PREFACE. (continued 4)

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 93immortalized 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.

94Glaucus, 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.

95Glenpro´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.).

96Glück, 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.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.

97Goats. 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“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]. 98He 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.

99Goffe (Captain), captain of the pirate vessel.—Sir W. Scott, The Pirate (time, William III.).

Gog, according to Ezek. xxxviii., xxxix., was “prince of Magog”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,)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 100is 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.).

101Golden 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 GrenobleGrenoble, 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.

102Goldsmith (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 5s. 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, 103and 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.

104A bigger kind than these German kobolds is that called with us Robin Goodfellows, that would in those superstitioussuperstitious 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 105army, 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 106some 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, 107with 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!” 108said 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.

109Gracio´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 110of 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 111scintillations 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 112Pucell, 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.”foolishness.”

Yet so true of heart and faithful in duty to God and man that—

“If I ever win the home in heaven

For whose sweet rest I ever hope and pray,

In the great company of the forgiven

I shall be sure to find old Daniel Gray.”

Josiah Gilbert Holland, Old Daniel Gray (1879).

Gray (Duncan) wooed a young lass called Maggie, but as Duncan looked asklent, Maggie “coost her head” and bade 113Duncan behave himself. “Duncan fleeched, and Duncan prayed,” but Meg was deaf to his pleadings; so Duncan took himself off in dudgeon. This was more than Maggie meant, so she fell sick and like to die. As Duncan “could na be her death,” he came forward manfully again, and then “they were crouse [merry] and canty bath. Ha, ha! the wooing o’t.”—R. Burns, Duncan Gray (1792).

Gray (Mary), daughter of a country gentleman of Perth. When the plague broke out in 1668, Mary Gray and her friend Bessy Bell retired to an unfrequented spot called Burn Braes, where they lived in a secluded cottage and saw no one. A young gentleman brought them food, but he caught the plague, communicated it to the two ladies, and all three died.—Allan Ramsay, Bessy Bell and Mary Gray.

Gray (Auld Robin). Jennie, a Scotch lass, was loved by young Jamie; “but saving a crown, he had naething else besides.” To make that crown a pound, young Jamie went to sea, and both were to be for Jennie. He had not been gone many days when Jennie’s mother fell sick, her father broke his arm, and their cow was stolen; then auld Robin came forward and maintained them both. Auld Robin loved the lass, and “wi’ tears in his ’ee,” said, “Jennie, for their sakes, oh, marry me!” Jennie’s heart said “nay,” for she looked for Jamie back; but her father urged her, and the mother pleaded with her eye, and so she consented. They had not been married above a month when Jamie returned. They met; she gave him one kiss, and though she “gang like a ghaist,” she made up her mind, like a brave good lassie, to be a gude wife, for auld Robin was very kind to her (1772).

This ballad was composed by Lady Anne Lindsay, daughter of the earl of Balcarres (afterwards Lady Barnard). It was written to an old Scotch tune called The Bridegroom Grat when the Sun went down. Auld Robin Gray was her father’s herdsman. When Lady Anne was writing the ballad, and was piling distress on Jennie, she told her sister that she had sent Jamie to sea, made the mother sick, and broken the father’s arm, but wanted a fourth calamity. “Steal the cow, sister Anne,” said the little Elizabeth; and so “the cow was stolen awa’,” and the song completed.

Grayson (Mrs.). Brave wife who, weaponless and alone, when an Indian tries to enter the block-house by an upper window, clamps his wrist to the window sill in such a way that, as his foot slips, he is suspended by it. He hangs thus for a moment, and the wrist breaks. She lets him go, and he falls to ground without.—William Gilmore Simms, The Yemassee (1835).

Graysteel, the sword of Kol, fatal to its owner. It passed into several hands, and always brought ill-luck with it.—Icelandic Edda.

Gray Swan. Ship in which a sailor-boy sails away, not to return for twenty years, when he comes back to his mother and incites her to defence of the missing son by feigning to blame him for his twenty years’ silence. Her spirited vindication of her darling causes him to discover himself to her.—Alice Cary, Poems (1876).

