Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 97

=Psyche= [_Si'.ke_], a most beautiful maiden, with whom Cupid fell in love. The G.o.d told her she was never to seek to know who he was; but Psyche could not resist the curiosity of looking at him as he lay sleep.

A drop of the hot oil from Psyche's lamp falling on the love-G.o.d, woke him, and he instantly took to flight. Psyche now wandered from place to place, persecuted by Venus; but after enduring ineffable troubles, Cupid came at last to her rescue, married her, and bestowed on her immortality.

This exquisite allegory is from the _Golden a.s.s_ of Apuleios. Lafontaine has turned it into French verse. M. Laprade (born 1812) has rendered it into French most exquisitely. The English version, by Mrs. Tighe, in six cantos, is simply unreadable.

=Pternog'lyphus= ("_bacon-scooper_"), one of the mouse chieftains.--Parnell, _Battle of the Frogs and Mice_, iii. (about 1712).

=Pternoph'agus= ("_bacon-eater_"), one of the mouse chieftains.

But dire Pternophagus divides his way Thro' breaking ranks, and leads the dreadful day.

No nibbling prince excelled in fierceness more,-- His parents fed him on the savage boar.

Parnell, _Battle of the Frogs and Mice_, iii. (about 1712).

=Pternotractas= ("_bacon-gnawer_"), father of "the meal-licker," Lycomile (wife of Troxartas, "the bread-eater"). Psycarpas, the king of the mice, was son of Lycomile, and grandson of Pternotractas.--Parnell, _Battle of the Frogs and Mice_, i. (about 1712).

=Public Good= (_The League of the_), a league between the dukes of Burgundy, Brittany, and other French princes against Louis XI.

=Public'ola=, of the _Despatch Newspaper_, was the _nom de plume_ of Mr.

Williams, a vigorous political writer.

=Publius=, the surviving son of Horatius after the combat between the three Horatian brothers against the three Curiatii of Alba. He entertained the Roman notion that "a patriot's soul can feel no ties but duty, and know no voice of kindred" if it conflicts with his country's weal. His sister was engaged to Caius Curiatius, one of the three Alban champions; and when she reproved him for "murdering" her betrothed, he slew her, for he loved Rome more than he loved friend, sister, brother, or the sacred name of father.--Whitehead, _The Roman Father_ (1714).

=Pucel.= _La bel Pucel_ lived in the tower of "Musyke." Graunde Amoure, sent thither by Fame to be instructed by the seven ladies of science, fell in love with her, and ultimately married her. After his death, Remembrance wrote his "epitaphy on his graue."--S. Hawes, _The Pa.s.se-tyme of Pleasure_ (1506, printed 1515).

=Pucelle= (_La_), a surname given to Joan of Arc, the "Maid of Orleans"

(1410-1431).

=Puck=, generally called Hobgoblin. Same as Robin Goodfellow. Shakespeare, in _Midsummer Night's Dream_, represents him as "a very Shetlander among the gossamer-winged, dainty-limbed fairies, strong enough to knock all their heads together, a rough, knurly-limbed, fawn-faced, shock-pated, mischievous little urchin."

He [_Oberon_] meeteth Puck, which most men call Hobgoblin, and on him doth fall, With words from phrenzy spoken.

"Hoh! hoh!" quoth Hob; "G.o.d save your grace...."

Drayton, _Nymphidia_ (1593).

=Pudding= (_Jack_), a gormandizing clown. In French he is called _Jean Potage_; in Dutch, _Pickle-Herringe_; in Italian, _Macaroni_; in German, _John Sausage_ (Hanswurst).

=Puff=, servant of Captain Loveit, and husband of Tag, of whom he stands in awe.--D. Garrick, _Miss in Her Teens_ (1753).

_Puff_ (_Mr._), a man who had tried his hand on everything to get a living, and at last resorts to criticism. He says of himself, "I am a pract.i.tioner in panegyric, or to speak more plainly, a professor of the art of puffing."

"I open," says Puff, "with a clock striking, to beget an awful attention in the audience; it also marks the time, which is four o'clock in the morning, and saves a description of the rising sun, and a great deal about gilding the eastern hemisphere."--Sheridan, _The Critic_, i. 1 (1779).

"G.o.d forbid," says Mr. Puff, "that in a free country, all the fine words in the language should be engrossed by the highest characters of the piece."--Sir W. Scott, _The Drama_.

