Part 13

=Ginn or Jân= (singular _masculine_ Jinnee, _feminine_ Jinniyeh), a species of beings created long before Adam. They were formed of “smokeless fire” or fire of the simoom, and were governed by monarchs named suleyman, the last of whom was Jân-ibn-Jân or Gian-ben-Gian, who “built the pyramids of Egypt.” Prophets were sent to convert them, but on their persistent disobedience, an army of angels drove them from the earth. Among the Ginn was one named Aza´zel. When Adam was created, and God commanded the angels to worship him, Azazel refused, saying, “Why should the spirits of fire worship a creature made of earth?” Whereupon God changed him into a devil, and called him Iblis or Eblis (“despair”). Spelt also Djinn.

=Gi´ona=, a leader of the anabaptists, once a servant of Comte d’Oberthal, but discharged from his service for theft. He joined the rebellion of the anabaptists, but, with the rest of the conspirators, betrayed the “prophet-king,” John of Leyden, when the emperor arrived with his army.—Meyerbeer, _Le Prophète_ (1849).

=Giovan´ni= (_Don_), a Spanish libertine of the aristocratic class. His valet, Leporello, says, “He had 700 mistresses in Italy, 800 in Germany, 91 in France and Turkey, and 1003 in Spain.” When the measure of his iniquity was full, a legion of foul fiends carried him off to the devouring gulf.—Mozart’s opera, _Don Giovanni_ (1787).

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

⁂ The origin of this character was Don Juan Teno´rio, of Seville, who lived in the fourteenth century. The traditions concerning him were dramatized by Tirso de Mo´lina; thence passed into Italy and France. Glück has a musical ballad called _Don Juan_ (1765); Molière, a comedy on the same subject (1665); and Thomas Corneille (brother of the _Grand Corneille_) brought out, in 1673, a comedy on the same subject, called _Le Festin de Pierre_, which is the second title of Molière’s _Don Juan_. Goldoni, called “The Italian Molière,” has also a comedy on the same favorite hero.

=Gipsey=, the favorite greyhound of Charles I.

One evening his [_Charles I._] dog scraping at the door, he commanded me [_Sir Philip Warwick_] to let in Gipsey.—_Memoirs_, 329.

=Gypsey Ring=, a flat gold ring, with stones _let into it_, at given distances. So called because the stones were originally Egyptian pebbles—that is, agate and jasper.

⁂ The tale is, that the gypsies are wanderers because they refused to shelter the Virgin and Child in their flight into Egypt.—Aventinus, _Annales Boiorum_, viii.

=Giralda= of Seville, called by the Knight of the Mirrors a giantess, whose body was of brass, and who, without ever shifting her place, was the most unsteady and changeable female in the world. In fact, this Giralda was no other than the brazen statue on a steeple in Seville, serving for a weathercock.

“I fixed the changeable Giralda ... I obliged her to stand still; for during the space of a whole week no wind blew but from the north.”—Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. i. 14 (1615).

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

_Jean Girder_, wife of the cooper.—Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

=Girdle= (_Armi´da’s_), a cestus worn by Armi´da, which, like that of Venus, possessed the magical charm of provoking irresistible love.—Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

_Girdle_ (_Flor´imel’s_), the prize of a grand tournament, in which Sir Sat´yrane (3 _syl._), Sir Brianor, Sir Sanglier, Sir Artĕgal, Sir Cambel, Sir Tri´amond, Brit´omart, and others took part. It was accidentally dropped by Florimel in her flight (bk. iii. 7, 31), picked up by Sir Satyrane, and employed by him for binding the monster which frightened Florimel to flight, but afterwards came again into Sir Satyrane’s possession, when he placed it for safety in a golden coffer. It was a gorgeous girdle, made by Vulcan for Venus, and embossed with pearls and precious stones; but its chief merit was

It gave the virtue of chaste love And wifehood true to all that it did bear; But whosoever contrary doth prove, Might not the same about her middle wear, But it would loose, or else asunder tear. Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, iii. 7 (1590).

_Girdle_ (_Venus’s_), a girdle on which was embroidered the passions, desires, joys, and pains of love. It was usually called a cestus, which means “embroidered,” and was worn lower down than the cin´gulum or matron’s girdle, but higher up than the zone or maiden’s girdle. It was said to possess the magical power of exciting love. Homer describes it thus:

In this was every art, and every charm, To win the wisest, and the coldest warm; Fond love, the gentle vow, the gay desire, The kind deceit, the still reviving fire, Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs, Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes. Pope, _Iliad_, xiv.

