the Olympic games, A.D. 165. Lucan has held up this immolation to ridicule in his _Death of Peregrinus_; and C. M. Wieland has an historic romance in German entitled _Peregrinus Proteus_ (1733-1813).
=Per´es= (_Gil_), a canon, and the eldest brother of Gil Blas’ mother. Gil was a little punchy man, three feet and a half high, with his head sunk between his shoulders. He lived well, and brought up his nephew and godchild, Gil Blas. “In so doing, Perês taught himself also to read his breviary without stumbling.” He was the most illiterate canon of the whole chapter.--Lesage, _Gil Blas_, i. (1715).
=Perez= (_Michael_), the “copper captain,” a brave Spanish soldier, duped into marrying Estifania, a servant of intrigue, who passed herself off as a lady of property. Being reduced to great extremities, Estifania pawned the clothes and valuables of her husband; but these “valuables” were but of little worth--a jewel which sparkled as the “light of a dark lanthorn,” a “chain of whitings’ eyes” for pearls, and as for his clothes, she tauntingly says to her husband:
Put these and them [_his jewels_] on, and you’re a man of copper, A copper, copper captain.
Beaumont and Fletcher, _Rule a Wife and Have a Wife_ (1640).
=Peri=, (plu., =Peris=), gentle, fairy-like beings of Eastern mythology, offspring of the fallen angels, and constituting a race of beings between angels and men. They direct with a wand the pure-minded the way to heaven, and dwell in Shadu´kiam´ and Am´bre-abad, two cities subject to Eblis.
Are the peries coming down from their spheres?
W. Beckford, _Vathek_ (1786).
=Pe´richole= (_La_), the heroine of Offenbach’s comic opera (_opera bouffe_) of that name. She was originally a street-singer of Lima, the capital of Peru, but became the mistress of the viceroy. She was not a native of Lima and offended the Creole ladies by calling them, in her bad Spanish, _pericholas_, “flaunting, bedizened creatures,” and they, in retaliation, called her “La Périchole,” _i.e._, “the flaunting one _par excellence_.”
=Pericles=, the Athenian who raised himself to royal supremacy (died B.C. 429). On his death-bed he overheard his friends recalling his various merits, and told them they had forgotten his greatest praise, viz., that no Athenian through his administration had had to put on mourning, _i.e._ he had caused no one to be put to death.
Perī´cles was a famous man of warre ... Yet at his death he rather did rejoice In clemencie.... “Be still,” quoth he, “you grave Athenians” (Who whisperèd and told his valiant acts); “You have forgot my greatest glorie got: For yet by me nor mine occasion Was never sene a mourning garment worn.”
G. Gascoigne, _The Steele Glas_ (died 1577).
=Per´icles, prince of Tyre=, a voluntary exile, in order to avert the calamities which Anti´ochus, emperor of Greece, vowed against the Tyrians. Pericles, in his wanderings, first came to Tarsus, which he relieved from famine, but was obliged to quit the city to avoid the persecution of Antiochus. He was then shipwrecked, and cast on the shore of Pentap´olis, where he distinguished himself in the public games, and being introduced to the king, fell in love with the Princess Thaïs´a, and married her. At the death of Antiochus, he returned to Tyre; but his wife, supposed to be dead in giving birth to a daughter (Marina), was thrown into the sea. Periclês entrusted his infant child to Cleon (governor of Tarsus), and his wife, Dionysia, who brought her up excellently well till she became a young woman, when Dionysia employed a man to murder her; and when Periclês came to see her, he was shown a splendid sepulchre which had been raised to her honor. On his return home, the ship stopped at Metalinê, and Marina was introduced to Periclês to divert his melancholy. She told him the tale of her life, and he discovered that she was his daughter. Marina was now betrothed to Lysim´achus, governor of Metalinê; and the party, going to the shrine of Diana of Ephesus to return thanks to the goddess, discovered the priestess to be Thaïsa, the wife of Periclês, and mother of Marina.--Shakespeare, _Pericles, Prince of Tyre_ (1608).
