Chapter I: The Anglo-Saxon Period, 449-1066 (4)

=Dundreary= (_dun-drēr´i_), =Lord.=--A grotesque character in Taylor’s comedy, _Our American Cousin_, noted for his aristocratic haughtiness of manner. The character is said to have been created by the actor Sothern.

=Durandana= (_dö-rän-dä´nä_).--The name of the marvelous sword of Orlando, the renowned hero of romance, said to have been wrought by the fairies, who endued it with such power that its owner was able to cleave the Pyrenees with it at a blow.

=Durandarte= (_dö-rän-där´te_).--A fabulous hero of Spain. Cervantes has introduced him, in _Don Quixote_, in the celebrated adventure of the knight in the cave of Montesinos.

=Durden= (_der´den_), =Dame.=--(1) The heroine of a popular English song. She is described as a notable housewife, and the mistress of five serving-girls and five laboring men. The five men loved the five maids. (2) A sobriquet playfully applied to Esther Summerson, the heroine of Dickens’ _Bleak House_.

=Durward= (_der´wārd_), =Quentin.=--A novel by Scott. Quentin Durward is a young archer of the Scottish guard in the service of Louis XI. of France. When Liège is assaulted, Quentin Durward and the Countess Isabelle, who has been put into his charge, escape on horseback. The countess publicly refuses to marry the Duc d’Orléans, to whom she has been promised, and ultimately marries the young Scotchman.

=Dwarf, Alberich.=--In the _Nibelungen Lied_ the dwarf “Alberich” is the guardian of the famous hoard won by Siegfried from the Nibelungs. The dwarf is twice vanquished by the hero, who gets possession of his “Tarn-Kappe” (cloak of invisibility).

=Dwarf, The Black.=--A novel by Sir Walter Scott. The dwarf is a fairy of the most malignant character; a genuine northern Duergar, and once held by the dalesmen of the border as the author of all the mischief that befell their flocks and herds. In Scott’s novel the black dwarf is introduced under the aliases of Sir Edward Mauley; Elshander, the recluse; Cannie Elshie; and the Wise Wight of Mucklestane Moor.

=E=

=Ecce Homo= (_ek´sē hō´mō_).--The title of a semi-theological work, attributed to Professor Seeley, and published in 1865, in which the humanity of Christ is considered and enforced, apart from his divinity. The phrase, “The enthusiasm of humanity,” was originated in this work; to which, it may be mentioned, Dr. Joseph Parker replied in his _Ecce Deus_ published in 1866.

=Eckhardt, The Faithful.=--A legendary hero of Germany, represented as an old man with a white staff, who, in Eisleben, appears on the evening of Maundy Thursday, and drives all the people into their houses, to save them from being harmed by a terrible procession of dead men, headless bodies, and two-legged horses, which immediately after passes by. Other traditions represent him as the companion of the knight Tannhäuser, and as warning travelers from the Venusberg, the mountain of fatal delights in the old mythology of Germany. Tieck has founded a story upon this legend, which has been translated into English by Carlyle, in which Eckhardt is described as the good servant who perishes to save his master’s children from the seducing fiends of the mountain. The German proverb, “Thou art the faithful Eckhardt; thou warnest everyone,” is founded upon this tradition.

=Eclecta.=--The “Elect” personified in _The Purple Island_, by Phineas Fletcher. She is the daughter of Intellect and Voletta (free-will).

=Ector, Sir.=--The foster-father of King Arthur, and lord of many parts of England and Wales. Father of Sir Kay, seneschal to King Arthur.

=Edenhall, The Luck of.=--A painted goblet in the possession of the Musgrave family of Edenhall, Cumberland, said to have been left by the fairies on St. Cuthbert’s Well. The tradition runs that the luck of the family is dependent on the safe-keeping of this goblet. The German poet Uhland embodied the legend in a ballad, translated into English by Longfellow.

=Edgar.=--Son to Gloucester, in Shakespeare’s tragedy of Lear. He was disinherited for his half-brother Edmund.

=Edgar=, or =Edgardo=.--Master of Ravenswood, in love with Lucy Ashton in Scott’s _Bride of Lammermoor_.

=Edith.=--The _Maid of Lorn_ in Scott’s _Lord of the Isles_, who married Ronald when peace was restored after the battle of Bannockburn.

=Edith, The Lady.=--_Ivanhoe_, Scott. Mother of Athelstane “the Unready” (thane of Coningsburgh).

=Edith Granger.=--Daughter of the Hon. Mrs. Skewton, married to Colonel Granger of Ours, who died within two years. Edith became Mr. Dombey’s second wife, but the marriage was altogether unhappy.

=Edith Plantagenet= (_plan-taj´e-net_), =The Lady.=--_The Talisman_, Scott. Called “The Fair Maid of Anjou,” a kinswoman of Richard I., and attendant on Queen Berengaria.

=Edmund.=--A bastard son of Gloucester in Shakespeare’s tragedy of _King Lear_.

=Edward, Sir.=--_The Iron Chest_, Colman. He commits a murder, and keeps a narrative of the transaction in an iron chest. Later, he trusts the secret to his secretary, Wilfred, and the whole transaction now becomes public.

=Edward.=--_Count Robert of Paris_, Scott. Brother of Hereward, the Varangian guard. He was slain in battle.

=Edwin.=--(1) The hero of Goldsmith’s ballad entitled _The Hermit_. (2) The hero of Mallet’s ballad _Edwin and Emma_. (3) The hero of Beattie’s _Minstrel_.

=Edyrn.=--_Idylls of the King_ (_Enid_), Tennyson. Son of Nudd. A suitor for the hand of Enid and an evil genius of her father, who opposed him. Later, Edyrn went to the court of King Arthur and became quite a changed man--from a malicious “sparrow-hawk” he was converted into a courteous gentleman.

=Egeus= (_ējē´us_).--Father of Hermia in Shakespeare’s _Midsummer Night’s Dream_.

=Eglamour.=--A character, in Shakespeare’s _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, who is an agent of Silvia in her escape.

=Eglamour= (_eg´la-mör_), =Sir.=--A valiant knight of the Round Table, celebrated in the romances of chivalry, and in an old ballad.

=Eglantine= (_eg´lan-tīn_), =Madame.=--The prioress in Chaucer’s _Canterbury Tales_, who was “full pleasant and amiable of port.” She was distinguished for the ladylike delicacy of her manners at table, and for her partiality to “small hounds,” and a peculiar mixture in her manner and dress of feminine vanity and slight worldliness, together with an ignorance of the world.

=Egyptian Thief.=--A personage alluded to by the Duke in Shakespeare’s _Twelfth Night_. The reference is to the story of Thyamis, a robber-chief and native of Memphis.

=Elvir.=--_Harold the Dauntless_, Scott. A Danish maid, who assumes boy’s clothing, and waits on Harold “the Dauntless,” as his page.

