SHERIDAN (_Francis_), 7 feet 8 inches. (See “Frank.”)

SWAN (_Miss Anne Hanen_), 7 feet 11 inches; of Nova Scotia.

⁂ In 1682, a giant 7 feet 7 inches was exhibited in Dublin. A Swede 8

feet 6 inches was in the body-guard of a king of Prussia. A human

skeleton 8 feet 6 inches is preserved in the museum of Trinity College,

Dublin.

Becanus says he had seen a man nearly 10 feet high, and a woman fully 10

feet. Gasper Bauhin speaks of a Swiss 8 feet in height. Del Rio says he

saw a Piedmontes in 1572 more than 9 feet in stature. C.S.F. Warren,

M.A., says (in _Notes and Queries_, August 14, 1875) that his father

knew a lady 9 feet high; “her head touched the ceiling of a good-sized

room.” Vanderbrook says he saw a black man, at Congo, 9 feet high.

=Giant of Literature=, Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1783).

=Giant’s Leap= (_Lam Goëmagot_) or “Goëmagot’s Leap.” Now called Haw,

near Plymouth. The legend is that Cori´neus (3 _syl._) wrestled with

Goëmagot, king of the Albion giants, heaved the monster on his shoulder,

carried him to the top of a high rock, and cast him into the sea.

At the beginning of the encounter, Corineus and the giant, standing

front to front, held each other strongly in their arms, and panted aloud

for breath; but Goëmagot presently grasping Croineus with all his might,

broke three of his ribs, two on the right side and one on his left.

Corineus, highly enraged, roused up his whole strength, snatched up the

giant, ran with him on his shoulders to the neighboring cliff, and

heaved him into the sea.... The place where he fell is called Lam

Goëmagot to this day.—Geoffrey, _British History_, i. 16 (1142).

=Giaour= [_djow´.er_]. Byron’s tale called _The Giaour_ is supposed to

be told by a Turkish fisherman who had been employed all the day in the

gulf of Ægi´na, and landed his boat at night-fall on the Piræ´us, now

called the harbor of Port Leonê. He was eye-witness of all the

incidents, and in one of them a principal agent (see line 352: “I hear

the sound of coming feet....”). The tale is this: Leilah, the beautiful

concubine of the Caliph Hasson, falls in love with a giaour, flees from

the seraglio, is overtaken by an emir, put to death, and cast into the

sea. The giaour cleaves Hassan’s skull, flees for his life, and becomes

a monk. Six years afterwards he tells his history to his father

confessor on his death-bed, and prays him to “lay his body with the

humblest dead, and not even to inscribe his name on his tomb.”

Accordingly, he is called “the Giaour,” and is known by no other name

(1813).

=Giauha´re= (4 _syl._), daughter of the king of Saman´dal, the mightiest

of the undersea empires. When her father was made captive by king Saleh,

she emerged for safety to a desert island, where she met Bed´er, the

young king of Persia, who proposed to make her his wife; but Griauharê

“spat on him,” and changed him “into a white bird with red beak and red

legs.” The bird was sold to a certain king, and, being disenchanted,

resumed the human form. After several marvellous adventures, Beder again

met the under-sea princess, proposed to her again, and she became his

wife and queen of Persia.—_Arabian Nights_ (“Beder and Griauharê”).

=Gibbet=, a foot-pad and a convict, who “left his country for his

country’s good.” He piqued himself on being “the best-behaved man on the

road.”

’Twas for the good of my country I should be abroad.—George Farquhar,

_The Beaux’ Stratagem_, iii. 3 (1707).

I thought it rather odd ... and said to myself, as Gibbet said when he

heard that Aimwell had gone to church, “That looks suspicious.”—James

Smith.

_Gibbet_ (Master), secretary to Martin Joshua Bletson (parliamentary

commissioner).—Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).

=Gib´bie= (_Guse_), a half-witted lad in the service of Lady

Bellenden.—Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

Like Goose Gibbie of famous memory, he first kept the turkeys, and then,

as his years advanced, was promoted to the more important office of

minding the cows.—Keightley.

=Gibby=, a Scotch Highlander in attendance on Colonel Briton. He marries

Inis, the waiting-woman of Isabella.—Mrs. Centlivre, _The Wonder_

(1714).

=Gibou=, (_Madame_), a type of feminine vulgarity. A hard-headed,

keen-witted, coarsely clever, and pragmatical _maîtresse femme_, who

believes in nothing but a good digestion and money in the Funds.—Henri

Monnier, _Scènes Populaires_ (1852.)

Mde. Pochet and Mde. Gibou are the French “Mrs. Gamp and Mrs. Harris.”

=Gibson= (_Janet_), a young dependent on Mrs. Margaret Bertram of

Singleside.—Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

=Gifford= (_John_). This pseudonym has been adopted by three authors:

(1) John Richards Green, _Blackstone’s Commentaries Abridged_, 1823; (2)

Edward Foss, _An Abridgment of Blackstone’s Commentaries_ (1821); (3)

Alexander Whellier, _The English Lawyer_.

_Gifford_ (_William_), author of _The Baviad_, a poetical satire, which

annihilated the Delia Crusca school of poets (1794). In 1796, Gifford

published _The Mœviad_, to expose the low state of dramatic authorship.

He was a man with whom I had no literary sympathies.... He had, however,

a heart full of kindness for all living creatures except authors: _them_

he regarded as a fishmonger regards eels, or as Izaak Walton did

worms.—Southey.

=Giggleswick Fountain= ebbs and flows eight times a day. The tale is

that Giggleswick was once a nymph living with the Oreads on Mount

Craven. A satyr chanced to see her, and resolved to win her; but

Giggleswick fled to escape her pursuer, and praying to the “topic gods”

(the local genii), was converted into a fountain, which still pants with

fear. The tale is told by Drayton, in his _Polyolbion_, xxviii. (1622).

=Gilbert=, butler to Sir Patrick Charteris, provost of Perth.—Sir W.

Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

_Gilbert_ (_Miss_), an ambitious girl with a taste for literary

celebrity. She writes one book which is a slight success, another which

“takes.” Petted from her childhood, and spoiled by the tolerable measure

of adulation she receives subsequently, she needs the discipline of

mortification and schooling to tone her down to what an originally fine

nature was designed to become. She becomes the happy wife of a self-made

man who has done his work well.—Josiah Gilbert Holland, _Miss Gilbert’s

Career_ (1859).

_Gilbert_ (_Sir_), noted for the sanative virtue of his sword and

cere-cloth. Sir Launcelot touched the wounds of Sir Meliot with Sir

Gilbert’s sword and wiped them with a cere-cloth, and “anon a wholer man

was he never in all his life”—Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_,

i. 116 (1470).

=Gilbert with the White Hand=, one of the companions of Robin Hood,

mentioned often in _The Lyttell Geste of Robyn Hode_ (fytte v. and

vii.).

Thair saw I Maitlaind upon auld Beird Gray

Robene Hude and Gilbert “with the quhite hand,”

Quhom Hay of Nauchton slew in Madin-land.

_Scottish Poems_, i. 122.

=Gil´bertscleugh=, cousin to Lady Margaret Bellenden.—Sir W. Scott, _Old

Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

=Gil Blas=, son of Blas of Santilla´ne, ’squire or “escudero” to a lady,

and brought up by his uncle, Canon Gil Perês. Gil Blas went to Dr.

Godinez’s school, of Oviedo [_O.ve.á.do._] and obtained the reputation

of being a great scholar. He had fair abilities, a kind heart, and good

inclinations, but was easily led astray by his vanity. Full of wit and

humor, but lax in his morals. Duped by others at first, he afterwards

played the same devices on those less experienced. As he grew in years,

however, his conduct improved, and when his fortune was made he became

an honest, steady man.—Lesage, _Gil Blas_ (1715).

(Lesage has borrowed largely from the romance of Espinel, called _Vida

del Escudero Marcos de Obregon_ (1618), from which he has taken his

prologue, the adventure of the parasite (bk. i. 2), the dispersion of

the company of Cacabelos by the muleteer (bk. i. 3),the incident of the

robber’s cave (bk. i. 4, 5), the surprise by the corsairs, the

contributions levied by Don Raphael and Ambrose (bk. i. 15, 16), the

service with the duke of Lerma, the character of Sangrado (called by

Espinel _Sagredo_), and even the reply of Don Matthias de Silva when

asked to fight a duel early in the morning, “As I never rise before one,

even for a party of pleasure, it is unreasonable to expect that I should

rise at six to have my throat cut,” bk. iii. 8.)

=Gilda=, beautiful daughter of the jester, Rigoletto. She is beloved by

his master, the duke, who abducts her, Rigoletto conniving at the deed

under the impression that the wife of his enemy occupies the chamber

given without his knowledge to Gilda.—Verdi, _Rigoletto_.

=Gildas de Ruys= (_St._) near Vannes, in France. This monastery was

founded in the sixth century, by St. Gildas, “The Wise” (516-565).

For some of us knew a thing or two

In the abbey of St. Gildas de Ruys.

Longfellow, _The Golden Legend_.

=Gil´deroy=, a famous robber. There were two of the name, both handsome

Scotchmen, both robbers and both were hanged. One lived in the

seventeenth century and “had the honor” of robbing Cardinal Richelieu

and Oliver Cromwell. The other was born in Roslin, in the eighteenth

century, and was executed in Edinburgh for “stealing sheep, horses and

oxen.” In the Percy _Reliques_, I. iii. 12, is the lament of Gilderoy’s

widow at the execution of her “handsome” and “winsome” Gilderoy; and

Campbell has a ballad on the same subject. Both are entitled “Gilderoy,”

and refer to the latter robber; but in Thomson’s _Orpheus Caledonius_,

ii, is a copy of the older ballad.

⁂ Thomson’s ballad places Gilderoy in the reign of Mary, “queen of

Scots,” but this is not consistent with the tradition of his robbing

Richelieu and Cromwell. We want a third Gilderoy for the reign of Queen

Mary—one living in the sixteenth century.

=Gilding a Boy.= A naked boy was gilded all over, to adorn a pageant

when Leo X. was made Pope, and died of suffocation.—Vasari, _Life of

Puntormo_.

=Gildip´pe= (3 _syl._) wife of Edward, an English baron, who accompanied

her husband to Jerusalem, and performed prodigies of valor in the war

(bk. ix.). Both she and her husband were slain by Solyman (bk.

xx.).—Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

=Giles=, a farmer in love with Patty, “the maid of the mill” and

promised to him by her father; but Patty refuses to marry him.

Ultimately, “the maid of the mill” marries Lord Aimworth. Giles is a

blunt, well-meaning, working farmer, with no education, no refinement,

no notion of the amenities of social life.—Bickerstaff, _The Maid of the

Mill_.

_Giles_ (1 _syl._), serving-boy to Claud Halcro.—Sir W. Scott, _The

Pirate_ (time William III.).

_Giles_ (1 _syl._), warder of the Tower.—Sir W. Scott, _Fortunes of

Nigel_ (time, James I.).

_Giles_ (1 _syl._), jailer of Sir Reginald Front de Bœuf.—Sir W. Scott,

_Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

_Giles (Will)_, apprentice of Gibbie Girder, the cooper at Wolf’s Hope

village.—Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time,f William III.).

_Giles_, the “farmer’s boy,” “meek, fatherless, and poor,” the hero of

Robert Bloomfield’s principal poem, which is divided into “Spring,”

“Summer,” “Autumn,” and “Winter” (1798).

