▪ I. personage
(ˈpɜːsənɪdʒ)
[a. OF. personage, -ounage (13th c. in Godef.), mod.F. personnage = Pr. personatge, It. personaggio, med.L. persōnāticum (1057 in Du Cange), -āgium, deriv. of persōna person: see -age.]
† 1. A representation or figure of a person; an image or effigy; a statue or portrait. Obs.
| 1483 in Lett. Rich. III & Hen. VII (Rolls) I. 6 There was a personage like to the symilitude of the king in habet royall crowned with the crown oon his hede. 1588 Parke tr. Mendoza's Hist. China 186 The gate was wrought of masons warke of stone..full of figures or personages. 1601 Holland Pliny vii. xxxviii, Alexander streightly forbad..That no man should draw his pourtrait in colours but Apelles the painter: that none should engraue his personage but Pyrgoteles the grauer. 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies v. xxix. 420 Upon this litter they set the personage of the idoll, appoynted for the feast. 1607–12 Bacon Ess., Beauty (Arb.) 210 Apelles, or Albert Durere,..Whereof the one would make a Parsonage by Geometricall proporcions, the other, by takeing the best partes out of divers faces to make one excellent. |
† 2. The body of a person; chiefly with reference to appearance, stature, etc.; bodily frame, figure; personal appearance: = person n. 4. (In quot. 1785 humorously for the ‘person’ or ‘body’.) Obs.
| 1461 Rolls of Parlt. V. 463/1 The beaute of personage that it hath pleased Almyghty God to send You. c 1559 R. Hall Life Fisher in Fisher's Wks. (E.E.T.S.) II. p. lxiij, Doctor Ridley (who was a man of verie little and small personage). 1606 L. Bryskett Civ. Life 32 Well borne, vertuous, chaste, of tall and comely personage, and well spoken. 1680 Morden Geog. Rect. (1685) 344 The Armenians are..of comely Personage. 1701 C. Wolley Jrnl. New York (1860) 57 Of a Gentile Personage, and a very agreeable behaviour in conversation. 1785 Cowper Let. to Lady Hesketh 20–24 Dec., Half a dozen flannel waistcoats..to be worn..next my personage. |
| fig. 1593 G. Harvey Pierce's Super. Wks. (Grosart) II. 103 His stile addeth fauour, and grace to beauty; and in a goodly Boddy representeth a puissant Soule. How few verses carry such a personage of state? |
† b. A person of (such and such a) figure or appearance: = person n. 4 b. Obs.
| 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 594 Hee being a tall and hardie personage. 1653 Holcroft Procopius, Goth. Wars iii. 75 He was a beautifull personage, tall, and of the goodliest countenance that could be seen. 1706 Phillips, Personage, the same with Person; as She was a comely Personage. 1807 Wordsw. Wh. Doe iii. 145 The monumental pomp of age Was with this goodly Personage. |
3. A person (man or woman) of high rank, distinction, consideration, or importance; a person of note. (Originally always with great or the like qualification, which in the 19th c. began to be implied in calling any one ‘a personage’.)
| 1503–4 Act 19 Hen. VII, c. 25 Preamble, Honorable personages to have joint..power with the seid persones rehersed. 1532 Sir J. Russell in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. I. 301 As for the greate personages that be taken..none of them shalbe as yet put to no raunsome. 1654 Earl of Monmouth tr. Bentivoglio's Warrs Flanders 42 The Councel of Spain was then full of many eminent personages. 1683 Brit. Spec. 268 Her Majesty, is a Personage endowed with rare Perfections both of Mind and Body. 1812 Ld. Milton Sp. Ho. Com. 1 Dec., The Great Personage at the Head of the Government. 1845 Disraeli Sybil vii, Sir John Warren bought another estate, and picked up another borough. He was fast becoming a personage. 1893 F. F. Moore I Forbid Banns (1899) 120 Lady Ashenthorpe was a Personage. That she had become a Personage, proved that she possessed a large amount of tact. |
b. In weakened or generalized sense: A person; a man or woman (whose status the speaker does not know, or does not desire to specify).
