LITERATURE 



375 



having been published posthumously by his pedagogue 

 superior, Jedediah Cleishbotham. 



Pau-line'. The "Lady of Lyons" in Bulwer-Lyt- 

 ton's play of this name. She was married to Claude 

 Melnotte, a gardener's son, who pretended to be a count. : 



Paul and Virginia. A pair of child lovers in Ber- 

 nardin de St. Pierre's popular romance "Paul et Vir- 

 ginie." 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 rocks, and it is wrecked. Alham- 

 bra, a runaway slave, whom Paul and Virginia had 

 befriended, rescues Virginia, who is brought to shore 

 and married to Paul. Antonio is drowned. 



P ml Pry. Paul Pry, John Poole. An idle, in- 



VP. 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." 



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. 



Pei;-i;ot t>. 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. 



PecRotty. Dan'el. Brother of David Copperfield's 

 nurse. Dan'el was a Yarmouth fisherman. His nephew, 

 Ham Peggotty, and his brother-in-law's child, little 

 Km'ly." lived with him. 



PejCRotty, Em'ly. She was engaged to Ham Peg- 

 gotty; but being fascinated with Steerforth she eloped. 

 She was afterwards reclaimed, and emigrated to Aus- 

 tralia. 



Peggotty, Ham. Represented as the very beau- 

 ideal of an uneducated, simple-minded, honest, and 

 warm-hearted fisherman. He was drowned in his at- 

 tempt to rescue Steerforth from the sea. 



Pendennls. Name of title and hero of a novel by 

 Thackeray, published in 1849 and 1850. was the 

 immediate successor of "Vanity Fair." Literary life 

 is described in the history of Pen, a hero of no very 

 great worth. 



Pendennis, Arthur. A young man of ardent feel- 

 ings and lively intellect, but self-conceited and selfish. 



Pendennls, Laura. His sister has been 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. 



P. ndrag'on. A title conferred on several British 

 chiefs in times of great danger, when they were invented 

 with dictatorial power; thus t'ter anil Arthur were 

 each appointed to the office to repel the Saxon invaders. 

 The word means "chief of the kings." 



i - \ I \ .uii;i Farmer.' A surname given to John 

 Dickinson, a citizen of Pennsylvania. In the year 17s. 

 he published his 'Letters from a PennsyUania Farmer 

 to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies." These 



:i-hed in London, with a preface by Dr. Franklin, 

 and were subsequently translated into trench. 



P. tin\ -.i-liner. A contributor to the local news- 

 papers, but not on the staff. At one time these col- 

 lectors of news used to be paid a penny a line on Eng- 



wspapers. and the appellation is still in use. 

 P. mi', Mi. .iilfuK. Penny sensational papers. 



Pen t.it.iK h. A name KI\-" l-v <ireek translators 

 to the five books of the Old Testament ascribed t<> 

 Moses. The chief aim of the Pentateuch is to give a 

 desenpti-.il of the origin and history of tl ||. 

 people up to the conquest of Canaan, and the 



d amoriK them. Tradition, as preserved in (he 

 earliest hi-* !-. mentions Moses as the " 



of the complete Pentateuch, such as it is now. with the 

 f a few verses describing the last moments 

 iwgiver. which have been ascribed to Joshua. 

 \ -' Diary. A writing which bffOUfhj fan - 

 Pepys. the author, was written in short-hand, and de- 

 ed and pul.li-h- It extend- .,\er the 

 -.earn from Hit in t- I'lH-i. !U id i- the v.<- 



nid profligate time We bavs no other 

 which gives so life-like a picture of that extra- 



01 dinar Y -t .ile - >f ' >' . 



!' t.-trinc |>| U. . i her., and title of a novel by 

 Smollett : . -rine Pi. UP is a savage, uncrate- 



ful spendthrift, fond of practical jokes. :md suffering 

 with e\il temper the mi-fort lines brought on himself l.\ 

 wilful ness 



Per o-nella. The subject of a fairy tale, represented 

 as a pretty country lass. who. at the offer of a fairy, 

 changes places with an old and decrepit queen, and 

 receives the homage paid to rank and wealth, but after- 

 ward gladly resumes her beauty and rags. 



