Lear, Cymbeline, Merlin, and of Arthur
and his knights as they have since taken shape in English literature;
_d_. about 1154.

GEOFFREY SAINT-HILAIRE, ETIENNE, zoologist and biologist, born at
Etampes; he was educated for the Church, but while studying theology at
Paris his love for natural science was awakened, and the study of it
henceforth became the ruling passion of his life; was made professor of
Zoology in the Museum of Natural History in Paris; accompanied Napoleon
to Egypt as a member of the scientific commission, and returned with rich
collections, while his labours were rewarded by his election to the
Academy of Sciences; a scientific mission to Portugal in 1808 next
engaged him, and a year later he was nominated to the chair of Zoology in
the Faculty of Sciences at Paris; the main object of his scientific
writing was to establish, in opposition to the theories of his friend
Cuvier, his conception of a grand unity of plan pervading the whole
organic kingdom (1772-1844).

GEOFFRIN, MARIE THERESE, a French patroness of letters, born at
Paris, the daughter of a _valet-de-chambre_; in her fifteenth year she
married a wealthy merchant, whose immense fortune she inherited; her love
of letters--which she cherished, though but poorly educated herself--and
her liberality soon made her _salon_ the most celebrated in Paris; the
_encyclopedists_, Diderot, D'Alembert, and Marmontel, received from her a
liberal encouragement in their great undertaking; Walpole, Hume, and
Gibbon were among her friends; and Stanislas Poniatowsky, who became king
of Poland, acknowledged her generosity to him by styling himself her son
and welcoming her royally to his kingdom (1699-1777).

GEORGE I., king of Great Britain from 1714 to 1727, and first of the
Hanoverian line; son of Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover, and of
Sophia, granddaughter of James I. of England; born in Hanover; in 1682 he
married his cousin, the Princess Sophia Dorothea of Zell, and in 1698
became Elector of Hanover; he co-operated actively with Marlborough in
opposing the schemes of Louis XIV., and commanded the Imperial forces; in
accordance with the Act of Settlement, he succeeded to the English throne
on the death of Queen Anne; his ignorance of English prevented him taking
part in Cabinet councils, a circumstance which had important results in
the growth of constitutional government, and the management of public
affairs during his reign devolved chiefly up