POLYDORE. 215 POLYGLOT. POL'YDORE. ( 1 1 Tlie name assumed by Guiderius in .Shakespeare's Cymbeline. (2) The brother-in-law of ilonimia in Otway's tragedy The Orphan, who personated her hus- band on her wedding night, and killed himself on discovering her secret marriage. POLYEXICTE, p61e-ekt'. < 1 ) A tragedy in five acts by Corneille, published with a dedica- tion to Anne of Austria in 1642. Polyeucte is the husband of Pauline, daughter of the Roman proconsul Felix, who is commissioned to perse- cute the Christians, and is forced to put his son- in-law to death, in spite of his daughter's plead- ings. Pauline, after her husband's martyrdom, is converted to his faith, and in turn influences Felix to embrace Christianity. The character of Pauline is one of Corneille's finest creations. (2) An opera in five acts by Gounod (1878) with libretto by Barbier and Carrg. POL YG* ALA (Lat., from Gk. vo>.vya?j>v,polyg- alon, milkwort, from ttoXv^, polys, much, many + ya'Aa, gala, milk). A large genus of annual and perennial herbs and small shrubs of the natural order Polyga- laceue. natives chiefly of warm and temper- ate climates. Poly- gala vulgaris, common milkwort, is a small perennial plant, with an ascending stem, lin- ear-lanceolate leaves, and terminal racemes of small but beautiful blue, pink, or white flowers, having a fine- ly crested keel. It grows in dry hilly pastures. Many spe- cies are natives of Xorth America. Poly- gala Senega is a North American species with erect, simple, tufted stems, about one foot high, and terminal racemes of small white flowers. The root, which is woody, branched. contorted, and about half an inch in diameter, is the senega-root, sen- eka-root. or snake-root of the United States, famous as an imagi- nary cure for snake- bites. Polygala cro- talarioides is similar- ly employed in the Himalayas. In the United States the „ . . roots of Polyqala alba. BE.NEOA 8SAKEROOT (Polygala n„r J r> 1 ■ ■■ Senega). Polygala Boykinu, and others which are considered inferior as drugs to Polygala Senega are often collected and mixed with that species. The bark of the roots of Jlonnina polystacha and Monnina salicifolia is used in Peru as a sub- stitute for soap. POLYGAMY (from (Jk. wo).vyafua, jiolygamia, plural marriage, from -o>.v}a/ioi, polygainos. much marred, from iro'Avf, polys, much, many -)- ya/io;, gamos, marriage). That form of marriage and the family in which a man has two or more wives. Strictly speaking, polygamy, meaning plural marriage, includes polyandry (more than one husband) as well as polygj-ny (more than one wife). PolygjTiy is found in all climes and among all races: Fuegians, Australians, Xegritos, the Malayo-PoljTiesians, American Indians, and peoples of Africa. It flourishes in China and in Turkey, and in former ages it prevailed among the peoples of Western Asia. It seems not to have been practiced to any extent by Greeks or Romans, and* its occurrence among Celts and Germans was occasional. Tacitus says of the Germans of his day that "almost alone among barbarians" they "are content with one wife:" but he notes a few exceptions of noble birth. Polygamy has never been the only family form in any tribe or nation. Usually it has been only the relatively well-to-do and the powerful that have maintained polygamous families, while the majority of men and women have commonly lived in monogamous relations, the very poor resort- ing at times to poljandry. Under some condi- tions polygamy has been favored on economic grounds. Miere a simple agricultural industry is carried on by women, as in parts of Africa and of Xorth America, the possession of many wives may mean not mere luxurious expenditure, but increase of productive power. Ancestor worship was favorable to polygamy because failure of the first wife to bear sons was equivalent to bringing the supreme purpose of the family to naught. The line of the family priesthood was broken. la other ways also the religious sanction has been appealed to. The Mormons, for example, have regarded the multiplication of offspring as the supreme duty. See Mabbiage. POLYGLOT (ML. polyglottiis, from Gk. iro?.v. y'/.uTTog, poUjgUjttos, TToAiyAuaaof, polyglossos, sjieaking many tongues, from ttoaix, polys, much, many + yXar-a, glotta, yAciaaa, glossa, tongue, language). A book containing the same subject matter in more than one language, generally ar- ranged for convenience in parallel columns. Of such books editions of the Bible are most com- mon, and are generally meant by the term polyglot. Various versions of the Hebrew Old Testament (such as the Bexapla of Origen, q.v.) and the Greek New Testament were united for convenience at various times. Using the term strictly, there are four great polyglots: (1) The Complutensian Polyglot, in six folio volumes, be- gun in 1.502, printed from 151.3 to 1517 at Alcalfi de Henarez (the Roman Complutum. whence the name Complutensian) , Spain, and published un- der Papal permission in 1520. Famous Spanish scholars edited the work, which was under the general oversight of Cardinal Ximenes. This polyglot contains the Old Testament in Hebrew, the Targimi of Onkelos on the Pentateuch, the Septuagint, the A'ulgate, and the Greek New Testament. Six hundred copies were printed. (2) The Antwerp Polyglot, liihlia Regia. issued from the famous Plantin printing house in Ant- werp. This was prepared under Spanish auspices also, Philip II. bearing the cost and sending the scholar Arias Montanus to Antwerp to edit it. It is in eight folio volumes, appeared from 1569 to 1572, and contains the Hebrew and Greek of