=Giles of Antwerp=, Giles Coignet, the painter (1530-1600).

=Gillfillan= (_Habakkuk_), called “Gifted Gilfillan,” a Camero´nian

officer and enthusiast.—Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

=Gill= (_Harry_), a farmer, who forbade old Goody Blake to carry home a

few sticks, which she had picked up from his land, to light a wee-bit

fire to warm herself by. Old Goody Blake cursed him for his meanness,

saying he should never from that moment cease from shivering with cold;

and, sure enough, from that hour, a-bed or up, summer or winter, at home

or abroad, his teeth went “chatter, chatter, chatter still.” Clothing

was of no use, fires of no avail, for, spite of all, he muttered, “Poor

Harry Gill is very cold.”—Wordsworth, _Goody Blake and Harry Gill_

(1798).

_Gill_ (_Mrs. Peter_). Bustling matron with a genius for innovation. She

conducts her household affairs according to sanitary and sanatory

principles; discovers that condiments are pernicious and that beans are

excellent for the complexion; is bent upon a water-cure, and finds out

and invents so many “must bes” and “don’ts” as to ruin the comfort of

husband and children.—Robert B. Roosevelt, _Progressive Petticoats_

(1874).

=Gil´lamore= (3 _syl._) or =Guillamur=, king of Ireland, being slain in

battle by Arthur, Ireland was added by the conqueror to his own

dominions.

How Gillamore again to Ireland he pursued ...

And having slain the king, the country waste he laid.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, iv. (1612).

=Gil´lian=, landlady of Don John and Don Frederic.—Beaumont and

Fletcher, _The Chances_ (1620).

_Gillian (Dame)_, tirewoman to Lady Eveline, and wife of Raoul the

huntsman.—Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

=Gilliflowers.= A nosegay of these flowers was given by the fairy

Amazo´na to Carpil´lona in her flight. The virtue of this nosegay was,

that so long as the princess had it about her person, those who knew her

before would not recognize her.—Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_

(“Princess Carpillona,” 1682).

=Gills= (_Solomon_), ship’s instrument maker. A slow, thoughtful old

man, uncle of Walter Gay, who was in the house of Mr. Dombey, merchant.

Gills was very proud of his stock-in-trade, but never seemed to sell

anything.—C. Dickens, _Dombey and Son_ (1846).

=Gilpin= (_John_), a linen-draper and train-band captain, living in

London. His wife said to him, “Though we have been married twenty years,

we have taken no holiday;” and at her advice the well-to-do linen-draper

agreed to make a family party, and dine at the Bell, at Edmonton. Mrs.

Gilpin, her sister, and four children went in the chaise, and Gilpin

promised to follow on horseback. As madam had left the wine behind,

Gilpin girded it in two stone bottles to his belt, and started on his

way. The horse, being fresh, began to trot, and then to gallop; and

John, being a bad rider, grasped the mane with both his hands. On went

the horse, off flew John Gilpin’s cloak, together with his hat and wig.

The dogs barked, the children screamed, the turnpike men (thinking he

was riding for a wager) flung open their gates. He flew through

Edmonton, and never stopped till he reached Ware, when his friend the

calender gave him welcome, and asked him to dismount. Gilpin, however,

declined, saying his wife would be expecting him. So the calender

furnished him with another hat and wig, and Gilpin harked back again,

when similar disasters occurred, till the horse stopped at his house in

London.—W. Cowper, _John Gilpin_ (1786).

⁂ John Gilpin was a Mr. Beyer, of Paternoster Row, who died in 1791, and

it was Lady Austin who told the anecdote to the poet. The marriage

adventure of Commodore Trunnion in _Peregrine Pickle_ is a similar

adventure.

=Gines de Passamonte=, one of the galley-slaves set free by Don Quixote.

Gines had written a history of his life and adventures. After being

liberated, the slaves set upon the knight; they assaulted him with

stones, robbed him and Sancho of everything they valued, broke to pieces

“Mambrino’s helmet,” and then made off with all possible speed, taking

Sancho’s ass with them. After a time the ass was recovered (pt. I. iv.

3).

“Hark ye, friend,” said the galley-slave, “Gines is my name, and

Passamonte the title of my family.”—Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. iii. 8

(1605).

⁂ This Gines re-appears in pt. II. ii. 7 as “Peter the showman,” who

exhibits the story of “Melisendra and Don Gayferos.” The helmet also is

presented whole and sound at the inn, where it becomes a matter of

dispute whether it is a basin or a helmet.

=Gineura=, the troth-plight bride of Ariodantês, falsely accused of

infidelity, and doomed to die unless she found within a month a champion

to do battle for her honor. The duke who accused her felt confident that

no champion would appear, but on the day appointed Ariodantês himself

entered the lists. The duke was slain, the lady vindicated, and the

champion became Gineura’s husband.—Arisoto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

Shakespeare, in _Much Ado about Nothing_, makes Hero falsely accused of

infidelity, through the malice of Don John, who induces Margaret (the

lady’s attendant) to give Borachio a rendezvous at the lady’s chamber

window. While this was going on, Claudio, the betrothed lover of Hero,

was brought to a spot where he might witness the scene, and, believing

Margaret to be Hero, was so indignant, that next day at the altar he

denounced Hero as unworthy of his love. Benedict challenged Claudio for

slander, but the combat was prevented by the arrest and confession of

Borachio. Don John, finding his villainy exposed, fled to Messina.

Spencer has introduced a similar story in his _Faëry Queen_, v. 11 (the

tale of “Irena,” _q.v._).

=Gin´evra=, the young Italian bride who, playing hide-and-seek, hid

herself in a large trunk. The lid accidentally fell down, and was held

fast by a spring-lock. Many years afterwards the trunk was sold and the

skeleton discovered.—Rogers, _Italy_ (1792).

T. Haynes Bayley wrote a ballad called _The Mistletoe Bough_, on the

same tradition. He calls the bridegroom “young Lovell.”

A similar narrative is given by Collet, in his _Causes Célèbres_.

Marwell Old Hall, once the residence of the Seymours, and subsequently

of the Dacre family, has a similar tradition attached to it, and “the

very chest is now the property of the Rev. J. Haygarth, rector of

Upham.”—_Post-Office Directory_.

Bramshall, Hampshire, has a similar tale and chest.

The same tale is also told of the great house at Malsanger, near

Basingstoke.

=Gingerbread= (_Giles_), the hero of an English nursery tale.

_Jack the Giant-killer_, _Giles Gingerbread_, and _Tom Thumb_ will

flourish in wide-spreading and never-ceasing popularity.—Washington

Irving.

=Ginn or Jân= (singular _masculine_ Jinnee, _feminine_ Jinniyeh), a

species of beings created long before Adam. They were formed of

“smokeless fire” or fire of the simoom, and were governed by monarchs

named suleyman, the last of whom was Jân-ibn-Jân or Gian-ben-Gian, who

“built the pyramids of Egypt.” Prophets were sent to convert them, but

on their persistent disobedience, an army of angels drove them from the

earth. Among the Ginn was one named Aza´zel. When Adam was created, and

God commanded the angels to worship him, Azazel refused, saying, “Why

should the spirits of fire worship a creature made of earth?” Whereupon

God changed him into a devil, and called him Iblis or Eblis (“despair”).

Spelt also Djinn.

=Gi´ona=, a leader of the anabaptists, once a servant of Comte

d’Oberthal, but discharged from his service for theft. He joined the

rebellion of the anabaptists, but, with the rest of the conspirators,

betrayed the “prophet-king,” John of Leyden, when the emperor arrived

with his army.—Meyerbeer, _Le Prophète_ (1849).

=Giovan´ni= (_Don_), a Spanish libertine of the aristocratic class. His

valet, Leporello, says, “He had 700 mistresses in Italy, 800 in Germany,

91 in France and Turkey, and 1003 in Spain.” When the measure of his

iniquity was full, a legion of foul fiends carried him off to the

devouring gulf.—Mozart’s opera, _Don Giovanni_ (1787).

(The libretto of this opera is by Lorenzo da Ponte).

⁂ The origin of this character was Don Juan Teno´rio, of Seville, who

lived in the fourteenth century. The traditions concerning him were

dramatized by Tirso de Mo´lina; thence passed into Italy and France.

Glück has a musical ballad called _Don Juan_ (1765); Molière, a comedy

on the same subject (1665); and Thomas Corneille (brother of the _Grand

Corneille_) brought out, in 1673, a comedy on the same subject, called

_Le Festin de Pierre_, which is the second title of Molière’s _Don

Juan_. Goldoni, called “The Italian Molière,” has also a comedy on the

same favorite hero.

=Gipsey=, the favorite greyhound of Charles I.

One evening his [_Charles I._] dog scraping at the door, he commanded me

[_Sir Philip Warwick_] to let in Gipsey.—_Memoirs_, 329.

=Gypsey Ring=, a flat gold ring, with stones _let into it_, at given

distances. So called because the stones were originally Egyptian

pebbles—that is, agate and jasper.

⁂ The tale is, that the gypsies are wanderers because they refused to

shelter the Virgin and Child in their flight into Egypt.—Aventinus,

_Annales Boiorum_, viii.

=Giralda= of Seville, called by the Knight of the Mirrors a giantess,

whose body was of brass, and who, without ever shifting her place, was

the most unsteady and changeable female in the world. In fact, this

Giralda was no other than the brazen statue on a steeple in Seville,

serving for a weathercock.

“I fixed the changeable Giralda ... I obliged her to stand still; for

during the space of a whole week no wind blew but from the

north.”—Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. i. 14 (1615).

=Girder= (_Gibbie_, _i.e._ Gilbert), the cooper at Wolf’s Hope village.

_Jean Girder_, wife of the cooper.—Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_

(time, William III.).

=Girdle= (_Armi´da’s_), a cestus worn by Armi´da, which, like that of

Venus, possessed the magical charm of provoking irresistible

love.—Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

_Girdle_ (_Flor´imel’s_), the prize of a grand tournament, in which Sir

Sat´yrane (3 _syl._), Sir Brianor, Sir Sanglier, Sir Artĕgal, Sir

Cambel, Sir Tri´amond, Brit´omart, and others took part. It was

accidentally dropped by Florimel in her flight (bk. iii. 7, 31), picked

up by Sir Satyrane, and employed by him for binding the monster which

frightened Florimel to flight, but afterwards came again into Sir

Satyrane’s possession, when he placed it for safety in a golden coffer.

It was a gorgeous girdle, made by Vulcan for Venus, and embossed with

pearls and precious stones; but its chief merit was

It gave the virtue of chaste love

And wifehood true to all that it did bear;

But whosoever contrary doth prove,

Might not the same about her middle wear,

But it would loose, or else asunder tear.

Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, iii. 7 (1590).

_Girdle_ (_Venus’s_), a girdle on which was embroidered the passions,

desires, joys, and pains of love. It was usually called a cestus, which

means “embroidered,” and was worn lower down than the cin´gulum or

matron’s girdle, but higher up than the zone or maiden’s girdle. It was

said to possess the magical power of exciting love. Homer describes it

thus:

In this was every art, and every charm,

To win the wisest, and the coldest warm;

Fond love, the gentle vow, the gay desire,

The kind deceit, the still reviving fire,

Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs,

Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes.

Pope, _Iliad_, xiv.

=Girdle of Opakka=, foresight and prudence.

“The girdle of Opakka, with which Kifri the enchanter is endued, what is

it,” said Shemshelnar, “but foresight and prudence—the best ‘girdle’ for

the sultans of the earth?”—Sir G. Morell [_i.e_. J. Ridley], _Tales of

the Genii_ (“History of Mahoud,” tale vii., 1751).

