riage 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 "Bardell _v._ Pickwick" for the breach of promise.--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['e]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.--Moli[`e]re, _Tartuffe_ (1664).

=Peronella=, a pretty country lass, who changes places with an old
decrepit queen. Peronella rejoices for a time in the idolatry paid to
her rank, but gladly resumes her beauty, youth, and rags.--_A Fairy
Tale._

=Perrette and her Milk-Pail.= Perrette, carrying her milk-pail well-poised
upon her head, began to speculate on its value. She would sell the milk
and buy eggs; she would set the eggs and rear chickens; the chickens she
would sell and buy a pig; this she would fatten and change for a cow and
calf, and would it not be delightful to see the little calf skip and
play? So saying, she gave a skip, let the milk-pail fall, and all the
milk ran to waste. "Le lait tombe. Adieu, veau, vache, cochon, couv['e]e,"
and poor Perrette "va s'excuser [`a] son mari, en grand danger d'etre
battue."

Quel esprit ne bat la campagne?
Qui ne fait ch[^a]teau en Espagne?
Picrochole [_q.v._], Pyrrhus, la laiti[`e]re, enfin tous,
Autant les sages que les fous....
Quelque accident fait-il que je rentre en moi-m[^e]me;
Je suis Gros-Jean comme devant.

Lafontaine, _Fables_ ("La Laiti[`e]re et le Po tau[TN-85] Lait,"
1668).

(Dodsley has this fable, and makes his milkmaid speculate on the gown
she would buy with her money. It should be green, and all the young
fellows would ask her to dance, but she would toss her head at them
all--but ah! in tossing her head, she tossed over her milk-pail.)

[Asterism] Echephron, an old soldier, related this fable to the advisers
of King Picrochole, when they persuaded the king to go to war: A
shoemaker bought a ha'p'orth of milk; this he intended to mak