in 1848 he became a member of the
National Assembly, but shortly afterwards withdrew, disgusted with the
course things were taking; he now engaged in literary studies, the fruit
of which appeared in his celebrated volumes of Shakespearian criticism
(1805-1871).

GERYON, a king of Erytheia (i. e. red island), on the western
borders of the world, with three bodies and three heads, who had a herd
of oxen guarded by a giant shepherd and his dog, the two-throated
Orthros, which were carried off by Hercules at the behest of his fate.

GESENIUS, an eminent German Hebraist and Biblical scholar, born in
Prussian Saxony, whose labours form an epoch in the study of the Hebrew
Scriptures; was 30 years professor of the language in Halle; produced a
Hebrew Grammar and Lexicon, and commentary on Isaiah on rationalistic
lines (1785-1842).

GESNER, KONRAD VON, Swiss scholar and naturalist, born at Zurich;
hampered by ill-health and poverty in his youth, he yet contrived by
unremitting diligence to obtain an excellent education at Strasburg,
Bourges, and Paris; in his twenty-first year he obtained an appointment
in Zurich University, and in 1537 became professor of Greek at Lausanne;
abandoning the idea he entertained of entering the Church, he determined
to adopt the medical profession instead, graduated at Basel in 1540, and
a year later went to Zurich to occupy the chair of Natural History and to
practise as a doctor; his chief works are the "Bibliotheca Universalis"
(a catalogue and summary of all Hebrew, Greek, and Latin works then known
to exist), and the "Historia Animalium"; these monuments of learning have
won him the cognomen of the German Pliny (1516-1565).

GESSLER, ALBRECHT, a governor of the forest cantons of Switzerland,
who figures in Swiss legend as an oppressor who was shot as related in
the tradition of Tell.

GESSNER, SALOMON, Swiss poet and artist, born at Zurich; served an
apprenticeship to a bookseller in Berlin, and after a sojourn in Hamburg
returned to Zurich, where the rest of his life was spent; he published
several volumes of poetry, chiefly pastoral and of no great value; his
"Death of Abel" is his most notable performance; his paintings are mainly
landscapes of a conventional type, several of which he engraved,
revealing better abilities as an engraver than as an artist (1730-1788).

GESTA ROMANORUM (the exploits of the Romans), a collection of short
didactic stories, not however solely Ro