Protracted to a vexatious length
Proud schemes for aggrandizement
Provocative of bitter hostility
Pruned of their excrescences and grotesque extremes [excrescences = abnormal growth, such as a wart]
Purged of glaringly offensive features
Pursued to a vicious extent
Q
Questioned and tested in the crucible of experience
Quickened into a stabbing suspicion
Quickness to conceive and courage to execute