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English Authors |
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| FULLERTON, LADY GEORGIANA (LEVESON-GOWER) (1812-1885) | —Novelist, dau. of the 1st Earl Granville, and sister of the eminent statesman. She wrote a number of novels, some of which had considerable success. They include Ellen Middleton (1844), Grantley Manor (1847), and Too Strange not to be True (1864). She also pub. two vols. of verse. She joined the Church of Rome in 1846.
| | GAIMAR, GEOFFREY (fl. 1140?) | —Chronicler, translated the chronicle of Geoffrey of Monmouth into French verse for the wife of his patron, Ralph Fitz-Gilbert, and added a continuation dealing with the Saxon Kings. His work is entitled L'Estoire des Engles.
| | GALT, JOHN (1779-1839) | View More...—Novelist and miscellaneous writer, s. of the captain of a West Indiaman, was b. at Irvine, Ayrshire, but while still a young man he went to London and formed a commercial partnership, which proved unfortunate, and he then entered Lincoln's Inn to study law. A little before this he had produced his first book, a poem on the Battle of Largs, which, however, he soon suppressed. He then went to various parts of the Continent in connection with certain commercial schemes, and met Lord Byron, with whom he travelled for some time. Returning home he pub. Letters from the Levant, which had a favourable reception, and some dramas, which were less successful. He soon, however, found his true vocation in the novel of Scottish country life, and his fame rests upon the Ayrshire Legatees (1820), The Annals of the Parish (1821), Sir Andrew Wylie (1822), The Entail (1824), and The Provost. He was not so successful in the domain of historical romance, which he tried in Ringan Gilbaize, The Spae-wife, The Omen, etc., although these contain many striking passages. In addition to his novels G. produced many historical and biographical works, including a Life of Wolsey (1812), Life and Studies of Benjamin West (1816), Tour of Asia, Life of Byron (1830), Lives of the Players, and an Autobiography (1834). In addition to this copious literary output, G. was constantly forming and carrying out commercial schemes, the most important of which was the Canada Company, which, like most of his other enterprises, though conducted with great energy and ability on his part, ended in disappointment and trouble for himself. In 1834 he returned from Canada to Greenock, broken in health and spirits, and d. there in 1839 of paralysis. G. was a man of immense talent and energy, but would have held a higher place in literature had he concentrated these qualities upon fewer objects. Most of his 60 books are forgotten, but some of his novels, especially perhaps The Annals of the Parish, have deservedly a secure place. The town of Galt in Canada is named after him.
| | GARDINER, SAMUEL RAWSON (1829-1902) | View More...—Historian, b. at Alresford, Hants, was ed. at Winchester and Oxf. In 1855 he m. Isabella, dau. of Edward Irving (q.v.), the founder of the Catholic Apostolic Church, which he joined, and in which he ultimately held high office. About the time of his leaving Oxf. he had planned his great work, The History of England from the Accession of James I. to the Restoration, and the accomplishment of this task he made the great object of his life for more than 40 years. The first two vols. appeared in 1863 as The History of England from the Accession of James I. to the Disgrace of Chief Justice Cooke, and subsequent instalments appeared under the following titles: Prince Charles and The Spanish Marriage (1867), England under Buckingham and Charles I. (1875), Personal Government of Charles I. (1877), The Fall of the Government of Charles I. (1881); these were in 1883-4 re-issued in a consolidated form entitled History of England from the Accession of James I. to the Outbreak of the Civil War. The second section of the work, History of the Great Civil War, followed in three vols. pub. in 1886, 1889, and 1891 respectively, and three more vols., History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate in 1894, 1897, and 