The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

Puck
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the Midwest until fi nally shot to death by the FBI
in 1934, by which time he had killed 10 people.
<strong>The</strong> title has since been applied to many other
murderers and terrorists. “Since 1980 a new environmental
public enemy number one has replaced
nuclear power” (Don Hedley, World Energy, 1986).
Puck A mischievous sprite. Otherwise known as
Robin Goodfellow, Puck has his roots in En glish
folklore. He is depicted as an evil spirit in Edmund
Spenser’s Epithalamion (1595) but is best known
from his more innocently provocative appearances
in William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer
Night’s Dream (1595). Shakespeare’s Puck uses his
magic to confound mortals on the orders of his
master Oberon, king of the fairies. Someone who
is puckish behaves in an impish, mischievous manner.
Guests quickly tired of his puckish pranks at the
Christmas party.
Punch and Judy A married couple or two other
parties who have a knockabout, even violent, relationship.
<strong>The</strong> allusion is to the Punch and July puppet
shows, distantly descended from the Italian
commedia dell’arte, that were once a common
feature of the En glish seaside. Punch was a hunchbacked
rogue who strangled his baby, beat his wife
Judy, and was eventually sentenced to the gallows,
while Judy was almost equally violent; other characters
included a crocodile and a policeman. Modern
politics seems to have descended to the level of a
Punch and Judy show.
Punic faith (pyoonik) Dishonest, deceitful,
treacherous behavior; faithlessness. <strong>The</strong> Latin word
for a Carthaginian was Punicus (a reference to their
Phoenician origins), and the concept of Punic faith
alludes to the hostility that existed between Carthage
and ancient Rome during the Punic Wars of
the third and second centuries b.c. Conscious that
the infl uence of Carthage represented a serious
threat to their own republic, Romans accused
their Carthaginian enemies of all manner of dishonest,
treacherous behavior, and the statesman
Cato the Elder spoke for many when he took to
ending each speech he made in the Senate with
“Carthage must be destroyed.” This was fi nally
achieved with victory in the Third Punic War in
146 b.c. As a further demonstration of his Punic faith
he gave the authorities full details of his former employer’s
bank accounts. See also carthaginian peace.
pure all things are pure, to the See unto the
pure all things are pure.
purgatory (pergbtoree) A state or place of suffering
or torment. In Catholic tradition purgatory
is the temporary abode of those spirits who are
obliged to spend a period of time being purged of
their sins before they can enter heaven. Scriptures
that are alluded to in support of this teaching
include 2 Maccabees 12:44–45 of the Apocrypha,
Matthew 12:32, John 14:2, and 1 Corinthians
3:11–15. <strong>The</strong> name itself comes from the Latin
purgatorium (“place of cleansing”). “From the surface
of the water rose a dense cloud of steam. Alphonse
groaned out that we were already in purgatory,
which indeed we were, though not in the sense
that he meant it” (H. Rider Haggard, Allan Quatermain,
1887).
puritanical Stern, austere, or unforgiving;
opposed to indulgence and excess. <strong>The</strong> Puritans
emerged within the Church of En gland in the late
16th and early 17th centuries as a group of religious
dissenters who were determined to rid the
church of any practices left over from Roman
Catholicism. <strong>The</strong>y were also opposed to the