Character Sketches of Romance Volume Iii Part 84

=Pleasures of Imagination=, a poem in three books, by Akenside (1744). All the pleasures of imagination arise from the perception of greatness, wonderfulness, or beauty. The beauty of greatness--witness the pleasures of mountain scenery, of astronomy, of infinity. The pleasure of what is wonderful--witness the delight of novelty, of the revelations of science, of tales of fancy. The pleasure of beauty, which is always connected with truth--the beauty of color, shape, and so on, in natural objects; the beauty of mind and the moral faculties. Bk. ii.

contemplates accidental pleasures arising from contrivance and design, emotion and pa.s.sion, such as sorrow, pity, terror, and indignation. Bk.

iii. Morbid imagination the parent of vice; the benefits of a well-trained imagination.

=Pleasures of Memory=, a poem in two parts, by Samuel Rogers (1793). The first part is restricted to the pleasure of memory afforded by the five senses, as that arising from visiting celebrated places, and that afforded by pictures. Pt. ii. goes into the pleasures of the mind, as imagination and memory of past griefs and dangers. The poem concludes with the supposition that in the life to come this faculty will be greatly enlarged. The episode is this: Florio, a young sportsman, accidentally met Julia in a grot, and followed her home, when her father, a rich squire, welcomed him as his guest, and talked with delight of his younger days, when hawk and hound were his joy of joys.

Florio took Julia for a sail on the lake, but the vessel was capsized, and, though Julia was saved from the water, she died on being brought to sh.o.r.e. It was Florio's delight to haunt the places which Julia frequented.

Her charm around the enchantress Memory threw, A charm that soothes the mind and sweetens too.

Pt. ii.

=Pleiads= (_The_), a cl.u.s.ter of seven stars in the constellation _Taurus_, and applied to a cl.u.s.ter of seven celebrated contemporaries. The stars were the seven daughters of Atlas: Maia, Electra, Taygete, (4 _syl._), Asterope, Merope, Alcyone and Celeno.

_The Pleiad of Alexandria_ consisted of Callimachos, Apollonios Rhodios, Aratos, Homer the Younger, Lycophron, Nicander, and Theocritos. All of Alexandria, in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphos.

_The Pleiad of Charlemagne_ consisted of Alcuin, called "Albinus;"

Angilbert, called "Homer;" Adelard, called "Augustine;" Riculfe, called "Damaetas;" Varnefrid; Eginhard; and Charlemagne himself, who was called "David."

_The First French Pleiad_ (sixteenth century): Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay, Antoine de Baf, Remi-Belleau, Jodelle, Ponthus de Thiard, and the seventh is either Dorat or Amadis de Jamyn. All under Henri III.

_The Second French Pleiad_ (seventeenth century): Rapin, Commire, Larue, Santeuil, Menage, Duperier, and Pet.i.t.

_We have also our English cl.u.s.ters. There were those born in the second half of the sixteenth century_: Spenser (1553), Drayton (1563), Shakespeare and Marlowe (1564), Ben Jonson (1574), Fletcher (1576), Ma.s.singer (1585), Beaumont (Fletcher's colleague) and Ford (1586).

Besides these there were Tusser (1515), Raleigh (1552), Sir Philip Sidney (1554), Phineas Fletcher (1584), Herbert (1593), and several others.

_Another cl.u.s.ter came a century later_: Prior (1664), Swift (1667), Addison and Congreve (1672), Rowe (1673), Farquhar (1678), Young (1684), Gay and Pope (1688), Macklin (1690).

_These were born in the latter half of the eighteenth century_: Sheridan (1751), Crabbe (1754), Burns (1759), Rogers (1763), Wordsworth (1770), Scott (1771), Coleridge (1772), Southey (1774), Campbell (1777), Moore (1779), Byron (1788), Sh.e.l.ley and Keble (1792), and Keats (1796).

Butler (1600), Milton (1608), and Dryden (1630) came between the first and second cl.u.s.ters. Thomson (1700), Gray (1717), Collins (1720), Akenside (1721), Goldsmith (1728), and Cowper (1731), between the second and the third.

