J. C. Powys' Autobiography: A Reader's Companion - Site POWYS

48 Autobiography
For the relationship between the two schools, see
Tait (9–10).
“preparing the way of the Lord” (505) — Adapted
from Matthew 3:3.
Prester John (52, 64) — A legendary Christian
king, supposed to have reigned in the heart of
Asia or Africa in the twelfth century.
Preston (210) — Preston Plunkett, in Somerset,
now a suburb of Yeovil. Not to be confused with
Preston, Dorset (see below).
Preston Brook (49, 332) — Preston is a village
three miles east of Weymouth with a brook
flowing into Weymouth Bay near Overcombe.
NB: At 49, “brook” should be capitalized.
primrose-path (47; cf. 178) — Technically, from
Shakespeare’s Hamlet (I iii 50) though JCP has
probably telescoped this quotation with the
“primrose way” in Macbeth (III ii 21); cf. the
immediately following “everlasting bonfire.” Also
quoted in A Glastonbury Romance (582) and
Maiden Castle (206).
Prince Myskuin (215) — A leading character in
Dostoievsky’s The Idiot. The reference here is to
the opening scene in the novel, also mentioned
in The Pleasures of Literature (90). The correct
spelling is “Myshkin.”
pro tem (192) — For the time being (Latin).
Proctor (183) — The University Proctor was
responsible for law and order, and for
maintaining general discipline among Cambridge
undergraduates.
[P]rohibition (598) — The movement in North
America to outlaw the drinking of alcohol. It was
successful in the United States between 1919 and
1933, though different states introduced and
abandoned the idea at different times. The word
should be capitalized.
Prometheus (355) — A Titan punished by Zeus for
stealing fire from heaven to give to human
beings, the subject of Aeschylus’s Prometheus
Bound and Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound. As
JCP notes, a vulture (or eagle) was supposed to
tear out his liver while he was chained.
Propertius (254) — Roman elegiac poet of the first
century BC.
Pro-praetor (101) — Roman official sent to govern
a province.
Proserpina (618) — The Roman equivalent of
Persephone (q.v.).
Proteus (13, 274, 529, 376) — A shape-changing
Greek sea-deity who guarded the flocks of
Poseidon. So, “Protean” (144, 478, 537; cf. 527,
which should probably be capitalized).
Proust (41, 113, 405, 471) — Marcel Proust
(1871–1922), French novelist, best known for A La
Recherche du Temps Perdu (In Search of Lost
Time). The “Madeleine” (129, 405) is the cake
which sparked off Marcel’s first experience of
involuntary memory in the part entitled Du Côté
de chez Swann (Swann’s Way). Cf. Mortal Strife
(134). A later reference (176) refers to Marcel’s
meeting the main characters after the First World
War (in the last part, Le Temps Retrouvé [Time
Regained]), and being amazed at their age. The
scene involving the paving-stone of St. Mark’s
(405) also occurs in the final part. JCP wrote a
chapter on Proust in The Pleasures of Literature.
psalmist in Babylon (31) — A number of the
Psalms in the Old Testament refer to the
Israelites’ captivity in Babylon after
Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest of Jerusalem. See
especially Psalm 137.
Psyche and Eros (341, 344; cf. 467) — The loveaffair
between Psyche (Greek for “soul”) and Eros
(the Greek for “love,” in Latin Cupid) was
narrated by Apuleius (q.v.) in The Golden Ass,
followed by Pater in Marius the Epicurean, and
was also celebrated by Keats in his “Ode to
Psyche.”
psycho-pompos (422) — Another name for
Hermes as guide of dead souls to the
underworld.
public gardens (81) — Now called the Pageant
Gardens, near the railway-station in Sherborne.
“Pummery” (77) — Dialect name for Poundbury,
an iron-Age encampment to the north of
Dorchester, frequently mentioned in Maiden
Castle.
“pumping-ship” (353) — Naval slang for urination,
a phrase often employed by JCP in his diaries.
Punch (123) — The English comic magazine,
founded in 1841.
Punch-and Judy shows (217) — Glove-puppet
performances derived from Italian comedy that
developed at the turn of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries in England. A seaside
entertainment on Weymouth sands (there was
still one on the beach in the summer of 1998); one
such show plays a prominent part in Weymouth
Sands.
Punchinello (274) — A grotesque character in an
Italian puppet-show from which the English Mr.
Punch appears to be derived.
“Purbeck Marble” (51) — Stone from the quarries
on the so-called Isle of Purbeck, an area an the
south coast between Weymouth and
Bournemouth.
pure ... and lovely and of good report (120) —
Philippians 4:8.
Purgatorio (415) — The second book of Dante’s
Divine Comedy. The particular reference is to
Canto 1, ll.13ff.