=Girdle of Opakka=, foresight and prudence.

“The girdle of Opakka, with which Kifri the enchanter is endued, what is it,” said Shemshelnar, “but foresight and prudence—the best ‘girdle’ for the sultans of the earth?”—Sir G. Morell [_i.e_. J. Ridley], _Tales of the Genii_ (“History of Mahoud,” tale vii., 1751).

=Girdles=, impressed with mystical characters, were bound with certain ceremonies round women in gestation, to accelerate the birth and alleviate the pains of labor. It was a Druid custom, observed by the Gaels, and continued in practice till quite modern times.

Aldo offered to give Erragon “a hundred steeds, children of the rein; a hundred hawks with fluttering wing, ... and a hundred girdles to bind high-bosomed maids, friends of the births of heroes.”—Ossian, _The Battle of Lora._

=Girnington= (_The laird of_), previously Frank Hayston, laird of Bucklaw, the bridegroom of Lucy Ashton. He is found wounded by his bride on the wedding night, recovers and leaves the country; but the bride goes mad and dies.—Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

=Giulia= (_Donna_), suspected wife of Don Alonzo in Richard Mansfield’s play _Don Juan_. She becomes the fast friend of the youthful lovers, although forced by her husband’s brutality to decoy Juan into the trap set for him by Alonzo (1891).

=Gjallar=, Heimdall’s horn, which he blows to give the gods notice when any one approaches the bridge Bifröst.—_Scandinavian Mythology_.

=Gladiator= (_The Dying_). This famous statue, found at Nettuno (the ancient _Antium_), was the work of Agasĭas, a sculptor of Ephesus.

=Glads´moor= (_Mr._), almoner of the earl of Glenallan, at Glenallan House.—Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

=Glamorgan=, according to British fable, is _gla_ or _glyn_ Morgan (valley or glen of Morgan). Cundah´ and Morgan (says Spenser) were sons of Goneril and Regan, the two elder daughters of King Leyr. Cundah chased Morgan into Wales, and slew him in the glen which perpetuates his name.

Then gan the bloody brethren both to raine: But fierce Cundah gan shortly to envy His brother Morgan ... Raisd warre, and him in batteill overthrew; Whence as he to those woody hilles did fly, Which hight of him Gla-morgan, there him slew. Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, ii. 10, 33 (1590).

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

Some restless spirits ... inspired Margan with vain conceits, ... who marched with an army through Cunedagius’s country, and began to burn all before him; but he was met by Cunedagius, with all his forces, who attacked Margan ... and, putting him to flight, ... killed him in a town of Kambria, which since his death has been called Margan to this day.—_British History_, ii. 15 (1142).

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

=Glasgow Arms=, an oak tree with a bird above it, and a bell hanging from one of the branches; at the foot of the tree a salmon with a ring in its mouth. The legend is that St. Kentigern built the city and hung a bell in an oak tree to summon the men to work. This accounts for the “oak and bell.” Now for the rest: A Scottish queen, having formed an illicit attachment to a soldier, presented her paramour with a ring, the gift of her royal husband. This coming to the knowledge of the king, he contrived to abstract it from the soldier while he was asleep, threw it into the Clyde, and then asked his queen to show it him. The queen, in great alarm, ran to St. Kentigern, and confessed her crime. The father confessor went to the Clyde, drew out a salmon with the ring in its mouth, handed it to the queen, and by this means both prevented a scandal and reformed the repentant lady.

A similar legend is told of Dame Rebecca Berry, wife of Thomas Elton of Stratford Bow, and relict of Sir John Berry, 1696. She is the heroine of the ballad called _The Cruel Knight_. The story runs thus: A knight, passing by a cottage, heard the cries of a woman in labor. By his knowledge of the occult sciences, he knew that the infant was doomed to be his future wife; but he determined to elude his destiny. When the child was of a marriageable age, he took her to the seaside, intending to drown her, but relented, and, throwing a ring into the sea, commanded her never to see his face again, upon pain of death, till she brought back that ring with her. The damsel now went as cook to a noble family, and one day, as she was preparing a cod-fish for dinner, she found the ring in the fish, took it to the knight, and thus became the bride of Sir John Berry. The Berry arms show a fish, and in the dexter chief a ring.

=Glass= (_Mrs._), a tobacconist, in London, who befriended Jeanie Deans while she sojourned in town, whither she had come to crave pardon from the queen for Effie Deans, her half-sister, lying under sentence of death for the murder of her infant born before wedlock.—Sir W. Scott, _Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.).

