Chapter XVI: Book I: Satan presents himself as an old peasant, and, entering into (6)

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 title 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=, Françoise 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 Château 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 entitled _The Prisoner of Chillon_, but has added two brothers, whom he supposes to be imprisoned with Françoise, and who die of hunger, suffering, and confinement. In fact, the poet mixes up Dantê’s tale about Count Ugolino with that of Françoise 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.).

=Priu´li=, a senator of Venice, of unbending pride. His daughter had been saved from the Adriatic by Jaffier, and gratitude 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 Bloody-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 lordship 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. Procĭda 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 Cephălos. 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 nobler 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 Budé 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).

Ægidius de Columna, a Sicilian schoolman, was called “The Most Profound Doctor” (*-1316).

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

As Prognê 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 Promētheus (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 Herculês 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. Shelley has a classical drama entitled _Prometheus Unbound_ (1819).

James Russell Lowell has a noble poem entitled _Prometheus_, beginning,--

“One after one the stars have risen and set,
Sparkling upon the hoarfrost on my chain.”

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

=Pronando= (_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 Tita, Anne’s “little sister,” whom he marries instead of his first betrothed.--Constance Fenimore Woolson, _Anne_ (1882).

=Pronouns.= 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 pronouns and little words.

=Prophecy.= Jourdain, the wizard, told the duke of Somerset, if he wished to live, to “avoid where castles mounted stand.” The duke died in an ale-house called the Castle, in St. Alban’s.

... underneath an ale-house’ paltry sign,
The Castle, in St. Alban’s, Sumerset
Hath made the wizard famous in his death.

Shakespeare, 2 _Henry VI._ act v. sc. 2 (1591).

Similar prophetic equivokes were told to Henry IV., Pope Sylvester II., and Cambysês (see JERUSALEM).

Aristomĕnês was told by the Delphic oracle to “flee for his life when he saw a goat drink from the river Neda.” Consequently, all _goats_ were driven from the banks of this river; but one day, Theŏclos observed that the branches of a fig tree bent into the stream, and it immediately flashed into his mind that the Messenian word for _fig tree_ and _goat_ was the same. The pun or equivoke will be better understood by an English reader if for _goat_ we read _ewe_, and bear in mind that _yew_ is to the ear the same word; thus:

When an _ewe_ [_yew_] stops to drink of the “Severn,” then fly,
And look not behind, for destruction is nigh.

=Prophetess= (_The_), Ayē´shah, the second and beloved wife of Mahomet. It does not mean that she prophesied, but, like _Sultana_, it is simply a title of honor. He was the _Prophet_, she the _Prophēta_ or Madam Prophet.

=Prose= (_Father of English_), Wycliffe (1324-1384).

_Prose_ (_Father of Greek_), Herodotus (B.C. 484-408).

_Prose_ (_Father of Italian_), Boccaccio (1313-1375).

=Pros´erpine= (3 _syl._), called _Proserpĭna_ in Latin, and “Proser´pin” by Milton, was daughter of Ce´rês. She went to the field of Enna to amuse herself by gathering asphodels, and being tired, fell asleep. Dis, the god of Hell, then carried her off, and made her queen of the infernal reions.[TN-107] Cerês wandered for nine days over the world disconsolate, looking for her daughter, when Hec´ate (2 _syl._) told her she had heard the girl’s cries, but knew not who had carried her off. Both now went to Olympus, when the sun-god told them the true state of the case.

N.B.--This is an allegory of seed-corn.

Not that fair field
Of Enna, where Proser´pin, gathering flowers,
Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis
Was gathered--which cost Cerês all that pain
To seek her thro’ the world.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, iv. 268 (1665).

=Prosperity Robinson=, Frederick Robinson, afterwards Viscount Goderich and earl of Ripon, chancellor of the exchequer in 1823. So called by Cobbett, from his boasting about the prosperity of the country just a little before the great commercial crisis of 1825.

=Pros´pero=, the banished duke of Milan, and father of Miranda. He was deposed by his brother, Antonio, who sent him to sea with Miranda in a “rotten carcass of a boat,” which was borne to a desert island. Here Prospero practised magic. He liberated Ariel from the rift of a pine tree, where the witch Syc´orax had confined him for twelve years, and was served by that bright spirit with true gratitude. The only other inhabitant of the island was Calĭban, the witch’s “welp.” After a residence in the island of sixteen years, Prospero raised a tempest by magic to cause the shipwreck of the usurping duke and of Ferdinand, his brother’s son. Ferdinand fell in love with his cousin, Miranda, and eventually married her.--Shakespeare, _The Tempest_ (1609).

