development. The same may be said of Portugal; for though Silva Cabral’s continuation of the Bachiller Trapaza is called the most remarkable of Portuguese picaresque ro1nances, it is significant that O peralvilho de Cordfva remains in manuscript. The case was very different in France, where pictures of low life had always found admirers. The first translation of Lazarillo de Tormes appeared, as already noted, at Paris in 1561; the first translation of the first part of Guzman de AUarache was issued there by Gabriel Chappuis in 1600, and the dictator Chapelain deigned to translate both parts in 1619–1620; the first translation of the Novelas ejemplares was published at Paris in 1618 by Rosset and d’Audiguier; and French translations of Marcos de Obregón, of La Desordenada codicia, of the Buscon and of the Picara Justina were printed in 1618, 1621, 1633 and 1635 respectively. Before this series of translations was completed Charles Sorel recounted in Francion (1622) “the comic mishaps which befall evil-doers,” invoking the common excuse that it is “lawful to find pleasure at their expense.” Many of the episodes in Francion are picaresque in tone, but unfortunately Sorel wanders from his subject, and devotes no small part of his book to satirizing literary men who, though fribbles or paupers, are in no sense picaroons. The legitimate Spanish tradition is followed more closely and with much more ability by Paul Scarron in the Roman comique (1651), in which horseplay is predominant. The framework may have been suggested by Agustin de Rojas or Quevedo, both of whom introduce a strolling company. and such characters as Liandre, Angelique de l’Etoile and Ragotin might be found in any average novela picaresca. Scarron frankly mentions Castillo Solórzano’s Garduña de Sevilla in his text, and his Précaution inutile and Les Hypocrites are convincing proofs of close study of Spanish picaresque stories: the Précaution inutile is taken from Guzman de Alfarache, and Les Hypocrites is merely a translation of Salas Barbadillo’s Hija de Celestina. The Roman bourgeois (1666) of Antoine Furetiere is generally described as a picaresque novel, but this involves a new definition of the adjective; the Roman bourgeois includes some portraits and more satire which seem suggested by picaresque reading, but it is concerned with the foibles of the middle class rather than with the sly devices of common vagabonds.
The Spanish picaroon lives again in Gil Blas, where, with a dexterity almost rarer than original genius, a master of literary manipulation fuses materials unearthed from forgotten and seemingly worthless Spanish quarries. Gil Blas is a creation of the gentler, sunnier French spirit; like Beaumarchais’ Figaro he is a Spaniard born, reared and humanized in Paris, and these two are the only picaroons whose relative refinement has not been gained at the cost of verisimilitude. But the old original scoundrel was not yet extinct: in the interval between the appearance of the Barbier de Séville and the Mariage de Figaro Restif de la Bretonne produced a sequel (1776) to the Buscón—a sequel so dull as to be wellnigh unreadable. The untamed Spanish rogue had become impossible towards the end of the 18th century: in the 19th he was deliberately rejected when Théophile Gautier wrote his Capitaine Fracasse. Yet Gautier conscientiously provides a Spanish atmosphere; the personages have Spanish names; the knife has a Spanish inscription; the host speaks French with a Spanish accent; Vallombreuse parts from the marquis with a Spanish formula: “beso á vuestra merced la mano, caballero.” Capitaine Fracasse is the last important book which continues the picaresque tradition. The possibilities of picaresque fiction can never be exhausted while human nature is unchanged. Pereda (q.v.) in Pedro Sanchez (1884) touches the old theme with the accent of modernity. It may be that instead of one continuous tale, interrupted by episodical digressions, the picaresque fiction of the future will take the form of short stories independent of one another; but this would be nothing more than a convenient mechanical device, a readjustment of means to ends.
