=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. =Gipsey=, the favorite greyhound of Charles I. One evening his [_Charles I._] dog scraping at the door, he commanded me [_Sir Philip Warwick_] to let in Gipsey.—_Memoirs_, 329. =Gypsey Ring=, a flat gold ring, with stones _let into it_, at given distances. So called because the stones were originally Egyptian pebbles—that is, agate and jasper. ⁂ The tale is, that the gypsies are wanderers because they refused to shelter the Virgin and Child in their flight into Egypt.—Aventinus, _Annales Boiorum_, viii. =Giralda= of Seville, called by the Knight of the Mirrors a giantess, whose body was of brass, and who, without ever shifting her place, was the most unsteady and changeable female in the world. In fact, this Giralda was no other than the brazen statue on a steeple in Seville, serving for a weathercock. “I fixed the changeable Giralda ... I obliged her to stand still; for during the space of a whole week no wind blew but from the north.”—Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. i. 14 (1615). =Girder= (_Gibbie_, _i.e._ Gilbert), the cooper at Wolf’s Hope village. _Jean Girder_, wife of the cooper.—Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.). =Girdle= (_Armi´da’s_), a cestus worn by Armi´da, which, like that of Venus, possessed the magical charm of provoking irresistible love.—Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575). _Girdle_ (_Flor´imel’s_), the prize of a grand tournament, in which Sir Sat´yrane (3 _syl._), Sir Brianor, Sir Sanglier, Sir Artĕgal, Sir Cambel, Sir Tri´amond, Brit´omart, and others took part. It was accidentally dropped by Florimel in her flight (bk. iii. 7, 31), picked up by Sir Satyrane, and employed by him for binding the monster which frightened Florimel to flight, but afterwards came again into Sir Satyrane’s possession, when he placed it for safety in a golden coffer. It was a gorgeous girdle, made by Vulcan for Venus, and embossed with pearls and precious stones; but its chief merit was