[1] When Cisalpine Gaul became completely Romanized, it was often
known as "Gallia Togata," while the Province was distinguished as
"Gallia Bracata" (_bracae_, incorrectly _braccae_, "trousers"), from
the long trousers worn by the inhabitants, and the rest of Gaul as
"Gallia Comata," from the inhabitants wearing their hair long.
GAULT, in geology, one of the members of the Lower Cretaceous System.
The name is still employed provincially in parts of England for a stiff
blue clay of any kind; by the earlier writers it was sometimes spelt
"Galt" or "Golt."
The formation now known as Gault in England has been variously
designated "Blue Marle," "Brick Earth," "Golt Brick Earth" and
"Oak-tree-soil." In certain parts of the south of England the Gault
appears as a well-marked deposit of clay, lying between two sandy
formations; the one above came to be known as the "Upper Greensand," the
one below being the "Lower Greensand" (see GREENSAND). Since the typical
clayey Gault is continually taking on a sandy facies as it is traced
both horizontally and vertically; and since the fossils of the Upper
Greensand and Gault are inseparably related, it has been proposed by
A.J. Jukes-Browne that these two series of beds should be regarded as
the arenaceous and argillaceous phases of a single formation, to which
he has given the name "Selbornian" (from the village of Selborne where
the beds are well developed). Lithologically, then, the Selbornian
includes the blue and grey clays and marls of the Gault proper; the
glauconitic sands of the Upper Greensand, and their local equivalent,
the "malm," "malm rock" or "firestone," which in places passes into the
micaceous sandstone containing sponge spicules and globules of silica,
the counterpart of the rock called "gaize" on the same horizon in
northern France. In Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and parts of Norfolk the
Selbornian is represented by the Red Chalk. The malm is a ferruginous
siliceous rock, the silica being mainly in the colloidal condition in
the form of globules and sponge spicules; some quartz grains, mica and
glauconite are usually present along with from 2 to 25% of calcareous
matter. Chert-bands and nodules are common in the Upper Greensand of
certain districts; and calcareous concretions, locally recognized as
cowstones (Lyme Regis), doggers or buhrstones, are not infrequent.
The principal divisions of the Selbornian stage with their
characteristic zonal fossils are as follows:--
Warminster Beds _Pecten asper_ and _Cardiaster fossarius_.
Upper Gault Devizes Beds or Merstham Beds with
_Schloenbachia rostralus_.
/ _Hoplites lautus._
Lower Gault < _H. interruptus._
\ _Acanthoceras mammillatum._
The Gault (with Upper Greensand) crops out all round the Wealden area;
it extends beneath the London basin and reappears from beneath the
northern scarp of the Chalk along the foot of the Chiltern Hills to
near Tring. In the south of England the Gault clay is fairly constant
in the lower part, with the Greensand above; the clay, however, passes
into sand as it is followed westward and, as already pointed out, the
clay and sand appear to pass into a red chalk towards the north-east.
The Gault overlaps the Lower Greensand towards the east, where it
rests upon the old Paleozoic axis; it also overlaps the same formation
towards the west about Frome, and thence passes unconformably across
the Portlandian beds, Kimeridge Clay, Corallian beds and Oxford Clay;
in south Dorsetshire it rests upon the Wealden Series. The Gault (with
Upper Greensand) passes on to the Jurassic and Rhaetic rocks near
Axmouth, and oversteps farther westward, in the Haldon Hills, on to
the Permian. A large outlier occurs on the Blackdown Hills of
Devonshire. Good localities for fossils are Folkestone--where many of
the shells are preserved with their original pearly nacre,--Burnham,
Merstham, Isle of Wight, the Blackdown and Haldon Hills, Warminster,
Hunstanton and Speeton, Black Venn near Lyme Regis, and Devizes
(malmstone and gaize). The beds are well developed in the vale of
Wardour, and in the Isle of Wight; the Gault forms the so-called "blue
slipper" at Ventnor which has been the cause of the landslip or
undercliff.
The Gault of north France is very similar to that in the south of
England, but the French term _Albien_ includes only a portion of the
Selbornian formation. The Gault of north-west Germany embraces beds
that would be classed as _Albien_ and _Aptien_ by French authors; it
comprises the "Flammenmergel"--a pale siliceous marl shot with
flame-shaped darker patches--a clay with _Belemnites minimus_, and the
"Gargasmergel" (Aptian). In the Diester and Teutoberger Wald, and in
the region of Halberstadt, the clays and marls are replaced by
sandstones, the so-called _Gault-Quader_. Continental writers usually
place the Gault or Albian at the summit of the Lower Cretaceous; while
with English geologists the practice is to commence the Upper
Cretaceous with this formation. In addition to the fossils already
noticed, the following may be mentioned: _Acanthoceras Desmoceras
Beaudanti, Hoplites splendens, Hamites, Scaphites, Turrilites,
Aporrhais retusa, Trigonia aliforme_, also _Ichthyosaurus_ and
_Ornithocheirus_ (Pterodactyl). From the clays, bricks and tiles are
made at Burham, Barnwell, Dunton Green, Arlesey, Hitchin, &c. The
cherts in the Greensand portion are used for road metal, and in the
Blackdown Hills, for scythe stones; hearthstone is obtained about
Merstham; phosphatic nodules occur at several horizons.
