GARTH, SIR SAMUEL (1661-1719). —Physician and poet, b. at Bolam in the county of Durham, and ed. at Camb., 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 ed. 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, s. of Sir John G., and descended from Sir William G., the famous Chief Justice to Henry IV., he was ed. at Camb., 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 m. 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 pub. He thereupon issued an authoritative ed. 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. G. was a man of originality, and did much to popularise the use of blank verse in England.
GASKELL, ELIZABETH CLEGHORN (STEVENSON) (1810-1865). —Novelist, dau. of William Stevenson, a Unitarian minister, and for some time Keeper of the Treasury Records. She m. William G., a Unitarian minister, at Manchester, and in 1848 pub. 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. G. 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 of [Charlotte Bronté] (q.v.), to whom her sympathy brought much comfort, and whose Life she wrote. Of Cranford Lord Houghton wrote, "It is the finest piece of humoristic description that has been added to British literature since Charles Lamb."
GATTY, MRS. ALFRED (MARGARET SCOTT) (1809-1873). —Dau. of Rev. A.J. Scott, D.D., a navy chaplain, who served under, and was the trusted friend of, Nelson. She m. the Rev. Alfred Gatty, D.D., Ecclesfield, Yorkshire, and became a highly useful and popular writer of tales for young people. Among her books may be mentioned Parables from Nature, Worlds not Realised, Proverbs Illustrated, and Aunt Judy's Tales. She also conducted Aunt Judy's Magazine, and wrote a book on British sea-weeds. [Juliana Ewing] (q.v.) was her daughter.
GAUDEN, JOHN (1605-1662). —Theologian, b. at Mayfield in Essex, and ed. at Camb. His claim to remembrance rests on his being the reputed author of Eikon Basiliké (the Royal Image), a book purporting to be written by Charles I. during his imprisonment, and containing religious meditations and defences of his political acts. Pub. immediately after the King's execution, it produced an extraordinary effect, so much so that Charles II. is reported to have said that, had it been pub. a week earlier, it would have saved his father's life. There seems now to be little doubt that Gauden was the author. At all events he claimed to be recompensed for his services, and was made Bishop successively of Exeter and Worcester, apparently on the strength of these claims. The work passed through 50 ed. within a year, and was answered by Milton in his Iconoclastes (the Image-breaker).