PHELPS 



PHIDIAS 



109 



Plielps, SAMUEL, the last of the old school of 

 actors, was l>orn 13th February 1804 in Devonport. 

 When seventeen years old he came to London, and 

 was engaged on the Globe and Sun newspapers as 

 reader ; among his companions being Douglas 

 Jerrold, then, like himself, a stage-struck youth. 

 After some experience as an amateur, Phelps "joined 

 the York circuit in the autumn of 1826, and con- 

 tinued in the provinces for eleven years. On 28th 

 August 1837 he made his debut in London as Shy- 

 lock at the Hay market, under the management of 

 Benjamin Webster, making a very great success. 

 He was afterwards engaged by Macready, but his 

 genius did not get full scope until the beginning of 

 his famous Sadlers Wells management, one of the 

 most extraordinary achievements in the history of 

 the drama. At an outlying unfashionable and 

 unpopular theatre he for eighteen years produced 

 a constant succession of ' legitimate plays, attract- 

 ing around him an excellent company, and edu- 

 cating a rough and unpolished audience to appre- 

 ciation of the masterpieces of English dramatic 

 literature. He began this apparently unpromising' 

 experiment on 27th May 1844, continued as manager 

 till March 1862, and made his last appearance l>efore 

 hia Islington friends on 6th Novemlier 1862. During 

 his management he produced no fewer than thirty- 

 one Shakespearian plays, as well as works of the 

 other great Elizal>ethans, and of the dramatist* of 

 the 18th century from Congreve to Colman. After 

 leaving Sadler's Wells Phelps did not attach him- 

 self to any particular theatre, appearing at Drury 

 Lane, the Queen's, and the Gaiety theatres, and 

 playing regularly in the provinces. On 1st 

 March 1878, when acting Wolsey at the Aquarium 

 ( Imperial ) Theatre, he broke down, and never 

 played again. fie died on 6th November 1878. 

 Although primarily a tragedian, Phelps was an 

 excellent all-round actor, and some of his comedy 

 parts are among his most notable as, for instance, 

 Malvolio, Bottom, and Shallow. In tragedy he 

 was famous in Wolsey, Lear, Macbeth, Brutus, 

 I, uke (City Madam), and Sir Giles Overreach; 

 while among his other chief successes were 

 Richelieu, Sir Pertinax Macsycophant, Bertuccio, 

 Old Domton, and Job Thornlierry. 



See Memoirs, by J. and E. Coleman ( 1886 ) ; and Life 

 atul Life-work, by W. May Phelps and John Forbes 

 Robertson (1886). 



Pht'Iiacctin, a drug prepared from carbolic 

 acid, valuable in fevers, and, like antipyrin, of 

 service in stilling pain and securing rest in cases 

 of severe headaches, insomnia, and nervousness. 



riiciiiiriMlus. See MAMMALS. 



Phenol, a name for Carbolic Acid (q.v.). See 

 also AROMATIC SKIUKS ; and for the Phenol Dyes, 

 DYKiNfi, Vol. IV. p. 141. 



Plierae, a powerful city of Thessaly, near 

 Mount Pelion ; according to legend, the ancient 

 royal seat of Admetoi and Alcestis, and after- 

 wards of political consequence under ' tyrants ' of 

 its own, who long made their influence felt in 

 the affairs of Greece, and repeatedly attempted to 

 make themselves masters of Thessaly. One of 

 these tyrants, Alexander (slain 357 B.C.), is par- 

 ticularly celebrated for his cruelties. 



Plierecydea, an ancient Greek philosopher, 

 liorn in the island of Syros, in the 6th century 

 MX, a contemporary of'Thales. He taught the 

 doctrine of the existence of the human soul after 

 deatli ; but it is uncertain if he held the doctrine 

 of the transmigration of souls, afterwards promul- 

 gated by his disciple, Pythagoras. Of his work, 

 a mythological system of philosophy, only frag- 

 ments are extant, collected and edited by Sturz 

 I-M cd. Leip. 1824). Another Pherecydes, a native 

 of Leros, who lived in the 5th century B.C., com- 



piled mythical histories of Athens and other states, 

 but only a few fragments remain, published in C. 

