GUEUX GUIANA. 



579 



of Poitiers, in 1356, he came while king John was 

 yet a prisoner, to give assistance to las eldest son, 

 Charles, who then held the regency. Melun surren- 

 dered ; those of his party obtained their freedom, and 

 many other towns yielded to him. Charles V., who, in 

 1364, had succeeded his father, rewarded in a suit- 

 able manner the services of Guesclin, who, in the 

 same year, gained a victory at Cocherel over the 

 king of Navarre. These successes hastened the 

 peace. He next supported Henry, who had assumed 

 the title of the king of Castile, against his brother, 

 Peter the Cruel. He deprived this prince of his 

 crown, and secured it to Henry, who rewarded him 

 with a large sum of money, and raised him to the 

 dignity ot constable of Castile. Bertrand soon after 

 returned to France, to defend his country against 

 England. The English, hitherto victorious, were 

 now every where beaten. Advanced to the rank of 

 constable of France, he attacked them in Maine and 

 Anjou, and even made their leader prisoner. He 

 brought Poitou and Saintonge under the dominion of 

 France, so that the English retained only Bourdeaux, 

 Calais, Cherbourg, Brest, and Bayonne. He died in 

 the midst of his triumphs, before Chateau-neuf-de- 

 Ilandon, July 13, 1380. His body was buried with 

 royal honours, near the tomb which Charles V. had de- 

 signated for himself. France, since him, has had, 

 among her many generals, but a single one who can be 

 compared to him, Turenne. Both were equally 

 brave, modest, and generous. Du Guesclin was twice 

 married, but left no children, except a natural son, 

 Michael du Guesclin. 



GUEUX (beggars). This title was, in the time of 

 Philip II., under the government of the blood-thirsty 

 duke of Alba, given to the allied noblemen, and the 

 other malcontents in the Netherlands. In 1654, Philip 

 sent nine inquisitors there, to execute the decrees of 

 the council of Trent, and occasioned thereby a great 

 excitement among both Protestants and Catholics. 

 The nobles bound themselves by a compact, known 

 under the name of the compromise, not to appear 

 before the nine inquisitors, and, in solemn procession, 

 made known their resolution, in 1565, to Margaret, 

 duchess of Parma, then at the head of government. 

 Their declaration was received with contempt. The 

 princess, during the audience, happening to show 

 some embarrassment, the earl of Barlaimont, president 

 of the council of finance, whispered to her that she 

 ought not to manifest any fear of such a mob of beg- 

 gars (fas de gueux). Some of the confederates over- 

 heard this, and on the evening of the same day, 

 communicated it at a meeting of their members, who 

 immediately drank to the health of the gueux, and 

 agreed thereafter to be called by that name. 



GUEVARA, Louis VALEZ DE LAS DUENAS Y, a 

 Spanish dramatic poet, was born at Ecija in Andalu- 

 sia, in 1574. He applied himself to the study of the 

 law, and lived as a lawyer in Madrid. By his in- 

 exhaustible fund of humour, he often excited the 

 laughter of his numerous hearers, and of the judges, 

 even in the most serious causes. It is related of 

 him, that by this means he once saved a criminal 

 from dentil, and obtained the acquaintance of the 

 king (Plu'lip IV.). The monarch, who knew his 

 talent for poetry, induced him to write comedies. 

 (Philip IV. himself sometimes wrote pieces, which 

 were given to Guevara, to revise, and afterwards 

 often exhibited at court.) In this new career Gue- 

 vara obtained no small success. His pieces deserve, 

 for their excellent delineations of character, and their 

 richness in strokes of genuine comic humour, the 

 praise which Lope dc Vega has given them. That, 

 however, which especially established the poetical 

 fame of Guevara, was his Diablo Cojuelo,o Memorial 

 de la otra Pida, a romance written with equal 



elegance and wit ; in which the poet describes with 

 great humour and spirit, and lashes with inimitable 

 satire, the manners of his countrymen and life in 

 Madrid. This Spanish romance afforded the idea of 

 Le Sage's famous Diable Boiteux. It was literally 

 translated into French (by the author of Lectures 

 amusantes), and into Italian. Guevara died at 

 Madrid in January, 1646, at the age of seventy-two, 

 to his last day enjoying the favour of the monarch, 

 and to his last day a warm, and often extravagant 

 admirer of the other sex. Many of his witty sayings 

 have become familiar to the people in his country, 

 and to this day are often heard as proverbs in Spain. 

 There are several other Spanish poets of the same 

 name. 



GUGLIELMI, PETER, was born in 1727, at Massa 

 Carrara, where his father, Giacomo Guglielmi was 

 chapel-master of the duke of Modena. He studied 

 music with his father until his eighteenth year, and 

 afterwards went to Naples to the conservatorio di 

 Loretto, then under the direction of the celebrated 

 Durante. Guglielmi showed little taste for music, 

 but Durante kept him to the study of counterpoint 

 and of composition. He left the institution in his 

 twenty-eighth year, and immediately began to com- 

 pose comic and heroic operas for the Italian theatre. 

 In each he was equally successful. He was invited 

 to Vienna, to Madrid, and to London, and returned 

 to Naples about the fiftieth year of his age. Here 

 he made a most brilliant display of his talents. Two 

 masters, Cimarosa and Paesiello had taken possession 

 of the great theatre in Naples, and contended for the 

 palm. He took a noble revenge upon the latter, of 

 whom he had some cause to complain. To every 

 work of his adversary he opposed another, and was 

 always victorious. In 1793, Pius VI. named him 

 chapel-master of St Peter's, which gave him an op- 

 portunity of distinguishing himself in sacred music. 

 He has left more than 200 pieces, remarkable for 

 their simple and beautiful airs, for their clear and 

 rich harmony, and for their spirit and originality. 

 He died in 1804, in his seventy-seventh year. His 

 son, Peter Charles, is likewise a distinguished com- 

 poser. 



GUIANA ; a country of South America. This 

 name was formerly given to the country extending 

 from the Orinoco on the north to the Amazon on the 

 south; but the part called Spanish Guiana now 

 forms a province of Colombia, and Portuguese Guiana 

 now belongs to Brazil. The rest of the country be- 

 longs to the British, Dutch, and French. British 

 Guiana contains three small colonies, viz., Essequibo, 

 Demerara, and Berbice. The principal town is Sta- 

 broek. Dutch Guiana, often called Surinam, is 

 watered by the river Surinam. Parimaribo, the 

 capital, is a pleasant town. French Guiana, called 

 also Cayenne, is noted for producing the Cayenne 

 pepper. Cayenne, the capital, is situated on an 

 island. Guiana is of a mild climate for a tropical 

 country. Along the sea shore, and for a considerable 

 way into the interior, the country is an extensive and 

 uniform plain of unequaled fertility. In the interior, 

 it rises into mountains, which frequently contain a 

 great variety of mineral substances. Rich and fer- 

 tile valleys are interspersed throughout these moun- 

 tainous tracts. These uncultivated parts are covered 

 with immense forests, which are intersected with 

 deep marshes, and by extensive qavanims or plains 

 covered with luxuriant herbage. The country is 

 watered by the tributary streams of the Orinoco and 

 the Amazon. Guiana is overspread with the most 

 luxuriant vegetation, abounding in the finest woods, 

 in fruits of every description, and in an infinite 

 variety of both rare and useful plants. Many of the 

 trees grow to the height of 100 feet ; they consist of 

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