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
=Panza= (_Sancho_), of Adzpetia, the squire of Don Quixote de la Mancha;
“a little squat fellow, with a tun belly and spindle shanks” (pt. I. ii.
1). He rides an ass called Dapple. His sound common sense is an
excellent foil to the knight’s craze. Sancho is very fond of eating and
drinking, is always asking the knight when he is to be put in possession
of the island he promised. He salts his speech with most pertinent
proverbs, and even with wit of a racy, though sometimes of rather a
vulgar savor.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_ (1605).
⁂ The wife of Sancho is called “Joan Panza” in pt. I., and “Teresa
Panza” in pt. II. “My father’s name,” she says to Sancho, “was Cascajo,
and I, by being your wife, am now called Teresa Panza, though by right I
should be called Teresa Cascajo” (pt. II. i. 5).
=Paolo= (2 _syl._), the cardinal brother of Count Guido Franceschi´ni, who
advised his bankrupt brother to marry an heiress, in order to repair his
fortune.
When brother Paolo’s energetic shake
Should do the relics justice.
R. Browning, _The Ring and the Book_, ii. 409.
=Paper King= (_The_), John Law, projector of the Mississippi Bubble
(1671-1729).
The basis of Law’s project was the idea that paper money may be
multiplied to any extent, provided there be security in fixed
stock.--Rich.
=Paphian Mimp=, a certain plie of the lips, considered needful for “the
highly genteel.” Lady Emily told Miss Alscrip, “the heiress,” that it
was acquired by placing one’s self before a looking-glass, and repeating
continually the words “nimini pimini;” “when the lips cannot fail to
take the right plie.”--General Burgoyne, _The Heiress_, iii. 2 (1781).
(C. Dickens has made Mrs. General tell Amy Dorrit that the pretty plie
is given to the lips by pronouncing the words “papa, potatoes, poultry,
prunes and prism.”)
=Papillon=, a broken-down critic, who earned four shillings a week for
reviews of translations “without knowing one syllable of the original,”
and of “books which he had never read.” He then turned French valet, and
got well paid. He then fell into the service of Jack Wilding, and was
valet, French marquis, or anything else to suit the whims of that young
scapegrace.--S. Foote, _The Liar_ (1761).
=Papy´ra=, goddess of printing and literature; so called from papyrus, a
substance once used for books, before the invention of paper.
Till to astonished realms Papyra taught
To paint in mystic colors sound and thought.
With Wisdom’s voice to print the page sublime,
And mark in adamant the steps of Time.
Darwin, _Loves of the Plants_, ii. (1781).
=Paracelsus= is said to have kept a small devil prisoner in the pommel of
his sword. He favored metallic substances for medicines, while Galen
preferred herbs. His full name was Philippus Aure´olus Theophrastus
Paracelsus, but his family name was Bombastus (1493-1541).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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