Sometimes applied ironically or laughingly to a self-important person, who considers himself ‘a personage’; also with mixture of other senses.
| a 1555 Bradford Let. to Lady Vane in Foxe A. & M. (1583) 1648 Many whiche were in comparison of Peter, but rascall personages. 1668 Lloyd (title) Memoires of the Lives..of those Personages who Suffered for the Protestant Religion. 1766 Goldsm. Vic. W. xxx, The personage whom we had long entertained as a harmless amusing companion. 1786 A. M. Bennett Juvenile Indiscr. II. 56 The Seraphic Miss Franklin, was, in his present opinion, a very disgusting personage. 1818 R. Sharp Lett. & Ess. (1834) 54 Your shrewd, sly, evil-speaking fellow is generally a shallow personage. 1879 Geo. Eliot Theo. Such ii. 28 No impassioned personage wishes he had been born in the age of Pitt. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 215 That ready-witted and helpful personage. |
† 4. The quality of being a person or persons; personality. Obs. rare.
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 198 b, For here is no consubstancialite nor personage, whiche is in y⊇ deite. |
† 5. Personal identity, personality, individual self. our personages, ourselves. Obs.
| 1531 Elyot Gov. iii. xxv, Any thinge wherby our wittes may be amended and our personages be more apte to serue our publike weale. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 179 Acts of his personage and not of ours. |
† 6. The sort of person any one is, or is represented to be, in respect of character, rank, etc. Obs.
| 1534 Whitinton Tullyes Offices i. (1540) 43 Poetes iudge comly what soeu[e]r becometh a man by his personage. 1560 Cole Lett. to Jewell ii, The greater personage you beare, the lesse cause haue ye to be put to answer. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 242 Instruments wherew{supt} he obteined estimation, and wonne worship conuenient for his proper personage. 1598 Barret Theor. Warres iv. iv. 115 Many good parts ought to be in the parsonage of a Sergeant Maior. |
7. One of the persons or characters of a drama (dramatis personæ), or of a dramatic poem, story, etc.; also one of the actors on the stage of history.
| 1573 in Cunningham Acc. Revels Crt. (Shaks. Soc. 1842) 32, Patternes for personages of Men & Women in strange attyer. 1579 E. K. in Spenser's Sheph. Cal. Ep. to Harvey §1 His [Spenser's] dewe obseruing of Decorum everye where, in personages, in seasons, in matter, in speach. 1594 in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. III. 33 There being in that Tragœdie sondry personages of greatest astate, to be represented in auncient princely attire. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 156 ¶6 Only three speaking personages should appear at once upon the stage. 1828 D'Israeli Chas. I, I. Pref. 7 The motives of the personages are sometimes as apparent as their actions. 1862 Trollope Orley F. xix, I intend that Madeline Staveley shall..be the most interesting personage in this story. |
b. Hence, the impersonation or acting of such a character, the part (acted); in the phrases, to take upon oneself, put on, play, assume the personage of; also fig. and transf., in to represent the personage of.
| 1559 Mirr. Mag. (1563) B ij, I will take upon me the personage of the last,..full of woundes, miserably mangled, with a pale countenaunce, and grisly looke. 1582 Mulcaster 1st Pt. Elem. Pref., Her Majestie representeth the personage of the hole land. 1632 J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Eromena 37 You have hitherto represented the personage of one, whom you are not. 1641 Ld. J. Digby Sp. in Ho. Com. 21 Apr. 3 Judges wee are now, and must put on another personage. 1651 tr. De-las-Coveras' Don Fenise 78 Every one of us played so well his personage in this Comedy. 1685 Cotton tr. Montaigne i. xix. (1877) I. 75 Whatsoever personage a man takes upon himself to perform, he ever mixes his own part with it. 1901 Pall Mall G. 27 Feb. 6/1 It is common for tragedians to shut themselves up in their dressing-rooms between the acts of a play, and to reassume their personage immediately on being called. |
† c. Assumed or pretended character; acting; semblance. Obs.
| 1572 tr. Buchanan's Detect. Q. Mary M iv, At Setons sche threw away all hir disguisit personage of mourning. |
8. Phrases. † in one's own personage, in person (person 10), personally (obs.). in the personage of, † a. in the character of, as representing (obs.); b. as represented by; personified in; = in the person of (person 12 a, b).
| 1534 Cranmer Misc. Writ. (Parker Soc.) II. 291 In case I had so spoken the same unto you in my own personage. Ibid. 294 To examine in your own personage the said misdoers. 1553 Kennedy Compend. Tract. in Wodrow Soc. Misc. (1844) 153 Spekying unto his Apostolis in the personage of the rest of the ministeris of the Kirk of God. 1888 J. Payn Prince of Blood I. i. 30 ‘Circumstances over which she had no control’, in the personage of her brother Ernest, were impelling her. |
▪ II. personage
obs. form of parsonage.