but St. Patrick overcame it by
cunning. He made a box, and invited the serpent to enter in. The serpent
insisted it was too small; and so high the contention grew that the
serpent got into the box to prove that he was right, whereupon St.
Patrick slammed down the lid, and cast the box into the sea.

This tradition is marvellously like an incident of the _Arabian Nights'
Entertainments_. A fisherman had drawn up a box or vase in his net, and
on breaking it open a genius issued therefrom, and threatened the
fisherman with immediate destruction because he had been enclosed so
long. Said the fisherman to the genius, "I wish to know whether you
really were in that vase." "I certainly was," said the genius. "I cannot
believe it," replied the fisherman, "for the vase could not contain even
one of your feet." Then the genius, to prove his assertion, changed into
smoke, and entered into the vase, saying, "Now, incredulous fisherman,
dost thou believe me?" But the fisherman clapped the leaden cover on the
vase, and told the genius that he was about to throw the box into the
sea, and that he would build a house on the spot to warn others not to
fish up so wicked a genius.--_Arabian Nights_ ("The Fisherman," one of
the early tales).

[Asterism] St. Patrick, I fear, had read the _Arabian Nights_, and
stole a leaf from the fisherman's book.

_St. Patrick a Gentleman._

Oh, St. Patrick was a gentleman,
Who came of dacent people ...

This song was written by Messrs. Bennet and Toleken, of Cork, and was
first sung by them at a masquerade in 1814. It was afterwards lengthened
for Webbe, the comedian, who made it popular.

=Patriot King= (_The_), Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751).
He hired Mallet to traduce Pope after his decease, because the poet
refused to give up certain copies of a work which the statesman wished
to have destroyed.

Write as if St. John's soul could still inspire,
And do from hate what Mallet did for hire.

Byron, _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_ (1809).

=Patriot of Humanity.= So Byron calls Henry Grattan (1750-1820).--_Don
Juan_ (preface to canto vi., etc..[TN-71] 1824).

=Patron= (_The_), a farce by S. Foote (1764). The patron is Sir Thomas
Lofty, called by his friends, "sharp-judging Adriel, the Muse's friend,
himself a Muse," but by those who loved him less, "the modern Midas."
Books without number were dedicated to him, and the writers addressed
him as t