1901, brought the story down to 1656, when the health of the indefatigable writer gave way, and he d. in 1902. In addition to this monumental work G. wrote many school and college historical text-books, and contributed to the Epochs of Modern History Series, The Thirty Years' War (1874), and The First Two Stuarts (1876); he also wrote Outlines of English History, three parts (1881-3), and Students' History of England, three parts (1891). From 1871-85 he was Prof. of History at King's Coll., London, and lecturer on history for the London Society for the Extension of Univ. Teaching. He also ed. many of the historical documents which he unearthed in his investigations, and many of those issued by the "Camden," "Clarendon," and other societies. He was ed. of The English Historical Review, and contributed largely to the Dictionary of National Biography. The sober and unadorned style of G.'s works did little to commend them to the general reader, but their eminent learning, accuracy, impartiality, and the laborious pursuit of truth which they exhibited earned for him, from the first, the respect and admiration of scholars and serious students of history; and as his great work advanced it was recognised as a permanent contribution to historical literature. In 1882 he received a civil list pension, and was elected to Research Fellowships, first by All Souls' Coll., and subsequently by Merton. He held honorary degrees from the Univ. of Oxford, Gottingen, and Edinburgh. | | GARNETT, RICHARD (1835-1906) | View More...—Biographer and writer on literature, s. of Richard G., an assistant keeper of Printed Books in the British Museum. B. at Lichfield, and ed. at a school in, Bloomsbury, he entered the British Museum in 1851 as an assistant librarian. There he remained for nearly 50 years, and rose to be Keeper of Printed Books. He acquired a marvellous knowledge of books, and of everything connected with pure literature. He made numerous translations from the Greek, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, and wrote books of graceful verse, The Twilight of the Gods and other Tales (1888), various biographical works on Carlyle, Milton, Blake, and others, The Age of Dryden, a History of Italian Literature, and contributed many articles to encyclopædias, and to the Dictionary of National Biography.
| | GARRICK, DAVID (1717-1779) | View More...—Actor and dramatist, b. at Hereford, but got most of his education at Lichfield, to which his f. belonged. He was also one of the three pupils who attended Johnson's School at Edial. With his great preceptor, whom he accompanied to London, he always remained on friendly terms. He took to the stage, and became the greatest of English actors. He also wrote various plays, and adaptations, and did not scruple to undertake "improved" versions of some of Shakespeare's greatest plays including Cymbeline, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Winter s Tale, performing the same service for Jonson and Wycherley, in the last case with much more excuse. Of his original plays The Lying Valet and Miss in her Teens are perhaps the best. | | GARRISON, WILLIAM LLOYD (1805-1879) | —Orator, was b. at Newburyport, Mass. Though chiefly known for his eloquent advocacy of negro emancipation, he is also remembered for his Sonnets and other Poems (1847).
| | GARTH, SIR SAMUEL (1661-1719) | View More...—Physician and poet, b. at Bolam in the county of Durham, and ed. at Camb., he settled as a physician in London, where he soon acquired a large practice. He was a zealous Whig, the friend of Addison and, though of different political views, of Pope, and he ended his career as physician to George I., by whom he was knighted in 1714. He is remembered as the author of The Dispensary, a satire, which had great popularity in its day, and of Claremont, a descriptive poem. He also ed. a translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, to which Addison, Pope, and others contributed. Perhaps, however, the circumstance most honourable to him is his intervention to procure an honourable burial for Dryden, over whose remains he pronounced a eulogy.
