Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 89

Paul V. styled himself "Monarch of Christendom," "Supporter of the Papal Omnipotence," "Vice-G.o.d," "Lord G.o.d the Pope" (1605).

Others, after Paul, "Master of the World," "Pope the Universal Father,"

"Judge in the place of G.o.d," "Vicegerent of the Most High."--Brady, _Clavis Calendaria_, 247 (1839).

The pope a.s.sumes supreme dominion, not only over spiritual but also over temporal affairs, styling himself "Head of the Catholic or Universal Church, Sole Arbiter of its rights, and Sovereign Father of all the Kings of the Earth." From these t.i.tles, he wears a triple crown, one as High Priest, one as emperor, and the third as king. He also bears keys, to denote his privilege of opening the gates of heaven to all true believers.--Brady, 250-1.

? For the first five centuries the bishops of Rome wore a bonnet, like other ecclesiastics. Pope Hormisdas placed on his bonnet the crown sent him by Clovis; Boniface VIII. added a second crown during his struggles with Philip the Fair; and John XXII. a.s.sumed the third crown.

=Popish Plot=, a supposed Roman Catholic conspiracy to ma.s.sacre the Protestants, burn London, and murder the king (Charles II.). This fiction was concocted by one t.i.tus Oates, who made a "good thing" by his schemes; but being at last found out, was pilloried, whipped, and imprisoned (1678-9).

=Poppy= (_Ned_), a prosy old anecdote teller, with a marvellous tendency to digression.

=Poquelin= (_Jean-ah_), a wealthy Creole living in seclusion in an old house, attended only by a deaf-mute negro. The secrecy and mystery of his life excite all sorts of ugly rumors, and he is mobbed by a crowd of mischievous boys and loafers, receiving injuries that cause his death.

The story that his house is haunted keeps intruders from the doors, but they venture near enough on the day of his funeral, to see the coffin brought out by the mute negro, and laid on a cart, and that the solitary mourner is Poquelin's brother, long supposed to be dead. He is a _leper_, for whom the elder brother has cared secretly all these years, not permitting the knowledge of his existence to get abroad, lest the unfortunate man should be removed forcibly, and sent to what is the only asylum for him now that his guardian is dead--the abhorrent _Terre aux Lepreux_.--George W. Cable, _Old Creole Days_ (1879).

=Porch= (_The_). The Stoics were so called, because their founder gave his lectures in the Athenian _stoa_, or _porch_, called "P'cile."

The successors of Socrates formed ... the Academy, the Porch, the Garden.--Professor Seeley, _Ecce h.o.m.o_.

George Herbert has a poem called _The Church Porch_ (six-line stanzas).

It may be considered introductory to his poem ent.i.tled _The Church_ (Sapphic verse and sundry other metres).

=Porcius=, son of Cato, of Utica (in Africa), and brother of Marcus. Both brothers were in love with Lucia; but the hot-headed, impulsive Marcus, being slain in battle, the sage and temperate Porcius was without a rival.--J. Addison, _Cato_ (1713).

When Sheridan reproduced _Cato_, Wignell, who acted "Porcius,"

omitted the prologue, and began at once with the lines, "The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers...." "The prologue! the prologue!"

shouted the audience; and Wignell went on in the same tone, as if continuing his speech:

Ladies and gentleman, there has not been A prologue spoken to this play for years-- And heavily on clouds brings on the day, The great, th' important day, big with the fate Of Cato and of Rome.

_History of the Stage._

=Porcupine= (_Peter_). William Cobbett, the politician, published _The Rushlight_ under this pseudonym in 1860.

=p.o.r.nei'us= (3 _syl._), Fornication personified; one of the four sons of Anag'nus (_inchast.i.ty_), his brothers being Mae'chus (_adultery_), Acath'arus, and Asel'ges (_lasciviousness_). He began the battle of Mansoul by encountering Parthen'ia (_maidenly chast.i.ty_), but "the martial maid" slew him with her spear. (Greek, _p.o.r.neia_, "fornication.").

