Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 69

108). The widow succeeded to the throne (pt. iii. 10).--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_ (1470).

Milton calls the name "Pellenore" (2 _syl._).

Fair damsels, met in forests wide By knights of Logres, or of Lyones, Lancelot, or Pelleas, or Pellenore.

Milton.

=Pelob'ates= (4 _syl._), one of the frog champions. The word means "mud-wader." In the battle he flings a heap of mud against Psycarpax, the Hector of the mice, and half blinds him; but the warrior mouse heaves a stone "whose bulk would need ten degenerate mice of modern days to lift," and the ma.s.s, falling on the "mud-wader," breaks his leg.--Parnell, _Battle of the Frogs and Mice_, iii. (about 1712).

=Pel'ops' Shoulder=, ivory. The tale is that Demeter ate the shoulder of Pelops when it was served up by Tan'talos for food. The G.o.ds restored Pelops to life by putting the dismembered body into a caldron, but found that it lacked a shoulder; whereupon Demeter supplied him with an ivory shoulder, and all his descendants bore this distinctive mark.

N.B.--It will be remembered that Pythag'oras had a _golden thigh_.

Your forehead high, And smooth as Pelop's shoulder.

John Fletcher, _The Faithful Shepherdess_, ii. 1 (1610).

=Pelos=, father of Physigna'thos, king of the frogs. The word means "mud."--Parnell, _Battle of the Frogs and Mice_ (about 1712).

=Pembroke= (_The earl of_), uncle to Sir Aymer de Valence.--Sir W. Scott, _Castle Dangerous_ (time, Henry I.).

_Pembroke_ (_the Rev. Mr._), chaplain at Waverley Honor.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

=Pen=, Philemon Holland, translator-general of the cla.s.sics. Of him was the epigram written:

Holland, with his translations doth so fill us, He will not let _Suetonius_ be _Tranquillus_.

(The point of which is, of course, that the name of the Roman historian was _C. Suetonius Tranquillus_.)

Many of these translations were written from beginning to end with one pen, and hence he himself wrote:

With one sole pen I writ this book, Made of a grey goose-quill; A pen it was when it I took, And a pen I leave it still.

=Pendennis= (_Arthur_), pseudonym of W. M. Thackeray in _The Newcomes_ (1854).

_Pendennis_, a novel by Thackeray (1849), in which much of his own history and experience is recorded with a novelist's license.

_Pendennis_ stands in relation to Thackeray as _David Copperfield_ to Charles d.i.c.kens.

_Arthur Pendennis_, a young man of ardent feelings and lively intellect, but conceited and selfish. He has a keen sense of honor, and a capacity for loving, but altogether he is not an attractive character.

_Laura Pendennis._ This is one of the best of Thackeray's characters.

_Major Pendennis_, a tuft-hunter, who fawns on his patrons for the sake of wedging himself into their society.--_History of Pendennis_, published originally in monthly parts, beginning in 1849.

=Pendrag'on=, probably a t.i.tle meaning "chief leader in war." _Dragon_ is Welsh for a "leader in war," and _pcn_[TN-79] for "head" or "chief." The t.i.tle was given to Uther, brother of Constans, and father of Prince Arthur. Like the word "Pharaoh," it is used as a proper name without the article.--Geoffrey of Monmouth, _Chron._, vi. (1142).

Once I read, That stout Pendragon in his litter, sick, Came to the field, and vanquished his foes.

Shakespeare, 1 _Henry VI._ act iii. sc. 2 (1589)[TN-80]

=Penel'ope's Web=, a work that never progresses. Penelope, the wife of Ulysses, being importuned by several suitors during her husband's long absence, made reply that she could not marry again, even if Ulysses were dead, till she had finished weaving a shroud for her aged father-in-law.

Every night she pulled out what she had woven during the day, and thus the shroud made no progress towards completion.--_Greek Mythology._

The French say of a work "never ending, still beginning," _c'est l'ouvrage de Penelope_.

=Penelope Lapham=, vivacious, but not pretty daughter of Silas Lapham. Her wit wins the love her sister's beauty could not capture. Penelope's unintentional conquest brings painful perplexity to herself, with anguish to her sister. Still she yields finally to Irene's magnanimity and her suitor's persuasions, and weds Tom Corey.--W. D. Howells, _The Rise of Silas Lapham_ (1887).

=Penel'ophon=, the beggar loved by King Cophetua. Shakespeare calls the name Zenelophon in _Love's Labor's Lost_, act iv. sc. 1 (1594).--Percy, _Reliques_, I. ii. 6 (1765).

=Penelva= (_The Exploits and Adventures of_), part of the series called _Le Roman des Romans_, pertaining to "Am'adis of Gaul." This part was added by an anonymous Portuguese (fifteenth century).

=Penfeather= (_Lady Penelope_), the Lady Patroness at the Spa.--Sir W.

Scott, _St. Ronan's Well_ (time, George III.).

=Pengwern= (_The Torch of_), prince Gwenwyn of Powys-land.--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

=Pengwinion= (_Mr._), from Cornwall; a Jacobite conspirator with Mr.

Redgauntlet.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

=Peninsular War= (_The_), the war carried on by Sir Arthur Wellesley against Napoleon in Portugal and Spain (1808-1814).

Southey wrote a _History of the Peninsular War_ (1822-32).

=Penitents of Love= (_Fraternity of the_), an inst.i.tution established in Languedoc, in the thirteenth century, consisting of knights and esquires, dames and damsels, whose object was to prove the excess of their love by bearing, with invincible constancy, the extremes of heat and cold. They pa.s.sed the greater part of the day abroad, wandering about from castle to castle, wherever they were summoned by the inviolable duties of love and gallantry; so that many of these devotees perished by the inclemency of the weather, and received the crown of martyrdom to their profession.--See Warton, _History of English Poetry_ (1781).

=Pen'lake= (_Richard_), a cheerful man, both frank and free, but married to Rebecca, a terrible shrew. Rebecca knew if she once sat in St.

Michael's chair (on St. Michael's Mount, in Cornwall), that she would rule her husband ever after; so she was very desirous of going to the mount. It so happened that Richard fell sick, and both vowed to give six marks to St. Michael if he recovered. Richard did recover, and they visited the shrine; but while Richard was making the offering, Rebecca ran to seat herself in St. Michael's chair; but no sooner had she done so, than she fell from the chair, and was killed in the fall.--Southey, _St. Michael's Chair_ (a ballad, 1798).

=Penniless= (_The_), Maximilian I., emperor of Germany (1459, 1493-1519).