On lui attribue, mais à tort, la farce de L’Avocat Patelin, qui est plus ancienne que lui.—Bouillet, Dictionary Universel d’Histoire, etc., art. “Blanchet.”
Consider, sir, I pray you, how the noble Patelin, having a mind to extol to the third heavens, the father of William Josseaume, said no more than this: he did lend his goods freely to those who were desirous of them.—Rabelais, Pantagruel, iii. 4 (1545).
Pater Patrum. St. Gregory, of Nyssa is so called by the council of Nice (332-395).
Paterson (Pate), serving-boy to Bryce Snailsfoot, the pedlar.—Sir W. Scott, The Pirate (time, William III.).
Pathfinder (The), Natty Bumpo; also called “The Deerslayer” “The Hawk-eye,” and “The Trapper.”—Fenimore Cooper, (five novels called The Pathfinder, The Pioneers, The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, and The Prairie).
Pathfinder of the Rocky Mountains. (The), Major-General John Charles Fremont, who conducted four exploring expeditions across the Rocky Mountains in 1842.
Patient Griselda or Grisildis, the wife of Wautier, marquis of Salucês. Boccaccio says she was a poor country lass, who became the wife of Gualtiere, marquis of Saluzzo. She was robbed of her children by her husband, reduced to abject poverty, divorced, and commanded to assist in the marriage of her husband with another woman; but she bore every affront patiently, and without complaint.—Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (“The Clerk’s Tale,” 1388); Boccaccio, Decameron, x. 10 (1352).
Patience Strong. Delightful old maid, who, after passing most of her life in a quiet New England township, goes abroad and tells her experiences in Sights and Insights.—A. D. T. Whitney (1860).
She is also the central figure in a quiet story of domestic life, entitled Patience Strong’s Outings (1858).
Patin, brother of the emperor of Rome. He fights with Am´adis of Gaul, and has his horse killed under him.—Vasco de Lobeira, Amadis de Gaul (thirteenth century).