Still they kept limping to and fro,
Like Ariels round old Prospero,
Saying, “Dear master, let us go.”
But still the old man answered, “No!”

T. Moore, _A Vision_.

=Pross= (_Miss_), a red-haired, ungainly creature, who lived with Lucie Manette, and dearly loved her. Miss Pross, although eccentric, was most faithful and unselfish.

Her character (dissociated from stature) was shortness.... It was
characteristic of this lady that whenever her original proposition
was questioned, she exaggerated it.--C. Dickens, _A Tale of Two
Cities_, ii. 6 (1859).

=Proterius= of Cappadōcia, father of Cyra. (See SINNER SAVED.)

=Protesila´os=, husband of Laodamīa. Being slain at the siege of Troy, the dead body was sent home to his wife, who prayed that she might talk with him again, if only for three hours. Her prayer was granted, but when Protesilāos returned to death, Laodamia died also.--_Greek Mythology._

In Fénelon’s _Télémaque_ “Protésilaos” is meant for Louvois, the French minister of state.

=Protestant Duke= (_The_), James, duke of Monmouth, a love-child of Charles II. So called because he renounced the Roman faith, in which he had been brought up, and became a Protestant (1619-1685).

=Protestant Pope= (_The_), Gian Vincenzo Ganganelli, Pope Clement XIV. So called from his enlightened policy, and for his bull suppressing the Jesuits (1705, 1769-1774).

=Proteus= [_Pro-tuce_], a sea-god who resided in the Carpathian Sea. He had the power of changing his form at will. Being a prophet also, Milton calls him “the Carpathian wizard.”--_Greek Mythology._

By hoary Nereus’ wrinkled look,
And the Carpathian wizard’s hook [_or trident_].

Milton, _Comus_ (1634).

Periklym´enos, son of Neleus (2 _syl._), had the power of changing his form into a bird, beast, reptile, or insect. As a bee he perched on the chariot of Heraklês (_Hercules_), and was killed.

Aristogīton, from being dipped in the Achelōus (4 _syl._), received the power of changing his form at will.--Fénelon, _Télémaque_, xx. (1700).

The genii, both good and bad, of Eastern mythology, had the power of changing their form instantaneously. This is powerfully illustrated by the combat between the queen of Beauty and the son of Eblis. The genius first appeared as an enormous lion, but the queen of Beauty plucked out a hair which became a scythe, with which she cut the lion in pieces. The head of the lion now became a scorpion, and the princess changed herself into a serpent; but the scorpion instantly made itself an eagle, and went in pursuit of the serpent. The serpent, however, being vigilant, assumed the form of a white cat; the eagle in an instant changed to a wolf, and the cat, being hard pressed, changed into a worm; the wolf changed to a cock, and ran to pick up the worm, which, however, became a fish before the cock could pick it up. Not to be outwitted, the cock transformed itself into a pike to devour the fish, but the fish changed into a fire, and the son of Eblis was burnt to ashes before he could make another change.--_Arabian Nights_ (“The Second Calender”).

_Proteus_ or _Protheus_, one of the two gentlemen of Verona. He is in love with Julia. His servant is Launce, and his father Anthonio or Antonio. The other gentleman is called Valentine, and his lady love is Silvia.--Shakespeare, _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_ (1594).

Shakespeare calls the word _Pro-tĕ-us_. Malone, Dr. Johnson, etc., retain the _h_ in both names, but the Globe edition omits them.

=Protevangelon= (“_first evangelist_”), a gospel falsely attributed to St. James the Less, first bishop of Jerusalem, noted for its minute details of the Virgin and Jesus Christ. Said to be the production of L. Carīnus, of the second century.

First of all we shall rehearse ...
The nativity of our Lord,
As written in the old record
Of the _Protevangelon_.

Longfellow, _The Golden Legend_ (1851).

=Protocol= (_Mr. Peter_), the attorney in Edinburgh, employed by Mrs. Margaret Bertram, of Singleside.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

=Protosebastos= (_The_), or SEBASTOCRATOR, the highest State officer in Greece.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).

=Protospathaire= (_The_), or general of Alexius Comnēnus, emperor of Greece. His name is Nicanor.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).

=Proud= (_The_). Tarquin II. of Rome, was called _Superbus_ (reigned B.C. 535-510, died 496).

