Page:Imperialdictiona02eadi Brandeis.pdf/589

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
GAR
555
GAR

expedition into Provence. As the army was approaching the town of Frejus, Garcilasso, who occupied a considerable command, advanced without armour, it is said, to storm a small castle, manned by peasants, which obstructed the passage of the army. He was the first to mount the wall; but, wounded on the head by a stone, he fell into the ditch, and was removed to Nice, where he died the next day, at the age of thirty-three. The emperor avenged his death by the slaughter of all the peasants who defended the castle. In the midst of this short and adventurous life, Garcilasso, wielding, as he says, "now the pen, and now the sword," not only produced several works which are still reckoned among the choicest treasures of the language, but, following the example of Boscan, introduced into it the Italian measure and style, of which he may be considered the most successful cultivator. His works in themselves form but a tiny volume, although there are several editions overlaid with mountains of notes, intended chiefly to suggest the precise passages from Latin and Italian authors, which may have suggested the lines of their Spanish imitator. We have in all, three eclogues, five canciones, two elegies, a number of sonnets, an epistle to Boscan, and some smaller pieces. The first eclogue, which properly consists of two distinct poems, "is perhaps," says Ticknor, "the best elegiac poetry in the Spanish language." Far from partaking of the bold and unfaltering spirit of his life, his poems are throughout marked by tenderness, approaching to melancholy. No doubt, the national poetry gained in some degree by the Italian element which he introduced; yet the neglect of the old national metres was a proximate cause of the decline of literature at a later date. Garcilasso's works were first published as a supplement to those of Boscan, by the widow of the latter, 1543; the best edition is that of Herrera, Seville, 1580; there is another, published anonymously by the Chevalier Joseph Nicholas de Azara, Madrid, 1765; and several modern editions, published at Paris. A translation into English, by J. H. Wiffen, London, 1823, has also been published.—F. M. W.

GARCILASSO DE LA VEGA, the Inca, a Peruvian historian, born at Cuzco in Peru about 1540. His father was one of the followers of Hernando Cortez, and governor of Cuzco, a man of noble birth, and an honourable exception to the general character of the conquerors. His mother, Elizabeth Palla, was a sister of the last emperor of Peru; and he always prided himself on being descended from the blood of the incas. He was educated by a Spanish priest, and at the age of twenty he was sent to Spain. He attained the rank of captain in the Spanish service, and served under Don John of Austria against the Moors of Granada. His first literary attempt at the age of fifty was a translation of a Dialogue on Love, by Abarbabel, a Platonizing Jew, which was speedily placed in the index. His next work is a "History of Florida," Lisbon, 1605; dwelling chiefly on the exploits of Hernando de Soto, a work which has been often since reprinted. Garcilasso's chief title to fame as an author, however, rests on his history of Peru, entitled "Los Comentarios reales que tratan del origen de los Incas, reyes que fueron del Peru, de su idolatria, leyes y gobierno en paz y en guerra." The first part of this work was published at Lisbon in 1609; the second part, which also bears the title of "Historia general del Peru," was published at Cordova in 1616, the year of the author's death, and at Lisbon the year afterwards. It does not appear, that beyond the advantage of a perfect acquaintance with his maternal tongue, Garcilasso owed much to his Peruvian descent in the composition of this work. The first part of his narrative is devoted to the eighteen incas known to Peruvian history, and the manners, religion, and institutions of his native country. The second part contains the history of the Spanish conquest, and a great deal of irrelevant but often interesting material. The work is written in a spirit of attachment to the land of his birth, and at the same time with much of the naïve credulity of the old chroniclers, the writer being anxious, above all, to show himself a good Spaniard and catholic. Garcilasso lived during the latter part of his life at Cordova; and the chapel, dedicated to his memory, may still be seen there.—F. M. W.

GARDEN, Alexander, a Scotch botanist, was born in 1730, and died in 1791. He was educated at the university of Edinburgh, and afterwards settled as a medical man in Charleston, South Carolina, where he resided for twenty years, and then returned to Britain. He corresponded with Linnæus relative to the plants and animals of North America. In 1773 he became F.R.S., and he contributed a paper on the Gymnotus electricus to the Philosophical Transactions. A genus Gardenia has been named by Linnæus after him.—J. H. B.