⁂ This is the story of _Ismene and Ismenias_ by Eustathius. The tale was known to Gower by the translation of Godfrey Viterbo.
=Perigort= (_Cardinal_). Previous to the battle of Poitiers, he endeavors to negotiate terms with the French king, but the only terms he can obtain, he tells Prince Edward, are:
That to the castles, towns, and plunder ta’en, And offered now by you to be restored, Your royal person with a hundred knights Are to be added prisoners at discretion.
Shirley, _Edward the Black Prince_, iv. 2 (1640).
=Peri´got= (the _t_ pronounced, so as to rhyme with _not_), a shepherd in love with Am´oret; but the shepherdess Amaryllis also loves him, and, by the aid of the Sullen Shepherd, gets transformed into the exact likeness of the modest Amoret. By her wanton conduct she disgusts Perigot, who casts her off; and by and by, meeting Amoret, whom he believes to be the same person, rejects her with scorn, and even wounds her with intent to kill. Ultimately the truth is discovered by Clor´in, “the faithful shepherdess,” and the lovers, being reconciled, are married to each other.--John Fletcher, _The Faithful Shepherdess_ (1610).
=Periklym´enos=, son of Neleus (2 _syl._). He had the power of changing his form into a bird, beast, reptile, or insect. As a bee, he perched on the chariot of Heraklês (_Herculês_), and was killed.
=Peril´los=, of Athens, made a brazen bull for Phal´aris, tyrant of Agrigentum, intended for the execution of criminals. They were to be shut up in the bull, and the metal of the bull was to be made red hot. The cries of the victims inside were so reverberated as to resemble the roarings of a gigantic bull. Phalaris made the first experiment by shutting up the inventor himself in his own bull.
What’s a protector? A tragic actor, Cæsar in a clown; He’s a brass farthing stamped with a crown; A bladder blown with other breaths puffed full; Not a Perillus, but a Perillus’ bull.
John Cleveland, _A Definition of a Protector_ (died 1650).
=Perilous Castle.= The castle of Lord Douglas was so called in the reign of Edward I., because the good Lord Douglas destroyed several English garrisons stationed there, and vowed to be revenged on any one who dared to take possession of it. Sir W. Scott calls it “Castle Dangerous” in his novel so entitled.
⁂ In the story of Gareth and Linet, the castle in which Lionês was held prisoner by Sir Ironside, the Red Knight of the Red Lands, was called Castle Perilous. The passages to the castle were held by four knights, all of whom Sir Gareth overthrew; lastly he conquered Sir Ironside, liberated the lady, and married her.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 120-153 (1470).
=Perimo´nes= (_Sir_), the Red Knight, one of the four brothers who kept the passages to Castle Perilous. He was overthrown by Sir Gareth. Tennyson calls him “Noonday Sun” or “Meridies.”--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 129 (1470); Tennyson, _Idylls_ (“Gareth and Lynette”).
=Per´ion=, king of Gaul, father of Am´adis of Gaul. His “exploits and adventures” form part of the series called _Le Roman des Romans_. This part was added by Juan Diaz (fifteenth century).
⁂ It is generally thought that “Gaul” in this romance is the same as _Galis_, that is “Wales.”
=Perissa=, the personification of extravagance, step-sister of Elissa (_meanness_) and of Medi´na (_the golden mean_); but they never agreed in any single thing. Perissa’s suitor is Sir Huddibras, a man “more huge in strength than wise in works.” (Greek, _perissos_, “extravagant,” _perissotês_, “excess.”).[TN-84]--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, ii. 2 (1590).