Great Captain (The), Gonsalvo de Cor´dova, el Gran Capitan (1453-1515).

Manuel I. [Comnēnus], emperor of Trebizond, is so called also (1120, 1143-1180).

114Great Cham of Literature, Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784).

Great Commoner (The), William Pitt (1759-1806).

Great Dauphin (The), Louis, the son of Louis XIV. (1661-1711).

⁂ The “Little Dauphin” was the duke of Bourgoyne, son of the Great or Grand Dauphin. Both died before Louis XIV.

Great Duke (The), the duke of Wellington (1769-1852).

Bury the Great Duke

With an empire’s lamentation;

Let us bury the Great Duke

To the noise of the mourning of a mighty nation.

Tennyson.

Great-Head or Canmore, Malcolm III. of Scotland (* 1057-1093).

Great Heart. The valiant guide reappears in George Wood’s satire. Modern Pilgrims, published in 1855.

Great-heart (Mr.), the guide of Christiana and her family to the Celestial City. Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, ii. (1685).

Great Magician (The) or The Great Magician of the North, Sir Walter Scott. So called by Professor John Wilson (1771-1832).

Great Marquis (The), James Graham, marquis of Montrose (1612-1650).

I’ve told thee how we swept Dundee,

And tamed the Lindsays’ pride;

But never have I told thee yet

How the Great Marquis died.

Aytoun.

Great Marquis (The), Dom Sebastiano Jose de Carvalho, Marquis de Pombal, greatest of all the Portuguese statesmenstatesmen (1699-1782).

Great Moralist (The), Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784).

Great Unknown (The), Sir Walter Scott, who published his Waverley Novels anonymously (1771-1832).

Great Unwashed (The). The artisan class were first so called by Sir W. Scott.

Greaves (Sir LauncelotLauncelot), a well-bred young English squire of the George II. period; handsome, virtuous, and enlightened, but crack-brained. He sets out, attended by an old sea-captain, to detect fraud and treason, abase insolence, mortify pride, discourage slander, disgrace immodesty, and punish ingratitude. Sir Launcelot, in fact, is a modern Don Quixote, and Captain Crow is his Sancho Panza. T. Smollet, The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves (1760).

Smollett became editor of the Critical Review, and an attack in that journal on Admiral Knowles led to a trial for libel. The author was sentenced to pay a fine of £100, and suffer three months imprisonment. He consoled himself in prison by writing his novel of Launcelot Greaves.—Chambers, English Literature, ii. 65.

Grecian Daughter (The), Euphrasia, daughter of Evander, a Greek who dethroned Dionysius the Elder, and became king of Syracuse. In his old age he was himself dethroned by Dionysius the Younger, and confined in a dungeon in a rock, where he was saved from starvation by his daughter, who fed him with “the milk designed for her own babe.” Timoleon having made himself master of Syracuse, Dionysius accidentally encountered Evander, his prisoner, and was about to 115kill him, when Euphrasia rushed forward and stabbed the tyranttyrant to the heart.—A. Murphy, The Grecian Daughter (1772).

⁂ As an historical drama, this plot is much the same as if the writer had said that James I. (of England) abdicated and retired to St. Germain, and when his son James II. succeeded to the crown, he was beheaded at White hall; for Murphy makes Dionysius the Elder to have been dethroned, and going to Corinth to live (act i.), and Dionysius the Younger to have been slain by the dagger of Euphrasia; whereas Dionysius the Elder never was dethroned, but died in Syracuse at the age of 63; and Dionysius the Younger was not slain in Syracuse, but being dethroned, went to Corinth, where he lived and died in exile.

Greedy (Justice), thin as a thread paper, always eating and always hungry. He says to Sir Giles Overreach (act iii. 1), “Oh, I do much honor a chine of beef! Oh, I do reverence a loin of veal!” As a justice, he is most venial—the promise of a turkey will buy him, but the promise of a haunch of venisonvenison will out-buy him.—Massinger, A New Way to Pay Old Debts (1628).

