educated by the jesuits at Tours, and distinguished as a barrister at Rennes. In 1791 he was sent as a deputy to the assembly, and in 1793 succeeded Garat as minister of justice. In 1799 he was elected one of the directory. Napoleon, on his return from Egypt, sounded Gohier and found him firm in his attachment to the republic. To lull his suspicions to rest, Bonaparte promised to dine with him on the 18th Brumaire; and at midnight on the 17th a billet from Josephine invited Gohier and his wife to breakfast at eight on the following morning. Gohier saw the trap, and stayed away. During the 18th his conduct was honest, but weak and fatuous. He met General Moulins, who, like himself, was opposed to the intended usurpation. Both were eager to defend the constitution, but as two members of the directory did not form a quorum, he felt that they could not legally act; and Gohier, on meeting Napoleon, was saluted with "Il n'y a plus de directoire!" He was afterwards consul-general in Holland, and died at Paris 29th May, 1830. He published two volumes of "Mémoires" in 1825.—W. J. P.
GOHL. See Golius.
GOLDAST, Melchior, surnamed Von Heimingsfeld, a German historian, was born January 6, 1576, at the village of Espen, near Bishofszell, Switzerland. His parents being very poor, he made some desperate efforts to pick up knowledge as a wandering student, and for years went strolling about in Germany and France. In the latter country he became acquainted with the duke de Bouillon, who for several years employed him as a sort of amanuensis. He afterwards filled successively a variety of situations; became privy-councillor to the duke of Saxe-Weimar in 1611; historiographer of Hesse in 1614; editor of various newspapers in Frankfort-on-the-Maine between 1617-25; ambassador of the elector of Treves in 1628; minister of the reigning prince of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1629; and chancellor of the university of Giessen in 1631. He died at the latter place in 1635. His works are numerous; those relating to the social life of the middle ages are of considerable value.—F. M.
GOLDFUSS, Georg August, a writer on natural history, and professor of zoology and mineralogy at the university of Bonn, was born at Thurnau, near Baireuth, April 18, 1782. He studied at the universities of Berlin and Erlangen, and in 1818 was nominated professor at Bonn, with charge of the zoological museum and the collection of minerals. He wrote many works on natural history. He died at Bonn in 1848.—F. M.
GOLDING, Arthur, an excellent and most diligent translator from Latin into English. So little is known of him personally, that the account of his life sketched by Warton in the History of Poetry, is traced by the days and the places at which he signs his dedications. He was of good family, a native of London, and lived with Secretary Cecil at his house in the Strand. He was known to the most distinguished men of his day, such as Leicester, Essex, Sir Christopher Hatton, Lord Oxford, and Lord Cobham, to whom respectively he dedicated some of his books. With the illustrious Sir Philip Sidney he has even a closer connection, for he finished an English translation from the French of Philip Mornay's Treatise on the Truth of Christianity, which had been begun by Sidney, and was published in 1587. Gelding's useful labours included translations of Justin, published in 1564; Cæsar's Commentaries, 1565; Seneca's Benefits, 1577; the Geography of Pomponius Mela, 1587; and the Polyhistory of Solinus in 1590. But the work by which he is best known, and the popularity of which was maintained until the appearance of Sandys' translation of the same author, is "Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated out of Latin into English metre." "His style," says Warton, "is poetical and spirited, and his versification clear; his manner ornamental and diffuse, yet with a sufficient observance of the original." Specimens are given in Warton's History of English Poetry. His translation of Beza's drama of Abraham's Sacrifice, 1577, 18mo, has given him a place in the Biograph. Dram.—R. H.
