Chapter Gamaliel. to Gangway of G by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Gamaliel. to Gangway

Gamaliel. In the Talmud is rather a good story about this pundit. Caesar asked Gamaliel how it was that God robbed Adam in order to make Eve. Gamaliel's daughter instantly replied, the robbery was substituting a golden vessel for an earthen one.

Gamboge (2 syl., first ghard, second g soft). So called from Cambodia or Camboja, whence it was first brought.

Game includes hares, pheasants, partridges, grouse, heath-game, or moor-game, black-game, and bustards. (Game Act, 1, 2, Will. IV.) (See Sporting Season.)

Game    Two can play at that game. If you claw me I can claw you; if you throw stones at me I can do the same to you. The Duke of Buckingham led a mob to break the windows of the Scotch Puritans who came over with James I., but the Puritans broke the windows of the duke's house, and when he complained to the king, the British Solomon quoted to him the proverb, "Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones."
   You are making game of me. You are chaffing me. (Anglo-Saxon, gamen, jest, scoffing.)

Game-leg A bad or lame leg. (Welsh, cam; Irish, gam, bad, crooked.)

Game for a Spree Are you game for a spree? Are you inclined to join in a bit of fun? The allusion is to game-cocks, which never show the white feather, but are always ready for a fight.

Game is not worth the Candle (The). The effort is not worth making; the result will not pay for the trouble. (See Candle.)

Game's Afoot (The). The hare has started; the enterprise has begun.

"I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot!
Follow your spirit! And upon this charge
Cry `God for Harry! England! and St. George.' "
Shakespeare: Henry V., iii. 1.

Gamelyn (3 syl., g hard). The youngest of the three sons of Sir Johan de Boundys. On his death- bed the old knight left "five plowes of land" to each of his two elder sons, and the rest of his property to Gamelyn. The eldest took charge of the boy, but entreated him shamefully; and when Gamelyn, in his manhood, demanded of him his heritage, the elder brother exclaimed, "Stand still, gadelyng, and hold thy peace!" "I am no gadelyng," retorted the proud young spirit; "but the lawful son of a lady and true knight." At this the elder brother sent his servants to chastise the youngling, but Gamelyn drove them off with "a pestel." At a wrestling-match held in the neighbourhood, young Gamelyn threw the champion, and carried off the prize ram; but on reaching home found the door shut against him. He at once kicked down the door, and threw the porter into a well. The elder brother, by a manœuvre, contrived to bind the young scapegrace to a tree, and left him two days without food; but Adam, the spencer, unloosed him, and Gamelyn fell upon a party of ecclesiastics who had come to dine with his brother, "sprinkling holy water on the guests with his stout oaken cudgel." The sheriff now sent to take Gamelyn and Adam into custody; but they fled into the woods and came upon a party of foresters sitting at meat. The captain gave them welcome, and in time Gamelyn rose to be "king of the outlaws." His brother, being now sheriff, would have put him to death, but Gamelyn constituted himself a lynch judge, and hanged his brother. After this the king appointed him chief ranger, and he married. This tale is the foundation of Lodge's novel, called Euphue's Golden Legacy, and the novel furnished Shakespeare with the plot of As You Like It.

Gammer (g hard). A corruption of grandmother, with an intermediate form "granmer." (See Halliwell, sub voce.)

Gammer Gurton's Needle The earliest comedy but one in the English language. It was "Made by Mr. S., Master of Arts." The author is said to have been Bishop Still of Bath and Wells (1543-1607).