(For Addled parliament, Barebone’s parliament, the Devil’s parliament, the Drunken parliament, the Good parliament, the Long parliament, the Mad parliament, the Pensioner parliament, the Rump parliament, the Running parliament, the Unmerciful parliament, the Useless parliament, the Wonder-making parliament, the parliament of Dunces, see Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 657.)
Parnelle (Mde.), the mother of M. Orgon, and an ultra-admirer of Tartuffe, whom she looks on as a saint. In the adaptation of Molière’s comedy by Isaac Bickerstaff, Mde. Parnelle is called “old Lady Lambert;” her son, “Sir John Lambert;” and Tartuffe, “Dr. Cantwell.”—Molière, Tartuffe (1664); Bickerstaff, The Hypocrite (1768).
*** The Nonjuror, by Cibber (1706), was the quarry of Bickerstaff’s play.
Parody (Father of), Hippo´nax of Ephesus (sixth century B.C.).
Parol´les (3 syl.), a boastful, cowardly follower of Bertram, count of Rousillon. His utterances are racy enough, but our contempt for the man smothers our mirth, and we cannot laugh. In one scene the bully is taken blindfolded among his old acquaintances, whom he is led to suppose are his enemies, and he villifies their characters to their faces in most admired foolery.—Shakespeare, All’s Well that Ends Well (1598).
He [Dr. Parr] was a mere Parolles in a pedagogue’s wig.—Noctes Ambrosianæ.
(For similar tongue-doughty heroes, see Basilisco, Bessus, Bluff, Bobadil, Boroughcliff, Brazen, Flash, [Pistol], [Pyrgo], Polinices, [Scaramouch], Thraso, Vincent de la Rosa, etc.)
Parpaillons (King of the), the father of Gargamelle, “a jolly pug and well-mouthed wench,” who married Grangousier “in the vigor of his age,” and became the mother of Gargantua.—Rabelais, Gargantua, i. 3 (1533).
Parr (Old). Thomas Parr, we are told, lived in the reign of ten sovereigns. He married his 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.
Parricide (The Beautiful), Beatrice Cenci, who is said to have murdered her father for the incestuous brutality with which he had treated her (died 1599).