=Girdles=, impressed with mystical characters, were bound with certain

ceremonies round women in gestation, to accelerate the birth and

alleviate the pains of labor. It was a Druid custom, observed by the

Gaels, and continued in practice till quite modern times.

Aldo offered to give Erragon “a hundred steeds, children of the rein; a

hundred hawks with fluttering wing, ... and a hundred girdles to bind

high-bosomed maids, friends of the births of heroes.”—Ossian, _The

Battle of Lora._

=Girnington= (_The laird of_), previously Frank Hayston, laird of

Bucklaw, the bridegroom of Lucy Ashton. He is found wounded by his bride

on the wedding night, recovers and leaves the country; but the bride

goes mad and dies.—Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William

III.).

=Giulia= (_Donna_), suspected wife of Don Alonzo in Richard Mansfield’s

play _Don Juan_. She becomes the fast friend of the youthful lovers,

although forced by her husband’s brutality to decoy Juan into the trap

set for him by Alonzo (1891).

=Gjallar=, Heimdall’s horn, which he blows to give the gods notice when

any one approaches the bridge Bifröst.—_Scandinavian Mythology_.

=Gladiator= (_The Dying_). This famous statue, found at Nettuno (the

ancient _Antium_), was the work of Agasĭas, a sculptor of Ephesus.

=Glads´moor= (_Mr._), almoner of the earl of Glenallan, at Glenallan

House.—Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

=Glamorgan=, according to British fable, is _gla_ or _glyn_ Morgan

(valley or glen of Morgan). Cundah´ and Morgan (says Spenser) were sons

of Goneril and Regan, the two elder daughters of King Leyr. Cundah

chased Morgan into Wales, and slew him in the glen which perpetuates his

name.

Then gan the bloody brethren both to raine:

But fierce Cundah gan shortly to envy

His brother Morgan ...

Raisd warre, and him in batteill overthrew;

Whence as he to those woody hilles did fly,

Which hight of him Gla-morgan, there him slew.

Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, ii. 10, 33 (1590).

This is not quite in accordance with Geoffrey’s account:

Some restless spirits ... inspired Margan with vain conceits, ... who

marched with an army through Cunedagius’s country, and began to burn all

before him; but he was met by Cunedagius, with all his forces, who

attacked Margan ... and, putting him to flight, ... killed him in a town

of Kambria, which since his death has been called Margan to this

day.—_British History_, ii. 15 (1142).

=Glasgow= (_The Bishop of_).—Sir W. Scott, _Castle Dangerous_, xix.

(time, Henry I.).

=Glasgow Arms=, an oak tree with a bird above it, and a bell hanging

from one of the branches; at the foot of the tree a salmon with a ring

in its mouth. The legend is that St. Kentigern built the city and hung a

bell in an oak tree to summon the men to work. This accounts for the

“oak and bell.” Now for the rest: A Scottish queen, having formed an

illicit attachment to a soldier, presented her paramour with a ring, the

gift of her royal husband. This coming to the knowledge of the king, he

contrived to abstract it from the soldier while he was asleep, threw it

into the Clyde, and then asked his queen to show it him. The queen, in

great alarm, ran to St. Kentigern, and confessed her crime. The father

confessor went to the Clyde, drew out a salmon with the ring in its

mouth, handed it to the queen, and by this means both prevented a

scandal and reformed the repentant lady.

A similar legend is told of Dame Rebecca Berry, wife of Thomas Elton of

Stratford Bow, and relict of Sir John Berry, 1696. She is the heroine of

the ballad called _The Cruel Knight_. The story runs thus: A knight,

passing by a cottage, heard the cries of a woman in labor. By his

knowledge of the occult sciences, he knew that the infant was doomed to

be his future wife; but he determined to elude his destiny. When the

child was of a marriageable age, he took her to the seaside, intending

to drown her, but relented, and, throwing a ring into the sea, commanded

her never to see his face again, upon pain of death, till she brought

back that ring with her. The damsel now went as cook to a noble family,

and one day, as she was preparing a cod-fish for dinner, she found the

ring in the fish, took it to the knight, and thus became the bride of

Sir John Berry. The Berry arms show a fish, and in the dexter chief a

ring.

=Glass= (_Mrs._), a tobacconist, in London, who befriended Jeanie Deans

while she sojourned in town, whither she had come to crave pardon from

the queen for Effie Deans, her half-sister, lying under sentence of

death for the murder of her infant born before wedlock.—Sir W. Scott,

_Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.).

=Glass Armor.= When Cherry went to encounter the dragon that guarded the

singing apple, he arrayed himself in glass armor, which reflected

objects like a mirror. Consequently, when the monster came against him,

seeing its reflection in every part of the armor, it fancied hundreds of

dragons were coming against it, and ran away in alarm into a cave, which

Cherry instantly closed up, and thus became master of the

situation.—Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“Princess Fairstar,” 1682).

=Glasse= (_Mrs._), author of a cookery-book immortalized by the saying,

“First catch [_skin_] your hair, then cook it.” Mrs. Glasse is the _nom

de plume_ of Dr. John Hill (1716-1775).

=Glas´tonbury=, in Arthurian romance, was the burial place of King

Arthur. Selden, in his _Illustrations of Drayton_, gives an account of

Arthur’s tomb “betwixt two pillars,” and says that “Henry II. gave

command to Henry de Bois (then abbot of Glastonbury) to make great

search for the body of the British king, which was found in a wooden

coffin some 16 foote deepe, and afterwards they found a stone on whose

lower side was fixed a leaden cross with the name inscribed.”

_Glastonbury Thorn._ The legend is that Joseph of Arimatheēa stuck his

staff into the ground in “the sacred isle of Glastonbury,” and that this

thorn blossoms “on Christmas Day” every year. St. Joseph was buried at

Glastonbury.

Not great Arthur’s tomb, nor holy Joseph’s grave,

From sacrilege had power their sacred bones to save ...

[_Here_] trees in winter bloom and bear their summer’s green.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, iii. (1612).

=Glatisant=, the questing beast. It had the head of a serpent, the body

of a libbard, buttocks of a lion, foot of a hart, and in its body “there

was a noise like that of thirty couple of hounds questing” (_i.e._ in

full cry). Sir Palomi´dês the Saracen was forever following this

beast.—Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, ii. 52, 53, 149

(1470).

=Glau´ce= (2 _syl._), nurse of the Princess Brit´omart. She tried by

charms to “undo” her lady’s love for Sir Artegal, “but love that is in

gentle heart begun, no idle charm can remove.” Finding her sorcery

useless, she took the princess to consult Merlin, and Merlin told her

that by marrying Artegal she would found a race of kings from which

would arise “a royal virgin that shall shake the power of Spain.” The

two now started in quest of the knight, but in time got separated.

Glaucê became “the squire” of Sir Scu´damore, but re-appears (bk. iii.

12) after the combat between Britomart and Artegal, reconciles the

combatants, and the princess consents “to be the love of Artegal, and to

take him for her lord” (bk. iv. 5, 6).—Spenser, _Faëry Queen_ (1590,

1596).

=Glaucus=, accomplished young Athenian, whose house in Pompeii is a

marvel of beauty and taste. He loves Ione, and is beloved by Nydia, the

blind flower-girl. He is rescued from a terrible fate in the ampitheatre

by the eruption of Vesuvius, escapes from the city, guided by Nydia, and

weds Ione.—E. L. Bulwer, _Last Days of Pompeii_ (1834).

_Glaucus_, a fisherman of Boæ´tia. He observed that all the fish which

he laid on the grass received fresh vigor, and immediately leaped into

the sea. This grass had been planted by Kronos, and when Glaucus tasted

it, he also leaped into the sea, and became a prophetic marine deity.

Once a year he visited all the coasts of Greece, to utter his

predictions. Glaucus is the sailors’ patron deity.

[_By_] old soothsaying Glaucus’ spell.

Milton, _Comus_, 874 (1634).

As Glaucus, when he tasted of the herb

That made him peer among the ocean gods.

Dante, _Paradise_, i. (1311).

_Glaucus_, son of Hippolytus. Being smothered in a tub of honey, he was

restored to life by [a] dragon given him by Escula´pios (probably a

medicine so called.)—Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, 23.

_Glaucus_, of Chios, inventor of the art of soldering metal. Pausanias,

_Itinerary of Greece._

_A second Glaucus_, one who ruins himself by horses. This refers to

Glaucus, son of Sis´yphos, who was killed by his horses. Some say he was

trampled to death by them, and some that he was eaten by them.

_Glauci et Diomēdis permutatio_, a very foolish exchange. Homer

(_Iliad_, vi.) tells us that Glaucus changed his golden armor for the

iron one of Diomēdês. The French say, _C’est le troc de Glaucus et de

Diomede_. This Glaucus was the grandson of Bellerophon. (In Greek,

“Glaukos.”)

=Glegg= (_Mrs._),one of the Dodson sisters in George Eliot’s _Mill on

the Floss_, and the least amiable. When displeased or thwarted she takes

to her bed, reads _Baxter’s Saints’ Rest_, and lives on water-gruel.

=Glenallan= (_Joscelind, dowager countess of_), whose funeral takes

place by torchlight in the Catholic chapel.

_The earl of Glenallan_, son of the dowager countess.—Sir W. Scott, _The

Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

=Glenalvon=, heir of Lord Randolph. When young Norval, the son of Lady

Randolph, makes his unexpected appearance, Glenalvon sees in him a

rival, whom he hates. He pretends to Lord Randolph that the young man is

a suitor of Lady Randolph’s, and, having excited the passion of

jealousy, contrives to bring his lordship to a place where he witnesses

their endearments. A fight ensues, in which Norval slays Glenalvon, but

is himself slain by Lord Randolph, who then discovers too late that the

supposed suitor was his wife’s son.—Home, _Douglas_ (1757).

=Glencoe= (2 _syl._), the scene of the massacre of M’Ian and

thirty-eight of his glenmen, in 1692. All Jacobites were commanded to

submit to William III. by the end of December, 1691. M’Ian was detained

by a heavy fall of snow, and Sir John Dalrymple, the master of Stair,

sent Captain Campbell to make an example of “the rebel.”

⁂ Talfourd has a drama entitled _Glencoe, or the Fall of the M’Donalds_.

=Glendale= (_Sir Richard_), a papist conspirator with Redgauntlet.—Sir

W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

=Glendin´ning= (_Elspeth_) or ELSPETH BRYDONE (2 _syl._), widow of Simon

Glendinning, of the Tower of Glendearg.

_Halbert_ and _Edward Glendinning_, sons of Elspeth Glendinning.—Sir W.

Scott, _The Monastery_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Glendinning (Sir Halbert)_, the knight of Avenel, husband of Lady Mary

of Avenel (2 _syl._).—Sir W. Scott, _The Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth).

=Glendoveer´=, plu. _Glendoveers_, the most beautiful of the good

spirits of Hindû mythology.

... the glendoveers.

The loveliest of all of heavenly birth.

Southey, _Curse of Kehama_, vi, 2 (1809.)

=Glendow´er= (_Owen_), a Welsh nobleman, descended from Llewellyn

(last of the Welsh kings). Sir Edmund Mortimer married one of his

daughters. Shakespeare makes him a wizard, but very highly

accomplished.—Shakespeare, 1 _Henry IV_. (1597).

=Glengar´ry.= So M’Donald of Glengarry (who gave in his adhesion to

William III.) is generally called.

