Chapter Pedlars' French to Pelican of P by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Peers of the Realm The five orders of duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron. The word peer is the Latin pares (equals), and in feudal times all great vassals were held equal in rank. The following is well fitted to a dictionary of Phrase and Fable:-

“It is well known that, although the English aristocracy recruits itself from the sons of barbers, as Lord Tenterden; merchant tailors, as Count Craven; mercers, as the Counts of Coventry, etc., it will never tolerate poverty within its ranks. The male representative of Simon de Montfort is now a saddler in Tooley Street; the great-grandson of Oliver Cromwell, a porter in Cork market; and Stephen James Penny, Verger of St. George's, Hanover Square, is a direct descendant of the fifth son of Edward III.”- The Gaulois.

Peg or Peggy, for Margaret, corrupted into Meg or Meggy. Thus, Pat or Patty for Martha; Poll or Polly, for Mary, corrupted into Moll or Molly; etc.

Peg too Low (A). Low-spirited, moody. Our Saxon ancestors were accustomed to use peg-tankards, or tankards with a peg inserted at equal intervals, that when two or more drank from the same bowl, no one might exceed his fair proportion. We are told that St. Dunstan introduced the fashion to prevent brawling.
   I am a peg too low means, I want another draught to cheer me up.

“Come, old fellow, drink down to your peg!
But do not drink any farther, I beg.”
Longfellow: Golden Legend, iv.

   To take one down a peg. To take the conceit out of a braggart or pretentious person. The allusion here is not to peg-tankards, but to a ship's colours, which used to be raised and lowered by pegs; the higher the colours are raised the greater the honour, and to take them down a peg would be to award less honour.

“Trepanned your party with intrigue,
And took your grandees down a peg.”
Butler: Hudibras, ii. 2.

   There are always more round pegs than round holes. Always more candidates for office than places to dispose of.

Pegasos (Greek; Pegasus, Latin). The inspiration of poetry, or, according to Boiardo (Orlando Inamorato), the horse of the Muses. A poet speaks of his Pegasus, as “My Pegasus will not go this morning,” meaning his brain will not work. “I am mounting Pegasus”- i.e. going to write poetry. “I am on my Pegasus,” i.e. engaged in writing verses.
   Pegasus or Pegasos, according to classic mythology, was the winged horse on which Bellerophon rode against the Chimaera. When the Muses contended with the daughters of Pieros, Helicon rose heavenward with delight; but Pegasos gave it a kick, stopped its ascent, and brought out of the mountain the soul-inspiring waters of Hippocrene [Hip'-po-creen ].

Pegg (Katharine). One of the mistresses of Charles II., daughter of Thomas Pegg, of Yeldersey, in Derbyshire, Esquire.

Pegging Away (Keep). Keep on attacking, and you will assuredly prevail. “But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we'll not fail” (Macbeth). Patience and perseverance will overcome mountains. It was President Lincoln who gave this advice to the Federals in the American civil war.

Peine Forte et Dure A species of torture applied to contumacious felons. In the reign of Henri IV. the accused was pressed to death by weights; in later reigns the practice prevailed of tying the thumbs tightly together with whipcord, to induce the accused to plead. The following persons were pressed to death by weights:- Juliana Quick, in 1442; Anthony Arrowsmith, in 1598; Walter Calverly, in 1605; Major Strangways, in 1657; and even in 1741 a person was pressed to death at the Cambridge assizes. Abolished 1772.

Pelagianism The system or doctrines taught by Pelagius (q.v.). He denied what is termed birth-sin or the taint of Adam, and he maintained that we have power of ourselves to receive or reject the Gospel.

Pelagius A Latinised Greek form of the name Morgan- the Welsh môr, like the Greek pelagos, meaning the sea.