See CRETACEOUS SYSTEM; ALBIAN; APTIAN; also A.J. Jukes-Browne, "The
Gault and Upper Greensand of England." vol. i., _Cretaceous Rocks of
Britain_; _Mem. Geol. Survey_, 1900.
GAUNTLET (a diminutive of the Fr. _gant_, glove), a large form of glove,
and especially the steel-plated glove of medieval armour. To "run the
gauntlet," i.e. to run between two rows of men who, armed with sticks,
rope-ends or other weapons, beat and strike at the person so running,
was formerly a punishment for military and naval offences. It was
abolished in the Prussian army by Scharnhorst. As a method of torturing
prisoners, it was employed among the North American Indians. "Gauntlet"
(earlier "gantlet") in this expression is a corruption of "gantlope,"
from a Swedish _gatlope_, from _gata_, lane, and _lopp_, a course (cf.
Ger. _gassenlaufen_, to run the gauntlet). According to the _New English
Dictionary_ the word became familiar in England at the time of the
Thirty Years' War.
GAUR, or LAKHNAUTI, a ruined city of British India, in Malda district of
Eastern Bengal and Assam. The ruins are situated about 8 m. to the south
of English Bazar, the civil station of the district of Malda, and on the
eastern bank of the Bhagirathi, an old channel of the Ganges. It is said
to have been founded by Lakshman, and its most ancient name was
Lakshmanavati, corrupted into Lakhnauti. Its known history begins with
its conquest in A.D. 1198 by the Mahommedans, who retained it as the
chief seat of their power in Bengal for more than three centuries. When
the Afghan kings of Bengal established their independence, they
transferred their seat of government (about 1350) to Pandua (q.v.), also
in Malda district, and to build their new capital they plundered Gaur of
every monument that could be removed. When Pandua was in its turn
deserted (A.D. 1453), Gaur once more became the capital under the name
of Jannatabad; it remained so as long as the Mahommedan kings retained
their independence. In A.D. 1564 Sulaiman Kirani, a Pathan adventurer,
abandoned it for Tanda, a place somewhat nearer the Ganges. Gaur was
sacked by Sher Shah in 1539, and was occupied by Akbar's general in
1575, when Daud Shah, the last of the Afghan dynasty, refused to pay
homage to the Mogul emperor. This occupation was followed by an outbreak
of the plague, which completed the downfall of the city, and since then
it has been little better than a heap of ruins, almost overgrown with
jungle.
The city in its prime measured 7½ m. from north to south, with a breadth
of 1 to 2 m. With suburbs it covered an area of 20 to 30 sq. m., and in
the 16th century the Portuguese historian Faria y Sousa described it as
containing 1,200,000 inhabitants. The ramparts of this walled city,
which was surrounded by extensive suburbs, still exist; they were works
of vast labour, and were on the average about 40 ft. high, and 180 to
200 ft. thick at the base. The facing of masonry and the buildings with
which they were covered have now disappeared, and the embankments
themselves are overgrown with dense jungle. The western side of the city
was washed by the Ganges, and within the space enclosed by these
embankments and the river stood the city of Gaur proper, with the fort
containing the palace in its south-west corner. Radiating north, south
and east from the city, other embankments are to be traced running
through the suburbs and extending in certain directions for 30 or 40 m.
Surrounding the palace is an inner embankment of similar construction to
that which surrounds the city, and even more overgrown with jungle. A
deep moat protects it on the outside. To the north of the outer
enbankment lies the Sagar Dighi, a great reservoir, 1600 yds. by 800
yds., dating from A.D. 1126.
Fergusson in his _History of Eastern Architecture_ thus describes the
general architectural style of Gaur:--"It is neither like that of Delhi
nor Jaunpore, nor any other style, but one purely local and not without
considerable merit in itself; its principal characteristic being heavy
short pillars of stone supporting pointed arches and vaults in
brick--whereas at Jaunpore, for instance, light pillars carried
horizontal architraves and flat ceilings." Owing to the lightness of the
small, thin bricks, which were chiefly used in the making of Gaur, its
buildings have not well withstood the ravages of time and the weather;
while much of its enamelled work has been removed for the ornamentation
of the surrounding cities of more modern origin. Moreover, the ruins
long served as a quarry for the builders of neighbouring towns and
villages, till in 1900 steps were taken for their preservation by the
government. The finest ruin in Gaur is that of the Great Golden Mosque,
also called Bara Darwaza, or twelve-doored (1526). An arched corridor
running along the whole front of the original building is the principal
portion now standing. There are eleven arches on either side of the
corridor and one at each end of it, from which the mosque probably
obtained its name. These arches are surmounted by eleven domes in fair
preservation; the mosque had originally thirty-three.
The Small Golden or Eunuch's mosque, in the ancient suburb of Firozpur,
has fine carving, and is faced with stone fairly well preserved. The
Tantipara mosque (1475-1480) has beautiful moulding in brick, and the
Lotan mosque of the same period is unique in retaining its glazed tiles.
