Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 60

Foote's nonsense lines are these:

So she went into the garden to cut a cabbage leaf to make an apple pie; and at the same time a great she-bear, coming up the street, pops its head into the shop. "What! no soap?" So he died, and she very imprudently married the barber! and there were present the Picninnies, and the Joblillies, and the Garyulies, and the Grand Panjandrum himself, with the little round b.u.t.ton at top, and they all fell to playing the game of catch as catch can, till the gunpowder ran out at the heel of their boots.--S. Foote, _The Quarterly Review_, xcv. 516, 517 (1854).

=Pan'ope= (3 _syl._), one of the nereids. Her "sisters" are the sea-nymphs. Panope was invoked by sailors in storms.

Sleek Panope with all her sisters played.

Milton, _Lycidas_, 95 (1638).

=Pansy Osmund=, daughter of Mr. Osmund and Madame Merle, but ignorant who her mother is. After her father's second marriage, the girl, who has been brought up by the nuns, is extremely fond of her step-mother, and when she grows under her fostering care into a lovely woman, becomes attached to Edward Rosier, a man of small fortune. Her father, cold and hard as stone, decrees that she shall marry an English lord, and upon her refusal, sends her back to the convent.--Henry James, Jr., _Portrait of a Lady_ (1881).

=Pantag'ruel'=, king of the Dipsodes (2 _syl._), son of Gargantua, and last of the race of giants. His mother, Badebec, died in giving him birth. His paternal grandfather was named Grangousier. Pantagruel was a lineal descendant of Fierabras, the t.i.tans, Goliath, Polypheme (3 _syl._), and all the other giants traceable to Chalbrook, who lived in that extraordinary period noted for its "week of three Thursdays." The word is a hybrid, compounded of the Greek _panta_ ("all"), and the Hagarene word _gruel_ ("thirsty"). His immortal achievement was his "quest of the oracle of the Holy Bottle."--Rabelais, _Gargantua and Pantagruel_, ii. (1533).

=Pantagruel's Course of Study.= Pantagruel's father, Gargantua, said in a letter to his son:

"I intend and insist that you learn all languages perfectly; first of all Greek, in Quintillian's method; then Latin, then Hebrew, then Arabic and Chaldee. I wish you to form your style of Greek on the model of Plato, and of Latin on that of Cicero. Let there be no history you have not at your finger's ends, and study thoroughly cosmography and geography. Of liberal arts, such as geometry, mathematics and music, I gave you a taste when not above five years old, and I would have you now master them fully. Study astronomy, but not divination and judicial astrology, which I consider mere vanities. As for civil law, I would have thee know the _digests_ by heart. You should also have a perfect knowledge of the works of Nature, so that there is no sea, river, or smallest stream, which you do not know for what fish it is noted, whence it proceeds, and whither it directs its course; all fowls of the air, all shrubs and trees, whether forest or orchard, all herbs and flowers, all metals and stones should be mastered by you. Fail not at the same time most carefully to peruse the Talmudists and Cabalists, and be sure by frequent anatomies to gain a perfect knowledge of that other world called the microcosm, which is man. Master all these in your young days, and let nothing be superficial; as you grow into manhood, you must learn chivalry, warfare, and field manuvres."--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, ii. 8 (1533).

=Pantag'ruel's Tongue.= It formed shelter for a whole army. His throat and mouth contained whole cities.

Then did they [_the army_] put themselves in close order, and stood as near to each other as they could, and Pantagruel put out his tongue half-way, and covered them all, as a hen doth her chickens.--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, ii. 32 (1533).

=Pantagruelian Lawsuit= (_The_). This was between Lord Busqueue and Lord Suckfist, who pleaded their own cases. The writs, etc., were as much as four a.s.ses could carry. After the plaintiff had stated his case, and the defendant had made his reply, Pantagruel gave judgment, and the two suitors were both satisfied, for no one understood a word of the pleadings, or the tenor of the verdict.--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, ii.

(1533).

=Pantaloon.= In the Italian comedy, _Il Pantalo'ne_ is a thin, emaciated, old man, and the only character that acts in slippers.

The sixth age s.h.i.+fts Into the lean and slippered Pantaloon.

Shakespeare, _As You Like It_, act ii. sc. 7 (1600).

