Chapter Glory Hole to Godfrey Case of G by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Glumms, the male population of the imaginary country Nosmnbdsgrsutt, visited by Peter Wilkins. The glumms, like the females, called gawreys (q.v.), had wings, which served both for flying and dress.—Pultock: Peter Wilkins (1750).

Glutton (The), Vitellius the Roman emperor (born A.D. 15, began to reign A.D. 69, and died the same year). Visiting the field after the battle of Bedriac, in Gaul, he exclaimed, “The body of a dead enemy is a delightful perfume.”

Charles IX. of France, when he went in grand procession to visit the gibbet on which admiral Coligny was hanging, had the wretched heartlessness to exclaim, in doggerel verse—

Fragrance sweeter than the rose Rises from our slaughtered foes.

Glutton (The), Gabius Apicius, who lived during the reign of Tiberius. He spent £800,000 on the luxuries of the table, and when only £80,000 of his large fortune remained, he hanged himself, thinking death preferable to “starvation on such a miserable pittance.” (See Lucullus.)

Gna, the messenger of Frigga.—Scandinavian Mythology.

Goats. The Pleiades are called in Spain The Seven Little Goats.

So it happened that we passed close to the Seven Little Goats.—Cervantes: Don Quixote, II. iii. 5 (1615).

Sancho Panza affirmed that two of the goats were of a green colour, two carnation, two blue, and one motley; “but,” he adds, “no he-goat or cuckold ever passes beyond the horns of the moon.

Goatsnose, a prophet, born deaf and dumb, who uttered his predictions by signs.—Rabelais: Pantag’ruel, iii. 20 (1545).

Gobbo (Old), the father of Launcelot. He was stone blind.

Launcelot Gobbo, son of Old Gobbo . He left the service of Shylock the Jew for that of Bassanio a Christian. Launcelot Gobbo is one of the famous clowns of Shakespeare.—Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice (1698).

Gobilyve (Godfrey); the assumed n ame of False Report. He is described as a dwarf, with great head, large brows, hollow eyes, crooked nose, hairy cheeks, a pied beard, hanging lips, and black teeth. His neck was short, his shoulders awry, his breast fat, his arms long, his legs “kewed,” and he rode “brigge- a-bragge on a little nag.” He told sir Graunde Amoure he was wandering over the world to find a virtuous wife, but hitherto without success. Lady Correction met the party, and commanded Gobilyve to be severely beaten for a lying varlet.—Hawes: The Passetyme of Plesure, xxix., xxxi., xxxii. (1515).

Goblin Stories, by the brothers Grimm, in German prose (1812). They have been translated into English.

God. Full of the god, full of wine, partly intoxicated.

God made the country, and man made the town.—Cowper’s Task (“The Sofa”). Varro, in his De Re Rustica, has, “Divina Natura agros dedit, ars humana ædificavit urbes.”

God sides with the strongest. Napoleon I. said, “Le bon Dieu est toujours du coté des gros bataillons.” Julius Cæsar made the same remark.

God Save the King. (See 2 Kings xi. 12; 1 Sam. x. 24.) To avoid the wretched rhyme of “laws” and “voice” in our National Anthem, I would suggest the following triplet:—

May she our laws defend,
Long live the nation’s friend,
And make all discord end:
God save the Queen.