Otho IV., kaiser of Germany, was called “The Proud” (1175, 1209-1218).

=Proud Duke= (_The_), Charles Seymour, duke of Somerset. His children were not allowed to sit in his presence; and he spoke to his servants by signs only (*-1748).

=Proudfute= (_Oliver_), the boasting bonnet-maker at Perth.

_Magdalen_ or _Maudie Proudfute_, Oliver’s widow.--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

=Proudie= (_Dr._), hen-pecked bishop of Barchester. A martinet in his diocese, a serf in his home.

_Proudie_ (_Mrs._), strong-willed, strong-voiced help-mate of the bishop. She lays down social, moral, religious and ecclesiastical laws with equal readiness and severity.--Anthony Trollope, _Framley Parsonage_ and _Barchester Towers_.

=Prout= (_Father_), the pseudonym of Francis Mahoney, a humorous writer in _Fraser’s Magazine_, etc. (1805-1866).

=Provis=, the name assumed by Abel Magwitch, Pip’s benefactor. He was a convict, who had made a fortune, and whose chief desire was to make his protegé[TN-108] a gentleman.--C. Dickens, _Great Expectations_ (1860).

=Provoked Husband= (_The_), a comedy by Cibber and Vanbrugh. The “provoked husband” is Lord Townly, justly annoyed at the conduct of his young wife, who wholly neglects her husband and her home duties for a life of gambling and dissipation. The husband seeing no hope of amendment, resolves on a separate maintenance; but then the lady’s eyes are opened--she promises amendment, and is forgiven[TN-109]

⁂ This comedy was Vanbrugh’s _Journey to London_, left unfinished at his death. Cibber took it, completed it, and brought it out under the title of _The Provoked Husband_ (1728).

=Provoked Wife= (_The_), Lady Brute, the wife of Sir John Brute, is, by his ill manners, brutality, and neglect, “provoked” to intrigue with one Constant. The intrigue is not of a very serious nature, since it is always interrupted before it makes head. At the conclusion, Sir John says:

Surly, I may be stubborn, I am not,
For I have both forgiven and forgot.

Sir J. Vanbrugh (1697).

=Provost of Bruges= (_The_), a tragedy based on “The Serf,” in Leitch Ritchie’s _Romance of History_. Published anonymously in 1836; the author is S. Knowles. The plot is this: Charles “the Good,” earl of Flanders, made a law that a serf is always a serf till manumitted, and whoever marries a serf, becomes thereby a serf. Thus, if a prince married the daughter of a serf, the prince becomes a serf himself, and all his children were serfs. Bertulphe, the richest, wisest, and bravest man in Flanders, was provost of Bruges. His beautiful daughter, Constance, married Sir Bouchard, a knight of noble descent; but Bertulphe’s father had been Thancmar’s serf, and, according to the new law, Bertulphe, the provost, his daughter, Constance, and the knightly son-in-law were all the serfs of Thancmar. The provost killed the earl, and stabbed himself; Bouchard and Thancmar killed each other in fight; and Constance died demented.

=Prowler= (_Hugh_), any vagrant or highwayman.

For fear of Hugh Prowler, get home with the rest.

T. Tusser, _Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry_, xxxiii. 25 (1557).

=Prudence= (_Mistress_), the lady attendant on Violet, ward of Lady Arundel. When Norman, “the sea-captain,” made love to Violet, Mistress Prudence remonstrated, “What will the countess say if I allow myself to see a stranger speaking to her ward?” Norman clapped a guinea on her left eye, and asked, “What see you now?” “Why, nothing with my left eye,” she answered, “but the right has still a morbid sensibility.” “Poor thing!” said Norman; “this golden ointment soon will cure it. What see you now, my Prudence?” “Not a soul,” she said.--Lord Lytton, _The Sea-Captain_ (1839).

=Prudhomme= (_Joseph_), “pupil of Brard and Saint-Omer,” caligraphist[TN-110] and sworn expert in the courts of law. Joseph Prudhomme is the synthesis of bourgeois imbecility; radiant, serene, and self-satisfied; letting fall from his fat lips “one weak, washy, everlasting flood” of puerile aphorisms and inane circumlocutions. He says, “The car of the state floats on a precipice.” “This sword is the proudest day of my life.”--Henri Monnier, _Grandeur et Décadence de Joseph Prudhomme_ (1852).

=Pruddoterie= (_Madame de la_). Character in comedy of _George Dandin_, by Molière.

