inet in his
diocese, a serf in his home.

_Proudie_ (_Mrs._), strong-willed, strong-voiced help-mate of the
bishop. She lays down social, moral, religious and ecclesiastical laws
with equal readiness and severity.--Anthony Trollope, _Framley
Parsonage_ and _Barchester Towers_.

=Prout= (_Father_), the pseudonym of Francis Mahoney, a humorous writer in
_Fraser's Magazine_, etc. (1805-1866).

=Provis=, the name assumed by Abel Magwitch, Pip's benefactor. He was a
convict, who had made a fortune, and whose chief desire was to make his
proteg['e][TN-108] a gentleman.--C. Dickens, _Great Expectations_ (1860).

=Provoked Husband= (_The_), a comedy by Cibber and Vanbrugh. The "provoked
husband" is Lord Townly, justly annoyed at the conduct of his young
wife, who wholly neglects her husband and her home duties for a life of
gambling and dissipation. The husband seeing no hope of amendment,
resolves on a separate maintenance; but then the lady's eyes are
opened--she promises amendment, and is forgiven[TN-109]

[Asterism] This comedy was Vanbrugh's _Journey to London_, left
unfinished at his death. Cibber took it, completed it, and brought it
out under the title of _The Provoked Husband_ (1728).

=Provoked Wife= (_The_), Lady Brute, the wife of Sir John Brute, is, by
his ill manners, brutality, and neglect, "provoked" to intrigue with one
Constant. The intrigue is not of a very serious nature, since it is
always interrupted before it makes head. At the conclusion, Sir John
says:

Surly, I may be stubborn, I am not,
For I have both forgiven and forgot.

Sir J. Vanbrugh (1697).

=Provost of Bruges= (_The_), a tragedy based on "The Serf," in Leitch
Ritchie's _Romance of History_. Published anonymously in 1836; the
author is S. Knowles. The plot is this: Charles "the Good," earl of
Flanders, made a law that a serf is always a serf till manumitted, and
whoever marries a serf, becomes thereby a serf. Thus, if a prince
married the daughter of a serf, the prince becomes a serf himself, and
all his children were serfs. Bertulphe, the richest, wisest, and bravest
man in Flanders, was provost of Bruges. His beautiful daughter,
Constance, married Sir Bouchard, a knight of noble descent; but
Bertulphe's father had been Thancmar's serf, and, according to the new
law, Bertulphe, the provost, his daughter, Constance, and the knightly
son-in-law were all the serfs of Thancmar. The provost killed the earl,
and sta