[1] For the only two that can be held to be such in the first half of
the 2nd century, and the doubts whether they refer to our present
Gospels, see MARK, GOSPEL OF, and MATTHEW, GOSPEL OF.
[2] The character of Tatian's _Diatessaron_ has been much disputed in
the past, but there can no longer be any reasonable doubt on the
subject after recent discoveries and investigations. (An account of
these may be seen most conveniently in _The Diatessaron of Tatian_,
by S. Hemphill; see under TATIAN.)
GOSPORT, a seaport in the Fareham parliamentary division of Hampshire,
England, facing Portsmouth across Portsmouth harbour, 81 m. S.W. from
London by the London & Southwestern railway. Pop. of urban district of
Gosport and Alverstoke (1901), 28,884. A ferry and a floating bridge
connect it with Portsmouth. It is enclosed within a double line of
fortifications, consisting of the old Gosport lines, and, about 3000
yds. to the east, a series of forts connected by strong lines with
occasional batteries, forming part of the defence works of Portsmouth
harbour. The principal buildings are the town hall and market hall, and
the church of Holy Trinity, erected in the time of William III. To the
south at Haslar there is a magnificent naval hospital, capable of
containing 2000 patients, and adjoining it a gunboat slipway and large
barracks. To the north is the Royal Clarence victualling yard, with
brewery, cooperage, powder magazines, biscuit-making establishment, and
storehouses for various kinds of provisions for the royal navy.
Gosport (Goseporte, Gozeport, Gosberg, Godsport) was originally included
in Alverstoke manor, held in 1086 by the bishop and monks of Winchester
under whom villeins farmed the land. In 1284 the monks agreed to give up
Alverstoke with Gosport to the bishop, whose successors continued to
hold them until the lands were taken over by the ecclesiastical
commissioners. After the confiscation of the bishop's lands in 1641,
however, the manor of Alverstoke with Gosport was granted to George
Withers, but reverted to the bishop at the Restoration. In the 16th
century Gosport was "a little village of fishermen." It was called a
borough in 1461, when there are also traces of burgage tenure. From 1462
one bailiff was elected annually in the borough court, and government by
a bailiff continued until 1682, when Gosport was included in Portsmouth
borough under the charter of Charles II. to that town. This was
annulled in 1688, since which time there is no evidence of the election
of bailiffs. With this exception no charter of incorporation is known,
although by the 16th century the inhabitants held common property in the
shape of tolls of the ferry. The importance of Gosport increased during
the 16th and 17th centuries owing to its position at the mouth of
Portsmouth harbour, and its convenience as a victualling station. For
this reason also the town was particularly prosperous during the
American and Peninsular Wars. About 1540 fortifications were built there
for the defence of the harbour, and in the 17th century it was a
garrison town under a lord-lieutenant.
GOSS, SIR JOHN (1800-1880), English composer, was born at Fareham,
Hampshire, on the 27th of December 1800. He was elected a chorister of
the Chapel Royal in 1811, and in 1816, on the breaking of his voice,
became a pupil of Attwood. A few early compositions, some for the
theatre, exist, and some glees were published before 1825. He was
appointed organist of St Luke's, Chelsea, in 1824, and in 1838 became
organist of St Paul's in succession to Attwood; he kept the post until
1872, when he resigned and was knighted. His position in the London
musical world of the time was an influential one, and he did much by his
teaching and criticism to encourage the study and appreciation of good
music. In 1876 he was given the degree of Mus.D. at Cambridge. Though
his few orchestral works have very small importance, his church music
includes some fine compositions, such as the anthems "O taste and see,"
"O Saviour of the world" and others. He was the last of the great
English school of church composers who devoted themselves almost
exclusively to church music; and in the history of the glee his is an
honoured name, if only on account of his finest work in that form, the
five-part glee, Ossian's "Hymn to the sun." He died at Brixton, London,
on the 10th of May 1880.
GOSSAMER, a fine, thread like and filmy substance spun by small spiders,
which is seen covering stubble fields and gorse bushes, and floating in
the air in clear weather; especially in the autumn. By transference
anything light, unsubstantial or flimsy is known as "gossamer." A thin
gauzy material used for trimming and millinery, resembling the "chiffon"
of to-day, was formerly known as gossamer; and in the early Victorian
period it was a term used in the hat trade, for silk hats of very light
weight.