Pe-tru'chl-o. A gentleman of Verona, in Shakes- 

 pere's "Taming of the Shrew." A verv honest fellow, 

 who hardly speaks a word of truth, and succeeds in all 

 hi.s tricks. He acte his assumed character to the life, 

 with untired animal spirits, and without a particle of 

 ill-humor. 



Pev'er-ll, Sir Geoffrey. A country gentleman of 

 strong High-church and Royalist opinions, in Sir Walter 

 Scott's novel "Peveril of the Peak/ 1 



1'ha'do. 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 dialoeue 

 which combines with the abstract philosophical discus- 

 sion, a graphic narrative of the last hours of Socrates, 

 which, for pathos and dignity, is unsurpassed. 



Philax. Fairy Tales, D'Aunoy. Philax was 

 cousin to the Princess Imsi. The fay Pagan shut them 

 up in the "Palace of Revenge." a palace coi 

 every delight except the power of leaving it. In the 

 course of a few years, I mis and Philax longed as much 

 for a separation as at one time they had wished for a 

 union. 



Philip. The Madness of Philip, Josephine Das- 

 kam. 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." 



Philippic. A word used to denote any discourse or 

 declamation full of acrimonious invective. It derives 

 its name from orations made by Demosthenes against 

 Philip of Macedon, in which the orator bitterly attacked 

 the king as the enemy of Greece. 



Philistines. Meaning the ill-behaved and ignorant. 

 The w'9rd so applied arose in Germany from the Charlies 

 or Philisters, who were always quarreling with the 

 students. Matthew Arnold applied the term Philistine 

 to the middle class in England. 



Phllo. The Messiah. Klopstock. A Pharisee, 

 one of the Jewish sanhedrim, who hated Caiaphas. the 

 high priest, for being a Sadducee. Philo made a vow 

 that he would take no rest til Jesus was numbered 

 with the dead. He commits suicide, and his soul is 

 carried to hell by Obaddon. the angel of death. 



Phlltra. Faery Queen. 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. 



Phlneas. I m IP Tom's Cabin, Mr*. Stowe. The 

 ouaker, an "underground railroad man who helped 

 the slave family of George and Elira to reach Canada. 

 after Eliza had crossed the river on cakes of floating ice. 



Phyllis. In Virgil's "Eclogues," the name of a rustic 

 maiden. This name, also written Pbillia, has been in 

 common use as meaning any unsophisticated country 

 girl. 



Plckanln'ny. A young child. A West Indian negro 

 word. 



PI. k 1,-k. >l r. Samuel. The hero of the " P.rkw.rk 

 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 meml.er-. over England, each member Ix-ing 

 under his guardianship. They meet many laughable 

 adventures. 



i'. -.I Piper of Hamelln. < >|,| German Iwnd 

 Robert Browning, in his poem entitled "The Pied Pipfr." 



n The legend rtrout 



musician came into the town of llamel. in the 

 country of BruMWicK. and offered, for a sum of money. 

 to rid the town of the rats by which it was infested. 

 HaYinK execute.! In- t.-i-k. an. I the promised reward 

 havniK Keen \Mthhel.l. he in revenge blew again his 

 pipe, and 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. 



PI. -u m in. The hero of a satirical poem of 

 . Century. He falls asleep, like John 

 Bunvan. on the Malvern HilK and has different visions, 

 which he describes, and in wh..h he exposes the cor- 

 ruptions of society, the dissoluteness of the clergy, and 

 the allurement I he author is supposed to i.e 



Robert or William Lnnaland. N.. ..th.-r writing* no 

 faithfully reflect the jH.pular feeling during the great 

 social and religion- nturv n* the 



>n of Piers Ploughman." 



