Gaudies, "no more gaudies or japes" (R[264],b), trick, jest. "Thynke wel that it is no gaude."—Chaucer, Troilus (1369), ii. 351.
Gear (passim), formerly a word-of-all-work = outfit, ornament, dress, accoutrements, arms, harness, tackle, goods, property, tools, implements, material, stuff, matter, business, affair, manners, habits, customs, rubbish, trash—and what not? See other volumes of this series.
Generalis, see Curia.
Gentle-Meat, "Gentle meat for a hawk" (J.E. 363,c), the pun is double-barrelled: gentle also = a trained hawk.
Gentman (R[231],b), gentleman: cf. jentman.
Geoffrey, "farewell, gentle Geoffrey" (M[9],a), apparently a common tag or catch-phrase, or from some song of the period. Heywood (Works, E.E.D.S., II. 36b) quotes almost the identical words of Mankind: "Now, here is the door, and there is the way; And so, (quoth he), farewell, gentle Geoffrey!"
Gere, read Gear.
Gesumme, "a good horse should be gesumme" (M[12],d). Dr. Bradley (quoted by E.E.T.S. editors) suggests geason (A.S. gœsne = empty, scarce). The whole passage from the beginning of the speech is obscure and apparently corrupt: at all events, it hardly "reads" as it is. The following suggestion is made with a view to eliciting a re-examination. The original is (E.E.T.S.)—
"Ande my wyf were yowur hors, sche wolde yow att
to-samne
Ȝe fede yowur hors in mesure; ze are a wyse man.
I trow, & Ȝe were þe kyngis palfrey-man,
A goode horse xulde be gesumme."