Greek Church (Fathers of the): Eusebius, Athana´sius, Basil “the great,” Gregory Nazianze´nus, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrys´ostom, Epipha´nius, Cyril of Alexandria, and Ephraim, deacon of Edessa.

Greeks (Last of the) Philopœ´men of Megalop´olis, whose great object was to infuse into the Achæans a military spirit, and establish their independence (B.C. 252-183).

Greeks joined Greeks. Clytus said to Alexander that Philip was the greater warrior:

I have seen him march,

And fought beneath his dreadful banner, where

The boldest at this table would have trembled.

Nay, frown not, sir, you cannot look me dead;

When Greeks joined Greeks, then was the tug of

war.

N. Lee, Alexander the Great, iv. 2 (1678).

⁂ Slightly altered into When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war. This line of Nathaniel Lee has become a household phrase.

To play the Greek, to act like a harlot. When Cressid says of Helen, “Then she’s a merry Greek indeed,” she means that Helen is no better than a fille publique. Probably Shakespeare had his eye upon “fair Hiren,” in Peel’s play called The Turkish Mahomet and Hyren the Fair Greek. “A fair Greek” was at one time a euphemism for a courtezan.

Green (Mr. Paddington), clerk at Somerset House.

Mrs. Paddington Green, his wife.—T.M. Morton, If I had a Thousand a Year.

Green (Verdant), a young man of infinite simplicity, who goes to college, and is played upon by all the practical jokers of alma mater. After he has bought his knowledge by experience, the butt becomes the “butter” of juveniles greener than himself. Verdant Green wore spectacles, which won for him the nickname of “Gig-lamps.”—Cuthbert Bede [Rev. Edw. Bradley], Verdant Green (1860).

Green (Widow), a rich, buxom dame of 40, who married first for money, and intended to choose her second husband “to please her vanity.” She fancied Waller loved her, and meant to make her his wife, but Sir William Fondlove 116was her adorer. When the politic widow discovered that Waller had fixed his love on another, she gave her hand to the old beau, Sir William; for if the news got wind of her love for Waller, she would become the laughing-stock of all her friends.—S. Knowles, The Love-Chase (1837).

Green Bird (The), a bird that told one everything it was asked. An oracular bird, obtained by Fairstar after the failure of Cherry and her two brothers. It was this bird who revealed to the king that Fairstar was his daughter and Cherry his nephew. Comtesse D’Aunoy, Fairy Tales (“Fairstar and Prince Cherry,” 1682).

Green Horse (The), the 5th Dragoon Guards (not the 5th Dragoons). So called from their green velvet facings.

Green Howard, (The), the 19th Foot. So called from the Hon. Charles Howard, their colonel from 1738 to 1748.

Green Knight (The), Sir Pertolope (3 syl.), called by Tennyson “Evening Star” or “Hesperus.” He was one of the four brothers who kept the passages of Castle Perilous, and was overthrown by Sir Gareth.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 127 (1470); Tennyson, Idylls (“Gareth and Lynette”).

⁂ Tennyson in his “Gareth and Lynette” chooses to call the Green Knight “Evening Star,” and the Blue Knight “Morning Star.” In the old romance the combat with the “Green Knight” was at dawn, and with the “Blue Knight” at sunset.—See Notes and Queries (February 16, 1878).

Green Knight (The), a pagan knight, who demanded Fezon in marriage, but being overcome by Orson, was obliged to resign his claim.—Valentine and Orson (fifteenth century).

Green Linnets, the 39th Foot. Their facings are green.

Green Man (The). The man who used to let off fireworks was so called in the reign of James I.

Have you any squibs, any green man in your shows?—John Kirke [R. Johnson], The Seven Champions of Christendom (1617).

Green Man (The), a gentleman’s gamekeeper, at one time clad in green.

But the green man shall I pass by unsung?...

A squire’s attendant clad in keeper’s green.

Crabbe, Borough (1810).

Greenhalgh, messenger of the earl of Derby.—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Greenhorn (Mr. Gilbert), an attorney, in partnership with Mr. Gabriel Grinderson.