=Elaine.=--A mythical lady in the romances of King Arthur’s court. She is called “the lily maid of Astolat” in Tennyson’s _Idylls of the King_. She died for love of Sir Launcelot, and then at her request was borne on a barge to the castle of King Arthur, holding a lily in one hand, and a letter to Launcelot in the other.

=Elbow.=--A constable, in Shakespeare’s _Measure for Measure_, modest and well-meaning, though of simple mind and the object of wit among those who are wiser but not better.

=El Dorado.=--A name given by the Spaniards to an imaginary country, supposed, in the sixteenth century, to be situated in the interior of South America, and abounding in gold and all manner of precious stones.

=Electra.=--The daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and the heroine of a tragedy by Sophocles and of another by Euripides.

=Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.=--By Thomas Gray. Dr. Johnson gives 1750 as the date of publication; and declares that the piece “abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo.” The churchyard was that of Stoke Poges, near Eton.

=Elim.=--_The Messiah_, Klopstock. The guardian angel of Libbeus the Apostle. Libbeus, the tenderest and most gentle of the apostles, at the death of Jesus also died from grief.

=Elissa.=--Step-sister of Medina and Perissa, in Spenser’s _Faërie Queene_. They could never agree upon any subject.

=Elliott, Hobbie.=--There are seven by this name in the _Black Dwarf_, by Sir Walter Scott. The farmer Elliott himself and his bride-elect, Grace Armstrong; Mrs. Elliott, Hobbie’s grandmother; John and Harry, Hobbie’s brothers; Lilias, Jean, and Arnot, Hobbie’s sisters.

=Elops.=--Milton gives this name to the dumb serpent which gives no warning of its approach.

=Elsie.=--The daughter of Gottlieb, a farm tenant of Prince Henry of Hohenneck, who offered her life as a substitute for the prince. She was rescued as she was about to make the sacrifice. Longfellow has told this story in _The Golden Legend_.

=Elspeth= (_el´speth_).--(1) A character in Sir Walter Scott’s _Antiquary_. (2) An old servant to Dandie Dinmont in Scott’s _Guy Mannering_.

=Elvira.=--(1) In Cibber’s _Love Makes a Man_, sister of Don Duart, and niece of the governor of Lisbon. She marries Clodio, the coxcomb son of Don Antonio. (2) The young wife of Gomez, a rich old banker, in Dryden’s _The Spanish Fryer_. She carries on a liaison with Colonel Lorenzo, by the aid of her father-confessor Dominick, but is always checkmated, and it turns out that Lorenzo is her brother.

=Emelye.=--The sister-in-law of “Duke Theseus,” beloved by the two knights, Palamon and Arcyte.

=Emile= (_ā-mēl´_).--A philosophical romance on education by Jean Jacques Rousseau (1762). Emile, the chief character, is the author’s ideal of a young man perfectly educated, every bias but that of nature having been carefully withheld.

=Emilia= (_ē-mil´i-ä_).--(1) A lady attending Hermione in Shakespeare’s _Winter’s Tale_. (2) Wife to Iago, and waiting woman to Desdemona, in the tragedy of _Othello_, a woman of thorough vulgarity and loose principles, united to a high degree of spirit, energetic feeling, strong sense, and low cunning. (3) The sweetheart of Peregrine Pickle in Smollett’s novel _The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle_.

=Em’ly, Little.=--_David Copperfield_, Dickens. Daughter of Tom, the brother-in-law of Dan’el Peggotty, a Yarmouth fisherman, by whom the orphan child was brought up. David Copperfield and Em’ly were at one time playfellows. While engaged to Ham Peggotty (Dan’el’s nephew) Little Em’ly runs away with Steerforth, a friend of David’s, who was a handsome but unprincipled gentleman. Being subsequently reclaimed, she emigrates to Australia with Dan’el Peggotty and old Mrs. Gummidge.

=Empyrean.=--According to Ptolemy, there are five heavens, the last of which is pure elemental fire and the seat of Deity; this fifth heaven is called the empyrean.

=Endell, Martha.=--_David Copperfield_, Dickens. A poor girl, to whom Em’ly goes when Steerforth deserts her.

=Endymion= (_en-dim´i-on_).--A beautiful shepherd boy whom Diana kissed while he lay asleep on Mount Latmus. The story was made the subject of an English poem by Keats, in memory of his much loved friend, the poet Shelley. Shelley pronounced it “full of some of the highest and the finest gleams of poetry.”

Also a lyric by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow founded on the old mythic story of the mortal youth who was beloved by Diana, and received her kiss--

When, sleeping in the grove,
He dreamed not of her love.

=Enid.=--A mythical lady mentioned in a Welsh triad as one of the three celebrated ladies of Arthur’s court--a beautiful picture of conjugal patience and affection. Her story is told in the _Mabinogion_ and in Tennyson’s _Idylls of the King_. In the midst of an impure court she is the personification of purity.

=Eolian Harp.=--Baruch. There is a rabbinical story of the aërial harmony of the harp of David, which, when hung up at night, was played upon by the north wind.

=Epigram.=--A short, pointed or antithetical poem; or any short composition happily or antithetically expressed.

=Epithalamium= (_ep=´=i-thā-lā´mi-um_).--Was a species of poem which it was the custom among the Greeks and Romans to sing in chorus near the bridal-chamber of a newly married couple. Anacreon, Stesichorus, and Pindar composed poems of this kind, but only scanty fragments have been preserved. Spenser’s _Epithalamium_, written on the occasion of his marriage, is one of the finest specimens of this kind of verse.

=Eppie.=--(1) _St. Ronan’s Well_, Scott. One of the servants of the Rev. Josiah Cargill. In the same novel is Eppie Anderson, one of the servants at the Mowbray Arms, Old St. Ronan’s, held by Meg Dods. (2) In George Eliot’s _Silas Marner_ the child of Godfrey Cass, brought up and adopted by Silas Marner, whose love transformed him from a miser into a tender, loving father.

=Ermangarde of Baldringham, Lady.=--_The Betrothed_, Scott. Aunt of the Lady Eveline Berenger, “the Betrothed.”

=Ermeline.=--The wife of Reynard, in the tale of _Reynard the Fox_.

=Ermina.=--The heroine of Tasso’s _Jerusalem Delivered_, who fell in love with Tancred. When the Christian army besieged Jerusalem, she dressed herself in Clorinda’s armor to go to Tancred, but, being discovered, fled, and lived awhile with some shepherds on the banks of the Jordan. Meeting with Vafrino, sent as a secret spy by the crusaders, she revealed to him the design against the life of Godfrey, and, returning with him to the Christian camp, found Tancred wounded. She cured his wounds, so that he was able to take part in the last great day of the siege.

=Ernest, Duke.=--A poetical romance by Henry of Veldig (Waldeck), contemporary with Frederick Barbarossa. It is a mixture of Greek and oriental myths and hero adventures of the crusader.

