Chapter Prophet Elm to Provis of P by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Prophet Elm to Provis

Prophet Elm, an elm growing in Credenhill Court, belonging to the Eckley family. It is so called because one of the branches is said to snap off and thus announce an approaching death in the family.

Prophetess (The), Ayeshah, the second and beloved wife of Mahomet. It does not mean that she prophesied, but, like Sultana, it is simply a title of honour. He was the Prophet, and she the Propheta or Madam Prophet.

Prose (Father of English), Wycliffe (1324–1384).

The Father of Greek Prose, Herodotos (B.C. 484-408).

The Father of Italian Prose, Boccaccio (1313–1375).

Proserpine , called Proserpina in Latin, and “P roserpin” by Milton, was daughter of Cerês. She went to the fields of Enna to amu se herself by gathering asphodels, and, being tired, fell asleep. Dis, the god of hell, then carried her off, and made her queen of the infernal regions. Cerês wandered for nine days over the world disconsolate, looking for her daughter, when Hecate told her she had heard the girl’s cries, but knew not who had carried her off. Both now went to Olympus, when the sun-god told them the true state of the case.

N.B.—This is an allegory of seed-corn.

Not that fair field
Of Enna, where Proserpin, gathering flowers,
Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis
Was gathered—which cost Cerês all that pain
To seek her thro’ the world.

Milton: Paradise Lost, iv. 268 (1665).

Prosperity Ensured. (See Ring-Fairy.)

Prosperity Robinson, Frederick Robinson, afterwards viscount Goderich and earl of Ripon, chancellor of the exchequer in 1823. So called by Cobbett, from his boasting about the prosperity of the country just a little before the great commercial crisis of 1825.

Prospero, the banished duke of Milan, and father of Miranda. He was deposed by his brother Anthonio, who sent him t o sea with Miranda in a “rotten carcass of a boat,” which was bor ne to a desert island. Here Prospero practised magic. He liberated Ariel from the rift of a pine tree, where the witch Sycorax had confined him for twelve years, and was served by that bright spirit with true gratitude. The only other inhabitant of the island was Caliban the witch’s “welp.” After a residence in the island of sixteen years, Prospero raised a tempest by magic, to cause the shipwreck of the usurping duke and of Ferdinand his brother’s son. Ferdinand fell in love with his cousin Miranda, and eventually married her.—Shakespeare: The Tempest (1609).

He [sir W. Scott] waves his wand more potent than that of Prospero, and the shadows of the olden time appear before us, and we absolutely believe in their reanimation.—Encyc. Brit. (article “Romance”).

Still they kept limping to and fro,
Like Ariels round old Prospero,
Saying, “Dear master, let us go.”
But still the old man answered, “No!”
   —Thomas Moore: A Vision.

Pross (Miss), a red-haired, ungainly creature, who lived with Lucie Manette, and dearly loved her. Miss Pross, although very eccentric, was most faithful and unselfish.

Her character (dissociated from stature) was shortness. … It was characteristic of this lady that whenever her original proposition was questioned, she exaggerated it.—Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities, ii. 6 (1859).