Part 14

_God sides with the strongest._ Napoleon I. said, “Le bon Dieu est toujours du coté des gros bataillons.” Julius Cæsar made the same remark.

=Godam=, a nickname applied by the French to the English, in allusion to a once popular oath.

=Godfrey= (_de Bouillon_), the chosen chief of the allied crusaders, who went to wrest Jerusalem from the hands of the Saracens. He was calm, circumspect, prudent, and brave. Godfrey despised “worldly empire, wealth, and fame.”—Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

_Godfrey_ (_Sir Edmondbury_), a magistrate killed by the papists. He was very active in laying bare their nefarious schemes, and his body was found pierced with his own sword, in 1678.—Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

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

Corah might for Agag’s murder call, In terms as coarse as Samuel used to Saul. _Absalom and Achitophel_, i. (1681).

_Godfrey_ (_Miss_), an heiress, daughter of an Indian governor.—Sam. Foote, _The Liar_ (1761).

=God´inez= (_Doctor_), a schoolmaster, “the most expert flogger in Oviedo” [_Ov.e.a.´do_]. He taught Gil Blas, and “in six years his worthy pupil understood a little Greek, and was a tolerable Latin scholar.”—Lesage, _Gil Blas_, i. (1716).

=Godi´va= or =Godgifu=, wife of Earl Leofric. The tale is that she begged her husband to remit a certain tax which oppressed the people of Coventry. Leofric said he would do so only on one condition—that she would ride naked through the city at midday. So the lady gave orders that all people should shut up their windows and doors; and she rode naked through the town, and delivered the people from the tax. The tale further says that all the people did as the lady bade them except Peeping Tom, who looked out, and was struck blind.

⁂ This legend is told at length by Drayton in his _Polyolbion_, xiii. (1613).

=Godless Florins=, English two-shilling pieces issued by Shiel when master of the mint. He was a Roman Catholic, and left out F.D. (_defender of the faith_) from the legend. They were issued and called in the same year (1849).

=Godmanchester Hogs and Huntingdon Sturgeon.=

During a very high flood in the meadows between Huntingdon and Godmanchester, something was seen floating, which the Godmanchester people thought was a black hog, and the Huntingdon folk declared was a sturgeon. When rescued from the waters, it proved to be a young donkey.—Lord Braybrooke (Pepys, _Diary_, May 22, 1667).

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

Those three monstrous stones... Which that huge son of hideous Albion, Great Godmer, threw in fierce contention At bold Canutus; but of him was slain. Spenser, _Faëry Queen_, ii. 10 (1590).

=Goëmot= or =Goëmagot=, a British giant, twelve cubits high, and of such prodigious strength that he could pull up a full-grown oak at one tug. Same as Gogmagog (_q.v._).

On a certain day, when Brutus was holding a solemn festival to the gods ... this giant, with twenty more of his companions, came in upon the Britons, among whom he made a dreadful slaughter; but the Britons at last ... killed them every one but Goëmagot ... him Brutus preserved alive, out of a desire to see a combat between the giant and Corineus, who took delight in such encounters.... Corineus carried him to the top of a high rock, and tossed him into the sea.—Geoffrey, _British History_, i. 16 (1142).

_Goëmagot’s Leap_, or “Lam Goemagot,” now called Haw, near Plymouth; the place where the giant fell when Corin’eus (3 _syl._) tossed him down the craggy rocks, by which he was mangled to pieces.—Geoffrey, _British History_, i. 16 (1142).

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

=Goer´vyl=, sister of Prince Madoc, and daughter of Owen, late king of North Wales. She accompanied her brother to America, and formed one of the colony of Caer-madoc, south of the Missouri (twelfth century).—Southey, _Madoc_ (1805).

=Goetz von Berlichingen=, or _Gottfried of the Iron Hand_, a famous German burgrave, who lost his right hand at the siege of Landshut. The iron hand which replaced the one he had lost is still shown at Jaxthausen, the place of his birth. Gottfried took a prominent part in the wars of independence against the electors of Brandenberg and Bavaria, in the sixteenth century (1480-1562).

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

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

=Gog=, according to _Ezek._ xxxviii., xxxix., was “prince of Magog”, (a country or people). Calmet says Camby´sês, king of Persia, is meant; but others think Antiochus Epiph´anês is alluded to.

_Gog_, in _Rev._ xx. 7-9, means Antichrist. Gog and Magog, in conjunction, mean all princes of the earth who are enemies of the Christian Church.

