⁂ John Gilpin was a Mr. Beyer, of Paternoster Row, who died in 1791, and it was Lady Austin who told the anecdote to the poet. The marriage adventure of Commodore Trunnion in Peregrine Pickle is a similar adventure.
Gines de Passamonte, one of the galley-slaves set free by Don Quixote. Gines had written a history of his life and adventures. After being liberated, the slaves set upon the knight; they assaulted him with stones, robbed him and Sancho of everything they valued, broke to pieces “Mambrino’s helmet[helmet],” and then made off with all possible speed, taking Sancho’s ass with them. After a time the ass was recovered (pt. I. iv. 3).
“Hark ye, friend,” said the galley-slave, “Gines is my name, and Passamonte the title of my family.”—Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. iii. 8 (1605).
⁂ This Gines re-appears in pt. II. ii. 7 as “Peter the showman,” who exhibits the story of “Melisendra and Don Gayferos.” The helmet also is presented whole and sound at the inn, where it becomes a matter of dispute whether it is a basin or a helmet.
Gineura, the troth-plight bride of Ariodantês, falsely accused of infidelity, and doomed to die unless she found within a month a champion to do battle for her honor. The duke who accused her felt confident that no champion would appear, but on the day appointed Ariodantês himself entered the lists. The duke was slain, the lady vindicated, and the champion became Gineura’s husband.—Arisoto, Orlando Furioso (1516).
Shakespeare, in Much Ado about Nothing, makes Hero falsely accused of infidelity, through the malice of Don John, who induces Margaret (the lady’s attendant) to give Borachio a rendezvous at the lady’s chamber window. While this was going on, Claudio, the betrothed lover of Hero, was brought to a spot where he might witness the scene, and, believing Margaret to be Hero, was so indignant, that next day at the altar he denounced Hero as unworthy of his love. Benedict challenged Claudio for slander, but the combat was prevented by the arrest and confession of Borachio. Don John, finding his villainy exposed, fled to Messina.
Spencer has introduced a similar story in his Faëry Queen, v. 11 (the tale of “Irena,” q.v.).
Gin´evra, the young Italian bride who, playing hide-and-seek, hid herself in a large trunk. The lid accidentally fell down, and was held fast by a spring-lock. Many years afterwards the trunk was sold and the skeleton discovered.—Rogers, Italy (1792).
T. Haynes Bayley wrote a ballad called The Mistletoe Bough, on the same tradition. He calls the bridegroom[bridegroom] “young Lovell.”
A similar narrative is given by Collet, in his Causes Célèbres.