| | GASCOIGNE, GEORGE (1525 or 1535-1577) | View More...—Poet and dramatist, s. of Sir John G., and descended from Sir William G., the famous Chief Justice to Henry IV., he was ed. at Camb., and entered Gray's Inn 1555. While there he produced two plays, both translations, The Supposes (1566) from Ariosto, and Jocasta (1566) from Euripides. Disinherited on account of his prodigality, he m. in order to rehabilitate his finances, a widow, the mother of Nicholas Breton ( q.v.). He had, nevertheless, to go to Holland to escape from the importunities of his creditors. While there he saw service under the Prince of Orange, and was taken prisoner by the Spaniards. Released after a few months, he returned to England, and found that some of his poems had been surreptitiously pub. He thereupon issued an authoritative ed. under the title of An Hundred Sundrie Floures bound up in one Poesie (1572). Other works are Notes of Instruction, for making English verse, The Glasse of Government (1575), and The Steele Glasse (1576), a satire. He also contributed to the entertainments in honour of Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth and appears to have had a share of Court favour. G. was a man of originality, and did much to popularise the use of blank verse in England. | | GASKELL, ELIZABETH CLEGHORN (STEVENSON) (1810-1865) | View More...—Novelist, dau. of William Stevenson, a Unitarian minister, and for some time Keeper of the Treasury Records. She m. William G., a Unitarian minister, at Manchester, and in 1848 >pub. anonymously her first book, Mary Barton, in which the life and feelings of the manufacturing working classes are depicted with much power and sympathy. Other novels followed, Lizzie Leigh (1855), Mr. Harrison's Confessions (1865), Ruth (1853), Cranford (1851-3), North and South (1855), Sylvia's Lovers (1863), etc. Her last work was Wives and Daughters (1865), which appeared in the Cornhill Magazine, and was left unfinished. Mrs. G. had some of the characteristics of Miss Austen, and if her style and delineation of character are less minutely perfect, they are, on the other hand, imbued with a deeper vein of feeling. She was the friend of Charlotte Bronté (q.v.), to whom her sympathy brought much comfort, and whose Life she wrote. Of Cranford Lord Houghton wrote, "It is the finest piece of humoristic description that has been added to British literature since Charles Lamb."
| | GATTY, MRS. ALFRED (MARGARET SCOTT) (1809-1873) | View More...—Dau. of Rev. A.J. Scott, D.D., a navy chaplain, who served under, and was the trusted friend of, Nelson. She m. the Rev. Alfred Gatty, D.D., Ecclesfield, Yorkshire, and became a highly useful and popular writer of tales for young people. Among her books may be mentioned Parables from Nature, Worlds not Realised, Proverbs Illustrated, and Aunt Judy's Tales. She also conducted Aunt Judy's Magazine, and wrote a book on British sea-weeds. Juliana Ewing ( q.v.) was her daughter. | | GAUDEN, JOHN (1605-1662) | View More...—Theologian, b. at Mayfield in Essex, and ed. at Camb. His claim to remembrance rests on his being the reputed author of Eikon Basiliké (the Royal Image), a book purporting to be written by Charles I. during his imprisonment, and containing religious meditations and defences of his political acts. Pub. immediately after the King's execution, it produced an extraordinary effect, so much so that Charles II. is reported to have said that, had it been pub. a week earlier, it would have saved his father's life. There seems now to be little doubt that Gauden was the author. At all events he claimed to be recompensed for his services, and was made Bishop successively of Exeter and Worcester, apparently on the strength of these claims. The work passed through 50 ed. within a year, and was answered by Milton in his Iconoclastes (the Image-breaker).
| | GAY, JOHN (1685-1732) | View More...—Poet and dramatist, b. near Barnstaple of a good but decayed family. His parents dying while he was a child he was apprenticed to a silk-mercer in London, but not liking the trade, was released by his master. In 1708 he pub. a poem, Wine, and in 1713 Rural Sports, which he dedicated to Pope, whose friendship he obtained. A little before this he had received an appointment as sec. in the household of the Duchess of Monmouth. His next attempts were in the drama, in which he was not at first successful; but about 1714 he made his first decided hit in The Shepherd's Week, a set of six pastorals designed to satirise Ambrose Philips, which, however, secured public approval on their own merits. These were followed by Trivia (1716), in which he was aided by Swift, an account in mock heroic verse of the dangers of the London streets, and by The Fan. G. had always been ambitious of public employment, and his aspirations were gratified by his receiving the