=Glass Armor.= When Cherry went to encounter the dragon that guarded the singing apple, he arrayed himself in glass armor, which reflected objects like a mirror. Consequently, when the monster came against him, seeing its reflection in every part of the armor, it fancied hundreds of dragons were coming against it, and ran away in alarm into a cave, which Cherry instantly closed up, and thus became master of the situation.—Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“Princess Fairstar,” 1682).

=Glasse= (_Mrs._), author of a cookery-book immortalized by the saying, “First catch [_skin_] your hair, then cook it.” Mrs. Glasse is the _nom de plume_ of Dr. John Hill (1716-1775).

=Glas´tonbury=, in Arthurian romance, was the burial place of King Arthur. Selden, in his _Illustrations of Drayton_, gives an account of Arthur’s tomb “betwixt two pillars,” and says that “Henry II. gave command to Henry de Bois (then abbot of Glastonbury) to make great search for the body of the British king, which was found in a wooden coffin some 16 foote deepe, and afterwards they found a stone on whose lower side was fixed a leaden cross with the name inscribed.”

_Glastonbury Thorn._ The legend is that Joseph of Arimatheēa stuck his staff into the ground in “the sacred isle of Glastonbury,” and that this thorn blossoms “on Christmas Day” every year. St. Joseph was buried at Glastonbury.

Not great Arthur’s tomb, nor holy Joseph’s grave, From sacrilege had power their sacred bones to save ... [_Here_] trees in winter bloom and bear their summer’s green. Drayton, _Polyolbion_, iii. (1612).

=Glatisant=, the questing beast. It had the head of a serpent, the body of a libbard, buttocks of a lion, foot of a hart, and in its body “there was a noise like that of thirty couple of hounds questing” (_i.e._ in full cry). Sir Palomi´dês the Saracen was forever following this beast.—Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, ii. 52, 53, 149 (1470).

=Glau´ce= (2 _syl._), nurse of the Princess Brit´omart. She tried by charms to “undo” her lady’s love for Sir Artegal, “but love that is in gentle heart begun, no idle charm can remove.” Finding her sorcery useless, she took the princess to consult Merlin, and Merlin told her that by marrying Artegal she would found a race of kings from which would arise “a royal virgin that shall shake the power of Spain.” The two now started in quest of the knight, but in time got separated. Glaucê became “the squire” of Sir Scu´damore, but re-appears (bk. iii. 12) after the combat between Britomart and Artegal, reconciles the combatants, and the princess consents “to be the love of Artegal, and to take him for her lord” (bk. iv. 5, 6).—Spenser, _Faëry Queen_ (1590, 1596).

=Glaucus=, accomplished young Athenian, whose house in Pompeii is a marvel of beauty and taste. He loves Ione, and is beloved by Nydia, the blind flower-girl. He is rescued from a terrible fate in the ampitheatre by the eruption of Vesuvius, escapes from the city, guided by Nydia, and weds Ione.—E. L. Bulwer, _Last Days of Pompeii_ (1834).

_Glaucus_, a fisherman of Boæ´tia. He observed that all the fish which he laid on the grass received fresh vigor, and immediately leaped into the sea. This grass had been planted by Kronos, and when Glaucus tasted it, he also leaped into the sea, and became a prophetic marine deity. Once a year he visited all the coasts of Greece, to utter his predictions. Glaucus is the sailors’ patron deity.

[_By_] old soothsaying Glaucus’ spell. Milton, _Comus_, 874 (1634).

As Glaucus, when he tasted of the herb That made him peer among the ocean gods. Dante, _Paradise_, i. (1311).

_Glaucus_, son of Hippolytus. Being smothered in a tub of honey, he was restored to life by [a] dragon given him by Escula´pios (probably a medicine so called.)—Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, 23.

_Glaucus_, of Chios, inventor of the art of soldering metal. Pausanias, _Itinerary of Greece._

_A second Glaucus_, one who ruins himself by horses. This refers to Glaucus, son of Sis´yphos, who was killed by his horses. Some say he was trampled to death by them, and some that he was eaten by them.

_Glauci et Diomēdis permutatio_, a very foolish exchange. Homer (_Iliad_, vi.) tells us that Glaucus changed his golden armor for the iron one of Diomēdês. The French say, _C’est le troc de Glaucus et de Diomede_. This Glaucus was the grandson of Bellerophon. (In Greek, “Glaukos.”)

=Glegg= (_Mrs._),one of the Dodson sisters in George Eliot’s _Mill on the Floss_, and the least amiable. When displeased or thwarted she takes to her bed, reads _Baxter’s Saints’ Rest_, and lives on water-gruel.