Mr. Gernigo Greenhorn, father of Mr. Gilbert.—Sir W. Scott, The Antiquary (time, George III.).

Greenleaf (Gilbert), the old archer at Douglas Castle.—Sir W. Scott, Castle Dangerous (time, Henry I.).

Gregory, a faggot-maker of good education, first at a charity school, then as waiter on an Oxford student, and then as the fag of a travelling physician. When compelled to act the doctor, he says the disease of his patient arises from “propria quæ maribus tribuuntur mascula dicas, ut sunt divorum, Mars, Bacchus, Apollo, virorum.” And when Sir Jasper says, “I always thought till now that the heart is on the left side and the liver on the 117right,” he replies, “Ay, sir, so they were formerly, but we have changed all that.” In Molière’s comedy, Le Médecin Malgré Lui, Gregory is called “Sganarelle,” and all these jokes are in act ii. 6.—Henry Fielding, The Mock Doctor.

Gregory, father and son, hangmen in the seventeenth century. In the time of the Gregorys, hangmen were termed “esquires.” In France, executioners were termed “monsieur,” even to the breaking out of the Revolution.

Gregson (Widow), Darsie Latimer’s landlady at Shepherd’s Bush.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Gregson (Gilbert), the messenger of Father Buonaventura.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).

Gre´mio, an old man who wishes to marry Bianca, but the lady prefers Lucentio, a young man.—Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew (1594).

Grendel, the monster from which Beowulf delivered Hrothgar, king of Denmark. It was half monster, half man, whose haunt was the marshes among “a monster race.” Night after night it crept stealthily into the palace called Heorot, and slew sometimes as many as thirty of the inmates. At length Beowulf, at the head of a mixed band of warriors, went against it and slew it.—Beowulf, an Anglo-Saxon epic (sixth century).

Grenville (Sir Richard), the commander of The Revenge, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Out of his crew, ninety were sick on shore, and only a hundred able-bodied men remained on board. The Revenge was one of the six ships under the command of Lord Thomas Howard. While cruising near the Azores, a Spanish fleet of fifty-three ships made towards the English, and Lord Howard sheered off, saying, “My ships are out of gear, and how can six ships-of-the-line fight with fifty-three?” Sir Richard Grenville, however, resolved to stay and encounter the foe, and “ship after ship the whole night long drew back with her dead; some were sunk, more were shattered;” and the brave hundred still fought on. Sir Richard was wounded and his ship riddled, but his cry was still “Fight on!” When resistance was no longer possible, he cried, “Sink the ship, master gunner! sink her! Split her in twain, nor let her fall into the hands of the foe!” But the Spaniards boarded her and praised Sir Richard for his heroic daring. “I have done my duty for my queen and faith,” he said, and died. The Spaniards sent the prize home, but a tempest came on, and The Revenge, shot-shattered, “went down, to be lost evermore in the main.”—Tennyson, The Revenge, a ballad of the fleet (1878).

Froude has an essay on the subject. Canon Kingsley, in Westward Ho! has drawn Sir Richard Grenville, and alludes to the fight. Arber published three small volumes on Sir Richard’s noble exploit. Gervase Markham has a long poem on the subject. Sir Walter Raleigh says: “If Lord Howard had stood to his guns, the Spanish fleet would have been annihilated.” Probably Browning’s Hervé Riel was present to the mind of Tennyson when he wrote the ballad of The Revenge.

Gresham and the Pearl. When Queen Elizabeth visited the Exchange, Sir Thomas Gresham pledged her health in a cup of wine containing a precious stone crushed to atoms, and worth £15,000.

118Here £15,000 at one clap goes

Instead of sugar; Gresham drinks the pearl

Unto his queen and mistress. Pledge it lords.

Heywood, If You Know not Me, You Know Nobody.

⁂ It is devoutly to be hoped that Sir Thomas was above such absurd vanity. Very well for Queen Cleopatra, but more than ridiculous in such an imitation.

