Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 58

=Pale'mon=, son of a rich merchant. He fell in love with Anna, daughter of Albert, master of one of his father's ships. The purse-proud merchant, indignant at this, tried every means to induce his son to abandon such a "mean connection," but without avail; so at last he sent him in the _Britannia_ (Albert's ship) "in charge of the merchandise." The ship was wrecked near Cape Colonna, in Attica; and although Palemon escaped, his ribs were so broken that he died almost as soon as he reached the sh.o.r.e.

A gallant youth, Palemon was his name, Charged with the commerce hither also came; A father's stern resentment doomed to prove, He came, the victim of unhappy love.

Falconer, _The Shipwreck_, i. 2 (1756).

=Pale'mon and Lavinia=, a poetic version of Boaz and Ruth. "The lovely young Lavinia" went to glean in the fields of young Palemon, "the pride of swains;" and Palemon, falling in love with the beautiful gleaner, both wooed and won her.--Thomson, _The Seasons_ ("Autumn," 1730).

=Pales= (2 _syl._), G.o.d of shepherds and their flocks.--_Roman Mythology._

Pomona loves the orchard; And Liber loves the vine; And Pales loves the straw-built shed, Warm with the breath of kine.

Lord Macaulay, _Lays of Ancient Rome_ ("Prophecy of Capys," 1842).

=Pal'inode= (3 _syl._), a shepherd in Spenser's _Eclogues_. In ecl. v.

Palinode represents the Catholic priest. He invites Piers (who represents the Protestant clergy) to join in the fun and pleasures of May. Piers then warns the young man of the vanities of the world, and tells him of the great degeneracy of pastoral life, at one time simple and frugal, but now discontented and licentious. He concludes with the fable of the kid and her dam. The fable is this: A mother-goat, going abroad for the day, told her kid to keep at home, and not to open the door to strangers. She had not been gone long when up came a fox, with head bound from "headache," and foot bound from "gout," and carrying a ped of trinkets. The fox told the kid a most piteous tale, and showed her a little mirror. The kid, out of pity and vanity, opened the door; but while stooping over the ped to pick up a little bell, the fox clapped down the lid and carried her off.

In ecl. vii. Palinode is referred to by the shepherd Thomalin, as "lording it over G.o.d's heritage," feeding the sheep with chaff, and keeping for himself the grains.--Spenser, _Shepheardes Calendar_ (1572).

_Palinode_ (3 _syl._), a poem in recantation of a calumny. Stesich'oros wrote a bitter satire against Helen, for which her brothers, Castor and Pollux, plucked out his eyes. When, however, the poet recanted, his sight was restored to him again.

The bard who libelled Helen in his song, Recanted after, and redressed the wrong.

Ovid, _Art of Love_, iii.

Horace's _Ode_, xvi. i. is a palinode. Samuel Butler has a palinode, in which he recanted what he said in a previous poem of the Hon. Edward Howard. Dr. Watts recanted in a poem the _praise_ he had previously bestowed on Queen Anne.

=Palinu'rus=, the pilot of aene'as. Palinurus, sleeping at the helm, fell into the sea and was drowned. The name is employed as a generic word for a steersman or pilot, and sometimes for a chief minister. Thus, Prince Bismarck might have been called the palinurus of William, emperor of Germany and king of Prussia.

More had she spoke, but yawned. All nature nods ...

E'en Palinurus nodded at the helm.

Pope, _The Dunciad_, iv. 614 (1742).

=Palisse= (_La_), a sort of M. Prudhomme; a pompous utterer of truisms and moral plat.i.tudes.

=Palissy= (_Bernard, the potter_), succeeded, after innumerable efforts and privations, in inventing the art of enamelling stone ware. He was arrested and confined in the Bastille for Huguenot principles, and died there in 1589.

=Palla'dio= (_Andrea_), the Italian cla.s.sical architect (1518-1580).

_The English Palladio_, Inigo Jones (1573-1653).

=Palla'dium.=

_Of Ceylon_, the delada or tooth of Buddha, preserved in the Malegawa temple at Kandy. Natives guard it with great jealousy, from a belief that whoever possesses it acquires the right to govern Ceylon. When, in 1815, the English obtained possession of the tooth, the Ceylonese submitted to them without resistance.