=Prue= (_Miss_), a schoolgirl still under the charge of a nurse, very precocious and very injudiciously brought up. Miss Prue is the daughter of Mr. Foresight, a mad astrologer, and Mrs. Foresight, a frail nonentity.--Congreve, _Love for Love_ (1695).

_Prue._ Wife of “I”; a dreamer. “Prue makes everything think well, even to making the neighbors speak well of her.”

Of himself Prue’s husband says:

“How queer that a man who owns castles in Spain should be deputy
book-keeper at $900 per annum!”--George William Curtis, _Prue and
I_ (1856).

=Prunes and Prisms=, the words which give the lips the right plie of the highly aristocratic mouth, as Mrs. General tells Amy Dorrit.

“’Papa’ gives a pretty form to the lips. ‘Papa,’ ‘potatoes,’
‘poultry,’ ‘prunes and prisms.’ You will find it serviceable if you
say to yourself on entering a room, ‘Papa, potatoes, poultry,
prunes and prisms.’”--C. Dickens, _Little Dorrit_ (1855).

General Burgoyne, in _The Heiress_, makes Lady Emily tell Miss Alscrip that the magic words are “nimini pimini;” and that if she will stand before her mirror and pronounce these words repeatedly, she cannot fail to give her lips that happy plie which is known as the “Paphian mimp.”--_The Heiress_, iii. 2 (1781).

=Pru´sio=, king of Alvarecchia, slain by Zerbi´no.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

=Pry= (_Paul_), one of those idle, meddling fellows, who, having no employment of their own, are perpetually interfering in the affairs of other people.--John Poole, _Paul Pry_.

=Prydwen= or PRIDWIN (_q.v._), called in the _Mabinogion_, the ship of King Arthur. It was also the name of his shield. Taliessin speaks of it as a ship, and Robert of Gloucester as a shield.

Hys sseld that het Prydwen.
Myd ye suerd he was ygurd, that so strong was and kene;
Calybourne yt was ycluped, nas nour no such ye wene.
In ys right hond ys lance he nom, that ycluped was Ron.

I. 174.

=Prynne= (_Hester_). Handsome, haughty gentlewoman of English birth, married to a deformed scholar, whom she does not love. She comes alone to Boston, meets Arthur Dimmesdale, a young clergyman, and becomes his wife in all except in name. When her child is born she is condemned to stand in the pillory, holding it in her arms, to be reprimanded by officials, civic and clerical, and to wear, henceforward, upon her breast, the letter “A” in scarlet. Her fate is more enviable than that of her undiscovered lover, whose vacillations of dread and despair and determination to reveal all but move Hester to deeper pity and stronger love. She is beside him when he dies in the effort to bare his bosom and show the cancerous _Scarlet Letter_ that has grown into his flesh while she wore hers outwardly.--Nathaniel Hawthorne, _The Scarlet Letter_ (1850).

=Psalmist= (_The_). King David is called “The Sweet Psalmist of Israel” (2 _Sam._ xxiii. 1). In the compilation called _Psalms_, in the Old Testament, seventy-three bear the name of David, twelve were composed by Asaph, eleven by the sons of Korah, and one (_Psalm_ xc.) by Moses.

=Psycarpax= (_i. e._ “_granary-thief_”), son of Troxartas, king of the mice. The frog king offered to carry the young Psycarpax over a lake; but a water-hydra made its appearance, and the frog-king, to save himself, dived under water, whereby the mouse prince lost his life. This catastrophe brought about the fatal _Battle of the Frogs and Mice_. Translated from the Greek into English verse by Parnell (1679-1717).

=Psyche= [_Si´.ke_], a most beautiful maiden, with whom Cupid fell in love. The god told her she was never to seek to know who he was; but Psychê could not resist the curiosity of looking at him as he lay sleep. A drop of the hot oil from Psychê’s lamp falling on the love-god, woke him, and he instantly took to flight. Psychê 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 Ass_ of Apulēios. 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,” Lycomĭlê (wife of Troxartas, “the bread-eater”). Psycarpas, the king of the mice, was son of Lycomĭlê, 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 Passe-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; “God save your grace....”

Drayton, _Nymphidia_ (1593).

=Pudding= (_Jack_), a gormandizing clown. In French he is called _Jean Potage_; in Dutch, _Pickle-Herringe_; in Italian, _Macarōni_; 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 practitioner 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).

