=Pierre= [_Peer_], a blunt, bold, outspoken man, who heads a conspiracy to murder the Venetian senators, and induces Jaffier to join the gang. Jaffier (in order to save his wife’s father, Priuli), reveals the plot, under promise of free pardon; but the senators break their pledge, and order the conspirators to torture and death. Jaffier, being free, because he had turned “king’s evidence” stabs Pierre, to prevent his being broken on the wheel, and then kills himself.--T. Otway, _Venice Preserved_ (1682). _Pierre_, a very inquisitive servant of M. Darlemont, who long suspects his master has played falsely with his ward, Julio, count of Harancour.--Thomas Holcroft, _The Deaf and Dumb_ (1785). =Pierre Alphonse= (_Rabbi Moïse Sephardi_), a Spanish Jew converted to Christianity in 1062. All stories that recorded are By Pierre Alfonse he knew by heart. Longfellow, _The Wayside Inn_ (prelude). =Pierre du Coignet= or =Coignères=, an advocate-general in the reign of Philippe de Valois, who stoutly opposed the encroachments of the Church. The monks, in revenge, nicknamed those grotesque figures in stone (called “gargoyles”), _pierres du coignet_. At Notre Dame de Paris there were at one time gargoyles used for extinguishing torches, and the smoke added not a little to their ugliness. You may associate them with Master Pierre du Coignet, ... which perform the office of extinguishers.--Rabelais, _Gargantua and Pantagruel_ (1533-45). =Pierrot= [_Pe´-er-ro_], a character in French pantomime, representing a man in stature and a child in mind. He is generally the tallest and thinnest man in the company, and appears with his face and hair thickly covered with flour. He wears a white gown, with very long sleeves, and a row of big buttons down the front. The word means “Little Peter.” =Piers and Palinode=, two shepherds in Spenser’s fifth eclogue, representing the Protestant and the Catholic priest. Piers or Percy again appears in ecl. x. with Cuddy, a poetic shepherd. This noble eclogue has for its subject “poetry.” Cuddy complains that poetry has no patronage or encouragement, although it comes by inspiration. He says no one would be so qualified as Colin to sing divine poetry, if his mind were not so depressed by disappointed love.--Spenser, _The Shepheardes Calendar_ (1579). =Pie´tro= (2 _syl._), the putative father of Pompilia. This paternity was a fraud to oust the heirs of certain property which would otherwise fall to them.--R. Browning, _The Ring and the Book_, ii. 580. =Pig.= Phædrus tells a tale of a popular actor who imitated the squeak of a pig. A peasant said to the audience that he would himself next night challenge and beat the actor. When the night arrived, the audience unanimously gave judgment in favor of the actor, saying that his squeak was by far the better imitation; but the peasant presented to them a real pig, and said, “Behold, what excellent judges are ye!”