=Pleonec'tes= (4 _syl._), Covetousness personified, in _The Purple Island_, by Phineas Fletcher (1633). "His gold his G.o.d" ... he "much fears to keep, much more to lose his l.u.s.ting." Fully described in canto viii. (Greek, _pleonektes_, "covetous.")

=Pleydell= (_Mr. Paulus_), an advocate in Edinburgh, shrewd and witty. He was at one time the sheriff at Ellangowan.

Mr. Counsellor Pleydell was a lively, sharp-looking gentleman, with a professional shrewdness in his eye, and, generally speaking, a professional formality in his manner; but this he could slip off on a Sat.u.r.day evening, when ... he joined in the ancient pastime of High Jinks.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_, x.x.xix. (time, George II.).

=Pliable=, a neighbor of Christian, whom he accompanied as far as the "Slough of Despond," when he turned back.--Bunyan, _Pilgrim's Progress_, i. (1678).

=Pliant= (_Sir Paul_), a hen-pecked husband, who dares not even touch a letter addressed to himself till my lady has read it first. His perpetual oath is "Gadsbud!" He is such a dolt that he would not believe his own eyes and ears, if they bore testimony against his wife's fidelity and continency. (See PLACID.)

_Lady Pliant_, second wife of Sir Paul. "She's handsome, and knows it; is very silly, and thinks herself wise; has a choleric old husband" very fond of her, but whom she rules with spirit, and snubs "afore folk." My lady says, "If one has once sworn, it is most unchristian, inhuman, and obscene that one should break it." Her conduct with Mr. Careless is most reprehensible.--Congreve, _The Double Dealer_ (1694).

=Pliny= (_The German_), or "Modern Pliny," Konrad von Gesner of Zurich, who wrote _Historia Animalium_, etc. (1516-1565).

=Pliny of the East=, Zakarija ibn Muhammed, surnamed "Kazwini," from Kazwin, the place of his birth. He is so called by De Sacy (1200-1283).

=Plon-Plon=, Prince Napoleon Joseph Charles Bonaparte, son of Jerome Bonaparte by his second wife (the Princess Frederica Catherine of Wurtemberg). Plon-Plon is a euphonic corruption of _Craint-Plomb_ ("fear-bullet"), a nickname given to the prince in the Crimean war (1854-6).

=Plornish=, plasterer, Bleeding-heart Yard. He was a smooth-cheeked, fresh-colored, sandy-whiskered man of 30. Long in the legs, yielding at the knees, foolish in the face, flannel-jacketed and lime-whitened. He generally chimed in conversation by echoing the words of the person speaking. Thus, if Mrs. Plornish said to a visitor, "Miss Dorrit dursn't let him know;" he would chime in, "Dursn't let him know." "Me and Plornish says, 'Ho! Miss Dorrit;'" Plornish repeated, after his wife, "Ho! Miss Dorrit." "Can you employ Miss Dorrit?" Plornish repeated as an echo, "Employ Miss Dorrit?" (See PETER.)

_Mrs. Plornish_, the plasterer's wife. A young woman, somewhat slatternly in herself and her belongings, and dragged by care and poverty already into wrinkles. She generally began her sentences with, "Well, not to deceive you." Thus: "Is Mr. Plornish at home?" "Well, sir, not to deceive you, he's gone to look for a job." "Well, not to deceive you, ma'am, I take it kindly of you."--C. d.i.c.kens, _Little Dorrit_ (1857).

=Plotting Parlor= (_The_). At Whittington, near Scarsdale, in Derbyshire, is a farmhouse where the earl of Devonshire (Cavendish), the earl of Danby (Osborne), and Baron Delamer (Booth), concerted the Revolution.

The room in which they met is called "The Plotting Parlor."

Where Scarsdale's cliffs the swelling pastures bound, ... there let the farmer hail The sacred orchard which embowers his gate, And shew to strangers, pa.s.sing down the vale, Where Cav'ndish, Booth, and Osborne sate When, bursting from their country's chain, ...

