popularity of a new type of music-hall performer influenced the character of the show which was given under the name of a Christmas pantomime at the theatres, and it became more of a burlesque “variety entertainment,” dovetailed into a fairy play and with the “harlequinade” part (which had formed the closing scene of the older sort) sometimes omitted. The word had really lost its meaning. The thing itself survived rather in such occasional appearances of the Pierrot “drama without words” as charmed London playgoers in the early 'nineties in such pieces as L’Enfant prodigue.
Authorities. — For a general survey see K. F. F. Flögel, Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen, revised ed. by F. W. Eveling (1867); A. Pougin, Dictionnaire historique et pittoresque du theâtre (Paris, 1885). As to the commedia dell’arte, masked, comedy, in Italy and France, and their influence on French regular comedy, see L. Moland, Molière et la comédie italienne (2nd ed., Paris, 1867); and O. Driesen’s remarkable study, Der Ursprung des Harlekin (Berlin, 1904). As to the German Hanswurst and Hansivurstiaden, see G. Gervinus, Geschichte der deulschen Dichtung, vol. iii. (Leipzig, 1853); E. Devrient, Gesch. der deuschen Schauspielkunst, vol. ii. (Leipzig, 1848); and as to the German Harlequin, Lessing’s Hamburgische Dramaturgie, no. 18 (1767), and the reference there to Justus Möser’s Harlekin oder Vertheidigung des Grotesk-Komischen (1761). As to English pantomime, see Genest, Account of the English Stage (10 vols., Bath, 1832), especially vol. iii.; Dibdin, Complete History of the Stage (5 vols., London, 1800), especially vols, ii., iv., and v.; Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber, ed. R. W. Lowe (2 vols., London, 1889); P. Fitzgerald, Life of Garrick (2 vols., London, 1868). (A. W. W.)
PANTÓN, a town of north-western Spain, in the province of Lugo; in a mountainous district, watered by the rivers Miño and Cabe. Pop. (1900), 12,088. Livestock is extensively reared, and large quantities of wheat, wine, oats and potatoes are produced. The other industries are distilling and linen manufacture. The nearest railway station is 6 m. east, at Montforte.
PANTRY (O. Fr. paneterie; Med. Lat. panetaria, a bread-shop, from panis, bread), originally a room in a house used for the storage of bread, hence “panter” or “pantler,” an officer of a household in charge of the bread and stores. In the royal household of England the office was merged in that of butler. At coronations the office of “panneter” was held by the lord of the manor of Kibworth Beauchamp; it was his duty to carry the salt-cellar and carving-knives to the royal table, and he kept these as his fee. The last holder of the office was Ambrose Dudley, son of John, duke of Northumberland, at Elizabeth’s coronation. At his death the manor reverted to the Crown. “Pantry” was early widened in meaning to include a room in a house used for the storing of all kinds of food, and is now restricted to the butler’s or parlourmaid’s room, where plate, china, glass, &c., for the use of the table is kept, and duties in connexion with the serving of the table are performed.
PANTUN (Pantoum), a form of verse of Malay origin. An imitation of the form has been adopted in French and also in English verse, where it is known as “pantoum.” The Malay pantun is a quatrain, the first and third and the second and fourth lines of which rhyme. The peculiarity of the verse-form resides in the fact that the first two lines have as a rule no actual connexion, in so far as meaning is concerned, with the two last, or with one another, and have for their raison d’être a means of supplying rhymes for the concluding lines. For instance:—
Sēnūdoh kāyu di-rimba
Bēnang kāirap bēr-simpul pūleh:
Sūnggoh dūdok her-tindek riba,
Jāngan di-hārap kata-kan būleh.
- The rhododendron is a wood of the jungle.
- The strings within the frame-work of the loom are in a tangled knot.
- It is true that I sit on thy lap.
- But do not therefore cherish the hope that thou canst take any other liberty.
