GOD-FATHER GODFREY. 



495 



This story probably gave rise to the assertion, that 

 Handel was the composer. It appears to have been 

 first published, together with the air, in the Gentle- 

 man's Magazine, in 1745, when the landing of the 

 young Stuart called forth expressions of loyalty from 

 the adherents of the reigning family. After doctor 

 A me, the composer of another national song (Rule 

 Britannia), had brought it on the stage, it soon be- 

 came very popular. Since that time, the harmony 

 of the song has undoubtedly been improved, but the 

 rhythm is the same as originally. According to a 

 notice in the New Monthly Magazine, vol. iv, page 

 389, there is a copy of this national song, published 

 without date, by Riley and Williams, in which Antony 

 Young, organist in London, is called the author of 

 the air. There is also a story, that this national 

 song, as Burney, the author of the History of Music, 

 maintained, was not made for king George; but that, 

 in the older versions, it ran thus, " God save great 

 James our king ;" and Burney adds, that it was ori- 

 ginally written and set to music for the Catholic 

 chapel of James II., and no one durst own or sing it, 

 after the abdication of James, fearing to incur the 

 penalty of treason, so that the song lay dormant sixty 

 years, before it was revived for George II. It is very 

 interesting to observe how this song, of which the 

 words have no great merit, has become dear to the 

 whole English nation, on account of the associations 

 connected with it. The French Marseillaise hymn is 

 of a much higher character, and equally a national 

 favourite. 



G OD-F ATHER ; a man who is sponsor for a child 

 at baptism, who promises to answer for his future 

 conduct, and that he shall follow a life of piety, thus 

 obliging himself to instruct the child, and watch over 

 his conduct. The relation is of high antiquity in the 

 Christian church, and was probably intended to pre- 

 vent children from being brought up in idolatry, in 

 case the parents died before the children had arrived 

 at years of discretion. In the Catholic church, the 

 number of god-fathers and god-mothers is reduced to 

 two ; in the church of England, to three ; but for- 

 merly the number was not limited. 



GOD-MOTHER ; a woman who becomes sponsor 

 for a child at its baptism. See God- Father. 



GODFREY OF BOUILLON, born about the 

 middle of the eleventh century, at Bezy, in the Wal- 

 loon Brabant, near Nivelles, was the son of Eustace 

 II., count of Boulogne and Lens. In 1076, he suc- 

 ceeded his uncle, Godfrey the Hunch-backed, duke 

 of Lower Lorraine, in the duchy of Bouillon. He 

 served faithfully and valiantly, under the emperor 

 Henry IV., in Germany and Italy. That prince was 

 indebted principally to him for the victory over 

 Rodolph, duke of Suabia; and he displayed heroic 

 courage at the siege of Rome. The fame of his 

 exploits procured him, in 1095, his election as one of 

 the principal commanders of the crusade. (See 

 Crusades.) Early in the year 1096, lie commenced 

 his march, in company with his brothers, Eustace and 

 Baldwin. He forced the emperor Alexis Comnenus 

 to allow him a free passage to the East. He promised 

 the emperor to resign to him the territory which he 

 should conquer from the infidels, on condition of his 

 supplying the army with provisions. But Alexis, 

 dissatisfied that the crusaders plundered the environs 

 of Constantinople, did not adhere to his stipulations. 

 Godfrey took Nice, and, in 1098, Antioch. In this 

 last city, the crusaders were, not long after, them- 

 selves besieged. Being destitute of provisions, they 

 were reduced to extreme necessity. While they were 

 in this state, a Provencal priest, pretending that he 

 had been favoured with a revelation, instructed them 

 where to find the holy lance, which was accordingly 

 discovered. This circumstance inspired the crusaders 



with such courage, that they repulsed the Turks, and 

 gained a splendid victory. In the following year, 

 July 19, Godfrey took Jerusalem itself, after a five 

 weeks' siege. The infidels were indiscriminately 

 massacred, notwithstanding the endeavours of God- 

 frey, whose mildness was equal to his bravery, to put 

 a stop to the slaughter. Eight days after the capture 

 of Jerusalem, the leaders of the army elected him 

 king of the city and the territory ; but the pious 

 Godfrey would not wear a crown in the place where 

 Christ was crowned witli thorns ; and he declined the 

 kingly title, contenting himself with that of duke and 

 guardian of the holy sepulchre. The sultan of Egypt 

 having learned, that of the 300,000 Christians, who 

 had assisted in the capture of Antioch, only 20,000 

 now survived, raised an army of 400,000 men, for 

 the purpose of expelling them from their new con- 

 quests. Godfrey gave him battle in the plain of 

 Ascalon, on which occasion 100,000 men were left 

 dead upon the field. This victory placed him in pos- 

 session of the whole Holy Land, two or three places 

 excepted. Godfrey now turned his attention to the 

 organization of his newly established government. 

 He appointed a patriarch, founded two cathedral 

 chapters, and built a monastery in the valley of Jeho- 

 shaphat. He subsequently gave his new subjects a 

 code of laws, but soon after died, July 18, 1 100, just 

 a year after the capture of Jerusalem. He was in- 

 terred on mount Calvary, near the sepulchre of the 

 Saviour. Tasso's beautiful epic poem sets the cha- 

 racter of this great prince and general, whom history 

 has handed down to us as a pattern of piety, bravery, 

 and all princely virtues, in a just light. 



GODFREY OF STRASBURG, one of the most 

 distinguished of the old German poets, was probably 

 born in Strasburg, but at any rate lived there. He 

 was not, like most of the Minnesingers (minstrels) 

 of his age, a noble. He lived in the most flourishing 

 period of the German chivalric poetry, at the end 

 of the twelfth century and beginning of the thir- 

 teenth. Besides many lays in the collection of 

 Manesse, we are indebted to him for the great chi- 

 valric poem, Tristan und Isolde, derived from the 

 legends of the round table, from a Welsh original, 

 but possessing as much originality of character as 

 any other German classical work. For grace, love- 

 liness, and vivacity of description, richness of colour- 

 ing, and melody of versification, the work of Godfrey 

 stands alone in old German literature, and a soft and 

 almost elegiacstrainof sentiment pervades his poetry. 

 The best edition is that of F. H. von der Hagen 

 (with the continuations of Ulric of Turheim, and 

 Henry of Friburg, &c.), at Breslau, 1823, in two 

 volumes. 



GODFREY, THOMAS, the inventor of the quad- 

 rant commonly called Hartley's, was born, and pur- 

 sued the trade of a glazier, in Philadelphia. Having 

 accidentally met with a mathematical book, he be- 

 came so delighted with the study, that, by his own 

 unaided industry, he soon made himself master of the 

 treatise, and of every other English work of the kind 

 that he could procure, and afterwards acquired a 

 tolerable proficiency in Latin, in order to be able to 

 peruse the mathematical works in that language. 

 Anxious to read sir Isaac Newton's Principia, h 

 went to James Logan, secretary of the commonwealth, 

 who then enjoyed a great reputation as a mathema- 

 tician, and requested him to lend him the work. Mr 

 Logan had never seen or heard of Godfrey before, 

 but, after some conversation, made him welcome to 

 that or any oilier book he possessed. Not long after- 

 wards (in 1730), Godfrey communicated to Logan 

 the improvement he had made in Davis's quadrant, 

 by which Mr Logan was so much struck, that, in May 

 1732, he addressed a letter, on the subject, to doctor 



