Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 74

=Pet.i.t Perroquet=, a king's gardener, with whom the king's daughter fell in love. It so happened that a prince was courting the lady, and, being jealous of Pet.i.t Perroquet, said to the king that the young man boasted he could bring hither Tartaro's horse. Now Tartaro was a huge giant and a cannibal. Pet.i.t Perroquet, however, made himself master of the horse.

The prince next told the king that the young gardener boasted he could get possession of the giant's diamond. This he also contrived to make himself master of. The prince then told the king that the young man boasted he could bring hither the giant himself; and the way he accomplished the feat was to cover himself first, with honey, and then with feathers and horns. Thus disguised, he told the giant, to get into the coach he was driving, and he drove him to the king's court, and then married the princess.--Rev. W. Webster, _Basque Legends_ (1877).

=Pe'to=, lieutenant of "Captain" Sir John Falstaff's regiment. Pistol was his ensign or ancient, and Bardolph his corporal.--Shakespeare, 1 and 2 _Henry IV._ (1597-8).

=Petow'ker= (_Miss Henrietta_), of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. She marries Mr. Lillyvick, the collector of water-rates, but elopes with an officer.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Nicholas Nickleby_ (1838).

=Petrarch= (_The English_). Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) is so called by Sir Walter Raleigh.

=Petrarch and Laura.= Laura was a lady of Avignon, the wife of Hugues de Sade, _nee_ Laura de Noves, the mistress of the poet Petrarch. (See LAURA AND PETRARCH.)

=Petrarch of Spain=, Garcilaso de la Vega, born at Toledo (1530-1568, or, according to others, 1503-1536).

=Petro'nius= (_C._ or _T._), a kind of Roman "beau Brummell" in the court of Nero. He was a great voluptuary and profligate, whom Nero appointed _Arbiter Elegantiae_, and considered nothing _comme il faut_ till it had received the sanction of this dictator-in-chief of the imperial pleasures. Tigellinus accused him of treason, and Petronius committed suicide by opening his veins (A.D. 66).

Behold the new Petronius of the day, The arbiter of pleasure and of play.

Byron, _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_ (1809).

=Petruccio= = _Pe.truch'.e.o_, governor of Bologna.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Chances_ (1620).

=Petru'chio=, a gentleman of Vero'na who undertakes to tame the haughty Katharina, called "the Shrew." He marries her, and, without the least personal chastis.e.m.e.nt, reduces her to lamb-like submission. Being a fine compound of bodily and mental vigor, with plenty of wit, spirit, and good-nature, he rules his subordinates dictatorially, and shows he will have his own way, whatever the consequences.--Shakespeare, _Taming of the Shrew_ (1594).

Beaumont and Fletcher wrote a comedy called _The Tamer Tamed_, in which Petruchio is supposed to marry a second wife, by whom he is hen-pecked (1647).

=Pet'ulant=, an "odd sort of small wit," "without manners or breeding." In controversy he would bluntly contradict, and he never spoke the truth.

When in his "club," in order to be thought a man of intrigue, he would steal out quietly, and then in disguise return and call for himself, or leave a letter for himself. He not unfrequently mistook impudence and malice for wit, and looked upon a modest blush in woman as a mark of "guilt or ill-breeding."--W. Congreve, _The Way of the World_ (1700).

=Peu-a-Peu.= So George IV. called Prince Leopold. Stein, speaking of the prince's vacillating conduct in reference to the throne of Greece, says of him, "He has no color," _i.e._ no fixed plan of his own, but is blown about by every wind.

=Peveril= (_William_), natural son of William the Conqueror, and ancestor of Peveril of the Peak.

_Sir Geoffrey Peveril_, a cavalier, called "Peveril of the Peak."

_Lady Margaret Peveril_, wife of Sir Geoffrey.

_Julian Peveril_, son of Sir Geoffrey; in love with Alice Bridgenorth.

He was named by the author after Julian Young, son of the famous actor.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

"Whom is he called after!" said Scott. "It is a fancy name," said Young: "in memoriam of his mother, Julia Ann." "Well, it is a capital name for a novel, I must say," he replied. In the very next novel by the author of _Waverley_, the hero's name is "Julian." I allude, of course, to _Peveril of the Peak_.--J. Young, _Memoirs_, 91.

=Peveril of the Peak=, the hero of Sir W. Scott's novel of that name (1823).

=Peyton= (_Dunwoodie_), fine young fellow, major in the American army, and in love with Frances Wharton. Yet, when forced to choose between marrying her at once or doing his duty in keeping her brother under arrest, he plays the man of honor and true soldier. After many vicissitudes he becomes the husband of Frances.

