Gesta Romanorum (jes´tä rō-ma-nō´rum).—A collection of old romances compiled by Pierre Bercheure, prior of the Benedictine convent of St. Eloi, Paris. Shakespeare, Spenser, Gower, and many later writers have gone to this source. It took its present form in England about the beginning of the fourteenth century, the foundation coming from Roman writers, to which were added religious and mystical tales.
Giaour (jour), The.—Byron’s tale called The Giaour is represented as told by a fisherman, a Turk, who had committed a crime which haunted him all his life. See Hassan.
Gibbie, Goose.—A half-witted boy in Scott’s Old Mortality.
Gibbie, Sir.—A simple-hearted, fine character in George Macdonald’s novel by the same name.
Giant Despair.—Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan. A giant who is the owner of Doubting Castle, and who, finding Christian and Hopeful asleep upon his grounds, takes them prisoners, and thrusts them into a dungeon.
Giant Grim.—Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan. A giant who seeks to stop the march of the pilgrims to the Celestial City, but is slain in a duel by Mr. Great-heart, their guide.
Giant Slay-good.—Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan. A giant slain in a duel by Mr. Great-heart.
Gil Blas (zhēl bläs).—A romance by Le Sage. The hero is the son of Blas of Santillanê squire or “escudero” to a lady, and brought up by his uncle, Canon Gil Perês. Gil Blas went to Dr. Godinez’s school of Oviedo and obtained the reputation of being a great scholar. He had fair abilities, a kind heart, and good inclinations, but was easily led astray by his vanity. Full of wit and humor, he was lax in his morals. Duped by others at first, he afterward played the same devices on those less experienced. As he grew in years, however, his conduct improved, and when his fortune was made, he became an honest, steady man.
Glaucus (glâ´kus).—A fisherman of Bœotia who has become the fisherman’s patron deity.
Glaucus.—Son of Hippolytus. Being smothered in a tub of honey, he was restored to life by Æsculapius.