The word is obscure in origin, it is found in numerous forms in English,
and is apparently taken from _gose_, goose and _somere_, summer. The
Germans have _Madchensommer_, maidens' summer, and _Altweibersommer_,
old women's summer, as well as _Sommerfaden_, summer-threads, as
equivalent to the English gossamer, the connexion apparently being that
gossamer is seen most frequently in the warm days of late autumn (St
Martin's summer) when geese are also in season. Another suggestion is
that the word is a corruption of _gaze a Marie_ (gauze of Mary) through
the legend that gossamer was originally the threads which fell away from
the Virgin's shroud on her assumption.
GOSSE, EDMUND (1849- ), English poet and critic, was born in London on
the 21st of September 1849, son of the zoologist P. H. Gosse. In 1867 he
became an assistant in the department of printed books in the British
Museum, where he remained until he became in 1875 translator to the
Board of Trade. In 1904 he was appointed librarian to the House of
Lords. In 1884-1890 he was Clark Lecturer in English literature at
Trinity College, Cambridge. Himself a writer of literary verse of much
grace, and master of a prose style admirably expressive of a wide and
appreciative culture, he was conspicuous for his valuable work in
bringing foreign literature home to English readers. _Northern Studies_
(1879), a collection of essays on the literature of Holland and
Scandinavia, was the outcome of a prolonged visit to those countries,
and was followed by later work in the same direction. He translated
Ibsen's _Hedda Gabler_ (1891), and, with W. Archer, _The Master-Builder_
(1893), and in 1907 he wrote a life of Ibsen for the "Literary Lives"
series. He also edited the English translation of the works of Bjornson.
His services to Scandinavian letters were acknowledged in 1901, when he
was made a knight of the Norwegian order of St Olaf of the first class.
Mr Gosse's published volumes of verse include _On Viol and Flute_
(1873), _King Erik_ (1876), _New Poems_ (1879), _Firdausi in Exile_
(1885), _In Russet and Silver_ (1894), _Collected Poems_ (1896).
_Hypolympia, or the Gods on the Island_ (1901), an "ironic phantasy,"
the scene of which is laid in the 20th century, though the personages
are Greek gods, is written in prose, with some blank verse. His
_Seventeenth Century Studies_ (1883), _Life of William Congreve_ (1888),
_The Jacobean Poets_ (1894), _Life and Letters of Dr John Donne, Dean of
St Paul's_ (1899), _Jeremy Taylor_ (1904, "English Men of Letters"), and
_Life of Sir Thomas Browne_ (1905) form a very considerable body of
critical work on the English 17th-century writers. He also wrote a life
of Thomas Gray, whose works he edited (4 vols., 1884); _A History of
Eighteenth Century Literature_ (1889); a _History of Modern English
Literature_ (1897), and vols. iii. and iv. of an _Illustrated Record of
English Literature_ (1903-1904) undertaken in connexion with Dr Richard
Garnett. Mr Gosse was always a sympathetic student of the younger school
of French and Belgian writers, some of his papers on the subject being
collected as _French Profiles_ (1905). _Critical Kit-Kats_ (1896)
contains an admirable criticism of J. M. de Heredia, reminiscences of
Lord de Tabley and others. He edited Heinemann's series of "Literature
of the World" and the same publisher's "International Library." To the
9th edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ he contributed numerous
articles, and his services as chief literary adviser in the preparation
of the 10th and 11th editions incidentally testify to the high position
held by him in the contemporary world of letters. In 1905 he was
entertained in Paris by the leading _litterateurs_ as a representative
of English literary culture. In 1907 Mr Gosse published anonymously
_Father and Son_, an intimate study of his own early family life. He
married Ellen, daughter of Dr G. W. Epps, and had a son and two
daughters.