Bibliography.—Frank Wadleigh Chandler, Romances of Roguery, pt. i (New York, 1899); Fonger De Hann, An Outline of the History of the Novela Picaresca in Spain (The Hague- New York, 1903); W. Lauser, Der erste Schelmenroman, Lazarillo von Tormes (Stuttgart, 1889); H. Butler Clarke, “ The Spanish Rogue-Story ” in Studzes an European Literature (Oxford, 1900); A. Schultheiss, Der Schelmenroman der Spanier und seine Nachbildungen (Hamburg, 1893); F. J. Garriga, Estudio de la novela picaresca (Madrid, 1891); F. M. Warren, History of the Novel previous to the Seventeenth Century (New York, 1892); H. Koerting, Geschichte des französischen Romans im 17. Jarhundert (Oppeln and Leipzig, 1891), Arvede Barme, “Les gueux d’Espagne” in the Revue des deux mondes, vol. lxxxvi. (Paris, 1888); A. Morel Fatio, Études sur l’Espagne (3 vols., Paris, 1888–1904). (J. F.-K.)
PICAYUNE, the name in Florida and Louisiana of the Spanish half-real, = 116 of a dollar, 614 cents. and hence used of the United States 5 cent piece. The French picaillon, from which the word
was adapted in America, was an old copper coin of Piedmont.
Its origin is doubtful, but is possibly related to the Italian piccolo,
little, small. In America the word is used of anything trifling,
petty, mean or contemptible.
PICCANINNY, or Pickaninny, a word applied originally by the negroes of the West Indies to their babies. It is adapted
either from Span. pequeño, small, or Port. pequenino, very small.
The word spread with the slave trade to America, and has since been adopted in Australia and in South Africa.
PICCININO, NICCOLO (1386–1444), Italian condottiere, born at Perugia, was the son of a butcher. He began his military career in the service of Braccio da Montone, who at that time was waging war against Perugia on his own account, and at the death of his chief, shortly followed by that of the latter’s son Oddo,
Piccinino became leader of Braccio’s condotta. After serving
for a short period under the Florentine Republic, he went over to
Filippo Maria Visconti, duke of Milan (1425), in whose service
together with Niccolo Fortebraccio he fought in the wars against
the league of Pope Eugenius IV., Venice and Florence. He
defeated the papal forces at Castel Bolognese (1434), but another
papal army under Francesco Sforza having defeated and killed
Fortebraccio at Fiordimonte, Piccinino was left in sole command,
and in a series of campaigns against Sforza he seized a number
of cities in Romagna by treachery. In 1439 he again fought in
Lombardy with varying success against Sforza, who had now
entered the Venetian service. Piccinino then induced the duke
of Milan to send him to Umbria, where he hoped, like so many
other condottieri, to carve out a dominion for himself. He was
defeated by Sforza at Anghiari (1440), but although a number of
his men were taken prisoners they were at once liberated, as
was usually done in wars waged by soldiers of fortune. Again
the war shifted to Lombardy, and Piccinino, having defeated
and surrounded Sforza at Martinengo, demanded of the visconti
the lordship of Piacenza as the price of Sforza’s capture. The
duke by way of reply concluded a truce with Sforza; but the
latter, who, while professing to defend the Papal States, had
established his own power in the Marche, aroused the fears of
the pope and the king of Naples, as well as of the visconti, who
gave the command of their joint forces to Piccinino. Sforza.
was driven from the Marche, but defeated Piccinino at Montelauro,
and while the latter was preparing for a desperate effort
against Sforza he was suddenly recalled to Milan, his army was
beaten in his absence, and he died of grief and of his wounds in
1444. Short of stature, lame and in weak health, he was brave
to the point of foolhardiness, wonderfully resourceful, and never
overwhelmed by defeat. He was cruel and treacherous, and
had no aim beyond his own aggrandizement. Piccinino left two
sons, Tacopo and Francesco, both distinguished condottieri.
A good account of Piccinino is contained in vol. iii of E. Ricotti’s Storia della compagnie di ventura (Turin, 1845); G. B. Poggio, Vita di N. Piccinino (Venice, 1572); see also the general histories of the period.
PICCINNI, NICCOLA (1728–1800), Italian musical composer, was born at Bari on the 16th of January 1728. He was educated under Leo and Durante, at the Conservatorio di Sant' Onofrio in Naples. For this Piccin11i had to thank the intervention of the bishop of Bari, his father, although himself a musician, being opposed to his son’s following a musical career. His first opera, Le Donne dispettose, was produced in 1755, and in 1760 he composed, at Rome, the chef d'oeuvre of his early life, La Cecchina, ossia la buona