The citadel, of the Mahommedan period, was strongly fortified with a
rampart and entered through a magnificent gateway called the Dakhil
Darwaza (?1459-1474). At the south-east corner was a palace, surrounded
by a wall of brick 66 ft. high, of which a part is standing. Near by
were the royal tombs. Within the citadel is the Kadam Rasul mosque
(1530), which is still used, and close outside is a tall tower called
the Firoz Minar (perhaps signifying "tower of victory"). There are a
number of Mahommedan buildings on the banks of the Sagar Dighi,
including, notably, the tomb of the saint Makhdum Shaikh Akhi Siraj (d.
1357), and in the neighbourhood is a burning ghat, traditionally the
only one allowed to the use of the Hindus by their Mahommedan
conquerors, and still greatly venerated and frequented by them. Many
inscriptions of historical importance have been found in the ruins.
See M. Martin (Buchanan Hamilton), _Eastern India_, vol. iii. (1831);
G.H. Ravenshaw, _Gaur_ (1878); James Fergusson, _History of Indian and
Eastern Architecture_ (1876); _Reports of the Archaeological Surveyor,
Bengal Circle_ (1900-1904).
GAUR, the native name of the wild ox, _Bos (Bibos) gaurus_, of India,
miscalled bison by sportsmen. The gaur, which extends into Burma and the
Malay Peninsula, where it is known as seladang, is the typical
representative of an Indo-Malay group of wild cattle characterized by
the presence of a ridge on the withers, the compressed horns, and the
white legs. The gaur, which reaches a height of nearly 6 ft. at the
shoulder, is specially characterized by the forward curve and great
elevation of the ridge between the horns. The general colour is
blackish-grey. Hill-forests are the resort of this species.
GAUSS, KARL FRIEDRICH (1777-1855), German mathematician, was born of
humble parents at Brunswick on the 30th of April 1777, and was indebted
for a liberal education to the notice which his talents procured him
from the reigning duke. His name became widely known by the publication,
in his twenty-fifth year (1801), of the _Disquisitiones arithmeticae_.
In 1807 he was appointed director of the Göttingen observatory, an
office which he retained to his death: it is said that he never slept
away from under the roof of his observatory, except on one occasion,
when he accepted an invitation from Baron von Humboldt to attend a
meeting of natural philosophers at Berlin. In 1809 he published at
Hamburg his _Theoria motus corporum coelestium_, a work which gave a
powerful impulse to the true methods of astronomical observation; and
his astronomical workings, observations, calculations of orbits of
planets and comets, &c., are very numerous and valuable. He continued
his labours in the theory of numbers and other analytical subjects, and
communicated a long series of memoirs to the Royal Society of Sciences
(_Königliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_) at Göttingen. His first
memoir on the theory of magnetism, _Intensitas vis magneticae terrestris
ad mensuram absolutam revocata_, was published in 1833, and he shortly
afterwards proceeded, in conjunction with Wilhelm Weber, to invent new
apparatus for observing the earth's magnetism and its changes; the
instruments devised by them were the declination instrument and the
bifilar magnetometer. With Weber's assistance he erected in 1833 at
Göttingen a magnetic observatory free from iron (as Humboldt and F.J.D.
Arago had previously done on a smaller scale), where he made magnetic
observations, and from this same observatory he sent telegraphic signals
to the neighbouring town, thus showing the practicability of an
electromagnetic telegraph. He further instituted an association
(_Magnetischer Verein_), composed at first almost entirely of Germans,
whose continuous observations on fixed term-days extended from Holland
to Sicily. The volumes of their publication, _Resultate am den
Beobachtungen des magnetischen Vereins_, extend from 1836 to 1839; and
in those for 1838 and 1839 are contained the two important memoirs by
Gauss, _Allgemeine Theorie des Erdmagnetismus, and the Allgemeine
Lehrsätze_--on the theory of forces attracting according to the inverse
square of the distance. The instruments and methods thus due to him are
substantially those employed in the magnetic observatories throughout
the world. He co-operated in the Danish and Hanoverian measurements of
an arc and trigonometrical operations (1821-1848), and wrote (1843,
1846) the two memoirs _Über Gegenstände der höheren Geodäsie_. Connected
with observations in general we have (1812-1826) the memoir _Theoria
combinationis observationum erroribus minimis obnoxia_, with a second
part and a supplement. Another memoir of applied mathematics is the
_Dioptrische Untersuchungen_ (1840). Gauss was well versed in general
literature and the chief languages of modern Europe, and was a member of
nearly all the leading scientific societies in Europe. He died at
Göttingen on the 23rd of February 1855. The centenary of his birth was
celebrated (1877) at his native place, Brunswick.
Gauss's collected works were published by the Royal Society of
Göttingen, in 7 vols. 4to (Gött., 1863-1871), edited by E.J.