“God 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 Ass_ (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 heroï-comic poem called _Morgantê Maggiorê_, a mixture of the bizarre, the serious, and the comic, in ridicule of the romances of chivalry. This _Don Juan_ class of poetry has since been called _Bernesque_, from Francesco Berni, 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. Dickens, _Great Expectations_ (1860).

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

Some ninety men and ten drummers constitute 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 principal 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 snatches 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; _Brighella_ 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.

_Punch_, the periodical. The first cover was designed by A. S. Henning; the present one by R. Doyle.

=Pure= (_Simon_), a Pennsylvanian Quaker. Being about to visit London to attend the quarterly meeting of his sect he brings with him a letter of introduction to Obadiah Prim, a rigid, stern Quaker, and the guardian of Anne Lovely, an heiress worth £30,000. Colonel Feignwell, availing himself of this letter of introduction, passes himself off as Simon Pure, and gets established as the accepted suitor of the heiress. Presently the real Simon Pure makes his appearance, and is treated as an impostor and swindler. The colonel hastens on the marriage arrangements, and has no sooner completed them than Master Simon re-appears, with witnesses to prove his identity; but it is too late, and Colonel Feignwell freely acknowledges the “bold stroke he has made for a wife.”--Mrs. Centlivre, _A Bold Stroke for a Wife_ (1717).

=Purefoy= (_Master_), former tutor of Dr. Anthony Rochecliffe, the plotting royalist.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).

=Purgatory=, by Dantê, in thirty-three cantos (1308). Having emerged from Hell, Dantê saw in the southern hemisphere four stars, “ne’er seen before, save by our first parents.” The stars were symbolical of the four cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance). Turning round, he observed old Cato, who said that a dame from Heaven had sent him to prepare the Tuscan poet for passing through Purgatory. Accordingly, with a slender reed, old Cato girded him, and from his face he washed “all sordid stain,” restoring to his face “that hue which the dun shades of Hell had covered and concealed” (canto i.). Dantê then followed his guide, Virgil, to a huge mountain in mid-ocean antipodal to Judea, and began the ascent. A party of spirits were ferried over at the same time by an angel, amongst whom was Casella, a musician, one of Dantê’s friends. The mountain, he tells us, is divided into terraces, and terminates in Earthly Paradise, which is separated from it by two rivers--Lethê and Eu´noe (3 _syl._). The first eight cantos are occupied by the ascent, and then they come to the gate of Purgatory. This gate is approached by three stairs (faith, penitence and piety); the first stair is transparent white marble, as clear as crystal; the second is black and cracked; and the third is of blood-red porphyry (canto ix.). The porter marked on Dantê’s forehead seven P’s (_peccata_, “sins”), and told him he would lose one at every stage, till he reached the river which divided Purgatory from Paradise. Virgil continued his guide till they came to Lethê, when he left him during sleep (canto xxx.). Dantê was then dragged through the river Lethê, drank of the waters of Eunŏe, and met Beatrice, who conducted him till he arrived at the “sphere of unbodied light,” when she resigned her office to St. Bernard.

=Purgon=, one of the doctors in Molière’s comedy of _Le Malade Imaginaire_. When the patient’s brother interfered, and sent the apothecary away with his clysters, Dr. Purgon got into a towering rage, and threatened to leave the house and never more visit it. He then said to the patient “Que vous tombiez dans la bradypepsie ... de la bradypepsie dans la dyspepsie ... de la dyspepsie dans l’apepsie ... de l’apepsie dans la lienterie ... de la lienterie dans la dyssenterie ... de la dyssenterie dans l’hydropisie ... et de l’hydropisie dans la privation de la vie.”

=Purita´ni= (_I_), “the puritans,” that is Elvi´ra, daughter of Lord Walton, also a puritan, affianced to Ar´turo (_Lord Arthur Talbot_) a cavalier. On the day of espousals, Arturo aids Enrichetta (_Henrietta, widow of Charles I._), to escape; and Elvira, supposing that he is eloping, loses her reason. On his return, Arturo explains the facts to Elvira, and they vow nothing on earth shall part them more, when Arturo is arrested for treason, and led off to execution. At this crisis, a herald announces the defeat of the Stuarts, and Cromwell pardons all political offenders, whereupon Arturo is released, and marries Elvira.--Bellini’s opera, _I Puritani_ (1834).

=Purley= (_Diversions of_), a work on the analysis and etymology of English words, so called from Purley, where it was written by John Horne. In 1782 he assumed the name of Tooke, from Mr. Tooke, of Purley, in Surrey, with whom he often stayed, and who left him £8000 (vol. i, 1785; vol. ii., 1805).