Here, it will be seen, the first two lines have no meaning, though according to the Malayan mind, on occasion, these “rhyme-making” lines are held to contain some obscure, symbolical reference to those which follow them. The Malay is not exacting with regard to the correctness of his rhymes, and to his ear rimba and riba rhyme as exactly as pūlch and būdeh. It should also be noted that in the above example, as is not infrequently the case with the Malay pantun, there is a similar attempt at rhyme between the initial words of the lines as well as between the word with which they conclude, senūdoh and sūnggoh, benang and jāngan, and kārap and hārap all rhyming to the Malayan ear. There are large numbers of well-known pantun with which practically all Malays are acquainted, much as the commoner proverbs are familiar to us all, and it is not an infrequent practice in conversation for the first line of a pantun—viz.: one of the two lines to which no real meaning attaches—to be quoted alone, the audience being supposed to possess the necessary knowledge to fit on the remaining lines for himself and thus to discover the significance of the allusion. Among cultured Malays, more especially those living in the neighbourhood of the. raja’s court, new pantun are constantly being composed, many of them being of a highly topical character, and these improvisations are quoted from man to man until they become current like the old, well-known verses, though within a far more restricted area. Often too, the pantun is used in love-making, but they are then usually composed for the exclusive use of the author and for the delectation of his lady-loves, and do not find their way into the public stock of verses. “Capping” pantun is also a not uncommon pastime, and many Malays will continue such contests for hours without once repeating the same verse, and often improvising quatrains when their stock threatens to become exhausted. When this game is played by skilled versifiers, the pantun last quoted, and very frequently the second line thereof, is used as the tag on to which to hang the succeeding verse.
The “pantoum” as a form of verse was introduced into French by Victor Hugo in Les Orientales (1820). It was also practised by Théodore de Banville and Leconte de Lisle. Austin Dobson’s In Town is an example of its use, in a lighter manner, in English. In the French and English imitation the verse form is in four-line stanzas, the second and fourth line of each verse forming the first and third of the next, and so on to the last stanza, where the first and third line of the first stanza form the second and fourth line. (H. Cl.)
PANYASIS (more correctly, Panyassis), of Halicarnassus, Greek epic poet, uncle or cousin of Herodotus, flourished about 470 B.C. He was put to death by the tyrant Lygdamis (c. 454). His chief poems were the Heracleias in 14 books, describing the adventures of Heracles in various parts of the world, and the Ionica in elegiacs, giving an account of the founding and settlement of the Ionic colonies in Asia Minor. Although not much esteemed in his own time, which was unfavourable to epic poetry, he was highly thought of by later critics, some of whom assigned him the next place to Homer (see Quintilian, Inst. orat. x. 1. 54). The few extant fragments show beauty and fullness of expression, and harmonious rhythm.
Fragments in G. Kinkel, Epic. poet. fragmenta (1877), ed. separately by J. P. Tzschirner (1842); F. P. Funcke, De Panyasidis vita (1837); R. Krausse, De Panyasside (1891).
PAOLI, CESARE (1840–1902), Italian historian and palaeographer, son of senator Baldassare Paoli, was born and educated in Florence. At the age of twenty-one he was given an appointment in the record office of his native city; from 1865 to 1871 he was attached to the Archives of Sienna, but eventually returned to Florence. In 1874 he was appointed first professor of palaeography and diplomatics at the Istituto di Studii Superiori in Florence, where he continued to work at the interpretation of MSS. In 1887 he became editor of the Archivio storico italiano, to which he himself contributed numerous articles. His works consist of a large number of historical essays, studies on palaeography, transcriptions of state and other papers, reviews, &c.
See C. Lupi, “Cesare Paoli,” in the Archivio storico italiano, vol. xxix. (1902), with a complete list of his works.
PAOLI, PASQUALE (1725–1807), Corsican general and patriot, was born at Stretta in the parish of Rostino. He was the son of Giacinto Paoli, who had led the Corsican rebels against Genoese tyranny. Pasquale followed his father into exile.