=Error.=--_Faërie Queene_, Spenser. A monster who lived in a den in “Wandering Wood,” and with whom the Red-cross Knight had his first adventure. She had a brood of one thousand young ones of sundry shapes, and these cubs crept into their mother’s mouth when alarmed, as young kangaroos creep into their mother’s pouch. The knight was nearly killed by the stench which issued from the foul fiend, but he succeeded in “rafting” her head off, whereupon the brood lapped up the blood, and burst with satiety.

=Escalus= (_es´ka-lus_).--An ancient and kind hearted lord, in Shakespeare’s _Measure for Measure_, whom Vincentio, the duke of Vienna, joins with Angelo as his deputy during a pretended absence on a distant journey.

=Escanes= (_es´ka-nēz_).--A lord of Tyre, in Shakespeare’s _Pericles_.

=Esmeralda.=--_Notre Dame de Paris_, Victor Hugo. A beautiful gypsy girl, who, with tambourine and goat, dances in the “place” before Notre Dame.

=Esmond, Henry.=--A cavalier and fine-spirited gentleman in the reign of Queen Anne. Hero of Thackeray’s novel by the same name.

=Esmond.=--A novel by W. M. Thackeray, published in 1852. Its most striking feature is its elaborate imitation of the style and even the manner of thought of the time of Queen Anne’s reign, in which its scenes are laid.

=Esprit des Lois= [_es-prē´ dâ lwa_ (or, _Spirit of the Laws_)].--A celebrated philosophical work by Montesquieu, published at Geneva in 1748. The author begins somewhat formally with the old division of politics into democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy. He discusses the principles of each, and their bearings on education, on positive law, on social conditions, on military strength (offensive and defensive) on individual liberty, on taxation and finance. Then an abrupt return is made from the effects to the causes of constitutions and polity. The theory of the influence of physical conditions, and especially of climate, on political and social institutions--a theory which is perhaps more than any other identified with the book--received special attention, and a somewhat disproportionate space is given to the question of slavery in this connection. From climate Montesquieu passes to the nature of the soil as in its turn affecting civil polity. He then attacks the subject of manners and customs as distinct from laws of trade and commerce, of the family, of jurisprudence, of religion. The book concludes with an elaborate examination of the feudal system in France.

=Essay on Man.=--A poem by Alexander Pope, in four epistles: _Of the Nature and State of Man With Respect to the Universe_; _Of the Nature and State of Man With Respect to Himself as an Individual_; _Of the Nature and State of Man With Respect to Society_; and _Of the Nature and State of Man With Respect to Happiness_. Its fundamental idea is to the effect that the system of the universe is a “benevolent system, in which every virtue, as well as every passion, has its object and end.”

“If,” says Professor Ward, “the _Essay on Man_ were shivered into fragments, it would not lose its value; for it is precisely its details which constitute its moral as well as literary beauties. Nowhere has Pope so abundantly displayed his incomparable talent of elevating truisms into proverbs, in his mastery over language and poetic form.”

=Essays= (or, _Counsels Civil and Moral_).--By Francis, Lord Bacon. In the dedication to his brother Anthony, the author says he published the _Essays_ “because many of them had been stolen abroad in writing,” and he desired to give the world a correct version of his work. The word _Essays_, he says, “is late; but the thing is ancient, for Seneca’s Epistles to Lucilius, if you mark them well, are but essays, that is, dispersed meditations, though conveyed in the form of epistles.” “The transcendent strength of Bacon’s mind is visible.” says Hallam, “in the whole tenor of these _Essays_, unequaled as they must be, from the very nature of such compositions. They are deeper and more discriminating than any earlier, or almost any later, work, in the English language; full of recondite observations, long matured, and carefully sifted.”

=Estella.=--The heroine of Dickens’ novel of _Great Expectations_.

=Estotiland=, or =Estotilandia=.--An imaginary region in America, near the arctic circle, referred to by Milton as “cold Estotiland,” and variously fabled to have been discovered by Frisian fishermen in the fourteenth century, and by a Pole named John Scalve, in 1477.

=Etzel= (_et´sel_), _i. e._, =Attila=.--King of the Huns, a monarch ruling over three kingdoms and more than thirty principalities; being a widower, he married Kriemhild, the widow of Siegfried. In the _Nibelungenlied_, where he is introduced, he is made very insignificant.

=Eugénie Grandet= (_u-zhā-nē´ gron-dā´_).--A novel by Balzac, written in 1833, published in 1834. The heroine, Eugenie, is sacrificed to the cold-blooded avariciousness of her father. This is one of Balzac’s best novels.

=Eulalia= (_ū-lā´li-ä_), =St.=--In the calendar of saints there is a virgin martyr called Eulalia. She was martyred by torture February 12, 308. Longfellow calls Evangeline the _Sunshine of St. Eulalia_.

=Eulenspiegel= (_oi´len-spē-gel_).--The hero of a German tale, which relates the pranks and drolleries of a wandering cottager of Brunswick.

=Euphrasy.=--_Paradise Lost_, Milton. The herb eye-bright, so called because it was once supposed to be efficacious in clearing the organs of sight. Hence, the Archangel Michael purged the eyes of Adam with it, to enable him to see into the distant future.

=Evan Dhu M’Combich.=--_Waverley_, Scott. The foster-brother of M’Ivor.

=Evan Dhu of Lochiel.=--_Legend of Montrose_, Scott. A Highland chief in the army of Montrose.

=Evangeline.=--The title and heroine of a tale in hexameter verse by Longfellow, in two parts. Evangeline was the daughter of Benedict Bellefontaine, the richest farmer of Acadia (now Nova Scotia). At the age of seventeen she was legally betrothed by the notary-public to Gabriel, son of Basil the blacksmith; but next day all the colony was exiled by the order of George II., and their houses, cattle, and lands were confiscated. Gabriel and Evangeline were parted, and now, sustained by the brightness of hope, she wandered from place to place to find her betrothed. Basil had settled in Louisiana; but when Evangeline reached that distant land, Gabriel had gone. She sought him on the prairies, and, again far north, in Michigan, but ever a few days, a few weeks, too late. At length, grown old in this hopeless quest, she came to Philadelphia and became a sister of mercy. The plague broke out; and, as she visited the almshouse in ministration, she saw an old man who had been smitten with the pestilence. It was Gabriel. He tried to whisper her name; but death closed his lips. “All was ended now;” and “Side by side, in nameless graves, the lovers are sleeping.”

=Evangelist.=--In Bunyan’s _Pilgrim’s Progress_, represents the effectual preacher of the gospel who opens the gate of life to Christian.

=Evans, Sir Hugh.=--In Shakespeare’s _Merry Wives of Windsor_, a Welsh parson and school-teacher, ignorant but pedantic, who has a ludicrous quarrel with Dr. Caius.

=Excalibur= (_eks-kal´i-bẽr_), or =Excalibar=, or =Escalibor=.--The sword of the mythical King Arthur. Arthur received it from the hands of the Lady of the Lake. It had a scabbard the wearer of which could lose no blood. There seems, however, to have been also another sword called Excalibur in the early part of the story. This was the sword, plunged deep into a stone, which could be drawn forth only by the man who was to be king. After two hundred knights had failed, Arthur drew it out without difficulty.

