Chapter Podgers to Poisoners of P by Brewer's Readers Handbook

He compares Richardson to Homer, and predicts for his memory the same honours which are rendered to the Father of Epic Poetry.—Sir W. Scott.

The Father of German Poetry, Martin Opitz of Silesia (1597–1639).

Poetry—Prose. Pope advised Wycherly “to convert his poetry into prose.”

Pogram (Elijah), one of the “master minds” of America, and a member of congress. He was possessed with the idea that there was a settled opposition in the British mind against the institutions of his “free enlightened country.”—Dickens: Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).

Poinder (George), a city officer.—Sir W. Scott: Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.).

Poins, a companion of sir John Falstaff.—Shakespeare: 1 and 2 Henry IV. (1597, 1598).

The chronicles of that day contain accounts of many a mad prank which [lord Warwick, Addison’s stepson] played… [like] the lawless freaks of the madcap prince and Poins.—Thackeray.

Poison. It is said that Mithridatês VI., surnamed “the Great,” had so fortified his constitution, that poisons had no baneful effect on him (B.C. 131, 120-63).

Poison-Detectors. Opal turns pa le and Venetian glass shivers at the approach of poison. Peacocks ruffle their feathers at the si ght of poison; and if poison is put into a liquid contained in a cup of rhinoceros’s horn, the liquid wi ll effervesce. No one could pass with poison the horn gate of Gundofous. Nourgehan had a bracelet, the stones of which seemed agitated when poison approached the wearer. Aladdin’s ring was a perservative against every evil. The sign of the cross in the Middle Ages was looked upon as a poison-detector. (See Warning-Givers.)

Poison of Khaïbar. By this is meant the poison put into a leg of mutton by Zaïnab, a Je wess, to kill Mahomet while he was in the citadel of Khaïbar. Mahomet partook of the mutton, and suffered from the poison all through life.

Poisoners (Secret).

1. Of Ancient Rome: Locusta, employed by Agrippina to poison her husband the emperor Claudius. Nero employed the same woman to poison Britannicus and others.

2. Of English History: the countess of Somerset, who poisoned sir Thomas Overbury in the Tower of London. She also poisoned others.

Villiers duke of Buckingham, it is said, poisoned king James I.

3. Of France: Lavoisin and Lavigoreux, French midwives and fortunetellers.

Catharine de Medicis is said to have poisoned the mother of Henry IV. with a pair of wedding-gloves, and several others with poisoned fans.

The marquise de Brinvilliers, a young profligate Frenchwoman, was taught the art of secret poisoning by Sainte-Croix, who learnt it in Italy.—World of Wonders, vii. 203.

4. Of Germany: Anna Zwanziger, sentenced to death at Bamberg in 1811. Her career is related in lady Duff-Gordon’s translation of Feuerbach’s Criminal Trials.

5. Of Italy: Pope Alexander VI. and his children Cæsar and Lucrezia [Borgia] were noted poisoners; so were Hieronyma Spara and Tofana.