GOLDONI, Carlo, of Modenese extraction; born in Venice in 1707; died in Paris, 8th January, 1793. His grandfather was the first of his house to settle in Venice. His death in 1712 plunged his family into comparative indigence; and his son Giulio commenced practising as a physician at Perugia. Almost from infancy Carlo Goldoni evinced that marked bias towards plays and players which gave the character to his whole life. At eight years old he wrote a comedy, which however lacked a title. This composition so delighted his father, that Carlo was summoned to Perugia and sent to a jesuit seminary. Having there completed his studies of rhetoric, he removed to Rimini to pursue a course of philosophy under the dominicans, preparatory to entering on a medical career; but though docile in the class, in private he gave his attention to more congenial matters, reading Plautus, Terence, Aristophanes, and the fragments of Menander; and when with his father he commenced visiting patients, he conceived only disgust at his profession. This led to a change of plans. Carlo at the age of sixteen, but described as eighteen, under the patronage of the Marquis Goldoni-Vidoni, entered the collegio del Papa at Pavia to study law; whence, after three years, he was expelled for having written and allowed to be circulated a grossly offensive satire entitled "Il Colosso." Concerning this he observes in his autobiography:—"If after sixty years any remembrance of me and my indiscretion survives in Pavia, I beg pardon of those whom I offended." He resumed his studies at Udine; heard thirty-six sermons during Lent, which with great applause he turned into as many sonnets; and carried on a couple of disgraceful intrigues. Alarmed at the possible consequences of one of these, he joined his father at Gorizia; enjoyed the congenial pleasure of performing with a company of puppets, Lo Sternuto d'Ercole, by Piergiacomo Martelli; and received the gift of a silver watch, in those days no mean possession. Leaving home once more, he continued his studies at Modena, and there made acquaintance with the celebrated Muratori. At the age of twenty-one he obtained a subordinate post under the Venetian podestà at Chiozza, and laboured with such diligence as shortly to gain promotion to the office of coadjutor. Duty now called him to Feltre; and with law business and investigations he mingled the delights of private theatricals and love-making. In 1731 Goldoni lost his father, shortly afterwards took his doctor's degree in the university of Padua, and in May of the following year was entered as an advocate at Venice. Waiting for clients, he compiled an almanac; and turning his thoughts once more to dramatic composition, wrote "Amalassunta," a musical tragedy. At length a client came; Goldoni pleaded his cause and won a triumphant success; but this excellent commencement proved abortive. Carlo had long visited and courted a wealthy lady, who at length forsook him for a nobler suitor. He then transferred his attentions to the lady's niece, and everything was being arranged for the wedding, when property on the bride's side proving in spite of promises deficient, he by his mother's assistance abandoned Venice, prospects, and engagement together. Once more at Milan, Goldoni tried the fortunes of his "Amalassunta," but met with such ill success that he burned the BIS., and joyfully accepted an honourable post, with light duties, in the suite of the Venetian resident Bartolini. But even now theatrical influences pursued him; circumstances enabled him to oblige a company of comedians by obtaining for them an engagement at Milan, and furnishing them with his first comic work which appeared on the stage, "Il Gondolier Veneto." In 1733 war broke out; the king of Sardinia leagued with France and Spain to maintain the cause of Don Carlos against Austria. Goldoni in his official capacity saw, as it were, the outskirts of hostilities; and, during a brief armistice, acted as honourable spy. A dispute that same year terminated his connection with Bartolini. He now adopted dramatic authorship as his profession, and met with remarkable success; his plays being performed in various cities, and himself attached to a Venetian company of actors. With them he visited Genoa, and whilst there beheld at a window a beautiful young lady, daughter of Signer Conio, a notary. Goldoni contrived a pretext for introducing himself to the father, and shortly afterwards married the daughter, of whom he says—"She only was, and always has been, my consolation." In 1740 he was appointed Genoese consul at Venice, but no salary being attached to this office, and his private affairs becoming deranged, he ere long abandoned it. Two years later he visited Tuscany to improve his knowledge of the language; passed three years at Pisa, where he resumed and finally relinquished the practice of the law; and was elected a member of the Accademia degli Arcadi, under the name of Polisseno Fegejo. In 1761 Goldoni, with his wife and a nephew whom he had adopted, removed to Paris to fulfil a two years' theatrical engagement in that city. Here, after a while, he was appointed Italian preceptor to the daughters of Louis XV.; at a later period he instructed the younger princesses. Still, however, he continued dramatic composition; sent works to Lisbon and London, as well as into Italy; and