=Excursion, The.=--A poem, in blank verse, by William Wordsworth, published in 1814, and forming the second part of a poem in three parts, to be entitled _The Recluse_, which the author had at one time contemplated. It consists of nine books, respectively entitled _The Wanderer_, _The Solitary_, _Despondency_, _Despondency Corrected_, _The Pastor_, _The Churchyard Among the Mountains_, _The Same Subject Continued_, _The Parsonage_, _Discourse of the Wanderer_, and _An Evening Visit to the Lake_.

=Eyre= (_âr_), =Jane.=--A novel by Charlotte Brontë, published in 1847, with a dedication to William Makepeace Thackeray, as “the first social regenerator of the day.” The early scenes are laid in the Lowood Institution, which has been identified with a school established by the Rev. W. Carus Wilson, at Cowen’s Bridge, near Leeds, and which is described with stern but unpleasing realism. Much of the book was derived from the author’s own personal experience.

=Ezzelin, Sir.=--_Lara_, Byron. The gentleman who recognizes Lara at the table of Lord Otho, and charges him with being Conrad the Corsair. A duel ensues, and Ezzelin is never heard of more. A serf used to say that he saw a huntsman one evening cast a dead body into the river which divided the lands of Otho and Lara, and that there was a star of knighthood on the breast of the corpse.

=F=

=Faa, Gabriel.=--_Guy Mannering_, Scott. Nephew of Meg Merrilies. One of the huntsmen at Liddesdale.

=Fadladeen.=--The hypercritical grand chamberlain in Moore’s poem _Lalla Rookh_. Fadladeen’s criticism upon the several tales which make up the romance are very racy and full of humor; and his crestfallen conceit when he finds out that the poet was the prince in disguise is well conceived.

=Faerie Queene= (_fā´e-ri kwēn_), =The.=--A poem by Edmund Spenser, published in 1590. This great allegorical epic is divided into six books, of which the first contains the Legend of the Knight of the Red Cross, or Holiness; the second the Legend of Sir Guyon, or Temperance; the third the Legend of Britomartis, or Chastity; the fourth the Legend of Cambal and Telamond, or Friendship; the fifth the Legend of Artegall, or Justice; and the sixth the Legend of Sir Calidore, or Courtesy. There originally existed twelve books, but the last six, excepting two cantos on Mutability, were lost by the poet’s servant in crossing from Ireland to England--a circumstance to be deeply regretted by every lover of true poetry. The finest things in Spenser are the character of Una, in the first book, the House of Pride, the Cave of Mammoth, and the Cave of Despair; the account of Memory; the description of Belphœbe; the story of Florimel and the Witch’s Son; the gardens of Adonis and the Bower of Bliss; the Mask of Cupid; and Colin Clout’s Vision, in the last book.

=Fag.=--A lying servant to Captain Absolute in Sheridan’s _Rivals_.

=Fagin.=--An old Jew in Dickens’ _Oliver Twist_, who employs young persons of both sexes to carry on a systematic trade of robbery.

=Fainall, Mr. and Mrs.=--Noted characters in Congreve’s comedy _The Way of the World_.

=Faineant, Le Noir= (_The Black Idler_).--In Sir Walter Scott’s _Ivanhoe_, a name applied to Richard Cœur de Lion in disguise, by the spectators of a tournament, on account of his indifference during a great part of the action, in which, however, he was finally victorious.

=Fair Maid of Perth.=--The title of a novel by Sir Walter Scott, and the name of the heroine.

=Fair Rosamond.=--Prototype of many heroines of fiction, a daughter of Walter de Clifford. According to a popular legend, which has no foundation in fact, Henry II. built a labyrinth or maze to conceal her from Queen Eleanor, who discovered her by means of a silken clew and put her to death. She is commonly, though erroneously, stated to have been the mother of William Longsword and Geoffrey, archbishop of York.

=Fairservice, Andrew.=--A shrewd Scotch gardener at Osbaldistone Hall in _Rob Roy_, Sir Walter Scott.

=Fairy of the Mine.=--A malevolent being, supposed to live in mines, busying itself with cutting ore, turning the windlass, etc., and yet effecting nothing.

=Faithful.=--One of the allegorical personages in Bunyan’s _Pilgrim’s Progress_, who dies a martyr before completing his journey.

=Faithful, Jacob.=--The title and hero of a sea tale, by Captain Marryat (1835).

=Fakenham Ghost.=--A ballad by Robert Bloomfield, author of _The Farmer’s Boy_. The ghost was a donkey.

=Fakreddin’s Valley.=--Over the several portals of bronze were these inscriptions: (1) _The Asylum of Pilgrims_; (2) _The Traveler’s Refuge_; (3) _The Depository of the Secrets of All the World_.

=Falkland.=--In Godwin’s novel called _Caleb Williams_. He commits murder, and keeps a narrative of the transaction in an iron chest. Williams, a lad in his employ, opens the chest, and is caught in the act by Falkland. The lad runs away, but is hunted down. This tale, dramatized by Colman is entitled _The Iron Chest_.

=Falstaff= (_fâl´stȧf_), =Sir John.=--A famous character in Shakespeare’s comedy of the _Merry Wives of Windsor_, and in the first and second parts of his historical drama of _Henry IV._ He is as perfect a comic portrait as was ever sketched. In the former play he is represented as in love with Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page, who make a butt and a dupe of him; in the latter he figures as a soldier and a wit; in both he is exhibited as a monster of fat--sensual, mendacious, boastful, and cowardly. In _Henry V._ his death is described by Mrs. Quickly.

=Fang.=--(1) A sheriff’s officer, in the second part of Shakespeare’s _King Henry IV._ (2) _Oliver Twist_, Charles Dickens. A bullying insolent magistrate, who would have sent Oliver Twist to prison, on suspicion of theft, if Mr. Brownlow had not interposed.

=Fata Alcina.=--_Orlando Innamorato_, Bojardo. Sister of Fata Morgana. She carried off Astolfo on the back of a whale to her isle, but turned him into a myrtle tree when she tired of him.

=Fata Morgana= (_fä´tä mor-gä´nä_).--The name of a potent fairy, celebrated in the tales of chivalry, and in the romantic poems of Italy. She was a pupil of the enchanter Merlin, and the sister of Arthur, to whom she discovered the intrigue of his queen, Geneura, or Guinever, with Lancelot of the Lake. In the _Orlando Innamorato_ of Bojardo, she appears at first as a personification of fortune, inhabiting a splendid residence at the bottom of a lake, and dispensing all the treasures of the earth, but she is afterward found in her proper station subject to the all potent Demogorgon. Also, as sister to King Arthur and pupil of Merlin. She lived at the bottom of the lake and dispensed good fortune as she liked.

=Fat Boy, The.=--A laughable character in Dickens’ _Pickwick Papers_; a youth of astonishing obesity whose employment consists in alternate eating and sleeping.

