PERILOUS CASTLE 
 
 
on, any one who dared to take possession 
of it. Sir W. Scott calls it "Castle Dan- 
gerous" in his novel so entitled. 
   ** In the story of Gareth and Linet, 
 the castle in which Lion~s was held pris- 
 oner by Sir Ironside, the Red Knight of 
 the Red Lands, was called Castle Perilous. 
 The passages to the castle were held by 
 four knights, all of whom Sir Gareth over- 
 threw; lastly he conquered Sir Ironside, 
 liberated the lady, and married her.-Sir 
 T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 
 120-153 (1470). 
 
   Perimo'nes (Sir), the Red Knight, one 
of the four brothers who kept the pas- 
sages to Castle Perilous. He was over- 
thrown by Sir Gareth. Tennyson calls 
him "Noonday Sun" or "Meridies."-Sir 
T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 129 
(1470); Tennyson, Idylls (" Gareth and 
Lynette "). 
 
  Per'ion, king of Gaul, father of Am'- 
adis of Gaul. His "exploits and adven- 
tures" form part of the series called Le 
Roman des Romans. This part was added 
by Juan Diaz (fifteenth century). 
  ** It is generally thought that "Gaul" 
in this romance is the same as Galis, that 
is " Wales." 
 
  Perissa, the personification of extrava- 
gance, step-sister of Elissa (meanness) 
and of Medi'na (the golden mean); but 
they never agreed in any single thing. 
Perissa's suitor is Sir Huddibras, a man 
"more huge in strength than wise in 
works." (Greek, perissos, "extravagant," 
perissotds, "excess.").-Spenser, Faery 
Queen, ii. 2 (1590). 
 
  Per'iwinkle (Mr.), one of the four 
guardians of Anne Lovely, the heiress. 
He is a silly, half-witted virtuoso, posi- 
 
 
tive and surly; fond of everything an- 
tique and foreign; and wears clothes of 
the last century. Mr. Periwinkle dotes 
upon travellers, and believes more of Sir 
John Mandeville than he does of the Bible. 
Colonel Feignwell, to obtain his consent 
to his marriage with Mr. Periwinkle's 
ward, disguised himself as an Egyptian, 
and passed himself off as a great traveller. 
His dress, he said, "belonged to the famous 
Claudius Ptolem~us, who lived in the 
year 135." One of his curiosities was 
poluflosboio, "part of those waves which 
bore Cleopatra's vessel, when she went to 
meet Antony."   Another was the moros 
musphonon, or girdle of invisibility. His 
trick, however, miscarried, and he then 
personated Pillage, the steward of Peri- 
winkle's father, and obtained Periwinkle's 
signature to the marriage by a fluke.- 
Mrs. Centlivre, A Bold Stroke For a Wife 
(1717). 
 
  Perker (Mr.), the lawyer employed 
for the defence in the famous suit of "Bar- 
dell v. Pickwick" for the breach of prom- 
ise.-C. Dickens, The Pickwick Papers 
(1836). 
 
  Perkin Warbeck, an historic play or 
"chronicle history," by John Ford (1635). 
 
  Perley Kelso. A     woman with    "a 
weakness for an occupation, who suffers 
passions of superfluous life. At the Cape 
she rebelled because Providence did not 
create her a bluefisher. In Paris, she 
would make muslin flowers, and learn the 
m.tier to-morrow." - Elizabeth   Stuart 
Phelps, The Silent Partner (1871). 
 
  Pernelle (Madame), mother of Orgon; 
a regular vixen, who interrupts every one, 
without waiting to hear what was to have 
been said to her.-Moliýre, Tartuffe (1664). 
                                   [If 
 
 
189 
 
 
PERNELLE