appointment of sec. to an embassy to Hanover, which, however, he appears to have resigned in a few months. He then returned to the drama in What d'ye call It, and Three Hours after Marriage, neither of which, however, took the public fancy. In 1720 he pub. a collection of his poems, which brought him £1000, but soon after lost all his means in the collapse of the South Sea Company. After producing another drama, The Captive, he pub. his Fables (1727), which added to his reputation, and soon after, in 1728, achieved the great success of his life in The Beggar's Opera, a Newgate pastoral, suggested by Swift, in which the graces and fantasticalities of the Italian Opera were satirised. A sequel, Polly, was suppressed by the Lord Chamberlain as reflecting upon the Court, but was pub. and had an enormous sale. The last few years of his life were passed in the household of the Duke of Queensberry, who had always been his friend and patron. He d. after three days' illness, aged 47. G. was an amiable, easy-going man, who appears to have had the power of attracting the strong attachments of his friends, among whom were Pope and Swift. He seems to have been one of the very few for whom the latter had a sincere affection. He is buried in Westminster Abbey. Of all he has written he is best remembered by one or two songs, of which the finest is Black-eyed Susan. | | GEDDES, ALEXANDER (1737-1802) | View More...—Theologian and scholar, of Roman Catholic parentage, was b. at Ruthven, Banffshire, and ed. for the priesthood at the local seminary of Scalan, and at Paris, and became a priest in his native county. His translation of the Satires of Horace made him known as a scholar, but his liberality of view led to his suspension. He then went to London, where he became known to Lord Petre, who enabled him to proceed with a new translation of the Bible for English Roman Catholics, which he carried on as far as Ruth, with some of the Psalms, and which was pub. in 3 vols. (1792-6). This was followed by Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures, in which he largely anticipated the German school of criticism. The result of this publication was his suspension from all ecclesiastical functions. G. was also a poet, and wrote Linton: a Tweedside Pastoral, Carmen Seculare pro Gallica Gente (1790), in praise of the French Revolution. He d. without recanting, but received absolution at the hands of a French priest, though public mass for his soul was forbidden by the ecclesiastical powers.
| | GEOFFREY of MONMOUTH (1100?-1154) | —Chronicler, was probably a Benedictine monk, and became Bishop of St. Asaph. He wrote a Latin History of British Kings. Merlin's Prophecies, long attributed to him, is now held to be not genuine. The history is rather a historical romance than a sober history, and gave scandal to some of the more prosaic chroniclers who followed him. It was subsequently translated into Anglo-Norman by Gaimar and Wace, and into English by Layamon.
| | GERARD, ALEXANDER (1728-1795) | —Philosophical writer, s. of Rev. Gilbert G., was ed. at Aberdeen, where he became Prof., first of Natural Philosophy, and afterwards of Divinity, and one of the ministers of the city. As a prof. he introduced various reforms. In 1756 he gained the prize for an Essay on Taste which, together with an Essay on Genius, he subsequently pub. These treatises, though now superseded, gained for him considerable reputation.
| | GIBBON, EDWARD (1737-1794) | View More...—Historian, was b. at Putney of an ancient Kentish family. His f. was Edward G., and his mother Judith Porten. He was the only one of a family of seven who survived infancy, and was himself a delicate child with a precocious love of study. After receiving his early education at home he was sent to Westminster School, and when 15 was entered at Magdalen Coll., Oxf., where, according to his own account, he spent 14 months idly and unprofitably. Oxf. was then at its lowest ebb, and earnest study or effort of any kind had little encouragement. G., however, appears to have maintained his wide reading in some degree, and his study of Bossuet and other controversialists led to his becoming in 1753 a Romanist. To counteract this his f. placed him under the charge of David Mallet ( q.v.), the poet, deist, and ed. of Bolingbroke's works, whose influence, not unnaturally, failed of the desired effect, and G. was next sent to Lausanne, and placed under the care of a Protestant pastor, M. Pavilliard. Various circumstances appear to have made G. not unwilling to be re-converted to Protestantism; at all events he soon returned to the reformed doctrines. At Lausanne he remained for over four years, and devoted himself assiduously to study, especially of French literature and the Latin classics. At this time also he became engaged to Mademoiselle Suzanne Curchod; but