_Puff_, publisher. He says:

"Panegyric and praise! and what will that do with the public? Why, who will give money to be told that Mr. Such-a-one is a wiser and better man than himself? No, no! 'tis quite, and clean out of nature. A good, sousing satire, now, well powdered with personal pepper, and seasoned with the spirit of party, that demolishes a conspicuous character, and sinks him below our own level--there, there, we are pleased; there we chuckle and grin, and toss the half-crowns on the counter."--Foote, _The Patron_ (1764).

=Pug=, a mischievous little goblin, called "Puck" by Shakespeare.--B.

Jonson, _The Devil is an a.s.s_ (1616).

=Puggie-Orrock=, a sheriff's officer at Fairport.--Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

=Pul'ci= (_L._), poet of Florence (1432-1487), author of the hero-comic poem called _Morgante Maggiore_, a mixture of the bizarre, the serious, and the comic, in ridicule of the romances of chivalry. This _Don Juan_ cla.s.s of poetry has since been called _Bernesque_, from Frances...o...b..rni, of Tuscany, who greatly excelled in it.

Pulci was sire of the half-serious rhyme, Who sang when chivalry was more quixotic, And revelled in the fancies of the time, True knights, chaste dames, huge giants, kings despotic.

Byron, _Don Juan_, iv. 6 (1820).

=Pulia'no=, leader of the Nasamo'ni. He was slain by Rinaldo.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

=Pumblechook=, uncle to Joe Gargery, the blacksmith. He was a well-to-do corn-chandler, and drove his own chaise-cart. A hard-breathing, middle-aged, slow man was uncle Pumblechook, with fishy eyes and sandy hair, inquisitively on end. He called Pip, in his facetious way, "six-pen'orth of h'pence;" but when Pip came into his fortune, Mr.

Pumblechook was the most servile of the servile, and ended every sentence with, "May I, Mr. Pip?" _i.e_,[TN-111] have the honor of shaking hands with you again.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Great Expectations_ (1860).

=Pumpernickel= (_His Transparency_), a nickname by which the _Times_ satirized the minor German princes.

Some ninety men and ten drummers const.i.tute their whole embattled host on the parade-ground before their palace; and their whole revenue is supplied by a percentage on the tax levied on strangers at the Pumpernickel kursaal.--_Times_, July 18, 1866.

=Pumpkin= (_Sir Gilbert_), a country gentleman plagued with a ward (Miss Kitty Sprightly) and a set of servants all stage mad. He entertains Captain Charles Stanley, and Captain Harry Stukely at Strawberry Hall, when the former, under cover of acting, makes love to Kitty (an heiress), elopes with her, and marries her.

_Miss Bridget Pumpkin_, sister of Sir Gilbert, of Strawberry Hall. A Mrs. Malaprop. She says, "The Greeks, the Romans, and the Irish are barbarian nations who had plays;" but Sir Gilbert says, "they were all Jacobites." She speaks of "taking a degree at our princ.i.p.al adversity;"

asks "if the Muses are a family living at Oxford," if so, she tells Captain Stukely, she will be delighted to "see them at Strawberry Hall, with any other of his friends." Miss Pumpkin hates "play acting," but does not object to love-making.--Jackman, _All the World's a Stage_.

=Punch=, derived from the Latin _Mimi_, through the Italian _Pullicenella_. It was originally intended as a characteristic representation. The tale is this: Punch, in a fit of jealousy, strangles his infant child, when Judy flies to her revenge. With a bludgeon she belabors her husband, till he becomes so exasperated that he s.n.a.t.c.hes the bludgeon from her, knocks her brains out, and flings the dead body into the street. Here it attracts the notice of a police officer, who enters the house, and Punch flies to save his life. He is, however, arrested by an officer of the Inquisition, and is shut up in prison, from which he escapes by a golden key. The rest of the allegory shows the triumph of Punch over slander, in the shape of a dog, disease in the guise of a doctor death, and the devil.

_Pantalone_ was a Venetian merchant; _Dottore_ a Bolognese physician; _Spaviento_ a Neapolitan braggadocio; _Pullicinella_ a wag of Apulia; _Giangurgolo_ and _Coviello_ two clowns of Calabria; _Gelsomino_ a Roman beau; _Beltrame_ a Milanese simpleton; _Brigh.e.l.la_ a Ferrarese pimp; and _Arlecchino_ a blundering servant of Bergamo. Each was clad in an appropriate dress, had a characteristic mask, and spoke the dialect of the place he represented.

Besides these there were _Amorosos_ or _Innamoratos_, with their servettas, or waiting-maids, as _Smeraldina_, _Columbina_, _Spilletta_, etc., who spoke Tuscan.--Walker, _On the Revival of the Drama in Italy_, 249.