=Glenpro´sing= (_The old lady_), a neighbor of old Jasper Yellowley.—Sir

W. Scott, _The Pirate_ (time, William III.).

=Glenthorn= (_Lord_), the hero of Miss Edgeworth’s novel called _Ennui_.

Spoiled by indolence and bad education, he succeeds, by a course of

self-discipline, in curing his mental and moral faults, and in becoming

a useful member of society (1809).

The history of Lord Glenthorn affords a striking picture of _ennui_, and

contains some excellent delineations of character.—Chambers, _English

Literature_, ii. 569.

=Glenvar´loch= (_Lord_), or Nigel Olifaunt, the hero of Scott’s novel

called _The Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

=Glinter=, the palace of Foresti “the peace-maker,” son of Balder. It

was raised on pillars of gold, and had a silver roof.

=Gloria´na=, “the greatest glorious queen of Faëry-land.”

By Gloriana I mean [_true_] Glory in my general intention, but in

my particular I conceive the most excellent and glorious person of

our sovereign the queen [_Elizabeth_], and her kingdom is

Faerye-land.—Spenser, _Introduction to The Faëry Queen_ (1590).

=Glorious John=, John Dryden (1631-1701).

=Glorious Preacher= (_The_), St. John Chrysostom (i.e. _John

Goldenmouth_, 354-407).

=Glory= (_Old_), Sir Francis Burdett (1770-1844).

_Glory_ (_Mc Whirk_). Irish girl rescued from wretched dependence by a

benevolent woman, and made at home in a comfortable dwelling. She has a

big, warm heart that yearns over everything helpless and hurt, and,

whereas, in her childhood, she mourned over “the good times” she was

“not in,” she comes to rejoice constantly in the blessed truth that she

is “in” them all.—A.D.T. Whitney, _Faith Gartney’s Girlhood_ (1863).

=Glossin= (_Mr. Gilbert_), a lawyer, who purchases the Ellangowan

estate, and is convicted by Counsellor Pleydell of kidnapping Henry

Bertram, the heir. Both Glossin and Dirk Hatteraick, his accomplice, are

sent to prison, and in the night Hatteraick first strangles the lawyer

and then hangs himself.—Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George

II.).

=Gloucester= (_The duke of_), brother of Charles II.—Sir W. Scott,

_Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).

_Gloucester (Richard, duke of)_, in the court of King Edward IV.—Sir W.

Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.)

_Gloucester, (The earl of)_, in the court of King Henry II.—Sir W.

Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

=Glover= (_Simon_), the old glover of Perth, and father of the “fair

maid.”

_Catharine Glover_, “the fair maid of Perth,” daughter of Simon the

glover, and subsequently bride of Henry Smith the armorer.—Sir W. Scott,

_Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

_Glover (Heins)_, the betrothed of Trudchen [_i.e. Gertrude_] Pavillon,

daughter of the syndic’s wife.—Sir W. Scott, _Quentin Durward_ (time,

Edward IV.).

=Glowrowrum= (_The old lady_), a friend of Magnus Troil.—Sir W. Scott,

_The Pirate_ (time, William III.).

=Glück=, a German musical composer, greatly patronized by Marie

Antoinette. Young France set up against him the Italian Piccini. Between

1774 and 1780 every street, coffee-house, school and drawing-room in

Paris canvassed the merits of these two composers, not on the score of

their respective talents, but as the representatives of the German and

Italian schools of music. The partisans of the German school were called

Glückists, and those of the Italian school Piccinists.

Est-ce Glück, est-ce Puccini,

Que doit couronner Polymnie?

Donc entre Glück et Puccini

Tout le Parnasse est désuni.

L’un soutient ce que l’autre nie,

Et Clio veut battre Uranie,

Pour moi, qui crains toute manie,

Plus irrésolu que Babouc

N’épeusant Piccini ni Glück,

Je n’y connais rien: ergo Glück.

⁂ A similar contest raged in England between the Bononcinists and

Handelists. The prince of Wales was the leader of the Handel or German

party, and the duke of Marlborough of the Bononcini or Italian school.

(See TWEEDLEDUM.)

=Glumdalca=, queen of the giants, captive in the court of King Arthur.

The king cast love-glances at her, and made Queen Dollallolla jealous;

but the giantess loved Lord Grizzle, and Lord Grizzle loved the Princess

Huncamunca, and Huncamunca loved the valiant Tom Thumb.—_Tom Thumb_, by

Fielding the novelist (1730), altered by O’Hara, author of _Midas_

(1778).

=Glum-dal´clitch=, a girl nine years old “and only forty feet high.”

Being such a “little thing,” the charge of Gulliver was committed to her

during his sojourn in Brobdingnag.—Swift, _Gulliver’s Travels_.

Soon as Glumdalclitch missed her pleasing care,

She wept, she blubbered, and she tore her hair.

Pope.

=Glumms=, the male population of the imaginary country Nosmnbdsgrsutt,

visited by Peter Wilkins. The Glumms, like the females, called gawreys

(_q.v._), had wings, which served both for flying and dress—R. Pultock,

_Peter Wilkins_ (1750).

=Glutton= (_The_), Vitellius, the Roman emperor (born a.d. 15, reigned

69, died 69). Visiting the field after the battle of Bedriac, in Gaul,

he exclaimed, “The body of a dead enemy is a delightful perfume.”

⁂ Charles IX. of France, when he went in grand procession to visit the

gibbet on which Admiral Coligny was hanging, had the wretched

heartlessness to exclaim, in doggerel verse;

Fragrance sweeter than the rose

Rises from our slaughtered foes.

_Glutton (The)_, Gabius Apicius, who lived during the reign of Tiberius.

He spent £800,000 on the luxuries of the table, and when only £80,000 of

his large fortune remained, he hanged himself, thinking death preferable

to “starvation on such a miserable pittance.”

=Glynn= (_The Marshes of_). Title of a poem by Sidney Lanier,

descriptive of a marsh on the Southern coast.

The creeks overflow; a thousand riverlets run

Twixt the roots of the sod; the blades of the marsh-grass stir,

Passeth a hurrying sound of wings that westward whir;

Passeth, and all is still, and the currents cease to run,

And the sea and the marsh are one.

Poems, by Sidney Lanier (1884).

=Gna=, the messenger of Frigga.—_Scandinavian Mythology._

=Goats.= _The Pleiades_ are called in Spain _The Seven Little Goats_.

So it happened that we passed close to the Seven Little

Goats.—Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. iii. 5 (1615).

⁂ Sancho Panza affirmed that two of the goats were of a green color, two

carnation, two blue, and one motley; “but,” he adds, “no he-goat or

cuckold ever passes beyond the horns of the moon.”

=Goatsnose=, a prophet, born deaf and dumb, who uttered his predictions

by signs.—Rabelais, _Pantag´ruel_, iii. 20 (1545).

=Gobbo= (_Old_), the father of Launcelot. He was stone blind.

_Launcelot Gobbo_, son of Old Gobbo. He left the service of Shylock the

Jew for that of Bassa´nio, a Christian. Launcelot Gobbo is one of the

famous clowns of Shakespeare.—Shakespeare, _Merchant of Venice_ (1698).

=Gob´ilyve= (_Godfrey_), the assumed name of False Report. He is

described as a dwarf, with great head, large brows, hollow eyes, crooked

nose, hairy cheeks, a pied beard, hanging lips, and black teeth. His

neck was short, his shoulders awry, his breast fat, his arms long, his

legs “kewed,” and he rode “brigge-a-bragge on a little nag.” He told Sir

Graunde Amoure he was wandering over the world to find a virtuous wife,

but hitherto without success. Lady Correction met the party, and

commanded Gobilyve (3 _syl._) to be severely beaten for a lying

varlet.—Stephen Hawes, _The Passe-tyme of Plesure_, xxix., xxxi., xxxii.

(1515).

=Gobseck=, a grasping money-lender, the hero and title of one of

Balzac’s novels.

=God.=

_Full of the god_, full of wine, partly intoxicated.

_God made the country, and man made the town._—Cowper’s _Task_ (“The

Sofa”). Varro, in his _De Re Rustica_, has: “Divina Natura agros dedit,

ars humana ædificavit urbes.”

_God sides with the strongest._ Napoleon I. said, “Le bon Dieu est

toujours du coté des gros bataillons.” Julius Cæsar made the same

remark.

=Godam=, a nickname applied by the French to the English, in allusion to

a once popular oath.

=Godfrey= (_de Bouillon_), the chosen chief of the allied crusaders, who

went to wrest Jerusalem from the hands of the Saracens. He was calm,

circumspect, prudent, and brave. Godfrey despised “worldly empire,

wealth, and fame.”—Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

_Godfrey_ (_Sir Edmondbury_), a magistrate killed by the papists. He was

very active in laying bare their nefarious schemes, and his body was

found pierced with his own sword, in 1678.—Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the

Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

⁂ Dryden calls Sir Edmondbury “Agag,” and Dr. Titus Otes he calls

“Corah.”

Corah might for Agag’s murder call,

In terms as coarse as Samuel used to Saul.

_Absalom and Achitophel_, i. (1681).

_Godfrey_ (_Miss_), an heiress, daughter of an Indian governor.—Sam.

Foote, _The Liar_ (1761).

=God´inez= (_Doctor_), a schoolmaster, “the most expert flogger in

Oviedo” [_Ov.e.a.´do_]. He taught Gil Blas, and “in six years his worthy

pupil understood a little Greek, and was a tolerable Latin

scholar.”—Lesage, _Gil Blas_, i. (1716).

=Godi´va= or =Godgifu=, wife of Earl Leofric. The tale is that she

begged her husband to remit a certain tax which oppressed the people of

Coventry. Leofric said he would do so only on one condition—that she

would ride naked through the city at midday. So the lady gave orders

that all people should shut up their windows and doors; and she rode

naked through the town, and delivered the people from the tax. The tale

further says that all the people did as the lady bade them except

Peeping Tom, who looked out, and was struck blind.

⁂ This legend is told at length by Drayton in his _Polyolbion_, xiii.

(1613).

=Godless Florins=, English two-shilling pieces issued by Shiel when

master of the mint. He was a Roman Catholic, and left out F.D.

(_defender of the faith_) from the legend. They were issued and called

in the same year (1849).

=Godmanchester Hogs and Huntingdon Sturgeon.=

During a very high flood in the meadows between Huntingdon and

Godmanchester, something was seen floating, which the Godmanchester

people thought was a black hog, and the Huntingdon folk declared was a

sturgeon. When rescued from the waters, it proved to be a young

donkey.—Lord Braybrooke (Pepys, _Diary_, May 22, 1667).

=Godmer=, a British giant, son of Albion, slain by Canu´tus, one of the

companions of Brute.

Those three monstrous stones...

Which that huge son of hideous Albion,

Great Godmer, threw in fierce contention

At bold Canutus; but of him was slain.

Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, ii. 10 (1590).

=Goëmot= or =Goëmagot=, a British giant, twelve cubits high, and of such

prodigious strength that he could pull up a full-grown oak at one tug.

Same as Gogmagog (_q.v._).

On a certain day, when Brutus was holding a solemn festival to the gods

... this giant, with twenty more of his companions, came in upon the

Britons, among whom he made a dreadful slaughter; but the Britons at

last ... killed them every one but Goëmagot ... him Brutus preserved

alive, out of a desire to see a combat between the giant and Corineus,

who took delight in such encounters.... Corineus carried him to the top

of a high rock, and tossed him into the sea.—Geoffrey, _British

History_, i. 16 (1142).

