antonments; silk,
cotton, and jewellery are manufactured; it was the capital of the
Mahrattas, and was annexed by Britain in 1818.

POOR RICHARD, the name assumed by FRANKLIN (q. v.) in his
almanacs.

POPE (i. e. Papa), a title originally given to all bishops of the
Church, and eventually appropriated by Leo the Great, the bishop of Rome,
as the supreme pontiff in 449, a claim which in 1054 created the Great
Schism, and which asserted itself territorially as well as spiritually,
till now at length the Pope has been compelled to resign all territorial
power. The present Pope, Pius X., is the successor of 258 who occupied
before him the Chair of St. Peter.

POPE, ALEXANDER, eminent English poet, born in London, of Roman
Catholic parents; was a sickly child, and marred by deformity, and
imperfectly educated; began to write verse at 12 in which he afterwards
became such a master; his "Pastorals" appeared in 1709, "Essay on
Criticism" in 1711, and "Rape of the Lock" in 1712, in the production of
which he was brought into relationship with the leading literary men of
the time, and in particular Swift, between whom and him a lifelong
friendship was formed; in 1715-20 appeared his translation of the
"Iliad," and in 1723-25 that of the "Odyssey," for which two works, it is
believed, he received some L9000; afterwards, in 1728, appeared the
"Dunciad," a scathing satire of all the small fry of poets and critics
that had annoyed him, and in 1732 appeared the first part of the famous
"Essay on Man"; he was a vain man, far from amiable, and sometimes
vindictive to a degree, though he was capable of warm attachments, and
many of his faults were due to a not unnatural sensitiveness as a
deformed man; but as a poet he is entitled to the homage which Professor
Saintsbury pays when he characterises him as "one of the greatest masters
of poetic form that the world has ever seen" (1688-1744).

POPISH PLOT, an imaginary plot devised by TITUS OATES (q. v.)
on the part of the Roman Catholics in Charles II.'s reign; in the
alleged connection a number of innocent people lost their lives.

PORCH, THE, the name given to the school of ZENO (q. v.),
so called from the Arcade in Athens, in which he taught his philosophy, a
"many-coloured portico," as decorated with the paintings of
POLYGNOTUS (q. v.).

PORCUPINE, PETER, a pseudonym assumed by WILLIAM COBBETT (q. v.).

PORPHYRY, a Neo-Platonic philosopher of Alexandria, born at T