.

=Poor= (_Father of the_), Bernard Gilpin. (1517-1583).

=Poor Gentleman= (_The_), a comedy by George Colman, the younger (1802).
"The poor gentleman" is Lieutenant Worthington, discharged from the army
on half-pay because his arm had been crushed by a shell in storming
Gibraltar. On his half-pay he had to support himself, his daughter
Emily, an old corporal and a maiden sister-in-law. Having put his name
to a bill for [pounds]500, his friend died without effecting an
insurance, and the lieutenant was called upon for payment. Imprisonment
would have followed if Sir Robert Bramble had not most generously paid
the money. With this piece of good fortune came another--the marriage of
his daughter Emily to Frederick Bramble, nephew and heir of the rich
baronet.

=Poor Richard=, the pseudonym of Benjamin Franklin, under which he issued
a series of almanacs, which he made the medium of teaching thrift,
temperance, order, cleanliness, chastity, forgiveness, and so on. The
maxims or precepts of these almanacs generally end with the words, "as
poor Richard says" (begun in 1732).

=Poor Robin=, the pseudonym of Robert Herrick, the poet, under which he
issued a series of almanacs (begun in 1661).

=Pope= (_to drink like a_). Benedict XII. was an enormous eater, and such
a huge wine-drinker that he gave rise to the Bacchanalian expression,
_Bib[=a]mus papaliter_.

=Pope Changing His Name.= Peter Hogsmouth, or, as he is sometimes called,
Peter di Porca, was the first pope to change his name. He called
himself Sergius II. (844-847). Some say he thought it arrogant to be
called Peter II.

=Pope-Fig-Lands=, Protestant countries. The Gaillardets, being shown the
pope's image, said, "A fig for the pope!" whereupon their whole island
was put to the sword, and the name changed to Pope-fig-land, the people
being called "Pope-figs."--Rabelais, _Pantag'ruel_, iv. 45 (1545).

The allusion is to the kingdom of Navarre, once Protestant; but in 1512
it was subjected to Ferdinand, the Catholic.

=Pope-Figs=, Protestants. The name was given to the Gaillardets for saying
"A fig for the pope!"

They were made tributaries and slaves to the Papimans for saying "A
fig for the pope's image!" and never after did the poor wretches
prosper, but every year the devil was at their doors, and they were
plagued with hail, storms, famine, and all manner of woes, in
punishment of this sin of their forefathers.-