_Of Eden Hall_, a drinking-gla.s.s, in the possession of Sir Christopher Musgrave, Bart., of Edenhall, c.u.mberland.

_Of Jerusalem._ Aladine, king of Jerusalem, stole an image of the Virgin, and set it up in a mosque, that she might no longer protect the Christians, but become the palladium of Jerusalem. The image was rescued by Sophronia, and the city taken by the crusaders.

_Of Meg'ara_, a golden hair of King Nisus. Scylla promised to deliver the city into the hands of Minos, and cut off the talismanic lock of her father's head while he was asleep.

_Of Rome_, the ancile or sacred buckler which Numa said fell from heaven, and was guarded by priests called Salii.

_Of Scotland_, the great stone of Scone, near Perth, which was removed by Edward I. to Westminster, and is still there, preserved in the coronation chair.

_Of Troy_, a colossal wooden statue of Pallas Minerva, which "fell from heaven." It was carried off by the Greeks, by whom the city was taken, and burned to the ground.

=Pallet=, a painter, in Smollett's novel of _Peregrine Pickle_ (1751).

The absurdities of Pallet are painted an inch thick, and by no human possibility could such an acc.u.mulation of comic disasters have befallen the characters of the tale.

=Pal'merin of England=, the hero and t.i.tle of a romance in chivalry. There is also an inferior one ent.i.tled _Palmerin d'Oliva._

The next two books were _Palmerin d'Ol'iva_ and _Palmerin of England_. "The former," said the cure, "shall be torn in pieces and burnt to the last ember; but _Palmerin of England_ shall be preserved as a relique of antiquity, and placed in such a chest as Alexander found amongst the spoils of Darius, and in which he kept the writings of Homer. This same book is valuable for two things: first, for its own especial excellency, and next because it is the production of a Portuguese monarch, famous for his literary talents. The adventures of the castle of Miraguarda therein, are finely imagined, the style of composition is natural and elegant, and the utmost decorum is preserved throughout."--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. i. 6 (1605).

=Palmi'ra=, daughter of Alcanor, chief of Mecca. She and her brother, Zaphna, were taken captives in infancy, and brought up by Mahomet. As they grew in years they fell in love with each other, not knowing their relationship; but when Mahomet laid siege to Mecca, Zaphna was appointed to a.s.sa.s.sinate Alcanor, and was himself afterwards killed by poison.

Mahomet then proposed marriage to Palmira, but to prevent such an alliance, she killed herself.--James Miller, _Mahomet, the Impostor_ (1740).

=Pal'myrene= (_The_), Zen.o.bia, queen of Palmyra, who claimed the t.i.tle of "Queen of the East." She was defeated by Aurelian, and taken prisoner (A.D. 273). Longinus lived at her court, and was put to death on the capture of Zen.o.bia.

The Palmyrene that fought Aurelian.

Tennyson, _The Princess_, ii. (1847).

=Pal'omides= (_Sir_), son and heir of Sir Astlabor. His brothers were Sir Safire and Sir Segwar'ides. He is always called the Saracen, meaning "unchristened." Next to the three great knights (Sir Launcelot, Sir Tristram, and Sir Lamorake), he was the strongest and bravest of the fellowship of the Round Table. Like Sir Tristram, he was in love with La Belle Isond, wife of King Mark, of Cornwall; but the lady favored the love of Sir Tristram, and only despised that of the Saracen knight.

After his combat with Sir Tristram, Sir Palomides consented to be baptized by the bishop of Carlisle (pt. iii. 28).

He was well made, cleanly and bigly, and neither too young nor too old. And though he was not christened, yet he believed in the best manners, and was faithful and true of his promise, and also well conditioned. He made a vow that he would never be christened unto the time that he achieved the beast Glatisaint.... And also he avowed never to take full christendom unto the time that he had done seven battles within the lists.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, ii. 149 (1470).

=Pam=, Henry John Temple, viscount Palmerston (1784-1865).

=Pam'ela.= Lady Edward Fitzgerald is so called (*-1831).