Faculty. He has written several medical works, but is best known by his "Traité d'Electricité," published in 1857, in 2 vols. 18mo, which is at present (1860) the most lucid and compendious systematic work on the science.—G. Bl.
* GAVAZZI, Alessandro, born at Bologna in 1809. He entered, when yet very young, a benedictine convent, and was afterwards sent as teacher of literature to Naples, where he got into trouble with his superiors for his early leaning towards liberal ideas. When the insurrection of Milan broke out in 1848, he was at Rome, and took a prominent part in the enlistment of the Roman volunteers for the war of independence. He accompanied them to the Venetian provinces, as chaplain in the army, rousing everywhere with his popular eloquence the youth of the country to take part in the national crusade against Austria. When the war was frustrated in August of that same year, and Bologna prepared a popular resistance against the invading foreigners, Gavazzi went there to encourage the people in their bold attempt, and the Austrians were obliged to retire in face of a popular insurrection. Owing to the reaction which took place in the Roman states in the autumn of 1848, he was arrested by General Zucchi, who had taken service under the pope, and who brought him prisoner to Rome. The Romans, however, set him free, and when the republic was proclaimed in February, 1849, Gavazzi became again prominent in public matters, and devoted himself during the siege to the care of the wounded patriots. After the overthrow of the Roman republic by the French, he came as an exile to England, where he has made himself well-known by his lectures against the Church of Rome. In 1853 he paid a lengthened visit to America, where his orations drew great and sometimes turbulent audiences. On the outbreak of the Sicilian insurrection of 1860, Gavazzi quitted England for Italy, and his name since figures prominently in the records of the movement.—A. S., O.
GAVESTON, Piers, favourite of Edward II., the son of a gentleman of Guienne, who, for services rendered to King Edward I., obtained for him an appointment in the household of the prince of Wales. The king soon had reason to regret the selection he had made of an associate for his son; and shortly before his death he banished Gaveston from the kingdom, exacting a promise from the prince that he should never be recalled. One of the first acts of Edward II., on succeeding to the throne, was to break this engagement; and even before his arrival the restored favourite had a peerage conferred on him, the earldom of Cornwall, which had fallen to the crown by the death of Edmond, son of Richard, king of the Romans. With lavish bounty the king appointed him lord high chamberlain, and conferred on him in marriage the hand of his niece, sister to the earl of Gloucester. In 1308, Edward having to visit France for the double purpose of doing homage for the duchy of Guienne, and solemnizing his marriage with Isabella, daughter of Philip le Bel, Piers Gaveston was nominated regent of the kingdom pending the king's absence from England. The accumulated honours, bestowed on Gaveston with such profusion, inflamed the jealousy of the barons; and his personal unpopularity was aggravated by an overbearing manner and sarcastic wit. His arrogance at length exceeded all bounds, and the barons in a body, headed by the earl of Lancaster, demanded of the king redress of abuses and the banishment of the obnoxious favourite. Edward was obliged to comply, and Gaveston was a second time sentenced to exile, and bound by an oath, under penalty of excommunication, to return no more to England. On the occasion of their separation, the king invested him with lands both in England and Guienne, and conferred on him the government of Ireland. His brief administration in that country was distinguished by success, and the following year Edward, by assent of the nobles, recalled him, and obtained from the pope an absolution from his oath. Far from profiting by experience, Gaveston became more intolerable in his conduct than before, and Edward was at length constrained to comply with the demands of the peers, and again banish him from the kingdom. Gaveston fled before the exasperated barons, and found refuge in Flanders. But no sooner had the king, by withdrawing to the north, escaped from the control of his nobles and reached York, than he was rejoined by Gaveston, to whom a new grant was made of his former estates and honours. The barons at length resolved to declare war against the sovereign and his minion. A force was assembled under Lancaster, and marched in pursuit of the king. Arrived at Scarborough, Edward left that fortress in charge of Gaveston and returned towards York to raise an army. Meanwhile, Gaveston was besieged in Scarborough by the earl of Pembroke, and having been forced to surrender, he was removed a captive to Warwick castle, where he was tried by a council of peers and condemned to death. The sentence was promptly carried into execution, and Piers Gaveston was beheaded at Blacklow Hill (now Gaversike), on the 19th of June, 1312.—W. W. E. T.
