Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 83

_Pizarro_, the governor of the State prison, in which Fernando Florestan was confined. Fernando's young wife, in boy's attire, and under the name of Fidelio, became the servant of Pizarro, who, resolving to murder Fernando, sent Fidelio and Rocco (the jailer) to dig his grave. Pizarro was just about to deal the fatal blow, when the minister of state arrived, and commanded the prisoner to be set free.--Beethoven, _Fidelio_ (1791).

=Place'bo=, one of the brothers of January, the old baron of Lombardy.

When January held a family conclave to know whether he should marry, Placebo told him "to please himself, and do as he liked."--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ ("The Merchant's Tale," 1388).

=Placid= (_Mr._), a hen-pecked husband, who is roused at last to be somewhat more manly, but could never be better than "a boiled rabbit without oyster sauce." (See PLIANT.)

_Mrs. Placid_, the lady paramount of the house, who looked quite aghast if her husband expressed a wish of his own, or attempted to do an independent act.--Inchbald, _Every One Has His Fault_ (1794).

=Plac'idas=, the exact fac-simile of his friend, Amias. Having heard of his friend's captivity, he went to release him, and being detected in the garden, was mistaken by Corflambo's dwarf for Amias. The dwarf went and told Paea'na (the daughter of Corflambo, "fair as ever yet saw living eye, but too loose of life and eke of love too light"). Placidas was seized and brought before the lady, who loved Amias, but her love was not requited. When Placidas stood before her, she thought he was Amias, and great was her delight to find her love returned. She married Placidas, reformed her ways, "and all men much admired the change, and spake her praise."--Spenser, _Faery Queen_, iv. 8, 9 (1596).

=Plagiary= (_Sir Fretful_), a playwright, whose dramas are mere plagiarisms from "the refuse of obscure volumes." He pretends to be rather pleased with criticism, but is sorely irritated thereby. Richard c.u.mberland (1732-1811), noted for his vanity and irritability, was the model of this character.--Sheridan, _The Critic_, i. 1 (1779).

Herrick, who had no occasion to steal, has taken this image from Suckling, and spoilt it in the theft. Like Sir Fretful Plagiary, Herrick had not skill to steal with taste.--R. Chambers, _English Literature_, i. 134.

William Parsons [1736-1795] was the original "Sir Fretful Plagiary," and from his delineation most of our modern actors have borrowed their idea.--_Life of Sheridan._

=Plaids et Gieux sous l'Ormel=, a society formed by the troubadours of Picardy in the latter half of the twelfth century. It consisted of knights and ladies of the highest rank, exercised and approved in courtesy, who a.s.sumed an absolute judicial power in matters of the most delicate nature; trying with the most consummate ceremony, all causes in love brought before their tribunals.

This was similar to the "Court of Love," established about the same time, by the troubadours of Provence.--_Universal Magazine_ (March, 1792).

=Plain= (_The_), the level floor of the National Convention of France, occupied by the Girondists, or moderate republicans.

The red republicans occupied the higher seats, called "the mountain." By a figure of speech, the Girondist party was called "the plain," and the red republican party "the mountain."

=Plain and Perspicuous Doctor= (_The_), Walter Burleigh (1275-1357).

=Plain Dealer= (_The_), a comedy by William Wycherly (1677).

The countess of Drogheda ... inquired for the _Plain Dealer_.

"Madam," said Mr. Fairbeard, ... "there he is," pushing Mr.

Wycherly towards her.--Cibber, _Lives of the Poets_, iii. 252.

(Wycherly married the countess in 1680. She died soon afterwards, leaving him the whole of her fortune.)

=Plantagenet= (_Lady Edith_), a kinswoman of Richard I. She marries the prince royal of Scotland (called Sir Kenneth, knight of the Leopard, or David, earl of Huntingdon).--Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

=Plato.= The mistress of this philosopher was Archiana.s.sa; of Aristotle, Hepyllis; and of Epicurus, Leontium. (See LOVERS.)

_Plato_ (_The German_), Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743-1819).

_Plato_ (_The Jewish_), Philo Judaeus (fl. 30-40).

_Plato_ (_The Puritan_), John Howe (1630-1706).

=Plato and the Bees.= It is said that when Plato was an infant, bees settled on his lips while he was asleep, indicating that he would become famous for his "honeyed words." The same story is told of Sophocles also.

And as when Plato did i' the cradle thrive, Bees to his lips brought honey from the hive; So to this boy [_Dor'idon_] they came--I know not whether They brought or from his lips did honey gather.

W. Browne, _Brittania's Pastorals_, ii. (1613).

=Plato and Homer.= Plato greatly admired Homer, but excluded him from his ideal republic.

Plato, 'tis true, great Homer doth commend, Yet from his common-weal did him exile.

Lord Brooke, _Inquisition upon Fame, etc._ (1554-1628).

=Plato and Poets.=

Plato, antic.i.p.ating the Reviewers, From his "republic," banished without pity The poets.

Longfellow, _The Poet's Tale_.

=Platonic Puritan= (_The_), John Howe, the puritan divine (1630-1706).

=Plausible= (_Counsellor_) and Serjeant Eitherside, two pleaders in _The Man of the World_, by C. Macklin (1764).

=Pleasant= (_Mrs._) in _The Parson's Wedding_, by Tom Killigrew (1664).

=Pleasures of Hope=, a poem in two parts by Thomas Campbell (1799). It opens with a comparison between the beauty of scenery, and the ideal enchantments of fancy, in which hope is never absent, but can sustain the seaman on his watch, the soldier on his march, and Byron in his perilous adventures. The hope of a mother, the hope of a prisoner, the hope of the wanderer, the grand hope of the patriot, the hope of regenerating uncivilized nations, extending liberty, and ameliorating the condition of the poor. Pt. ii. speaks of the hope of love, and the hope of a future state, concluding with the episode of Conrad and Ellenore. Conrad was a felon, transported to New South Wales, but, though "a martyr to his crimes, was true to his daughter." Soon, he says, he shall return to the dust from which he was taken;

But not, my child, with life's precarious fire, The immortal ties of Nature shall expire; These shall resist the triumph of decay, When time is o'er, and worlds have pa.s.sed away.

Cold in the dust this perished heart may lie, But that which warmed it once shall never die-- That spark, unburied in its mortal frame, With living light, eternal, and the same, Shall beam on Joy's interminable years, Unveiled by darkness, una.s.suaged by tears.

Pt. ii.

=Pleasures of Imagination=, a poem in three books, by Akenside (1744). All the pleasures of imagination arise from the perception of greatness, wonderfulness, or beauty. The beauty of greatness--witness the pleasures of mountain scenery, of astronomy, of infinity. The pleasure of what is wonderful--witness the delight of novelty, of the revelations of science, of tales of fancy. The pleasure of beauty, which is always connected with truth--the beauty of color, shape, and so on, in natural objects; the beauty of mind and the moral faculties. Bk. ii.

contemplates accidental pleasures arising from contrivance and design, emotion and pa.s.sion, such as sorrow, pity, terror, and indignation. Bk.

iii. Morbid imagination the parent of vice; the benefits of a well-trained imagination.