Chapter Peelers to Pelican Island of P by Brewer's Readers Handbook

What think you of my sister Peg [Scotland], that faints at the sound of an organ, and yet will dance and frisk at the noise of a bagpipe?—Dr. Arbuthnot: History of John Bull (1712).

Peg. Drink to your peg. King Edgar ordered that “pegs should be fastened into drinking-horns at stated distances, and whoever drank beyond his peg at one draught should be obnoxious to a severe punishment.”

I had lately a peg-tankard in my hand. It had on the inside a row of eight pins, one above another, from bottom to top. It held two quarts, so that there was a gill of liquor between peg and peg. Whoever drank short of his pin or beyond it, was obliged to drink to the next, and so on till the tankard was drained to the bottom.—Sharpe: History of the Kings of England.

Peg-a-Ramsey, the heroine of an old song. Percy says it was an indecent ballad. Shakespeare alludes to it in his Twelfth Night, act ii. sc. 3 (1614).

James I. had been much struck with the beauty and embarrassment of the pretty Peg-a-Ramsey, as he called her.—Sir W.Scott.

Pegasus, the winged horse of the Muses. It was caught by Bellerophon, who mounted thereon, and destroyed the Chimæra; but when he attempted to ascend to heaven, he was thrown from the horse, and Pegasus mounted alone to the skies, where it became the constellation of the same name.

To break Pegasus’s neck, to write halting poetry.

Some, free from rhyme or reason, rule or check,
Break Priscian’s head, and Pegasus’s neck.

Pope: The Dunciad, iii. 161 (1728).

N.B.—To “break Priscian’s head” is to write bad grammar. Priscian was a great grammarian of the fifth century.

Pegg(Katharine), one of the mistresses of Charles II. She was the daughter of Thomas Pegg, Esq., of Yeldersey, in Derbyshire.

Peggotty (Clara), servant-girl of Mrs. Copperfield, and the faithful old nurse of David Copperfield. Her name “Clara” was tabooed, because it was the name of Mrs. Copperfield. Clara Peggotty married Barkis the carrier.

Being very plump, whenever she made any little exertion after she was dressed, some of the buttons on the back of her gown flew off.—Ch. ii.

Dan’el Peggotty, brother of David Copperfield’s nurse. Dan’el was a Yarmouth fisherman. His nephew Ham Peggotty, and his brother-in-law’s child “little Emly,” lived with him. Dan’el himself was a bachelor, and a Mrs. Gummidge (widow of his late partner) kept house for him. Dan’el Peggotty was most tender- hearted, and loved little Emyl dearly.

Ham Peggotty, nephew of Dan’el Peggotty of Yarmouth, and son of Joe, Dan’el’s brother. Ham was i n love with little Emyl, daughter of Tom (Dan’s brother-in-law); but Steerforth stepped in between them, and stole Emyl away. Ham Peggotty is represented as the very beau-ideal of an uneducated, simple-minded, honest, and warm-hearted fisherman. He was drowned in his attempt to rescue Steerforth from the sea.

Emyl Peggotty, daughter of Dan’s brother-in-law Tom. She was engaged to Ham Peggotty; but being fascinated with Steerforth, ran off with him. She was afterwards reclaimed, and emigrated to Australia with Dan’el and Mrs. Gummidge.—Dickens: David Copperfield (1849).

Peggy, grandchild of the old widow Maclure a covenanter.—Sir W. Scott: Old Mortality (time, Charles II.).