=Per´iwinkle= (_Mr._), one of the four guardians of Anne Lovely, the heiress. He is a silly, half-witted virtuoso, positive and surly; fond of everything antique and foreign; and wears clothes of the last century. Mr. Periwinkle dotes upon travellers, and believes more of Sir John Mandeville than he does of the Bible. Colonel Feignwell, to obtain his consent to his marriage with Mr. Periwinkle’s ward, disguised himself as an Egyptian, and passed himself off as a great traveller. His dress, he said, “belonged to the famous Claudius Ptolemēus, who lived in the year 135.” One of his curiosities was _poluflosboio_, “part of those waves which bore Cleopatra’s vessel, when she went to meet Antony.” Another was the _moros musphonon_, or girdle of invisibility. His trick, however, miscarried, and he then personated Pillage, the steward of Periwinkle’s father, and obtained Periwinkle’s signature to the marriage by a fluke.--Mrs. Centlivre, _A Bold Stroke For a Wife_ (1717).
=Perker= (_Mr._), the lawyer employed for the defence in the famous suit of “Bardell _v._ Pickwick” for the breach of promise.--C. Dickens, _The Pickwick Papers_ (1836).
=Perkin Warbeck=, an historic play or “chronicle history,” by John Ford (1635).
=Perley Kelso.= A woman with “a weakness for an occupation, who suffers passions of superfluous life. At the Cape she rebelled because Providence did not create her a bluefisher. In Paris, she would make muslin flowers, and learn the _métier_ to-morrow.”--Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, _The Silent Partner_ (1871).
=Pernelle= (_Madame_), mother of Orgon; a regular vixen, who interrupts every one, without waiting to hear what was to have been said to her.--Molière, _Tartuffe_ (1664).
=Peronella=, a pretty country lass, who changes places with an old decrepit queen. Peronella rejoices for a time in the idolatry paid to her rank, but gladly resumes her beauty, youth, and rags.--_A Fairy Tale._
=Perrette and her Milk-Pail.= Perrette, carrying her milk-pail well-poised upon her head, began to speculate on its value. She would sell the milk and buy eggs; she would set the eggs and rear chickens; the chickens she would sell and buy a pig; this she would fatten and change for a cow and calf, and would it not be delightful to see the little calf skip and play? So saying, she gave a skip, let the milk-pail fall, and all the milk ran to waste. “Le lait tombe. Adieu, veau, vache, cochon, couvée,” and poor Perrette “va s’excuser à son mari, en grand danger d’etre battue.”
Quel esprit ne bat la campagne? Qui ne fait château en Espagne? Picrochole [_q.v._], Pyrrhus, la laitière, enfin tous, Autant les sages que les fous.... Quelque accident fait-il que je rentre en moi-même; Je suis Gros-Jean comme devant.
Lafontaine, _Fables_ (“La Laitière et le Po tau[TN-85] Lait,” 1668).
(Dodsley has this fable, and makes his milkmaid speculate on the gown she would buy with her money. It should be green, and all the young fellows would ask her to dance, but she would toss her head at them all--but ah! in tossing her head, she tossed over her milk-pail.)
⁂ Echephron, an old soldier, related this fable to the advisers of King Picrochole, when they persuaded the king to go to war: A shoemaker bought a ha’p’orth of milk; this he intended to make into butter, and with the money thus obtained he would buy a cow. The cow in due time would have a calf, the calf was to be sold, and the man when he became a nabob would marry a princess; only the jug fell, the milk was spilt, and the dreamer went supperless to bed.--Rabelais, _Gargantua_, i. 33 (1533).
In a similar day-dream, Alnaschar invested all his money in a basket of glassware, which he intended to sell, and buy other wares, till by barter he became a princely merchant, when he should marry the vizier’s daughter. Being offended with his wife, he became so excited that he kicked out his foot, smashed all his wares, and found himself penniless.--_Arabian Nights_ (“The Barber’s Fifth Brother”).
=Perrin=, a peasant, the son of Thibaut.--Molière, _Le Médecin Malgré Lui_ (1666).
