Part 15

=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 some 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, with 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!” said 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_.

=Gracio´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 of 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 scintillations 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 Pucell, 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.”