 Miiller, Frag. Hist. Grcec. (vol. i. ). 



Phi Beta Kappa, by far the oldest of the 

 American college Greek letter societies, takes its 

 name from the initial letters of its motto, said to be 

 <J>i\<xro0ta Btov Ku/3epcijrj;s ' Philosophy is the guide 

 of life.' The society, 'founded on literary prin- 

 ciples,' and intended to embrace the 'wise and 

 virtuous of every degree and of whatever country,' 

 was an outcome of the desire for national union, 

 and sprang into being in the somewhat chaotic 

 period when the old colonies had became states, 

 but had not yet adopted a federal constitution. It 

 was founded in 1776 (the same year as the Illum- 

 inati, q.v.), in the old 'Raleigh Tavern' at 

 Williamsburgh, Virginia, by forty-four under- 

 graduates of William and Mary College, of whom 

 John Marshall was one. Branches were estab- 

 lished at Yale in 1780 and at Harvard in 1781 ; and 

 to-day there are nearly a score in the principal col- 

 leges and universities of the Union. The Phi Beta 

 Kappa is now simply 'an agreeable bond of meeting 

 among graduates ; ' since 1831 its innocent mysteries 

 have been open secrets. At Harvard there is an 

 annual Phi Beta Kappa dinner, oration, and poem ; 

 the earliest and one of the most striking of Edward 

 Everett's great orations was delivered before the 

 society, with Lafayette for a guest, in 1824 ; and 

 among the poets may be mentioned R. T. Paine 

 ( ' The Ruling Passion,' which brought him $1200 on 

 its publication in 1797) and Oliver Wendell Holmes 

 (1829). In colleges where the first third of a 

 graduating class are admitted to Phi Beta 

 Kappa there is a burlesque of the society, the 

 Kappa Beta Phi, for the consolation of the third at 

 the other end of the class, generally in the order of 

 demerit, the winner of the Wooden Spoon ranking 

 first. See an interesting paper by Dr E. E. Hale, 

 in the Atlantic Monthly (July 1879). 



Phidias (Or. Pheidias), the greatest sculptor 

 of ancient Greece, was born the son of Charmides, 

 at Athens al>out 300 B.C. His instructor in sculp- 

 ture was Ageladas of Argos. To Phidias came an 

 opportunity such as falls to the lot of few artists : 

 Pericles, having risen to the head of affairs in the 

 Athenian state, resolved to adorn the city with 

 temples and other public buildings fitting for the 

 vanquisher of Persia, and he not only gave to 

 Phidias a commission to execute the more splendid 

 statues that were to be erected, but made him 

 general superintendent of all the public works 

 planned for the city. Plutarch tells us that 

 Phidias had under him architects, statuaries, 

 workers in copper and bronze, stonecutters, gold 

 and ivory beaters, &c. He constructed the Pro- 

 pylsea and the Parthenon, the sculptured orna- 

 ments of which were executed under his direct 

 superintendence, while the statue of the goddess 

 Athena, of ivory and gold, was the work of Phidias 

 himself. Fragments of the metopes, frieze, and 

 pediments of the Parthenon were carried to 

 England by Lord Elgin (see ELGIN MARBLES). 

 Phidias executed a colossal statue of Zeus for 

 the Olympieum at Olympia (q.v.), also of ivory 

 and gold ; this was reckoned his masterpiece. 

 Accused of having appropriated to himself some 

 portion of the gold destined for the robe of Athena, 

 and of impiety in having introduced his own like- 

 ness and that of Pericles on the shield of the god- 

 dess, he was thrown into prison, and died there 

 alxmt 432 B.C., but whether of sickness or poison is 

 uncertain. Other works by his hand were a statue 

 of Aphrodite at Elis, of gold and ivory, a colossal 

 bronze figure of Athena Promachos on the Acro- 

 polis at Athens, a gilt colossal Athena at Plataea, 

 a monument of the victory of Marathon at Delphi, 



