Shakespeare, 1 _Henry VI._ act iii. sc. 2 (1589)[TN-80]

=Penel'ope's Web=, a work that never progresses. Penelop[^e], the wife of
Ulysses, being importuned by several suitors during her husband's long
absence, made reply that she could not marry again, even if Ulysses were
dead, till she had finished weaving a shroud for her aged father-in-law.
Every night she pulled out what she had woven during the day, and thus
the shroud made no progress towards completion.--_Greek Mythology._

The French say of a work "never ending, still beginning," _c'est
l'ouvrage de P['e]n['e]lope_.

=Penelope Lapham=, vivacious, but not pretty daughter of Silas Lapham. Her
wit wins the love her sister's beauty could not capture. Penelope's
unintentional conquest brings painful perplexity to herself, with
anguish to her sister. Still she yields finally to Irene's magnanimity
and her suitor's persuasions, and weds Tom Corey.--W. D. Howells, _The
Rise of Silas Lapham_ (1887).

=Penel'ophon=, the beggar loved by King Cophetua. Shakespeare calls the
name Zenelophon in _Love's Labor's Lost_, act iv. sc. 1 (1594).--Percy,
_Reliques_, I. ii. 6 (1765).

=Penelva= (_The Exploits and Adventures of_), part of the series called
_Le Roman des Romans_, pertaining to "Am'adis of Gaul." This part was
added by an anonymous Portuguese (fifteenth century).

=Penfeather= (_Lady Penelope_), the Lady Patroness at the Spa.--Sir W.
Scott, _St. Ronan's Well_ (time, George III.).

=Pengwern= (_The Torch of_), prince Gwenwyn of Powys-land.--Sir W. Scott,
_The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

=Pengwinion= (_Mr._), from Cornwall; a Jacobite conspirator with Mr.
Redgauntlet.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

=Peninsular War= (_The_), the war carried on by Sir Arthur Wellesley
against Napoleon in Portugal and Spain (1808-1814).

Southey wrote a _History of the Peninsular War_ (1822-32).

=Penitents of Love= (_Fraternity of the_), an institution established in
Languedoc, in the thirteenth century, consisting of knights and
esquires, dames and damsels, whose object was to prove the excess of
their love by bearing, with invincible constancy, the extremes of heat
and cold. They passed the greater part of the day abroad, wandering
about from castle to castle, wherever they were summoned by the
inviolable duties of love and gallantry; so that many of these devotees
perished by the inclemency of the weather, and received the crown o