on the match being peremptorily opposed by his f. it was broken off. With the lady, who eventually became the wife of Necker, and the mother of Madame de Staël, he remained on terms of friendship. In 1758 G. returned to England, and in 1761 pub. Essai sur l'Etude de la Littérature, translated into English in 1764. About this time he made a tour on the Continent, visiting Paris, where he stayed for three months, and thence proceeding to Switzerland and Italy. There it was that, musing amid the ruins of the Capitol at Rome on October 15, 1764, he formed the plan of writing the history of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. He returned to England in 1765, and in 1770 his f. d., leaving him the embarrassed estate of Buriton, which had been his usual home when in England. With a view to recovering his affairs, he left his estate and lived in London where, in 1772, he seriously set himself to realise the great plan which, since its conception, had never been out of his thoughts. The first chapter was written three times, and the second twice before he could satisfy himself that he had found the style suited to his subject. The progress of the work was delayed by the fact that G. had meanwhile (1774) entered the House of Commons, where, as member for Liskeard, he was a steady, though silent, supporter of Lord North in his American policy. He subsequently sat for Lymington, and held office as a Commissioner of Trade and Plantations 1779-82. The first vol. of the Decline and Fall appeared in 1776, and was received with acclamation, and it was not until some time had elapsed that the author's treatment of the rise of Christianity excited the attention and alarm of the religious and ecclesiastical world. When, however, the far-reaching nature of his views was at length realised, a fierce and prolonged controversy arose, into which G. himself did not enter except in one case where his fidelity as an historian was impugned. The second and third vols. appeared in 1781, and thereafter (1783) G. returned to Lausanne, where he lived tranquilly with an early friend, M. Deyverdun, devoting his mornings to the completion of his history, and his evenings to society. At length, on the night of June 27, 1787, in the summer-house of his garden, the last words were penned, and the great work of his life completed. Of the circumstances, and of his feelings at the moment, he has himself given an impressive account. The last three vols. were issued in 1788, G. having gone to London to see them through the press. This being done he returned to Lausanne where, within a year, his beloved friend Deyverdun d. His last years were clouded by ill-health, and by anxieties with regard to the French Revolution. In 1793, though travelling was a serious matter for him, he came to England to comfort his friend Lord Sheffield on the death of his wife, took ill, and d. suddenly in London on January 16, 1794. The place of G. among historians is in the first rank, and if the vast scale of his work and the enormous mass of detail involved in it are considered along with the learning and research employed in accumulating the material, and the breadth of view, lucidity of arrangement, and sense of proportion which have fused them into a distinct and splendid picture, his claims to the first place cannot be lightly dismissed. His style, though not pure, being tinged with Gallicisms, is one of the most noble in our literature, rich, harmonious, and stately; and though sources of information not accessible to him have added to our knowledge, and have shown some of his conclusions to be mistaken, his historical accuracy has been comparatively little shaken, and his work is sure of permanence. As a man G. seems to have been somewhat calm and cool in his feelings, though capable of steady and affectionate friendships, such as those with Deyverdun and the Sheffields, which were warmly reciprocated, and he appears to have been liked in society, where his brilliant conversational powers made him shine. He was vain, and affected the manners of the fine gentleman, which his unattractive countenance and awkward figure, and latterly his extreme corpulence, rendered somewhat ridiculous. He left an interesting Autobiography. SUMMARY.—B. 1737, ed. Westminster and Oxf., became Romanist and sent to Lausanne 1753, where he returned to Protestantism, pub. Essay on Study of Literature 1761, visited Rome 1764 and resolved to write his Decline and Fall of Roman Empire, began to write it 1772, pub. 1776-87, d. 1794. Decline and Fall (Sir W. Smith, 8 vols., 1854-55), another (J.B. Bury, 7 vols., 1896-1900). Autobiography (Lord Sheffield, 1796), often reprinted. | | GIFFORD, RICHARD (1725-1807) | —Poet, was ed. at Oxford and took orders. He was the author of a poem, Contemplation. He also wrote theological and controversial works.
