Oxford Reader's Companion to Trollope

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Pabsby, Mr, Wesleyan minister at Percycross who reportedly has political influence over his flock. He is canvassed by Sir Thomas UnderU+00A- wood, but does not vote for him. Pabsby has a voice made up of 'pretence, politeness and saliva' (XX). RH ALS

Packer, steward of Lord Trowbridge eager in pursuing the feud between the Marquis and the vicar. IMP RCT

Palliser, Adelaide (later Maule), portionless cousin of the young Duke of Omnium. Adelaide Palliser is beautiful, spirited, aristocratic, and an avid hunter. Though without family money, she is heir to her family's stubborn streak and shows greater strength of character than her lover GerU+00A- ard Maule. Miss Palliser is ultimately enabled to marry her fiancé with financial help from the Duchess of Omnium. PR, DC JMR

Palliser, Lord Gerald, second son of the Duke of Omnium, sent down from Oxford for attendU+00A- ing the Derby. Lord Silverbridge suggests he beU+00A- come an attaché. The Duke despairs at the thought of the exam, but Lord Gerald evidently passes it since he figures in Foreign Office gossip in The American Senator. DC MG

Palliser, Lady Glencora (née M'Cluskie). 'Lady Glen', as she is affectionately known, is the reigning queen of the Palliser series, as Mrs ProuU+00A- die is the female potentate who strides through the Barsetshire series+ADs- and the two of them allow Trollope to explore the issue of women and power in the private and public spheres. An heirU+00A- ess pushed into a marriage of interest to the heir of the Duke of Omnium, Glencora appears in Can You Forgive Her? as a young wife yoked to a dull, uncongenial husband, and hankering after her lost love, the handsome ne'er-do-well Burgo Fitzgerald. But once she has put that waft of roU+00A- mance behind her, she comes to interest herself intensely in her husband's political career, to have her finger in many pies, and to wield enorU+00A- mous personal power as hostess and wife. 'They should have made me Prime Minister,' she deU+00A- clares ( PM LVI); and in many ways she would have made a better one than her husband, the scrupulous Plantagenet Palliser.

While the taciturn Palliser requires the narraU+00A- tor's commentary to convey his inward thoughts, Glencora dramatizes herself by her speech. 'I'm one of those who likes talking,' she characterizes herself ( CYFH XXII). She is defined by her talk, which is engagingly frank and vivid. Whether she is scandalizing her husband by her use of slang or putting an eminent minister in his place, she never minces words. 'She says exactly what she thinks at the time', says Violet Effingham, 'and she is always as good as her word' ( PR LXIX). It is a rare tribute, and deserved.

Once she has settled to her roles as minister's wife, hostess, and duchess, she relishes her posU+00A- ition of influence. People are her material, and she exerts herself to make something of them and to shape their lives. When a young engaged couple fall out, she undertakes to put everything right: 'If it's the kind of thing that ought to be', she says, 'I'd manage it in a week' ( PR LXIX); and she does. She choreographs the union of Phineas Finn with Marie Goesler, and plays godU+00A- dess in her domains at Matching and Gatherum Castle. When she makes mistakes--and she does--she is ready to bear responsibility for them. 'My back is broad enough,' she says cheerU+00A- fully, while the scrupulous Duke agonizes ( PM LI).

She enjoys power, and would like more of it than her society permits. When the Duke beU+00A- comes Prime Minister, she is triumphant, and at once resolves 'to put the Queen down', and 'to make Buckingham Palace second-rate' ( PM VI). She launches social manœuvres on a grand scale, and is both her husband's most tireless supporter and his chief rival for prestige and influence. As the Duke of St Bungay notes, 'though she had failed to love the man, she had given her whole heart to the Prime Minister' ( PM LXVI). An ill- assorted couple launched in a loveless match of interest, Glencora and Plantagenet Palliser yet make a success of their marriage. As Trollope beU+00A- lieved, this pair, along with Josiah Crawley, were his best claim to fame ( Auto XX). JM

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