Palanquin

“ We three approached, together, the side of the palanquin, at which the black-bearded magician stood.
A young man, in a Spanish dress, who, with a friend at his side, had just conferred with the conjuror, was saying, as he passed us by:
"Ingenious mystification! Who is that in the palanquin. He seems to know everybody."
The Count, in his mask and domino, moved along, stiffly, with us, toward the palanquin. A clear circle was maintained by the Chinese attendants, and the spectators crowded round in a ring. ”

“ It is a blue palanquin, carried on the back of two men. They walk along quickly, with bare feet, and trousers turned up over the knees. Instead of wearing a transparent head-gear, like the rest of the people, these chair-bearers have round felt hats. In front walks a Maggiordomo, and following the palanquin are a few retainers. Heading the procession are two men, who, with rude manners, push away the people, and shout out at the top of their voices:
"Era, Era, Era; Picassa, Picassa!" ("Out of the way; get out, get away!") ”

“ Plassy Plain, a ballad by Sir W. Jones;
in Life and Works, ed. 1807, ii. 503.
1804.—"Give orders that a palanquin may be made for me; let it be very light, with the pannels made of canvas instead of wood, and the poles fixed as for a dooley. Your Bengally palanquins are so heavy that they cannot be used out of Calcutta."—Wellington (to Major Shaw) , June 20.
The following measures a change in ideas. A palankin is now hardly ever used by a European, even of humble position, much less by the opulent:
1808.—"Palkee. A litter well known in India, called by the English Palankeen. ”

“ Each horse has two servants, one to take care of it, and the other to cut grass: even the dog has a boy to look after it alone. The servants do not live in their master's house, but in small huts near. The place where they live is called "the compound."
When English people travel they do not go in carriages, but in palanquins. A palanquin is like a child's cot, only larger; and there a traveller can sleep at his ease. ”

“ The palanquin with mules is the most disagreeable vehicle I have ever travelled in: in the first place the greatest care is necessary to keep yourself quite in the middle, inasmuch as the least movement on the one side or the other disturbs at once the adjustment of the harness. In the second place the two mules do not step together or move in harmony, and consequently there is a continual pitching and jolting in every direction, producing as much sickness and distressing fatigue as the movement of the sea. ”

“ A blue palanquin, with many bearers, is being carried along. There is a great mandarin squatted [266] inside on the floor, and we can just see the handsome magnate with his embroidered robes lined with sable, his turned-up velvet hat with the peacock's feather stuck out straight behind, the red, blue, or white button on which indicates his rank. He wears the red, and is going to the Yâmen or Ministry. He is preceded by a retinue of mounted servants, who summarily clear the way, with the whip if necessary, and their number announces to the world the rank and importance of their master. ”

“ It is usually some eight feet long by four feet in width and depth, fitted with movable blinds or shutters, and slung on poles carried by four bearers. Indian and Chinese women of rank always travelled in palanquim, and they were largely used by European residents in India before the railways. The norimono of Japan and the kiaotsu of China differ from the Indian palanquin only in the method of attaching the poles to the body of the conveyance. The word came into European use through Port. palanquim, which represents an East Indian word seen in several forms, e.g. ”

“ Harlequin arrives, pursued by Pantaloon and Co., and springs through the air with a somerset in at a window on the first story, which breaks with a loud crash. The pursuers drawing back from the ‘salto mortale,’ tumble over and thump each other with artist-like skill and wonderful suppleness. Ladders are now brought, and they climb into the house after Harlequin: but he has made his escape through the chimney, and runs off over the roofs. Pantaloon with his long chin and beard leans out of the window before which the shears are placed, to see which way Harlequin is gone. ”

“ The old age of Pantaloon is marked by his leanness, and his spectacles and his slippers. He always runs after Harlequin, but cannot catch him; as he runs in slippers and without spectacles, is liable to pass him by without seeing him. Can we doubt that this Pantaloon had come from the Italian theatre, after what we have already said? Does not this confirm the conjecture, that there existed an intercourse between the Italian theatre and our own? Further, Tarleton, the comedian, celebrated for his "Extemporal wit," was the writer or inventor of one of these "Platts." ”