Schering--(1) the _Disquisitiones arithmeticae_, (2) _Theory of
Numbers_, (3) _Analysis_, (4) _Geometry and Method of Least Squares_,
(5) _Mathematical Physics_, (6) _Astronomy_, and (7) the _Theoria
motus corporum coelestium_. Additional volumes have since been
published, _Fundamente der Geometrie usw_. (1900), and _Geodatische
Nachträge zu Band iv_. (1903). They include, besides his various works
and memoirs, notices by him of many of these, and of works of other
authors in the _Göttingen gelehrte Anzeigen_, and a considerable
amount of previously unpublished matter, _Nachlass_. Of the memoirs in
pure mathematics, comprised for the most part in vols, ii., iii. and
iv. (but to these must be added those on _Attractions_ in vol. v.), it
may be safely said there is not one which has not signally contributed
to the progress of the branch of mathematics to which it belongs, or
which would not require to be carefully analysed in a history of the
subject. Running through these volumes in order, we have in the second
the memoir, _Summatio quarundam serierum singularium_, the memoirs on
the theory of biquadratic residues, in which the notion of complex
numbers of the form a + _bi_ was first introduced into the theory of
numbers; and included in the _Nachlass_ are some valuable tables. That
for the conversion of a fraction into decimals (giving the complete
period for all the prime numbers up to 997) is a specimen of the
extraordinary love which Gauss had for long arithmetical calculations;
and the amount of work gone through in the construction of the table
of the number of the classes of binary quadratic forms must also have
been tremendous. In vol. iii. we have memoirs relating to the proof of
the theorem that every numerical equation has a real or imaginary
root, the memoir on the _Hypergeometric Series_, that on
_Interpolation_, and the memoir _Determinatio attractionis_--in which
a planetary mass is considered as distributed over its orbit according
to the time in which each portion of the orbit is described, and the
question (having an implied reference to the theory of secular
perturbations) is to find the attraction of such a ring. In the
solution the value of an elliptic function is found by means of the
_arithmetico-geometrical mean_. The _Nachlass_ contains further
researches on this subject, and also researches (unfortunately very
fragmentary) on the lemniscate-function, &., showing that Gauss was,
even before 1800, in possession of many of the discoveries which have
made the names of N.H. Abel and K.G.J. Jacobi illustrious. In vol. iv.
we have the memoir _Allgemeine Auflösung_, on the graphical
representation of one surface upon another, and the _Disquisitiones
generales circa superficies curvas_. (An account of the treatment of
surfaces which he originated in this paper will be found in the
article SURFACE.) And in vol. v. we have a memoir _On the Attraction
of Homogeneous Ellipsoids_, and the already mentioned memoir
_Allgemeine Lehrsätze_, on the theory of forces attracting according
to the inverse square of the distance. (A. Ca.)
GAUSSEN, FRANÇOIS SAMUEL ROBERT LOUIS (1790-1863), Swiss Protestant
divine, was born at Geneva on the 25th of August 1790. His father, Georg
Markus Gaussen, a member of the council of two hundred, was descended
from an old Languedoc family which had been scattered at the time of the
religious persecutions in France. At the close of his university career
at Geneva, Louis was in 1816 appointed pastor of the Swiss Reformed
Church at Satigny near Geneva, where he formed intimate relations with
J.E. Cellérier, who had preceded him in the pastorate, and also with the
members of the dissenting congregation at Bourg-de-Four, which, together
with the Église du témoignage, had been formed under the influence of
the preaching of James and Robert Haldane in 1817. The Swiss revival was
distasteful to the pastors of Geneva (_Vénérable Compagnie des
Pasteurs_), and on the 7th of May 1817 they passed an ordinance hostile
to it. As a protest against this ordinance, in 1819 Gaussen published in
conjunction with Cellérier a French translation of the Second Helvetic
Confession, with a preface expounding the views he had reached upon the
nature, use and necessity of confessions of faith; and in 1830, for
having discarded the official catechism of his church as being
insufficiently explicit on the divinity of Christ, original sin and the
doctrines of grace, he was censured and suspended by his ecclesiastical
superiors. In the following year he took part in the formation of a
_Société Évangélique_ (_Evangelische Gesellschaft_). When this society
contemplated, among other objects, the establishment of a new
theological college, he was finally deprived of his charge. After some
time devoted to travel in Italy and England, he returned to Geneva and
ministered to an independent congregation until 1834, when he joined
Merle d'Aubigné as professor of systematic theology in the college which
he had helped to found. This post he continued to occupy until 1857,
when he retired from the active duties of the chair. He died at Les
Grottes, Geneva, on the 18th of June 1863.
His best-known work, entitled _La Théopneustie ou pleine inspiration des
saintes écritures_, an elaborate defence of the doctrine of "plenary
inspiration," was originally published in Paris in 1840, and rapidly
gained a wide popularity in France, as also, through translations, in
England and America. It was followed in 1860 by a supplementary treatise
on the canon (_Le Canon des saintes écritures au double point de vue de
la science et de la foi_), which, though also popular, has hardly been
so widely read.
See the article in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopädie_ (1899).
GAUTIER, ÉMILE THÉODORE LÉON (1832-1897), French literary historian, was
born at Hâvre on the 8th of August 1832. He was educated at the École
des Chartes, and became successively keeper of the archives of the
department of Haute-Marne and of the imperial archives at Paris under
the empire. In 1871 he became professor of palaeography at the École des
Chartes. He was elected member of the Academy of Inscriptions in 1887,
and became chief of the historical section of the national archives in
1893. Léon Gautier rendered great services to the study of early French
literature, the most important of his numerous works on medieval
subjects being a critical text (Tours, 1872) with translation and
introduction of the _Chanson de Roland_, and _Les Épopées françaises_ (3
vols., 1866-1867; 2nd ed., 5 vols., 1878-1897, including a
_Bibliographie des chansons de geste_). He died in Paris on the 25th of
August 1897.
