him on the subject, and in the judgment of the greater portion of the learned men of the time was supposed to have the best of the argument.—J. A. D.
GOUVEA. See Govea.
GOUVION SAINT-CYR, Laurent, a French marshal and marquis, won his high military rank under Napoleon, and was raised to the peerage after the Revolution. Born at Toul in 1764, he had received from his parents, notwithstanding their poverty, the advantages of a good education, which he improved by visiting Rome and Sicily in the prosecution of his studies as an artist; but neither in that profession nor on the stage at the Salle-Beaumarchais did he give much promise of acquiring fame and fortune. At the commencement of the Revolution he joined the democratic party; and in 1792 he served as a captain of the chasseurs republicains, under De Custine, on the frontier. His promotion followed rapidly; in two years he had passed through the grades of assistant-adjutant, adjutant-general, and general of brigade, into the rank of general of division. He was then attached to the army of the Rhine, with which Moreau advanced into Bavaria and effected his masterly retreat after the repulse of Jourdan by the Archduke Charles. Having command of the centre, Saint-Cyr took a prominent part in the operations of these campaigns along with Desaix, who led the left wing; and Moreau is reported to have said, that the prompt and fearless energy of the latter made him confident of a victory, while the steady, deliberate, and systematic combinations of the former secured him against a defeat. After the peace of Campo Formio, Saint-Cyr was sent to command the army of Rome, and succeeded in allaying the discontent which prevailed in it. But the measures which he adopted offended the directory. He was recalled, and had made his arrangements for retiring temporarily from active service, when the renewal of hostilities, in 1799, gave him a command in the army with which Jourdan entered Suabia. Thence, at his own request, he was transferred to Italy, where he served under Moreau and Joubert against Suwarrow; and in the following year he again led the central division of the army on the Rhine. There was no very cordial feeling betwixt him and Napoleon, who had now become first consul. The latter, however, made him a councillor of state, employed him on a diplomatic mission to Spain, and gave him the command of the French force in Naples. He was also appointed colonel-general of the cuirassiers, and enrolled among the distinguished members of the legion of honour. His services under Massena, and in the grand army in Prussia, procured for him the governorship of Warsaw; and in Catalonia he added to his military reputation, but incurred the displeasure of the emperor by quitting his post before the arrival of his successor Augereau. In 1812, when Napoleon invaded Russia, the command of the sixth corps was given to Saint-Cyr, who gained a signal victory over Wittgenstein at Polotzk, and by an able retreat saved his small force from the accumulating masses of the enemy. These exploits won for him the rank of marshal; but his wounds compelled him to retire till the following year, when he was intrusted with the defence of Dresden, where he maintained a gallant resistance till the disastrous battle of Leipsic constrained him to surrender to Schwartzenberg. He recovered his freedom at the Restoration, and the policy of Louis XVIII. not only continued him in his military rank, but raised him to the peerage, and in addition to other marks of favour, intrusted him with the portfolio of the war office. The last years of his life were spent in retirement, and he died at Hyères in 1830, having published, in 1821, the journal of his operations in Catalonia; and in 1829, "Memoirs of the Campaigns on the Rhine till the peace of Campo-Formio." Two works, narrating the principal events of the campaign of 1812 in Russia, and that of 1813 in Saxony, appeared after his death.—W. B.
