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
=Paul=, the love-child of Margaret, who retired to Port Louis, in the
Mauritius, to bury herself, and bring up her only child. Hither came
Mde. de la Tour, a widow, and was confined of a daughter, whom she named
Virginia. Between these neighbors a mutual friendship arose, and the two
children became playmates. As they grew in years their fondness for each
other developed into love. When Virginia was 15, her mother’s aunt
adopted her, and begged she might be sent to France to finish her
education. She was above two years in France; and as she refused to
marry a count of the “aunt’s” providing, she was disinherited and sent
back to her mother. When within a cable’s length of the island a
hurricane dashed the ship to pieces, and the dead body of Virginia was
thrown upon the shore. Paul drooped from grief, and within two months
followed her to the grave.--Bernardin de St. Pierre, _Paul et Virgine_
(1788).
In Cobb’s dramatic version, Paul’s mother (Margaret) is made a faithful
domestic of Virginia’s parents. Virginia’s mother dies, and commits her
infant daughter to the care of Dominique, a faithful old negro servant,
and Paul and Virginia are brought up in the belief that they are brother
and sister. When Virginia is 15 years old, her aunt, Leonora de Guzman,
adopts her, and sends Don Antonio de Guardes to bring her to Spain and
make her his bride. She is taken by force on board ship; but scarcely
has the ship started, when a hurricane dashes it on rocks, and it is
wrecked. Alhambra, a runaway slave whom Paul and Virginia had
befriended, rescues Virginia, who is brought to shore and married to
Paul; but Antonio is drowned (1756-1818).
_Paul_ (_Father_), Paul Sarpi (1552-1628).
_Paul_ (_St._). The very sword which cut off the head of this apostle is
preserved at the convent of La Lisla, near Tolēdo, in Spain. If any one
doubts the fact he may, for a gratuity, see a “copper sword, twenty-five
inches long and three and a half broad, on one side of which is the word
MUCRO (‘a sword’), and on the other PAULUS ... CAPITE.” Can anything be
more convincing?
_Paul_ (_The Second St._). St[TN-73] Remi or _Remigius_, “The Great
Apostle of the French.” He was made bishop of Rheims when only 22 years
old. It was St[TN-73] Remi who baptized Clovis, and told him that
henceforth he must worship what he hitherto had hated, and abjure what
he had hitherto adored (439-535).
⁂ The cruse employed by St. Remi in the baptism of Clovis was used
through the French monarchy in the anointing of all the kings.
=Paul Pry=, an idle, inquisitive, meddlesome fellow, who has no occupation
of his own, and is forever poking his nose into other people’s affairs.
He always comes in with the apology, “I hope I don’t intrude.”--John
Poole, _Paul Pry_.
Thomas Hill, familiarly called “Tommy Hill,” was the original of this
character, and also of “Gilbert Gurney,” by Theodore Hook. Planché says
of Thomas Hill:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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