Then there was Pilumnus, who was the first to make cheese, and became the god of bakers.—Ouida, Ariadnê, i. 40.
Pinabello, son of Anselmo (king of Maganza). Marphi´sa overthrew him, and told him he could not wipe out the disgrace till he had unhorsed a thousand dames and a thousand knights. Pinabello was slain by Brad´amant.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).
Pinac, the lively, spirited fellow-traveller of Mirabel, “the wild goose.” He is in love with the sprightly Lillia-Bianca, a daughter of Nantolet.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Wild Goose Chase (1652).
Pinch, a schoolmaster and conjuror, who tries to exorcise Antiph´olus (act iv. sc. 4).—Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors (1593).
Pinch (Tom), clerk to Mr. Pecksniff “architect and land surveyor.” Simple as a child, green as a salad, and honest as truth itself. Very fond of story-books, but far more so of the organ. It was the seventh heaven to him to pull out the stops for the organist’s assistant at Salisbury Cathedral; but when allowed, after service, to finger the notes himself, he lived in a dreamland of unmitigated happiness. Being dismissed from Pecksniff’s office, Tom was appointed librarian to the Temple Library, and his new catalogue was a perfect model of workmanship.
Ruth Pinch, a true-hearted, pretty girl, who adores her brother, Tom, and is the sunshine of his existence. She marries John Westlock.—C. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).
Pinchbeck. Sham doctor and matrimonial agent in John Brougham’s play, Playing With Fire.
Pinchbeck (Lady), with whom Don Juan placed Leila to be brought up.
Olden she was—but had been very young;
Virtuous she was—and had been, I believe ...
She merely now was amiable and witty.
Byron, Don Juan, xii. 43, 47 (1824).
Pinchwife (Mr.), the town husband of a raw country girl, wholly unpractised in the ways of the world, and whom he watches with ceaseless anxiety.