GOVEA, Antonio, an illustrious Portuguese scholar, was born at Beja in 1505. He belonged to a family of which several members were greatly distinguished. When he was very young, Antonio was brought by his uncle from Portugal to Paris, and he was there educated with the most sedulous care. His proficiency in Roman literature was such, that he wrote Latin both in prose and verse with great elegance. He was profoundly skilled in the philosophy of Aristotle, and his acquaintance with civil law raised him to the first rank among the expositors of Justinian. After giving lectures on law, belles-lettres, &c., in various parts of France, he was obliged by the civil wars to retire from that country, and to take up his abode in Piedmont, where he became one of the counsellors of Philibert, duke of Savoy. He died at Turin in 1565. Govea wrote many poems and legal treatises, which were much admired by his contemporaries; and also commentaries on several of the Roman classics. While his literary reputation is unquestioned, his religious opinions and character have been the subject of considerable dispute. Calvin speaks of him as an atheist, and classes him with Rabelais and Deperius, as persons who "bantered and laughed at everything sacred;" but Scaliger asserts this charge is untrue and slanderous.—Mainfroy Govea, son of the preceding, inherited the talent and sustained the reputation of his family. He was the author of several works akin in character to those written by his father, and was one of the counsellors of Charles Emmanuel, duke of Savoy. He died in 1613.—J. B. J.
GOVINDA SINGH, a celebrated chief of the Sikhs, and the last that obtained an undoubted right to the title of "gourou," or preceptor, was born in 1661, and died in 1708. He was the son of the ninth gourou, who was put to death by the great mogul, Aurungzebe. On the death of his father, Govinda withdrew to the mountains in the neighbourhood of Djemnah, whence, after twenty-five years' study and meditation, he came forth in the character of a religious reformer, and placed himself at the head of his sect. Govinda, however, at the same time that he put them almost upon a new footing as regarded their rules and observances, formed them into a nation of warriors. He taught them to regard the Monguls as their natural enemies, and enforced the duty of waging against them a war of extermination. For a few years his lions (so he styled his followers) ramped and tore without check; but as soon as they felt the pressure of the enemy, they abandoned their leader, who was in the end left with a few hardy followers in one of his besieged fortresses. He made his escape disguised as a dervish, and took refuge in the desert of Bhutinda. Govinda proudly refused to appear at the court of Aurungzebe, after whose death he was made governor of a province watered by the Godavery. Here he ended his days in an obscurity that contrasts strikingly with the brief splendour of his arms.—R. M., A.
GOVONA, Rosa, foundress of the order of Rosine, born at Mondovi in 1716; died in Turin, 28th February, 1776. Of poor parentage, and left in youth an orphan, Rosa worked hard to maintain herself in honourable independence. Her adoption of a destitute girl whom she met one day in the vicinity of Mondovi was the commencement of that union of many laborious women which resulted in the founding of the order. Their first house stood in the plain of Brao. Thence, in 1775, Rosa removed to Turin, where Charles Emmanuel III. assigned to her use some extensive buildings over the entrance to which was inscribed—"Tu mangerai col lavoro delle tue mani" (Thou shalt eat by the labour of thy hands). The Rosine excelled in the manufacture of silken and woollen fabrics; producing embroidery for the rich, costly materials for ecclesiastical vestments, and serviceable cloths for the poor.—C. G. R.
GOWER, John, an early English poet of the reign of Edward III., who with Chaucer and Lydgate formed the "celebrated triumvirate" of poets in that country, as did Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch in Italy. The materials from which the biographer can compose his memoir are but scant and uncertain. He is supposed to have been born about 1325, but the place of his birth is disputed. Wales on the one hand claims him, while there is evidence of some weight to support the views of Leland and others, who contend that he belonged to the Statenham family of Yorkshire. The social position of Gower must have been respectable. Rich he was certainly, and it is conjectured he was a knight, and even a judge. His education was evidently the best. He graduated at Oxford, and is said, though this is doubtful, to have studied in the Inner Temple. He was an accomplished jurist, as well as an eminent man of letters, and did not neglect the practice of the law even while he attached himself ardently to literature. He was married, as appears by his will, to a lady whose christian name was Argues. Gower enjoyed the friendship of the great men of his country, and appears to have been honoured with the recognition of royalty. Like Chaucer, he had his strong political predilections, attaching himself to the house of Lancaster under Thomas of Woodstock, as his friend did under John of Gaunt. Gower lived unto the reign of Henry IV., previous to whose accession he lost his sight. He died in 1408, and was buried in the monastery of St. Mary Overié's (afterwards the church of St. Saviour's),
