Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/379

 the pope suspended him, till a second visit to Rome procured the restoration of his authority. From Rome Galdric returned, determined to destroy the commune. The French king slept in Galdric's palace on the night preceding Good Friday 1112 (18 April); and as the commune could only offer 400l. against the bishop's 700l., he quashed the old charter. Next morning the city was in open revolt. Louis had to leave early (April 19), and Galdric at once began to levy for his own use the contribution each citizen had made to the ‘commune.’ In spite of warnings from Anselm, he continued to enforce the impost, till on the following Thursday the burgesses, raising the cry of ‘Commune,’ burst into the bishop's court. Galdric fled to the cellars beneath the cathedral. One of his own serfs, Tendegald, whom he had offended by nicknaming him ‘Isingrinus,’ after the fox in the popular fabliau ‘Reynard the Fox,’ pointed out the bolted coffer in which he was hidden. He was dragged out by the hair and massacred (25 April 1112). Tendegald cut his finger off to secure the episcopal ring. The naked corpse was then cast into a corner where it remained a mark for stones and insults from the passers-by till the next day, when Anselm had it buried in St. Vincent's Church, outside the city walls (, iii. cc. 7–9). D'Achery has printed the fragments of his epitaph (col. 1192).

Galdric was a typical secular bishop, ‘unstable in word and bearing.’ He loved to talk of war and of the dogs and horses which he had learned to prize in England (, iii. c. 4, &c.). He was recklessly extravagant. Anselm, who visited England in his company, heard a universal outcry against his ill-gotten gains. He retained for his own use the gift which the English queen sent for another church. He was a fierce hater and returned Guibert's ‘History of the Crusade’ unread because it was dedicated to his enemy, Bishop Lissard of Soissons. He scorned the ‘commune,’ declaring ‘he could never perish by such hands;’ and on the day before his death boasted that the ‘commune’ leader would not dare to ‘grunt’ ‘if I sent my blackman John to tweak his nose.’

[Dugdale's Monasticon, ed. 1817, vols. i. vi. &c.; Orderic Vitalis, ed. Le Prevost, iv. 230 (bk. xi. c. 20); Guibert of Nogent ap. Migne, vol. clvi. cols. 911–12, &c.; Hermann of Laon ap. Migne, vol. clvi.; Sigebert's Chronicon Auct. Laud. ap. Pertz, vi. 445; Chron. Besuense ap. Pertz, ii. 250, and ap. D'Achery's Spicilegium, ed. 1665, i. 639; Jaffé's Regesta Paparum, p. 493. Bouquet, xii. 42, 174, 276, &c., xiii. 266, xiv; 66–7; Thierry's Lettres sur l'Histoire de France.] 

GALE, DUNSTAN (fl. 1596), poet, was the author of a poem entitled ‘Pyramus and Thisbe,’ supposed to have been printed for the first time in 1597, as the dedication is addressed ‘To the Worshipful his verie friend D. B. H. Nov. 25th, 1596.’ It was published with Greene's ‘History of Arbasto’ in 1617, in the title of which it is spoken of as ‘a lovely poem.’ No earlier edition is known. Another edition was published in 1626. A poem called ‘Perymus and Thesbye’ was entered to William Griffith in 1562, and according to Warton printed in quarto for T. Hackett; but this was probably an earlier and quite different work.

[Collier's Bibl. and Critical Account, 1865; Ritson's Bibliographia Poetica.] 

GALE, GEORGE (1797?–1850), aeronaut, was, according to the register of his burial, born about 1797. He was originally an actor in small parts in London minor theatres. He became a great favourite of Andrew Ducrow [q. v.] In 1831 he went to America, and played Mazeppa for two hundred nights at the Bowery Theatre in New York. He afterwards travelled in the west and joined a tribe of Indians. He brought six of them, with their chief, ‘Ma Caust,’ to London, and was scarcely distinguishable from his companions. They were exhibited at the Victoria Theatre till their popularity declined. Sir Augustus Frederick D'Este [q. v.] had become interested in them, and procured Gale an appointment as coast blockade inspector in the north of Ireland. On the strength of this appointment, which he held for seven years, he afterwards assumed the title of lieutenant. Tiring of this he made an unsuccessful attempt to return to the London stage, and then took to ballooning. He had a balloon manufactured at the old Montpelier Gardens in Walworth, and made his first ascent with success from the Rosemary Branch tavern at Peckham in 1848. He made many ascents, the 114th of which was from the hippodrome of Vincennes at Bordeaux, with the Royal Cremorne balloon, on 8 Sept. 1850. He was seated on the back of a pony suspended from the car. Gale descended at Auguilles. When the pony had been released from its slings, the peasants holding the balloon ropes, not understanding his directions, relaxed their hold, and Gale was carried up by the only partially exhausted machine. The car overturned, but he clung to the tackling for a time, and was borne out of sight. Next morning his body was found in a wood several miles away. He was buried at the protestant cemetery at Bordeaux on 11 Sept. Gale was a man of much courage and very sanguine. For some time