Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 71

=Percival Glyde= (_Sir_). Rascally husband of _Laura Fairlie_. To possess himself of her fortune, he incarcerates her in an insane asylum, gives out that she is dead, and uses the corpse of her half-sister to confirm the rumor.--Wilkie Collins, _The Woman in White_.

=Percy Arundel= (_Lord Ashdale_), son of Lady Arundel, by her second husband. A hot, fiery youth, proud and overbearing. When grown to manhood, a "sea-captain" named Norman, made love to Violet, Lord Ashdale's cousin. The young "Hotspur" was indignant and somewhat jealous, but discovered that Norman was the son of Lady Arundel by her first husband, and the heir to the t.i.tle and estates. In the end, Norman agreed to divide the property equally, but claimed Violet for his bride.--Lord Lytton, _The Sea-Captain_ (1839).

=Per'dita=, the daughter of the Queen Hermione, born in prison. Her father, King Leontes, commanded the infant to be cast on a desert sh.o.r.e, and left to perish there. Being put to sea, the vessel was driven by a storm to the "coast" of Bohemia, and the infant child was brought up by a shepherd, who called its name Perdita. Flor'izel, the son of the Bohemian king, fell in love with Perdita, and courted her under the a.s.sumed name of Doricles; but the king, having tracked his son to the shepherd's hut, told Perdita that if she did not at once discontinue this foolery, he would command her and the shepherd too to be put to death. Florizel and Perdita now fled from Bohemia to Sicily, and being introduced to the king, it was soon discovered that Perdita was Leontes's daughter. The Bohemian king, having tracked his son to Sicily, arrived just in time to hear the news, and gave his joyful consent to the union which he had before forbidden.--Shakespeare, _The Winter's Tale_ (1604).

_Perdita_, Mrs. Mary Robinson (born Darby), the victim of George IV., while prince of Wales. She first attracted his notice while acting the part of "Perdita," and the prince called himself "Florizel." George, prince of Wales, settled a pension for life on her, 500 a year for herself, and 200 a year for her daughter. She caught cold one winter, and losing the use of her limbs, could neither walk nor stand (1758-1799, not 1800 as is given usually).

=Perdrix, toujours Perdrix!= Walpole tells us that the confessor of one of the French kings, having reproved the monarch for his conjugal infidelities, was asked what dish he liked best. The confessor replied, "Partridges;" and the king had partridges served to him every day, till the confessor got quite sick of them. "Perdrix, toujours perdrix!" he would exclaim, as the dish was set before him. After a time, the king visited him, and hoped his favorite dish had been supplied him. "Mais oui," he replied, "toujours perdrix, toujours perdrix!" "Ah, ah!" said the amorous monarch, "and one mistress is all very well, but not _perdrix, toujours perdrix!_"--See _Notes and Queries_, 337, October 23, 1869).[TN-83]

The story is at least as old as the _Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_, compiled between 1450-1461, for the amus.e.m.e.nt of the dauphin of France, afterwards Louis XI. (_Notes and Queries_, November 27, 1869).

? Farquhar parodies the French expression into "Soup for breakfast, soup for dinner, soup for supper, and soup for breakfast again."--Farquhar, _The Inconstant_, iv. 2 (1702).

=Pere d.u.c.h.esne= (_Le_), Jacques Rene Hebert; so called from the _Pere d.u.c.h.esne_, a newspaper of which he was the editor (1755-1794).

=Pereard= (_Sir_), the Black Knight of the Black Lands. Called by Tennyson "Night" or "Nox." He was one of the four brothers who kept the pa.s.sages to Castle Perilous, and was overthrown by Sir Gareth.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 126 (1470); Tennyson, _Idylls_ ("Gareth and Lynette").

