Peterborough, in Northamptonshire; so called from Peada (son of Pendar, king of Mercia), who founded here a monastery in the seventh century. In 1541 the monastery (then a mitred abbey) was converted by Henry VIII. into a cathedral and bishop’s see. Before Peada’s time, Peterborough was a village called Medhamsted.—See Drayton, Polyolbion, xxiii. (1622).
Peters (Dr.), benevolent, eccentric physician, who is a sympathetic fellow-sinner to the most depraved of his patients, going through it all “with a grimly humorous hope that some good, in some unseen direction, may come of it.” The waif, Midge, committed by fate to his guardianship, steals his heart, and finally wrings it to bleeding by marrying another man.—H. C. Bunner, The Midge (1886).
Peterson, a Swede, who deserts from Gustavus Vasa to Christian II., king of Denmark.—H. Brooke, Gustavus Vasa (1730).
Petit André, executioner.—Sir W. Scott, Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).
Petit Perroquet, a king’s gardener, with whom the king’s daughter fell in love. It so happened that a prince was courting the lady, and, being jealous of Petit Perroquet, said to the king that the young man boasted he could bring hither Tartaro’s horse. Now Tartaro was a huge giant and a cannibal. Petit Perroquet, however, made himself master of the horse. The prince next told the king that the young gardener boasted he could get possession of the giant’s diamond. This he also contrived to make himself master of. The prince then told the king that the young man boasted he could bring hither the giant himself; and the way he accomplished the feat was to cover himself first, with honey, and then with feathers and horns. Thus disguised, he told the giant, to get into the coach he was driving, and he drove him to the king’s court, and then married the princess.—Rev. W. Webster, Basque Legends (1877).
Pe´to, lieutenant of “Captain” Sir John Falstaff’s regiment. Pistol was his ensign or ancient, and Bardolph his corporal.—Shakespeare, 1 and 2 Henry IV. (1597-8).
Petow´ker (Miss Henrietta), of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. She marries Mr. Lillyvick, the collector of water-rates, but elopes with an officer.—C. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby (1838).
Petrarch (The English). Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) is so called by Sir Walter Raleigh.
Petrarch and Laura. Laura was a lady of Avignon, the wife of Hugues de Sade, née Laura de Noves, the mistress of the poet Petrarch. (See Laura and Petrarch.)
Petrarch of Spain, Garcilaso de la Vega, born at Toledo (1530-1568, or, according to others, 1503-1536).