“ So thought Plunk, and one fine day, when he happened to be alone with the little King, he whispered to the child: “Come along, my boy; let’s run away with father.”
But Winpeace was only a baby, and what with living so long under the sea, he had quite forgotten his father. He laughed; the little King laughed. He thought: “Plunk is making fun,” and he kicked Plunk with his little foot.
“You are not my father; you are the silly-billy who turns head over heels before the Sea King.” ”

“ In mediaeval works of art, a particular attitude of the fingers is adopted to exhibit malicious hate: it is done by crossing the forefinger of each hand, and is generally seen in figures of Herod or Judas Iscariot.
Down to the fifteenth century there is not much known of the family of Harlequin, with the exception, perhaps, that the name Zany became more widely distributed into such as Drolls, Clowns, Pantaloons, Punches, Scaramouches, and the like. In the Italian Comedy, of purely native growth, the original characters were Pantaloon, a Venetian Merchant ”

“ Plantagenet as they sat at supper that, if he burst in upon the White Horse as the first bearer of such novel and important gossip—how his son Richard was shortly going to enter as an undergraduate at Durham College, Oxford—not only would he gain for himself great honour and glory, but also some sympathizing friend, proud to possess the privilege of acquaintance with so distinguished a family, would doubtless mark his sense of the dignity of the occasion by offering its head the trifling hospitality of a brandy-and-soda. ”

“ The Pannikin Poet There's nothing here sublime, But just a roving rhyme, Run off to pass the time, With nought titanic in The theme that it supports, And, though it treats of quarts, It's bare of golden thoughts— It's just a pannikin. I think it's rather hard That each Australian bard— Each wan, poetic card— With thoughts galvanic in His fiery soul alight, In wild aerial flight, Will sit him down and write About a pannikin. ”

“ On the death of his wife in 1748 his 'extraordinary itch for a gay appearance' returned, and, with an apothecary named Plunket, a man of the worst character, who had attended his wife, he formed a partnership of fraud. In the disguise of a 'flaming beau,' with Plunket acting as his servant, Maclean gamed and ruffled at Bath and Tunbridge Wells in the hope of entrapping a lady of fortune into a marriage. Before the end of 1748 his own and Plunket's resources were exhausted. Thereupon the allies took to the highway, their first exploit being to lift over 60l. ”

“ For the distance of one hundred kilometres round about Palenque not one blacksmith is to be found. Not a single nail is to be seen in their houses; everything is held together with cords or with vines. ”

“ Parnell had a great love of sea-storms, and when there {240} was a gale blowing from the west, and rough weather assured, he loved to get me out to Birling Gap to listen to the roar of the sea and the screaming of the wind as it blew around us, nearly carrying us off our feet. He would tie his coat about me, and hold me firmly against the wind as it tore about us, and while we gazed out at the raging waves he would exclaim: "Isn't this glorious, my Queen? Isn't it alive?" ”

“ Pantalone wears a black mantle, woollen cap, short trousers, socks and slippers of bright red. A black domino conceals half of his face. He is sometimes a bachelor, but more frequently a widower with one daughter, who engrosses all his time and care. Easy-going indulgence for the foibles of his neighbours, combined with homely mother-wit, is the fundamental note of his character. But as time goes on, he degenerates, dotes, yields to senile vices. At last he becomes the shuffling slippered Pantaloon of our Christmas pantomimes. ”

“ Only Maud and Dick were independent in any way; Mrs. Plantagenet and the little ones owed everything to the father. He had been a personage at Chiddingwick, a character in his way, and Chiddingwick for some strange reason had always been proud of him. Even 'carriage company' sent their children to learn of him at the White Horse, just because he was 'old Plantagenet,' and a certain shadowy sentiment attached to his name and personality. Broken reprobate as he was, the halo of past greatness followed him down through life to the lowest depths of degradation and penury. ”

