Chapter Peregrine Pickle to Periwinkle of P by Brewer's Readers Handbook

In the story of Gareth and Linet, the castle in which Lionês was held prisoner by sir Ironside the Red Knight of the Red Lands, was called Castle Perilous. The passages thereto were held by four knights, all of whom sir Gareth overthrew; lastly sir Gareth conquered sir Ironside, liberated the lady, and married her.—Sir T. Malory: History of Prince Arthur, i. 120-153 (1470).

Perimones (Sir), the Red Knight, one of the four brothers who kept the passages 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”).

Perion, king of Gaul, father of Amadis 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 Medina (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,” perissotês, “excess.”)—Spenser: Faërie Queene, ii 2 (1590).

Periwinkle (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 fashion of the last century. Mr. Periwinkle dotes upon travellers, and believes more of sir John Mandeville than of the Bible” (act i. 1). Colonel Feignwell, to obtain his consent to his marriage with Mr. Periwinkle’s ward, disguised himself as an Egyptian, and passed 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 passed himself off as 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).