Phyllis (fil´is).—In Vergil’s Eclogues, the name of a rustic maiden. This name, also written Phillis, has been in common use as meaning any unsophisticated country girl.
Pickwick (pik´wik), Mr. Samuel.—The hero of the Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens. He is a simple-minded, benevolent old gentleman, who wears spectacles and short black gaiters. He founds a club, and travels with its members over England, each member being under his guardianship. They meet many laughable adventures.
Pied Piper of Hameln (hä´meln).—Old German legend. Robert Browning, in his poem entitled The Pied Piper, has given a metrical version. The legend recounts how a certain musician came into the town of Hameln, in the country of Brunswick, and offered, for a sum of money, to rid the town of the rats by which it was infested. Having executed his task, and the promised reward having been withheld, he in revenge blew again his pipe, and by its tones drew the children of the town to a cavern in the side of a hill, which, upon their entrance, closed and shut them in forever.
Piers Plowman (pērs plou´man).—A satirical poem of the fourteenth century. The hero falls asleep, like John Bunyan, on the Malvern hills, and has different visions, which he describes, and in which he exposes the corruptions of society, the dissoluteness of the clergy, and the allurements to sin. The author is supposed to be Robert or William Langland. No other writings so faithfully reflect the popular feeling during the great social and religious movements of that century as the bitterly satirical poem. The Vision of Piers Plowman. In its allegory, the discontent of the commons with the course of affairs in church and state found a voice.
Pietro.—The Ring and the Book, Browning. The professed father of Pompilia, criminally assumed as his child to prevent certain property from passing to an heir not his own.
Pilgrim’s Progress.—A celebrated allegory by Bunyan. It recounts the adventures of the hero, Christian, from his conversion to his death. He wanders from the way to Doubting Castle, and is held there by Giant Despair. His sins are a pack; his Bible is a chart, his minister Evangelist, his conversion a flight from the City of Destruction, his struggle with besetting sins a fight with Apollyon, his death a toilsome passage over a deep stream which flows between him and heaven.
Pilot, The.—Title of a sea-story by Cooper, which was called the “first sea-novel of the English language.” It was published in the year 1823, and soon translated into Italian, German, and French. It is founded on the adventures of John Paul Jones.
Pinch, Tom.—A character in Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit, distinguished by his guilelessness, his oddity, and his exhaustless goodness of heart.
Pippa (pēp´pä) Passes.—A drama, Italian in scene and character, by Robert Browning. “It is,” says Stedman, “a cluster of four scenes, with prologue, epilogue, and interludes, half prose, half poetry, varying with the refinement of the dialogue. Pippa is a delicately pure, good, blithesome peasant maid. It is New Year’s Day at Ardo. She springs from bed at sunrise, resolved to enjoy to the full her sole holiday. Others may be happy throughout the year; haughty Ottima and Sebald, the lovers on the hill; Jules and Phene, the artist and his bride; Luigi and his mother; Monsignor, the bishop; but Pippa has only this one day to enjoy. Now, it so happens that she passes, this day, each of the groups or persons we have named, at an important crisis in their lives, and they hear her various carols as she trills them forth in the innocent gladness of her heart. Pippa Passes is a work of pure art, and has a wealth of original fancy and romance, apart from its wisdom.” It appeared in 1842.
Pistol (pis´tol).—A follower of Falstaff, in Shakespeare’s comedy of The Merry Wives of Windsor, and in the second part of King Henry IV. “A roguing beggar, a cantler, an upright man that liveth by cozenage.”