- skip - Brewer’s

Guinʹever

,

or rather Guanhumaʹra (4 syl.). Daughter of Leodograunce of Camʹelyard, 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 Camʹbula, 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. 1.

 

previous entry · index · next entry

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

previous entry · index · next entry

Guido Francischini
Guildhall
Guillotine
Guinea
Guinea-dropper
Guinea Fowl
Guinea-hen
Guineapig (Stock Exchange term)
Guineapig (A)
Guineapig (A)
Guinever
Guinevere
Guingelot
Guisando
Guise’s Motto:
Guitar
Gules [red]
Gules of August (The)
Gulf
Gulf Stream
Gulistan [garden of roses]

Linking here:

Guenever
Guinevere