Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 91

=Prate'fast= (_Peter_), who "in all his life spake no word in waste."

His wife was Maude, and his eldest son, Sym Sadle Gander, who married Betres (daughter of Davy Dronken Nole, of Kent, and his wife, Al'yson).--Stephen Hawes, _The Pa.s.se-tyme of Plesure_, xxix. (1515).

=Prattle= (_Mr._), medical pract.i.tioner, a voluble gossip, who retails all the news and scandal of the neighborhood. He knows everybody, everybody's affairs, and everybody's intentions.--G. Colman, Sr, _The Deuce is in Him_ (1762).

=Pre-Adamite Kings=, Soliman Raad, Soliman Daki, and Soliman de Gian ben Gian. The last named, having chained up the dives (1 _syl._) in the dark caverns of Paf, became so presumptuous as to dispute the Supreme Power.

All these kings maintained great state [before the existence of that contemptible being denominated by us "The Father of Mankind"]; but none can be compared with the eminence of Soliman ben Daoud.

=Pre-Adamite Throne= (_The_). It was Vathek's ambition to gain the pre-Adamite throne. After long search, he was shown it at last in the abyss of Eblis; but being there, return was impossible, and he remained a prisoner without hope forever.

They reached at length the hall [_Argenk_] of great extent, and covered with a lofty dome.... A funereal gloom prevailed over it.

Here, upon two beds of incorruptible cedar, lay rec.u.mbent the fleshless forms of the pre-Adamite kings, who had once been monarchs of the whole earth.... At their feet were inscribed the events of their several reigns, their power, their pride, and their crimes. [_This was the pre-Adamite throne, the ambition of the Caliph Vathek._]--W. Beckford, _Vathek_ (1784).

=Preacher= (_The_) Solomon, the son of David, author of _The Preacher_ (i.

e. _Ecclesiastes_).

Thus saith the Preacher, "Nought beneath the sun Is new;" yet still from change to change we run.

Byron.

_Preacher_ (_The Glorious_), St. Chrys'ostom (347-407). The name means "Golden mouth."

_Preacher_ (_The Little_), Samuel de Marets, Protestant controversialist (1599-1663).

_Preacher_ (_The Unfair_). Dr. Isaac Barrow was so called by Charles II., because his sermons were so exhaustive that they left nothing more to be said on the subject, which was "unfair" to those that came after him.

=Preachers= (_The King of_), Louis Bourdaloue (1632-1704).

=Precieuses Ridicules= (_Les_), a comedy by Moliere, in ridicule of the "_precieuses_," as they were styled, forming the coterie of the Hotel de Rambouillet in the seventeenth century. The _soirees_ held in this hotel were a great improvement on the licentious a.s.semblies of the period; but many imitators made the thing ridiculous, because they wanted the same presiding talent and good taste.

The two girls of Moliere's comedy are Madelon and Cathos, the daughter and niece of Gorgibus, a bourgeois. They change their names to Polixene and Aminte, which they think more genteel, and look on the affectations of two flunkies as far more _distingue_ than the simple, gentlemanly manners of their masters. However, they are cured of their folly, and no harm comes of it (1659).

=Preciosa=, the heroine of Longfellow's _Spanish Student_, in love with Victorian, the student.

=Precocious Genius.=

JOHANN PHILIP BARATIER, a German, at the age of five years, knew Greek, Latin, and French, besides his native German. At nine he knew Hebrew and Chaldaic, and could translate German into Latin. At thirteen he could translate Hebrew into French, or French into Hebrew (1721-1740).

? The life of this boy was written by Formey. His name is enrolled in all biographical dictionaries.

CHRISTIAN HENRY HEINECKEN, at one year old, knew the chief events of the Pentatauch!! at thirteen months he knew the history of the Old Testament!! at fourteen months he knew the history of the New Testament!! at two and a half years he could answer any ordinary question of history or geography; and at three years old knew French and Latin as well as his native German (1721-1725).

? The life of this boy was written by Schneich, his teacher. His name is duly noticed in biographical dictionaries.

=Pressaeus= ("_eater of garlic_"), the youngest of the frog chieftains.

The pious ardor young Pressaeus brings, Betwixt the fortunes of contending kings; Lank, harmless frog! with forces hardly grown, He darts the reed in combats not his own, Which, faintly tinkling on Troxartas' shield, Hangs at the point and drops upon the field.

