Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 66

_Trudchen_ or _Gertrude Pavillon_, their daughter, betrothed to Hans Glover.--Sir W. Scott, _Quentin Durward_ (time, Edward IV.).

=Pawkins= (_Major_), a huge, heavy man, "one of the most remarkable of the age." He was a great politician and great patriot, but generally under a cloud, wholly owing to his distinguished genius for bold speculations, not to say "swindling schemes." His creed was "to run a moist pen slick through everything, and start afresh."--C. d.i.c.kens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_ (1844).

=p.a.w.nbrokers' b.a.l.l.s.= The gilded b.a.l.l.s, the sign of p.a.w.nbrokers, are the pills on the s.h.i.+eld of the Medici family. Its founder, Cosmo, named after Saint Cosmo, the patron of physicians, joined the guild of the doctors (_Medici_), as every Florentine enrolled himself in one of these charitable societies. The Medici family became great money-lenders, and their s.h.i.+eld with the "b.a.l.l.s" or "pills" was placed over the doors of their agents.

=Paynim Harper= (_The_), referred to by Tennyson in the _Last Tournament_, was Orpheus.

Swine, goats, a.s.ses, rams and geese Troop'd round a Paynim harper once ...

Then were swine, goats, a.s.ses, geese The wiser fools, seeing thy Paynim bard Had such a mastery of his mystery That he could harp his wife up out of h.e.l.l.

Tennyson, _The Last Tournament_ (1859).

=Peace= (_Prince of the_), Don Manuel G.o.doy, born at Badajoz. So called because he concluded the "peace of Basle" between the French and Spanish nations in 1795 (1767-1851).

_Peace_ (_The Father of_), Andrea Doria (1469-1560).

_Peace_ (_The Surest Way to_). Fox, afterwards bishop of Hereford, said to Henry VIII., _The surest way to peace is a constant preparation for war_. The Romans had the axiom, _Si vis pacem, para bellum_. It was said of Edgar, surnamed "the Peaceful," king of England, that he preserved peace in those turbulent times "by being always prepared for war"

(reigned 959-975.)

=Peace Thirlmore=, ambitious daughter of a scholarly recluse near New Haven. She marries a clever student, who becomes a sensational preacher, then farmer, then an army officer. His wife pa.s.ses through many stages of belief and emotion, emerging at last into the suns.h.i.+ne.--W. M. Baker, _His Majesty, Myself_ (1879).

=Peace at any Price.= Mezeray says of Louis XII., that he had such detestation of war that he rather chose to lose his duchy of Milan than burden his subjects with a war-tax.--_Histoire de France_ (1643).

=Peace of Antal'cidas=, the peace concluded by Antalcidas, the Spartan, and Artaxerxes (B.C. 387).

=Peace of G.o.d=, a peace enforced by the clergy on the barons of Christendom, to prevent the perpetual feuds between baron and baron (1035).

=Peach'um=, a pimp, patron of a gang of thieves, and receiver of their stolen goods. His house is the resort of thieves, pickpockets, and villains of all sorts. He betrays his comrades when it is for his own benefit, and even procures the arrest of Captain Macheath.

_Mrs. Peachum_, wife of Peachum. She recommends her daughter Polly to be "somewhat nice in her deviations from virtue."

_Polly Peachum_, daughter of Peachum. (See POLLY.)--J. Gay, _The Beggar's Opera_ (1727).

=Pearl= (_Little_), illegitimate child of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. A piquant, tricksy sprite, as naughty as she is bewitching--a creature of fire and air, more elfish than human, at once her mother's torment and her treasure.--Nathaniel Hawthorne, _The Scarlet Letter_ (1850).

=Pearl.= It is said that Cleopatra swallowed a pearl of more value than the whole of the banquet she had provided in honor of Antony. This she did when she drank to his health. The same sort of extravagant folly is told of aesopus, son of Clodius aesopus, the actor (Horace, _Satire_, ii.

3).