_Goëmagot’s Leap_, or “Lam Goemagot,” now called Haw, near Plymouth; the

place where the giant fell when Corin’eus (3 _syl._) tossed him down the

craggy rocks, by which he was mangled to pieces.—Geoffrey, _British

History_, i. 16 (1142).

⁂ Southey calls the word _Lan-gœ-mā-gog_. (See GOGMAGOG).

=Goer´vyl=, sister of Prince Madoc, and daughter of Owen, late king of

North Wales. She accompanied her brother to America, and formed one of

the colony of Caer-madoc, south of the Missouri (twelfth

century).—Southey, _Madoc_ (1805).

=Goetz von Berlichingen=, or _Gottfried of the Iron Hand_, a famous

German burgrave, who lost his right hand at the siege of Landshut. The

iron hand which replaced the one he had lost is still shown at

Jaxthausen, the place of his birth. Gottfried took a prominent part in

the wars of independence against the electors of Brandenberg and

Bavaria, in the sixteenth century (1480-1562).

⁂ Goethe has made this the title and subject of an historical drama.

=Goffe= (_Captain_), captain of the pirate vessel.—Sir W. Scott, _The

Pirate_ (time, William III.).

=Gog=, according to _Ezek._ xxxviii., xxxix., was “prince of Magog”, (a

country or people). Calmet says Camby´sês, king of Persia, is meant; but

others think Antiochus Epiph´anês is alluded to.

_Gog_, in _Rev._ xx. 7-9, means Antichrist. Gog and Magog, in

conjunction, mean all princes of the earth who are enemies of the

Christian Church.

⁂ Sale says Gog is a Turkish tribe.—_Al Korân_, xviii. note.

=Gog and Magog.= Prester John in his letter to Manuel Comnēnus, emperor

of Constantinople, speaks of Gog and Magog as two separate nations

tributary to him. These, with thirteen others, he says, are now shut up

behind inaccessible mountains, but at the end of the world they will be

let loose, and overrun the whole earth.—Albericus Trium Fontium,

_Chronicles_ (1242).

Sale tells us that Gog and Magog are called by the Arabs “Yajui” and

“Ma-jûj,” which are two nations or tribes descended from Japhet, son of

Noah. Gog, according to some authorities, is a Turkish tribe; and Magog

is the tribe called “Gilân” by Ptolemy, and “Geli” or “Gelæ” by

Strabo.—_Al Korân_, xviii. note.

Respecting the re-appearance of Gog and Magog, the _Korân_ says: “They

[_the dead_] shall not return ... till Gog and Magog have a passage

opened for them, and they [_the dead_] shall hasten from every high

hill,” _i.e._ the resurrection (ch. xxi.).

_Gog and Magog._ The two statues of Guildhall so called are in reality

the statues of Gogmagog or Goëmagot and Corineus, referred to in the

next article. (See also CORINEUS.) The Albion giant is known by his

pole-axe and spiked ball. Two statues so called stood on the same spot

in the reign of Henry V.; but those now seen were made by Richard

Saunders, in 1708, and are fourteen feet in height.

In Hone’s time, children and country visitors were told that every day,

when the giants heard the clock strike twelve, they came down to

dinner.—_Old and New London_, i. 387.

Another tale was that they then fell foul of each other in angry combat.

=Gog´magog=, king of the Albion giants, eighteen feet in height, killed

by Corin in a wrestling match, and flung by him over the Hoe or Haw of

Plymouth. For this achievement, Brute gave his follower _all_ that

_horn_ of land now called Cornwall, Cor´n[w]all, a contraction of

Corinall. The contest is described by Drayton in his _Polyolbion_, i.

(1612).

E’en thus unmoved

Stood Corineus, the sire of Guendolen,

When, grappling with his monstrous enemy,

He the brute vastness held aloft, and bore,

And headlong hurled, all shattered, to the sea,

Down from the rock’s high summit, since that day

Called Lan´-gæma´gog.

Southey, _Joan of Arc_, viii. 395.

Cornwall means _Cornu Galliæ_ or _Walliæ_—_the horn of Gallia_ or

_Wallia_ (g and w being convertible letters,) and Gaul and Wales

different forms of the same word.

=Gog´magog Hill=, the higher of the two hills some three miles

south-east of Cambridge. It once belonged to the Balsham Hills, but,

“being rude and bearish, regarding neither God nor man,” it was named in

reproach Gogmagog. The legend is that this Gogmagog Hill was once a huge

giant, who fell in love with the nymph Granta, and, meeting her alone,

told her all his heart, saying:

“Sweeting mine, if thou mine own wilt be,

I’ve many a pretty gaud I keep in store for thee:

A nest of broad-faced owls, and goodly urchins too

(Nay, nymph, take heed of me, when I begin to woo);

And better far than that, a bulchin two years old,

A curled-pate calf it is, and oft could have been sold:

And yet besides all this, I’ve goodly bear-whelps tway,

Full dainty for my joy when she’s disposed to play

And twenty sows of lead to make our wedding-ring;”

but the saucy nymph only mocked the giant, and told his love story to

the Muses, and all made him their jest and sport and laughter.—Drayton,

_Polyolbion_, xxi. (1622).

=Gold of Tolo´sa= (_The_), ill gains, which never prosper. The reference

is to Cæpio, the Roman consul, who, on his march to Gallia Narbonensis,

stole from Tolosa (_Toulouse_) the gold and silver consecrated by the

Cimbrian Druids to their gods. He was utterly defeated by the Cimbrians,

and some 112,000 Romans were left dead on the field of battle (B.C.

106).

=Gold Poured down the Throat.= Marcus Licin´ius Crassus, surnamed “The

Rich,” one of the first Roman triumvirate, tried to make himself master

of Parthia, but being defeated and brought captive to Oro´dês, king of

Parthia, he was put to death by having molten gold poured down his

throat. “Sate thy greed with this,” said Orodês.

Manlius Nepos Aquilius tried to restore the kings of Bithynia and

Cappado´cia, dethroned by Mithridātês, but being unsuccessful and made

prisoner, he was put to death by Mithridātês by molten gold poured down

his throat.

In hell, the avaricious are punished in the same way, according to the

_Shephearde’s Calendar_.

And ladles full of melted gold

Were poured adown their throats.

_The Dead Man’s Song_ (1579).

=Gol´demar= (_King_), a house-spirit, sometimes called King Vollmar. He

lived three years with Neveling von Hardenberg, on the Hardenstein at

the Ruhr, and the chamber in which he lived is still called Vollmar’s

chamber. This house-spirit, though sensible to the touch, was invisible.

It played beautifully on the harp, talked freely, revealed secrets, and

played dice. One day, a person determined to discover its whereabouts,

but Goldemar cut him to pieces and cooked the different parts. Never

after this was there any trace of the spirit. The roasted fragments

disappeared in the Lorrain war in 1651, but the pot in which the man’s

head was boiled was built into the kitchen wall of Neveling von

Hardenberg, where it remains to this day.—Von Steinen, _German

Mythology_, 477.

=Golden Ass= (_The_), a romance in Latin, by Apule´ius (4 _syl._). It is

the adventures of Lucian, a young man who had been transformed into an

ass, but still retained his human consciousness. It tells us the

miseries which he suffered at the hands of robbers, eunuchs,

magistrates, and so on, till the time came for him to resume his proper

form. It is full of wit, racy humor, and rich fancy, and contains the

exquisite episode of Cupid and Psy´chê (bks. iv., v., vi.).

=Golden Dragon of Bruges= (_The_), The golden dragon was taken in one of

the crusades from the church of St. Sophia, at Constantinople, and

placed on the belfry of Bruges, but Philip van Artevelde (2 _syl._)

transported it to Ghent, where it still adorns the belfry.

Saw great Artevelde victorious scale the Golden Dragon’s nest.

Longfellow, _The Belfry of Bruges_.

=Golden Fleece= (_The_), the fleece of the ram which transported Phryxos

to Colchis. When Phryxos arrived there, he sacrificed the ram and gave

the fleece to King Æētês, who hung it on a sacred oak. It was stolen by

Jason, in his “Argonautic expedition.”

_The Golden Fleece of the North._ Fur and peltry of Siberia is so

called.

=Golden Gate.= The gate of mercy before which one of the ten foolish

virgins waits when her companions have returned to their evil courses.

“When the night falls, who knows what mercy waits

To pardon guilt and sin?

Perchance the Lord Himself unbarred the gates

And led the wanderer in.”

Walter Learned, _Between Times_ (1889).

=Golden Legend= (_The_), a collection of hagiology, made in the

thirteenth century, by James de Voragine, a Dominican. The Legend

consists of 177 sections, each of which is devoted to a particular saint

or festival, arranged in the order of the calendar.

=Golden Mouth=, St. Chrysostom (347-407). The name is the Greek _chrusos

stŏma_, “gold mouth.”

=Golden Stream= (_The_), Joannes Damascēnus (died 756).

=Golden-tongued= (_The_), St. Peter, of Ravenna (433-450). Our

equivalent is a free translation of the Greek _chrysol´ogos_ (_chrusos

logos_, “gold discourse”).

=Goldfinch= (_Charles_), a vulgar, horse fellow, impudent and insolent

in manner, who flirts with Widow Warren, and conspires with her and the

Jew Silky to destroy Mr. Warren’s will. By this will the widow was left

£600 a year, but the bulk of the property went to Jack Milford, his

natural son, and Sophia Freelove, the daughter of Widow Warren by a

former marriage. (See BEAGLE.)

Father was a sugar-baker, grandfather a slop-seller, I’m a

gentleman.—Holcroft, _The Road to Ruin_, ii. 1 (1792).

=Goldiebirds= (_Messrs._), creditors of Sir Arthur Wardour.—Sir W.

Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

=Gold-mine= (_The_) or =Miller of Grenoble=, a drama by E. Stirling

(1854). (For the plot, see SIMON.)

=Gold-mines= (_King of the_), a powerful, handsome prince, who was just

about to marry the Princess All-Fair, when Yellow Dwarf claimed her as

his betrothed, and carried her to Steel Castle on a Spanish cat. A good

siren gave the betrothed king a diamond sword to secure All-Fair’s

deliverance; but after overcoming every obstacle, he was so delighted at

seeing her that he dropped his sword. In a moment Yellow Dwarf snatched

it up, and stabbed his rival to the heart. The king of the Gold-mines

and All-Fair were both changed into two palm trees.—Comtesse D’Aunoy,

_Fairy Tales_ (“The Yellow Dwarf,” 1682).

=Goldsmith= (_Oliver_).

Here lies Nolly Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll,

Who wrote like an angel, and talked like poor poll.

David Garrick.

_Goldsmith_ (_Rev. J._), one of the many pseudonyms adopted by Sir

Richard Phillips, in a series of school books. Some other of his false

names were the Rev. David Blair, James Adair, Rev. C. Clarke, etc., with

noted French names for educational French books.

=Gol´thred= (_Lawrence_), mercer, near Cumnor Place.—Sir W. Scott,

_Kenilworth_ (time Elizabeth).

=Gold´y.= Oliver Goldsmith was so-called by Dr. Johnson (1728-1774).

=Gol´gotha= (“_the place of a skull_”), a small elevated spot north-west

of Jerusalem, where criminals were executed. Used in poetry to signify a

battle-field or place of great slaughter.

Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,

Or memorize another Golgotha.

Shakespeare, _Macbeth_, act i. sc. 2. (1606).

