Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama Part 99

Shakespeare has introduced a burlesque of this pretty love story in his _Midsummer Night's Dream_, but Ovid has told the tale beautifully.

=Pyrgo Polini'ces=, an extravagant bl.u.s.terer. (The word means "tower and town taker.")--Plautus, _Miles Gloriosus_.

If the modern reader knows nothing of Pyrgo Polinices and Thraso, Pistol and Parolles; if he is shut out from Nephelo-Coccygia, he may take refuge in Lilliput.--Macaulay.

? "Thraso," a bully in Terence (_The Eunuch_); "Pistol," in the _Merry Wives of Windsor_ and 2 _Henry IV._; "Parolles," in _All's Well that Ends Well_; "Nephelo-Coccygia," or cloud cuckoo-town, in Aristophane's (_The Birds_); and "Lilliput," in Swift (_Gulliver's Travels_).

=Py'rocles= (3 _syl._) and his brother, Cy'mocles (3 _syl._) sons of Acrates (_incontinence_). The two brothers are about to strip Sir Guyon, when Prince Arthur comes up and slays both of them.--Spenser, _Faery Queen_, ii. 8 (1590).

=Pyroc'les and Musidorous=, heroes, whose exploits are told by Sir Philip Sidney in his _Arcadia_ (1581).

=Pyr'rho=, the founder of the sceptics or Pyrrhonian school of philosophy.

He was a native of Elis, in Peloponne'sus, and died at the age of 90 (B.C. 285).

It is a pleasant voyage, perhaps, to float, Like Pyrrho, on a sea of speculation.

Byron, _Don Juan_, ix. 18 (1824).

? "Pyrrhonism" means absolute and unlimited infidelity.

=Pythag'oras=, the Greek philosopher, is said to have discovered the musical scale from hearing the sounds produced by a blacksmith hammering iron on his anvil.--See _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_, 722.

As great Pythagoras of yore, Standing beside the blacksmith's door.

And hearing the hammers, as he smote The anvils with a different note ...

... formed the seven-chorded lyre.

Longfellow, _To a Child_.

Handel wrote an "air with variations" which he called _The Harmonious Blacksmith_, said to have been suggested by the sounds proceeding from a smithy, where he heard the village blacksmiths swinging their heavy sledges "with measured beat and slow."

=Pyth'ias=, a Syracusan soldier, noted for his friends.h.i.+p for Damon. When Damon was condemned to death by Dionysius, the new-made king of Syracuse, Pythias obtained for him a respite of six hours, to go and bid farewell to his wife and child. The condition of this respite was that Pythias should be bound, and even executed, if Damon did not return at the hour appointed. Damon returned in due time, and Dionysius was so struck with this proof of friends.h.i.+p, that he not only pardoned Damon, but even begged to be ranked among his friends. The day of execution was the day that Pythias was to have been married to Calanthe.--_Damon and Pythias_, a drama by R. Edwards (1571), and another by John Banim in 1825.

=Python=, a huge serpent engendered from the mud of the deluge, and slain by Apollo. In other words, pytho is the miasma or mist from the evaporation of the overflow, dried up by the sun. (Greek, _puthesthai_, "to rot;" because the serpent was left to rot in the sun.)

=Q= (_Old_), the earl of March, afterwards duke of Queensberry, at the close of the last century and the beginning of this.

=Quacks= (_Noted_).

BECHIC, known for his "cough pills," consisting of _digitalis_, _white oxide of antimony_ and _licorice_. Sometimes, but erroneously, called "Beecham's magic cough pills."

BOOKER (_John_), astrologer, etc. (1601-1667).

BOSSY (_Dr._), a German by birth. He was well known in the beginning of the nineteenth century in Covent Garden, and in other parts of London.

BRODUM (eighteenth century). His "nervous cordial" consisted of _gentian root_ infused in _gin_. Subsequently, a little _bark_ was added.

CAGLIOSTRO, the prince of quacks. His proper name was Joseph Balsamo, and his father was Pietro Balsamo, of Palermo. He married Lorenza, the daughter of a girdle-maker of Rome, called himself the Count Alessandro di Cagliostro, and his wife the Countess Seraphina di Cagliostro. He professed to heal every disease, to abolish wrinkles, to predict future events, and was a great mesmerist. He styled himself "Grand Cophta, Prophet, and Thaumaturge." His "Egyptian pills" sold largely at 30_s._ a box (1743-1795). One of the famous novels of A. Dumas is _Joseph Balsamo_ (1845).

He had a flat, snub face; dew-lapped, flat-nosed, greasy, and sensual. A forehead impudent, and two eyes which turned up most seraphically languis.h.i.+ng. It was a model face for a quack.--Carlyle, _Life of Cagliostro_.

CASE (_Dr. John_), of Lime Regis, Dorsets.h.i.+re. His name was Latinized into _Caseus_, and hence he was sometimes called Dr. Cheese. He was born in the reign of Charles II., and died in that of Anne. Dr. Case was the author of the _Angelic Guide_, a kind of _Zadkiel's Almanac_, and over his door was this couplet:

Within this place Lives Dr. Case.

Legions of quacks shall join us in this place, From great Kirleus down to Dr. Case.

Garth, _Dispensary_, iii. (1699).

CLARKE, noted for his "world-famed blood-mixture" (end of the nineteenth century).

c.o.c.kLE (_James_), known for his anti-bilious pills, advertised as "the oldest patent medicine" (nineteenth century).

FRANKS (_Dr. Timothy_), who lived in Old Bailey, was the rival of Dr.

Rock. Franks was a very tall man, while his rival was short and stout (1692-1763).

Dr. Franks, F.O.G.H., calls his rival "Dumplin' d.i.c.k,".... Sure the world is wide enough for two great personages. Men of science should leave controversy to the little world ... and then we might see Rock and Franks walking together, hand-in-hand, smiling, onward to immortality.--Goldsmith, _A Citizen of the World_, lxviii.

(1759).

GRAHAM (_Dr._), of the Temple of Health, first in the Adelphi, then in Pall Mall. He sold his "elixir of life" for 1000 a bottle, was noted for his mud baths, and for his "celestial bed," which a.s.sured a beautiful progeny. He died poor in 1784.

GRANT (_Dr._), first a tinker, then a Baptist preacher in Southwark, then oculist to Queen Anne.

Her majesty sure was in a surprise, Or else was very short-sighted, When a tinker was sworn to look after her eyes, And the mountebank tailor was knighted.

_Grub Street Journal._

(The "mountebank tailor" was Dr. Read.)

HANc.o.c.k (_Dr._), whose panacea was cold water and stewed prunes.

? Dr. Sandgrado prescribed hot water and stewed apples.--Lesage, _Gil Blas_.

Dr. Rezio, of Barataria, would allow Sancho Panza to eat only "a few wafers, and a thin slice or two of quince."--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. iii. 10 (1615).

HANNES (_Dr._), knighted by Queen Anne. He was born in Oxfords.h.i.+re.

The queen, like heaven, s.h.i.+nes equally on all, Her favors now without distinction fall, Great Read, and slender Hannes, both knighted, show That none their honors shall to merit owe.