=Purple Island= (_The_), the human body. It is the name of a poem in twelve cantos, by Phineas Fletcher (1633). Canto i. Introduction. Cantos ii.-v. An anatomical description of the human body, considered as an island kingdom. Cantos vi. The “intellectual” man. Cantos vii. The “natural man,” with its affections and lusts. Canto viii. The world, the flesh, and the devil, as the enemies of man. Cantos ix., x. The friends of man who enable him to overcome these enemies. Cantos xi., xii. The battle of “Mansoul,” the triumph, and the marriage of Eclecta. The whole is supposed to be sung to shepherds by Thirsil, a shepherd.

=Pusil´lus=, Feeble-mindedness personified in _The Purple Island_, by Phineas Fletcher (1633); “a weak, distrustful heart.” Fully described in cantos viii. (Latin, _pusillus_, “pusillanimous.”)

=Puss-in-Boots=, from Charles Perrault’s tale _Le Chat Botté_ (1697). Perrault borrowed the tale from the _Nights_ of Straparola, an Italian. Straparola’s _Nights_ were translated into French in 1585, and Perrault’s _Contes de Fées_ were published in 1697. Ludwig Tieck, the German novelist, reproduced the same tale in his _Volksmärchen_ (1795), called in German _Der Gestiefelte Kater_. The cat is marvellously accomplished, and by ready wit or ingenious tricks secures a fortune and royal wife for his master, a penniless young miller, who passes under the name of the marquis de Car´abas. In the Italian tale, puss is called “Constantine’s cat.”

=Pwyll’s Bag= (_Prince_), a bag that it was impossible to fill.

Come thou in by thyself, clad in ragged garments, and holding a bag
in thy hand, and ask nothing but a bagful of food, and I will cause
that if all the meat and liquor that are in these seven cantreves
were put into it, it would be no fuller than before.--_The
Mabinogion_ (Pwyll[TN-112] Prince of Dyved,” twelfth century).

=Pygma´lion=, a sculptor of Cyprus. He resolved never to marry, but became enamored of his own ivory statue, which Venus endowed with life, and the sculptor married. Morris has a poem on the subject in his _Earthly Paradise_ (“August”), and Gilbert a comedy.

Fell in loue with these,
As did Pygmalion with his carvèd tree.

Lord Brooke, _Treatie on Human Learning_ (1554-1628).

⁂ Lord Brooke calls the statue “a carved tree.” There is a vegetable ivory, no doubt, one of the palm species, and there is the _ebon tree_, the wood of which is black as jet. The former could not be known to Pygmalion, but the latter might, as Virgil speaks of it in his _Georgics_, ii. 117, “India nigrum fert ebenum.” Probably Lord Brooke blundered from the resemblance between _ebor_ (“ivory”) and _ebon_, in Latin “ebenum.”

=Pygmy=, a dwarf. The pygmies were a nation of dwarfs always at war with the cranes of Scythia. They were not above a foot high, and lived somewhere at the “end of the earth”--either in Thrace, Ethiopia, India, or the Upper Nile. The pygmy women were mothers at the age of three, and old women at eight. Their houses were built of egg-shells. They cut down a blade of wheat with an axe and hatchet, as we fell huge forest trees.

One day, they resolved to attack Herculês in his sleep, and went to work as in a siege. An army attacked each hand, and the archers attacked the feet. Herculês awoke, and with the paw of his lion-skin overwhelmed the whole host, and carried them captive to King Eurystheus.

Swift has availed himself of this Grecian fable in his _Gulliver’s Travels_ (“Lilliput,” 1726).

=Pyke and Pluck= (_Messrs._), the tools and toadies of Sir Mulberry Hawk. They laugh at all his jokes, snub all who attempt to rival their patron, and are ready to swear to anything Sir Mulberry wishes to have confirmed.--C. Dickens, _Nicholas Nickleby_ (1838).

=Pylades and Orestes=, inseparable friends. Pyladês was a nephew of King Agamemnon, and Orestês was Agamemnon’s son. The two cousins contracted a friendship which has become proverbial. Subsequently, Pyladês married Orestês’s sister, Electra.

Lagrange-Chancel has a French drama entitled _Oreste et Pylade_ (1695). Voltaire also (_Oreste_, 1750). The two characters are introduced into a host of plays, Greek, Italian, French, and English. (See ANDROMACHE.)