=Glenallan= (_Joscelind, dowager countess of_), whose funeral takes place by torchlight in the Catholic chapel.

_The earl of Glenallan_, son of the dowager countess.—Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

=Glenalvon=, heir of Lord Randolph. When young Norval, the son of Lady Randolph, makes his unexpected appearance, Glenalvon sees in him a rival, whom he hates. He pretends to Lord Randolph that the young man is a suitor of Lady Randolph’s, and, having excited the passion of jealousy, contrives to bring his lordship to a place where he witnesses their endearments. A fight ensues, in which Norval slays Glenalvon, but is himself slain by Lord Randolph, who then discovers too late that the supposed suitor was his wife’s son.—Home, _Douglas_ (1757).

=Glencoe= (2 _syl._), the scene of the massacre of M’Ian and thirty-eight of his glenmen, in 1692. All Jacobites were commanded to submit to William III. by the end of December, 1691. M’Ian was detained by a heavy fall of snow, and Sir John Dalrymple, the master of Stair, sent Captain Campbell to make an example of “the rebel.”

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

=Glendale= (_Sir Richard_), a papist conspirator with Redgauntlet.—Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

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

_Halbert_ and _Edward Glendinning_, sons of Elspeth Glendinning.—Sir W. Scott, _The Monastery_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Glendinning (Sir Halbert)_, the knight of Avenel, husband of Lady Mary of Avenel (2 _syl._).—Sir W. Scott, _The Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth).

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

... the glendoveers. The loveliest of all of heavenly birth. Southey, _Curse of Kehama_, vi, 2 (1809.)

=Glendow´er= (_Owen_), a Welsh nobleman, descended from Llewellyn (last of the Welsh kings). Sir Edmund Mortimer married one of his daughters. Shakespeare makes him a wizard, but very highly accomplished.—Shakespeare, 1 _Henry IV_. (1597).

=Glengar´ry.= So M’Donald of Glengarry (who gave in his adhesion to William III.) is generally called.

=Glenpro´sing= (_The old lady_), a neighbor of old Jasper Yellowley.—Sir W. Scott, _The Pirate_ (time, William III.).

=Glenthorn= (_Lord_), the hero of Miss Edgeworth’s novel called _Ennui_. Spoiled by indolence and bad education, he succeeds, by a course of self-discipline, in curing his mental and moral faults, and in becoming a useful member of society (1809).

The history of Lord Glenthorn affords a striking picture of _ennui_, and contains some excellent delineations of character.—Chambers, _English Literature_, ii. 569.

=Glenvar´loch= (_Lord_), or Nigel Olifaunt, the hero of Scott’s novel called _The Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

=Glinter=, the palace of Foresti “the peace-maker,” son of Balder. It was raised on pillars of gold, and had a silver roof.

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

By Gloriana I mean [_true_] Glory in my general intention, but in my particular I conceive the most excellent and glorious person of our sovereign the queen [_Elizabeth_], and her kingdom is Faerye-land.—Spenser, _Introduction to The Faëry Queen_ (1590).

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

=Glorious Preacher= (_The_), St. John Chrysostom (i.e. _John Goldenmouth_, 354-407).

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

_Glory_ (_Mc Whirk_). Irish girl rescued from wretched dependence by a benevolent woman, and made at home in a comfortable dwelling. She has a big, warm heart that yearns over everything helpless and hurt, and, whereas, in her childhood, she mourned over “the good times” she was “not in,” she comes to rejoice constantly in the blessed truth that she is “in” them all.—A.D.T. Whitney, _Faith Gartney’s Girlhood_ (1863).

=Glossin= (_Mr. Gilbert_), a lawyer, who purchases the Ellangowan estate, and is convicted by Counsellor Pleydell of kidnapping Henry Bertram, the heir. Both Glossin and Dirk Hatteraick, his accomplice, are sent to prison, and in the night Hatteraick first strangles the lawyer and then hangs himself.—Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

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

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

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

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

_Catharine Glover_, “the fair maid of Perth,” daughter of Simon the glover, and subsequently bride of Henry Smith the armorer.—Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

_Glover (Heins)_, the betrothed of Trudchen [_i.e. Gertrude_] Pavillon, daughter of the syndic’s wife.—Sir W. Scott, _Quentin Durward_ (time, Edward IV.).

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

=Glück=, a German musical composer, greatly patronized by Marie Antoinette. Young France set up against him the Italian Piccini. Between 1774 and 1780 every street, coffee-house, school and drawing-room in Paris canvassed the merits of these two composers, not on the score of their respective talents, but as the representatives of the German and Italian schools of music. The partisans of the German school were called Glückists, and those of the Italian school Piccinists.