GAUTIER, THÉOPHILE (1811-1872), French poet and miscellaneous writer,
was born at Tarbes on the 31st of August 1811. He was educated at the
grammar school of that town, and afterwards at the Collège Charlemagne
in Paris, but was almost as much in the studios. He very early devoted
himself to the study of the older French literature, especially that of
the 16th and the early part of the 17th century. This study qualified
him well to take part in the Romantic movement, and enabled him to
astonish Sainte-Beuve by the phraseology and style of some literary
essays which, when barely eighteen years old, he put into the critic's
hands. In consequence of this introduction he at once came under the
influence of the great Romantic _cénacle_, to which, as to Victor Hugo
in particular, he was also introduced by his gifted but ill-starred
schoolmate Gérard de Nerval. With Gérard, Petrus Borel, Corot, and many
other less known painters and poets whose personalities he has
delightfully sketched in the articles collected under the titles of
_Histoire du Romantisme_, &c., he formed a minor romantic clique who
were distinguished for a time by the most extravagant eccentricity. A
flaming crimson waistcoat and a great mass of waving hair were the
outward signs which qualified Gautier for a chief rank among the
enthusiastic devotees who attended the rehearsals of _Hernani_ with red
tickets marked "Hierro," performed mocking dances round the bust of
Racine, and were at all times ready to exchange word or blow with the
_perruques_ and _grisâtres_ of the classical party. In Gautier's case
these freaks were not inconsistent with real genius and real devotion to
sound ideals of literature. He began (like Thackeray, to whom he
presents in other ways some striking points of resemblance) as an
artist, but soon found that his true powers lay in another direction.
His first considerable poem, _Albertus_ (1830), displayed a good deal of
the extravagant character which accompanied rather than marked the
movement, but also gave evidence of uncommon command both of language
and imagery, and in particular of a descriptive power hardly to be
excelled. The promise thus given was more than fulfilled in his
subsequent poetry, which, in consequence of its small bulk, may well be
noticed at once and by anticipation. The _Comédie de la mort_, which
appeared soon after (1832), is one of the most remarkable of French
poems, and though never widely read has received the suffrage of every
competent reader. Minor poems of various dates, published in 1840,
display an almost unequalled command over poetical form, an advance even
over _Albertus_ in vigour, wealth and appropriateness of diction, and
abundance of the special poetical essence. All these good gifts reached
their climax in the _Émaux et camées_, first published in 1856, and
again, with additions, just before the poet's death in 1872. These poems
are in their own way such as cannot be surpassed. Gautier's poetical
work contains in little an expression of his literary peculiarities.
There are, in addition to the peculiarities of style and diction already
noticed, an extraordinary feeling and affection for beauty in art and
nature, and a strange indifference to anything beyond this range, which
has doubtless injured the popularity of his work.
But it was not, after all, as a poet that Gautier was to achieve either
profit or fame. For the theatre, he had but little gift, and his
dramatic efforts (if we except certain masques or ballets in which his
exuberant and graceful fancy came into play) are by far his weakest. It
was otherwise with his prose fiction. His first novel of any size, and
in many respects his most remarkable work, was _Mademoiselle de Maupin_
(1835). Unfortunately this book, while it establishes his literary
reputation on an imperishable basis, was unfitted by its subject, and in
parts by its treatment, for general perusal, and created, even in
France, a prejudice against its author which he was very far from really
deserving. During the years from 1833 onwards, his fertility in novels
and tales was very great. _Les Jeunes-France_ (1833), which may rank as
a sort of prose _Albertus_ in some ways, displays the follies of the
youthful Romantics in a vein of humorous and at the same time
half-pathetic satire. _Fortunio_ (1838) perhaps belongs to the same
class. _Jettatura_, written somewhat later, is less extravagant and more
pathetic. A crowd of minor tales display the highest literary qualities,
and rank with Mérimée's at the head of all contemporary works of the
class. First of all must be mentioned the ghost-story of _La Morte
amoureuse_, a gem of the most perfect workmanship. For many years
Gautier continued to write novels. _La Belle Jenny_ (1864) is a not very
successful attempt to draw on his English experience, but the earlier
_Militona_ (1847) is a most charming picture of Spanish life. In
_Spirite_ (1866) he endeavoured to enlist the fancy of the day for
supernatural manifestations, and a _Roman de la momie_ (1856) is a
learned study of ancient Egyptian ways. His most remarkable effort in
this kind, towards the end of his life, was _Le Capitaine Fracasse_
(1863), a novel, partly of the picaresque school, partly of that which
Dumas was to make popular, projected nearly thirty years earlier, and
before Dumas himself had taken to the style. This book contains some of
the finest instances of his literary power.