=Pynchons= (_The_). _Mr. Pynchon_, a “representative of the highest and noblest class” in the Massachusetts Colony; one of the first settlers in Agawam (Springfield, Mass.).

_Mrs. Pynchon_ (a second wife), a woman of excellent sense, with thorough reverence for her husband.

_Mary Pynchon_, beautiful and winning girl, afterward wedded to Elizur Holyoke.

_John Pynchon_, a promising boy.--J. G. Holland, _The Bay Path_ (1857).

=Pyncheon= (_Col._). An old bachelor, possessed of great wealth, and of an eccentric and melancholy turn of mind, the owner and tenant of the old Pyncheon mansion. He dies suddenly, after a life of selfish devotion to his own interests, and is thus found when the house is opened in the morning.--Nathaniel Hawthorne, _The House of the Seven Gables_ (1851).

=Pyrac´mon=, one of Vulcan’s workmen in the smithy of Mount Etna. (Greek, _pûr akmôn_, “fire anvil.”)

Far passing Bronteus or Pyracmon great,
The which in Lipari do day and night
Frame thunderbolts for Jove.

Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, iv. 5 (1596).

=Pyramid.= According to Diodo´rus Sic´ulus (_Hist._, i.), and Pliny (_Nat. Hist._, xxxvi. 12), there were 360,000 men employed for nearly twenty years upon one of the pyramids.

The largest pyramid was built by Cheops or Suphis, the next largest by Cephrēnês or Sen-Suphis, and the third by Menchērês, last king of the Fourth Egyptian dynasty, said to have lived before the birth of Abraham.

_The Third Pyramid._ Another tradition is that the third pyramid was built by Rhodŏpis or Rhodopê, the Greek courtezan. Rhodopis means the “rosy-cheeked.”

The Rhodopê that built the pyramid.

Tennyson, _The Princess_, ii. (1830).

=Pyr´amos= (in Latin _Pyrămus_), the lover of Thisbê. Supposing Thisbê had been torn to pieces by a lion, Pyramos stabs himself in his unutterable grief “under a mulberry tree.” Here Thisbê finds the dead body of her lover, and kills herself for grief on the same spot. Ever since then the juice of this fruit has been blood-stained.--_Greek Mythology._

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 blusterer. (The word means “tower and town taker.”)--Plautus, _Miles Gloriosus_.

If the modern reader knows nothing of Pyrgo Polinicês and Thraso,
Pistol and Parollês; 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._; “Parollês,” in _All’s Well that Ends Well_; “Nephelo-Coccygia,” or cloud cuckoo-town, in Aristophanê’s (_The Birds_); and “Lilliput,” in Swift (_Gulliver’s Travels_).

=Py´rocles= (3 _syl._) and his brother, Cy´moclês (3 _syl._) sons of Acratês (_incontinence_). The two brothers are about to strip Sir Guyon, when Prince Arthur comes up and slays both of them.--Spenser, _Faëry 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 friendship 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 friendship, 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 Calanthê.--_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 languishing. It was a model face for a
quack.--Carlyle, _Life of Cagliostro_.

CASE (_Dr. John_), of Lime Regis, Dorsetshire. 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 Kirlëus down to Dr. Case.

Garth, _Dispensary_, iii. (1699).

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

COCKLE (_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’ Dick,”.... 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 assured 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.)

HANCOCK (_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 Oxfordshire.

The queen, like heaven, shines 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.

_A Political Squib of the Period._

HOLLOWAY (_Professor_), noted for his ointment to cure all strumous affections, his digestive pills, and his enormous expenditure in advertising (nineteenth century). Holloway’s ointment is an imitation of Albinolo’s; being analyzed by order of the French law-courts, it was declared to consist of _butter_, _lard_, _wax_ and _Venice turpentine_. His pills are made of _aloes_, _jalap_, _ginger_ and _myrrh_.

KATERFELTO (_Dr._), the influenza doctor. He was a tall man, dressed in a black gown and square cap, and was originally a common soldier in the Prussian service. In 1782 he exhibited in London his solar microscope, and created immense excitement by showing the infusoria of muddy water, etc. Dr. Katerfelto used to say that he was the greatest philosopher since the time of Sir Isaac Newton.

And Katerfelto, with his hair on end,
At his own wonders, wondering for his bread.

Cowper, _The Task_ (“The Winter Evening,” 1782).

