Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 3: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's HandbookBrewer, Ebenezer Cobham
General
Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 3: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook
Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham
Allusions; Fiction -- Dictionaries; Literature -- Dictionaries
=Paddington= (_Harry_), one of Macheath’s gang of thieves. Peachum
describes him as a “poor, petty-larceny rascal, without the least
genius. That fellow,” he says, “though he were to live for six months,
would never come to the gallows with credit” (act i. 1).--Gay, _The
Beggar’s Opera_ (1727).
=Paddy=, an Irishman. A corruption of _Padhrig_, Irish for Patrick.
=Padlock= (_The_), a comic opera by Bickerstaff. Don Diego (2 _syl._), a
wealthy lord of 60, saw a country maiden named Leonora, to whom he took
a fancy, and arranged with the parents to take her home with him and
place her under the charge of a duenna for three months, to see if her
temper was as sweet as her face was pretty; and then either “to return
her to them spotless, or make her his lawful wife.” At the expiration of
the time, the don went to arrange with the parents for the wedding, and
locked up his house, giving the keys to Ursula, the duenna. To make
assurance doubly sure, he put a padlock on the outer door, and took the
key with him. Leander, a young student, smitten with the damsel, laughed
at locksmiths and duennas, and, having gained admission into the house,
was detected by Don Diego, who returned unexpectedly. The old don, being
a man of sense, perceived that Leander was a more suitable bridegroom
than himself, so he not only sanctioned the alliance, but gave Leonora a
handsome wedding dowry (1768).
=Pæan=, the physician of the immortals.
=Pæa´na=, daughter of Corflambo, “fair as ever yet saw living eye,” but
“too loose of life and eke too light.” Pæana fell in love with Amĭas, a
captive in her father’s dungeon; but Amias had no heart to give away.
When Placĭdae was brought captive before Pæana, she mistook him for
Amias, and married him. The poet adds, that she thenceforth so reformed
her ways “that all men much admired the change, and spake her
praise.”--Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, iv. 9 (1596).
=Pagan=, a fay who loved the Princess Imis; but Imis rejected his suit, as
she loved her cousin, Philax. Pagan, out of revenge, shut them up in a
superb crystal palace, which contained every delight except that of
leaving it. In the course of a few years, Imis and Philax longed as much
for a separation as, at one time, they wished to be united.--Comtesse
D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“Palace of Revenge,” 1682).
=Page= (_Mr._), a gentleman living at Windsor. When Sir John Falstaff made
love to Mrs. Page, Page himself assumed the name of Brooke, to outwit
the knight. Sir John told the supposed Brooke his whole “course of
wooing,” and how nicely he was bamboozling the husband. On one occasion,
he says, “I was carried out in a buck-basket of dirty linen before the
very eyes of Page, and the deluded husband did not know it.” Of course,
Sir John is thoroughly outwitted and played upon, being made the butt of
the whole village.
_Mrs. Page_, wife of Mr. Page of Windsor. When Sir John Falstaff made
love to her, she joined with Mrs. Ford to dupe him and punish him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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