Yet neither in poems nor in novels did the main occupation of Gautier as
a literary man consist. He was early drawn to the more lucrative task of
feuilleton-writing, and for more than thirty years he was among the most
expert and successful practitioners of this art. Soon after the
publication of _Mademoiselle de Maupin_, in which he had not been too
polite to journalism, he became irrevocably a journalist. He was
actually the editor of _L'Artiste_ for a time: but his chief newspaper
connexions were with _La Presse_ from 1836 to 1854 and with the
_Moniteur_ later. His work was mainly theatrical and art criticism. The
rest of his life was spent either at Paris or in travels of considerable
extent to Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Turkey, England, Algeria and
Russia, all undertaken with a more or less definite purpose of
book-making. Having absolutely no political opinions, he had no
difficulty in accepting the Second Empire, and received from it
considerable favours, in return for which, however, he in no way
prostituted his pen, but remained a literary man pure and simple. He
died on the 23rd of December 1872.
Accounts of his travels, criticisms of the theatrical and literary works
of the day, obituary notices of his contemporaries and, above all, art
criticism occupied him in turn. It has sometimes been deplored that this
engagement in journalism should have diverted Gautier from the
performance of more capital work in literature. Perhaps, however, this
regret springs from a certain misconception. Gautier's power was
literary power pure and simple, and it is as evident in his slightest
sketches and criticisms as in _Émaux et camées or La Morte amoureuse_.
On the other hand, his weakness, if he had a weakness, lay in his almost
total indifference to the matters which usually supply subjects for art
and therefore for literature. He has thus been accused of "lack of
ideas" by those who have not cleared their own minds of cant; and in the
recent set-back of the critical current against form and in favour of
"philosophic" treatment, comment upon him has sometimes been
unfavourable. But this injustice will, beyond all question, be redressed
again. He was neither immoral, irreligious nor unduly subservient to
despotism, but morals, religion and politics (to which we may add
science and material progress) were matters of no interest to him. He
was to all intents a humanist, as the word was understood in the 15th
century. But he was a humorist as well, and this combination, joined to
his singularly kindly and genial nature, saved him from some dangers and
depravations as well as some absurdities to which the humanist temper is
exposed. As time goes on it may be predicted that, though Gautier may
not be widely read, yet his writings will never cease to be full of
indescribable charm and of very definite instruction to men of letters.
Besides those of his works which have been already cited, we may notice
_Une Larme du diable_ (1839), a charming mixture of humour and
tenderness; _Les Grotesques_ (1844), a volume of early criticisms on
some oddities of 17th-century literature; _Caprices et zigzags_ (1845),
miscellanies dealing in part with English life; _Voyage en Espagne_
(1845), _Constantinople_ (1854), _Voyage en Russie_ (1866), brilliant
volumes of travel; _Ménagerie intime_ (1869) and _Tableaux de siège_
(1872), his two latest works, which display his incomparable style in
its quietest but not least happy form.
There is no complete edition of Gautier's works, and the vicomte
Spoelberch de Lovenjoul's _Histoire des oeuvres de Théophile Gautier_
(1887) shows how formidable such an undertaking would be. But since
his death numerous further collections of articles have been made:
_Fusains et eaux-fortes_ and _Tableaux à la plume_ (1880); _L'Orient_
(2 vols., 1881); _Les Vacances du lundi_ (new ed., 1888); _La Nature
chez elle_ (new ed., 1891). In 1879 his son-in-law, E. Bergerat, who
had married his younger daughter Estelle (the elder, Mme Judith
Gautier--herself a writer of distinction--was at one time Mme Catulle
Mendès), issued a biography, _Théophile Gautier_, which has been often
reprinted. With it should be compared Maxime du Camp's volume in the
_Grands Écrivains français_ (1890) and the numerous references in the
_Journal des Goncourt_. Critical eulogies, from Sainte-Beuve
(repeatedly in the _Causeries_) and Baudelaire (two articles in _L'Art
romantique_) downwards, are numerous. The chief of the decriers is
Émile Faguet in his _Études littéraires sur le XIX^e siècle_. In 1902
and 1903 there appeared two respectable academic _éloges_ by H. Menai
and H. Potez. (G. Sa.)
GAUTIER D'ARRAS, French _trouvère_, flourished in the second half of the
12th century. Nothing is known of his biography except what may be
gleaned from his works. He dedicated his romance of _Éracle_ to Theobald
V., count of Blois (d. 1191); among his other patrons were Marie,
countess of Champagne, daughter of Louis VII. and Eleanor of Guienne and
Baldwin IV., count of Hainaut. _Éracle_, the hero of which becomes
emperor of Constantinople as Heraclius, is purely a _roman d'aventures_
and enjoyed great popularity. His second romance, _Ille et Galeron_,
dedicated to Beatrix, the second wife of Frederick Barbarossa, treats of
a similar situation to that outlined in the lay of "_Eliduc_" by Marie
de France.
See the _Oeuvres de Gautier d'Arras_, ed. E. Löseth (2 vols., Paris,
1890); _Hist. litt. de la France_, vol. xxii. (1852); A. Dinaux, _Les
Trouvères_ (1833-1843), vol. iii.
