Part 72 (1/2)

=Perilous Castle.= The castle of Lord Douglas was so called in the reign of Edward I., because the good Lord Douglas destroyed several English garrisons stationed there, and vowed to be revenged on any one who dared to take possession of it. Sir W. Scott calls it ”Castle Dangerous”

in his novel so ent.i.tled.

? In the story of Gareth and Linet, the castle in which Liones was held prisoner by Sir Ironside, the Red Knight of the Red Lands, was called Castle Perilous. The pa.s.sages to the castle were held by four knights, all of whom Sir Gareth overthrew; lastly he conquered Sir Ironside, liberated the lady, and married her.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 120-153 (1470).

=Perimo'nes= (_Sir_), the Red Knight, one of the four brothers who kept the pa.s.sages to Castle Perilous. He was overthrown by Sir Gareth.

Tennyson calls him ”Noonday Sun” or ”Meridies.”--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 129 (1470); Tennyson, _Idylls_ (”Gareth and Lynette”).

=Per'ion=, king of Gaul, father of Am'adis of Gaul. His ”exploits and adventures” form part of the series called _Le Roman des Romans_. This part was added by Juan Diaz (fifteenth century).

? It is generally thought that ”Gaul” in this romance is the same as _Galis_, that is ”Wales.”

=Perissa=, the personification of extravagance, step-sister of Elissa (_meanness_) and of Medi'na (_the golden mean_); but they never agreed in any single thing. Perissa's suitor is Sir Huddibras, a man ”more huge in strength than wise in works.” (Greek, _perissos_, ”extravagant,”

_perissotes_, ”excess.”).[TN-84]--Spenser, _Faery Queen_, ii. 2 (1590).

=Per'iwinkle= (_Mr._), one of the four guardians of Anne Lovely, the heiress. He is a silly, half-witted virtuoso, positive and surly; fond of everything antique and foreign; and wears clothes of the last century. Mr. Periwinkle dotes upon travellers, and believes more of Sir John Mandeville than he does of the Bible. Colonel Feignwell, to obtain his consent to his marriage with Mr. Periwinkle's ward, disguised himself as an Egyptian, and pa.s.sed himself off as a great traveller. His dress, he said, ”belonged to the famous Claudius Ptolemeus, who lived in the year 135.” One of his curiosities was _poluflosboio_, ”part of those waves which bore Cleopatra's vessel, when she went to meet Antony.”

Another was the _moros musphonon_, or girdle of invisibility. His trick, however, miscarried, and he then personated Pillage, the steward of Periwinkle's father, and obtained Periwinkle's signature to the marriage by a fluke.--Mrs. Centlivre, _A Bold Stroke For a Wife_ (1717).

=Perker= (_Mr._), the lawyer employed for the defence in the famous suit of ”Bardell _v._ Pickwick” for the breach of promise.--C. d.i.c.kens, _The Pickwick Papers_ (1836).

=Perkin Warbeck=, an historic play or ”chronicle history,” by John Ford (1635).

=Perley Kelso.= A woman with ”a weakness for an occupation, who suffers pa.s.sions of superfluous life. At the Cape she rebelled because Providence did not create her a bluefisher. In Paris, she would make muslin flowers, and learn the _metier_ to-morrow.”--Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, _The Silent Partner_ (1871).

=Pernelle= (_Madame_), mother of Orgon; a regular vixen, who interrupts every one, without waiting to hear what was to have been said to her.--Moliere, _Tartuffe_ (1664).

=Peronella=, a pretty country la.s.s, who changes places with an old decrepit queen. Peronella rejoices for a time in the idolatry paid to her rank, but gladly resumes her beauty, youth, and rags.--_A Fairy Tale._

=Perrette and her Milk-Pail.= Perrette, carrying her milk-pail well-poised upon her head, began to speculate on its value. She would sell the milk and buy eggs; she would set the eggs and rear chickens; the chickens she would sell and buy a pig; this she would fatten and change for a cow and calf, and would it not be delightful to see the little calf skip and play? So saying, she gave a skip, let the milk-pail fall, and all the milk ran to waste. ”Le lait tombe. Adieu, veau, vache, cochon, couvee,”

and poor Perrette ”va s'excuser a son mari, en grand danger d'etre battue.”

Quel esprit ne bat la campagne?

Qui ne fait chateau en Espagne?

Picrochole [_q.v._], Pyrrhus, la laitiere, enfin tous, Autant les sages que les fous....

Quelque accident fait-il que je rentre en moi-meme; Je suis Gros-Jean comme devant.

Lafontaine, _Fables_ (”La Laitiere et le Po tau[TN-85] Lait,” 1668).

(Dodsley has this fable, and makes his milkmaid speculate on the gown she would buy with her money. It should be green, and all the young fellows would ask her to dance, but she would toss her head at them all--but ah! in tossing her head, she tossed over her milk-pail.)