| | GIFFORD, WILLIAM (1756-1826) | View More...—Critic and poet, was b. of humble parentage at Ashburton, Devonshire, and after being for a short time at sea, was apprenticed to a cobbler. Having, however, shown signs of superior ability, and a desire for learning, he was befriended and ed., ultimately at Oxf., where he grad. Becoming known to Lord Grosvenor, he was patronised by him, and in course of time produced his first poem, The Baviad (1794), a satire directed against the Delia Cruscans, a clique of very small and sentimental poets, which at once quenched their little tapers. This was followed by another satire, The Mæviad, against some minor dramatists. His last effort in this line was his Epistle to Peter Pindar (Dr. Walcot), inspired by personal enmity, which evoked a reply, A Cut at a Cobbler. These writings had established the reputation of G. as a keen, and even ferocious critic, and he was appointed in 1797 ed. of the Anti-Jacobin, which Canning and his friends had just started, and of the Quarterly Review (1809-24). He also brought out ed. of Massinger, Ben Jonson, and Ford. As a critic he had acuteness; but he was one-sided, prejudiced, and savagely bitter, and much more influenced in his judgments by the political opinions than by the literary merits of his victims. In his whole career, however, he displayed independence and spirit in overcoming the disadvantages of his early life, as well as gratitude to those who had served him. He held various appointments which placed him above financial anxiety. | | GILDAS (516?-570?) | —British historian, was a monk who is believed to have gone to Brittany about 550, and founded a monastery. He wrote a history, De Excidio Britanniæ (concerning the overthrow of Britain). It consists of two parts, the first from the Roman invasion until the end of the 4th century, and the second a continuation to the writer's own time. It is obscure and wordy, and not of much value.
| | GILDER, RICHARD WATSON (1844-1909) | View More...—Poet, b. at Borderstown, New Jersey, was successively a lawyer, a soldier, and a journalist, in which last capacity he ed. Scribner's (afterwards the Century) Magazinei>. He holds a high place among American poets as the author of The New Day (1875), The Celestial Passion, The Great Remembrance, Five Books of Song (1894), In Palestine (1898), In the Heights (1905), A Book of Music (collection) (1906), etc.
| | GILDON, CHARLES (1665-1724) | —Critic and dramatist, belonged to a Roman Catholic family, and was an unsuccessful playwright, a literary hack, and a critic of little acumen or discrimination. He attacked Pope as "Sawny Dapper," and was in return embalmed in The Dunciad. He also wrote a Life of Defoe.
| | GILFILLAN, GEORGE (1813-1878) | View More...—Poet and critic, s. of a dissenting minister at Comrie, Perthshire, studied at Glasgow Univ., and was ordained minister of a church in Dundee. He was a voluminous author. Among his writings are Gallery of Literary Portraits, and a Series of British Poets with introductions and notes in 48 vols. He also wrote Lives of Burns, Scott, and others, and Night (1867), a poem in nine books. His style was somewhat turgid, and his criticism rather sympathetic than profound.
| | GILFILLAN, ROBERT (1798-1850) | —Poet, b. at Dunfermline, was latterly Collector of Police Rates in Leith. He wrote a number of Scottish songs, and was favourably mentioned in Noctes Ambrosianæ (see Wilson, J.). He was the author of the beautiful song, Oh, why left I my Hame?
| | GILLESPIE, GEORGE (1613-1648) | View More...—Scottish Theologian, was b. at Kirkcaldy, and studied at St. Andrews. He became one of the ministers of Edin., and was a member of the Westminster Assembly, in which he took a prominent part. A man of notable intellectual power, he exercised an influence remarkable in view of the fact that he d. in his 36th year. He was one of the most formidable controversialists of a highly controversial age. His best known work is Aaron's Rod Blossoming, a defence of the ecclesiastical claims of the high Presbyterian party.
| | GILLIES, JOHN (1747-1836) | —Historian, b. at Brechin and ed. there and at Glasgow, wrote a History of Greece (1786) from a strongly anti-democratic standpoint, a History of the World from Alexander to Augustus (1807), and a View of the Reign of Frederick II. of Prussia. He also made various translations from the Greek. He succeeded Principal Robertson as Historiographer Royal for Scotland.
| | GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS (literary name of GERALD DE BARRI) (1146?-1220?) | View More...—Geographer and historian, was b. of a Norman family settled in Wales, which intermarried with the Royal family of that country. He was an eminent scholar and Churchman, whose object of ambition was the Bishopric of St. David's, to which he was twice elected by the chapter, but from which he was kept out by the opposition of the King. When travelling in Ireland with Prince John (1185) he wrote Topographia Hibernica, a valuable descriptive account of the country, and in 1188 he wrote Itinerarium Cambriæ, a similar work on Wales. He left several other works, including an autobiography, De Rebus a se Gestis (concerning his own doings).
| | GISSING, GEORGE (1857-1903) | View More...—Novelist, b. at Wakefield. In his novels he depicted the environment and struggles of the lower and lower middle classes with a somewhat pessimistic and depressing realism, although his last work, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft, seemed to usher in the dawn of a somewhat brighter outlook. His other novels include Demos (1886), Thyrza (1887), The Nether World (1889), New Grub Street (1891), Born in Exile (1892), In the Year of Jubilee (1894), and The Town Traveller (1898). He d. at St. Jean de Luz in the Pyrenees.
| | GLADSTONE, WILLIAM EWART (1809-1898) | View More...—Statesman, scholar, and man of letters, fourth s. of Sir John G., a merchant in Liverpool, was of Scottish ancestry. He was ed. at Eton and Christ Church, Oxf. From his youth he was deeply interested in religious and ecclesiastical questions, and at one time thought of entering the Church. In 1832 he entered Parliament as a Tory, and from the first gave evidence of the splendid talents for debate and statesmanship, especially in the department of finance, which raised him to the position of power and influence which he afterwards attained. After holding the offices of Pres. of the Board of Trade, Colonial Sec., and Chancellor of the Exchequer, he attained the position of Prime Minister, which he held four times 1868-74, 1880-85, 1885-86, and 1892-93. His political career was one of intense energy and activity in every department of government, especially after he became Prime Minister, and while it gained him the enthusiastic applause and devotion of a large portion of the nation, it exposed him to a correspondingly intense opposition on the part of another. The questions which involved him in the greatest conflicts of his life and evoked his chief efforts of intellect were the disestablishment of the Irish Church, the foreign policy of his great rival Disraeli, and Home Rule for Ireland, on the last of which the old Liberal party was finally broken up. In the midst of political labours which might have been sufficient to absorb even his tireless energy, he found time to follow out and write upon various subjects which possessed a life-long interest for him. His first book was The State in its Relations with the Church (1839), which formed the subject of one of Macaulay's essays. Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age (1858), Juventus Mundi (1869), and Homeric Synchronism (1876), The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture (1890), The Vatican Decrees and Vaticanism (1874-75), and Gleanings of Past Years (1897), 8 vols., were his other principal contributions to literature. G.'s scholarship, though sound and even brilliant, was of an old-fashioned kind, and his conclusions on Homeric questions have not received much support from contemporary scholars. In his controversies with Huxley and others his want of scientific knowledge and of sympathy with modern scientific tendencies placed him at a disadvantage. His character was a singularly complex one, and his intellect possessed a plasticity which made it possible to say of him that he never was anything, but was always becoming something. His life was a singularly noble and stainless one, and he must probably ever remain one of the great figures in the history of his country. Life by J. Morley (3 vols.), others by J. M'Carthy, Sir Wemyss Reid, and many others. | | GLANVILL, JOSEPH (1636-1680) | View More...—Controversialist and moral writer, b. at Plymouth, and ed. at Oxf., took orders, and held various benefices, including the Rectory of Bath Abbey and a prebend at Worcester. He came under the influence of the Camb. Platonists, especially of Henry More ( q.v.). His contendings were chiefly with the English Nonconformists, against whom (with the exception of Baxter whom he held in great esteem) he exhibited great bitterness. His chief work is the Vanity of Dogmatizing (1661) which contains the story of "The Scholar Gipsy," in later days turned to such fine account by Matthew Arnold. G. wrote a fine literary style, at its best recalling that of Sir Thomas Browne. |
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