Gresham and the Grasshopper. There is a vulgar tradition that Sir Thomas Gresham was a foundling, and that the old beldame who brought him up was attracted to the spot where she found him, by the loud chirping of a grasshopper.

⁂ This tale arose from the grasshopper, which forms the crest of Sir Thomas.

To Sup with Sir Thomas Gresham, to have no supper. Similarly, “to dine with Duke Humphrey,” is to have nowhere to dine. The Royal Exchange was at one time a common lounging-place for idlers.

Tho’ little coin thy purseless pockets line,

Yet with great company thou’rt taken up;

For often with Duke Humphrey thou dost dine,

And often with Sir Thomas Gresham sup.

Hayman, Quidlibet (Epigram on a loafer, 1628).

Gretchen. Viragoish wife of Rip Van Winkle, in Washington Irving’s story of that name.

Gretchen, a German diminutive of Margaret; the heroine of Goethe’s Faust. Faust meets her on her return from church, falls in love with her, and at last seduces her. Overcome with shame, Gretchen destroys the infant to which she gives birth, and is condemned to death. Faust attempts to save her; and, gaining admission to the dungeon, finds her huddled on a bed of straw, singing wild snatches of ballads, quite insane. He tries to induce her to flee with him, but in vain. At daybreak Gretchen dies, and Faust is taken away.

Gretchen is a perfect union of homeliness and simplicity, though her love is strong as death; yet is she a human woman throughout, and never a mere abstraction. No other character ever drawn takes so strong a hold on the heart.

Greth´el (Gammer), the hypothetical narrator of the tales edited by the brothers Grimm.

⁂ Said to be Frau Viehmänin, wife of a peasant in the suburbs of Hessê Cassel, from whose mouth the brothers transcribed the tales.

Grey (Lady Jane), a tragedy by N. Rowe, (1715).

In French, Laplace (1745), Mde. de Staël (1800), Ch. Brifaut (1812), and Alexandre Soumet (1844), produced tragedies on the same subject. Paul Delaroche has a fine picture called “Le Supplice de Jane Grey” (1835).

Gribouille, the wiseacre who threw himself into a river that his clothes might not get wetted by the rain.—A French Proverbial Saying.

Gride (Arthur), a mean old usurer, who wished to marry Madeline Bray, but Madeline loved Nicholas Nickleby, and married him. Gride was murdered.—C. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby (1838).

Grier (Mrs.), straight-laced pietist, who says “if she didn’t think the heathen would be lost she wouldn’t see the use of the plan of salvation.”—Margaret Deland, John Ward, Preacher.

Grieux (le chevalier de), the hero of a 119French novel by the Abbé Antoine François Prévost (1697-1763). The passionate love of the hero, the Chevalier de Grieux, for Manon, leads him into a hundred dangers, the consequences of her frivolity and inconstancy. But he dares and suffers all for her sake, and at last, when she is sent into shameful exile by the authorities, he follows her, shares her privations, and remains with her till she dies.

Grieve (Jackie), landlord of an ale-house near Charlie’s Hope.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

Griffin (Allan), landlord of the Griffin inn, at Perth.—Sir W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).

Griffin-feet, the mark by which the Desert Fairy was known in all her metamorphoses.—Comtesse D’Aunoy, Fairy Tales (“The Yellow Dwarf,” 1682).

Griffiths (Old), steward of the earl of Derby.—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time Charles II.).

Griffiths (Samuel), London agent of Sir Arthur Darsie Redgauntlet.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time George III.).

Griflet (Sir), knighted by King Arthur at the request of Merlin, who told the king that Sir Griflet would prove “one of the best knights of the world, and the strongest man of arms.”arms.”—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 20 (1470).

Griggsby’s Station. Old home of a newly-made rich family, for which they pine,—

“In a great big house with cyarpets on the stairs

And the pump right in the kitchen.”

“Let’s go a-visitin’ back to Griggsby Station.

Back where they’s nothin’ aggervatin’ any more,

Shet away safe in the woods around the old location,

Back where we ust to be so happy an’ so pore.”