GOSSE, PHILIP HENRY (1810-1888), English naturalist, was born at
Worcester on the 6th of April 1810, his father, Thomas Gosse (1765-1844)
being a miniature painter. In his youth the family settled at Poole,
where Gosse's turn for natural history was noticed and encouraged by his
aunt, Mrs Bell, the mother of the zoologist, Thomas Bell (1792-1880). He
had, however, little opportunity for developing it until, in 1827, he
found himself clerk in a whaler's office at Carbonear, in Newfoundland,
where he beguiled the tedium of his life by observations, chiefly with
the microscope. After a brief and unsuccessful interlude of farming in
Canada, during which he wrote an unpublished work on the entomology of
Newfoundland, he travelled in the United States, was received and
noticed by men of science, was employed as a teacher for some time in
Alabama, and returned to England in 1839. His _Canadian Naturalist_
(1840), written on the voyage home, was followed in 1843 by his
_Introduction to Zoology_. His first widely popular book was _The Ocean_
(1844). In 1844 Gosse, who had meanwhile been teaching in London, was
sent by the British Museum to collect specimens of natural history in
Jamaica. He spent nearly two years on that island, and after his return
published his _Birds of Jamaica_ (1847) and his _Naturalist's Sojourn in
Jamaica_ (1851). He also wrote about this time several zoological works
for the S.P.C.K., and laboured to such an extent as to impair his
health. While recovering at Ilfracombe, he was attracted by the forms of
marine life so abundant on that shore, and in 1853 published _A
Naturalist's Rambles on the Devonshire Coast_, accompanied by a
description of the marine aquarium invented by him, by means of which he
succeeded in preserving zoophytes and other marine animals of the
humbler grades alive and in good condition away from the sea. This
arrangement was more fully set forth and illustrated in his _Aquarium_
(1854), succeeded in 1855-1856 by _A Manual of Marine Zoology_, in two
volumes, illustrated by nearly 700 wood engravings after the author's
drawings. A volume on the marine fauna of Tenby succeeded in 1856. In
June of the same year he was elected F.R.S. Gosse, who was a most
careful observer, but who lacked the philosophical spirit, was now
tempted to essay work of a more ambitious order, publishing in 1857 two
books, _Life_ and _Omphalos_, embodying his speculations on the
appearance of life on the earth, which he considered to have been
instantaneous, at least as regarded its higher forms. His views met with
no favour from scientific men, and he returned to the field of
observation, which he was better qualified to cultivate. Taking up his
residence at St Marychurch, in South Devon, he produced from 1858 to
1860 his standard work on sea-anemones, the _Actinologia Britannica_.
_The Romance of Natural History_ and other popular works followed. In
1865 he abandoned authorship, and chiefly devoted himself to the
cultivation of orchids. Study of the Rotifera, however, also engaged his
attention, and his results were embodied in a monograph by Dr C. T.
Hudson (1886). He died at St Marychurch on the 23rd of August 1888.
_His life was written by his son, Edmund Gosse._
GOSSEC, FRANCOIS JOSEPH (1734-1829), French musical composer, son of a
small farmer, was born at the village of Vergnies, in Belgian Hainaut,
and showing early a taste for music became a choir-boy at Antwerp. He
went to Paris in 1751 and was taken up by Rameau. He became conductor of
a private band kept by La Popeliniere, a wealthy amateur, and gradually
determined to do something to revive the study of instrumental music in
France. He had his own first symphony performed in 1754, and as
conductor to the Prince de Conde's orchestra he produced several operas
and other compositions of his own. He imposed his influence upon French
music with remarkable success, founded the Concert des Amateurs in 1770,
organized the Ecole de Chant in 1784, was conductor of the band of the
Garde Nationale at the Revolution, and was appointed (with Mehul and
Cherubini) inspector of the Conservatoire de Musique when this
institution was created in 1795. He was an original member of the
Institute and a chevalier of the legion of honour. Outside France he was
but little known, and his own numerous compositions, sacred and secular,
were thrown into the shade by those of men of greater genius; but he has
a place in history as the inspirer of others, and as having powerfully
stimulated the revival of instrumental music. He died at Passy on the
16th of February 1829.
See the _Lives_ by P. Hedouin (1852) and E. G. J. Gregoir (1878).
GOSSIP (from the O.E. _godsibb_, i.e. God, and _sib_, akin, standing in
relation to), originally a god-parent, i.e. one who by taking a
sponsor's vows at a baptism stands in a spiritual relationship to the
child baptized. The common modern meaning is of light personal or social
conversation, or, with an invidious sense, of idle tale-bearing.
"Gossip" was early used with the sense of a friend or acquaintance,
either of the parent of the child baptized or of the other god-parents,
and thus came to be used, with little reference to the position of
sponsor, for women friends of the mother present at a birth; the
transition of meaning to an idle chatterer or talker for talking's sake
is easy. The application to the idle talk of such persons does not
appear to be an early one.
GOSSNER, JOHANNES EVANGELISTA (1773-1858), German divine and
philanthropist, was born at Hausen near Augsburg on the 14th of December
1773, and educated at the university of Dillingen. Here like Martin Boos
and others he came under the spell of the Evangelical movement promoted
by Johann Michael Sailer, the professor of pastoral theology. After
taking priest's orders, Gossner held livings at Dirlewang (1804-1811)
and Munich (1811-1817), but his evangelical tendencies brought about his
dismissal and in 1826 he formally left the Roman Catholic for the
Protestant communion. As minister of the Bethlehem church in Berlin
(1829-1846) he was conspicuous not only for practical and effective
preaching, but for the founding of schools, asylums and missionary
agencies. He died on the 20th of March 1858.
