Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 67

says, "There, take her home, and use her well." "I will do so," says Adraste, and leads off the Greek slave.--Moliere, _Le Sicilien ou L'Amour Peintre_ (1667).

=Pedrillo=, the tutor of Don Juan. After the shipwreck, the men in the boat, being wholly without provisions, cast lots to know which should be killed as food for the rest, and the lot fell on Pedrillo, but those who feasted on him most ravenously went mad.

His tutor, the licentiate Pedrillo, Who several languages did understand.

Byron, _Don Juan_, ii. 25; see 76-79 (1819).

=Pedro=, "the pilgrim," a n.o.ble gentleman servant to Alinda (daughter of Lord Alphonso).--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Pilgrim_ (1621).

_Pedro_ (_Don_), prince of Aragon.--Shakespeare, _Much Ado about Nothing_ (1600).

_Pedro_ (_Don_), father of Leonora.--R. Jephson, _Two Strings to your Bow_ (1792).

_Pedro_ (_Don_), a Portuguese n.o.bleman, father of Donna Violante.--Mrs.

Centlivre, _The Wonder_ (1714).

_Pedro_ (_Dr._), whose full name was Dr. Pedro Rezio de Aguero, court physician in the island of Barataria. He carried a whalebone rod in his hand, and whenever any dish of food was set before Sancho Panza, the governor, he touched it with his wand, that it might be instantly removed, as unfit for the governor to eat. Partridges were "forbidden by Hippoc'rates," olla podridas were "most pernicious," rabbits were "a sharp-haired diet," veal might not be touched, but "a few wafers, and a thin slice or two of quince," might not be harmful.

The governor, being served with some beef hashed with onions, ...

fell to with more avidity than if he had been set down to Milan G.o.dwits, Roman pheasants, Sorrento veal, Moron partridges, or green geese of Lavajos; and turning to Dr. Pedro, he said, "Look you, signor doctor, I want no danties, ... for I have always been used to beef, bacon, pork, turnips and onions."--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. iii. 10, 12 (1615).

=Peebles= (_Peter_), the pauper litigant. He is vain, litigious, hard-hearted, and credulous; a liar, a drunkard, and a pauper. His "ganging plea" is worthy of Hogarth.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

=Peecher= (_Miss_), a schoolmistress, in the flat country where Kent and Surrey meet. "Small, shining, neat, methodical, and buxom was Miss Peecher; cherry-cheeked and tuneful of voice. A little pincushion, a little hussie, a little book, a little work-box, a little set of tables and weights and measures, and a little woman all in one. She could write a little essay on any subject exactly a slate long, and strictly according to rule. If Mr. Bradley Headstone had proposed marriage to her, she would certainly have replied 'yes,' for she loved him;" but Mr.

Headstone did not love Miss Peecher--he loved Lizzie Hexam, and had no love to spare for any other woman.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Our Mutual Friend_, ii.

1 (1864).

=Peel-the-Causeway= (_Old_), a smuggler. Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

=Peeler= (_Sir_), any crop which greatly impoverishes the ground. To _peel_ is to impoverish soil, as "oats, rye, barley, and grey wheat,"

but not peas (x.x.xiii. 51).

Wheat doth not well, Nor after Sir Peeler he loveth to dwell.

T. Tusser, _Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry_, xviii. 12 (1557).

=Peelers=, the constabulary of Ireland, appointed under the Peace Preservation Act of 1814, proposed by Sir Robert Peel. The name was subsequently given to the new police of England, who are also called "Bobbies" from Sir Robert Peel.

=Peep-o'-Day Boys=, Irish insurgents of 1784, who prowled about at day-break, searching for arms.

=Peeping Tom of Coventry.= Lady G.o.diva earnestly besought her husband (Leofric, earl of Mercia) to relieve the men of Coventry of their grievous oppressions. Leofric, annoyed at her importunity, told her he would do so when she had ridden on horseback, naked, through the town.

The countess took him at his word, rode naked through the town, and Leofric was obliged to grant the men of Coventry a charter of freedom.--Dugdale.

Rapin says that the countess commanded all persons to keep within doors and away from windows during her ride. One man, named Tom of Coventry, took a peep of the lady on horseback, but it cost him his life.

? Tennyson, in his _G.o.diva_, has reproduced this story.

=Peerage of the Saints.= In the preamble of the statutes inst.i.tuting the Order of St. Michael, founded by Louis XI in 1469, the archangel is styled "my lord," and created a knight. The apostles had been already enn.o.bled and knighted. We read of "the Earl Peter," "Count Paul," "the Baron Stephen," and so on. Thus, in the introduction of a sermon upon St. Stephen's Day, we have these lines:

Entendes toutes a chest sermon, Et clair et lai tules environ; Contes vous vueille la pation De St. Estieul le baron.

=Peerce= (1 _syl._), a generic name for a farmer or ploughman. Piers the plowman is the name a.s.sumed by Robert or William Langland, in a historico-satirical poem so called.

And yet, my priests, pray you to G.o.d for Peerce ...

And if you have a "pater noster" spare, Then you shal pray for saylers.

G. Gascoigne, _The Steele Glas_ (died 1577).

=Peery= (_Paul_), landlord of the Ship, Dover.

_Mrs. Peery_, Paul's wife.--G. Colman, _Ways and Means_ (1788).

=Peerybingle= (_John_), a carrier, "lumbering, slow, and honest; heavy, but light of spirit; rough upon the surface, but gentle at the core; dull without, but quick within; stolid, but so good. O, Mother Nature, give thy children the true poetry of heart that hid itself in this poor carrier's breast, and we can bear to have them talking prose all their life long!"

_Mrs. [Mary] Peerybingle_, called by her husband "Dot." She was a little chubby, cheery, young wife, very fond of her husband, and very proud of her baby; a good housewife, who delighted in making the house snug and cozy for John, when he came home after his day's work. She called him "a dear old darling of a dunce," or "her little goosie." She sheltered Edward Plummer in her cottage for a time, and got into trouble; but the marriage of Edward with May Fielding cleared up the mystery, and John loved his little Dot more fondly than ever.--C. d.i.c.kens, _The Cricket on the Hearth_ (1845).

=Peg.= _Drink to your peg._ King Edgar ordered "that pegs should be fastened into drinking-horns at stated distances and whoever drank beyond his peg at one draught should be obnoxious to a severe punishment."

I had lately a peg-tankard in my hand. It had on the inside a row of eight pins, one above another, from bottom to top. It held two quarts, so that there was a gill of liquor between peg and peg.

Whoever drank short of his pin or beyond it, was obliged to drink to the next, and so on till the tankard was drained to the bottom.--Sharpe, _History of the Kings of England_.

=Peg-a-Ramsey=, the heroine of an old song. Percy says it was an indecent ballad. Shakespeare alludes to it in his _Twelfth Night_, act ii. sc. 3 (1614).

James I. had been much struck with the beauty and embarra.s.sment of the pretty Peg-a-Ramsey? as he called her.--Sir W. Scott.

=Peg'asus=, the winged horse of the Muses. It was caught by Bellerophon, who mounted thereon, and destroyed the Chimaera; but when he attempted to ascend to heaven, he was thrown from the horse, and Pegasus mounted alone to the skies, where it became the constellation of the same name.

_To break Pegasus's neck_, to write halting poetry.

Some, free from rhyme or reason, rule or check, Break Priscian's head, and Pegasus's neck.

Pope, _The Dunciad_, iii. 161 (1728).