James Whitcomb Reilly, Afterwhiles (1888).

Grildrig, a mannikin.

She gave me the name “Grildrig,” which the family took up, and afterwards the whole kingdom. The word imports what the Latin calls manunculus the Italian homunceletion, and the English mannikin.—Dean Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (“Voyage to Brobdingnag,” 1726).

Grim, a fisherman who rescued, from a boat turned adrift, an infant named Habloc, whom he adopted and brought up. This infant was the son of the king of Denmark, and when restored to his royal father, the fisherman, laden with rich presents, built the village, which he called after his own name, Grims-by or “Grim’s town.”

⁂ The ancient seal of the town contained the names of “Gryme” and “Habloc.”

Grim (Giant,) a huge giant, who tried to stop pilgrimspilgrims on their way to the Celestial City. He was slain by Mr. Greatheart.—Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, ii. (1684).

Grimalkin, a cat, the spirit of a witch. Any witch was permitted to assume the body of a cat nine times. When the “first Witch” (in Macbeth) hears a cat mew, she says, “I come, Grimalkin” (act i. sc. 1).

Grime, the partner of Item the usurer. It is to Grime that Item appeals when he wants to fudge his clients. “Can we do so, Mr. Grime?” brings the stock answer, “Quite impossible, Mr. Item.”—Holcroft, The Deserted Daughter (1784), altered into The Steward.

120Grimes (Peter) the drunken thievish son of a steady fisherman. He had a boy, whom he killed by ill-usage, and two others he made away with; but escaped conviction through defect of evidence. As no one would live with him, he turned mad, was lodged in the parish poor-house, confessed his crimes in delirium, and died.—Crabbe, Borough, xxii, (1810).

Grimes´by (Gaffer), an old farmer at Marlborough.—Sir. W. Scott, Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).

Grimwig, an irascible old gentleman, who hid a very kind heart under a rough exterior. He was Mr. Brownlow’s great friend, and was always declaring himself ready to “eat his head” if he was mistaken on any point on which he passed an opinion.—C. Dickens, Oliver Twist (1837).

Grinderson (Mr. Gabriel), partner of Mr. Greenhorn. They are the attorneys who press Sir Arthur Wardour for the payment of debts. Sir. W. Scott, The Antiquary (time, George III.).

Grip, the clever raven of Barnaby Rudge. During the Gordon riots it learnt the cry of “No Popery!” Other of its phrases were: “I’m a devil!” “Never say die!” “Polly, put the kettle on!” etc.—C. Dickens, Barnaby Rudge (1841).

Gripe (1 syl.), a scrivener, husband of Clarissa, but with a tendre for Araminta, the wife of his friend Moneytrap. He is a miserly, money-loving, pig-headed hunks, but is duped out of £250 by his foolish liking for his neighbors wife.—Sir John Vanbrugh, The Confederacy (1695).

Gripe (1 syl.), the English name of Géronte, in Otway’s version of Molière’s comedy of Les Fourberies de Scapin. His daughter, called in French, Hyacinthe, is called “Clara,” and his son Leandre is Anglicized into “Leander.”—Th. Otway, The Cheats of Scapin.

Gripe (Sir Francis), a man of 64, guardian of Miranda, an heiress, and father of Charles. He wants to marry his ward for the sake of her money, and as she cannot obtain her property without his consent to her marriage, she pretends to be in love with him, and even fixes the day of espousals. “Grady,” quite secure that he is the man of her choice, gives his consent to her marriage, and she marries Sir George Airy, a man of 24. The old man laughs at Sir George, whom he fancies he is duping, but he is himself the dupe all through.—Mrs. Centlivre, The Busy Body (1709).

December 2, 1790, Munden made his bow to the Covent Garden audience as SirSir Francis Gripe.”—Memoir of J.S. Munden (1832).

Gripus, a stupid, venal judge, uncle of Alcmēna, and the betrothed of Phædra (Alcmena’s waiting-maid), in Dryden’s comedy of Amphitryon. Neither Gripus nor Phædra is among the Dramatis personæ of Molière’s comedy of Amphitryon.