_Lives_ by Bethmann-Hollweg (Berlin, 1858) and H. Dalton (Berlin,
1878).
GOSSON, STEPHEN (1554-1624), English satirist, was baptized at St
George's, Canterbury, on the 17th of April 1554. He entered Corpus
Christi College, Oxford, 1572, and on leaving the university in 1576 he
went to London. In 1598 Francis Meres in his _Palladis Tamia_ mentions
him with Sidney, Spenser, Abraham Fraunce and others among the "best for
pastorall," but no pastorals of his are extant. He is said to have been
an actor, and by his own confession he wrote plays, for he speaks of
_Catilines Conspiracies_ as a "Pig of mine own Sowe." To this play and
some others, on account of their moral intention, he extends indulgence
in the general condemnation of stage plays contained in his _Schoole of
Abuse, containing a pleasant invective against Poets, Pipers, Plaiers,
Jesters and such like Caterpillars of the Commonwealth_ (1579). The
euphuistic style of this pamphlet and its ostentatious display of
learning were in the taste of the time, and do not necessarily imply
insincerity. Gosson justified his attack by considerations of the
disorder which the love of melodrama and of vulgar comedy was
introducing into the social life of London. It was not only by
extremists like Gosson that these abuses were recognized. Spenser, in
his _Teares of the Muses_ (1591), laments the same evils, although only
in general terms. The tract was dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney, who
seems not unnaturally to have resented being connected with a pamphlet
which opened with a comprehensive denunciation of poets, for Spenser,
writing to Gabriel Harvey (Oct. 16, 1579) of the dedication, says the
author "was for hys labor scorned." He dedicated, however, a second
tract, _The Ephemerides of Phialo ... and A Short Apologie of the
Schoole of Abuse_, to Sidney on Oct. 28th, 1579. Gosson's abuse of poets
seems to have had a large share in inducing Sidney to write his
_Apologie for Poetrie_, which probably dates from 1581. After the
publication of the _Schoole of Abuse_ Gosson retired into the country,
where he acted as tutor to the sons of a gentleman (_Plays Confuted_.
"To the Reader," 1582). Anthony a Wood places this earlier and assigns
the termination of his tutorship indirectly to his animosity against the
stage, which apparently wearied his patron of his company. The
publication of his polemic provoked many retorts, the most formidable of
which was Thomas Lodge's _Defence of Playes_ (1580). The players
themselves retaliated by reviving Gosson's own plays. Gosson replied to
his various opponents in 1582 by his _Playes Confuted in Five Actions_,
dedicated to Sir Francis Walsingham. Meanwhile he had taken orders, was
made lecturer of the parish church at Stepney (1585), and was presented
by the queen to the rectory of Great Wigborough, Essex, which he
exchanged in 1600 for St Botolph's, Bishopsgate. He died on the 13th of
February 1624. _Pleasant Quippes for Upstart New-fangled Gentlewomen_
(1595), a coarse satiric poem, is also ascribed to Gosson.
The _Schoole of Abuse and Apologie_ were edited (1868) by Prof. E.
Arber in his _English Reprints_. Two poems of Gosson's are included.
GOT, FRANCOIS JULES EDMOND (1822-1901), French actor, was born at
Lignerolles on the 1st of October 1822, and entered the Conservatoire in
1841, winning the second prize for comedy that year and the first in
1842. After a year of military service he made his debut at the Comedie
Francaise on the 17th of July 1844, as Alexis in _Les Heritiers_ and
Mascarelles in _Les Precieuses ridicules_. He was immediately admitted
_pensionnaire_, and became _societaire_ in 1850. By special permission
of the emperor in 1866 he played at the Odeon in Emile Augier's
_Contagion_. His golden jubilee at the Theatre Francais was celebrated
in 1894, and he made his final appearance the year after. Got was a fine
representative of the grand style of French acting, and was much admired
in England as well as in Paris. He wrote the libretto of the opera
_Francois Villon_ (1857) and also of _L'Esclave_ (1874). In 1881 he was
decorated with the cross of the Legion of Honour.
GOTA, a river of Sweden, draining the great Lake Vener. The name,
however, is more familiar in its application to the canal which affords
communication between Gothenburg and Stockholm. The river flows out of
the southern extremity of the lake almost due south to the Cattegat,
which it enters by two arms enclosing the island of Hisingen, the
eastern forming the harbour and bearing the heavy sea-traffic of the
port of Gothenburg. The Gota river is 50 m. in length, and is navigable
for large vessels, a series of locks surmounting the famous falls of
Trollhattan (q.v.). Passing the abrupt wooded Halleberg and Hunneberg
(royal shooting preserves) Lake Vener is reached at Venersborg. Several
important ports lie on the north, east and south shores (see VENER).
