Pericles, the Athenian who raised himself to royal supremacy (died B.C. 429). On his death-bed he overheard his friends recalling his various merits, and told them they had forgotten his greatest praise, viz., that no Athenian through his administration had had to put on mourning, i.e. he had caused no one to be put to death.
Perī´cles was a famous man of warre ...
Yet at his death he rather did rejoice
In clemencie.... “Be still,” quoth he, “you grave Athenians”
(Who whisperèd and told his valiant acts);
“You have forgot my greatest glorie got:
For yet by me nor mine occasion
Was never sene a mourning garment worn.”
G. Gascoigne, The Steele Glas (died 1577).
Per´icles, prince of Tyre, a voluntary exile, in order to avert the calamities which Anti´ochus, emperor of Greece, vowed against the Tyrians. Pericles, in his wanderings, first came to Tarsus, which he relieved from famine, but was obliged to quit the city to avoid the persecution of Antiochus. He was then shipwrecked, and cast on the shore of Pentap´olis, where he distinguished himself in the public games, and being introduced to the king, fell in love with the Princess Thaïs´a, and married her. At the death of Antiochus, he returned to Tyre; but his wife, supposed to be dead in giving birth to a daughter (Marina), was thrown into the sea. Periclês entrusted his infant child to Cleon (governor of Tarsus), and his wife, Dionysia, who brought her up excellently well till she became a young woman, when Dionysia employed a man to murder her; and when Periclês came to see her, he was shown a splendid sepulchre which had been raised to her honor. On his return home, the ship stopped at Metalinê, and Marina was introduced to Periclês to divert his melancholy. She told him the tale of her life, and he discovered that she was his daughter. Marina was now betrothed to Lysim´achus, governor of Metalinê; and the party, going to the shrine of Diana of Ephesus to return thanks to the goddess, discovered the priestess to be Thaïsa, the wife of Periclês, and mother of Marina.—Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1608).
*** This is the story of Ismene and Ismenias by Eustathius. The tale was known to Gower by the translation of Godfrey Viterbo.
Perigort (Cardinal). Previous to the battle of Poitiers, he endeavors to negotiate terms with the French king, but the only terms he can obtain, he tells Prince Edward, are:
That to the castles, towns, and plunder ta’en,
And offered now by you to be restored,
Your royal person with a hundred knights
Are to be added prisoners at discretion.
Shirley, Edward the Black Prince, iv. 2 (1640).
Peri´got (the t pronounced, so as to rhyme with not), a shepherd in love with Am´oret; but the shepherdess Amaryllis also loves him, and, by the aid of the Sullen Shepherd, gets transformed into the exact likeness of the modest Amoret. By her wanton conduct she disgusts Perigot, who casts her off; and by and by, meeting Amoret, whom he believes to be the same person, rejects her with scorn, and even wounds her with intent to kill. Ultimately the truth is discovered by Clor´in, “the faithful shepherdess,” and the lovers, being reconciled, are married to each other.—John Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess (1610).
Periklym´enos, son of Neleus (2 syl.). He had the power of changing his form into a bird, beast, reptile, or insect. As a bee, he perched on the chariot of Heraklês (Herculês), and was killed.
Peril´los, of Athens, made a brazen bull for Phal´aris, tyrant of Agrigentum, intended for the execution of criminals. They were to be shut up in the bull, and the metal of the bull was to be made red hot. The cries of the victims inside were so reverberated as to resemble the roarings of a gigantic bull. Phalaris made the first experiment by shutting up the inventor himself in his own bull.
What’s a protector?
A tragic actor, Cæsar in a clown;
He’s a brass farthing stamped with a crown;
A bladder blown with other breaths puffed full;
Not a Perillus, but a Perillus’ bull.
John Cleveland, A Definition of a Protector (died 1650).