Grisilda or Griselda, the model of patience and submission, meant to allegorize the submission of a holy mind to the will of God. Grisilda was the daughter of a charcoal-burner, but became the wife of Walter, marquis of Saluzzo. Her husband tried her, as God tried Job, and with the same result: (1) He took away her infant daughter, and secretly conveyed it to the queen of Pa´via to be brought up, while the mother was made to believe that it was murdered. (2) Four years later she had a son, which was also taken from her, and was sent to be brought up with his sister. (3) Eight years later, Grisilda was divorced, and sent back to 121her native cottage, because her husband, as she was told, intended to marry another. When, however, Lord Walter saw no indication of murmuring or jealousy, he told Grisilda that the supposed rival was her own daughter, and her patience and submission met with their full reward.—Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (“The Clerk’s Tale,” 1388).

Griskinis´sa, wife of Artaxaminous, king of Utopia. The king felt in doubt, and asked his minister of state this knotty question:

Shall I my Griskiniss’s charms forego,

Compel her to give up the royal chair,

And place the rosy Distaffina there?

The minister reminds the king that Distaffina is betrothed to his general.

And would a king his general supplant?

I can’t advise, upon my soul I can’t.

W.B. Rhodes, Bombastes Furioso (1790).

Grissel or Grizel. Octavia, the wife of Mark Antony, and sister of Augustus, is called the “patient Grizel of Roman story.” Forms of the name Griselda.

For patience she will prove a second Grissel.

Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, act iii. sc. 1 (1594).

Griz´el Dal´mahoy (Miss), the seamstress.—Sir W. Scott, Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.).

Griz´zie, maid-servant to Mrs. Saddletree.—Sir W. Scott, Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.).

Grizzie, one the servants of the Rev. Josiah Gargill.—Sir W. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well (time, George III.).

Griz´zle, chambermaid at the Golden Arms inn, at Kippletringan.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

Grizzle (Lord), the first peer of the realm in the court of King Arthur. He is in love with the Princess Huncamunca, and as the lady is promised in marriage to the valiant Tom Thumb, he turns traitor, and “leads his rebel rout to the palace gate.” Here Tom Thumb encounters the rebels, and Glumdalca, the giantess, thrusts at the traitor, but misses him. Then the “pigmy giant-killer” runs him through the body. The black cart comes up to drag him off, but the dead man tells the carter he need not trouble himself, as he intends “to bear himself off,” and so he does.—Tom Thumb, by Fielding the novelist (1730), altered by Kane O’Hara, author of Midas (1778).

Groat´settar (Miss Clara), niece of the old lady Glowrowrum, and one of the guests at Burgh Westra.

Miss Maddie Groatsettar, niece of the old lady Glowrowrum, and one of the guests at Burgh Westra.—Sir W. Scott, The Pirate (time, William III.).

Groffar´ius, king of Aquitania, who resisted Brute, the mythical great-grandson of Æneas, who landed there on his way to Britain.—M. Drayton, Polyolbion, i. (1612).

Gronovius, father and son, critics and humanists (father, 1611-1671; son, 1645-1716).

I have more satisfaction in beholding you than I should have in conversing with Grævius and Gronovius. I had rather possess your approbation than that of the elder Scaliger.—Mrs. Cowley, Who’s the Dupe? i. 3.

(Scaliger, father (1484-1558), son (1540-1609), critics and humanists).

Groom (Squire), “a downright, English, Newmarket, stable-bred gentleman-jockey, who, having ruined his finances by dogs, 122grooms, cocks, and horses ... thinks to retrieve his affairs by a matrimonial alliance with a City fortune.” (canto i. 1). He is one of the suitors of Charlotte Goodchild; but, supposing the report to be true that she has lost her money, he says to her guardian:

“Hark ye! Sir Theodore; I always make my match according to the weight my thing can carry. When I offered to take her into my stable, she was sound and in good case; but I hear her wind is touched. If so, I would not back her for a shilling. Matrimony is a long course, ... and it won’t do.”do.”—C. Macklin, Love â la Mode ii. 1 (1779).