From Sjotorp, midway on the eastern shore, the western Gota canal leads
S.E. to Karlsborg. Its course necessitates over twenty locks to raise it
from the Vener level (144 ft.) to its extreme height of 300 ft., and
lower it over the subsequent fall through the small lakes Viken and
Botten to Lake Vetter (q.v.; 289 ft.), which the route crosses to
Motala. The eastern canal continues eastward from this point, and a
descent is followed through five locks to Lake Boren, after which the
canal, carried still at a considerable elevation, overlooks a rich and
beautiful plain. The picturesque Lake Roxen with its ruined castle of
Stjernarp is next traversed. At Norsholm a branch canal connects Lake
Glan to the north, giving access to the important manufacturing centre
of Norrkoping. Passing Lake Asplangen, the canal follows a cut through
steep rocks, and then resumes an elevated course to the old town of
Soderkoping, after which the Baltic is reached at Mem. Vessels plying to
Stockholm run N.E. among the coastal island-fringe (_skargard_), and
then follow the Sodertelge canal into Lake Malar. The whole distance
from Gothenburg to Stockholm is about 360 m., and the voyage takes about
2-1/2 days. The length of artificial work on the Gota canal proper is 54
m., and there are 58 locks. The scenery is not such as will bear adverse
weather conditions; that of the western canal is without any interest
save in the remarkable engineering work. The idea of a canal dates from
1516, but the construction was organized by Baron von Platten and
engineered by Thomas Telford in 1810-1832. The falls of Trollhattan had
already been locked successfully in 1800.
GOTARZES, or GOTERZES, king of Parthia (c. A.D. 42-51). In an
inscription at the foot of the rock of Behistun[1] he is called [Greek:
Gotarzes Geopothros], i.e. "son of Gew," and seems to be designated as
"satrap of satrap." This inscription therefore probably dates from the
reign of Artabanus II. (A.D. 10-40), to whose family Gotarzes must have
belonged. From a very barbarous coin of Gotarzes with the inscription
[Greek: Basileos basileon Arsanoz uos kekaloumenos Artabavou Gotepzes]
(Wroth, _Catalogue of the Coins of Parthia_, p. 165; _Numism_. _Chron._,
1900, p. 95; the earlier readings of this inscription are wrong), which
must be translated "king of kings Arsakes, named son of Artabanos,
Gotarzes," it appears that he was adopted by Artabanus. When the
troublesome reign of Artabanus II. ended in A.D. 39 or 40, he was
succeeded by Vardanes, probably his son; but against him in 41 rose
Gotarzes (the dates are fixed by the coins). He soon made himself
detested by his cruelty--among many other murders he even slew his
brother Artabanus and his whole family (Tac. _Ann._ xi. 8)--and Vardanes
regained the throne in 42; Gotarzes fled to Hyrcania and gathered an
army from the Dahan nomads. The war between the two kings was at last
ended by a treaty, as both were afraid of the conspiracies of their
nobles. Gotarzes returned to Hyrcania. But when Vardanes was
assassinated in 45, Gotarzes was acknowledged in the whole empire (Tac.
_Ann._ xi. 9 ff.; Joseph. _Antiq._ xx. 3, 4, where Gotarzes is called
Kotardes). He now takes on his coins the usual Parthian titles, "king of
kings Arsaces the benefactor, the just, the illustrious (_Epiphanes_),
the friend of the Greeks (_Philhellen_)," without mentioning his proper
name. The discontent excited by his cruelty and luxury induced the
hostile party to apply to the emperor Claudius and fetch from Rome an
Arsacid prince Meherdates (i.e. Mithradates), who lived there as
hostage. He crossed the Euphrates in 49, but was beaten and taken
prisoner by Gotarzes, who cut off his ears (Tac. _Ann._ xii. 10 ff.).
Soon after Gotarzes died, according to Tacitus, of an illness; Josephus
says that he was murdered. His last coin is dated from June 51.
An earlier "Arsakes with the name Gotarzes," mentioned on some
astronomical tablets from Babylon (Strassmaier in _Zeitschr. fur
Assyriologie_, vi. 216; Mahler in _Wiener Zeitschr. fur Kunde des
Morgenlands_, xv. 63 ff.), appears to have reigned for some time in
Babylonia about 87 B.C. (Ed. M.)