Chapter Guido to Gulf Stream of G by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Guineapig (A). A midshipman. A guineapig is neither a pig nor a native of Guinea; so a middy is neither a sailor nor an officer.

"He had a letter from the captain of the Indiaman, offering you a berth on board as guineapig, or midshipman." - Captain Marryat: Poor Jack. chap. xxxi.

    A special juryman who is paid a guinea a case: also a military officer assigned to some special duty, for which he receives a guinea a day, are sometimes so called.

Guineapig (A), in the Anglican Church, is a clergyman without cure, who takes occasional duty for a guinea a sermon, besides his travelling expenses (second class) and his board, if required.

Guinever or rather Guanhumara (4 syl.). Daughter of Leodograunce of Camelyard, the most beautiful of women, and wife of King Arthur. She entertained a guilty passion for Sir Launcelot of the Lake, one of the knights of the Round Table, but during the absence of King Arthur in his expedition against Leo, King of the Romans, she "married" Modred, her husband's nephew, whom he had left in charge of the kingdom. Soon as Arthur heard thereof, he hastened back, Guinever fled from York and took the veil in the nunnery of Julius the Martyr, and Modred set his forces in array at Cambula, in Cornwall. Here a desperate battle was fought, in which Modred was slain and Arthur mortally wounded. Guinever is generally called the "grey-eyed;" she was buried at Meigle, in Strathmore, and her name has become the synonym of a wanton or adulteress. (Geoffrey: Brit. Hist., x. 13.)

"That was a woman when Queen Guinever of Britain was a little wench." - Shakespeare: Love's Labour's Lost, iv. L.

Guinevere (3 syl.). Tennyson's Idyll represents her as loving Sir Lancelot; but one day, when they were bidding farewell, Modred tracked them, "and brought his creatures to the basement of the tower for testimony." Sir Lancelot hurled the fellow to the ground and got to horse, and the queen fled to a nunnery at Almesbury. (See Guinever.)

Guingelot The boat of Wato or Wade, the father of Weland, and son of Vilkinr, in which he crossed over the nine-ell deep, called Grœnasund, with his son upon his shoulders. (Scandinavian mythology.)

Guisando The Bulls of Guisando. Five monster statues of antiquity, to mark the scene of Cæsar's victory over the younger Pompey.

Guise's Motto: "A chacun son tour, " on the standards of the Duc de Guise, who put himself at the head of the Catholic League in the sixteenth century, meant, "My turn will come."

Guitar (Greek, kithara; Latin, cithara; Italian, chitarra; French, guitare. The Greek kithar is the Hindu cha-tar (six-strings).
   Guitar. The best players on this instrument have been Guiliani, Sor, Zoechi, Stoll, and Horetzsky.

Gules [red]. An heraldic term. The most honourable heraldic colour, signifying valour, justice, and veneration. Hence it was given to kings and princes. The royal livery of England is gules or scarlet. In heraldry expressed by perpendicular parallel lines. (Persian, ghul, rose; French, gueules, the mouth and throat, or the red colour thereof; Latin, gula, the throat.)

"With man's blood paint the ground, gules, gules." Shakespeare: Timon of Athens, iv. 3.

"And threw warm gules on Madeline's fair breast." Keats: Eve of St. Agnes.

Gules of August (The). The 1st of August (from Latin, gula, the throat), the entrance into, or first day of that month. (Wharton: Law Lexicon, p. 332.)
    August 1 is Lammas Day, a quarter-day in Scotland, and half-quarter-day in England.

" `Gula Augusti' initium mensis Augusti. Le Gule d'August, in statuo Edw. III., a. 31 c. 14, averagium æstivale fieri debet inter Hokedai et gulam Augusti." - Ducange: Glossarium Manuale, vol. iii. p. 866.

   ("Hokeday est dies Martis, qui quindenam Paschœ expletam proxime excipit." - Vol. iv. p. 65 col. 1.)