A similar act of vanity and folly is ascribed to Sir Thomas Gresham, when Queen Elizabeth dined at the City banquet, after her visit to the Royal Exchange.

Here 15,000 at one clap goes Instead of sugar; Gresham drinks the pearl Unto his queen and mistress.

Thomas Heywood.

=Pearson= (_Captain Gilbert_), officer in attendance on Cromwell.--Sir W.

Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).

=Peasant-Bard= (_The_), Robert Burns (1859-1796).

=Peasant-Painter of Sweden=, Horberg. His chief paintings are altar-pieces.

The altar-piece painted by Horberg.

Longfellow, _The Children of the Lord's Supper_.

=Peasant Poet of Northamptons.h.i.+re=, John Clare (1793-1864).

=Peasant of the Danube= (_The_), Louis Legendre, a member of the French National Convention (1755-1797); called in French _Le Paysan du Danube_, from his "eloquence sauvage."

=Peau de Chagrin=, a story by Balzac. The hero becomes possessed of a magical wild a.s.s's skin, which yields him the means of gratifying every wish; but for every wish thus gratified, the skin shrank somewhat, and at last vanished, having been wished entirely away. Life is a _peau d'ane_,[TN-74] for every vital act diminishes its force, and when all its force is gone, life is gone (1834).

=Peckhams= (_The_), _Silas Peckham_, "a thorough Yankee, born on a windy part of the coast, and reared chiefly on salt-fish; keeps a young ladies' school exactly as he would have kept a hundred head of cattle--for the simple, unadorned purpose of making just as much money in just as few years as can be safely done."

_Mrs. Peckham's_ specialty is "to look after the feathering, cackling, roosting, rising, and general behavior of these hundred chicks. An honest, ignorant woman, she could not have pa.s.sed an examination in the youngest cla.s.s."--Oliver Wendell Holmes _Elsie Venner_ (1861).

=Peck'sniff=, "architect and land surveyor," at Salisbury. He talks homilies even in drunkenness, prates about the beauty of charity, and duty of forgiveness, but is altogether a canting humbug, and is ultimately so reduced in position that he becomes a "drunken, begging, squalid, letter-writing man," out at elbows, and almost shoeless.

Pecksniff's specialty is the "sleek, smiling abominations of hypocrisy."

If ever man combined within himself all the mild qualities of the lamb with a considerable touch of the dove, and not a dash of the crocodile, or the least possible suggestion of the very mildest seasoning of the serpent, that man was Mr. Pecksniff, "the messenger of peace."

_Charity_ and _Mercy Pecksniff_, the two daughters of the "architect and land surveyor." Charity is thin, ill-natured, and a shrew, eventually jilted by a weak young man, who really loves her sister. Mercy Pecksniff, usually called "Merry," is pretty and true-hearted; though flippant and foolish as a girl, she becomes greatly toned down by the troubles of her married life.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_ (1843).

=Peculiar=, negro slave, endowed with talent, ambitious of an opportunity to develop and use these, but hopeless of gaining it, until emanc.i.p.ated by the Civil War between the United States and the Southern Confederacy.--Epes Sargent, _Peculiar_.

=Pedant=, an old fellow set up to personate Vincentio in Shakespeare's comedy called _The Taming of the Shrew_ (1695).

=Pedre= (_Don_), a Sicilian n.o.bleman, who has a Greek slave of great beauty, named Isidore (3 _syl._). This slave is loved by Adraste (2 _syl._), a French gentleman, who gains access to the house under the guise of a portrait-painter. He next sends his slave, Zada,[TN-75] to complain to the Sicilian of ill-treatment, and Don Pedre volunteers to intercede on her behalf. At this moment Adraste comes up, and demands that Zade be given up to deserved chastis.e.m.e.nt. Pedre[TN-76] pleads for her, Adraste appears to be pacified, and Pedre[TN-76] calls for Zade to come forth. Isidore, in the veil of Zade, comes out, and Pedre[TN-76]