Parnell, _Battle of the Frogs and Mice_, iii. (about 1712).

=Prest=, a nickname given by Swift to the d.u.c.h.ess of Shrewsbury, who was a foreigner.

=Prester John=, a corruption of _Belul Gian_, meaning "precious stone."

Gian (p.r.o.nounced _zjon_) has been corrupted into John, and Belul, translated into "precious;" in Latin _Johannes preciosus_ ("precious John") corrupted into "Presbyter Joannes." The kings of Ethiopia or Abyssinia, from a gemmed ring given to Queen Saba, whose son by Solomon was king of Ethiopia, and was called Melech, with the "precious stone,"

or Melech _Gian-Belul_.

aethiopes regem suum, quem nos vulgo "Prete Gianni" corrupte dicimus, quatour appellant nominibus, quorum primum est "Belul Giad," hoc est _lapis preciosus_. Ductum est autem hoc nomen ab _annulo Salomonis_ quem ille filio ex regina Saba, ut putant genito, dono dedisse, quove omnes postea reges usos fuisse describitor.... c.u.m vero eum coronant, appellant "Neghuz." Postremo c.u.m vertice capitis in coronae modum abraso, ungitur a patriarcha, vocant "Masih," hoc est _unctum_. Haec autem regiae dignitatis nomina omnibus communia sunt.--Quoted by Selden, from a little annal of the Ethiopian kings (1552), in his _t.i.tles of Honor_, v. 65 (1614).

? As this t.i.tle was like the Egyptian _Pharaoh_, and belonged to whole lines of kings, it will explain the enormous diversity of time allotted by different writers to "Prester John."

Marco Polo says that Prester John was slain in battle by Jenghiz Khan; and Gregory Bar-Hebraeus says, "G.o.d forsook him because he had taken to himself a wife of the Zinish nation, called Quarakhata.[TN-105]

Bishop Jorda.n.u.s, in his description of the world, sets down Abyssinia as the kingdom of Prester John. Abyssinia used to be called "Middle India."

Otto of Freisingen is the first author to mention him. This Otto wrote a chronicle to the date 1156. He says that John was of the family of the Magi, and ruled over the country of these Wise Men. Otto tells us that Prester John had "a sceptre of emeralds."

Maimonides, about the same time (twelfth century), mentions him, but calls him "Prester-Cuan."

Before 1241 a letter was addressed by "Prester John" to Manuel Comnenus, emperor of Constantinople. It is preserved in the _Chronicle_ of Albericus Trium Fontium, who gives for its date 1165.

Mandeville calls Prester John a lineal descendant of Ogier, the Dane. He tells us that Ogier, with fifteen others, penetrated into the north of India, and divided the land amongst his followers. John was made sovereign of Teneduc, and was called "Prester" because he converted the natives to the Christian faith.

Another tradition says that Prester John had seventy kings for his va.s.sals, and was seen by his subjects only three times in a year.

In _Orlando Furioso_, Prester John is called by his subjects "Senapus, king of Ethiopia." He was blind, and though the richest monarch of the world, he pined with famine, because harpies flew off with his food by way of punishment for wanting to add paradise to his empire. The plague, says the poet, was to cease "when a stranger appeared on a flying griffin." This stranger was Astolpho, who drove the harpies to Cocy'tus.

Prester John, in return for this service, sent 100,000 Nubians to the aid of Charlemagne. Astolpho supplied this contingent with horses by throwing stones into the air, and made transport-ships to convey them to France by casting leaves into the sea. After the death of Agramant, the Nubians were sent home, and then the horses became stones again, and the ships became leaves (bks. xvii.-xix.).

=Pretender= (_The Young_), Prince Charles Edward Stuart, son of James Francis Edward Stuart (called "The _Old_ Pretender"). James Francis was the son of James II., and Charles Edward was the king's grandson.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

Charles Edward was defeated at Culloden in 1746, and escaped to the Continent.

G.o.d bless the king--I mean the "Faith's defender;"

G.o.d bless--no harm in blessing--the Pretender.

Who that Pretender is, and who is king, G.o.d bless us all! that's quite another thing.

Ascribed by Sir W. Scott to John Byrom (in _Redgauntlet_).