GOW, NEIL, a famous Scotch fiddler, born at Inver, near Dunkeld, of lowly origin; during his long life he enjoyed a wide popularity amongst the Scotch nobility, his especial patron being the Duke of Atholl; Raeburn painted his portrait on several occasions; he composed over a hundred strathspeys, laments, &c., giving a fresh impulse and character to Scotch music, but his fame rests mainly on his violin playing (1727-1807).

GOWER, JOHN, an English poet, contemporary and friend of Chaucer, but of an older school; was the author of three works:  “Speculum Meditantis,” the “Thinker’s Mirror,” written in French, lost for long, but recovered lately; “Vox Clamantis,” the “Voice of One Crying,” written in Latin, an allegorising, moralising poem, “cataloguing the vice of the time,” and suggested by the Wat Tyler insurrection, 1381; and “Confessio Amantis,” “Confession of a Lover,” written in English, treating of the course of love, the morals and metaphysics of it, illustrated by a profusion of apposite tales; was appropriately called by Chaucer the “moral Grower”; his tomb is in St. Mary’s, Southwark (1325-1408).

GOWKTHRAPPLE, a “pulpit-drumming” Covenanter preacher in “Waverley,” described by Scott as in his own regard a “chosen vessel.”

GOWRIE CONSPIRACY, a remarkable and much disputed episode in the reign of James VI. of Scotland; the story goes that Alexander Ruthven and his brother, the Earl of Gowrie, enticed the king to come to Gowrie House in Perth on the 5th August 1600 for the purpose of murdering or kidnapping him, and that in the scuffle Ruthven and Gowrie perished.  Historians have failed to trace any motive incriminating the brothers, while several good reasons have been brought to light why the king might have wished to get rid of them.

GOZO (17), an island in the Mediterranean which, together with Malta and Comino, forms a British crown colony; lies 4 m.  NW. of Malta.  Babato is the chief town.

GOZZI, COUNT CARLO, Italian dramatist, born at Venice; was 39 when his first dramatic piece, “Three Oranges,” brought him prominently before the public; he followed up this success with a series of dramas designed to uphold the old methods of Italian dramatic art, and to resist the efforts of Goldoni and Chiari to introduce French models; these plays dealing with wonderful adventures and enchantments in the manner of Eastern tales ("dramatic fairy tales,” he called them), enjoyed a wide popularity, and spread to Germany and France.  Schiller translated “Turandot” (1722-1806).—­His elder brother, COUNT GASPARO GOZZI, was an active litterateur; the author of various translations, essays on literature, besides editor of a couple of journals; was press censor in Venice for a time, and was in his later days engaged in school and university work (1713-1786).