Chapter Pelides to Pennals of P by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Pendennis (Arthur). The hero of Thackeray's novel, entitled The History of Pendennis, etc.
   Major Pendennis. A tuft-hunter, similar in character to Macklin's celebrated Sir Pertinax M'Sycophant.

Pendente Lite (Latin). Pending the suit; while the suit is going on.

Pendragon A title conferred on several British chiefs in times of great danger, when they were invested with dictatorial power: thus Uter and Arthur were each appointed to the office to repel the Saxon invaders. Cassibelaun was pendragon when Julius Caesar invaded the island; and so on. The word pen is British for head, and dragon for leader, ruler, or chief. The word therefore means summus rex (chief of the kings).
   So much for fact, and now for the fable: Geoffrey of Monmouth says, when Aurelius, the British king, was poisoned by Ambron, during the invasion of Pascentius, son of Vortigern, there “appeared a star at Winchester of wonderful magnitude and brightness, darting forth a ray, at the end of which was a globe of fire in form of a dragon, out of whose mouth issued forth two rays, one of which extended to Gaul and the other to Ireland.” Uter ordered two golden dragons to be made, one of which he presented to Winchester, and the other he carried with him as his royal standard, whence he received the name of Uter Pendragon. (Books viii. xiv. xvii.)

Penelope (4 syl.). The Web or Shroud of Penelope. A work “never ending, still beginning;” never done, but ever in hand. Penelopë, according to Homer, was pestered by suitors while her husband, Ulysses, was absent at the siege of Troy. To relieve herself of their importunities, she promised to make a choice of one as soon as she had finished weaving a shroud for her father-in-law. Every night she unravelled what she had done in the day, and so deferred making any choice till Ulysses returned, when the suitors were sent to the right-about without ceremony.

Penelophon The beggar loved by King Cophetua. (See Cophetua. )

Penelva A knight whose adventures and exploits form a supplemental part of the Spanish romance entitled Amadis of Gaul. The first four books of the romance, and the part above referred to, were by Portuguese authors- the former by Vasco de Lobeira, of Oporto, who died 1403; the latter by an unknown author.

Penetralia The private rooms of a house; the secrets of a family. That part of a Roman temple into which the priest alone had access; here were the sacred images, here the responses of the oracles were made, and here the sacred mysteries were performed. The Holy of Holies was the penetralia of the Jewish Temple. (Latin plural of penetralis.)

Penfeather (Lady Penelope). The lady patroness of the Spa. (Sir Walter Scott: St. Ronan's Well.)

Peninsular War The war carried on, under the Duke of Wellington, against the French in Portugal and Spain, between 1808 and 1812.

Penitential Psalms The seven psalms expressive of contrition- viz. the vi., xxxii., xxxviii., li., cii., cxxx., cxliii., of the Authorised Version, or vi., xxxi., xxxvii., l., ci., cxxix., cxlii., of the Vulgate.

Penmanship
   The “Good King Réné,” titular king of Naples in the middle of the fifteenth century, was noted for his initial letters.
   St. Thecla, of Isauria, wrote the entire Scriptures out without a blot or mistake.
   St. Theodosius wrote the Gospels in letters of gold without a single mistake or blur. (See Longfellow's Golden Legend, iv.) (See Angel.)

Penmanship Dickens says of John Bell, of the Chancery, that he wrote three hands: one which only he himself could read, one which only his clerk could read, and one which nobody could read. Dean Stanley wrote about as bad a hand as man could write.

Pennals [pen-cases ]. So the Freshmen of the Protestant universities of Germany were called, from the pennale or inkhorn which they carried with them when they attended lectures.