Chapter Gem Alphabet to Gentleman Smith of G by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Solomon is supposed to preside over the whole race of genii. This seems to have arisen from a mere confusion of words of somewhat similar sound. The chief of the genii was called a suleyman, which got corrupted into a proper name.

Genii (Tales of the), translated from the Persian by sir Charles Morell (1765).

Charles Morell is the pseudonym of the Rev. James Ridley.

Genius and Common Sense. T. Moore says that Common Sense and Genius once went out together on a ramble by moonlight. Common Sense went prosing on his way, arrived home in good time, and went to bed; but Genius, while gazing at the stars, stumbled into a river and was drowned.

This story is told of Thalês the philosopher by Plato. Chaucer has also an allusion thereto in his Miller’s Tale.

So ferde another clerk with ’stronomye:
He walkêd in the feeldês for to prye
Upon the sterrês, what ther shuld befall,
Til he was in a marlê pit i-fall.
   —Chaucer: Canterbury Tales, 3457, etc. (1388).

Gennaro, the natural son of Lucrezia di Borgia (daughter of pope Alexander VI.) b efore her marriage with Alfonso duke of Ferrara. He was brought up by a Neapolitan fisherman. In early manhood he went to Venice, heard of the scandalous cruelty of Lucrezia, and, with the heedless petulance of youth, mutilated the duke’s escutcheon by striking out the B, thus converting Borgia into Orgia (orgies). (For the rest of the tale, see Borgia, p. 138.)—Donizetti: Lucrezia di Borgia (1834).

Gennil (Ralph), a veteran in the troop of sir Hugo de Lacy.—Sir W. Scott: The Betrothed (time, Henry II.).

Genovefa, wife of Siegfried count palatine of Brabant. Being suspected of infidelity, she was driven into the forest of Ardennes, where she gave birth to a son, who was suckled by a white doe. After a time, Siegfried discovered his error, and both mother and child were restored to their proper home.—German Popular Stories.

Tieck and Müller have popularized the tradition, and Raupach has made it the subject of a drama.

Gentle Shepherd (The), George Grenville. In one of his speeches, he exclaimed in the House, “Tell me where!” when Pitt hummed the line of a popular song, “Gentle Shepherd, tell me where!” and the House was convulsed with laughter (1712–1770).

Gentle Shepherd (The), the title and chief character of Allan Ramsay’s pastoral drama (1725).

Gentleman of Europe (The First), George IV. (1762, 1820–1830).

It was the “first gentleman in Europe” in whose high presence Mrs. Rawdon passed her examination, and took her degree in reputation; so it must be flat disloyalty to doubt her virtue. What a noble appreciation of character must there not have been in Vanity Fair when that august sovereign was invested with the title of Premier Gentilhomme of all Europe!—Thackeray: Vanity Fair (1848).

The First Gentleman of Europe, Louis d’Artois.

Gentleman Painter (The). Rubens is spoken of by Charles Beane as le gentilhomme de la peinture (1577–1640).

Gentleman Smith, William Smith, actor, noted for his gentlemanly deportment on the stage (1730–1790).