PERSPECTIVE. A reflecting-glass.

PERSPICIL. An optic-glass. It occurs in Albruzan, 1634, sig. B. iv.

PERSTAND. To understand. Peele.

PERSUADE. Persuasion.

PERSUADERS. Spurs. Also, pistols.

PERSWAY. To mitigate. Ben Jonson, iv. 428.

PERT. Beautifully delicate. It is the translation of subtilis in Gesta Rom. p. 142.

For hete her clothes down sche dede
Almest to her gerdyl stede,
Than lay sche uncover;
Sche was as whyt as lyle in May,
Or snow that sweneth yn wynters day,
He seygh never non so pert.

Illustrations of Fairy Mythology, p. 11.

PERTE. (1) To part. Still in use.

Then Thomas a sory man was he,
The terys ran out of his een gray;
Lufly lady, yet tell thou me
If we shalle perte for ever and ay.

MS. Cantab. Ff. v. 48, f. 125.

(2) Of good appearance.

Ther was no man in the kynges lande
More perte then was he.

MS. Cantab. Ff. ii. 38, f. 244.

PERTELICHE. Openly. (A.-N.)

Than syr Priamous the prynce in presens of lordes
Presez to his penowne, and pertly it hentes.

Morte Arthure, MS. Lincoln, f. 84.

PERTELOTE. The name of a hen.

PERTENERE. A partner.

God graunt us mekenesse in angurs here,
And grace to lede owre lyfe here soo,
That may aftur be pertenere
Of hevene, whan we hens shall goo.

MS. Cantab. Ff. ii. 38, f. 14.

PERTRYCHE. A partridge.

Ryght as the pertryche is constrayned undir the
claues and nayles of the hauke, is a halfe deed for
drede.

Caxton's Divers Fruytful Ghostly Maters.

PERTURBE. To trouble. Palsgrave.

PERTY. Part. Lydgate.

God that sittis in Trinité,
Gyffe thaym grace wel to the,
That lystyns me a whyle;
Alle that lovys of melody,
Off hevon blisse God graunte tham perty,
Theyr soules shelde fro peryle.

MS. Cantab. Ff. v. 48, f. 47.

PERUR. A kind of cup.

PERUSE. To examine, or survey.

Monsieur Soubize having perused the fleet, returned to the king, and told him there was nothing ready; and that the mariners and soldiers would not yield to goe the voyage till they were paid their arrears.

MS. Harl. 383.

PERVEY. To provide. (A.-N.)

PERVINKE. The herb periwinkle. (A.-S.)

PERVE. A pear-tree. (A.-N.)

But for hur lorde sche durste not done,
That sate benethe and pleyed hym merye,
Before the toure undir a perve.

MS. Cantab. Ff. ii. 38, f. 141.

PERYSSE. Pears. (A.-N.)

Then was the tre ful of ripe perysse,
And began doun to falle.

MS. Cantab. Ff. v. 48, f. 114.

PESANE. A gorget of mail or plate attached to the helmet. ``A pesane and a paunsone,'' MS. Morte Arthure, f. 89.

PESATE. Is when a managed horse rises handsomely before and upon his haunches, and at the same time bends his fore-legs up to his body.

PESE. (1) Peace. Perceval 980, 981.

(2) To sooth; to appease.

Tylle y be seure of youre hartys ese,
Nothing but hit may my grevys pese.

MS. Cantab. Ff. i. 6, f. 132.

PESEN. Peas. This is the common early form of the word, and occurs in Chaucer, Legende of Good Women, 648. Holloway gives the following couplet, as seen lately on a board in a pea-field in Berkshire—

Shut the gate after you, I'll tell you the reason,
Because the pigs shouldn't get into the peason.

Ben Jonson has made the same words rhyme in his 133d epigram.

As for his sallets, better never was
Than cutte sorell, and sweete three-leav'd grasse,
And for a sawe he seldome is at charges,
For every car-tree doth afford him vergis;
His basket sometimes is greene beanes and peason,
Nuts, peares, plumbes, apples, as they are in season.

Taylor's Workes, 1630, i. 97.

PESIBLE. Peaceable. (A.-N.)

PESIEBLE. A calm. (A.-N.)

PESK. A peach. Nominale MS.

PESON. An instrument in the form of a staff, with balls or crockets, used for weighing before scales were employed.

PESS. A hassock. Suffolk.

PESSCOD-SCALDING. A kind of merry-making in summer evenings; the treat, green field peas boiled in the shells. Yorksh.

PESSIPE. A kind of cup.

PESTERED. Crowded. Peele, ii. 235.

PESTERMENT. Embarrassment. North.

PESTLE. (1) A leg of an animal, generally of a pig. A pestle of pork is still in common use. ``Pestels of venison,'' Warner's Antiq. Culin. p. 98. ``Pestell of fleshe, jambon,'' Palsgrave. A pestle-pie is a large standing pie which contains a whole gammon, and sometimes a couple of fowls and a neat's tongue, a favorite dish at country fairs, and at Christmas feasts.

(2) A constable's staff.

PESTLE-HEAD. A blockhead.

PETE. Pity. See Cov. Myst.

Long lay the kyng, there away wolde not hee;
Dayly he propherid batayle; the enemys durst not fyghte
Lacke of logyng and vitalye it was grett pete,
Causid the gentil prynce to remove, sche was Goddes myste!

Lo, how the good Lorde his owne gentil knyȝte,
Because he shulde remembr hym in wele and in woo,
Thus in every thynge, Lorde, thy wille be doo!

MS. Bib. Reg. 17 D. xv.

PETEOSE. Merciful; compassionate.

Many men spekes of lamentacioun,
Of moders and of their gret desolacioun,
Which that thay did endure
When that their children dy and passe,
But of his peteoose tender moder, alasere!
I am verray sure,
The wo and payn passis alle othre.

MS. Bodl. e Mus. 160.