GAUZE, a light, transparent fabric, originally of silk, and now
sometimes made of linen or cotton, woven in an open manner with very
fine yarn. It is said to have been originally made at Gaza in Palestine,
whence the name. Some of the gauzes from eastern Asia were brocaded with
flowers of gold or silver. In the weaving of gauze the warp threads, in
addition to being crossed as in plain weaving, are twisted in pairs from
left to right and from right to left alternately, after each shot of
weft, thereby keeping the weft threads at equal distances apart, and
retaining them in their parallel position. The textures are woven either
plain, striped or figured; and the material receives many designations,
according to its appearance and the purposes to which it is devoted. A
thin cotton fabric, woven in the same way, is known as leno, to
distinguish it from muslin made by plain weaving. Silk gauze was a
prominent and extensive industry in the west of Scotland during the
second half of the 18th century, but on the introduction of
cotton-weaving it greatly declined. In addition to its use for dress
purposes silk gauze is much employed for bolting or sifting flour and
other finely ground substances. The term gauze is applied generally to
transparent fabrics of whatever fibre made, and to the fine-woven
wire-cloth used in safety-lamps, sieves, window-blinds, &c.
GAVARNI, the name by which SULPICE GUILLAUME CHEVALIER (1801-1866),
French caricaturist, is known. He is said to have taken the _nom de
plume_ from the place where he made his first published sketch. He was
born in Paris of poor parents, and started in life as a workman in an
engine-building factory. At the same time he attended the free school of
drawing. In his first attempts to turn his abilities to some account he
met with many disappointments, but was at last entrusted with the
drawing of some illustrations for a journal of fashion. Gavarni was then
thirty-four years of age. His sharp and witty pencil gave to these
generally commonplace and unartistic figures a life-likeness and an
expression which soon won for him a name in fashionable circles.
Gradually he gave greater attention to this more congenial work, and
finally ceased working as an engineer to become the director of the
journal _Les Gens du monde_. His ambition rising in proportion to his
success, Gavarni from this time followed the real bent of his
inclination, and began a series of lithographed sketches, in which he
portrayed the most striking characteristics, foibles and vices of the
various classes of French society. The letterpress explanations attached
to his drawings were always short, but were forcible and highly
humorous, if sometimes trivial, and were admirably adapted to the
particular subjects. The different stages through which Gavarni's talent
passed, always elevating and refining itself, are well worth being
noted. At first he confined himself to the study of Parisian manners,
more especially those of the Parisian youth. To this vein belong _Les
Lorettes_, _Les Actrices_, _Les Coulisses_, _Les Fashionables_, _Les
Gentilshommes bourgeois_, _Les Artistes_, _Les Débardeurs_, _Clichy_,
_Les Étudiants de Paris_, _Les Baliverneries parisiennes_, _Les Plaisirs
champêtres_, _Les Bals masqués_, _Le Carnaval_, _Les Souvenirs du
carnaval_, _Les Souvenirs du bal Chicard_, _La Vie des jeunes hommes_,
_Les Patois de Paris_. He had now ceased to be director of _Les Gens du
monde_; but he was engaged as ordinary caricaturist of _Le Charivari_,
and, whilst making the fortune of the paper, he made his own. His name
was exceedingly popular, and his illustrations for books were eagerly
sought for by publishers. _Le Juif errant_, by Eugène Sue (1843, 4 vols.
8vo), the French translation of Hoffman's tales (1843, 8vo), the first
collective edition of Balzac's works (Paris, Houssiaux, 1850, 20 vols.
8vo), _Le Diable à Paris_ (1844-1846, 2 vols. 4to), _Les Français peints
par eux-mêmes_ (1840-1843, 9 vols. 8vo), the collection of
_Physiologies_ published by Aubert in 38 vols. 18mo (1840-1842),--all
owed a great part of their success at the time, and are still sought
for, on account of the clever and telling sketches contributed by
Gavarni. A single frontispiece or vignette was sometimes enough to
secure the sale of a new book. Always desiring to enlarge the field of
his observations, Gavarni soon abandoned his once favourite topics. He
no longer limited himself to such types as the _lorette_ and the
Parisian student, or to the description of the noisy and popular
pleasures of the capital, but turned his mirror to the grotesque sides
of family life and of humanity at large. _Les Enfants terribles_, _Les
Parents terribles_, _Les Fourberies des femmes_, _La Politique des
femmes_, _Les Maris vengés_, _Les Nuances du sentiment_, _Les Rêves_,
_Les Petits Jeux de société_, _Les Petits Malheurs du bonheur_, _Les
Impressions de menage_, _Les Interjections_, _Les Traductions en langue
vulgaire_, _Les Propos de Thomas Vireloque_, &c., were composed at this
time, and are his most elevated productions. But whilst showing the same
power of irony as his former works, enhanced by a deeper insight into
human nature, they generally bear the stamp of a bitter and even
sometimes gloomy philosophy. This tendency was still more strengthened
by a visit to England in 1849. He returned from London deeply impressed
with the scenes of misery and degradation which he had observed among
the lower classes of that city. In the midst of the cheerful atmosphere
of Paris he had been struck chiefly by the ridiculous aspects of
vulgarity and vice, and he had laughed at them. But the debasement of
human nature which he saw in London appears to have affected him so
forcibly that from that time the cheerful caricaturist never laughed or
made others laugh again. What he had witnessed there became the almost
exclusive subject of his drawings, as powerful, as impressive as ever,
but better calculated to be appreciated by cultivated minds than by the
public, which had in former years granted him so wide a popularity. Most
of these last compositions appeared in the weekly paper
_L'Illustration_. In 1857 he published in one volume the series entitled
_Masques et visages_ (1 vol. 12mo), and in 1869, about two years after
his death, his last artistic work, _Les Douze Mois_ (1 vol. fol.), was
given to the world. Gavarni was much engaged, during the last period of
his life, in scientific pursuits, and this fact must perhaps be
connected with the great change which then took place in his manner as
an artist. He sent several communications to the Académie des Sciences,
and till his death on the 23rd of November 1866 he was eagerly
interested in the question of aerial navigation. It is said that he made
experiments on a large scale with a view to find the means of directing
balloons; but it seems that he was not so successful in this line as his
fellow-artist, the caricaturist and photographer, Nadar.
