Chapter Parr to Parysatis of P by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Parr to Parysatis

Parr Old Parr. Thomas Parr lived in the reigns of ten sovereigns; married a second wife when he was 120 years old, and had a child by her. He was a husbandman, born at Salop in 1483, and died 1635, aged 152 years. Mr. Thoms, in his Records of Longevity, denies the truth of Parr's great age.

Parricide (3 syl.). La Belle Parricide. Beatrice Cenci (*-1599.)

Parrot-coal A name given to anthracite because of the crackling or chattering noise it makes when burnt.

Parsees or Ghebers. Fire-worshippers. We use the word for Persian refugees driven out of their country by the persecutions of the Mussulmans. They now inhabit various parts of India. (The word means People of Pars or Fars- i.e. Persia.)

Parsley He has need now of nothing but a little parsley- i.e. he is dead. The Greeks decked tombs with parsley, because it keeps green a long time.
   deisqai seliuou he needs parsley; that is, he is dead, and should be strewed with parsley.

Parson says Blackstone, is “persona ecclesiae, one that hath full rights of the parochial church.” (See Clerical Titles.)

“Among wyves and wodewes ich am ywoned sute [wont to set],
Yparroked [impaled] in puwes. The person hit knoweth.”
Robert Langland: Piers Plowmes Vision.

“God give you good morrow, master person” (i.e. Sir Nathaniel, a parson).- Shakespeare: Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 2.

Parson Adams A simple-minded country clergyman of the eighteenth century, in Fielding's Joseph Andrews.
   Fielding says that Parson Adams at the age of fifty was provided with a handsome income of £23 a year (1740). Thomas Burrell, Esq., in 1715, bequeathed to his nephew Timothy the sum of £20 a year, to be paid during his residence at the University, and to be continued to him until he obtained some preferment worth at least £30 a year. (Sussex Archæological Collections, vol. iii. p. 172.) (See Passing Rich.)

Parson Bate A stalwart, choleric, sporting parson, editor of the Morning Post in the latter half of the eighteenth century. He was afterwards Sir Henry Bate Dudley, Bart.

“When Sir Henry Bate Dudley was appointed an Irish dean, a young lady of Dublin said, “Oh, how I long to see our dane. They say he is a very handsome man, and that he fights like an angel.”- Cassell's Magazine: London Legends, iii.

Parson Trulliber in Fielding's Joseph Andrews. A slothful, ignorant, and self-willed bigot.
    Other parsons famous in story are the Rev. Micah Balwidder, the vicar of Bray, Brocklehurst, Dr. Primrose, the parson in Goldsmith's Deserted Village, the parson in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and some others.

Parsons (Walter), the giant porter of King James, died in 1622. (Fuller's Worthies.)

Part The character assigned to an actor in a play.

Part A portion, piece, or fragment.
   For my part. As far as concerns me.
   For the most part. Generally, as a rule.
   In good part. Favourably.
   Part and parcel. An essential part, portion, or element.

Partant pour la Syrie The national air of the French Empire. The words were composed by M. de Laborde in 1809; the music by Queen Hortense, mother of Napoleon III. It is a ballad, the subject of which is as follows:- Young Dunois followed the count, his lord, to Syria, and prayed the Virgin “that he might prove the bravest warrior, and love the fairest maiden.” After the battle, the count said to Dunois, “To thee we owe the victory, and my daughter I give to thee.” Moral: “Amour à la plus belle; honneur au plus vaillant.”