Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 93

And with them comes a third of regal port, But faded splendor wan; who by his gait And fierce demeanor seems the prince of h.e.l.l.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, iv. 868 (1665).

=Prince of Life=, a t.i.tle given to Christ (_Acts_ iii. 15).

=Prince of Peace=, a t.i.tle given to the Messiah (_Isaiah_ ix. 6).

_Prince of Peace_, Don Manuel G.o.doy, of Badajoz. So called because he concluded the "peace of Basle" in 1795, between France and Spain (1757-1851).

=Prince of the Air=, Satan.

... Jesus, son of Mary, second Eve, Saw Satan fall, like lightning, down from heaven, Prince of the air.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, x. 185 (1665).

=Prince of the Devils=, Satan (_Matt._ xii. 24).

=Prince of the Kings of the Earth=, a t.i.tle given to Christ (_Rev._ i. 5).

=Prince of the Power of the Air=, Satan (_Eph._ ii. 2).

=Prince of this World=, Satan (_John_ xiv. 30).

=Princes.= It was Prince Bismarck, the German Chancellor, who said to a courtly attendant, "Let princes be princes, and mind your own business."

=Prince's Peers=, a term of contempt applied to peers of low birth. The phrase arose in the reign of Charles VII., of France, when his son Louis (afterwards Louis XI.) created a host of riff-raff peers, such as tradesmen, farmers, and mechanics, in order to degrade the aristocracy, and thus weaken its influence in the state.

=Printed Books.= The first book produced in England, was printed in England in 1477, by William Caxton, in the Almonry, at Westminster, and was ent.i.tled _The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers_.

The Rev. T. Wilson says: "The press at Oxford existed ten years before there was any press in Europe, except those of Haarlem and Mentz." The person who set up the Oxford press was Corsellis, and his first printed book bore the date of 1468. The colophon of it ran thus: "Explicit exposicio Sancti Jeronimi in simbolo apostolorum ad papam laurecium.

Impressa Oxonii Et finita Anno Domini Mcccclxviij., xvij. die Decembris." The book is a small quarto of forty-two leaves, and was first noticed in 1664 by Richard Atkins in his _Origin and Growth of Printing_. Dr. Conyers Middleton, in 1735, charged Atkins with forgery.

In 1812, S. W. Singer defended the book. Dr. Cotton took the subject up in his _Typographical Gazetteer_ (first and second series).

=Prior= (_Matthew_). The monument to this poet in Westminster Abbey was by Rysbrack; executed by order of Louis XIV.

=Priory= (_Lord_), an old-fas.h.i.+oned husband, who actually thinks that a wife should "love, honor, and obey" her husband; nay, more, that "forsaking all others, she should cleave to him so long as they both should live."

_Lady Priory_, an old-fas.h.i.+oned wife, but young and beautiful. She was, however, so very old-fas.h.i.+oned that she went to bed at ten and rose at six; dressed in a cap and gown of her own making; respected and loved her husband; discouraged flirtation; and when a.s.sailed by any improper advances, instead of showing temper or conceited airs, quietly and tranquilly seated herself to some modest household duty till the a.s.sailant felt the irresistible power of modesty and virtue.--Mrs.

Inchbald, _Wives as They Were and Maids as They Are_ (1797).

=Priscian=, a great grammarian of the fifth century. The Latin phrase, _Diminuere Prisciani caput_ ("to break Priscian's head"), means to "violate the rules of grammar." (See PEGASUS.)

Some, free from rhyme or reason, rule or check, Break Priscian's head, and Pegasus's neck.

Pope, _The Dunciad_, iii. 161 (1728).

Quakers (that like to lanterns, bear Their light within them) will not swear And hold no sin so deeply red As that of breaking Priscian's head.

Butler, _Hudibras_, II. ii. 219, etc. (1664).

=Priscilla=, daughter of a n.o.ble lord. She fell in love with Sir Aladine, a poor knight.--Spenser, _Faery Queen_, vi. 1 (1596).

_Priscilla_, the beautiful puritan in love with John Alden. When Miles Standish, a bluff old soldier, in the middle of life, wished to marry her, he asked John Alden to go and plead his cause; but the puritan maiden replied archly, "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?" Upon this hint, John did speak for himself, and Priscilla listened to his suit.--Longfellow, _The Courts.h.i.+p of Miles Standish_ (1858).

_Priscilla._ Fragile, pretty, simple girl, whom Hollingsworth and Coverdale love, instead of falling victims to the superb Zen.o.bia. She is thin-blooded and weak-limbed, and her very helplessness charms the strong men, who suppose themselves proof against love of the ordinary kind.--Nathaniel Hawthorne, _The Blithedale Romance_ (1852).

=Prison Life Endeared.= The following are examples of prisoners who, from long habit, have grown attached to prison life:--

Comte de Lorge was confined for thirty years in the Bastile, and when liberated (July 14, 1789) declared that freedom had no joys for him.

After imploring in vain to be allowed to return to his dungeon, he lingered for six weeks and pined to death.

Goldsmith says, when Chinvang the Chaste, ascended the throne of China, he commanded the prisons to be thrown open. Among the prisoners was a venerable man of 85 years of age, who implored that he might be suffered to return to his cell. For sixty-three years he had lived in its gloom and solitude, which he preferred to the glare of the sun and the bustle of a city.--_A Citizen of the World_ lxxiii. (1759).

Mr. Cogan once visited a prisoner of state in the King's Bench prison, who told him he had grown to like the subdued light and extreme solitude of his cell; he even liked the spots and patches on the wall, the hardness of his bed, the regularity, and the freedom from all the cares and worries of active life. He did not wish to be released, and felt sure he should never be so happy in any other place.

A woman of Leyden, on the expiration of a long imprisonment, applied for permission to return to her cell, and added, if the request was refused as a favor, she would commit some offence which should give her a t.i.tle to her old quarters.

A prisoner condemned to death had his sentence commuted to seven years'

close confinement on a bed of nails. After the expiration of five years, he declared, if ever he were released, he should adopt from choice what habit had rendered so agreeable to him.

=Prisoner of Chillon=, Francoise de Bonnivard, a Frenchman, who resided at Geneva, and made himself obnoxious to Charles III., duc de Savoie, who incarcerated him for six years in a dungeon of the Chateau de Chillon, at the east end of the lake of Geneva. The prisoner was ultimately released by the Bernese, who were at war with Savoy.

Byron has founded on this incident his poem ent.i.tled _The Prisoner of Chillon_, but has added two brothers, whom he supposes to be imprisoned with Francoise, and who die of hunger, suffering, and confinement. In fact, the poet mixes up Dante's tale about Count Ugolino with that of Francoise de Bonnivard, and has produced a powerful and affecting story, but it is not historic.

=Prisoner of State= (_The_), Ernest de Fridberg. E. Sterling has a drama so called. (For the plot, see ERNEST DE FRIDBERG.)

=Pritchard= (_William_), commander of H.M. sloop, the _Shark_.--Sir W.

Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).