POCO. 146 PODARGE. POCO, pfi'k6 (It., little). A term iinicli used ill iiiu.sii', as i>oco animalo, nitlicr animated; poco fuilv. abbreviated pf., rallier loiid; puco a poco sigiiities liy dej;nes, little by little; poco a poco crfjj(tH</o, l>e<oiiiiii>; loud h defjrees; poco a poco rdlUiilaiidv, bceoming slower ]>y degrees. PO'COCKE, or POCOCK, Edwaro (1604-91). An Enjilisli Oriental .seliolar. He was born at O.ford. fjraduated B.A. from Corpus Christi Col- lege. Oxford, in 1022, and received priest's orders in 1('>2'.I. We early turned his attention to Orien- tal studies and had the best teachers that England could supply. In the Bodleian Library he discov- ered a manuscript of the Syriac version of the New Testament, containing four epistles ( II. Peter. II. and 111. .John, and .Jude), which had been missing in the earlier editions, and iniblislied them under the title 'crsio ft iiuttr atl (jiiatiior epistulas stfriace (Leyden, Ifl.SO). In 1()29 he was appointed chaplain to the English 'Turkey Merchants' at Aleppo, and arrived at his post in October of the following year. He remained there for more than five years, during which time he mastered the Arabic language and continued the study of Hebrew, Syriac, Samaritan, and Ethiopic. He cultivated friendly relations with the natives and was extraordinarily successful in collecting valuable manuscripts. lie ]icrformed the duties of his post faithfully, and in 10.34, when the plague raged in Alejipo, remained in the town when others fled to the mountains. In IC.'JO Poeocke returned to England to accept from Archbishop Laud an ap]iointnient as the first professor of a new Arabic "lectureship' at Oxford. The following year he again went to the East to study and collect more manuscripts. For nearly three years he resided at Constantino|)le. re- turning to England in 1041. During the Civil War and the ('onunonwealth his connection with Laud and Royalist sympathies exjiosed him to much annoyance. His college presented him to the living at Childrey, Berkshire (1042), where his parishioners cheated him and quartered soldiers at the rectory. The revenues of the Arabic lec- tureship were illegally seized, but by the exertion of John Selden and other friends,' Poeocke was reinstated, lie was made professor of Hebrew (1047), with a canonry, of which he was de- prived in lOiiO, while allowed to retain his profes- sorships through the unanimous interposition of all the heads of houses, masters, and scholars at Oxford. In 10.5.') a plan to <le]irive him of his living was defeated through the influence of .Tohn Owen and other enlightened men. who urged "the infinite contempt and re[)roach which would re- sult from such treatment of a man whom all the learned, not of England only, )nit of all Europe, admired for his vast learning and accomjilish- ments." During these troublous tinu'S Poeocke steadily pursued his studies, and strove to fulfill all duties incumbent upon him. but jirofessed that "to do anything that may ever so little molest the quiet of my conscience would be more grievous than the loss, not only of my fortunes, but even of my life." He pulilished his great work, the Speeimni Historiw Arah}im, at Oxford in 1649 (2d ed. by .Joseph Yhite. 1800). This work marks an epoch in Arabic studies, and all later scholars have borne testimony to its erudition and sound scholnrship. Other works of the same period are the Porta Mosis, an edition of the six prefatory discourses of Maimonides on the Mishna, with Latin translations and notes (1055) ; the Voiitcxiiu (J cm muni in, a Latin trans- lation of the Annals of Eutychius (1058) ; and a treatise on The Xatttre of the hiini; Kauhi or Coffee, Described hy an, Arabian I'hynioian (1059). He gave much assistance in the prepa- ration of Walton's Polyglot (1057). At the Restoration he was reinstated in his canonry of Christ Church, and thenceforth lived in quiet and ease at Oxford, but with no abatement of his devotion to study. He published several works, the most important of which were his com- mentaries on the Minor Prophets (Mieah and Malachi, 1077; Hosea, 1085; Joel, 1091). He died September 10, 1G91. Pococke's life was writ- ten by the Rev. Leonard Twells and prefixed to his edition of The Theological ^'orks of the Learned Dr. Poeocke (2 vols., London, 1740). POCOCKE, Richard (1704-05). M English clergyman and traveler. He was born at South- ampton, and studied at Corpus Christi, Oxford. In 1725 he was appointed precentor of Lismore and in 1734 Vicar-General of the Diocese of Wa- terford and Lismore. The appointment was made during his absence, for from 1733 to 1730 he trav- eled through Europe to Greece. His passion for travel became established, and upon his return home he made tours through some of the south- ern counties of England, and came to be knowTj as "Poeocke the traveler." In 1737 he set forth upon a long journey to Egypt and the East, from which he returned in 1742, shortly afterwards Iiublishing in folio A Description of the Hast and of Some Other Countries: vol. i., Obsrrrations on Eipipt (1743) ; vol. ii.. in two parts. Observations on Palestine, or the Holy Land, Syria, Mesopota- mia. Cyprus, and Candia (1745). This work was dedicated to the Earl of Chesterfield, and earned for the author the Archdeaconry of Dublin ( 1755) . In 1750 he was made Bishop of Ossory, and one of his first labors was the restoration of the beau- tiful cathedral church of Saint Canice in Kil- keimy. He became interested in the study of Irish antiquities and wrote An Account of Some Antii/iiities Found in Ireland for the London So- ciety of Antiquarians, which was published after his death in the second volume of the Archwolo- gia (1773). Poeocke made several Journeys to Scotland, and in 1700, having prepared himself by extensive reading, he set out on a tour that led him as far as the Orkneys, from which he re- turned by the cast coast, visiting, describing, and sketching nearly all the abbeys, ruins, and places of interest on his route. Between April and October he traveled 3391 miles on horseback. The acetmnts of his Scottish travels did not ap> pear until brought out by the Scottish Ilistorv Society, Tours in Scotland, 17.'i7, ll'oO. JlfiO, edited," with a biographicalskcteh, byKemp( 1887). Pococke's interests were not exclusively devoted to antiquarian research. He establishd the Lin- town factory in 1703 to further the Irish linen trade, and left a bequest for its maintenance. As Poeocke College it is still jierpetuated under the Incorporated Societv for Promoting English Protestant Schools in Ireland. In 1705 he was translated to the Bishopric of Meath. Accounts of his travels in England, Scotland, and Ireland were republished between 1888 and 1891. PODAGRA, See Golt. PODARGE, p.'.-dar'.je (Lat., from Gk. iro5<£/)7in swift-footed). One of the Harpies (q.v.).