=Fathom, Ferdinand, Count.=--The title of a novel by Smollett, and the name of its principal character, a complete villain, who proceeds step by step to rob his benefactors and finally dies in misery and despair.

=Fatima= (_fä´tē-mä_).--(1) A female worker, in the story of _Aladdin_, in the _Arabian Nights’ Entertainments_. (2) The last of the wives of Bluebeard, and the only one who escaped being murdered by him.

=Faust= (_foust_).--A celebrated tragedy by Goethe, the materials of which are drawn in part from the popular legends of Dr. Faustus, a famous magician of the sixteenth century. A rich uncle having left him a fortune, Faust ran to every excess, and, when his fortune was exhausted, made a pact with the devil (who assumed the name of Mephistopheles, and the appearance of a little gray monk), that, if he might indulge his propensities freely for twenty-four years, he would at the end of that period consign to the devil both body and soul. The compact terminated in 1550, when Faust disappeared. His sweetheart was Margherita, whom he seduced, and his faithful servant was Wagner.

=Faustus= (_fâs´tus_).--A tragedy name; represented as a vulgar sorcerer tempted to sell his soul to the devil (Mephistopheles), on condition of having a familiar spirit at his command, the possession of earthly power and glory, and unlimited gratification of his sensual appetites, for twenty-four years; at the end of which time, when the forfeit comes to be exacted, he shrinks and shudders in agony and remorse, imploring yet despairing of the mercy of heaven. This has been the theme of many writers. It is the subject of an opera by Gounod.

=Femmes Savantes= (_fam sȧ-vä_N´), =Les= (or, _The Learned Women_).--Comedy by Molière. These women go in for women’s rights, science, and philosophy, to the neglect of domestic duties and wifely amenities. The “blue-stockings” are (1) Philaminte, the mother of Henriette, who discharges one of her servants because she speaks bad grammar; (2) Armande, sister of Henriette, who advocates platonic love and science; and (3) Bélise, sister of Philaminte, who sides with her in all things, but imagines that everyone is in love with her. Henriette, who has no sympathy with these “lofty flights,” is in love with Clitandre; but Philaminte wants her to marry Trissotin, a _bel esprit_. However, the father loses his property through the “savant” proclivities of his wife, Trissotin retires, and Clitandre marries Henriette, the “perfect” or thorough woman.

=Fenella.=--A fairy-like creature, a deaf and dumb attendant on the countess of Derby, in Sir Walter Scott’s _Peveril of the Peak_.

=Fenton= (_fen´ton_).--A character in Shakespeare’s _Merry Wives of Windsor_, who wooes the rich Anne Page for her money, but soon discovers inward treasures in her which quite transform him.

=Feramorz= (_fer´a-mōrz_).--_Lalla Rookh_, Thomas Moore. Feramorz in _Lalla Rookh_ is the young Cashmerian poet, who relates poetical tales to Lalla Rookh, in her journey from Delhi to Lesser Bucharia. Lalla Rookh is going to be married to the young sultan, but falls in love with the poet. On the wedding morn she is led to her future husband, and finds that the poet is the sultan himself, who had gallantly taken this course to win the heart of his bride and beguile her journey.

=Ferdinand= (_fer´di-nand_).--(1) A character in Shakespeare’s _Tempest_. He is a son of the king of Naples, and falls in love with Miranda, the daughter of Prospero, a banished duke of Milan. (2) King of Navarre, character in _Love’s Labor’s Lost_.

=Ferrers= (_fer´erz_)--_Endymion._ The hero of Benjamin Disraeli’s novel _Endymion_.

=Ferrex and Porrex.=--Two sons of Gorboduc, a mythical British king. Porrex drove his brother from Britain, and when Ferrex returned with an army he was slain, but Porrex was shortly after put to death by his mother. One of the first, if not the very first, historical plays in the English language was _Ferrex and Porrex_, by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville.

=Fib.=--_Nymphidia_, Drayton. One of the fairy attendants to Queen Mab.

=Fidele= (_fi-dē´lē_, or _fi-dāl´_).--Subject of an elegy by Collins.

=Fidelie.=--_Cymbeline_, Shakespeare. The name assumed by Imogen, when, attired in boy’s clothes, she started for Milford Haven to meet her husband Posthumus.

=Fidessa.=--_Faërie Queene_, Spenser. The companion of Sansfoy; but when the Red-cross Knight slew that “faithless Saracen,” Fidessa turned out to be Duessa, the daughter of Falsehood and Shame. See “Duessa.”

=Figaro= (_fē´gä-rō_).--A character introduced by Beaumarchais in his plays _Le Barbier de Seville_, _Le Mariage de Figaro_, and _La Mère Coupable_, used later by Mozart, Paisiello, and Rossini in operas. In the _Barbier_ he is a barber; in the _Mariage_ he is a valet. In both he is gay, lively, and courageous; his stratagems are always original, his lies witty, and his shrewdness proverbial. In the _Mère Coupable_ he has become virtuous and has lost his nerve. He also appears in Holcroft’s _Follies of a Day_, taken from Beaumarchais’ _Mariage de Figaro_.

=Finetta= (_fi-net´tä_).--_The Cinder Girl._ A fairy tale by the Comtesse d’Aulnoy. This is merely the old tale of Cinderella slightly altered.

=Fingal= (_fing´gal_).--A mythical hero, whose name occurs in Gaelic ballads and traditions, and in Macpherson’s _Poems of Ossian_.

=Fleance= (_flē´ans_).--A son of Banquo, in Shakespeare’s tragedy of _Macbeth_. The legend relates that after the assassination of his father he escaped to Wales, where he married the daughter of the reigning prince, and had a son named Walter. This Walter afterward became lord high steward of Scotland, and called himself Walter the Steward. From him proceeded in a direct line the Stuarts of Scotland, a royal line which gave James VI. of Scotland, James I. of England. This myth has been seriously accepted by some as fact.

=Fledgeby.=--_Our Mutual Friend_, Dickens. An overreaching, cowardly sneak who pretends to do a decent business under the trade name of Pubsey & Co.

=Florentius.=--A knight whose story is related in the first book of Gower’s _Confessio Amantis_. He bound himself to marry a deformed hag, provided she taught him the solution of a riddle on which his life depended.

=Florian= (_flō-ryon´_).--_The Foundling of the Forest_, W. Dimond. Discovered in infancy by the Count de Valmont, and adopted as his own son, Florian is lighthearted and volatile, but with deep affection, very grave, and the delight of all who know him.

=Florimel= (_flor´i-mel_).--A female character in Spenser’s _Faërie Queene_, of great beauty, but so timid that she feared the “smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,” and was abused by everyone. She was noted for sweetness of temper amid great trials. The word Florimel signifies “honey-flower.”

=Florizel= (_flor´i-zel_).--A prince of Bohemia, in Shakespeare’s _Winter’s Tale_, in love with Perdita.

