GRISELDA GRITTI. 



567 



citement had subsided, he obtained a general ap- 

 plause. On the death of the count de Friese, Grimm 

 was nominated principal secretary to the duke of 

 Orleans. The fame of the French literati, with whom 

 he was connected, led to his being employed, in con- 

 junction with Diderot, to transmit to the duke of 

 Saxe-Gotha an account of the writings, friendships, 

 disputes, &c., of the authors of that period. Copies 

 of this curious correspondence were also sent to the 

 empress Catharine II., the queen of Sweden, Stanis- 

 laus, king of Poland, the duke of Deux-Ponts, the 

 prince and princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, &c. Fre- 

 deric the G reat gave him marks of great esteem. In 

 1776, he was appointed envoy from the duke of Saxe- 

 Gotha to the French court, honoured with the title 

 of baron, and with several orders. On the revolution 

 breaking out, he retired to the court of Gotha, where 

 he found a safe asylum. In 1795, the empress of 

 Russia made him her minister plenipotentiary to the 

 states of Lower Saxony ; and he was confirmed in that 

 post by Paul I., and retained it till ill health obliged 

 him to relinquish it. He then returned to Gotha, 

 and died there, Dec. 19, 1807. His grand work was 

 published in different portions successively, under the 

 following titles : Correspondance Litteraire, Philo- 

 sophique et Critique, adressee d un Souverain d'Alle- 

 magne, depuis mo,jusqu'en 1782, par le Baron de 

 Grimm et par Diderot (Paris, 1812, 5 vols. 8vo) ; 

 Correspondance Litteraire, &c., en 1775, 1766, 1782 

 1790 (troisieme et derniere Partie, 1813, 5 vols. 

 8vo) ; and Correspondance Litteraire, &c., depuis 

 n53,Jusqti'en 1760, (premiere Partie, 6 vols. 8vo). 

 A selection from this voluminous mass of literary 

 gossip was published in 2 vols. 8vo, in French and 

 English. 



GRISELDA ; the ever-patient wife of the marquis 

 di Saluzzo, the subject of the tenth novella in the 

 tenth giornata of Boccaccio's Decameron. The mar- 

 quis's beau ideal of a wife was a woman of all-endur- 

 ing patience. He chooses Griselda, the daughter of 

 one of his tenants, ill-treats her in a variety of ways, 

 takes away her two sons, and makes her believe that 

 they are killed. At last he turns her out of doors in 

 her shift, and celebrates a marriage with a noble 

 lady. But finding that Griselda endures every thing 

 patiently, he takes her back, restores her two sons, 

 and treats her as marchioness. No one can suppose 

 that Griselda is held up as a model. One might as 

 well have a wax image for a wife. This subject has 

 been treated by poets of many other nations ; for 

 instance, by Chaucer. Griselda is, therefore, not 

 unfrequently used to designate a woman whose pa- 

 tience is trial-proof. 



GRISETTE (French}-, originally a dress of coarse 

 gray cloth, worn by the females of the lower classes ; 

 hence it is used for the females themselves, and is 

 generally used to signify a belle of the lower classes. 

 In the language of the theatre, grisette signifies an 

 intriguing young girl, of the class of soubrettes. 



ORISONS, THE (GraubUndteri) ; the Upper Rhas- 

 tia of the ancients ; since 1788 a canton of the Swiss 

 confederacy. It is the largest in the confederacy, 

 containing 3000 square miles, with 75,000 inhabitants, 

 and is bounded N. by Glarus, St Gall, and the Vorarl- 

 berg ; E. by the Tyrol ; S. by the Valteline, Milan, 

 and the canton Ticino ; W. by Uri. The Grison 

 Alps rise 11,000 feet above the level of the sea ; the 

 line of perpetual snow is from 8200 to 8400 feet ; 

 they contain 241 glaciers and 56 waterfalls. The 

 Inn and the Rhine have their sources here. The 

 lowest point of the populous valley Engadin, at 

 Martinsbruck, is 3234 feet above the level of the sea; 

 the highest village is situated at an elevation of 5600 

 feet. The varieties of climate are, therefore, very 

 striking in the Grisons. 