GARDEN, Francis, a Scottish judge, was born in 1721, and was the son of a Banffshire country gentleman. He was educated at Edinburgh, and was called to the bar in 1744. Mr. Garden was a skilful and successful pleader, and was appointed joint solicitor-general for Scotland in 1761, and in 1776 was raised to the bench, when he assumed the title of Lord Gardenstone. He was a zealous promoter of agriculture and commerce, and enjoyed some reputation as an author, and was especially eminent for his convivial and social habits. He published "Miscellanies in prose and verse," and "A Travelling Memorandum." A volume of this latter was published after his death. He died in 1793.—J. T.

GARDINER, James, a distinguished soldier and eminent christian, was born at Carriden in Linlithgowshire in 1688. His father, uncle, and elder brother all lost their lives in the service of their country, and at an early age he also made choice of the military profession. At the age of fourteen he held an ensign's commission in a Scotch regiment in the Dutch service. He obtained a commission in the British army in 1702, and in his nineteenth year was severely wounded at the battle of Ramillies. He passed the night on the field of battle, and when the French were engaged in plundering the slain, his life was saved by the interposition of a cordelier, and he was removed to a neighbouring convent, where he was carefully nursed until his wound was cured. He served with distinction through the rest of the Marlborough campaigns, and passed rapidly through the inferior grades till he rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in 1730, and of colonel in 1743. At the outset of his career Colonel Gardiner was a very gay young man, and led an exceedingly dissolute life. His excesses, combined with his lively genial manner, procured for him the designation of "the happy rake." His conversion took place in a sudden and very singular manner. He was one evening in July, 1719, engaged in reading a book, entitled the Christian Soldier, which he had accidentally taken up to amuse an idle hour, when he thought he perceived an unusual blaze of light fall on the book, and lifting up his eyes he saw a visible representation of the Lord Jesus on the cross, suspended, as it were; in the air, and surrounded on all sides with glory, and imagined that he heard a voice saying, "O sinner! did I suffer this for thee, and are these the returns?" He was so overpowered with the vision that he continued for a considerable time in a state of insensibility, which made his biographer. Dr. Doddridge, suggest that he might possibly be all this while asleep. Be this as it may, his character and conduct underwent a total change, and to the end of his days he showed himself a cheerful and most consistent christian. Colonel Gardiner lost his life at the battle of Prestonpans, 20th September, 1745. The dragoons, which he commanded, were seized at the first onset with a disgraceful panic, and fled from the field without striking a blow. A few minutes after, while the colonel, though wounded both in the breast and the thigh, was encouraging a party of foot who were bravely holding their ground, he received a deep wound in the right arm from a scythe, and was then surrounded by a body of the enemy, and dragged from his horse mortally wounded within sight of his own mansion. He was carried to the manse of Tranent, and died next day. Colonel Gardiner is justly regarded as the model of an accomplished and gallant christian soldier. He married a daughter of the fourth earl of Buchan, and had by her thirteen children, only four of whom survived him. His life was written by the celebrated Dr. Philip Doddridge.—J. T.

GARDINER, Richard, born in 1723 at Saffron Walden, Essex. He was educated at Cambridge, and was remarkable for his witty and satirical style. Under the patronage of the Walpoles, he might have distinguished himself, but for want of an earnest purpose, and the morality indispensable to true greatness, his life was a series of failures. He served in the continental wars, under the duke of Cumberland. In politics he went with the government, but latterly joined the opposition. He was often in prison for debt, and died in 1782. He published various works under the name of Dick Merry Fellow; "A Journal of an Expedition to the West Indies;" and his "Memoirs."—R. M.

GARDINER, Stephen, a famous English prelate, said to be an illegitimate son of Dr. Lionel Woodville, bishop of Salisbury, and brother to Elizabeth, queen of Edward IV., was