GRESSON GREY. 



563 



the man who had been so successful in delineating 

 them. But the expectation which had been formed 

 from his earlier works, was far from being answered 

 by his academical discourse in reply to the inaugural 

 address of Suard, and in which he painted the follies 

 of the capital. His pictures were distorted and 

 exaggerated. He died soon after, in 1777, without 

 leaving any children. His agreeable manners, and 

 his integrity of character, gained him distinguished 

 friends. Louis XVI. granted him, in 1775, letters 

 of nobility. His Ver-Vert is distinguished for wit, 

 vivacity, and interest, and its value appears the more 

 remarkable from the poverty of the subject. Cresset 

 has written much that is good, and some things 

 merely passable. 



GRESSON ; the loftiest summit of the Vosges, 

 4002 feet high. 



GRETNA GREEN, or GRAITNEY ; a village 

 and parish of Scotland, in Dumfries-shire, on the Sol- 

 way firth, eight miles north of Carlisle. It is the 

 first stage in Scotland from England, and has for 

 more than seventy years been famous as the place of 

 celebration of the marriages of fugitive lovers from 

 England. According to the Scottish law, it is only 

 necessary for a couple to declare, before a justice of 

 peace, that they are* unmarried, and wish to be 

 married, in order to conclude a lawful marriage. It 

 lias been calculated that about 300 marriages take 

 place annually here and at the neighbouring village of 

 Springfield. A blacksmith was a long time the 

 justice of peace. The population in 1841 was 1761. 



GRETRY, ANDRE ERNEST MODESTE, a French 

 composer of music, was born at Liege, 1741, and 

 showed as early as his fourth year his sensibility to 

 musical rhythm. At this age, being left one day 

 alone, the noise of water boiling in an iron pot excited 

 his attention ; he began to dance to the sound, which 

 resembled that of a drum. He then wished to dis- 

 cover the origin of this bubbling in the vessel, and 

 he overturned it into a hot coal fire. The explosion 

 was so quick, that, rendered senseless by the steam 

 and smoke, he fell to the ground much burnt. This 

 accident brought on a long illness, and weakened his 

 eyes for life. In 1759, Gretry went to Rome to 

 perfect himself in music. Having, while at Rome, 

 exhibited some Italian scenes and symphonies, he 

 was engaged by the manager of the theatre, Alberti, 

 to set to music two intermezzi. His first effort met 

 with great success. The praise which he obtained 

 from Piccini was the most flattering to him. Being 

 well received and esteemed in the capital of Italy, 

 Gretry pursued his studies there, until he became de- 

 sirous of mak.ing himself known at Paris. On his 

 way to France, he stopped at Geneva, and set to 

 music the opera Isabella and Gertrude, which was 

 brought out at Paris. The success of this production 

 determined him to go to Paris, to find a theatre and 

 performers worthy of him. Here he was obliged, 

 for two years, to struggle against numerous difficul- 

 ties, before he obtained from Marmontel, the Huron, 

 the text and music of which were both written in six 

 weeks. The piece was performed in 1769, with com- 

 plete success. The Lucile, a comedy in one act, 

 which appeared soon after, was received with still 

 greater applause. He now devoted himself exclu- 

 sively to the theatre, and composed 40 operas, of 

 which Le Tableau parlant, Zemire et Azor, L Ami 

 de la Maison, La fausse Atagie, Le Jugement de Mi- 

 das, L'Amant Jaloux, Les Evenemens imprevus, 

 I'nlinette d la Cour, La Carevane, Raoul, Richard 

 Ceeur-de-Lion, Anacreon chez Policrate, are still 

 played with applause. Gretry, like Pergolesi, took 

 declamation as the guide of musical expression. He 

 was inferior to Gluck in depth, and he could never 

 arrive at the fulness of Mozart. In 1790, he pub- 



lished his Memoires ou Essais sur la Mu&ique. The 

 first volume contains an account of tl le musical career 

 of the author. He wrote La Vertti and Reflexions 

 d'un Solitaire. He died in 1813, at Erme'nonville, 

 in Rousseau's hermitage. 



GREVILLE, FULK (lord Brooke); an accomplished 

 courtier and ingenious writer, and a great encourager 

 of learning and learned men. He was born in 1544, 

 at Beauchamp court, Warwickshire, the family seat, 

 then in the possession of his father, sir Fulk Greville. 

 He entered Trinity college, Cambridge, which he 

 afterwards quitted for Oxford ; and liaving made the 

 tour of Europe, presented himself at court, where he 

 soon rose high in the favour of Elizabeth. James 

 also distinguished him by his favour ; but the jealousy 

 of Cecil induced Greville to retire from public life, 

 till the death of that statesman restored him to the 

 court. He now rose rapidly, filling in succession the 

 posts of under treasurer and chancellor of the exche- 

 quer, and, in 1620, obtained a barony. Under Charles 

 I., he continued to enjoy the royal countenance till 

 the 30th of September, 1628, when, conversing with 

 an old servant of the family, respecting certain dis- 

 positions in his will, the latter, considering his legacy 

 disproportioned to his services, replied to him with 

 great insolence, and, on receiving a reprimand, 

 stabbed him in the back, and he expired immediately; 

 the assassin instantly committed suicide with the 

 same weapon. Lord Brooke was the founder of an 

 historical lecture at Cambridge, and enjoyed the 

 friendship of sir Philip Sidney, Spenser, Jonson, 

 Shakspeare, and most of the master spirits of the age. 

 The bent of his own genius evidently led him to the 

 study of poetry and history. An octavo volume of 

 his miscellaneous writings was printed in 1670, and 

 there is also extant a life of his friend Sidney, by his 

 hand. The envy of Cecil, who denied him access to 

 the necessary records, prevented his carrying into 

 execution an intention he had formed of writing a 

 history of the wars of the Roses. 



GREY, LADY JANE ; a young and accomplished 

 female of royal descent, whose disastrous fate, as the 

 victim of an unprincipled relative's ambitious pro- 

 jects, has created an extraordinary interest in her 

 favour. She was the daughter of Henry Grey, mar- 

 quis of Dorset, afterwards duke of Suffolk, by the 

 lady Frances, daughter of Charles Brandon, duke of 

 Suffolk, and Mary, younger sister of Henry VIII., 

 in whose reign lady Jane was born, according to the 

 common account, in 1 537. She displayed much pre- 

 cocity of talent ; and to the usual accomplishments 

 of females, she added an acquaintance with the learned 

 languages, as well as French and Italian. Roger 

 Ascham has related, that, on making a visit to Brad- 

 gate hall, he found lady Jane, then a girl of fourteen, 

 engaged in perusing Plato's Dialogue on the Immor- 

 tality of the Soul, in the original Greek, while the 

 rest of the family were hunting in the park. She 

 owed her early proficiency in literature, in some mea- 

 sure, to her learned tutor, Aylmer, afterwards bishop 

 of London ; and from him she imbibed an attach- 

 ment to Protestantism. The Oriental as well as the 

 classical languages are said to have been familiar to 

 her, and she is represented as having been altogether 

 a young person of uncommon genius and acquire- 

 ments. But the latter are less singular than might 

 be supposed by those who do not take into account 

 the general taste for the cultivation of Greek and 

 Roman lore, which prevailed among both sexes for 

 some time after the revival of literature in Europe. 

 Lady Jane Grey was a woman of talents, but not a 

 prodigy ; and Mrs Roper, the interesting daughter 

 of Sir Thomas More, with lady Burleigh and her 

 learned sisters, may be adduced as rivals in erudition 

 of the subject of this article. The literary accom- 

 2 x > 