This was Lee Lewes’s great part [1740-1803]. One morning at rehearsal, Lewes said something not in the play. “Hoy, hoy!” cried Macklin; “what’s that? what’s that?” “Oh,” replied Lewes, “’tis only a bit of my nonsense.” “But,” said Macklin, gravely, “I like my nonsense, Mr. Lewes, better than yours.”—J. O’Keefe.

Grotto of Eph´esus. Near Ephesus was a grotto containing a statue of Diana, to which was attached a pipe of reeds. If a young woman, charged with dishonor, entered this grotto, and the reed gave forth musical sounds, she was declared to be a pure virgin; but if it gave forth hideous noises, she was denounced and never seen more. Corinna put the grotto to the test, at the desire of Glaucon of Lesbos, and was never seen again by the eye of man.—E. Bulwer Lytton, Tales of Milētus, iii. (See Chastity, for other tests.)

Groveby (Old), of Gloomstock Hall, aged 65. He is the uncle of Sir Harry Groveby. Brusque, hasty, self-willed, but kind-hearted.

Sir Harry Groveby, nephew of old Groveby, engaged to Maria “the maid of the Oaks.”—J. Burgoyne, The Maid of the Oaks.

Groves (Jem), landlord of the Valiant Soldier, to which was attached “a good dry skittle-ground.”—C. Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop, xxix. (1840).

Grub (Jonathan), a stock broker, weighted with the three plagues of life—a wife, a handsome marriageable daughter, and £100,000 in the Funds, “any one of which is enough to drive a man mad; but all three to be attended to at once is too much.”

Mrs. Grub, a wealthy city woman, who has moved from the east to the fashionable west quarter of London, and has abandoned merchants and tradespeople for the gentry.

Emily Grub, called Milly, the handsome daughter of Jonathan. She marries Captain Bevil of the Guards.—O’Brien, Cross Purposes.

Grub´binol, a shepherd who sings with Bumkinet a dirge on the death of Blouzelinda.

Thus wailed the louts in melancholy strain,

Till bonny Susan sped across the plain;

They seized the lass, in apron clean arrayed,

And to the ale-house forced the willing maid;

In ale and kisses they forgot their cares,

And Susan, Blouzelinda’s loss repairs.

Gay, Pastoral, v. (1714).

(An imitation of Virgil’s Ecl., v. “Daphnis.”)

Gru´dar and Bras´solis. Cairbar and Grudar both strove for a spotted bull “that lowed on Golbun Heath,” in Ulster. Each claimed it as his own, and at length fought, when Grudar fell. Cairbar took the shield of Grudar to Brassolis, and said to her, “Fix it on high within my hall; ’tis the armor of my foe;” but the maiden, “distracted, flew to the spot, where she found the youth in his blood,” and died.

123Fair was Brassolis on the plain. Stately was Grudar on the hill.—Ossian, Fingal, I.

Grueby (John), servant to Lord George Gordon. An honest fellow, who remained faithful to his master to the bitter end. He twice saved Haredale’s life; and, although living under Lord Gordon and loving him, detested the crimes into which his master was betrayed by bad advice and false zeal.—C. Dickens, Barnaby Rudge (1841).

Grugeon, one of Fortunio’s seven attendants. His gift was that he could eat any amount of food without satiety. When Fortunio first saw him, he was eating 60,000 loaves for his breakfast.—Comtesse D’Aunoy, Fairy Tales (“Fortunio,” 1682).

Grum´ball (The Rev. Dr.), from Oxford, a papist conspirator with Redgauntlet.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.)

Grumbo, a giant in the tale of Tom Thumb. A raven having picked up Tom Thumb, dropped him on the flat roof of the giant’s castle. When old Grumbo went there to sniff the air, Tom crept up his sleeve; the giant, feeling tickled, shook his sleeve, and Tom fell into the sea below. Here he was swallowed by a fish, and the fish, being caught, was sold for King Arthur’s table. It was thus that Tom got introduced to the great king, by whom he was knighted.