LILLY (_William_), astrologer, born at Diseworth, in Leicestershire (1602-1681).

LONG (_St. John_), born at Newcastle, began life as an artist, but afterwards set up as a curer of consumption, rheumatism and gout. His profession brought him wealth, and he lived in Harley Street, Cavendish Square. St. John Long died himself of rapid consumption (1798-1834).

MAPP (_Mrs._), bone-setter. She was born at Epsom, and at one time was very rich, but she died in great poverty at her lodgings in Seven Dials, 1737.

⁂ Hogarth has introduced her in his heraldic picture, “The Undertakers’ Arms.” She is the middle of the three figures at the top, and is holding a bone in her hand.

MOORE (_Mr. John_), of the Pestle and Mortar, Abchurch Lane, immortalized by his “worm-powder,” and called the “Worm Doctor” (died 1733).

Vain is thy art, thy powder vain,
Since worms shall eat e’en thee.

Pope, _To Mr. John Moore_ (1723).

MORISON (_Dr._), famous for his pills (consisting of _aloes_ and _cream of tartar_, equal parts). Professor Holloway, Dr. Morison, and Rowland, maker of hair-oil and tooth-powder, were the greatest advertisers of their generation.

PARTRIDGE, cobbler, astrologer, almanac-maker and quack (died 1708).

Weep, all you customers who use
His pills, his almanacs, or shoes.

Swift, _Elegy, etc._

READ (_Sir William_), a tailor, who set up for oculist, and was knighted by Queen Anne. This quack was employed both by Queen Anne and George I. Sir William could not read. He professed to cure wens, wry-necks and hare-lips (died 1715).

... none their honors shall to merit owe--
That popish doctrine is exploded quite,
Or Ralph had been no duke, and Read no knight;
That none may virtue or their learning plead,
This hath no _grace_, and that can hardly _read_.

_A Political Squib of the Period._

⁂ The “Ralph” referred to is Ralph Montagu, son of Edward Montagu, created viscount in 1682, and duke of Montagu in 1705 (died 1709).

ROCK (_Dr. Richard_), professed to cure every disease, at any stage thereof. According to his bills, “Be your disorder never so far gone, I can cure you.” He was short in stature and fat, always wore a white, three-tailed wig, nicely combed and frizzed upon each cheek, carried a cane, and waddled in his gait (eighteenth century).

Dr. Rock, F.U.N., never wore a hat. He is usually drawn at the top
of his own bills sitting in an armchair, holding a little bottle
between his finger and thumb, and surrounded with rotten teeth,
nippers, pills and gallipots.--Goldsmith, _A Citizen of the World_,
lxviii. (1759).

SMITH (_Dr._), who went about the country in the eighteenth century in his coach with four outriders. He dressed in black velvet, and cured any disease for sixpence. “His amusements on the stage were well worth the sixpence which he charged for his box of pills.”

As I was sitting at the George Inn I saw a coach, with six bay
horses, a calash and four, a chaise and four, enter the inn, in
yellow livery turned up with red; and four gentlemen on horseback,
in blue trimmed with silver. As yellow is the color given by the
dukes in England, I went out to see what duke it was, but there was
no coronet on the coach, only a plain coat-of-arms, with the motto
ARGENTO LABORAT FABER [_Smith works for money_]. Upon inquiry I
found this grand equipage belonged to a mountebank named Smith.--_A
Tour through England_ (1723).

SOLOMON (_Dr._), eighteenth century. His “anti-impetigines” was simply a solution of _bichloride of mercury_, colored.

TAYLOR (_Dr. Chevalier John_). He called himself “Opthalminator, Pontificial, Imperial, and Royal.” It is said that five of his horses were blind from experiments tried by him on their eyes (died 1767).

⁂ Hogarth has introduced Dr. Taylor in his “Undertakers’ Arms.” He is one of the three figures at the top, to the left hand of the spectator.

UNBORN DOCTOR (_The_), of Moorfields. Not being born a doctor, he called himself “The Un-born Doctor.”

WALKER (_Dr._), one of the three great quacks of the eighteenth century, the others being Dr. Rock and Dr. Timothy Franks. Dr. Walker had an abhorrence of quacks, and was for ever cautioning the public not to trust them, but come at once to him, adding, “there is not such another medicine in the world as mine.”

Not for himself but for his country he prepares his gallipot, and
seals up his precious drops for any country or any town, so great
is his zeal and philanthropy.--Goldsmith, _A Citizen of the World_,
lxviii. (1759).