PELLEGRINI, CARLO, a caricaturist, born in Capua; came to London; was distinguished for the inimitable drollery of his cartoons (1838-1889).

PELLICO, SILVIO, Italian poet and patriot, born in Piedmont; suffered a fifteen years’ imprisonment in the Spielberg at Bruenn for his patriotism, from which he was liberated in 1830; he wrote an account of his life in prison, which commanded attention all over Europe, both for the subject-matter of it and the fascination of the style (1789-1854).

PELLISSON, PAUL, a man of letters and a wit of the age of Louis XIV.; spent some five years in the Bastille, but after his release was appointed historiographer-royal; in his captivity he made a companion of a spider, who was accustomed to eat out of his hand (1624-1693).

PELOPIDAS, a Theban general, and leader of the “sacred band”; the friend of Epaminondas; contributed to the expulsion (379 B.C.) of the Spartans from the citadel of Thebes, of which they had taken possession in 380, after which he was elected to the chief magistracy; gained a victory over Alexander of Pherae the tyrant of Thessaly, but lost his life in 362 while too eagerly pursuing the foe.

PELOPONNESIAN WAR, a war of thirty years’ duration (431-404 B.C.) between Athens and Sparta, which ended in the supremacy of the latter, till the latter was overthrown at Leuctra by the Thebans under Epaminondas in 371 B.C.  This war is the subject of the history of Thucydides.

PELOPONNESUS (lit. the Isle of Pelops), the ancient name of the Morea of Greece, the chief cities of which were Corinth, Argos, and Sparta; it was connected with the rest of Greece by the Isthmus of Corinth.

PELOPS, in the Greek mythology the grandson of Zeus and son of Tantalus, who was slain by his father and served up by him at a banquet he gave the gods to test their omniscience, but of the shoulder of which only Demeter in a fit of abstraction partook, whereupon the gods ordered the body to be thrown into a boiling caldron, from which Pelops was drawn out alive, with the shoulder replaced by one of ivory.

PEMBROKESHIRE (89), a maritime county, the farthest W. in Wales; is washed by St. George’s Channel except on the E., where it borders on Cardigan and Carmarthen.  It is a county of low hills, with much indented coast-line.  Milford Haven, in the S., is one of the best harbours in the world.  The climate is humid; two-thirds of the soil is under pasture; coal, iron, lead, and slate are found.  ST. DAVID’S is a cathedral city; the county town is PEMBROKE (18) on Milford Haven, and near it is the fortified dockyard and arsenal PEMBROKE DOCK (10).

PEMMICAN, a food for long voyages, particularly in Arctic expeditions, consisting of lean meat or beef without fat dried, pounded, and pressed into cakes.  The use of it is now suppressed.

PENANCE, in the Roman Catholic Church an expression of penitence as well as the sacrament of absolution; also the suffering to which a penitent voluntarily subjects himself, according to the schoolmen, as an expression of his penitence, and in punishment of his sin; the three steps of penitence were contrition, confession, and satisfaction.