=Fluellen= (_flö-el´en_).--A Welsh captain, who is an amusing pedant, in Shakespeare’s _Henry V._

=Flying Dutchman.=--A spectral ship, seen in stormy weather off the Cape of Good Hope, and considered ominous of ill-luck. Captain Marryat has taken this theme for his novel _The Phantom Ship_.

=Folk.=--Fairies, also called “people,” “neighbors,” “wights.” The Germans have their kleine volk (little folk), the Swiss their hill people and earth people. See _Fairies_.

=Ford.=--Mr. and Mrs. Ford are characters in _The Merry Wives of Windsor_. Mrs. Ford pretends to accept Sir John Falstaff’s protestations of love, in order to punish him by her devices.

=Fortinbras= (_fôr´tin-bras_).--Prince of Norway, in Shakespeare’s tragedy _Hamlet_.

=Fortunatus= (_fôr-tū-na´tus_).--The hero in one of Straparolla’s fairy tales. The nursery tale of Fortunatus records that he had an inexhaustible purse. It is from the Italian fairy tales.

=Fortunio’s= (_fôr-tu´ni-o_) =Horse.=--Comrade not only possessed incredible speed, but knew all things, and was gifted with human speech.

=Francesco.=--The Iago of Massinger’s _Duke of Milan_.

=Francesca da Rimini= (_frȧn-ches´kȧ dȧ rē´mē-nē_).--A dramatic poem by James Henry Leigh Hunt published in 1816. Francesca was the daughter of Guido da Polenta, Lord of Ravenna, in the latter part of the thirteenth century, and was married to Lanciotto, son of Malatesta da Rimini, who, discovering her criminal intercourse with his brother, revenged himself by putting them both to death. Her story forms an episode in Dante’s _Inferno_.

=Frankenstein= (_fräng´ken-stīn_) (or, the _Modern Prometheus_).--A novel by Mrs. Shelley, published in 1818. It was commenced in the summer of 1816, when Byron and the Shelleys were residing on the banks of the Lake of Geneva, and when, “during a week of rain, having amused themselves with reading German ghost stories, they agreed at last to write something in imitation of them. ‘You and I,’ said Lord Byron to Mrs. Shelley, ‘will publish ours together.’ He then began his tale of the _Vampire_;” but “the most memorable result,” writes Moore, “of their storytelling compact, was Mrs. Shelley’s wild and powerful romance of _Frankenstein_, one of those original conceptions that take hold of the public mind at once and forever.”

The hero of the book, a native of Geneva, and a student, constructs a monster of grewsome human remains and gives it life by galvanism. The monster feels that he is unlike all other human beings, and in revenge for the injury inflicted upon him by his creator, murders his friend, his brother, and his bride, and finally seeks out Frankenstein himself, with a view to wreaking a similar revenge on him. The hero, however, happily escapes his enemy, who retires to the utmost extremity of the globe, in order to put an end to his miserable life; and Frankenstein himself falls ill and dies on his way home after his last final flight from the monstrosity whom he has himself brought into the world.

=Freeport, Sir Andrew.=--The name of one of the members of the imaginary club under whose direction the _Spectator_ was professedly published. He is represented as a London merchant of great eminence and experience, industrious, sensible and generous.

=French Revolution, The.=--A history, in three parts, by Thomas Carlyle, published in 1837, and described by Lowell as “a series of word-pictures, unmatched for vehement power, in which the figures of such sons of earth as Mirabeau and Danton loom gigantic and terrible as in the glare of an eruption; their shadows swaying far and wide, grotesquely awful. But all is painted by eruptive flashes in violent light and shade. There are no half tints, no gradations, and we find it impossible to account for the continuance in power of less Titanic actors in the tragedy, like Robespierre, on any theory, whether of human nature or of individual character, supplied by Mr. Carlyle.”

=Friar Lawrence.=--The Franciscan monk who attempted to befriend the lovers in _Romeo and Juliet_.

=Friar Tuck.=--Chaplain and steward of Robin Hood. Introduced by Sir Walter Scott in _Ivanhoe_. He is a self-indulgent, combative Falstaff, a jolly companion to the outlaws in Sherwood forest.

=Friday.=--Robinson Crusoe’s faithful man Friday pictured by Defoe.

=Froissart= (_froi´särt_).--_The Cronicles of England, Fraunce, Spayne, Portyugale, Scotlande, Bretayne, Flanders, and other places adjoynynge, translated out of Frenche into our maternalle Englysche Tonge_, by “John Bourchier, knight, Lord Berners.” Printed in 1523. The history extends from 1326 to 1400. Froissart resided in England as secretary to Queen Philippa from 1361 to 1366, and visited it again in 1395, when he paid a visit to Scotland.

=Frollo, Archdeacon Claude.=--A noted character in Victor Hugo’s _Notre Dame de Paris_, absorbed in a bewildering search for the philosopher’s stone.

=Front de Bœuf.=--_Ivanhoe_, Sir Walter Scott. A follower of Prince John of Anjou, and one of the knight’s challengers.

=Froth, Master.=--A foolish gentleman in Shakespeare’s _Measure for Measure_. His name explains his character.

=Fusbos= (_fus´bos_).--_Utopia_, Sir Thomas More. Minister of state to Artaxaminous, king of Utopia.

=Fyrapel, Sir.=--The Leopard, the nearest kinsman of King Lion, in the beast epic of _Reynard the Fox_.

=G=

=Gadshill.=--A companion of Sir John Falstaff, in the first part of Shakespeare’s _King Henry IV._

=Galahad= (_gal´a-had_), =Sir.=--A celebrated knight of the Round Table who achieved the quest of the Holy Grail. Tennyson has made him the subject of one of his idylls. In Malory he is also represented as the perfect knight, clad in wonderful armor. He was the only knight who could sit in the “Siege Perilous” a seat reserved for the “knight without a flaw,” who achieved the quest of the “Holy Grail.”

=Galapas= (_gal´a-pas_).--A giant of marvelous height in the army of Lucius, king of Rome. He was slain by King Arthur.

=Galaphrone=, or =Galafron.=--A king of Cathay and father of Angelica in Bojardo’s _Orlando Innamorato_ and Ariosto’s _Furioso_.

=Gamp, Mrs.=--A nurse who is a prominent character in Dickens’ novel of _Martin Chuzzlewit_. She is celebrated for her constant reference to a certain Mrs. Harris, a purely imaginary person, for whose feigned opinions and utterances she professes the greatest respect, in order to give the more weight to her own.

=Gan=, =Ganelone=, =Ganelon=, or =Gano.=--The character of Sir Ganelon was marked with spite, dissimulation, and intrigue, but he was patient, obstinate, and enduring. He loved solitude, disbelieved in the existence of moral good, and has become a byword for a false and faithless friend. Dante has placed him in his _Inferno_.

=Gander-Cleugh.=--“Folly-Cliff,” that mysterious place where a person make a goose of himself, in _Tales of My Landlord_, Sir Walter Scott.