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

=Gog and Magog.= Prester John in his letter to Manuel Comnēnus, emperor of Constantinople, speaks of Gog and Magog as two separate nations tributary to him. These, with thirteen others, he says, are now shut up behind inaccessible mountains, but at the end of the world they will be let loose, and overrun the whole earth.—Albericus Trium Fontium, _Chronicles_ (1242).

Sale tells us that Gog and Magog are called by the Arabs “Yajui” and “Ma-jûj,” which are two nations or tribes descended from Japhet, son of Noah. Gog, according to some authorities, is a Turkish tribe; and Magog is the tribe called “Gilân” by Ptolemy, and “Geli” or “Gelæ” by Strabo.—_Al Korân_, xviii. note.

Respecting the re-appearance of Gog and Magog, the _Korân_ says: “They [_the dead_] shall not return ... till Gog and Magog have a passage opened for them, and they [_the dead_] shall hasten from every high hill,” _i.e._ the resurrection (ch. xxi.).

_Gog and Magog._ The two statues of Guildhall so called are in reality the statues of Gogmagog or Goëmagot and Corineus, referred to in the next article. (See also CORINEUS.) The Albion giant is known by his pole-axe and spiked ball. Two statues so called stood on the same spot in the reign of Henry V.; but those now seen were made by Richard Saunders, in 1708, and are fourteen feet in height.

In Hone’s time, children and country visitors were told that every day, when the giants heard the clock strike twelve, they came down to dinner.—_Old and New London_, i. 387.

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

=Gog´magog=, king of the Albion giants, eighteen feet in height, killed by Corin in a wrestling match, and flung by him over the Hoe or Haw of Plymouth. For this achievement, Brute gave his follower _all_ that _horn_ of land now called Cornwall, Cor´n[w]all, a contraction of Corinall. The contest is described by Drayton in his _Polyolbion_, i. (1612).

E’en thus unmoved Stood Corineus, the sire of Guendolen, When, grappling with his monstrous enemy, He the brute vastness held aloft, and bore, And headlong hurled, all shattered, to the sea, Down from the rock’s high summit, since that day Called Lan´-gæma´gog. Southey, _Joan of Arc_, viii. 395.

Cornwall means _Cornu Galliæ_ or _Walliæ_—_the horn of Gallia_ or _Wallia_ (g and w being convertible letters,) and Gaul and Wales different forms of the same word.

=Gog´magog Hill=, the higher of the two hills some three miles south-east of Cambridge. It once belonged to the Balsham Hills, but, “being rude and bearish, regarding neither God nor man,” it was named in reproach Gogmagog. The legend is that this Gogmagog Hill was once a huge giant, who fell in love with the nymph Granta, and, meeting her alone, told her all his heart, saying:

“Sweeting mine, if thou mine own wilt be, I’ve many a pretty gaud I keep in store for thee: A nest of broad-faced owls, and goodly urchins too (Nay, nymph, take heed of me, when I begin to woo); And better far than that, a bulchin two years old, A curled-pate calf it is, and oft could have been sold: And yet besides all this, I’ve goodly bear-whelps tway, Full dainty for my joy when she’s disposed to play And twenty sows of lead to make our wedding-ring;”

but the saucy nymph only mocked the giant, and told his love story to the Muses, and all made him their jest and sport and laughter.—Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xxi. (1622).

=Gold of Tolo´sa= (_The_), ill gains, which never prosper. The reference is to Cæpio, the Roman consul, who, on his march to Gallia Narbonensis, stole from Tolosa (_Toulouse_) the gold and silver consecrated by the Cimbrian Druids to their gods. He was utterly defeated by the Cimbrians, and some 112,000 Romans were left dead on the field of battle (B.C. 106).

=Gold Poured down the Throat.= Marcus Licin´ius Crassus, surnamed “The Rich,” one of the first Roman triumvirate, tried to make himself master of Parthia, but being defeated and brought captive to Oro´dês, king of Parthia, he was put to death by having molten gold poured down his throat. “Sate thy greed with this,” said Orodês.

Manlius Nepos Aquilius tried to restore the kings of Bithynia and Cappado´cia, dethroned by Mithridātês, but being unsuccessful and made prisoner, he was put to death by Mithridātês by molten gold poured down his throat.

In hell, the avaricious are punished in the same way, according to the _Shephearde’s Calendar_.

And ladles full of melted gold Were poured adown their throats. _The Dead Man’s Song_ (1579).

