Peggotty (peg´o-ti), Clara.—The nurse of David Copperfield in Dickens’ novel of this name. Being very plump, whenever she makes any exertion some of the buttons on the back of her dress fly off.
Peggotty, Dan’l.—Brother of David Copperfield’s nurse. Dan’l was a Yarmouth fisherman. His nephew, Ham Peggotty, and his brother-in-law’s child, “little Em’ly,” lived with him.
Peggotty, Em’ly.—She was engaged to Ham Peggotty; but being fascinated with Steerforth she eloped. She was afterward reclaimed, and emigrated to Australia.
Peggotty, Ham.—Represented as the very beau ideal of an uneducated, simple-minded, honest, and warm-hearted fisherman. He was drowned in his attempt to rescue Steerforth from the sea.
Pendennis (pen-den´is), The History of.—By William Makepeace Thackeray. The hero, Arthur Pendennis, reappears in the author’s Adventures of Philip, and is represented as telling the story of The Newcomes.
Pendennis.—Name of the hero of a novel by Thackeray, published in 1849 and 1850, the immediate successor of Vanity Fair. Literary life is described in the history of Pen, a hero of no very great worth.
Pendennis, Laura.—Sister of Arthur, considered one of the best of Thackeray’s characters.
Pendennis, Major.—A tuft-hunter, who fawns on his patrons for the sake of wedging himself into their society.
Penseroso (pen-se-rō´sō), Il.—A poem by John Milton, written as a companion to L’Allegro. The latter is composed in the character of a cheerful, the former in that of a melancholy man, and the whole tone of each poem is regulated accordingly. The one begins with the dawn, the other with evening. The one opens with the lark, the other with the nightingale, and so on.
Pepys’ (pēps, or pips, or pep´is) Diary.—A book by Samuel Pepys, written in shorthand, and deciphered and published in 1825. It extends over the nine years from 1660 to 1669, and is the gossipy chronicle of that gay and profligate time. We have no other book which gives so lifelike a picture of that extraordinary state of society.