⁂ In the University of Cambridge, the dons’ gallery in Great St. Mary’s

is called “Golgotha” because the _heads_ of the colleges sit there.

_Golgotha_ (_The City_), Temple Bar, London; so called because the heads

of traitors, etc., used at one time to be exposed there after

decapitation. This was not done from any notion of punishment, but

simply to advertise the fact as a warning to evil-doers. Temple Bar was

taken away from the Strand in 1878.

=Golightly= (_Mr._), the fellow who wants to borrow 5_s._ in _Lend me

Five Shillings_, a farce by J.M. Morton.

=Goltho=, the friend of Ul´finore (3 _syl._). He was in love with

Birtha, daughter of Lord As´tragon, the sage; but Birtha loved the Duke

Gondibert. The tale being unfinished, the sequel of Goltho is not

known.—Sir William Davenant, _Gondibert_ (died 1668).

=Gomer= or =Godmer=, a British giant, slain by Canu´tus, one of the

companions of Brute. (See GOEMOT.)

Since Gomer’s giant brood inhabited this isle.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xiv. (1613.)

=Gomez=, a rich banker, 60 years of age, married to Elvi´ra, a young

wife. He is mean, covetous, and jealous. Elvira has a liaison with

Colonel Lorenzo, which Dominick, her father confessor, aids and abets;

but the amour is constantly thwarted, and it turns out that Lorenzo and

Elvira are brother and sister.—Dryden, _The Spanish Fryar_ (1680).

=Gond´ibert= (_Duke_), of the royal line of Lombardy. Prince Oswald of

Verona, out of jealousy, stirs up a faction fight against him, which is

limited by agreement to four combatants on each side. Oswald is slain by

Gondibert, and Gondibert is cured of his wounds by Lord As´tragon, a

philosopher and sage. Rhodalind, the only child of Aribert, king of

Lombardy, is in love with Gondibert, and Aribert hopes that he will

become his son-in-law and heir, but Gondibert is betrothed to Birtha.

One day while walking with his affianced Birtha, a messenger from the

king comes post haste to tell him that Aribert had publicly proclaimed

him his heir, and that Rhodalind was to be his bride. Gondibert still

told Birtha he would remain true to her, and gave her an emerald ring,

which would turn pale if his love declined. As the tale was never

finished, the sequel cannot be given.—Sir W. Davenant, _Gondibert_ (died

1668).

=Gon´eril=, eldest daughter of King Lear, and wife of the duke of

Albany. She treated her aged father with such scant courtesy, that he

could not live under her roof; and she induced her sister Regan to

follow her example. Subsequently both the sisters fell in love with

Edmund, natural son of the earl of Gloucester, whom Regan designed to

marry when she became a widow. Goneril, out of jealousy, now poisoned

her sister, and “after slew herself.” Her name is proverbial for “filial

ingratitude.”—Shakespeare, _King Lear_ (1605).

=Gonin=, a buffoon of the sixteenth century, who acquired great renown

for his clever tricks, and gave rise to the French phrase, _Un tour de

maître Gonin_ (“a trick of Master Gonin’s”).

=Gonnella=, domestic jester to the Margrave Nicolo d’Este, and to his

son Borso, duke of Ferrara. The horse he rode on was _ossa atque pellis

totus_, and like Rosinantê, has become proverbial. Gonnella’s jests were

printed in 1506.

=Gonsalez= [_Gon.zalley_], Fernan Gonsalez or Gonsalvo, a Spanish hero

of the tenth century, whose life was twice saved by his wife Sancha. His

adventures have given birth to a host of ballads.

(There was a Hernandez Gonsalvo of Cordŏva, called “The great Captain”

(1443-1515), to whom some of the ballads refer, and this is the hero of

Florian’s historical novel entitled _Gonzalve de Cordoue_ (1791),

borrowed from the Spanish romance called _The Civil Wars of Granada_, by

Gines Perez de la Hita).

=Gonza´lo=, an honest old counsellor of Alonso, King of

Naples.—Shakespeare, _The Tempest_ (1609).

_Gonzalo_, an ambitious but politic lord of Venice.—Beaumont and

Fletcher, _The Laws of Candy_ (1647.)

=Good Earl= (_The_), Archibald, eighth earl of Angus, who died in 1588.

=Good Regent= (_The_), James Stuart, earl of Murray, regent of Scotland

after the imprisonment of Queen Mary, his half-sister. (Born 1533,

regent 1567, assassinated 1570).

=Goodfellow= (_Robin_), son of King Oberon. When six years old, he was

so mischievous that his mother threatened to whip him, and he ran away;

but falling asleep, his father told him he should have anything he

wished for, with power to turn himself into any shape, so long as he did

harm to none but knaves and queens.

His first exploit was to turn himself into a horse, to punish a churl,

whom he conveyed into a great plash of water and left there, laughing,

as he flew off “Ho, ho, ho!” He afterwards went to a farm-house, and

taking a fancy to a maid, does her work during the night. The maid,

watching him, and observing him rather bare of clothes, provides him

with garments, which he puts out, laughing “Ho, ho, ho!” He next changes

himself into a Will-o-the-wisp, to mislead a party of merry-makers, and

having misled them all night, he left them at daybreak, with a “Ho, ho,

ho!” At another time, seeing a fellow ill-using a maiden, he changed

himself into a hare, ran between his legs, and then growing into a

horse, tossed him into a hedge, laughing, “Ho, ho, ho!”—_The Mad Pranks

and Merry Jests of Robin Goodfellow_ (1580). (Percy Society, 1841).

_Goodfellow_ (_Robin_), a general name for any domestic spirit, as imp,

urchin, elf, hag, fay, Kit-wi’-the-can´stick, spoorn, man-i’-the-oak,

Puck, hobgoblin, Tom-tumbler, bug, bogie, Jack-o’-lantern, Friar’s

lantern, Will-o’-the-wisp, Ariel, nixie, kelpie, etc., etc.

A bigger kind than these German kobolds is that called with us Robin

Goodfellows, that would in those superstitious times grind corn for a

mess of milk, cut wood, or do any manner of drudgery work.... These have

several names ... but we commonly call them Pucks.—Burton, _Anatomy of

Melancholy_, 47.

⁂ The Goodfellows, being very numerous, can hardly be the same as Robin,

son of Oberon, but seem to obtain the name because their character was

similar, and, indeed, Oberon’s son must be included in the generic name.

=Goodman of Ballengeich=, the assumed name of James V. of Scotland when

he made his disguised visits through the districts round Edinburgh and

Stirling.

⁂ Haroun-al-Raschid, Louis XI., Peter “The Great,” etc., made similar

visits in disguise, for the sake of obtaining information by personal

inspection.

=Good´man Grist=, the miller, a friend of the smugglers.—Sir W. Scott,

_Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

=Goodricke= (_Mr._), a Catholic priest at Middlemas.—Sir W. Scott, _The

Surgeon’s Daughter_ (time, George II.).

=Goodsire= (_Johnnie_), a weaver, near Charles’s Hope farm.—Sir W.

Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time George II.).

=Goodwill=, a man who had acquired £10,000 by trade, and wished to give

his daughter Lucy in marriage to one of his relations, in order to keep

the money in the family: but Lucy would not have any one of the boobies,

and made choice instead of a strapping footman. Goodwill had the good

sense to approve of the choice.—Fielding, _The Virgin Unmasked_.

=Goody Blake=, a poor old woman detected by Harry Gill picking up sticks

from his farm-land. The farmer compelled her to leave them, and

threatened to punish her for trespass. Goody Blake turned on the lusty

yeoman, and said never from the moment should he know the blessing of

warmth; and sure enough, neither clothing, fire, nor summer sun ever did

make him warm again.

No word to any man he utters,

A bed or up, to young or old;

But ever to himself he mutters,

“Poor Harry Gill is very cold.”

Wordsworth, _Goody Blake and Harry Gill_ (1798).

=Goody Palsgrave=, a name of contempt given to Frederick V., elector

palatine. He is also called the “Snow King” and the “Winter King,”

because the Protestants made him king of Bohemia in the autumn of 1619,

and he was set aside in the autumn of 1620.

=Goody Two-shoes=, a nursery tale supposed to be by Oliver Goldsmith,

written in 1765 for Newbery, the bookseller of St. Paul’s Churchyard.

=Goose Gibbie=, a half-witted lad, first entrusted to “keep the

turkeys,” but afterwards “advanced to the more important office of

minding the cows.”—Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

=Goosey Goderich=, Frederick Robinson, created viscount Goderich in

1827. So called by Cobbett, for his incapacity as a statesman (premier

1827-1828).

=Gor´boduc=, GORBODUG, or GORBOGUD, a mythical British king, who had two

sons (Ferrex and Porrex). Ferrex was driven by his brother out of the

kingdom, and on attempting to return with a large army, was defeated by

him and slain. Soon afterwards, Porrex himself was murdered in his bed

by his own mother, Widen, who loved Ferrex the better.—Geoffrey,

_British History_, ii. 16 (1142).

_Gorboduc_, the first historical play in the language. The first three

acts by Thomas Norton, and the last two by Thomas Sackville, afterwards

Lord Buckhurst (1562). It is further remarkable as being the father of

Iambic ten-syllable blank verse.

Those who last did tug

In worse than civil war, the sons of Gorbodug.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, viii. (1612).

=Gor´brias=, lord-protector of Ibe´ria, and father of King Arba´ces (3

_syl._).—Beaumont and Fletcher, _A King or No King_ (1611).

=Gor´dius=, a Phrygian peasant, chosen by the Phrygians for their king.

He consecrated to Jupiter his wagon, and tied the yoke to the

draught-tree so artfully that the ends of the cord could not be

discovered. A rumor spread abroad that he who untied this knot would be

king of Asia, and when Alexander the Great was shown it, he cut it with

his sword, saying, “It is thus we loose our knots.”

=Gordon= (_The Rev. Mr._), chaplain in Cromwell’s troop.—Sir W. Scott,

_Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).

_Gordon_ (_Lord George_), leader of the “No Popery riots” of 1779. Half

mad, but really well-intentioned, he countenanced the most revolting

deeds, urged on by his secretary, Gashford. Lord George Gordon died in

jail, 1793.—C. Dickens, _Barnaby Rudge_ (1841).

=Gordo´nius= or =Gordon= (_Bernard_), a noted physician of the

thirteenth century in the Rouergue (France), author of _Lilium Medicinœ,

de Morborum prope Omnium Curatione, septem Particulis Distributum_

(Naples, 1480).

And has Gordonius “the divine,”

In his famous _Lily of Medicine_ ...

No remedy potent enough to restore you?

Longfellow, _The Golden Legend_.

=Gor´gibus=, an honest, simple-minded citizen of middle life, father of

Madelon and uncle of Cathos. The two girls have their heads turned by

novels, but are taught by a harmless trick to discern between the easy

manners of a gentleman and the vulgar pretentions of a lackey.—Molière,

_Les Précieuses Ridicules_ (1659).

_Gorgibus_, father of Célie. He is a headstrong, unreasonable old man,

who tells his daughter that she is forever reading novels, and filling

her mind with ridiculous notions about love. “Vous parlez de Dieu bien

moins que de Lélie,” he says, and insists on her giving up Lélie for

Valère, saying, “S’il ne l’est amant, il le sera mari,” and adds,

“L’amour est souvent un fruit du mariage.”