=Panther= (_The_), symbol of pleasure. When Dante began the ascent of fame, this beast met him, and tried to stop his further progress.

Scarce the ascent Began, when lo! a panther, nimble, light, And covered with a speckled skin, appeared, ... and strove to check my onward going.

Dante, _h.e.l.l_, i. (1300).

_Panther_ (_The Spotted_), the Church of England. The "milk-white doe"

is the Church of Rome.

The panther, sure the n.o.blest next the hind, The fairest creature of the spotted kind; Oh, could her inborn stains be washed away, She were too good to be a beast of prey.

Dryden, _The Hind and the Panther_, i. (1687).

=Panthino=, servant of Antonio (the father of Protheus, one of the two heroes of the play).--Shakespeare, _Two Gentlemen of Verona_ (1594).

=Panton=, a celebrated punster in the reign of Charles II.

And Panton, waging harmless war with words.

Dryden, _MacFlecknoe_, (1682).

=Panurge=, a young man, handsome and of good stature, but in very ragged apparel when Pantag'ruel first met him on the road leading from Charenton Bridge. Pantagruel, pleased with his person, and moved with pity at his distress, accosted him, when Panurge replied, first in German, then in Arabic, then in Italian, then in Biscayan, then in Bas-Breton, then in Low Dutch, then in Spanish. Finding that Pantagruel knew none of these languages, Panurge tried Danish, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, with no better success. "Friend," said the prince, "can you speak French?" "Right well," answered Panurge, "for I was born in Touraine, the garden of France." Pantagruel then asked him if he would join his suite, which Panurge most gladly consented to do, and became the fast friend of Pantagruel. His great _forte_ was practical jokes. Rabelais describes him as of middle stature, with an aquiline nose, very handsome, and always moneyless. Pantagruel made him governor of Salmygondin.--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, iii. 2 (1545).

=Panza= (_Sancho_), of Adzpetia, the squire of Don Quixote de la Mancha; "a little squat fellow, with a tun belly and spindle shanks" (pt. I. ii.

1). He rides an a.s.s called Dapple. His sound common sense is an excellent foil to the knight's craze. Sancho is very fond of eating and drinking, is always asking the knight when he is to be put in possession of the island he promised. He salts his speech with most pertinent proverbs, and even with wit of a racy, though sometimes of rather a vulgar savor.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_ (1605).

? The wife of Sancho is called "Joan Panza" in pt. I., and "Teresa Panza" in pt. II. "My father's name," she says to Sancho, "was Cascajo, and I, by being your wife, am now called Teresa Panza, though by right I should be called Teresa Cascajo" (pt. II. i. 5).

=Paolo= (2 _syl._), the cardinal brother of Count Guido Franceschi'ni, who advised his bankrupt brother to marry an heiress, in order to repair his fortune.

When brother Paolo's energetic shake Should do the relics justice.

R. Browning, _The Ring and the Book_, ii. 409.

=Paper King= (_The_), John Law, projector of the Mississippi Bubble (1671-1729).

The basis of Law's project was the idea that paper money may be multiplied to any extent, provided there be security in fixed stock.--Rich.

=Paphian Mimp=, a certain plie of the lips, considered needful for "the highly genteel." Lady Emily told Miss Alscrip, "the heiress," that it was acquired by placing one's self before a looking-gla.s.s, and repeating continually the words "nimini pimini;" "when the lips cannot fail to take the right plie."--General Burgoyne, _The Heiress_, iii. 2 (1781).

(C. d.i.c.kens has made Mrs. General tell Amy Dorrit that the pretty plie is given to the lips by p.r.o.nouncing the words "papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism.")

=Papillon=, a broken-down critic, who earned four s.h.i.+llings a week for reviews of translations "without knowing one syllable of the original,"

and of "books which he had never read." He then turned French valet, and got well paid. He then fell into the service of Jack Wilding, and was valet, French marquis, or anything else to suit the whims of that young scapegrace.--S. Foote, _The Liar_ (1761).

=Papy'ra=, G.o.ddess of printing and literature; so called from papyrus, a substance once used for books, before the invention of paper.

Till to astonished realms Papyra taught To paint in mystic colors sound and thought.

With Wisdom's voice to print the page sublime, And mark in adamant the steps of Time.

Darwin, _Loves of the Plants_, ii. (1781).