Plautus \'plo-t3s\ (b. c. 254, Sarsina, Umbria?—d. 184 bc) Roman comic playwright. Little is known for certain about his life, but tradition holds that he was associated with the theatre from an early age. Like other Roman playwrights, he borrowed plots and dramatic techniques from Greek authors, especially New Comedy playwrights such as Menander. His plays, written in verse, were often farces marked by cases of mistaken identity and opportunities for slapstick, and he popularized character types such as the braggart soldier and the sly servant. Twenty-one of his comedies—among the earliest surviving works in Latin—are extant, including The Pot of Gold, The Captives, The Two Menaechmuses, The Braggart Warrior, and Pseudolus. His work influenced European comedy from the Renaissance onward, notably William Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors (1592-93) and Moliere’s The Miser (1669).
play See theatre
play In zoology, actions that have all the elements of purposeful behav¬ iour but are performed for no apparent reason. Play has been documented only among mammals and birds. It is most common among immature animals, but adult animals also play. Horses, cattle, and other ungulates run and kick up their heels even when not fleeing from predators or defending themselves. Dogs adopt an aggressive posture to entice others to join in mock combat. Otters are well known for their mud sliding. Male birds may spontaneously perform their territorial songs when there is no intruding rival.
playa VplI-9\ or pan or flat or dry lake Flat-bottomed depression that is periodically covered by water. Playas occur in interior desert basins and adjacent to coasts in arid and semiarid regions. The water that peri¬ odically covers the playa slowly filters into the groundwater system or evaporates into the atmosphere, causing the deposition of salt, sand, and mud along the bottom and around the edges of the depression.
Player, Gary (Jim) (b. Nov. 1, 1935, Johannesburg, S.Af.) South African golfer. Player entered the U.S. PGA circuit in 1957. He won the British Open three times (1959, 1968, 1974), the Masters three times (1961, 1974, 1978), the PGA twice (1962, 1972), and the U.S. Open once (1965). Player was the third man (after Gene Sarazen and Ben Hogan) to win the four tournaments composing the modern grand slam of golf (the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship).
player piano Piano that mechanically plays music encoded as perfo¬ rations on a paper roll. An early ver¬ sion, patented in 1897 by the American engineer E.S. Votey, was a cabinet placed in front of an ordinary piano, with wooden “fingers” pro¬ jecting over the keyboard. A paper roll with perforations corresponding to the notes passed over a tracker bar to activate the release of air by pneu¬ matic devices that set the fingers in motion; the user could control tempo and loudness by levers and pedals.
Soon this mechanism was built into the piano itself. The later “reproduc¬ ing piano” could reproduce the nuances of tempo and dynamics in great performances, the roll having been produced by the performance itself. After the 1920s the phono¬ graph led to the instrument’s quick decline. Modern versions, such as the Yamaha Disklavier, are operated by digital memory on a computer disk.
playing cards Small rectangular cards used for playing games and sometimes for divination and conjuring. Modem cards are divided into four suits: spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. A complete pack, or deck, of cards includes 13 cards in each suit (10 numbered cards and 3 court cards—king, queen, and jack, or knave); 2 extra cards, called jokers (many times portraying a medieval jester), are often included as well. The ori¬ gin of playing cards is obscure—China and India being the two most likely sources—as is the meaning of their symbols. The earliest reference to cards in Europe occurs in Italy in 1299. The 52-card French deck is now standard throughout the world, but decks with fewer cards evolved in Germany and Spain. Other suit emblems were also used (e.g., bells in Germany, cups in Spain and Italy). See also tarot.
plea bargaining Negotiation of an agreement between the prosecu¬ tion and the defense whereby the defendant pleads guilty to a lesser offense or (in the case of multiple offenses) to one or more of the offenses charged, in exchange for more lenient sentencing, recommendations, a specific sentence, or a dismissal of other charges. Supporters claim plea bargaining speeds court proceedings and guarantees a conviction; oppo¬ nents believe it prevents justice from being served.
plebeian \ple-'be-3n\ (Latin, plebs) Member of the general citizenry, as opposed to the patrician class, in the ancient Roman republic. Plebeians were originally excluded from the Senate and from all public offices except military tribune, and they were forbidden to marry patricians. Seeking to acquire equal rights, they carried on a campaign called Conflict of the Orders, developing a separate political organization and seceding in pro¬ test from the state at least five times. The campaign ceased when a ple¬ beian dictator (appointed 287 bc) made measures passed in the plebeian assembly binding on the whole community.
plebiscite Vple-bs-.shA Vote by the people of an entire country or dis¬ trict to decide an issue. Voters are asked to accept or reject a given pro¬ posal rather than choose between alternative proposals. By means of plebiscites, intermediaries such as political parties can be bypassed. Because plebiscites offer a way to claim a popular mandate without per¬ mitting an opposition party, totalitarian regimes have used them to legiti¬ mize their power. See also referendum and initiative.
Plehve \'pla-vyi\ A Vyacheslav (Konstantinovich) (b. April 20, 1846, Kaluga province, Russia—d. July 28, 1904, St. Petersburg) Russian government administrator. In 1881 he was appointed director of the secret police in the ministry of the interior. He became head of the imperial chancellery (1894), state secretary for Finland (1899), and minister of the interior (1902). Concerned with upholding autocratic principles, he sup¬ pressed revolutionary and liberal movements, harshly pursued Russifica¬ tion policies against minority nationality groups, and backed police- controlled labour unions. He was assassinated by a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party.
Pleiades \'ple-9-,dez\ Open cluster of stars in the constellation Taurus, about 400 light-years from Earth. It contains a large amount of bright nebulous material and several hundred stars, of which six or seven can be seen by the unaided eye and have figured prominently in the myths and literature of many cultures. In the Northern Hemisphere, the rising of the Pleiades near dawn in spring has from ancient times marked the opening, and their morning setting in autumn the end, of seafaring and farming seasons.
Pleistocene Vplls-t9-,sen\ Epoch Earlier and longer of the two epochs that constitute the Quaternary Period. The Pleistocene began c. 1.8 mil¬ lion years ago and ended c. 10,000 years ago. It was preceded by the Pliocene Epoch of the Tertiary Period and followed by the Holocene Epoch. At the height of the Pleistocene glacial ages, more than 30% of the land area of the Earth was covered by glacial ice; during the interglacial stages, probably only about 10% was covered. The animals of the Pleistocene began to resemble those of today, and new groups of land mammals, including humans, appeared. At the end of the epoch, mass extinctions occurred: in North America more than 30 genera of large mammals became extinct within a span of roughly 2,000 years. Of the many causes that have been proposed for these extinctions, the two most likely are changing environment with changing climate and disruption of the eco¬ logical pattern by early humans.
Plekhanov \pli-'ka-nof\, Georgy (Valentinovich) (b. Dec. 11, 1856, Gudalovka, Russia—-d. May 30, 1918, Terioki, Fin.) Russian Marx¬ ist theorist. From 1874 he was active in the Populist movement and