They planned for freedom this her n.o.blest reign.

Akenside, _Ode_ XVIII. v. 3 (1767).

=Plotwell= (_Mrs._), in Mrs. Centlivre's drama, _The Beau's Duel_ (1703).

=Plough of Cincinnatus.= The Roman patriot of this name, when sought by the amba.s.sadors sent to entreat him to a.s.sume command of state and army, was found ploughing his field. Leaving the plough in the furrow, he accompanied them to Rome, and after a victorious campaign returned to his little farm.

=Plousina=, called Hebe, endowed by the fairy Anguilletta with the gifts of wit, beauty, and wealth. Hebe still felt she lacked something, and the fairy told her it was love. Presently came to her father's court a young prince named Atimir, the two fell in love with each other, and the day of their marriage was fixed. In the interval, Atimir fell in love with Hebe's elder sister Iberia; and Hebe, in her grief, was sent to the Peaceable Island, where she fell in love with the ruling prince, and married him. After a time, Atimir and Iberia, with Hebe and her husband, met at the palace of the ladies' father, when the love between Atimir and Hebe revived. A duel was fought between the young princes, in which Atimir was slain, and the prince of the Peaceable Islands was severely wounded. Hebe, coming up, threw herself on Atimir's sword, and the dead bodies of Atimir and Hebe were transformed into two trees called "charms."--Countess D'Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ ("Anguilletta," 1682).

=Plowman= (_Piers_), the dreamer, who, falling asleep on the Malvern Hills, Worcestershire, saw in a vision pictures of the corruptions of society, and particularly of the avarice and wantonness of the clergy.

This supposed vision is formed into a poetical satire of great vigor, fancy, and humor. It is divided into twenty parts, each part being called a _pa.s.sus_, or separate vision.--William [or Robert] Langland, _The Vision of Piers the Plowman_ (1362).

=Plumdamas= (_Mr. Peter_), grocer.--Sir W. Scott, _Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.).

=Plume= (_Captain_), a gentleman and an officer. He is in love with Sylvia, a wealthy heiress, and, when he marries her, gives up his commission.--G. Farquhar, _The Recruiting Officer_ (1705).

=Plummer= (_Caleb_), a little old toy-maker, in the employ of Gruff and Tackleton, toy merchants. He was spare, gray-haired, and very poor. It was his pride "to go as close to Natur' in his toys as he could for the money." Caleb Plummer had a blind daughter, who a.s.sisted him in his toy-making, and whom he brought up under the belief that he himself was young, handsome, and well off, and that the house they lived in was sumptuously furnished and quite magnificent. Every calamity he smoothed over, every unkind remark of their snarling employer he called a merry jest; so that the poor blind girl lived in a castle of the air, "a bright little world of her own." When merry or puzzled, Caleb used to sing something about "a sparkling bowl."

_Bertha Plummer_, the blind daughter of the toy-maker, who fancied her poor old father was a young fop, that the sack he threw across his shoulders was a handsome blue great-coat, and that their wooden house was a palace. She was in love with Tackleton, the toy merchant, whom she thought to be a handsome young prince; and when she heard that he was about to marry May Fielding, she drooped and was like to die. She was then disillusioned, heard the real facts, and said, "Why, oh, why did you deceive me thus? Why did you fill my heart so full, and then come like death, and tear away the objects of my love?" However, her love for her father was not lessened, and she declared that the knowledge of the truth was "sight restored." "It is my sight," she cried. "Hitherto I have been blind, but now my eyes are open. I never knew my father before, and might have died without ever having known him truly."

_Edward Plummer_, son of the toy-maker, and brother of the blind girl.

He was engaged from boyhood to May Fielding, went to South America, and returned to marry her; but, hearing of her engagement to Tackleton, the toy merchant, he a.s.sumed the disguise of a deaf old man, to ascertain whether she loved Tackleton or not. Being satisfied that her heart was still his own, he married her, and Tackleton made them a present of the wedding-cake which he had ordered for himself.--C. d.i.c.kens, _The Cricket on the Hearth_ (1845).