Marwell Old Hall, once the residence of the Seymours, and subsequently of the Dacre family, has a similar tradition attached to it, and “the very chest is now the property of the Rev. J. Haygarth, rector of Upham.”—Post-Office Directory.
Bramshall, Hampshire, has a similar tale and chest.
The same tale is also told of the great house at Malsanger, near Basingstoke.
Gingerbread (Giles), the hero of an English nursery tale.
Jack the Giant-killer, Giles Gingerbread, and Tom Thumb will flourish in wide-spreading and never-ceasing popularity.—Washington Irving.
Ginn or Jân (singular masculine Jinnee, feminine Jinniyeh), a species of beings created long before Adam. They were formed of “smokeless fire” or fire of the simoom, and were governed by monarchs named suleyman, the last of whom was Jân-ibn-Jân or Gian-ben-Gian, who “built the pyramids of Egypt.” Prophets were sent to convert them, but on their persistent disobedience, an army of angels drove them from the earth. Among the Ginn was one named Aza´zel. When Adam was created, and God commanded the angels to worship him, Azazel refused, saying, “Why should the spirits of fire worship a creature made of earth?” Whereupon God changed him into a devil, and called him Iblis or Eblis (“despair”). Spelt also Djinn.
Gi´ona, a leader of the anabaptists, once a servant of Comte d’Oberthal, but discharged from his service for theft. He joined the rebellion of the anabaptists, but, with the rest of the conspirators, betrayed the “prophet-king,” John of Leyden, when the emperor arrived with his army.—Meyerbeer, Le Prophète (1849).
Giovan´ni (Don), a Spanish libertine of the aristocratic class. His valet, Leporello, says, “He had 700 mistresses in Italy, 800 in Germany, 91 in France and Turkey, and 1003 in Spain.” When the measure of his iniquity was full, a legion of foul fiends carried him off to the devouring gulf.—Mozart’s opera, Don Giovanni (1787).
(The libretto of this opera is by Lorenzo da Ponte).
⁂ The origin of this character was Don Juan Teno´rio, of Seville, who lived in the fourteenth century. The traditions concerning him were dramatized by Tirso de Mo´lina; thence passed into Italy and France. Glück has a musical ballad called Don Juan (1765); Molière, a comedy on the same subject (1665); and Thomas Corneille (brother of the Grand Corneille) brought out, in 1673, a comedy on the same subject, called Le Festin de Pierre, which is the second title of Molière’s Don Juan. Goldoni, called “The Italian Molière,” has also a comedy on the same favorite hero.