=Peredur= (_Sir_), son of Evrawe, called "Sir Peredur of the Long Spear,"

one of the knights of the Round Table. He was for many years called "The Dumb Youth," from a vow he made to speak to no Christian till Angharad of the Golden Hand loved him better than she loved any other man. His great achievements were: (1) the conquest of the Black Oppressor, "who oppressed every one and did justice to no one;" (2) killing the Addanc of the Lake, a monster that devoured daily some of the sons of the king of Tortures. This exploit he was enabled to achieve by means of a stone which kept him invisible; (3) slaying the three hundred heroes privileged to sit round the countess of the Achievements; on the death of these men the seat next the countess was freely given to him; (4) the achievement of the Mount of Mourning, where was a serpent with a stone in its tail which would give inexhaustible wealth to its possessor; Sir Peredur killed the serpent, but gave the stone to his companion, Earl Etlym of the east country. These exploits over, Sir Peredur lived fourteen years with the Empress Cristin.o.byl the Great.

Sir Peredur is the Welsh name for Sir Percival of Wales.--_The Mabinogion_ (from the Red Book of Hergest, twelfth century).

=Per'egrine= (3 _syl._), a sentimental prig, who talks by the book. At the age of 15 he runs away from home, and Job Thornberry lends him ten guineas, "the first earnings of his trade as a brazier." After thirty years absence, Peregrine returns just as the old brazier is made a bankrupt "through the treachery of a friend." He tells the bankrupt that his loan of ten guineas has by honest trade grown to 10,000, and these he returns to Thornberry as his own by right. It turns out that Peregrine is the eldest brother of Sir Simon Rochdale, J. P., and when Sir Simon refuses justice to the old brazier Peregrine a.s.serts his right to the estate, etc. At the same time, he hears that the ship he thought was wrecked has come safe into port, and has thus brought him 100,000.--G. Colman, junior, _John Bull_ (1805).

=Peregrine Pickle=, the hero and t.i.tle of a novel by Smollett (1751).

Peregrine Pickle is a savage, ungrateful spendthrift, fond of practical jokes, and suffering with evil temper the misfortunes brought on himself by his own wilfulness.

=Peregri'nus Proteus=, a cynic philosopher, born at Parium, on the h.e.l.lespont. After a youth spent in debauchery and crimes, he turned Christian, and, to obliterate the memory of his youthful ill practices, divided his inheritance among the people. Ultimately he burned himself to death in public at the Olympic games, A.D. 165. Lucan has held up this immolation to ridicule in his _Death of Peregrinus_; and C. M.

Wieland has an historic romance in German ent.i.tled _Peregrinus Proteus_ (1733-1813).

=Per'es= (_Gil_), a canon, and the eldest brother of Gil Blas' mother. Gil was a little punchy man, three feet and a half high, with his head sunk between his shoulders. He lived well, and brought up his nephew and G.o.dchild, Gil Blas. "In so doing, Peres taught himself also to read his breviary without stumbling." He was the most illiterate canon of the whole chapter.--Lesage, _Gil Blas_, i. (1715).

=Perez= (_Michael_), the "copper captain," a brave Spanish soldier, duped into marrying Estifania, a servant of intrigue, who pa.s.sed herself off as a lady of property. Being reduced to great extremities, Estifania p.a.w.ned the clothes and valuables of her husband; but these "valuables"

were but of little worth--a jewel which sparkled as the "light of a dark lanthorn," a "chain of whitings' eyes" for pearls, and as for his clothes, she tauntingly says to her husband:

Put these and them [_his jewels_] on, and you're a man of copper, A copper, copper captain.

Beaumont and Fletcher, _Rule a Wife and Have a Wife_ (1640).

=Peri=, (plu., =Peris=), gentle, fairy-like beings of Eastern mythology, offspring of the fallen angels, and const.i.tuting a race of beings between angels and men. They direct with a wand the pure-minded the way to heaven, and dwell in Shadu'kiam' and Am'bre-abad, two cities subject to Eblis.

Are the peries coming down from their spheres?

W. Beckford, _Vathek_ (1786).

=Pe'richole= (_La_), the heroine of Offenbach's comic opera (_opera bouffe_) of that name. She was originally a street-singer of Lima, the capital of Peru, but became the mistress of the viceroy. She was not a native of Lima and offended the Creole ladies by calling them, in her bad Spanish, _pericholas_, "flaunting, bedizened creatures," and they, in retaliation, called her "La Perichole," _i.e._, "the flaunting one _par excellence_."