=Gol´demar= (_King_), a house-spirit, sometimes called King Vollmar. He lived three years with Neveling von Hardenberg, on the Hardenstein at the Ruhr, and the chamber in which he lived is still called Vollmar’s chamber. This house-spirit, though sensible to the touch, was invisible. It played beautifully on the harp, talked freely, revealed secrets, and played dice. One day, a person determined to discover its whereabouts, but Goldemar cut him to pieces and cooked the different parts. Never after this was there any trace of the spirit. The roasted fragments disappeared in the Lorrain war in 1651, but the pot in which the man’s head was boiled was built into the kitchen wall of Neveling von Hardenberg, where it remains to this day.—Von Steinen, _German Mythology_, 477.

=Golden Ass= (_The_), a romance in Latin, by Apule´ius (4 _syl._). It is the adventures of Lucian, a young man who had been transformed into an ass, but still retained his human consciousness. It tells us the miseries which he suffered at the hands of robbers, eunuchs, magistrates, and so on, till the time came for him to resume his proper form. It is full of wit, racy humor, and rich fancy, and contains the exquisite episode of Cupid and Psy´chê (bks. iv., v., vi.).

=Golden Dragon of Bruges= (_The_), The golden dragon was taken in one of the crusades from the church of St. Sophia, at Constantinople, and placed on the belfry of Bruges, but Philip van Artevelde (2 _syl._) transported it to Ghent, where it still adorns the belfry.

Saw great Artevelde victorious scale the Golden Dragon’s nest. Longfellow, _The Belfry of Bruges_.

=Golden Fleece= (_The_), the fleece of the ram which transported Phryxos to Colchis. When Phryxos arrived there, he sacrificed the ram and gave the fleece to King Æētês, who hung it on a sacred oak. It was stolen by Jason, in his “Argonautic expedition.”

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

=Golden Gate.= The gate of mercy before which one of the ten foolish virgins waits when her companions have returned to their evil courses.

“When the night falls, who knows what mercy waits To pardon guilt and sin? Perchance the Lord Himself unbarred the gates And led the wanderer in.” Walter Learned, _Between Times_ (1889).

=Golden Legend= (_The_), a collection of hagiology, made in the thirteenth century, by James de Voragine, a Dominican. The Legend consists of 177 sections, each of which is devoted to a particular saint or festival, arranged in the order of the calendar.

=Golden Mouth=, St. Chrysostom (347-407). The name is the Greek _chrusos stŏma_, “gold mouth.”

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

=Golden-tongued= (_The_), St. Peter, of Ravenna (433-450). Our equivalent is a free translation of the Greek _chrysol´ogos_ (_chrusos logos_, “gold discourse”).

=Goldfinch= (_Charles_), a vulgar, horse fellow, impudent and insolent in manner, who flirts with Widow Warren, and conspires with her and the Jew Silky to destroy Mr. Warren’s will. By this will the widow was left £600 a year, but the bulk of the property went to Jack Milford, his natural son, and Sophia Freelove, the daughter of Widow Warren by a former marriage. (See BEAGLE.)

Father was a sugar-baker, grandfather a slop-seller, I’m a gentleman.—Holcroft, _The Road to Ruin_, ii. 1 (1792).

=Goldiebirds= (_Messrs._), creditors of Sir Arthur Wardour.—Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

=Gold-mine= (_The_) or =Miller of Grenoble=, a drama by E. Stirling (1854). (For the plot, see SIMON.)

=Gold-mines= (_King of the_), a powerful, handsome prince, who was just about to marry the Princess All-Fair, when Yellow Dwarf claimed her as his betrothed, and carried her to Steel Castle on a Spanish cat. A good siren gave the betrothed king a diamond sword to secure All-Fair’s deliverance; but after overcoming every obstacle, he was so delighted at seeing her that he dropped his sword. In a moment Yellow Dwarf snatched it up, and stabbed his rival to the heart. The king of the Gold-mines and All-Fair were both changed into two palm trees.—Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“The Yellow Dwarf,” 1682).

=Goldsmith= (_Oliver_).

Here lies Nolly Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll, Who wrote like an angel, and talked like poor poll. David Garrick.

_Goldsmith_ (_Rev. J._), one of the many pseudonyms adopted by Sir Richard Phillips, in a series of school books. Some other of his false names were the Rev. David Blair, James Adair, Rev. C. Clarke, etc., with noted French names for educational French books.

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

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

=Gol´gotha= (“_the place of a skull_”), a small elevated spot north-west of Jerusalem, where criminals were executed. Used in poetry to signify a battle-field or place of great slaughter.

Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, Or memorize another Golgotha. Shakespeare, _Macbeth_, act i. sc. 2. (1606).

⁂ In the University of Cambridge, the dons’ gallery in Great St. Mary’s is called “Golgotha” because the _heads_ of the colleges sit there.

