Chapter Pilot that Weathered the Storm to Piper of P by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Pilot that Weathered the Storm to Piper

Pilot that Weathered the Storm (The), William Pitt (1759–1806). The “storm” referred to was the European disturbance created by Napoleon Buonaparte. There was a silver medal cast in the Pitt Club, on the obverse side of which was the motto given above, and below it was the date of Pitt’s birth. On the reverse is “Warrington Pitt Club, MDCCCXIV.”

Pilpay’, the Indian Æsop. His compilation was in Sanskrit, and entitled Pantschatantra (fourth century B.C.).

It was rumoured he could say…
All the “Fables” of Pilpay.
   —Longfellow: The Wayside Inn (prelude).

Pilumnus, the patron god of bakers and millers, because he was the first person who ever ground corn.

Then there was Pilumnus, who was the first to make cheese, and became the god of bakers.—Ouida: Ariadnê, i. 40.

Pimperlimpimp (Powder), a worthless nostrum, used by quacks and sorcerers. Swift uses the word in his Tale of a Tub (1704).

This famous doctor [Sherlock] plays the Merry Andrew with the world, and, like the powder “Pimper le Pimp,” turns up what trump the knave of clubs calls for.—A Dialogue between Dr. Sherlock…and Dr. Oates (1690).

Pinabello, son of Anselmo (king of Maganza). Marphisa overthrew him, and told him he could not wipe out the disgrace till he had unhorsed a thousand dames and a thousand knights. Pinabello was slain by Bradamant.—Ariosto: Orlando Furioso (1516).

Pinac, the lively spirited fellow-traveller of Mirabel “the wild goose.” He is in love with the sprightly Lillia- Bianca, a daughter of Nantolet.—Fletcher: The Wild-goose Chase (1652).

Pinch, a schoolmaster and conjurer, who tries to exorcise Antipholus (act iv. sc. 4).—Shakespeare: Comedy of Errors (1593).

Pinch (Tom), clerk to Mr. Pecksniff “architect and land surveyor.” Simple as a child, green as a salad, and honest as truth itself. Very fond of story-books, but far more so of the organ. It was the seventh heaven to him to pull out the stops for the organist’s assistant at Salisbury Cathedral; but when allowed, after service, to finger the notes himself, he lived in a dream-land of unmitigated happiness. Being dismissed from Pecksniff’s office, Tom was appointed librarian to the Temple library, and his new catalogue was a perfect model of penmanship.

Ruth Pinch, a true-hearted, pretty girl, who adores her brother Tom, and is the sunshine of his existence. She marries John Westlock.—Dickens: Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).

Pinchbeck (Lady), with whom don Juan placed Leila to be brought up.

Olden she was—but had been very young;
Virtuous she was—and had been, I believe…
She merely now was amiable and witty.
   —Byron: Don Juan, xii. 43, 47 (1824).

Pinchwife (Mr.), the town husband of a raw country girl, wholly unpractised in the ways of the world, and whom he watches with ceaseless anxiety.

Lady Drogheda…watched her town husband as assiduously as Mr. Pinchwife watched his country wife.—Macaulay.

Mrs. Pinchwife, the counterpart of Molière’s “Agnes,” in his comedy entitled L’êcole des Femmes. Mrs. Pinchwife is a young woman wholly unsophisticated in affairs of the heart.—Wycherly: The Country Wife (1675).