Chapter Gamelyn de Guardover to Garagantua of G by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Gamelyn de Guardover to Garagantua

Gamelyn de Guardover (Sir), an ancestor of sir Arthur Wardour.—Sir W. Scott: Antiquary (time, George III.).

Gamester (The), a tragedy by Ed. Moore (1753). The name of the gamester is Beverley, and the object of the play is to show the great evils of gambling, ending in despair and suicide.

Gamester (The), by Mrs. Centlivre (1705). The hero is Valere, to whom Angelica gives a picture, which she enjoins him not to lose on pain of forfeiting her hand. Valere loses it in play, and Angelica, in disguise, is the winner. After much tribulation, Valere is cured of his vice, the picture is restored, and the two are happily united in marriage.

Gammer Gurton’s Needle, by Mr. S. Master of Arts. It was in existence, says Warton, in 1551 (English Poetry, iv. 32). Sir Walter Scott says, “It was the supposed composition of John Still, M.A., afterwards bishop of Bath and Wells;” but in 1551 John Still was a boy not nine years old. The fun of this comedy turns on the loss and recovery of a needle, with which Gammer Gurton was repairing the breeches of her man Hodge. The comedy contains the famous drinking-song, I Cannot Eat but Little Meat.

Gammer Gurton’s Needle is a great curiosity. The popular characters, such as “The Sturdy Beggar,” “The Clown,” “The Country Vicar,” and “The Shrew,” of the sixteenth century, are drawn in colours taken from the life … The place is the open square of the village before Gammer Gurton’s door; the action, the loss of the needle; and this, followed by the search for it, and its final recovery, is intermixed with no other thwarting or subordinate interest.—Sir W. Scott: The Drama.

Gamp (Sarah), a monthly nurse, residing in Kingsgate Street, High Holborn. Sarah was noted for her gouty umbrella, and for her perpetual reference to an hypothetical Mrs. Harris, whose opinions were a confirmation of her own. She was fond of strong tea and strong stimulants. “Don’t ask me,” she said, “whether I won’t take none, or whether I will, but leave the bottle on the chimley-piece, and let me put my lips to it when I am so dispoged.” When Mrs. Prig, “her pardner,” stretched out her hand to the teapot [filled with gin], Mrs. Gamp stopped the hand and said with great feeling, “No, Betsey! drink fair, wotever you do.” (See Harris.)—Dickens: Martin Chuzzlewit, xlix. (1843).

A big, pawky umbrella is called a Mrs. Gamp, and in France un Robinson, from Robinson Crusoe’s umbrella.

Mrs. Gamp and Mrs. Harris have Parisian sisters in Mde. Pochet and Mde. Gibou, creations of Henri Monnier.

Gan. (See Ganelon.)

Ganabim, the island of thieves. (Hebrew, gannab, “a thief.”)—Rabelais: Pantagruel, iv. 66 (1545).

Gandalin, earl of the Firm Island, and ’squire of Amadis de Gaul.

Gandalin, though an earl, never spoke to his master but cap in hand, his head bowing all the time, and his body bent after the Turkish manner.—Cervantes: Don Quixote, I. iii. 6 (1605).

Ganden, a dandy. So called from the Boulevard de Gand, now called the Boulevard des Italiens (Paris), the walk where the dandies disported themselves.

Gander-Cleugh [“folly-cliff”], that mysterious place where a person makes a goose of himself. Jedediah Cleishbotham, the hypothetical editor of The Tales of My Landlord, lived at Gander-cleugh.—Sir W. Scott.

Ganelon , count of Mayence, the “Judas” of Charlemagne’s paladins. His castle was built on the Blocksberg, the loftiest peak of the Hartz Mountains. Charlemagne was always trusting this base knight, and was as often betrayed by him. Although the very business of the paladins was the upholding of Christianity, sir