Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction, and the Drama, Vol. 2: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's HandbookBrewer, Ebenezer Cobham
General
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
=Galère= (2 _syl._). _Que diable allait-il faire dans cette galère?_
Scapin wants to get from Géronte (a miserly old hunks) £1500, to help
Leandre, the old man’s son, out of a money difficulty. So Scapin vamps
up a cock-and-bull story about Leandre being invited by a Turk on board
his galley, where he was treated to a most sumptuous repast; but when
the young man was about to quit the galley, the Turk told him he was a
prisoner, and demanded £1500 for his ransom within two hours’ time. When
Géronte hears this, he exclaims, “Que diable allait-il faire dans cette
galère?” and he swears he will arrest the Turk for extortion. Being
shown the impossibility of so doing, he again exclaims, “Que diable
allait-il faire dans cette galère?” and it flashes into his mind that
Scapin should give himself up as surety for the payment of the ransom.
This of course Scapin objects to. The old man again exclaims, “Que
diable allait-il faire dans cette galère?” and commands Scapin to go and
tell the Turk that £1500 is not to be picked off a hedge. Scapin says
the Turk does not care a straw about that, and insists on the ransom.
“Mais, que diable allait-il faire dans cette galère?” cries the old
hunks; and tells Scapin to go and pawn certain goods. Scapin replies
there is no time, the two hours are nearly exhausted. “Que diable,”
cries the old man again, “allait-il faire dans cette galère?” and when
at last he gives the money, he repeats the same words, “Mais, que diable
allait-il faire dans cette galère?”—Molière, _Les Fourberies de Scapin_.
ii. 11 (1671).
=Gal´gacus=, chief of the Caledonians, who resisted Agricŏla with great
valor. In A. D. 84 he was defeated, and died on the field. Tacĭtus puts
into his mouth a noble speech, made to his army before the battle.
Galgacus, their guide,
Amongst his murthered troops there resolutely died.
Drayton, _Polyolbion_, viii. (1612).
=Galia´na=, a Moorish princess, daughter of Gadalfe, king of Tolēdo. Her
father built for her a palace on the Tagus, so splendid that “a palace
of Galiana” has become a proverb in Spain.
=Galien Restored=, a mediæval romance of chivalry. Galien was the son of
Jaqueline (daughter of Hugh, king of Constantinople). His father was
Count Oliver of Vienne. Two fairies interested themselves in Jaqueline’s
infant son; one, named Galienne, had the child named after her, Galien;
and the other insisted that he should be called “Restored,” for that the
boy would _restore_ the chivalry of Charlemagne.—Author unknown.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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