Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/128

Rh 118 P I PIS of Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1880 the town contained 12,039 inhabitants, three-fourths of whom were Protestants. Pirmasens owes its name to a St Firmin, who is said to have preached Christianity here in the 8th century. It originally belonged to the count of Hanau-Lichtenbcrg, but passed to Hesse- Darmstadt in 1730. In 1793 the Prussians gained a victory here over a body of French troops. PIRNA, an ancient town of Saxony, lies on the left bank of the Elbe, on the margin of the &quot; Saxon Switzer land,&quot; 11 miles above Dresden. It is on the whole a regularly built town, with promenades on the site of the former ramparts, but contains no notable edifices except the fino Gothic Hauptkirche (1502-46) and the town- house. The chief source of its prosperity is formed by the excellent sandstone found on both banks of the Elbe above the town ; but manufactures of cigars, chemicals, enamelled tinware, pottery, and leather are also carried on. Besides the export of the sandstone, it transacts a trade in grain, fruit, and timber, mainly by river. The population in 1880 was 11,680, almost all Protestants. Pirna, originally a Slavonic settlement, long oscillated between Bohemia and Meissen (Saxony), but became permanently united with the latter in 1404. Having at a very early period received the privilege of holding fairs, it was at one time among the most ilourishing of Saxon towns, but aftenvards lost its import ance through pestilence and the disasters of the Thirty Years and Seven Years Wars. On a rock above the town rises the fortress of Sonncnstein, now a lunatic asylum, erected in the 16th century on the site of an older castle, and once considered the most important fortress on the Elbe. It successfully withstood the Swedes in the Thirty Years War, though the town was stormed, but was cap tured and dismantled by the Prussians in 1758. In 1813 it was occupied by the French, and held for several months. PIRON&quot;, ALEXIS (1689-1773), the foremost epigramma tist of France, was born at Dijon on the 9th July 1689. His father, Aime Piron, was an apothecary, but was also a frequent writer of verse in Burgundian patois. Alexis began life as clerk and secretary to a banker, and then studied law without any success or much seriousness. As a young man he made himself notorious by the composi tion of a piece of licentious verse which might have brought him into serious difficulties but for the good nature of a high legal official, the president Bouhier. His sarcastic tongue made him unpopular in his neighbour hood, and at last in 1719, when nearly thirty years old, ho went to seek his fortune at Paris. His first experiences were not very encouraging, and he had to put up with the unpleasant and not very honourable position of literary adviser and corrector to the Chevalier de Belle Isle. An accident, however, brought him money and notoriety. Tho jealousy of the regular actors produced an edict restricting the Theatre de la Foire, or licensed booths at fair times, to a single character on the stage. None of the ordinary writers for this theatre, not even Lesage, would attempt a monologue-drama for the purpose, and Piron obtained a footing as a dramatic author, much applause, and three hundred crowns, with a piece called Arlequin Deucalion. Thenceforward he was constantly employed for this theatre, and not seldom for the more dignified Comedie Franaise, but with the exception of the excellent verse comedy of La Mf tromanie no one of his comedies and none of his tragedies at all deserve mention. His real vocation was that of an epigram maker, and this, though it made him not a few enemies, recommended him to not a few patrons who supplied his necessities. His most intimate associates, however, during the middle period of his life were two ladies of talent though not of position, Mademoiselle Quinault, the actress, and her friend Made moiselle Quenaudon or De Bar, companion to a lady of rank. She was slightly older than Piron and not beauti ful, but after twenty years acquaintance he married her in 1741, lived happily enough with her for four years, and nursed her tenderly during an attack of madness which in other two years proved fatal. He long outlived her, dying on the 21st January 1773 in his eighty-fourth year. The discredit of his early literary misdeed, and perhaps his indiscriminate habits of lampooning, prevented his election to the Academy, certain persons having induced the king to interpose his veto. But Piron was pensioned, and during the last half century of his life was never in any want. He was a complete literary free-lance, and lam pooned Freron and Desfontaines as sharply as he lam pooned Voltaire and the philosophe coterie. Socially he was a rather loose liver, though probably, except on paper, not worse than most of his contemporaries. He was a member of the somewhat famous convivial society of the Caveau. But his true title to remembrance lies in his epigrams, one of which, the burlesque epitaph on himself but reflecting on the Academy (see vol. viii. p. 496), is known to almost everybody, while many others equal or surpass it in brilliancy. Grimm called him a &quot;machine a saillies,&quot; and probably no man who ever lived possessed more of the peculiarly French faculty of sharply pointed verbal wit than he. It is noteworthy too that he was as ready with conversational retort as with his pen. Piron published his own theatrical works in 1758, and after his death his friend and literary executor Rigollot de Juvigny pub lished his CEuvrcs Completes. During the last thirty years a good deal of unpublished work has been added by MM. Bonhomme, Lalanne, and others. But the epigrams, which take up but little room and have been frequently reissued in various selections, are. alone of great importance. PISA, which has always been one of the most import ant cities of central Italy, is situated on the banks of the Arno at a short distance from the sea, in the midst of a 1. Cavalicridi S. Stcfano. 2. Academy of Fine Arts. 3. Royal Theatre. 5. Palazzo Lanfrcclucci or Alia Giomata. G. Tost Office. 4. University. fertile plain backed by marble mountains wooded with pines and other forest trees. In the days of Strabo it was only two geographical miles from the sea-shore, but the continual increase of the delta at the mouth of the river has now trebled that distance. In the Middle Ages the Arno was still navigable for all ships of war then in use, and formed the safest of harbours. The origin of Pisa is very ancient, and is involved in obscurity. The Romans believed it to date from the days of Troy, and also gave a legendary account of its foundation by colonists from Greece. Strabo mentions it as one of the bravest of the Etruscan cities. From Polybius we learn that in 225 B.C. it was already the friend of the Romans;