_Golgotha_ (_The City_), Temple Bar, London; so called because the heads of traitors, etc., used at one time to be exposed there after decapitation. This was not done from any notion of punishment, but simply to advertise the fact as a warning to evil-doers. Temple Bar was taken away from the Strand in 1878.

=Golightly= (_Mr._), the fellow who wants to borrow 5_s._ in _Lend me Five Shillings_, a farce by J.M. Morton.

=Goltho=, the friend of Ul´finore (3 _syl._). He was in love with Birtha, daughter of Lord As´tragon, the sage; but Birtha loved the Duke Gondibert. The tale being unfinished, the sequel of Goltho is not known.—Sir William Davenant, _Gondibert_ (died 1668).

=Gomer= or =Godmer=, a British giant, slain by Canu´tus, one of the companions of Brute. (See GOEMOT.)

Since Gomer’s giant brood inhabited this isle. Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xiv. (1613.)

=Gomez=, a rich banker, 60 years of age, married to Elvi´ra, a young wife. He is mean, covetous, and jealous. Elvira has a liaison with Colonel Lorenzo, which Dominick, her father confessor, aids and abets; but the amour is constantly thwarted, and it turns out that Lorenzo and Elvira are brother and sister.—Dryden, _The Spanish Fryar_ (1680).

=Gond´ibert= (_Duke_), of the royal line of Lombardy. Prince Oswald of Verona, out of jealousy, stirs up a faction fight against him, which is limited by agreement to four combatants on each side. Oswald is slain by Gondibert, and Gondibert is cured of his wounds by Lord As´tragon, a philosopher and sage. Rhodalind, the only child of Aribert, king of Lombardy, is in love with Gondibert, and Aribert hopes that he will become his son-in-law and heir, but Gondibert is betrothed to Birtha. One day while walking with his affianced Birtha, a messenger from the king comes post haste to tell him that Aribert had publicly proclaimed him his heir, and that Rhodalind was to be his bride. Gondibert still told Birtha he would remain true to her, and gave her an emerald ring, which would turn pale if his love declined. As the tale was never finished, the sequel cannot be given.—Sir W. Davenant, _Gondibert_ (died 1668).

=Gon´eril=, eldest daughter of King Lear, and wife of the duke of Albany. She treated her aged father with such scant courtesy, that he could not live under her roof; and she induced her sister Regan to follow her example. Subsequently both the sisters fell in love with Edmund, natural son of the earl of Gloucester, whom Regan designed to marry when she became a widow. Goneril, out of jealousy, now poisoned her sister, and “after slew herself.” Her name is proverbial for “filial ingratitude.”—Shakespeare, _King Lear_ (1605).

=Gonin=, a buffoon of the sixteenth century, who acquired great renown for his clever tricks, and gave rise to the French phrase, _Un tour de maître Gonin_ (“a trick of Master Gonin’s”).

=Gonnella=, domestic jester to the Margrave Nicolo d’Este, and to his son Borso, duke of Ferrara. The horse he rode on was _ossa atque pellis totus_, and like Rosinantê, has become proverbial. Gonnella’s jests were printed in 1506.

=Gonsalez= [_Gon.zalley_], Fernan Gonsalez or Gonsalvo, a Spanish hero of the tenth century, whose life was twice saved by his wife Sancha. His adventures have given birth to a host of ballads.

(There was a Hernandez Gonsalvo of Cordŏva, called “The great Captain” (1443-1515), to whom some of the ballads refer, and this is the hero of Florian’s historical novel entitled _Gonzalve de Cordoue_ (1791), borrowed from the Spanish romance called _The Civil Wars of Granada_, by Gines Perez de la Hita).

=Gonza´lo=, an honest old counsellor of Alonso, King of Naples.—Shakespeare, _The Tempest_ (1609).

_Gonzalo_, an ambitious but politic lord of Venice.—Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Laws of Candy_ (1647.)

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

=Good Regent= (_The_), James Stuart, earl of Murray, regent of Scotland after the imprisonment of Queen Mary, his half-sister. (Born 1533, regent 1567, assassinated 1570).

=Goodfellow= (_Robin_), son of King Oberon. When six years old, he was so mischievous that his mother threatened to whip him, and he ran away; but falling asleep, his father told him he should have anything he wished for, with power to turn himself into any shape, so long as he did harm to none but knaves and queens.

