The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

speare’s time the role has often been fulfi lled by
one performer alone. “. . . it is always a source of
plea sure and awe to me to remember that the ultimate
survival of the Greek chorus, lost elsewhere
to art, is to be found in the servitor answering the
priest at Mass” (Oscar Wilde, De Profundis, 1905).
Greeks bearing gifts See beware of greeks
bearing gifts.
Greek to me, it’s all See it’s all greek to me.
green- eyed monster Jealousy. <strong>The</strong> phrase was
coined by William Shakespeare in Othello (c. 1603),
in which iago delivers the lines: “O! beware, my
lord, of jealousy; / It is the green- ey’d monster
which doth mock / <strong>The</strong> meat it feeds on.” Green
had been acknowledged as the color of envy long
before Shakespeare’s play, the action of which
develops out of the jealous rage that Iago instils in
his supposed friend othello. “Discontent, hatred,
anger, doubt, inferiority complexes, suspicion,
mistrust, envy, resentment, bitterness, animosity,
vindictiveness, spite, irritation, annoyance, indignation,
malice, prejudice—these are all part of the
green- eyed monster called jealousy” (Stephanie
Spindler, Learn to Live, 1991).
green pastures A place of ease and plenty, offering
respite from the world. <strong>The</strong> image comes from
Psalm 23:1–3, in which David writes of God: “<strong>The</strong>
LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh
me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me
beside the still waters; he restoreth my soul.” In
modern usage the phrase is most familiar from its
inclusion in funeral ser vices, in which it may be
interpreted as representing heaven. Shakespeare’s
character Falstaff in Henry V (1598–1599) is
reported to have “babbled of green fi elds” as he lay
dying, and deathbed visions of pleasant fi elds have
long been one of the subjects of pop u lar novels
and fi lms. “But I’ve noticed that in these villages
where the people lead a quiet life among the green
pastures and the still waters, tilling the ground
and tending the cattle, there’s a strange deadness
to the Word, as different as can be from the great
towns, like Leeds, where I once went to visit a
holy woman who preaches there” (George Eliot,
Adam Bede, 1859).
Greenwich Village (grenich) Fashionably unconventional,
creative, or bohemian in character. <strong>The</strong>
allusion is to the Greenwich Village (or, simply,
the Village) area of Lower Manhattan in New
York City, which became the home of many radical
artists, writers, and other bohemians in the
early 20th century and a focus of antiestablishment,
liberal ideas in the 1950s and 1960s. Since
then the area has also acquired a reputation as the
home of a prominent gay community. With so many
leading American icons visiting, it was a little bit of
Greenwich Village in the heart of old London town. See
also beat generation.
Gregorian chant (grbgoreebn) A style of vocal
unaccompanied chant, best known as the offi cial
liturgical plainsong of the Roman Catholic Church.
It was named after Pope Gregory I (c. 540–604),
who promoted the use of plainsong in liturgical
ser vices during his papacy. Recordings of Gregorian
chant have been a surprising best- seller in the past year
or two.
gremlin A type of goblin or gnome that causes
machinery to go wrong or makes plans go astray.
Gremlins probably made their fi rst appearance in
the 1920s and 1930s, when they were humorously
identifi ed by RAF personnel serving in India
gremlin
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