Pander

To pander to one’s vices is to act as an agent to them, and such an agent is termed a pander, from Panʹ-dărus, who procures for Troʹilus the love and graces of Cressida. In Much Ado about Nothing it is said that Troilus was “the first employer of pandars” (v. 2). (Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida; Chaucer: Troilus and Cresseide.)

“Let all pitiful goers-between be called to the world’s end after my name, call them all ‘Pandars.ʹ Let all constant men be ‘Trolluses,ʹ all false women be ‘Cressids,ʹ and all brokers-between, ‘Pandars.ʹ Say, Amen.”—Troilus and Cressida, iii. 2.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

Pander

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