Jetez-moi dans le feu tous ces méchants écrits [i.e. _romances_]

Qui gatent tous les jours tant de jeunes esprits;

Lisez moi, comme il faut, an lieu de ces sornettes,

_Les Quatrains_ de Pibrac, et les doctes _Tablettes_

Du conseiller Matthieu; l’ouvrage est de valeur.

Et plein de beaux dictons à réciter par cœur.

Molière, _Sganarelle_ (1660).

=Gor´loïs= (3 _syl._), said by some to be the father of King Arthur. He

was lord of Tintag´il Castle, in Cornwall; his wife was Igrayne (3

_syl._) or Igerna, and one of his daughters (Bellicent) was, according

to some authorities, the wife of Lot, king of Orkney.

⁂ Gorloïs was not the father of Arthur, although his wife (Igrayne or

Igerna) was his mother.

Then all the kings asked Merlin, “For what cause is that beardless boy

Arthur made king?” “Sirs,” said Merlin, “because he is King Uther’s son,

born in wedlock ... More than three hours after the death of Gorlois,

did the king wed the fair Igrayne.”—Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_,

i. 2, 6 (1470).

[_Uther_] was sorry for the death of Gorlois, but rejoiced that Igerna

was now at liberty to marry again ... they continued to live together

with much affection, and had a son and daughter, whose names were Arthur

and Anne.—Geoffrey, _British History_, iii. 20 (1142).

⁂ It is quite impossible to reconcile the contradictory accounts of

Arthur’s sister and Lot’s wife. Tennyson says Bellicent, but the tales

compiled by Sir T. Malory all give Margawse. Thus in _La Mort d’Arthur_,

i. 2, we read: “King Lot of Lothan and of Orkeney wedded Margawse

[_Arthur’s sister_]” (pt. i. 36), “whose sons were Gawaine, Agravaine,

Gaheris, and Gareth;” but Tennyson says Gareth was “the last tall son of

Lot and Bellicent.”

=Gosh=, the Right Hon. Charles Arbuthnot, the most confidential friend

of the duke of Wellington, with whom he lived.

=Gosling= (_Giles_), landlord of the Black Bear inn, near Cumnor place.

_Cicely Gosling_, daughter of Giles.—Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time,

Elizabeth).

=Gospel Doctor= (_The_), John Wycliffe (1324-1384).

=Gospeller= (_The Hot_), Dr. R. Barnes, burnt at Smithfield, 1540.

=Gossips= (_Prince of_), Samuel Pepys, noted for his gossiping _Diary_,

commencing January 1, 1659, and continued for nine years (1632-1703).

=Goswin=, a rich merchant of Bruges, who is in reality Florez, son of

Gerrard, king of the beggars. His mistress, Bertha, the supposed

daughter of Vandunke, the burgomaster of Bruges, is in reality the

daughter of the duke of Brabant.—Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Beggar’s

Bush_ (1622).

=Goths= (_The last of the_), Roderick, the thirty-fourth of the

Visigothic line of kings in Spain. He was the son of Cor´dova, who had

his eyes put out by Viti´za, the king of the Visigoths, whereupon

Roderick rose against Vitiza and dethroned him; but the sons and

adherents of Vitiza applied to the Moors, who sent over Tarik with

90,000 men, and Roderick was slain at the battle of Xerres, A.D. 711.

⁂ Southey has an epic poem called _Roderick, the Last of the Goths_. He

makes “Rusilla” to be the mother of Roderick.

=Gothland= or =Gottland=, an island called “The eye of the Baltic.”

Geoffrey of Monmouth says that when King Arthur had added Ireland to his

dominions, he sailed to Iceland, which he subdued, and then both

“Doldavius, king of Gothland, and Gunfasius, king of the Orkneys,

voluntarily became his tributaries.”—_British History_, ix. 10 (1142).

To Gothland now again this conqueror maketh forth ...

Where Iceland first he won, and Orkney after got.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, iv. (1612).

=Gottlieb= [_Got.leeb_], a cottage farmer, with whom Prince Henry of

Hoheneck went to live after he was struck with leprosy. The cottager’s

daughter Elsie volunteered to sacrifice her life for the cure of the

prince, and was ultimately married to him.—Hartmann von der Aue, _Poor

Henry_ (twelfth century); Longfellow, _Golden Legend_.

=Gour´lay= (_Ailsie_), a privileged fool or jester.—Sir W. Scott, _The

Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

_Gourlay_ (_Ailsie_), an old sibyl at the death of Alice Gray.—Sir W.

Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

=Gourmaz= (_Don_), a national portrait of the Spanish nobility.—Pierre

Corneille, _The Cid_ (1636).

The character of Don Gourmaz, for its very excellence, drew down the

censure of the French Academy.—Sir W. Scott, _The Drama_.

=Go´vernale= (3 _syl._), first the tutor and then the attendant of Sir

Tristram de Lionês.

=Gow= (_Old Niell_), the fiddler.

_Nathaniel Grow_, son of the fiddler.—Sir W. Scott, _St. Ronan’s Well_

(time, George III.).

_Gow_ (_Henry_) or HENRY SMITH, also called “Gow Chrom” and “Hal of the

Wynd,” the armorer. Suitor of Catharine Glover “the fair maid of Perth,”

whom he marries.—Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

=Gowk-thrapple= (_Maister_), a covenanting preacher.—Sir W. Scott,

_Waverley_ (time, George II.).

A man of coarse, mechanical, perhaps rather intrinsically

feeble intellect, with the vehemence of some pulpit-drumming

Gowk-thrapple.—Carlyle.

=Graaf= (_Count_), was a great speculator in corn. One year a sad famine

prevailed, and he expected, like Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to make an

enormous fortune by his speculation, but an army of rats, pressed by

hunger, invaded his barns, and then swarming into the castle, fell on

the old baron, worried him to death, and then devoured him. (See HATTO).

=Graal= (_Saint_) or ST. GREAL, is generally said to be the vessel or

platter used by Christ at the last supper, in which Joseph of Arimathea

caught the blood of the crucified Christ. In all descriptions of it in

the Arthurian romances, it is simply the visible “presence” of Christ,

or realization of the Catholic idea that the wafer, after consecration,

is changed into the very body of the Saviour, and when Sir Galahad

“achieved the quest of the Holy Graal,” all that is meant is that he saw

with his bodily eyes the visible Saviour into which the holy wafer had

been transmuted.

Then the bishop took a wafer, which was made in the likeness of bread,

and at the lifting up [_the elevation of the host_] there came a figure

in the likeness of a child, and the visage was as red and as bright as

fire, and he smote himself into that bread: so they saw that the bread

was formed of a fleshly man, and then he put it into the holy vessel

again ... then [_the bishop_] took the holy vessel and came to Sir

Galahad as he kneeled down, and there he received his Saviour.—Pt. iii.

101, 102.

King Pelles and Sir Launcelot caught a sight of the St. Graal; but did

not “achieve it,” like Galahad.

When they went into the castle to take their repast ... there came a

dove to the window, and in his bill was a little censer of gold, and

there withall was such a savor as if all the spicery of the world had

been there ... and a damsel, passing fair, bare a vessel of gold between

her hands, and thereto the king kneeled devoutly and said his prayers

... “Oh mercy!” said Sir Launcelot, “what may this mean?”... “This,”

said the king, “is the holy Sancgreall which ye have seen.”—Pt. iii. 2.

When Sir Bors de Ganis went to Corbin, and saw Galahad, the son of Sir

Launcelot, he prayed that the boy might prove as good a knight as his

father, and instantly the white dove came with the golden censer, and

the damsel bearing the Sancgraal, and told Sir Bors that Galahad would

prove a better knight than his father, and would “achieve the

Sancgreall;” then both dove and damsel vanished.—Pt. iii. 4.

Sir Percival, the son of Sir Pellinore, king of Wales, after his combat

with Sir Ector de Maris (brother of Sir Launcelot), caught a sight of

the Holy Graal, and both were cured of their wounds thereby. Like Sir

Bors, he was with Sir Galahad when the quest was achieved (pt. iii. 14).

Sir Launcelot was also miraculously cured in the same way (pt. iii. 18).

King Arthur, the queen, and all the 150 knights saw the Holy Graal as

they sat at supper when Galahad was received into the fellowship of the

Round Table:

First they heard a crackling and crying of thunder ... and in the midst

of the blast entered a sun-beam more clear by seven times than ever they

saw day, and all were lighted of the grace of the Holy Ghost ... then

there entered the hall the Holy Greal [_consecrated bread_] covered with

white samite; but none might see it, nor who bare it ... and when the

Holy Greal had been borne thro’ the hall, the vessel suddenly

departed.—Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, iii. 35 (1470).

⁂ The chief romances of the St. Graal are: _Parceval le Gallois_, by

Chrétien de Troyes, in verse, and _Roman des Diverses Quêtes de St.

Graal_, by Walter Mapes, in prose, both written in the latter part of

the twelfth century; _Titurel, or the Guardian of the Holy Graal_, by

Wolfram von Eschenbach; _the Romance of Parzival_, by the same—partly

founded upon the poem of Chrétien—and the _Life of Joseph of Arimathēa_,

by Robert de Borron, all belonging to the early part of the thirteenth

century; _The Holy Grail_, by Tennyson.

=Gracchi= (_The_). Caius and Tiberius Gracchus, sons of the Roman

matron, Cornelia, and leaders of the populace in several revolutions.

=Grace= (_Lady_), a sister of Lady Townly, and the engaged wife of Mr.

Manly. The very opposite of a lady of fashion. She says:

“In summer I could pass my leisure hours in reading, walking, ... or

sitting under a green tree: in dressing, dining, chatting with an

agreeable friend; perhaps hearing a little music, taking a dish of tea,

or a game at cards; managing my family, looking into its accounts,

playing with my children ... or in a thousand other innocent

amusements.”—Vanbrugh and Cibber, _The Provoked Husband_, iii. (1728).

“No person,” says George Colman, “has ever more successfully performed

the elegant levities of ‘Lady Townly’ upon the stage, or more happily

practiced the amiable virtues of ‘Lady Grace’ in the circles of society,

than Miss Farren (the countess of Dirby, 1759-1829).”

=Grace-be-here Humgudgeon=, a corporal in Cromwell’s troop.—Sir W.

Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).

=Grace= (_Rev. Paul_), mild, nervous little Oxonian curate who yet does

good parish-work among colliers and peasants.—Frances Hodgson Burnett,

_That Lass o’ Lowrie’s_, (1877).

_Grace Pelham_, accomplished and good daughter of the Colonel who plays

a prominent part in the army novels of Captain Charles King.—Charles

King, U.S.A., _The Colonel’s Daughter_.

=Gracio´sa=, a lovely princess, who is the object of a step-mother’s

most implacable hatred. The step-mother’s name is Grognon, and the tale

shows how all her malicious plots are thwarted by Percinet, a fairy

prince, in love with Graciosa.

=Gracio´so=, the licensed fool of Spanish drama. He has his coxcomb and

truncheon, and mingles with the actors without aiding or abetting the

plot. Sometimes he transfers his gibes from the actors to the audience,

like our circus clowns.

=Gradas´so=, king of Serica´na, “bravest of the pagan knights.” He went

against Charlemagne with 100,000 vassals in his train, “all discrowned

kings,” who never addressed him but on their knees.—Bojardo, _Orlando

Innamorato_ (1495); Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

=Grad´grind= (_Thomas_), a man of facts and realities. Everything about

him is square; his forehead is square, and so is his fore-finger, with

which he emphasizes all he says. Formerly he was in the wholesale

hardware line. In his greatness he becomes M.P. for Coketown, and he

lives at Stone Lodge, a mile or so from town. He prides himself on being

eminently practical; and though not a bad man at heart, he blights his

children by his hard, practical way of bringing them up.

