Chapter Gesa to Giants in Real Life of G by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Gesa to Giants in Real Life

Gesa, solemn vows, injunctions, and prohibitions. In old Celtic romances, to place a person under gesa bonds was to adjure him so solemnly that he dare not disobey without loss of honour and reputation. Sometimes the gesa were imposed with spells, so as to draw down ill luck as well as loss of honour on the persons who disregarded the injunction.

Gesmas, the impenitent thief crucified with our Lord. In the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, he is called Gestas. The penitent thief was Dismas, Dysmas, Demas, or Dumacus.

Three bodies on three crosses hang supine:
Dismas and Gesmas and the Power Divine.
Dismas seeks heaven, Gesmas his own damnation,
The Mid-one seeks our ransom and salvation.
   —E.C.B.: Translation of a Latin Charm.

Gessler (Albrecht), the brutal and tyrannical governor of Switzerland appointed by Austria over the three forest cantons. When the people rose in rebellion, Gessler insulted them by hoisting his cap on a pole, and threatening death to any one who refused to bow down to it in reverence. William Tell refused to do so, and was compelled to shoot at an apple placed on the head of his own son. Having dropped an arrow by accident, Gessler demanded why he had brought a second. “To shoot you,” said the intrepid mountaineer, “if I fail in my task.” Gessler then ordered him to be cast into Kusnacht Castle, “a prey to the reptiles that lodged there.” Gessler went in the boat to see the order executed, and as the boat neared land, Tell leapt on shore, pushed back the boat, shot Gessler, and freed his country from Austrian domination.—Rossini: Guglielmo Tell (1829). (See Egil, p. 316.)

Gesta Romanorum, first published in 1473. The book is divided into 152 chapters, and is made up of old chronicles, lives of saints, Oriental apologies, and romantic inventions. The author is said to have been Helinandus. (See Hazlitt’s English Poetry, vol. i.)

Geta, according to sir Walter Scott, the representative of a stock slave and rogue in the new comedy of Greece and Rome (? Getês).

The principal character, upon whose devices and ingenuity the whole plot usually turns, is the Geta of the piece—a witty, roguish, insinuating, and malignant slave, the confidant of a wild and extravagant son, whom he aids in his pious endeavours to cheat a suspicious, severe, and griping father.—Sir W. Scott: The Drama.

Ghengis Khan, a title assumed by Tamerlane or Timour the Tartar (1336–1405).

Ghilan, a district of Persia, notoriously unhealthy, and rife with fever, ague, cholera, and plague. Hence the Persian proverb—

“Let him who is tried of life retire to Ghilan.”

Ghost (The), so graphically described by Defoe, was the apparition of Mrs. Veal, and the place referred to is Botathen, in Little Petherick, Cornwall.

The ghost of Mr. Dingley of Launceston, Cornwall, was described by [Dr.] John Ruddle or Ruddell (seventeenth century).

Giaffir [Diaf-fir], pacha of Abydos, and father of Zuleika [Zu-lee-kah]. He tells his daughter he intends her to marry the governor of Magnesia, but Zuleika has given her plight to her cousin Selim. The lovers take to flight; Giaffir pursues and shoots Selim; Zuleika dies of grief and the father lives on, a broken- hearted old man, calling to the winds, “Where is my daughter?” and echo answers, “Where?”—Byron: Bride of Abydos (1813).

Giamschid [Jam-shid], a suleyman of the Peris. Having reigned seven hundred years, he thought himself immortal; but God, in punishment, gave him a human form, and sent him to live on earth, where he became