Est-ce Glück, est-ce Puccini, Que doit couronner Polymnie? Donc entre Glück et Puccini Tout le Parnasse est désuni. L’un soutient ce que l’autre nie, Et Clio veut battre Uranie, Pour moi, qui crains toute manie, Plus irrésolu que Babouc N’épeusant Piccini ni Glück, Je n’y connais rien: ergo Glück.

⁂ A similar contest raged in England between the Bononcinists and Handelists. The prince of Wales was the leader of the Handel or German party, and the duke of Marlborough of the Bononcini or Italian school. (See TWEEDLEDUM.)

=Glumdalca=, queen of the giants, captive in the court of King Arthur. The king cast love-glances at her, and made Queen Dollallolla jealous; but the giantess loved Lord Grizzle, and Lord Grizzle loved the Princess Huncamunca, and Huncamunca loved the valiant Tom Thumb.—_Tom Thumb_, by Fielding the novelist (1730), altered by O’Hara, author of _Midas_ (1778).

=Glum-dal´clitch=, a girl nine years old “and only forty feet high.” Being such a “little thing,” the charge of Gulliver was committed to her during his sojourn in Brobdingnag.—Swift, _Gulliver’s Travels_.

Soon as Glumdalclitch missed her pleasing care, She wept, she blubbered, and she tore her hair. Pope.

=Glumms=, the male population of the imaginary country Nosmnbdsgrsutt, visited by Peter Wilkins. The Glumms, like the females, called gawreys (_q.v._), had wings, which served both for flying and dress—R. Pultock, _Peter Wilkins_ (1750).

=Glutton= (_The_), Vitellius, the Roman emperor (born a.d. 15, reigned 69, died 69). Visiting the field after the battle of Bedriac, in Gaul, he exclaimed, “The body of a dead enemy is a delightful perfume.”

⁂ Charles IX. of France, when he went in grand procession to visit the gibbet on which Admiral Coligny was hanging, had the wretched heartlessness to exclaim, in doggerel verse;

Fragrance sweeter than the rose Rises from our slaughtered foes.

_Glutton (The)_, Gabius Apicius, who lived during the reign of Tiberius. He spent £800,000 on the luxuries of the table, and when only £80,000 of his large fortune remained, he hanged himself, thinking death preferable to “starvation on such a miserable pittance.”

=Glynn= (_The Marshes of_). Title of a poem by Sidney Lanier, descriptive of a marsh on the Southern coast.

The creeks overflow; a thousand riverlets run Twixt the roots of the sod; the blades of the marsh-grass stir, Passeth a hurrying sound of wings that westward whir; Passeth, and all is still, and the currents cease to run, And the sea and the marsh are one. Poems, by Sidney Lanier (1884).

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

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

So it happened that we passed close to the Seven Little Goats.—Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. iii. 5 (1615).

⁂ Sancho Panza affirmed that two of the goats were of a green color, two carnation, two blue, and one motley; “but,” he adds, “no he-goat or cuckold ever passes beyond the horns of the moon.”

=Goatsnose=, a prophet, born deaf and dumb, who uttered his predictions by signs.—Rabelais, _Pantag´ruel_, iii. 20 (1545).

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

_Launcelot Gobbo_, son of Old Gobbo. He left the service of Shylock the Jew for that of Bassa´nio, a Christian. Launcelot Gobbo is one of the famous clowns of Shakespeare.—Shakespeare, _Merchant of Venice_ (1698).

=Gob´ilyve= (_Godfrey_), the assumed name of False Report. He is described as a dwarf, with great head, large brows, hollow eyes, crooked nose, hairy cheeks, a pied beard, hanging lips, and black teeth. His neck was short, his shoulders awry, his breast fat, his arms long, his legs “kewed,” and he rode “brigge-a-bragge on a little nag.” He told Sir Graunde Amoure he was wandering over the world to find a virtuous wife, but hitherto without success. Lady Correction met the party, and commanded Gobilyve (3 _syl._) to be severely beaten for a lying varlet.—Stephen Hawes, _The Passe-tyme of Plesure_, xxix., xxxi., xxxii. (1515).

=Gobseck=, a grasping money-lender, the hero and title of one of Balzac’s novels.

=God.=

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

_God made the country, and man made the town._—Cowper’s _Task_ (“The Sofa”). Varro, in his _De Re Rustica_, has: “Divina Natura agros dedit, ars humana ædificavit urbes.”