=Pericles=, the Athenian who raised himself to royal supremacy (died B.C.

429). On his death-bed he overheard his friends recalling his various merits, and told them they had forgotten his greatest praise, viz., that no Athenian through his administration had had to put on mourning, _i.e._ he had caused no one to be put to death.

Peri'cles was a famous man of warre ...

Yet at his death he rather did rejoice In clemencie.... "Be still," quoth he, "you grave Athenians"

(Who whispered and told his valiant acts); "You have forgot my greatest glorie got: For yet by me nor mine occasion Was never sene a mourning garment worn."

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

=Per'icles, prince of Tyre=, a voluntary exile, in order to avert the calamities which Anti'ochus, emperor of Greece, vowed against the Tyrians. Pericles, in his wanderings, first came to Tarsus, which he relieved from famine, but was obliged to quit the city to avoid the persecution of Antiochus. He was then shipwrecked, and cast on the sh.o.r.e of Pentap'olis, where he distinguished himself in the public games, and being introduced to the king, fell in love with the Princess Thas'a, and married her. At the death of Antiochus, he returned to Tyre; but his wife, supposed to be dead in giving birth to a daughter (Marina), was thrown into the sea. Pericles entrusted his infant child to Cleon (governor of Tarsus), and his wife, Dionysia, who brought her up excellently well till she became a young woman, when Dionysia employed a man to murder her; and when Pericles came to see her, he was shown a splendid sepulchre which had been raised to her honor. On his return home, the ship stopped at Metaline, and Marina was introduced to Pericles to divert his melancholy. She told him the tale of her life, and he discovered that she was his daughter. Marina was now betrothed to Lysim'achus, governor of Metaline; and the party, going to the shrine of Diana of Ephesus to return thanks to the G.o.ddess, discovered the priestess to be Thasa, the wife of Pericles, and mother of Marina.--Shakespeare, _Pericles, Prince of Tyre_ (1608).

? This is the story of _Ismene and Ismenias_ by Eustathius. The tale was known to Gower by the translation of G.o.dfrey Viterbo.

=Perigort= (_Cardinal_). Previous to the battle of Poitiers, he endeavors to negotiate terms with the French king, but the only terms he can obtain, he tells Prince Edward, are:

That to the castles, towns, and plunder ta'en, And offered now by you to be restored, Your royal person with a hundred knights Are to be added prisoners at discretion.

Shirley, _Edward the Black Prince_, iv. 2 (1640).

=Peri'got= (the _t_ p.r.o.nounced, so as to rhyme with _not_), a shepherd in love with Am'oret; but the shepherdess Amaryllis also loves him, and, by the aid of the Sullen Shepherd, gets transformed into the exact likeness of the modest Amoret. By her wanton conduct she disgusts Perigot, who casts her off; and by and by, meeting Amoret, whom he believes to be the same person, rejects her with scorn, and even wounds her with intent to kill. Ultimately the truth is discovered by Clor'in, "the faithful shepherdess," and the lovers, being reconciled, are married to each other.--John Fletcher, _The Faithful Shepherdess_ (1610).

=Periklym'enos=, son of Neleus (2 _syl._). He had the power of changing his form into a bird, beast, reptile, or insect. As a bee, he perched on the chariot of Herakles (_Hercules_), and was killed.

=Peril'los=, of Athens, made a brazen bull for Phal'aris, tyrant of Agrigentum, intended for the execution of criminals. They were to be shut up in the bull, and the metal of the bull was to be made red hot.

The cries of the victims inside were so reverberated as to resemble the roarings of a gigantic bull. Phalaris made the first experiment by shutting up the inventor himself in his own bull.

What's a protector?

A tragic actor, Caesar in a clown; He's a bra.s.s farthing stamped with a crown; A bladder blown with other breaths puffed full; Not a Perillus, but a Perillus' bull.

John Cleveland, _A Definition of a Protector_ (died 1650).