Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction, and the Drama, Vol. 2: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's HandbookBrewer, Ebenezer Cobham
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Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction, and the Drama, Vol. 2: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook
Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham
Allusions; Fiction -- Dictionaries; Literature -- Dictionaries
=Guenever= or =Guinever=, a corrupt form of _Guanhuma´ra_ (4 _syl._),
daughter of King Leodegrance, of the land of Camelyard. She was the most
beautiful of women, was the wife of King Arthur, but entertained a
criminal attachment for Sir Launcelot du Lac. Respecting the latter part
of the queen’s history, the greatest diversity occurs. Thus Geoffrey
says:
King Arthur was on his way to Rome ... when news was brought him that
his nephew Mordred, to whose care he had entrusted Britain had ... set
the crown upon his own head; and that the queen Guanhumara had wickedly
married him.... When King Arthur returned and put Mordred and his army
to flight ... the queen fled from York to the City of Legions [_Newport
in South Wales_], where she resolved to lead a chaste life among the
nuns of Julius the martyr.—_British History_, xi. 1 (1142).
Another version is, that Arthur, being informed of the adulterous
conduct of Launcelot, went with an army to Bentwick (_Brittany_), to
punish him. That Mordred (his son by his own sister), left as regent,
usurped the crown, proclaimed that Arthur was dead, and tried to marry
Guenever, the queen; but she shut herself up in the Tower of London,
resolved to die rather than marry the usurper. When she heard of the
death of Arthur, she “stole away” to Almesbury, “and there she let make
herself a nun, and wore white cloaths and black.” And there lived she
“in fasting, prayers and almsdeeds, that all marvelled at her virtuous
life.”—Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, iii, 161-170 (1470).
⁂ For Tennyson’s version, see GUINEVERE.
=Guene´vra= (3 _syl._), wife of Necetaba´nus, the dwarf, at the cell of
the hermit of Engaddi.—Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).
=Guenn.= Beautiful Breton peasant, haughty and gay, who refuses to sit
as a model to the artists who haunt the region, until Hamor prevails
over her scruples. Up to now, her love for her deformed brother has been
the strongest passion of her strong nature. The love she learns to feel
for Hamor masters all else, and when convinced that it is hopeless she
grows desperate. She is “found drowned.”—Blanche Willis Howard, _Guenn_.
=Guer´in= or =Gueri´no=, son of Millon, king of Alba´nia. On the day of
his birth his father was dethroned, but the child was rescued by a Greek
slave, who brought it up and surnamed it _Meschi´no_ or “the Wretched.”
When grown to man’s estate Guerin fell in love with the princess
Elizena, sister of the Greek emperor, who held his court at
Constantinople.—_An Italian Romance._
=Guesclin’s Dust a Talisman.= Guesclin, or rather Du Guesclin, constable
of France, laid siege to Châteauneuf-de-Randan, in Auvergne. After
several assaults the town promised to surrender if not relieved within
fifteen days. Du Guesclin died in this interval, but the governor of the
town came and laid the keys of the city on the dead man’s body, saying
he resigned the place to the hero’s ashes (1380).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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