Perilous Castle. The castle of Lord Douglas was so called in the reign of Edward I., because the good Lord Douglas destroyed several English garrisons stationed there, and vowed to be revenged on any one who dared to take possession of it. Sir W. Scott calls it “Castle Dangerous” in his novel so entitled.
*** In the story of Gareth and Linet, the castle in which Lionês was held prisoner by Sir Ironside, the Red Knight of the Red Lands, was called Castle Perilous. The passages to the castle were held by four knights, all of whom Sir Gareth overthrew; lastly he conquered Sir Ironside, liberated the lady, and married her.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 120-153 (1470).
Perimo´nes (Sir), the Red Knight, one of the four brothers who kept the passages to Castle Perilous. He was overthrown by Sir Gareth. Tennyson calls him “Noonday Sun” or “Meridies.”—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 129 (1470); Tennyson, Idylls (“Gareth and Lynette”).
Per´ion, king of Gaul, father of Am´adis of Gaul. His “exploits and adventures” form part of the series called Le Roman des Romans. This part was added by Juan Diaz (fifteenth century).
*** It is generally thought that “Gaul” in this romance is the same as Galis, that is “Wales.”
Perissa, the personification of extravagance, step-sister of Elissa (meanness) and of Medi´na (the golden mean); but they never agreed in any single thing. Perissa’s suitor is Sir Huddibras, a man “more huge in strength than wise in works.” (Greek, perissos, “extravagant,” perissotês, “excess.”).—Spenser, Faëry Queen, ii. 2 (1590).
Per´iwinkle (Mr.), one of the four guardians of Anne Lovely, the heiress. He is a silly, half-witted virtuoso, positive and surly; fond of everything antique and foreign; and wears clothes of the last century. Mr. Periwinkle dotes upon travellers, and believes more of Sir John Mandeville than he does of the Bible. Colonel Feignwell, to obtain his consent to his marriage with Mr. Periwinkle’s ward, disguised himself as an Egyptian, and passed himself off as a great traveller. His dress, he said, “belonged to the famous Claudius Ptolemēus, who lived in the year 135.” One of his curiosities was poluflosboio, “part of those waves which bore Cleopatra’s vessel, when she went to meet Antony.” Another was the moros musphonon, or girdle of invisibility. His trick, however, miscarried, and he then personated Pillage, the steward of Periwinkle’s father, and obtained Periwinkle’s signature to the marriage by a fluke.—Mrs. Centlivre, A Bold Stroke For a Wife (1717).
Perker (Mr.), the lawyer employed for the defence in the famous suit of “Bardell v. Pickwick” for the breach of promise.—C. Dickens, The Pickwick Papers (1836).
Perkin Warbeck, an historic play or “chronicle history,” by John Ford (1635).
Perley Kelso. A woman with “a weakness for an occupation, who suffers passions of superfluous life. At the Cape she rebelled because Providence did not create her a bluefisher. In Paris, she would make muslin flowers, and learn the métier to-morrow.”—Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, The Silent Partner (1871).