Part 93 (1/2)

And with them comes a third of regal port, But faded splendor wan; who by his gait And fierce demeanor seems the prince of h.e.l.l.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, iv. 868 (1665).

=Prince of Life=, a t.i.tle given to Christ (_Acts_ iii. 15).

=Prince of Peace=, a t.i.tle given to the Messiah (_Isaiah_ ix. 6).

_Prince of Peace_, Don Manuel G.o.doy, of Badajoz. So called because he concluded the ”peace of Basle” in 1795, between France and Spain (1757-1851).

=Prince of the Air=, Satan.

... Jesus, son of Mary, second Eve, Saw Satan fall, like lightning, down from heaven, Prince of the air.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, x. 185 (1665).

=Prince of the Devils=, Satan (_Matt._ xii. 24).

=Prince of the Kings of the Earth=, a t.i.tle given to Christ (_Rev._ i. 5).

=Prince of the Power of the Air=, Satan (_Eph._ ii. 2).

=Prince of this World=, Satan (_John_ xiv. 30).

=Princes.= It was Prince Bismarck, the German Chancellor, who said to a courtly attendant, ”Let princes be princes, and mind your own business.”

=Prince's Peers=, a term of contempt applied to peers of low birth. The phrase arose in the reign of Charles VII., of France, when his son Louis (afterwards Louis XI.) created a host of riff-raff peers, such as tradesmen, farmers, and mechanics, in order to degrade the aristocracy, and thus weaken its influence in the state.

=Printed Books.= The first book produced in England, was printed in England in 1477, by William Caxton, in the Almonry, at Westminster, and was ent.i.tled _The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers_.

The Rev. T. Wilson says: ”The press at Oxford existed ten years before there was any press in Europe, except those of Haarlem and Mentz.” The person who set up the Oxford press was Corsellis, and his first printed book bore the date of 1468. The colophon of it ran thus: ”Explicit exposicio Sancti Jeronimi in simbolo apostolorum ad papam laurecium.

Impressa Oxonii Et finita Anno Domini Mcccclxviij., xvij. die Decembris.” The book is a small quarto of forty-two leaves, and was first noticed in 1664 by Richard Atkins in his _Origin and Growth of Printing_. Dr. Conyers Middleton, in 1735, charged Atkins with forgery.

In 1812, S. W. Singer defended the book. Dr. Cotton took the subject up in his _Typographical Gazetteer_ (first and second series).

=Prior= (_Matthew_). The monument to this poet in Westminster Abbey was by Rysbrack; executed by order of Louis XIV.

=Priory= (_Lord_), an old-fas.h.i.+oned husband, who actually thinks that a wife should ”love, honor, and obey” her husband; nay, more, that ”forsaking all others, she should cleave to him so long as they both should live.”

_Lady Priory_, an old-fas.h.i.+oned wife, but young and beautiful. She was, however, so very old-fas.h.i.+oned that she went to bed at ten and rose at six; dressed in a cap and gown of her own making; respected and loved her husband; discouraged flirtation; and when a.s.sailed by any improper advances, instead of showing temper or conceited airs, quietly and tranquilly seated herself to some modest household duty till the a.s.sailant felt the irresistible power of modesty and virtue.--Mrs.

Inchbald, _Wives as They Were and Maids as They Are_ (1797).