“ But when it came to the point, James's face was so white, and the fingers which held the pistol so shaky, that Plunket saw they had better change parts, and indeed, as the gentleman inside offered no resistance whatever, and meekly yielded up everything of value he had about him, Maclean succeeded in doing all that was required of him by his partner.
'Much good you are!' said Plunket, when they had plunged into the neighbouring wood. 'If I had not been there that coachman would have stunned you with the butt end of his whip. You are the lion who was born without claws or teeth! ”

“ It is a reproach to a sensible people to let folly so quickly govern their pleasures.
Henry Fielding, the novelist, was one of Harlequin's assailants. "The comic part of the English Pantomimes," he says, "being duller than anything before shown on the stage could only be set off by the superlative dulness of the serious portion, in which the gods and goddesses were so insufferably tedious, that Harlequin was always a relief from still worse company." ”

“ Scaramouche, Harlequin, Punchinello, Pantaloon and Capocomico.
The last, leading them with his baton, stops in the gateway, before which Harlequin executes a ballet-step dance, while Scaramouche, Pantaloon, and Punchinello play accompaniment on guitar, mandolin and zither.
Breaking off, Punchinello begins to improvise an imitation of Harlequin’s dance, but being beaten over his hump with a thwacking stick by Harlequin, retreats with grotesque pantomime.
At their merriment, the younger beggar, rising, draws away with the elder, making a tragic gesture toward the white-bearded head on the wall. ”

“ John Pendleton smiled.
"I understand. Your tongue does get away with you once in a while, doesn't it, Miss Pollyanna? I do thank you, however; and I consider you a very brave little girl to do what you did that day. I thank you for the jelly, too," he added in a lighter voice. ”

“ Parnell all I knew of astronomy, and opened up to him a new world of absorbing interest.
Friends of my brother Evelyn frequently stayed at Rivenhall, and one of them, a colonel of Light Dragoons, was engaged to one of my elder sisters. This gentleman appealed to my youthful mind as being all that a hero should be, and I used to stick a red fez on my golden curls and gallop my pony past the dining-room windows so that he might see and admire the intrepid maiden, as the prince in my fairy book did! ”

“ Agmar{hoarsely} Be still! They are dazzled by the light. They may not see us. {The leading Green Thing points his finger at the lantern -- the flame turns green. When the six are seated the leader points one by one at each of the seven beggars, shooting out his forefinger at them. As he does this each beggar in his turn gathers himself back on to his throne and crosses his legs, his right arm goes stiffly upward with forefinger erect, and a staring look of horror comes into his eyes. In this attitude the beggars sit motionless while a green light falls upon their faces. The gods go out. ”

“ Still in silence Panigwun landed and began to climb the tree, but before he had more than reached the first branches the pine shot up to enormous height. Panigwun felt himself being carried further and further from the earth and toward the sky. From far below he heard the magician’s voice: “Rise, oh, eagles, and take the victim I have brought you. Ye are the king of the birds and it is proper you should receive offerings.” ”

“ Arcite won the victory, according to his prayer, but, being thrown from his horse, died; so Palamon, after all, “won the lady,” though he did not win the battle.—Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (“The Knight’s Tale,” 1388) .
This tale is taken from the Le Teseide of Boccaccio.
The Black Horse, a drama by John Fletcher, is the same tale. Richard Edwards has a comedy called Palæmon and Arcyte (1566) .
Pale (The) , or The English Pale, a part of Ireland, including Dublin, Meath, Carlow, Kilkenny and Louth.
Pale Faces. So the American Indians call the European settlers.
Pale ́mon, son of a rich merchant. ”

“ He has even contrived to impart sentiment, passion, and morality to his pieces." Harlequin must be modelled as a national character, the creature of manners; and thus the history of such a Harlequin might be that of the age and of the people, whose genius he ought to represent.
The history of a people is often detected in their popular amusements; one of these Italian Pantomimic characters shows this. They had a Capitan, who probably originated in the Miles gloriosus of Plautus ”