Chapter Phyllis to Picrochole's Counsellors of P by Brewer's Readers Handbook

publication of the twelfth number, and at the close of the novel they sent him a further sum of £3000 over and above his stipulated agreement.

(Moncrieff dramatized the novel under the title of Sam Weller or The Pickwickians. In this version Mrs. Bardell is the wife of Alfred Jingle, and therefore her charge against Pickwick involved her in a charge of bigamy, while Messrs. Dodson and Fogg are sent to Newgate for conspiracy.)

Pickwickian Sense (In a), an insult whitewashed. Mr. Pickwick accused Mr. Blotton of acting in “a vile and calumnious manner;” whereupon Mr. Blotton retorted by calling Mr. Pickwick “a humbug.” But it finally was made to appear that both had used the offensive words only in a parliamentary sense, and that each entertained for the other “the highest regard and esteem.” So the difficulty was easily adjusted, and both were satisfied.

Lawyers and politicians daily abuse each other in a Pickwickian sense.—Bowditch.

Picrochole, king of Lernê, noted for his choleric temper, his thirst for empire, and his vast but ill-digested projects—Rabelais: Gargantua, i. (1533).

(Supposed to be a satire on Charles V. of Spain.)

The rustics of Utopia one day asked the cake-bakers of Lernê to sell them some cakes. A quarrel ensued, and king Picrochole marched with all his army against Utopia, to extirpate the insolent inhabitants.—Bk. i. 33.

Picrochole’s Counsellors. The duke of Smalltrash, the earl of Swashbuckler, and captain Durtaille, advised king Picrochole to leave a small garrison at home, and, dividing his army into two parts, to send one south and the other north. The former was to take Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany (but was to spare the life of Barbarossa), to take the islands of the Mediterranean, the Morea, the Holy Land, and all Lesser Asia. The northern army was to take Belgium, Denmark, Prussia, Poland, Russia, Norway, Sweden, sail across the Sandy Sea, and meet the other half at Constantinople, when king Picrochole was to divide the nations amongst his great captains. Echephron said he had heard about a pitcher of milk which was to make its possessor a nabob, and give him for wife a sultan’s daughter; only the poor fellow broke his pitcher, and had to go supperless to bed. (See Bobadil, p.133.)—Rabelais: Pantagruel, i. 33 (1533).

A shoemaker bought a haporth of milk; with this he intended to make butter, the butter was to buy a cow, the cow was to have a calf, the calf was to be sold, and the man to become a nabob; only the poor dreamer cracked the jug, spilt the milk, and had to go supperless to bed.—Pantagruel, i. 33.