PARMA 



4511 



PARNELL 



markable success there was followed by a tri- 

 umphant tour in the United States and Canada, 

 and by recitals in the chief European cities. 

 Her final triumph is the more remarkable be- 

 cause she was at one time handicapped both 

 by lack of means to pay for her musical educa- 

 tion and by a frail constitution which made 

 continuous study irksome. 



PARMA, pahr'mah, a town of Northern 

 Italy, dating from the period of the Roman 

 republic. As the home of many notable art 

 treasures, Parma is one of the most interesting 

 places in Italy. The cupola of the eleventh- 

 century cathedral, an example of Lombard- 

 Romanesque architecture built in the form of 

 a Latin cross, contains Correggio's celebrated 

 fresco, Assumption of the Virgin, and there are 

 many other great paintings in the city. The 

 most notable educational institution, the I'ni- 

 ;ty of Parma, was founded in the sixteenth 

 century. It had an enrolment of over 400 be- 

 fore the outbreak of the War of the Nations. 



The city is the capital of the province of 

 a. It is built on both sides of a small 

 stream, also called Parma, and is seventy-five 

 miles southeast of Milan. The town is circular 

 in shape, and was formerly surrounded by forti- 

 fications, but these have been replaced by 

 promenades. The site of the place was origi- 

 nally occupied by a village of the Bronze Age. 

 Parma was the home of Correggio for many 

 years. Population of town and suburbs in 1915, 

 : Kited to be 54,584. 



PARNASSUS, pahrnas'us, a mountain of 

 ancient Greece so intimately connected with 

 tin worship of certain mythological deities that 

 its name is still a synonym of all that relates to 

 poetry and the cultivation of the fine arts. 

 II. in his Fable for Critics, speaks of his 

 own poetic ventures in the words 



There is Lowell, who's striving Parnassus to climb 

 i a whole bale of isms tied together with 

 rhyme. 



Parnassus, in modem times call* -d LIKKRI, is a 

 picturesque mountain in Southern Phocis, with 

 twin peaks which reach a height of over 8,000 

 feet. Except in tin- hottest months sn<>\\ 

 crowns the summit. One of the most sacred of 

 all Grecian mountains, it was looked upon 

 anciently as the special haunt of Apollo, the 

 Muses, Dionysus and Pan. Those frrn/ i <1< - 

 voices of the wine god, the Bacchantes, h> M 

 ; orgies annually on one of the Iwo peaks, 

 .mil m the groves at all limes sounded the pipes 

 of Pan. There were two especially holy spots, 

 however. One of these was the fountain of 



Castalia, a spring which still bubbles, pure and 

 delightful, out of the cleft between the two 

 great peaks. This water was supposed to give 

 to all who drank of it true poetic inspiration. 

 The other sacred spot, on the southern slope, 

 was the famous Delphic oracle of Apollo, which 

 played so large a part not merely in the my- 

 thology but in the history of Greece. 



PAR 'NELL, CHARLES STEWART (1846-1891), 

 an Irish statesman who was one of the foremost 

 figures in the Irish opposition to English rule. 

 He was born at Avondale, Ireland, his mother 

 being the daughter of Rear-Admiral Stewart of 

 the United States navy ; was educated at Cam- 

 bridge University, and in 1872-1873 traveled in 

 the United States. In 1875 he entered Parlia- 

 ment for Meath, and soon had attained a com- 

 manding position, which he continued to hold 

 almost until his death. His program from the 

 first included a national Parliament and Home 

 Rule for Ireland, and he displayed genius in 

 his tactics, playing off one party against another 

 for his own ends. Bills to which in reality there 

 could be no objection he and his followers op- 

 posed, merely to delay legislation and to focus 

 attention upon their demands. 



In the interests of the Land League, whose 

 object was to improve the condition of the poor 

 tenants, Parnell visited America in 1879 and 

 collected a large popular subscription. After 

 1880 he was the formal as well as the actual 

 head of the Irish party in Parliament, and his 

 agitation on the land question was so persistent 

 that in 1881 he was arrested and imprisoned for 

 six months. When Gladstone became head of 

 the Ministry in 1886 on a Home Rule plat- 

 form, Parnell supported him, but the party 

 was speedily defeated and went out of office. 

 In the next year Parnell and his associates were 

 accused by the London Times of conspiracy 

 against the government, and facsimile letters 

 were published to prove their guilt. Parnell 

 protested in Parliament that the letters v. 

 forgeries, and the finding by a commission tint 

 such was indn-d the case made Parnell more 

 powerful than he had ever been b< : 



Meanwhile, rumors had become curren 

 necting Pamells name with that of Mrs. 

 O'Shea, the wife of one of his supporters, and in 

 1889 Captain O'Shea began divorce proceedings, 

 naming Parnell. No defense was offered and 

 the divorce was granted, but Parnell *s reputa- 

 tion and influence were so shattered that he was 

 deposed as leader of the Irish party, John Red- 

 mond succeeding him. The struggle to regain 

 his ascendancy injured his health, and he died 



