Part 96 (1/2)

=Proud= (_The_). Tarquin II. of Rome, was called _Superbus_ (reigned B.C.

535-510, died 496).

Otho IV., kaiser of Germany, was called ”The Proud” (1175, 1209-1218).

=Proud Duke= (_The_), Charles Seymour, duke of Somerset. His children were not allowed to sit in his presence; and he spoke to his servants by signs only (*-1748).

=Proudfute= (_Oliver_), the boasting bonnet-maker at Perth.

_Magdalen_ or _Maudie Proudfute_, Oliver's widow.--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

=Proudie= (_Dr._), hen-pecked bishop of Barchester. A martinet in his diocese, a serf in his home.

_Proudie_ (_Mrs._), strong-willed, strong-voiced help-mate of the bishop. She lays down social, moral, religious and ecclesiastical laws with equal readiness and severity.--Anthony Trollope, _Framley Parsonage_ and _Barchester Towers_.

=Prout= (_Father_), the pseudonym of Francis Mahoney, a humorous writer in _Fraser's Magazine_, etc. (1805-1866).

=Provis=, the name a.s.sumed by Abel Magwitch, Pip's benefactor. He was a convict, who had made a fortune, and whose chief desire was to make his protege[TN-108] a gentleman.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Great Expectations_ (1860).

=Provoked Husband= (_The_), a comedy by Cibber and Vanbrugh. The ”provoked husband” is Lord Townly, justly annoyed at the conduct of his young wife, who wholly neglects her husband and her home duties for a life of gambling and dissipation. The husband seeing no hope of amendment, resolves on a separate maintenance; but then the lady's eyes are opened--she promises amendment, and is forgiven[TN-109]

? This comedy was Vanbrugh's _Journey to London_, left unfinished at his death. Cibber took it, completed it, and brought it out under the t.i.tle of _The Provoked Husband_ (1728).

=Provoked Wife= (_The_), Lady Brute, the wife of Sir John Brute, is, by his ill manners, brutality, and neglect, ”provoked” to intrigue with one Constant. The intrigue is not of a very serious nature, since it is always interrupted before it makes head. At the conclusion, Sir John says:

Surly, I may be stubborn, I am not, For I have both forgiven and forgot.

Sir J. Vanbrugh (1697).

=Provost of Bruges= (_The_), a tragedy based on ”The Serf,” in Leitch Ritchie's _Romance of History_. Published anonymously in 1836; the author is S. Knowles. The plot is this: Charles ”the Good,” earl of Flanders, made a law that a serf is always a serf till manumitted, and whoever marries a serf, becomes thereby a serf. Thus, if a prince married the daughter of a serf, the prince becomes a serf himself, and all his children were serfs. Bertulphe, the richest, wisest, and bravest man in Flanders, was provost of Bruges. His beautiful daughter, Constance, married Sir Bouchard, a knight of n.o.ble descent; but Bertulphe's father had been Thancmar's serf, and, according to the new law, Bertulphe, the provost, his daughter, Constance, and the knightly son-in-law were all the serfs of Thancmar. The provost killed the earl, and stabbed himself; Bouchard and Thancmar killed each other in fight; and Constance died demented.

=Prowler= (_Hugh_), any vagrant or highwayman.

For fear of Hugh Prowler, get home with the rest.

T. Tusser, _Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry_, x.x.xiii. 25 (1557).

=Prudence= (_Mistress_), the lady attendant on Violet, ward of Lady Arundel. When Norman, ”the sea-captain,” made love to Violet, Mistress Prudence remonstrated, ”What will the countess say if I allow myself to see a stranger speaking to her ward?” Norman clapped a guinea on her left eye, and asked, ”What see you now?” ”Why, nothing with my left eye,” she answered, ”but the right has still a morbid sensibility.”

”Poor thing!” said Norman; ”this golden ointment soon will cure it. What see you now, my Prudence?” ”Not a soul,” she said.--Lord Lytton, _The Sea-Captain_ (1839).

=Prudhomme= (_Joseph_), ”pupil of Brard and Saint-Omer,”