Chapter Garnett to Gaskell of G by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

Garnett to Gaskell

Garnett, Richard (1835-1906).—Biographer and writer on literature, son of Richard Garnett, an assistant keeper of Printed Books in the British Museum. born at Lichfield, and educated at a school in Bloomsbury, he entered the British Museum in 1851 as an assistant librarian. There he remained for nearly 50 years, and rose to be Keeper of Printed Books. He acquired a marvellous knowledge of books, and of everything connected with pure literature. He made numerous translations from the Greek, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, and wrote books of graceful verse, The Twilight of the Gods and other Tales (1888), various biographical works on Carlyle, Milton, Blake, and others, The Age of Dryden, a History of Italian Literature, and contributed many articles to encyclopædias, and to the Dictionary of National Biography.

Garrick, David (1717-1779).—Actor and dramatist, born at Hereford, but got most of his education at Lichfield, to which his father belonged. He was also one of the three pupils who attended Johnson’s School at Edial. With his great preceptor, whom he accompanied to London, he always remained on friendly terms. He took to the stage, and became the greatest of English actors. He also wrote various plays, and adaptations, and did not scruple to undertake “improved” versions of some of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, including Cymbeline, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Winter’s Tale, performing the same service for Jonson and Wycherley, in the last case with much more excuse. Of his original plays The Lying Valet and Miss in her Teens are perhaps the best.

Garrison, William Lloyd (1805-1879).—Orator, was born at Newburyport, Mass. Though chiefly known for his eloquent advocacy of negro emancipation, he is also remembered for his Sonnets and other Poems (1847).

Garth, Sir Samuel (1661-1719).—Physician and poet, born at Bolam in the county of Durham, and educated at Cambridge, he settled as a physician in London, where he soon acquired a large practice. He was a zealous Whig, the friend of Addison and, though of different political views, of Pope, and he ended his career as physician to George I., by whom he was knighted in 1714. He is remembered as the author of The Dispensary, a satire, which had great popularity in its day, and of Claremont, a descriptive poem. He also edited a translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, to which Addison, Pope, and others contributed. Perhaps, however, the circumstance most honourable to him is his intervention to procure an honourable burial for Dryden, over whose remains he pronounced a eulogy.

Gascoigne, George (1525 or 1535-1577).—Poet and dramatist, son of Sir John Gascoigne, and descended from Sir William Gascoigne, the famous Chief Justice to Henry IV., he was educated at Cambridge, and entered Gray’s Inn 1555. While there he produced two plays, both translations, The Supposes (1566) from Ariosto, and Jocasta (1566) from Euripides. Disinherited on account of his prodigality, he married, in order to rehabilitate his finances, a widow, the mother of Nicholas Breton (q.v.). He had, nevertheless, to go to Holland to escape from the importunities of his creditors. While there he saw service under the Prince of Orange, and was taken prisoner by the Spaniards. Released after a few months, he returned to England, and found that some of his poems had been surreptitiously published He thereupon issued an authoritative edition under the title of An Hundred Sundrie Floures bound up in one Poesie (1572). Other works are Notes of Instruction, for making English verse, The Glasse of Government (1575), and The Steele Glasse (1576), a satire. He also contributed to the entertainments in honour of Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth and appears to have had a share of Court favour. Gascoigne was a man of originality, and did much to popularise the use of blank verse in England.

Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn (Stevenson) (1810-1865).—Novelist, daughter of William Stevenson, a Unitarian minister, and for some time Keeper of the Treasury Records. She married William Gaskell, a Unitarian minister, at Manchester, and in 1848 published anonymously her first book, Mary Barton, in which the life and feelings of the manufacturing working classes are depicted with much power and sympathy. Other novels followed, Lizzie Leigh (1855), Mr. Harrison’s Confessions (1865), Ruth (1853), Cranford (1851-3), North and South (1855), Sylvia’s Lovers (1863), etc. Her last work was Wives and Daughters (1865), which appeared in the Cornhill Magazine, and was left unfinished. Mrs. Gaskell had some of the characteristics of Miss Austen, and if her style and delineation of character are less minutely perfect, they are, on the other hand, imbued with a deeper vein of feeling. She was the friend