Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 73

(See BIRTHA and BAHMAN.)

=Pescec'ola=, a famous diver, whose English name was _Fish_ (Italian, _Pesce_ = fish). He dived in the pool of Charybdis and returned. King Frederick then threw a golden cup into the pool; Pescecola dived for it, and was drowned.

Schiller, in _The Diver_, tells the story, but gives the diver no name.

=Pest= (_Mr._), a barrister.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

=Pet=, a fair girl, with rich brown hair hanging free in natural ringlets.

A lovely girl, with a free, frank face, and most wonderful eyes--so large, so soft, so bright, and set to perfection in her kind, good face.

She was round, and fresh, and dimpled, and spoilt, most charmingly timid, most bewitchingly self-willed. She was the daughter of Mr.

Meagles, and married Henry Gowan.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Little Dorrit_ (1857).

=Petaud= (_King_), king of the beggars.

"It is an old saying," replied the Abbe Huet, "Petaud being derived from the Latin _peto_, 'I beg.'"--_Asylum Christi_, ii.

_The court of King Petaud_, a disorderly a.s.sembly, a place of utter confusion, a bear-garden.

On n'y respecte rien, chacun y parle haut, Et c'est tout justement le cour du roi Petaud.

Moliere _Tartuffe_, i. 1 (1664).

Le cour du roi Petaud, ou chacun est maitre.--_French Proverb._

=Petella=, the waiting-woman of Rosalura and Lillia-Bianca, the two daughters of Nantolet.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Wild-goose Chase_ (1652).

=Peter=, the stupid son of Solomon, butler of the Count Wintersen. He grotesquely parrots in an abridged form whatever his father says. Thus: _Sol._ "we are acquainted with the reverence due to exalted personages."

_Pet._ "Yes, we are acquainted with exalted personages." Again: _Sol._ "Extremely sorry it is not in my power to entertain your lords.h.i.+p."

_Pet._ "Extremely sorry." _Sol._ "Your lords.h.i.+p's most obedient, humble, and devoted servant." _Pet._ "Devoted servant."--Benjamin Thompson, _The Stranger_ (1797).

_Peter_, the pseudonym of John Gibson Lockhart, in a work ent.i.tled _Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk_ (1819).

_Peter_ (_Lord_), the pope of Rome.--Dean Swift, _Tale of a Tub_ (1704).

=Peter Botte=, a steep, almost perpendicular "mountain" in the Mauritius, more than 2800 feet in height. It is so called from Peter Botte, a Dutch sailor, who scaled it and fixed a flag on its summit, but lost his life in coming down.

=Peter Parley=, the _nom de plume_ of Samuel G. Goodrich, an American, whose books for children had an enormous circulation in the middle of the nineteenth century (1793-1860).

The name was pirated by numerous persons. Darton and Co., Simkins, Bogue, Tegg, Hodson, Clements, etc., brought out books under the name, but not written by S. G. Goodrich.

=Peter Peebles=, a litigious, hard-hearted drunkard, noted for his lawsuit.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

=Peter Pindar=, the pseudonym of Dr. John Wolcot, of Dodbrooke, Devons.h.i.+re (1738-1819).

=Peter Plymley's Letters=, attributed to the Rev. Sydney Smith (1769-1845).

=Peter Porcupine=, William Cobbett, when he was a tory. He brought out _Peter Porcupine's Gazette_, _The Porcupine Papers_, etc. (1762-1835).

=Peter Wilkins=, the hero of a tale of adventures, by Robert Pultock, of Clifford's Inn. His "flying woman" (gawreys) suggested to Southey the "glendoveer" in _The Curse of Kehama_.

=Peter of Provence and the Fair Magalo'na=, the chief characters of a French romance so called. Peter comes into possession of Merlin's wooden horse.

=Peter the Great of Egypt=, Mehemet Ali (1768-1848.[TN-86]

=Peter the Hermit=, a gentleman of Amiens, who renounced the military life for the religious. He preached up the first crusade, and put himself at the head of 100,000 men, all of whom, except a few stragglers, perished at Nicea.

He is introduced by Ta.s.so in _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575); and by Sir W.

Scott in _Count Robert of Paris_, a novel laid in the time of Rufus. A statue was erected to him at Amiens in 1854.

=Peter, the Wild Boy=, a savage discovered in November, 1725, in the forest of Hertswold, Hanover. He walked on all fours, climbed trees like a monkey, ate gra.s.s and other herbage. Efforts were made to reclaim him, but without success. He died February, 1785.

=Peter's Gate= (_St._), the gate of purgatory, guarded by an angel stationed there by St. Peter. Virgil conducted Dante through h.e.l.l and purgatory, and Beatrice was his guide through the planetary spheres.

Dante says to the Mantuan bard:

... lead me, That I St. Peter's gate may view ...

Onward he moved, I close his steps pursued.

Dante, _h.e.l.l_, i. (1300).

=Peterborough=, in Northamptons.h.i.+re; so called from Peada (son of Pendar, king of Mercia), who founded here a monastery in the seventh century. In 1541 the monastery (then a mitred abbey) was converted by Henry VIII.

into a cathedral and bishop's see. Before Peada's time, Peterborough was a village called Medhamsted.--See Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xxiii. (1622).

=Peters= (_Dr._), benevolent, eccentric physician, who is a sympathetic fellow-sinner to the most depraved of his patients, going through it all "with a grimly humorous hope that some good, in some unseen direction, may come of it." The waif, _Midge_, committed by fate to his guardians.h.i.+p, steals his heart, and finally wrings it to bleeding by marrying another man.--H. C. Bunner, _The Midge_ (1886).

=Peterson=, a Swede, who deserts from Gustavus Vasa to Christian II., king of Denmark.--H. Brooke, _Gustavus Vasa_ (1730).

=Pet.i.t Andre=, executioner.--Sir W. Scott, _Quentin Durward_ (time, Edward IV.).