The country is divided into five great valleys ; 1. 

 The valley of the posterior Rhine, which includes 

 the Rheinwald, and the valleys of the Schamser, the 

 Via Mala, and the Domlesch. The latter is formed 

 by the posterior Rhine, is the mildest district in the 

 Grisons, and contains twenty-two villages, in which 

 the Romansh, a mixture of Latin, German and Ital- 

 ian, is spoken. The Schamser-Valley contains nine 

 villages, and is about seven miles long. Between 

 this and the Rheinwald is the terrible Via Mala, 

 which is formed by the posterior Rhine. In this and 

 in the Rheinwald, the winters last nine months, on 

 account of their elevated situation. Two formidable 

 roads lead to Italy, one over the Splugen, the other 

 over the St Bernard. The former was passed, in 

 1800, by the French, under Macdonald. Lecourbe, 

 with a considerable corps, ventured to enter the latter 

 in 1797. 2. The second valley is that of the anterior 

 Rhine, which extends from the western frontier and 

 the St Gothard to Coire and Luciensteig. Here are 

 the most interesting points the old Benedictine 

 abbey Disentis, whose literary treasures and build- 

 ings were destroyed, in 1799, by the French : also 

 Ilantz (the town), the old Coire (q. v.), where Roman 

 antiquities and coins are found. 3. The third valley 

 is that of Engadin, or the valley of the Upper Inn, 

 which stretches from south-west to north-east, and 

 contains, indeed, no important town, but incompara- 

 ble views and picturesque scenery. It is one of the 

 most romantic spots on earth.' 4. The fourth valley 

 is formed by the Albula, a river which rises in the 

 Julian or Septimian mountains, and falls into the 

 posterior Rhine atThusis. 5. The fifth valley is that 

 of the Prettigau, situated on the northern frontier, in 

 the neighbourhood of the Vorarlberg ; Mayenfield is 

 the principal town. 



The people of the Grisons are divided into three 

 leagues (in German, Bunde ; hence the German 

 name of the canton, Graubundten ;) the League of 

 God's house, the capital of which is Coire ; the Gray 

 League, with Ilantz ; and the League of the Ten 

 Jurisdictions, of which Davos is considered as the 

 chief place. In these three places sixty-three de- 

 puties of the leagues assemble annually in September, 

 under three heads, deliberate on the affairs of the 

 canton, and decide, finally, in legal cases. The can- 

 ton sends 1600 men to the army of the confederacy, 

 and contributes 12,000 guilders. About two thirds 

 of the inhabitants profess the Helvetic Protestant re- 

 ligion. But the ministers have so scanty an income, 

 that they are obliged to maintain themselves by their 

 industry. The only Latin school is in Coire. About 

 10,000 of the inhabitants speak an Italian dialect ; 

 these are in Engadin. About 28,000 speak the Swiss 

 dialect of the German, and more than 36,000, chiefly 

 near the sources of the Rhine, speak the Romansh or 

 Ladin. This language is a relic of the old Romana 

 rustica. Commerce is much interrupted by the nar 

 rowness of the passes on the frontiers. The exports 

 (chiefly to Milan) are cattle, cheese, coals, and rare 

 minerals ; for which, grain, salt, linen, and cloth are 

 received in return. 



GRIST MILL. See Mill. 



GRITTI ; a noble Venetian family. Andrew, 

 having been taken prisoner by the Turks, concluded 

 a treaty between the Porte and Venice (1501). At 

 a later period, he commanded the Venetian armies 

 in the war against the league of Cambray, was made 

 prisoner by Gaston de Foix (q. v.) and persuaded 

 Louis XII. to secede from the league, and, in 1513, 

 to conclude a treaty with the republic. From 1523 

 to 1538, he was doge. Ludovico Gritti, son of An- 

 drew, was born hi Constantinople, during his father's 

 captivity ; served in the armies of the Turks, among 

 whom he enjoyed a high reputation ; commanded at 