=Garcia, Pedro.=--A mythical personage, of whom mention is made in the preface to Gil Bias, in which is related how two scholars of Salamanca discovered a tombstone with the inscription “Here lies interred the soul of the Licentiate Pedro Garcia,” and how, on digging beneath the stone, was found a leathern purse containing a hundred ducats.

=Gareth.=--In _Arthurian Romance_ a knight of the Round Table, who was first a scullion in King Arthur’s kitchen, but afterward became champion of the Lady Linet, or Lynette, whose sister Lionès, or Lyonors, he delivered from Castle Perilous.

=Garganelle= (_gär-ga-nel´_).--The mother of Gargantua in Rabelais’ celebrated romance of this name.

=Gargantua= (_gär-gan´tū-ä_).--Rabelais’ celebrated romance, the hero of which is a gigantic personage, about whom many wonderful stories are related. He lived for several centuries, and at last begot a son, Pantagruel, as wonderful as himself. The _Pleasant Story of the Giant Gargantua and of his Son Pantagruel_, so satirized the monastic orders of his time that it was denounced by the spiritual authorities. Francis I., however, protected the author, and allowed him to print the third part of it in 1545.

=Gargery= (_gar´jer-i_), =Mrs. Joe.=--_Great Expectations_, Dickens. Pip’s sister. A virago, who kept her husband and Pip in constant awe. Joe Gargery, a blacksmith, married to Pip’s sister. A noble-hearted, simple-minded young man, who loved Pip sincerely. Joe Gargery was one of nature’s gentlemen.

=Gaspar=, or =Caspar.=--(The white one), one of the three magi or kings of Cologne. His offering to the infant Jesus was frankincense, in token of divinity.

=Gaunt, Griffith.=--Hero of a novel by Charles Reade, of same title.

=Gavotte.=--Name given to a certain dance common among people in the upper Alps.

=Gawain=, or =Gawayne= (_gä´wān_), =Sir=.--A nephew of King Arthur, and one of the most celebrated knights of the Round Table; noted for his sagacity and wonderful strength. He was surnamed “the courteous.” His brothers were Agravaine, Gaheris, and Gareth.

=Gebir= (_gā´bēr_).--A legendary eastern prince, said to have invaded Africa and to have given his name to Gibraltar. He is the subject of a poem of the same name by Walter Savage Landor.

=Gellatley= (_gel´at-li_), =Davie=.--The name of a poor fool in Sir Walter Scott’s novel of _Waverley_.

=Geneviève= (_zhen-vyāv´_).--(1) The heroine of a ballad by Coleridge. (2) Under the form _Genovefa_, the name occurs in a German myth as that of the wife of the Count Palatine Siegfried, in the time of Charles Martel. Upon false accusations her husband gave orders to put her to death, but the servant intrusted with the commission suffered her to escape into the forests of Ardennes, where she lay concealed, until by accident his husband discovered her retreat, and recognized her innocence.

=Genevra.=--A lady in Aristo’s _Orlandos’ Furioso_. Her honor is impeached, and she is condemned to die unless a champion appears to do combat for her. Her lover, Ariodantes, answers the challenge, kills the false accuser, and weds the dame. Spenser has a similar story in the _Faërie Queene_, and Shakespeare availed himself of the main incident in his comedy of _Much Ado About Nothing_.

=Geraint= (_ge-rānt_), =Sir=.--One of the knights of the Round Table. His story is told in Tennyson’s _Idylls of the King_ under _Geraint and Enid_.

=Geraldine.=--A name frequently found in romantic poetry, especially Scott’s _Lay of the Last Minstrel_. The name is said to have been adopted from the heroine connected with Surrey, whose praises are celebrated in a famous sonnet.

=Gertrude of Wyoming.=--Heroine of a poem by Thomas Campbell.

=Gesta Romanorum= (_jes´tä rō-ma-nō´rum_).--A collection of old romances compiled by Pierre Bercheure, prior of the Benedictine convent of St. Eloi, Paris. Shakespeare, Spenser, Gower, and many later writers have gone to this source. It took its present form in England about the beginning of the fourteenth century, the foundation coming from Roman writers, to which were added religious and mystical tales.

=Giaour= (_jour_), =The=.--Byron’s tale called _The Giaour_ is represented as told by a fisherman, a Turk, who had committed a crime which haunted him all his life. See _Hassan_.

=Gibbie, Goose.=--A half-witted boy in Scott’s _Old Mortality_.

=Gibbie, Sir.=--A simple-hearted, fine character in George Macdonald’s novel by the same name.

=Giant Despair.=--_Pilgrim’s Progress_, Bunyan. A giant who is the owner of Doubting Castle, and who, finding Christian and Hopeful asleep upon his grounds, takes them prisoners, and thrusts them into a dungeon.

=Giant Grim.=--_Pilgrim’s Progress_, Bunyan. A giant who seeks to stop the march of the pilgrims to the Celestial City, but is slain in a duel by Mr. Great-heart, their guide.

=Giant Slay-good.=--_Pilgrim’s Progress_, Bunyan. A giant slain in a duel by Mr. Great-heart.

=Gil Blas= (_zhēl bläs_).--A romance by Le Sage. The hero is the son of Blas of Santillanê squire or “escudero” to a lady, and brought up by his uncle, Canon Gil Perês. Gil Blas went to Dr. Godinez’s school of Oviedo and obtained the reputation of being a great scholar. He had fair abilities, a kind heart, and good inclinations, but was easily led astray by his vanity. Full of wit and humor, he was lax in his morals. Duped by others at first, he afterward played the same devices on those less experienced. As he grew in years, however, his conduct improved, and when his fortune was made, he became an honest, steady man.

=Glaucus= (_glâ´kus_).--A fisherman of Bœotia who has become the fisherman’s patron deity.

=Glaucus.=--Son of Hippolytus. Being smothered in a tub of honey, he was restored to life by Æsculapius.

=Gloriana.=--In Spenser’s _Faërie Queene_, the “greatest glorious queen of Faëry land.”

=Glumdalca= (_glum-dal´kä_).--_Tom Thumb_, Fielding. Queen of the giants, captive in the court of King Arthur.

=Glumdalclitch= (_glum-dal´klich_).--_Gulliver’s Travels_, Swift. 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.

=Glumms.=--_Peter Wilkins_, Robert Pullock. The male population of the imaginary country Nosmubdsgrsutt, visited by Peter Wilkins. Both males and females had wings which served both for flying and for clothes.

=Godiva= (_gō-dī´vä_).--A poem by Alfred Tennyson. The story of the lady and _Peeping Tom of Coventry_ is told in full by Dugdale. Godiva was the wife of Leofric, earl of Mercia, and undertook to ride naked through the town if he would remit a tax under which the people groaned. The earl consented and the lady kept her word.

=Golden Ass, The.=--A romance in Latin by Apuleius. 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 Psyche.

=Golden Legend, The.=--The title of an ecclesiastical work in one hundred and seventy-seven sections, dating from the thirteenth century, written by one James de Voragine, a Dominican monk, and descriptive of the various saints’ days in the Roman calendar. It is deserving of study as a literary monument of the period, and as illustrating the religious habits and views of the Christians of that time.

