Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 94

=Priu'li=, a senator of Venice, of unbending pride. His daughter had been saved from the Adriatic by Jaffier, and grat.i.tude led to love. As it was quite hopeless to expect Priuli to consent to the match, Belvidera eloped in the night, and married Jaffier. Priuli now discarded them both. Jaffier joined Pierre's conspiracy to murder the Venetian senators, but in order to save his father-in-law, revealed to him the plot under the promise of a general free pardon. The promise was broken, and all the conspirators except Jaffier were condemned to death by torture. Jaffier stabbed Pierre, to save him from the wheel, and then killed himself. Belvidera went mad and died. Priuli lived on, a broken-down old man, sick of life, and begging to be left alone in some "place that's fit for mourning." "There, all leave me:

Sparing no tears when you this tale relate, But bid all cruel fathers dread my fate."

T. Otway, _Venice Preserved_, v. the end (1682).

=Privolvans=, the antagonists of the Subvolvans.

These silly, ranting Privolvans Have every summer their campaigns, And muster like the warlike sons Of Rawhead and of b.l.o.o.d.y-bones.

S. Butler, _The Elephant in the Moon_, v. 85 (1754).

=Probe= (1 _syl._), a priggish surgeon, who magnifies mole-hill ailments into mountain maladies, in order to enhance his skill and increase his charges. Thus, when Lord Foppington received a small flesh-wound in the arm from a foil, Probe drew a long face, frightened his lords.h.i.+p greatly, and pretended the consequences might be serious; but when Lord Foppington promised him 500 for a cure, he set his patient on his legs the next day.--Sheridan, _A Trip to Scarborough_ (1777).

=Procida= (_John of_), a tragedy by S. Knowles (1840). John of Procida was an Italian gentleman of the thirteenth century, a skillful physician, high in favor with King Fernando II., Conrad, Manfred, and Conrad'ine.

The French invaded the island, put the last two monarchs to the sword, usurped the sovereignty, and made Charles d'Anjou king. The cruelty, licentiousness, and extortion of the French being quite unbearable, provoked a general rising of the Sicilians, and in one night (_Sicilian Vespers_, March 30, 1282), every Frenchman, Frenchwoman, and French child in the whole island was ruthlessly butchered. Procida lost his only son Fernando, who had just married Isoline (3 _syl._), the daughter of the French governor of Messina. Isoline died broken-hearted, and her father, the governor, was amongst the slain. The crown was given to John of Procida.

=Procris=, the wife of Cephalos. Out of jealousy she crept into a wood to act as a spy upon her husband. Cephalos, hearing something move, discharged an arrow in the direction of the rustling, thinking it to be caused by some wild beast, and shot Procris. Jupiter, in pity, turned Procris into a star.--_Greek and Latin Mythology._

_The unerring dart of Procris._ Diana gave Procris a dart which never missed its aim, and after being discharged returned back to the shooter.

=Procrus'tes= (3 _syl._), a highwayman of Attica, who used to place travellers on a bed; if they were too short he stretched them out till they fitted it, if too long he lopped off the redundant part. _Greek Mythology._

Critic, more cruel than Procrustes old, Who to his iron bed by torture fits Their n.o.bler parts, the souls of suffering wits.

Mallet, _Verbal Criticism_ (1734).

=Proctor's Dogs= or _Bull-Dogs_, the two "runners" or officials who accompany a university proctor in his rounds, to give chase to recalcitrant gownsmen.

And he had breathed the proctor's dogs [_was a member of Oxford or Cambridge University_].

Tennyson, prologue of _The Princess_ (1830).

=Prodigal= (_The_), Albert VI. duke of Austria (1418, 1439-1463).

=Prodigy of France= (_The_). Guillaume Bude was so called by Erasmus (1467-1540).

=Prodigy of Learning= (_The_). Samuel Hahnemann, the German, was so called by J. P. Richter (1755-1843).

=Professor= (_The_). The most important member of the party gathered about the social board in O. W. Holmes's _Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table_ (1858).

=Profound= (_The_), Richard Middleton, an English scholastic divine (*-1304).

=Profound Doctor= (_The_), Thomas Bradwardine, a schoolman. Also called "The Solid Docter"[TN-106] (*-1349).

aegidius de Columna, a Sicilian schoolman, was called "The Most Profound Doctor" (*-1316).

=Progne= (2 _syl._), daughter of Pandion, and sister of Philomela. Progne was changed into a swallow, and Philomela into a nightingale.--_Greek Mythology._

As Progne or as Philomela mourns ...

So Bradamant laments her absent knight.

Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_, xxiii. (1516).

=Prome'thean Unguent= (_The_), made from the extract of a herb on which some of the blood of Prometheus (3 _syl._), had fallen. Medea gave Jason some of this unguent, which rendered his body proof against fire and warlike instruments.

=Prome'theus= (3 _syl._) taught man the use of fire, and instructed him in architecture, astronomy, mathematics, writing, rearing cattle, navigation, medicine, the art of prophecy, working metal, and, indeed, every art known to man. The word means "forethought," and forethought is the father of invention. The tale is that he made man of clay, and, in order to endow his clay with life, stole fire from heaven and brought it to earth in a hollow tube. Zeus, in punishment, chained him to a rock, and sent an eagle to consume his liver daily; during the night it grew again, and thus his torment was ceaseless, till Hercules shot the eagle, and unchained the captive.

Learn the while, in brief, That all arts come to mortals from Prometheus.

E. B. Browning, _Prometheus Bound_ (1850).

Truth shall restore the light by Nature given, And, like Prometheus, bring the fire from heaven.

Campbell, _Pleasures of Hope_, i. (1700).

? Percy B. Sh.e.l.ley has a cla.s.sical drama ent.i.tled _Prometheus Unbound_ (1819).

James Russell Lowell has a n.o.ble poem ent.i.tled _Prometheus_, beginning,--

"One after one the stars have risen and set, Sparkling upon the h.o.a.rfrost on my chain."

=Prompt=, the servant of Mr. and Miss Blandish. General Burgoyne, _The Heiress_ (1781).

=p.r.o.nando= (_Rast_). The early lover of Anne Douglas. He is handsome, weak, and attractive in disposition, a favorite with all his friends.

His pliant character and good-natured vanity make him a prey to the whimsical fascinations of t.i.ta, Anne's "little sister," whom he marries instead of his first betrothed.--Constance Fenimore Woolson, _Anne_ (1882).

=p.r.o.nouns.= It was of Henry Mossop, tragedian (1729-1773), that Churchill wrote the two lines:

In monosyllables his thunders roll-- He, she, it, and we, ye, they, fright the soul;

because Mossop was fond of emphasizing his p.r.o.nouns and little words.