=Persaunt of India= (_Sir_), the Blue Knight, called by Tennyson “Morning Star,” or “Phosphŏrus.” One of the four brothers who kept the passages to Castle Perilous. Overthrown by Sir Gareth.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 131 (1470); Tennyson, _Idylls_.
“Then, at his call, ‘O, daughters of the Dawn, And servants of the Morning Star, approach, Arm me,’ from out the silken curtain-folds Bare-footed and bare-headed three fair girls In gilt and rosy raiment came; their feet In dewy grasses glisten’d; and the hair All over glanced with dewdrop or with gem, Like sparkles in the stone Avanturine. These arm’d him in blue arms, and gave a shield, Blue also, and thereon the morning star.”
Tennyson, _Gareth and Lynette_.
=Perseus= [_Per.suce_], a famous Argive hero, whose exploits resemble those of Herculês, and hence he was called “The Argive Herculês.”
Benvenuto Cellini made a bronze statue of Perseus, which is in the Loggia dei Lanzi, in Florence.
_Perseus’s Horse_, a ship. Perseus having cut off Medusa’s head, made the ship _Pegasê_, the swiftest ship hitherto known, and generally called “Perseus’s flying horse.”
The thick-ribbed bark thro’ liquid mountains cut ... Like Perseus’ horse.
Shakespeare, _Troilus and Cressida_, act i. sc. 3 (1602).
=Persian Creed= (_The_). Zoroaster supposes there are two gods or spirit-principles--one good and the other evil. The good is Yezad, and the evil, Ahriman.
=Perth= (_The Fair Maid of_), Catharine, or Katie Glover, “universally acknowledged to be the most beautiful young woman of the city or its vicinity.” Catharine was the daughter of Simon Glover (the glover of Perth), and married Henry Smith, the armorer.--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).
=Pertinax= (_Sir_). (See MACSYCOPHANT.)
=Pertolope= (_Sir_), the Green Knight. One of the four brothers who kept the passages to Castle Perilous. He was overthrown by Sir Gareth. Tennyson calls him “Evening Star,” or “Hesperus.”--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 127 (1470); Tennyson, _Idylls_.
“For there, beyond a bridge of treble bow, All in a rose-red from the west, and all Naked it seem’d, and glowing in the broad, Deep-dimpled current underneath, the knight That named himself the Star of Evening, stood, And Gareth, ‘Wherefore waits the madman there Naked in open dayshine?’ ‘Nay,’ she cried, ‘Not naked, only wrapt in harden’d skins That fit him like his own; and so ye cleave His armor off him, these will turn the blade.’”
Tennyson, _Gareth and Lynette_.
=Perviz= (_Prince_), son of the Sultan Khrosru-schar of Persia. At birth he was taken away by the sultana’s sisters, and set adrift on a canal, but was rescued and brought up by the superintendent of the sultan’s gardens. When grown to manhood, “the talking-bird” told the sultan that Pervis was his son, and the young prince, with his brother and sister, were restored to their rank and position in the empire of Persia.--_Arabian Nights_ (“The Two Sisters”).
_Prince Perviz’s String of Pearls._ When Prince Perviz went on his exploits, he gave his sister, Parizādê, a string of pearls, saying, “So long as these pearls move readily on the string, you will know that I am alive and well; but if they stick fast and will not move, it will signify that I am dead.”--_Arabian Nights_ (“The Two Sisters”).
⁂ Birtha’s emerald ring, and Prince Bahman’s knife gave similar warning. (See BIRTHA and BAHMAN.)
=Pescec´ola=, a famous diver, whose English name was _Fish_ (Italian, _Pesce_ = fish). He dived in the pool of Charybdis and returned. King Frederick then threw a golden cup into the pool; Pescecola dived for it, and was drowned.
Schiller, in _The Diver_, tells the story, but gives the diver no name.
=Pest= (_Mr._), a barrister.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).