_Peyton_ (_Miss Jeannette_), sister-in-law to Mr. Wharton, relative of Major Dunwoodie, and affectionate guardian of her nieces. A warm friend of Dr. Sitgreaves, the American surgeon.--James Fennimore[TN-87] Cooper, _The Spy_.

=Phaedra=, daughter of Minos, and wife of Theseus. (See PHEDRE.)

_Phaedra_, waiting-woman of Alcme'na (wife of Amphit'ryon). A type of venality of the lowest and grossest kind. Phaedra is betrothed to Judge Gripus, a stupid magistrate, ready to sell justice to the highest bidder. Neither Phaedra nor Gripus forms any part of the _dramatis personae_ of Moliere's _Amphitryon_ (1668).--Dryden, _Amphitryon_ (1690).

=Phaedria=, the impersonation of wantonness. She is handmaid of the enchantress Acrasia, and sails about Idle Lake in a gondola. Seeing Sir Guyon, she ferries him across the lake to the floating island, where he is set upon by Cymoch'les. Phaedria interposes, and ferries Sir Guyon (the Knight Temperance) over the lake again.--Spenser, _Faery Queen_, ii. (1590).

=Pha'eton= (3 _syl._), son, of Helios and Clymene. He obtained leave to drive his father's sun-car for one day, but was overthrown, and nearly set the world on fire. Jove or Zeus (1 _syl._) struck him with a thunderbolt for his presumption, and cast him into the river Po.

=Phal'aris=, tyrant of Agrigentum, in Sicily. When Perillos, the bra.s.s-founder of Athens, brought to him a brazen bull, and told the tyrant it was intended for the punishment of criminals, Phalaris inquired into its merits. Perillos said the victim was to be enclosed in the bull, and roasted alive, by making the figure red hot. Certain tubes were so constructed as to make the groans of the victim resemble the bellowings of a mad bull. The tyrant much commended the ingenuity, and ordered the invention to be tried on Perillos himself.

_Letters of Phalaris_, certain apocryphal letters ascribed to Phalaris, the tyrant, and published at Oxford, in 1718, by Charles Boyle. There was an edition in 1777 by Walckenaer; another in 1823, by G. H. Schaefer, with notes by Boyle and others. Bentley maintained that the letters were forgeries, and no doubt Bentley was right.

=Phallas=, the horse of Heraclius (Greek, _phalios_, "a grey horse.").

=Pha'on=, a young man who loved Claribel, but being told that she was unfaithful to him, watched her. He saw, as he thought, Claribel holding an a.s.signation with some one he supposed to be a groom. Returning home, he encountered Claribel herself, and "with wrathfull hand he slew her innocent." On the trial for murder, "the lady" was proved to be Claribel's servant. Phaon would have slain her also, but while he was in pursuit of her he was attacked by Furor.--Spenser, _Faery Queen_, ii. 4, 28, etc. (1590).

? Shakespeare's _Much Ado about Nothing_ is a similar story. Both are taken from a novel by Belleforest, copied from one by Bandello. Ariosto, in his _Orlando Furioso_, has introduced a similar story (bk. v.), and Turbervil's _Geneura_ is the same tale.

=Pharamond=, king of the Franks, who visited, _incognito_, the court of King Arthur, to obtain by his exploits a place among the knights of the Round Table. He was the son of Marcomir, and father of Clodion.

Calprenede has an heroic romance so called, which (like his _Cleopatra and Ca.s.sandra_) is a _Roman de Longue Haleine_ (1612-1666).

_Pharamond_, prince of Spain, in the drama called _Philaster_, or _Love Lies a-bleeding_, by Beaumont and Fletcher (date uncertain, probably about 1662).

=Pharaoh=, the t.i.tular name of all the Egyptian kings till the time of Solomon, as the Roman emperors took the t.i.tular name of Caesar. After Solomon's time, the t.i.tular name Pharaoh never occurs alone, but only as a forename, as Pharaoh Necho, Pharaoh Hophra, Pharaoh Shishak. After the division of Alexander's kingdom, the kings of Egypt were all called Ptolemy, generally with some distinctive after-name, as Ptolemy Philadelphos, Ptolemy Euergetes, Ptolemy Philopator, etc.--Selden, _t.i.tles of Honor_, v. 50 (1614).

_Pharaohs before Solomon_ (mentioned in the Old Testament):

1. Pharaoh contemporary with Abraham (_Gen._ xii. 15). This may be Osirtesen I. (dynasty xii.).