Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad": Volume 12, Slice 6Various
Science
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad": Volume 12, Slice 6
Various
Encyclopedias and dictionaries
The Guelph cause was buttressed by an idea, yet very nebulous, of
Italian patriotism. Dislike of the German and the foreigner rather than
any strong affection for the Papacy was the feeling which bound the
Guelph to the pope, and so enabled the latter to defy the arms of
Frederick II. The Ghibelline cause, on the other hand, was aided by the
dislike of the temporal power of the pope and the desire for a strong
central authority. This made Dante a Ghibelline, but the hopes of this
party, kindled anew by the journey of Henry VII. to Italy in 1310, were
extinguished by his departure. J. A. Symonds thus describes the
constituents of the two parties: "The Guelph party meant the burghers of
the consular Communes, the men of industry and commerce, the upholders
of civil liberty, the friends of democratic expansion. The Ghibelline
party included the naturalized nobles, the men of arms and idleness, the
advocates of feudalism, the politicians who regarded constitutional
progress with disfavour. That the banner of the church floated over the
one camp, while the standard of the empire rallied to itself the hostile
party, was a matter of comparatively superficial moment." In another
passage the same writer thus describes the sharp and universal division
between Guelph and Ghibelline: "Ghibellines wore the feathers in their
caps upon one side, Guelphs upon the other. Ghibellines cut fruit at
table crosswise, Guelphs straight down ... Ghibellines drank out of
smooth and Guelphs out of chased goblets. Ghibellines wore white and
Guelphs red roses." It is interesting to note that while Dante was a
Ghibelline, Petrarch was a Guelph.
See J. A. Symonds, _The Renaissance in Italy_, vol. i. (1875).
GUENEVERE (Lat. _Guanhumara_; Welsh, _Gwenhwyfar_; O. Eng. _Gaynore_),
in Arthurian romance the wife of King Arthur. Geoffrey of Monmouth, who
calls her Guanhumara, makes her a Roman lady, but the general tradition
is that she was of Cornish birth and daughter to King Leodegrance. Wace,
who, while translating Geoffrey, evidently knew, and used, popular
tradition, combines these two, asserting that she was of Roman parentage
on the mother's side, but cousin to Cador of Cornwall by whom she was
brought up. The tradition relating to Guenevere is decidedly confused
and demands further study. The Welsh triads know no fewer than three
Gwenhwyfars; Giraldus Cambrensis, relating the discovery of the royal
tombs at Glastonbury, speaks of the body found as that of Arthur's
second wife; the prose _Merlin_ gives Guenevere a bastard half-sister of
the same name, who strongly resembles her; and the _Lancelot_ relates
how this lady, trading on the likeness, persuaded Arthur that she was
the true daughter of Leodegrance, and the queen the bastard interloper.
This episode of the false Guenevere is very perplexing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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