Pierre du Coignet or Coignères, an advocate-general in the reign of Philippe de Valois, who stoutly opposed the encroachments of the Church. The monks, in revenge, nicknamed those grotesque figures in stone (called “gargoyles”), pierres du coignet. At Notre Dame de Paris there were at one time gargoyles used for extinguishing torches, and the smoke added not a little to their ugliness.
You may associate them with Master Pierre du Coignet, ... which perform the office of extinguishers.—Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel (1533-45).
Pierrot [Pe´-er-ro], a character in French pantomime, representing a man in stature and a child in mind. He is generally the tallest and thinnest man in the company, and appears with his face and hair thickly covered with flour. He wears a white gown, with very long sleeves, and a row of big buttons down the front. The word means “Little Peter.”
Piers and Palinode, two shepherds in Spenser’s fifth eclogue, representing the Protestant and the Catholic priest.
Piers or Percy again appears in ecl. x. with Cuddy, a poetic shepherd. This noble eclogue has for its subject “poetry.” Cuddy complains that poetry has no patronage or encouragement, although it comes by inspiration. He says no one would be so qualified as Colin to sing divine poetry, if his mind were not so depressed by disappointed love.—Spenser, The Shepheardes Calendar (1579).
Pie´tro (2 syl.), the putative father of Pompilia. This paternity was a fraud to oust the heirs of certain property which would otherwise fall to them.—R. Browning, The Ring and the Book, ii. 580.
Pig. Phædrus tells a tale of a popular actor who imitated the squeak of a pig. A peasant said to the audience that he would himself next night challenge and beat the actor. When the night arrived, the audience unanimously gave judgment in favor of the actor, saying that his squeak was by far the better imitation; but the peasant presented to them a real pig, and said, “Behold, what excellent judges are ye!”
Pigal (Mons. de), the dancing-master who teaches Alice Bridgenorth.—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).
Pigeon and Dove (The). Prince Constantio was changed into a pigeon, and the Princess Constantia into a dove, because they loved, but were always crossed in love. Constantio found that Constantia was sold by his mother for a slave, and in order to follow her, he was converted into a pigeon. Constantia was seized by a giant, and in order to escape him was changed into a dove. Cupid then took them to Paphos, and they became “examples of a tender and sincere passion; and ever since have been the emblems of love and constancy.”—Comtesse D’Aunoy, Fairy Tales (“The Pigeon and Dove,” 1682).
Pigmy, a dwarf. (See [Pygmy].)