His first exploit was to turn himself into a horse, to punish a churl, whom he conveyed into a great plash of water and left there, laughing, as he flew off “Ho, ho, ho!” He afterwards went to a farm-house, and taking a fancy to a maid, does her work during the night. The maid, watching him, and observing him rather bare of clothes, provides him with garments, which he puts out, laughing “Ho, ho, ho!” He next changes himself into a Will-o-the-wisp, to mislead a party of merry-makers, and having misled them all night, he left them at daybreak, with a “Ho, ho, ho!” At another time, seeing a fellow ill-using a maiden, he changed himself into a hare, ran between his legs, and then growing into a horse, tossed him into a hedge, laughing, “Ho, ho, ho!”—_The Mad Pranks and Merry Jests of Robin Goodfellow_ (1580). (Percy Society, 1841).

_Goodfellow_ (_Robin_), a general name for any domestic spirit, as imp, urchin, elf, hag, fay, Kit-wi’-the-can´stick, spoorn, man-i’-the-oak, Puck, hobgoblin, Tom-tumbler, bug, bogie, Jack-o’-lantern, Friar’s lantern, Will-o’-the-wisp, Ariel, nixie, kelpie, etc., etc.

A bigger kind than these German kobolds is that called with us Robin Goodfellows, that would in those superstitious times grind corn for a mess of milk, cut wood, or do any manner of drudgery work.... These have several names ... but we commonly call them Pucks.—Burton, _Anatomy of Melancholy_, 47.

⁂ The Goodfellows, being very numerous, can hardly be the same as Robin, son of Oberon, but seem to obtain the name because their character was similar, and, indeed, Oberon’s son must be included in the generic name.

=Goodman of Ballengeich=, the assumed name of James V. of Scotland when he made his disguised visits through the districts round Edinburgh and Stirling.

⁂ Haroun-al-Raschid, Louis XI., Peter “The Great,” etc., made similar visits in disguise, for the sake of obtaining information by personal inspection.

=Good´man Grist=, the miller, a friend of the smugglers.—Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

=Goodricke= (_Mr._), a Catholic priest at Middlemas.—Sir W. Scott, _The Surgeon’s Daughter_ (time, George II.).

=Goodsire= (_Johnnie_), a weaver, near Charles’s Hope farm.—Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time George II.).

=Goodwill=, a man who had acquired £10,000 by trade, and wished to give his daughter Lucy in marriage to one of his relations, in order to keep the money in the family: but Lucy would not have any one of the boobies, and made choice instead of a strapping footman. Goodwill had the good sense to approve of the choice.—Fielding, _The Virgin Unmasked_.

=Goody Blake=, a poor old woman detected by Harry Gill picking up sticks from his farm-land. The farmer compelled her to leave them, and threatened to punish her for trespass. Goody Blake turned on the lusty yeoman, and said never from the moment should he know the blessing of warmth; and sure enough, neither clothing, fire, nor summer sun ever did make him warm again.

No word to any man he utters, A bed or up, to young or old; But ever to himself he mutters, “Poor Harry Gill is very cold.” Wordsworth, _Goody Blake and Harry Gill_ (1798).

=Goody Palsgrave=, a name of contempt given to Frederick V., elector palatine. He is also called the “Snow King” and the “Winter King,” because the Protestants made him king of Bohemia in the autumn of 1619, and he was set aside in the autumn of 1620.

=Goody Two-shoes=, a nursery tale supposed to be by Oliver Goldsmith, written in 1765 for Newbery, the bookseller of St. Paul’s Churchyard.

=Goose Gibbie=, a half-witted lad, first entrusted to “keep the turkeys,” but afterwards “advanced to the more important office of minding the cows.”—Sir W. Scott, _Old Mortality_ (time, Charles II.).

=Goosey Goderich=, Frederick Robinson, created viscount Goderich in 1827. So called by Cobbett, for his incapacity as a statesman (premier 1827-1828).

=Gor´boduc=, GORBODUG, or GORBOGUD, a mythical British king, who had two sons (Ferrex and Porrex). Ferrex was driven by his brother out of the kingdom, and on attempting to return with a large army, was defeated by him and slain. Soon afterwards, Porrex himself was murdered in his bed by his own mother, Widen, who loved Ferrex the better.—Geoffrey, _British History_, ii. 16 (1142).

_Gorboduc_, the first historical play in the language. The first three acts by Thomas Norton, and the last two by Thomas Sackville, afterwards Lord Buckhurst (1562). It is further remarkable as being the father of Iambic ten-syllable blank verse.

Those who last did tug In worse than civil war, the sons of Gorbodug. Drayton, _Polyolbion_, viii. (1612).

=Gor´brias=, lord-protector of Ibe´ria, and father of King Arba´ces (3 _syl._).—Beaumont and Fletcher, _A King or No King_ (1611).