_Mrs. Gradgrind_, wife of Thomas Gradgrind. A little thin woman, always

taking physic, without receiving from it any benefit. She looks like an

indifferently executed transparency without light enough behind the

figure. She is always complaining, always peevish, and dies soon after

the marriage of her daughter Louisa.

_Tom Gradgrind_, son of the above, a sullen young man, much loved by his

sister, and holding an office in the bank of his brother-in-law, Josiah

Bounderby. Tom robs the bank, and throws suspicion on Stephen Blackpool,

one of the hands in Bounderby’s factory. When found out, Tom takes

refuge in the circus of the town, disguised as a black servant, till he

effects his escape from England.

_Louisa Gradgrind_, eldest daughter of Thomas Gradgrind, M.P. She

marries Josiah Bounderby, banker and mill-owner. Louisa has been so

hardened by her bringing up, that she appears cold and indifferent to

everything, but she dearly loves her brother Tom.—C. Dickens, _Hard

Times_, (1854).

=Græme= (_Roland_), heir of Avenel (2 _syl._). He first appears as page

to the lady of Avenel, then as page to Mary Queen of Scots.

_Magdalen Græme_, dame of Heathergill, grandmother of Roland Græme. She

appears to Roland disguised as Mother Nicneven, an old witch at

Kinross.—Sir W. Scott, _The Abbott_ (time Elizabeth).

_Græme_ (_William_), the red riever [_free-booter_] at Westburnflat.—Sir

W. Scott, _The Black Dwarf_ (time, Anne).

=Grævius= or _J.G. Græfe_ of Saxony, editor of several of the Latin

classics (1632-1703).

Believe me, lady, I have more satisfaction in beholding you than I

should have in conversing with Grævius and Gronovius.—Mrs. Cowley,

_Who’s the Dupe?_ i. 3.

(Abraham Gronovius was a famous philologist, 1694-1775.)

=Gra´hame= (_Colonel John_), of Claverhouse, in the royal army under the

duke of Monmouth. Afterwards viscount of Dundee.

_Cornet Richard Grahame_, the colonel’s nephew, in the same army.—Sir W.

Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

=Grahams=, nicknamed “Of the Hen.” The reference is this: The Grahams,

having provided for a great marriage feast, found that a raid had been

made upon their poultry by Donald of the Hammer (_q.v._). They went in

pursuit, and a combat took place; but as the fight was for “cocks and

hens,” it obtained for the Grahams the nickname of _Gramoch an Garrigh_.

=Gram=, Siegfried’s sword.

=Grammarians= (_Prince of_), Apollonios, of Alexandria. Priscian called

him _Grammaticorum Princeps_ (second century B.C.)

=Grammont= (_The Count of_). He promised marriage to la belle Hamilton,

but left England without performing the promise; whereupon the brothers

followed him and asked him if he had not forgotten something. “True,

true,” said the count, “excuse my short memory;” and returning with the

brothers, he made the young lady countess of Grammont.

=Grand Jument=, meant for Diana, of Poitiers.—Rabelais, _Gargantua and

Pantagruel_.

=Grand Monarque= [_mo.nark´_], Louis XIV. (1638, 1643-1715).

=Grandison=, (_Sir Charles_), the hero of a novel by S. Richardson,

entitled _The History of Sir Charles Grandison_. Sir Charles is the beau

ideal of a perfect hero, the union of a good Christian and perfect

English gentleman; but such a “faultless monster the world ne’er saw.”

Richardson’s ideal of this character was Robert Nelson, reputed author

of the _Whole Duty of Man_ (1753).

Like the old lady mentioned by Sir Walter Scott, who chose _Sir Charles

Grandison_ because she could go to sleep for half an hour at any time

during its reading, and still find the personages just where she left

them, conversing in the cedar parlor.—_Encyc. Brit._, Art. “Romance.”

Grandison is the English _Emile_, but an Emile completely instructed.

His discourses are continual precepts, and his actions are examples.

Miss Byron is the object of his affection.—_Editor of Arabian Nights

Continued_, iv. 72.

=Grandmother.= Lord Byron calls the _British Review_ “My Grandmother’s

Review,” and jestingly says he purchased its favorable criticism of _Don

Juan_.

For fear some prudish readers should grow skittish,

I’ve bribed “My Grandmother’s Review,” _The British_;

I sent it in a letter to the editor,

Who thanked me duly by return of post....

And if my gentle Muse he please to roast....

All I can say is—that he had the money.

Byron, _Don Juan_, i. 209, 210 (1819).

=Grane= (2 _syl._), Siegfried’s horse, whose speed outstripped the wind.

=Grane´angowl= (_Rev. Mr._), chaplain to Sir Duncan Campbell, at

Ardenvohr Castle.—Sir W. Scott, _Legend of Montrose_ (time Charles I.).

=Granger= (_Captain_), in love with Elizabeth Doiley, daughter of a

retired slop-seller. The old father resolves to give her to the best

scholar, himself being judge. Gradus, an Oxford pedant, quotes two lines

of Greek, in which the word _panta_ occurs four times. “Pantry!” cries

old Doiley; “no, no; you can’t persuade me that’s Greek.” The captain

talks of “refulgent scintillations in the ambient void opake; crysalic

spheroids, and astifarous constellations;” and when Gradus says, “It is

a rant in English,” the old man boils with indignation. “Zounds!” says

he; “d’ye take me for a fool? D’ye think I don’t know my own mother

tongue? ’Twas no more like English than I am like Whittington’s cat!”

and he drives off Gradus as a vile impostor.—Mrs. Cowley, _Who’s the

Dupe?_

_Granger._ (See EDITH.)

=Grangousier=, father of Gargantua, “a good sort of a fellow in his

younger days, and a notable jester. He loved to drink neat, and would

eat salt meat” (bk. i. 3). He married Gargamelle (3 _syl._) daughter of

the king of the Parpaillons, and had a son named Gargantua.—Rabelais,

_Gargantua_, i. 3 (1533).

⁂ “Grangousier” is meant for John d’Albret, king of Navarre;

“Gargamelle” for Catherine de Foix, queen of Navarre; and “Gargantua”

for Henri d’Albert, king of Navarre. Some fancy that “Grangousier” is

meant for Louis XII., but this cannot be, inasmuch as he is distinctly

called a “heretic for declaiming against the saints” (ch. xlv.).

=Grantam= (_Miss_), a friend of Miss Godfrey, engaged to Sir James

Elliot.—Sam. Foote, _The Liar_ (1761).

=Grant´mesnil= (_Sir Hugh de_), one of the knights challengers at the

tournament.—Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

=Grantorto=, the personification of rebellion in general, and of the

evil genius of the Irish rebellion of 1580 in particular. Grantorto is

represented as a huge giant, who withheld from Irēna [i.e. _Iernê_ or

_Ireland_] her inheritance. Sir Artĕgal [_Arthur, Lord Grey of Wilton_],

being sent to destroy him, challenged him to single combat, and having

felled him to the earth with his sword Chrysa´or, “reft off his head to

ease him of his pain.”—Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, v. 12 (1596).

=Grass= (_Cronos_), a grass which gives those who taste it an

irresistible desire for the sea. Glaucus, the Bœo´tian fisherman,

observed that all the fishes which he laid on the grass instantly leaped

back into the water, whereupon he also tasted the grass, and was seized

with the same irresistible desire. Leaping into the sea, he became a

minor sea-god, with the gift of prophecy.

=Gra´tian= (_Father_), the begging friar at John Mengs’s inn at

Kirchhoff.—Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).

=Gratia´no,= one of Antonio’s friends. He “talked an infinite deal of

nothing, more than any man in all Venice.” Gratiano married Nerissa, the

waiting-gentlewoman of Portia.—Shakespeare, _Merchant of Venice_ (1598).

_Gratiano_, brother of Brabantio, and uncle of Desdemona.—Shakespeare,

_Othello_ (1611).

=Graunde Amoure= (_Sir_), walking in a meadow, was told by Fame of a

beautiful lady named La belle Pucell, who resided in the Tower of

Musyke. He was then conducted by Gouvernance and Grace to the Tower of

Doctrine, where he received instruction from the seven Sciences:—Gramer,

Logyke, Rethorike, Arismetricke, Musyke, Geometry, and Astronomy. In the

Tower of Musyke he met La belle Pucell, with whom he fell in love, but

they parted for a time. Graunde Amoure went to the Tower of Chivalry to

perfect himself in the arts of knighthood, and there he received his

degree from King Melyz´yus. He then started on his adventures, and soon

encountered False Report, who joined him and told him many a lying tale;

but Lady Correction, coming up, had False Report soundly beaten, and the

knight was entertained at her castle. Next day he left, and came to a

wall where hung a shield and horn. On blowing the horn, a three-headed

monster came forth, with whom he fought, and cut off the three heads,

called, Falsehood, Imagination, and Perjury. He passed the night in the

house of Lady Comfort, who attended to his wounds; and next day he slew

a giant fifteen feet high and with seven heads. Lastly, he slew the

monster Malyce, made by enchantment of seven metals. His achievements

over, he married La belle Pucell, and lived happily till he was arrested

by Age, having for companions Policye and Avarice. Death came at last to

carry him off, and Remembrance wrote his epitaph.—Stephen Hawes, _The

Passe-tyme of Plesure_ (1515).

_Graunde Amoure’s Steed_, Galantyse, the gift of King Melyz´yus when he

conferred on him the degree of knighthood.

I myselfe shall give you a worthy stede,

Called Galantyse, to helpe you in your nede.

Stephen Hawes, _The Passe-tyme of Plesure_, xxviii. (1515).

_Graunde Armoure’s sword_, Clare Prudence.

Drawing my swerde, that was both faire and bright,

I clippëd Clare Prudence.

Stephen Hawes, _The Passe-tyme of Plesure_, xxxiii. (1515).

=Grave´airs= (_Lady_), a lady of very dubious virtue, in _The Careless

Husband_, by Colley Cibber (1704).

Mrs. Hamilton [1730-1788], upon her entrance, was saluted with a storm

of hisses, and advancing to the footlights said, “Gemmen and ladies, I

s’pose as how you hiss me because I wouldn’t play ‘Lady Graveairs’ last

night at Mrs. Bellamy’s benefit. I would have done so, but she said as

how my audience stunk, and were all tripe people.” The pit roared with

laughter, and the whole house shouted “Mrs. Tripe!” a title which the

fair speechifier retained ever after.—_Memoir of Mrs. Hamilton_ (1803.)

=Gray=, (_Old Alice_), a former tenant of the Ravenswood family.—Sir W.

Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

_Gray_ (_Dr. Gideon_), the surgeon at Middlemas.

_Mrs. Gray_, the surgeon’s wife.

_Menie Gray_, the “surgeon’s daughter,” taken to India and given to

Tippoo Saib as an addition to his harem, but, being rescued by Hyder

Ali, was restored to Hartley; after which she returned to her

country.—Sir W. Scott, _The Surgeon’s Daughter_ (time, George II.).

_Gray_ (_Daniel_). A Christian of the olden type; Puritan by ancestry,

rigid in creed, austere in manner. Supposed to be a portrait of the

author’s father.

“He could see naught but vanity in beauty

And naught but weakness in a fond caress,

And pitied men whose views of Christian duty

Allowed indulgence in such foolishness.”