In maids his joy; now by a maid defied, His life he lost and all his former pride.

With women would he live, now by a woman died.

Phineas Fletcher, _The Purple Island_, xi. (1633).

=Porphyrius=, in Dryden's drama of _Tyrannic Love_.

Valeria, daughter of Maximin, having killed herself for the love of Porphyrus, was on one occasion being carried off by the bearers, when she started up and boxed one of the bearers on the ears, saying to him:

Hold! are you mad, you d.a.m.ned confounded dog?

I am to rise and speak the epilogue.

W. C. Russell, _Representative Actors_, 456.

=Porphyro-Genitus= ("_born in the Porphyra_"), the t.i.tle given to the kings of the Eastern empire, from the apartments called Porphyra, set apart for the empresses during confinement.

There he found Irene, the empress, in travail, in a house anciently appointed for the empresses during childbirth. They call that house "Porphyra," whence the name of the Porphyro-geniti came into the world.--See Selden, _t.i.tles of Honor_, v. 61 (1614).

=Porrex=, younger son of Gorboduc, a legendary king of Britain. He drove his elder brother, Ferrex, from the kingdom, and, when Ferrex returned with a large army, defeated and slew him. Porrex was murdered while "slumbering on his careful bed," by his own mother, who stabbed[TN-104]

him to the heart with a knife."--Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, _Gorboduc_ (a tragedy, 1561-2).

=Por'sena=, a legendary king of Etruria, who made war on Rome to restore Tarquin to the throne.

Lord Macaulay has made this the subject of one of his _Lays of Ancient Rome_ (1842).

=Port'amour=, Cupid's sheriff's officer, who summoned offending lovers to "Love's Judgment Hall."--Spenser, _Faery Queen_, vi. 7 (1596).

=Porteous= (_Captain John_), an officer of the city guard. He is hanged by the mob (1736).

_Mrs. Porteous_, wife of the captain.--Sir W. Scott, _The Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.)

=Porter= (_Sir Joseph_), K. C. B. The admiral who "stuck close to his desk, and never went to sea." His reward was the appointment as "ruler of the Queen's navee."--W. S. Gilbert, _Pinafore_.

=Portia=, the wife of Pontius Pilate, in Klopstock's _Messiah_.

_Portia_, wife of Marcus Brutus. Valerius Maximus says: "She, being determined to kill herself, took hot burning coals into her mouth, and kept her lips closed till she was suffocated by the smoke."

With this she fell distract, And, her attendants absent, swallowed fire.

Shakespeare, _Julius Caesar_, act iv. sc. 3 (1607).

_Portia_, a rich heiress, in love with Ba.s.sa'nio; but her choice of a husband was restricted by her father's will to the following condition: Her suitors were to select from three caskets, one of gold, one of silver, and one of lead, and he who selected the casket which contained Portia's picture, was to claim her as his wife. Ba.s.sanio chose the lead, and being successful, became the espoused husband. It so happened that Ba.s.sanio had borrowed 3,000 ducats, and Antonio, a Venetian merchant, was his security. The money was borrowed of Shylock, a Jew, on these conditions: If the loan was repaid within three months, only the princ.i.p.al would be required; if not, the Jew should be at liberty to claim a pound of flesh from Antonio's body. The loan was not repaid, and the Jew demanded the forfeiture. Portia, in the dress of a law doctor, conducted the defence, and saved Antonio by reminding the Jew that a pound of _flesh_ gave him no drop of blood, and that he must cut neither more nor less than an exact pound, otherwise his life would be forfeited.

As it would be plainly impossible to fulfill these conditions, the Jew gave up his claim, and Antonio was saved.--Shakespeare, _Merchant of Venice_ (1598).

=Portsmouth= (_The d.u.c.h.ess of_), "La Belle Louise de Querouaille," one of the mistresses of Charles II.--Sir W. Scott, _Perveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).