Chapter Peace of God to Peeler of P by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Peasants’ War (The), a revolt of the German peasantry in Swabia and Franconia, and subsequently in Saxony, Thuringia, and Alsace, occasioned by the oppression of the nobles and the clergy (1500–1525).

Peaseblossom, a fairy in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other of the fairies are Cobweb, Moth, and Mustardseed (1592).

Peau de Chagrin, a story by Balzac. The hero becomes possessed of a magical wild ass’s skin, which yielded him the means of gratifying every wish; but for every wish thus gratified the skin shrank somewhat, and at last vanished, having been wished entirely away. The hero died at the moment the skin disappeared. Life is a peau d’ane, for every vital act diminishes its force, and when all its force is gone, life is spent (1834).

Peckover, the butcher, and leader of the “Blue Lambs.”—Tom Taylor: The Contested Election (1860).

Niver a j’int of meat distributed among the poor of the borough; and me that has known an election make a difference of a score of bullocks in a month. Oh, it is mean! it is mean!

Pecksniff, architect and land surveyor,” at Salisbury. He talks homilies even in drunkenness, prates about the beauty of charity and the duty of forgiveness, but is altogether a canting humbug. Ultimately he is so reduced in position that he becomes “a drunken, begging, squalid, letter-writing man,” out at elbows, and almost shoeless. Pecksniff’s speciality was the “sleek, smiling, crawling |abomination of hypocrisy.”

If ever man combined within himself all the mild qualities of the lamb with a considerable touch of the dove, and not a dash of the crocodile, or the least possible suggestion of the very mildest seasoning of the serpent, that man was Mr. Pecksniff, “the messenger of peace.”—Ch. iv.

Charity and Mercy Pecksniff, the two daughters of the “architect and land surveyor.” Charity is thin, ill- natured, and a shrew, eventually jilted by a weak young man, who really loves her sister. Mercy Pecksniff, usually called “Merry,” is pretty and true-hearted. Though flippant and foolish as a girl, she becomes greatly toned down by the troubles of her married life.—Dickens: Martin Chuzzlewit (1843).

Pedant, an old fellow set up to personate Vincentio in Shakespeare’s comedy called The Taming of the Shrew (1695).

Pedlington, (Little), an imaginary borough in which quackery, cant, hypocrisy, and humbug abound. John Poole wrote, in 1839, a satire called Little Pedlington and the Pedlingtonians.

Pèdre (Don), a Sicilian no bleman, who has a Greek slave of great beauty named Isidore. This slave is loved by Adraste, a French gentleman, who gains access to the house under the guise of a portrait- painter. (For the rest, see Adraste, p. 10.)—Molière: Le Sicilien ou L’Amour Peintre (1667).

Pedrillo, the tutor of don Juan. After the shipwreck, the men in the boat, being wholly without provisions, cast lots to know which should be killed as food for the rest, and the lot fell on Pedrillo, but those who feasted on him most ravenously went mad.

His tutor, the licentiate Pedrillo,
Who several languages did understand.
   —Byron: Don Juan, ii. 25; see 76- 79 (1819).

PEDRO, “the pilgrim,” a noble gentleman, servant to Alinda (daughter of lord Alphonso).—Fletcher: The Pilgrim (1621).

Pedro (Don), prince of Aragon.—Shakespeare: Much Ado about Nothing (1600).

Pedro (Don), father of Leonora.—Jephson: Two Strings to your Bow (1792).