=Goneril= (_gon´er-il_).--The oldest of the three daughters to King Lear, in Shakespeare’s tragedy. Having received her moiety of Lear’s kingdom, the unnatural daughter first abridged the old man’s retinue, then gave him to understand that his company was not wanted and sent him out a despairing old man to seek refuge where he could find it. Her name is proverbial for filial ingratitude.

=Gonzalo= (_gon-zä´lō_).--An honest old counselor in Shakespeare’s _Tempest_, a true friend to Prospero.

=Goody Blake.=--A character in Wordsworth’s poem entitled _Goody Blake and Harry Gill_. A farmer forbids old Goody Blake to carry home a few sticks, which she had picked up from his land, and in revenge she invokes upon him the curse that he may “never more be warm;” and ever after “his teeth they chatter, chatter still.”

=Goody Two-Shoes.=--The name of a well-known character in a nursery tale by Oliver Goldsmith. Goody Two-Shoes was a very poor child, whose delight at having a pair of shoes was unbounded. She called constant attention to her “two-shoes” which gave her the name.

=Gradgrind= (_grad´grīnd_).--A hardware merchant in Dickens’ _Hard Times_. He is a man of hard facts and cultivates the practical. His constant demand in conversation is for “facts.” He allows nothing for the weakness of human nature, and deals with men and women as a mathematician with his figures.

=Gradgrind, Mrs.=--Wife of Thomas Gradgrind. A little, thin woman, always taking physic, without receiving from it any benefit.

=Gradgrind, Tom.=--Son of the above, a sullen young man, much loved by his sister.

=Gradgrind, Louise.=--A faithful daughter and sister.

=Grandison, Sir Charles.=--The hero of Richardson’s novel _The History of Sir Charles Grandison_. Designed to represent his ideal of a perfect hero--a union of the good Christian and the perfect English gentleman.

=Gratiano= (_grä-tē-ä´no_).--(1) A friend to Antonio and Bassanio in Shakespeare’s _Merchant of Venice_. He “talks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in Venice.” (2) Brother to Brabantio, in Shakespeare’s tragedy of _Othello_. (3) A character in the Italian popular theater called _Commedia dell’ Arte_. He is represented as a Bolognese doctor, and has a mask with a black nose and forehead and red cheeks.

=Great-Heart, Mr.=--In Bunyan’s _Pilgrim’s Progress_, the guide of Christian’s wife and children upon their journey to the Celestial City.

=Gremio= (_grē´mi-ō_).--In Shakespeare’s _Taming of the Shrew_, an old man who wishes to wed Bianca.

=Griffin-feet.=--_Fairy Tales_, Comtesse d’Aulnoy. The mark by which the Desert Fairy was known in all her metamorphoses.

=Grimalkin.=--A cat, the spirit of a witch. Any witch was permitted to assume the body of a cat nine times.

=Grimwig.=--_Oliver Twist_, Dickens. An irascible old gentleman, who hid a very kind heart under a rough exterior. He was always declaring himself ready to “eat his head” if he was mistaken on any point on which he passed an opinion.

=Griselda= (_gri-zel´dä_), =The Patient=.--A lady in Chaucer’s _Clerk of Oxenford’s Tales_, immortalized by her virtue and her patience. The model of womanly and wifely obedience, she comes victoriously out of cruel and repeated ordeals. The story of Griselda is first told in the Decameron. Boccaccio derived the incidents from Petrarch, who seems to have communicated them also to Chaucer, as the latter refers to Petrarch as his authority.

=Grub Street=, London, is thus described in Dr. Johnson’s dictionary: “Originally the name of a street near Moorfields, in London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems, whence any production is called Grub street.” The name was freely used by Pope, Swift, and others.

=Grundy.=--“What will Mrs. Grundy say?” (What will our rivals or neighbors say?) The phrase is from Tom Morton’s _Speed the Plough_, but “Mrs. Grundy” is not introduced into the comedy as one of the _dramatis personæ_. The solicitude of Dame Ashfield, in this play, as to “what will Mrs. Grundy say?” has given the latter great celebrity, the interrogatory having acquired a proverbial currency.

=Gudrun= (_gö-drön´_).--_Edda_, Sämund Sigfusson. A lady, married to Sigurd by the magical arts of her mother and on the death of Sigurd to Atli (Attila), whom she hated for his cruelty, and murdered. She then cast herself into the sea, and the waves bore her to the castle of King Jonakun, who became her third husband.

=Gudrun.=--North-Saxon poem. A model of heroic fortitude and pious resignation. She was the daughter of King Hettel (Attila), and the betrothed of Herwig, king of Heligoland.

=Guendolen= (_gwen´dō-len_).--A fairy whose mother was a human being.

=Guildenstern.=--The name of a courtier in Shakespeare’s tragedy _Hamlet_.

=Guinevere= (_gwin´e-ver_), or =Guenever=.--A corrupt form of =Guanhumara=, daughter of King Leodegrance of the land of Camelyard. She was the most beautiful of women, was the wife of King Arthur, but entertained a _liaison_ with Sir Launcelot du Lac. Arthur, when informed of the conduct of Launcelot, went with an army to Brittany to punish him. Mordred, left as regent, usurped the crown, proclaimed that Arthur was dead, and tried to marry Guinevere; but she shut herself up in the Tower of London, resolved to die rather than marry the usurper. When she heard of the death of Arthur, she stole away to Almesbury, and became a nun.

=Gulliver, Lemuel.=--The imaginary hero of Swift’s celebrated satirical romance known as _Gulliver’s Travels_. He is represented as being first a surgeon in London, and then a captain of several ships. After having followed the sea for some years he makes in succession four extraordinary voyages.

=Gummidge= (_gum´ij_), =Mrs.=--In Dickens’ novel of _David Copperfield_, described herself as a “lone, lorn, creetur, and everythink that reminds me of creeturs that ain’t lone and lorn goes contrairy with me.”

=Gurton, Gammer.=--The heroine of an old English comedy, long supposed to be the earliest in the language.

=Guy Mannering.=--The second of Scott’s historical novels, published in 1815, just seven months after _Waverley_. The interest of the tale is well sustained; but the love scenes, female characters, and Guy Mannering himself are quite worthless. Not so the character of Dandy Dinmont, the shrewd and witty counselor Pleydell, the desperate, sea-beaten villainy of Hatteraick, the uncouth devotion of that gentlest of all pedants, poor Dominie Sampson, and the savage, crazed superstition of the gypsy-dweller in Derncleugh.

=Guyon= (_gī´on_).--The impersonation of Temperance or Self-government in Spenser’s _Faërie Queene_. He destroyed the witch Acrasia, and her bower, called the “Bower of Bliss.” His companion was Prudence. Sir Guyon represents the quality of temperance in the largest sense; meaning the virtuous self-government which holds in check not only the inferior sensual appetites but also the impulses of passion and revenge.