GAY, Claude, a French botanist, was born at Draguignan on 18th March, 1800. He became a zealous naturalist and gave much attention to botany, which he studied specially at Paris. He proceeded to South America in 1828, and explored Chili as regards its botany, zoology, and geology. He then returned to France to prepare himself more fully for his South American researches, and again went to Chili in 1832. During eleven years he examined the natural history of that country, and visited in that time all the islands of Juan Fernandez and the archipelago of Chiloe. The Chilian government voted a sum of money for the publication of his researches. In 1842 he returned to Europe, and published in Spanish his celebrated work, in twenty-four volumes, on "The Physical and Political History of Chili," illustrated by three hundred and fifteen plates. The work contains a valuable account of the flora and fauna of Chili. There are four thousand species of plants noticed by him. Gay also visited Peru and Buenos Ayres. He travelled subsequently through Morocco, Tartary, a large portion of Russia, many parts of Greece, and the north of Asia Minor. He wrote several memoirs, printed in the Transactions of societies. He gave an account of the origin of the potato, a memoir on the physical geography of Valdivia, and an account of the climate of Chili, with a map of the country. He died in 1864.—J. H. B.
GAY, Delphine. See Girardin.
GAY, John, a well-known English poet, was born in the neighbourhood of Barnstaple in Devonshire in 1688. The family was an ancient one, deriving its lineage from the Norman Le Gays, who settled in that county in the manor of Goldworthy, or Holdworthy. The position of the Gays was not, however, so high in the days of the poet's father, whose circumstances obliged him to take advantage of the education afforded by the free school of Barnstaple for his son's instruction, whom he subsesequently bound to a silk-mercer in London. John had acquired more than a tincture of letters, had a decided taste for poetry, and was of an indolent disposition. Mercery, or indeed business of any methodical kind, was little suited to such a youth, and so his indentures were cancelled, and he was set free. The first use Gay made of his liberty, was to write a descriptive poem, to which he gave the name of "Rural Sports." Pope at this time (1711) had attained a name in literature, and the author of the Essay on Criticism bid fair to be the ruling spirit of the literary wits, who made the age of Anne illustrious in the annals of England. To him Gay judiciously dedicated his first essay. Pope's vanity was gratified by the literary homage, and Gay was admitted to a friendship which was never interrupted, and proved of essential service to him in his future career. With the patronage of Pope came an introduction to "the wits," and Gay's simple, kindly, and unobtrusive nature secured to him the regards of those whom his poetical abilities had attracted. Gay now obtained the post of secretary to the duchess of Monmouth, better known as the lady of Buccleuch, of Scott's poetical romance. What the duties or emoluments of this post were we know not—both were probably small; but the former was too great to suit his indolence, and the latter too little to overcome it, and so we find the bureau was abandoned, as was previously the counter, and in 1714 he was "turned off" to use Arbuthnot's expression. Meantime, he had published a poem called "The Shepherd's Week," in 1713, written at the desire of Pope to satirize the Pastorals of Ambrose Philips. It was, however, something better than a burlesque on the Pastorals; it was a successful rival, presenting a series of pictures of rural life, which, though somewhat too faithful in their vulgarity and grossness, were nevertheless full of charming natural touches, and agreeable comic humour. About the same time appeared "The Fan," and after that "Trivia," a poem which with all its faults, and they are many and grievous, no one can read without being impressed with the picturesque power and even occasional elegance of diction which pervade it. There is a tradition that Swift, who was on intimate terms with Gay, aided him in the composition of this poem, and it must be admitted that it has no small share of the coarseness of thought