Gavarni's _Oeuvres choisies_ were edited in 1845 (4 vols. 4to) with
letterpress by J. Janin, Th. Gautier and Balzac, followed in 1850 by
two other volumes named _Perles et parures_; and some essays in prose
and in verse written by him were collected by one of his biographers,
Ch. Yriarte, and published in 1869. See also E. and J. de Goncourt,
_Gavarni, l'homme et l'oeuvre_ (1873, 8vo). J. Claretie has also
devoted to the great French caricaturist a curious and interesting
essay. A catalogue _raisonné_ of Gavarni's works was published by J.
Armelhault and E. Bocher (Paris, 1873, 8vo).
GAVAZZI, ALESSANDRO (1809-1889), Italian preacher and patriot, was born
at Bologna on the 21st of March 1809. He at first became a monk (1825),
and attached himself to the Barnabites at Naples, where he afterwards
(1829) acted as professor of rhetoric. In 1840, having already expressed
liberal views, he was removed to Rome to fill a subordinate position.
Leaving his own country after the capture of Rome by the French, he
carried on a vigorous campaign against priests and Jesuits in England,
Scotland and North America, partly by means of a periodical, the
_Gavazzi Free Word_. While in England he gradually went over (1855) to
the Evangelical church, and became head and organizer of the Italian
Protestants in London. Returning to Italy in 1860, he served as
army-chaplain with Garibaldi. In 1870 he became head of the Free Church
(_Chiesa libera_) of Italy, united the scattered Congregations into the
"Unione delle Chiese libere in Italia," and in 1875 founded in Rome the
theological college of the Free Church, in which he himself taught
dogmatics, apologetics and polemics. He died in Rome on the 9th of
January 1889.
Amongst his publications are _No Union with Rome_ (1871); _The Priest
in Absolution_ (1877); _My Recollections of the Last Four Popes_, &c.,
in answer to Cardinal Wiseman (1858); _Orations_, 2 decades (1851).
GAVELKIND,[1] a peculiar system of tenure associated chiefly with the
county of Kent, but found also in other parts of England. In Kent all
land is presumed to be holden by this tenure until the contrary is
proved, but some lands have been disgavelled by particular statutes. It
is more correctly described as socage tenure, subject to the custom of
gavelkind. The chief peculiarities of the custom are the following. (1)
A tenant can alienate his lands by feoffment at fifteen years of age.
(2) There is no escheat on attainder for felony, or as it is expressed
in the old rhyme--
"The father to the bough,
The son to the plough."
(3) Generally the tenant could always dispose of his lands by will. (4)
In case of intestacy the estate descends not to the eldest son but to
all the sons (or, in the case of deceased sons, their representatives)
in equal shares. "Every son is as great a gentleman as the eldest son
is." It is to this remarkable peculiarity that gavelkind no doubt owes
its local popularity. Though females claiming in their own right are
postponed to males, yet by representation they may inherit together with
them. (5) A wife is dowable of one-half, instead of one-third of the
land. (6) A widower may be tenant by courtesy, without having had any
issue, of one-half, but only so long as he remains unmarried. An act of
1841, for commuting manorial rights in respect of lands of copyhold and
customary tenure, contained a clause specially exempting from the
operation of the act "the custom of gavelkind as the same now exists and
prevails in the county of Kent." Gavelkind is one of the most
interesting examples of the customary law of England; it was, previous
to the Conquest, the general custom of the realm, but was then
superseded by the feudal law of primogeniture. Its survival in this
instance in one part of the country is regarded as a concession extorted
from the Conqueror by the superior bravery of the men of Kent. _Irish
gavelkind_ was a species of tribal succession, by which the land,
instead of being divided at the death of the holder amongst his sons,
was thrown again into the common stock, and redivided among the
surviving members of the sept. The equal division amongst children of an
inheritance in land is of common occurrence outside the United Kingdom
and is discussed under SUCCESSION.
See INHERITANCE; TENURE. Also Robinson, _On Gavelkind_; Digby,
_History of the Law of Real Property_; Pollock and Maitland, _History
of English Law_; Challis, _Real Property_.