Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 92

The mistress of Charles Edward Stuart was Miss Walkingshaw.

=Prettyman= (_Prince_), in love with Cloris. He is sometimes a fisherman, and sometimes a prince.--Duke of Buckingham, _The Rehearsal_ (1671).

? "Prince Prettyman" is said to be a parody on "Leonidas" in Dryden's _Marriage-a-la-mode_.

=Pri'amus= (_Sir_), a knight of the Round Table. He possessed a phial, full of four waters that came from paradise. These waters instantly healed any wounds which were touched by them.

"My father," says Sir Priamus, "is lineally descended of Alexander and of Hector by right line. Duke Josue and Machabaeus were of our lineage. I am right inheritor of Alexandria, and Affrike of all the out isles."

And Priamus took from his page a phial, full of four waters that came out of paradise; and with certain balm nointed he their wounds, and washed them with that water, and within an hour after they were both as whole as ever they were.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 97 (1470).

=Price= (_Matilda_), a miller's daughter; a pretty, coquettish young woman, who marries John Browdie, a hearty Yorkshire corn-factor.--C.

d.i.c.kens, _Nicholas Nickleby_ (1838).

=Pride= (_Sir_), first a drayman, then a colonel in the parliamentary army.--S. Butler, _Hudibras_ (1663-78).

=Pride of Humility.= Antisthenes, the Cynic, affected a very ragged coat; but Socrates said to him, "Antisthenes, I can see your vanity peering through the holes of your coat."

=Pride's Purge=, a violent invasion of parliamentary rights by Colonel Pride, in 1649. At the head of two regiments of soldiers he surrounded the House of Commons, seized forty-one of the members and shut out 160 others. None were allowed into the House but those most friendly to Cromwell. This f.a.g-end went by the name of "the Rump."

=Pridwin= or PRIWEN, Prince Arthur's shield.

Arthur placed a golden helmet upon his head, on which was engraven the figure of a dragon; and on his shoulders his shield, called Priwen, upon which the picture of the blessed Mary, mother of G.o.d, was painted; then, girding on his Caliburn, which was an excellent sword, made in the isle of Avallon; he took in his right hand his lance, Ron, which was hard, broad, and fit for slaughter.--Geoffrey, _British History_, ix. 4 (1142).

=Priest of Nature=, Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727).

Lo! Newton, priest of nature, shines afar, Scans the wide world, and numbers every star.

Campbell, _Pleasures of Hope_, i. (1799).

=Prig=, a knavish beggar.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Beggars' Bush_ (1622).

_Prig_ (_Betsey_), an old monthly nurse, "the frequent pardner" of Mrs.

Gamp; equally ignorant, equally vulgar, equally selfish, and brutal to her patients.

"Betsey," said Mrs. Gamp, filling her own gla.s.s, and pa.s.sing the teapot [_of gin_], "I will now propoge a toast: 'My frequent pardner, Betsey Prig.'" "Which, altering the name to Sairah Gamp, I drink," said Mrs. Prig, "with love and tenderness."--C. d.i.c.kens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_, xlix. (1843).

=Prim'er= (_Peter_), a pedantic country schoolmaster, who believes himself to be the wisest of pedagogues.--Samuel Foote, _The Mayor of Garratt_ (1763).

=Primitive Fathers= (_The_). The five apostolic fathers contemporary with the apostles (viz., Clement of Rome, Barnabas, Hermas, Ignatius and Polycarp), and the nine following, who all lived in the first three centuries:--Justin, Theoph'ilus of Antioch, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Cyprian of Carthage, Origen, Gregory "Thaumatur'gus,"

Dionysius of Alexandria and Tertullian.

? For the "Fathers" of the fourth and fifth centuries see GREEK CHURCH, LATIN CHURCH.

=Primrose= (_The Rev. Dr. Charles_), a clergyman rich in heavenly wisdom, but poor indeed in all worldly knowledge. Amiable, charitable, devout, but not without his literary vanity, especially on the Whistonian theory about second marriages. One admires his virtuous indignation against the "washes," which he deliberately demolished with the poker. In his prosperity his chief "adventures were by the fireside, and all his migrations were from the blue bed to the brown."

_Mrs._ [_Deborah_] _Primrose_, the doctor's wife, full of motherly vanity, and desirous to appear _genteel_. She could read without much spelling, prided herself on her housewifery, especially on her gooseberry wine, and was really proud of her excellent husband.

(She was painted as "Venus," and the vicar, in gown and bands, was presenting to her his book on "second marriages," but when complete the picture was found to be too large for the house.)

_George Primrose_, son of the vicar. He went to Amsterdam to teach the Dutch English, but never once called to mind that he himself must know something of Dutch before this could be done. He becomes Captain Primrose, and marries Miss Wilmot, an heiress.

(Goldsmith himself went to teach the French English under the same circ.u.mstances.)

_Moses Primrose_, younger son of the vicar, noted for his greenness and pedantry. Being sent to sell a good horse at a fair, he bartered it for a gross of green spectacles, with copper rims and s.h.a.green cases, of no more value than Hodge's razors (ch. xii.).

_Olivia Primrose_, the eldest daughter of the doctor. Pretty, enthusiastic, a sort of Hebe in beauty. "She wished for many lovers,"

and eloped with Squire Thornhill. Her father found her at a roadside inn called the Harrow, where she was on the point of being turned out of the house. Subsequently, she was found to be legally married to the squire.

_Sophia Primrose_, the second daughter of Dr. Primrose. She was "soft, modest, and alluring." Not like her sister, desirous of winning all, but fixing her whole heart upon one. Being thrown from her horse into a deep stream, she was rescued by Mr. Burch.e.l.l (_alias_ Sir William Thornhill), and being abducted, was again rescued by him. She married him at last.--Goldsmith, _Vicar of Wakefield_ (1766).

=Prince of Alchemy=, Rudolph II., kaiser of Germany; also called "The German Trismegistus" (1552, 1576-1612).

=Prince of Angels=, Michael.

So spake the prince of angels. To whom thus The Adversary [i.e. _Satan_].

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, vi. 281 (1665).

=Prince of Celestial Armies=, Michael, the archangel.

Go, Michael, of celestial armies prince.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, vi. 44 (1665).

=Prince of Darkness=, Satan (_Eph._ vi 12).

Whom thus the prince of darkness answered glad: "Fair daughter, High proof ye now have given to be the race Of Satan (I glory in the name)."

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, x, 383 (1665).

=Prince of h.e.l.l=, Satan.