Part 96 (2/2)

caligraphist[TN-110] and sworn expert in the courts of law. Joseph Prudhomme is the synthesis of bourgeois imbecility; radiant, serene, and self-satisfied; letting fall from his fat lips ”one weak, washy, everlasting flood” of puerile aphorisms and inane circ.u.mlocutions. He says, ”The car of the state floats on a precipice.” ”This sword is the proudest day of my life.”--Henri Monnier, _Grandeur et Decadence de Joseph Prudhomme_ (1852).

=Pruddoterie= (_Madame de la_). Character in comedy of _George Dandin_, by Moliere.

=Prue= (_Miss_), a schoolgirl still under the charge of a nurse, very precocious and very injudiciously brought up. Miss Prue is the daughter of Mr. Foresight, a mad astrologer, and Mrs. Foresight, a frail nonent.i.ty.--Congreve, _Love for Love_ (1695).

_Prue._ Wife of ”I”; a dreamer. ”Prue makes everything think well, even to making the neighbors speak well of her.”

Of himself Prue's husband says:

”How queer that a man who owns castles in Spain should be deputy book-keeper at $900 per annum!”--George William Curtis, _Prue and I_ (1856).

=Prunes and Prisms=, the words which give the lips the right plie of the highly aristocratic mouth, as Mrs. General tells Amy Dorrit.

”'Papa' gives a pretty form to the lips. 'Papa,' 'potatoes,'

'poultry,' 'prunes and prisms.' You will find it serviceable if you say to yourself on entering a room, 'Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prisms.'”--C. d.i.c.kens, _Little Dorrit_ (1855).

General Burgoyne, in _The Heiress_, makes Lady Emily tell Miss Alscrip that the magic words are ”nimini pimini;” and that if she will stand before her mirror and p.r.o.nounce these words repeatedly, she cannot fail to give her lips that happy plie which is known as the ”Paphian mimp.”--_The Heiress_, iii. 2 (1781).

=Pru'sio=, king of Alvarecchia, slain by Zerbi'no.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

=Pry= (_Paul_), one of those idle, meddling fellows, who, having no employment of their own, are perpetually interfering in the affairs of other people.--John Poole, _Paul Pry_.

=Prydwen= or PRIDWIN (_q.v._), called in the _Mabinogion_, the s.h.i.+p of King Arthur. It was also the name of his s.h.i.+eld. Taliessin speaks of it as a s.h.i.+p, and Robert of Gloucester as a s.h.i.+eld.

Hys sseld that het Prydwen.

Myd ye suerd he was ygurd, that so strong was and kene; Calybourne yt was ycluped, nas nour no such ye wene.

In ys right hond ys lance he nom, that ycluped was Ron.

I. 174.

=Prynne= (_Hester_). Handsome, haughty gentlewoman of English birth, married to a deformed scholar, whom she does not love. She comes alone to Boston, meets Arthur Dimmesdale, a young clergyman, and becomes his wife in all except in name. When her child is born she is condemned to stand in the pillory, holding it in her arms, to be reprimanded by officials, civic and clerical, and to wear, henceforward, upon her breast, the letter ”A” in scarlet. Her fate is more enviable than that of her undiscovered lover, whose vacillations of dread and despair and determination to reveal all but move Hester to deeper pity and stronger love. She is beside him when he dies in the effort to bare his bosom and show the cancerous _Scarlet Letter_ that has grown into his flesh while she wore hers outwardly.--Nathaniel Hawthorne, _The Scarlet Letter_ (1850).

=Psalmist= (_The_). King David is called ”The Sweet Psalmist of Israel” (2 _Sam._ xxiii. 1). In the compilation called _Psalms_, in the Old Testament, seventy-three bear the name of David, twelve were composed by Asaph, eleven by the sons of Korah, and one (_Psalm_ xc.) by Moses.

=Psycarpax= (_i. e._ ”_granary-thief_”), son of Troxartas, king of the mice. The frog king offered to carry the young Psycarpax over a lake; but a water-hydra made its appearance, and the frog-king, to save himself, dived under water, whereby the mouse prince lost his life. This catastrophe brought about the fatal _Battle of the Frogs and Mice_.

Translated from the Greek into English verse by Parnell (1679-1717).

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