See vicomte de Noailles, Marins et soldats français en Amérique (1903); and E. Chevalier, Histoire de la marine française pendant la guerre de l’indépendance américaine (1877). (D. H.)
GUIDE (in Mid. Eng. gyde, from the Fr. guide; the earlier
French form was guie, English “guy,” the d was due to the
Italian form guida; the ultimate origin is probably Teutonic,
the word being connected with the base seen in O. Eng.
witan, to know), an agency for directing or showing the way,
specifically a person who leads or directs a stranger over unknown
or unmapped country, or conducts travellers and tourists
through a town, or over buildings of interest. In European
wars up to the time of the French Revolution, the absence of
large scale detailed maps made local guides almost essential to
the direction of military operations, and in the 18th century the
general tendency to the stricter organization of military resources
led in various countries to the special training of guide
officers (called Feldjäger, and considered as general staff officers
in the Prussian army), whose chief duty it was to find, and if
necessary establish, routes across country for those parts of
the army that had to move parallel to the main road and as
nearly as possible at deploying interval from each other, for in
those days armies were rarely spread out so far as to have the
use of two or more made roads. But the necessity for such
precautions died away when adequate surveys (in which guide
officers were, at any rate in Prussia, freely employed) were
carried out, and, as a definite term of military organization to-day,
“guide” possesses no more essential peculiarity than fusilier,
grenadier or rifleman. The genesis of the modern “Guide”
regiments is perhaps to be found in a short-lived Corps of Guides
formed by Napoleon in Italy in 1796, which appears to have
been a personal escort or body guard composed of men who
knew the country. In the Belgian army of to-day the Guide
regiments correspond almost to the Guard cavalry of other
nations; in the Swiss army the squadrons of “Guides” act as
divisional cavalry, and in this rôle doubtless are called upon
on occasion to lead columns. The “Queen’s own Corps of
Guides” of the Indian army consists of infantry companies
and cavalry squadrons. In drill, a “guide” is an officer or
non-commissioned officer told off to regulate the direction and
pace of movements, the remainder of the unit maintaining
their alignment and distances by him.
A particular class of guides are those employed in mountaineering; these are not merely to show the way but stand in the position of professional climbers with an expert knowledge of rock and snowcraft, which they impart to the amateur, at the same time assuring the safety of the climbing party in dangerous expeditions. This professional class of guides arose in the middle of the 19th century when Alpine climbing became recognized as a sport (see Mountaineering). It is thus natural to find that the Alpine guides have been requisitioned for mountaineering expeditions all over the world. In climbing in Switzerland, the central committee of the Swiss Alpine Club issues a guides’ tariff which fixes the charges for guides and porters; there are three sections, for the Valais and Vaudois Alps, for the Bernese Oberland, and for central and eastern Switzerland. The names of many of the great guides have become historical. In Chamonix a statue has been raised to Jacques Balmat, who was the first to climb Mont Blanc in 1786. Of the more famous guides since the beginning of Alpine climbing may be mentioned Auguste Balmat, Michel Cros, Maquignay, J. A. Carrel, who went with E. Whymper to the Andes, the brothers Lauener, Christian Almer and Jakob and Melchior Anderegg.
“Guide” is also applied to a book, in the sense of an elementary primer on some subject, or of one giving full information for travellers of a country, district or town. In mechanical usage, the term “guide” is of wide application, being used of anything which steadies or directs the motion of an object, as of the “leading” screw of a screw-cutting lathe, of a loose pulley used to steady a driving-belt, or of the bars or rods in a steam-engine which keep the sliding blocks moving in a straight line. The doublet “guy” is thus used of a rope which steadies a sail when it is being raised or lowered, or of a rope, chain or stay supporting a funnel, mast, derrick, &c.
GUIDI, CARLO ALESSANDRO (1650–1712), Italian lyric
poet, was born at Pavia in 1650. As chief founder of the well-known
Roman academy called “L’Arcadia,” he had a considerable
share in the reform of Italian poetry, corrupted at
that time by the extravagance and bad taste of the poets Marini
and Achillini and their school. The poet Guidi and the critic
and jurisconsult Gravina checked this evil by their influence
and example. The genius of Guidi was lyric in the highest
degree; his songs are written with singular force, and charm
the reader, in spite of touches of bombast. His most celebrated
song is that entitled Alla Fortuna (To Fortune), which certainly
is one of the most beautiful pieces of poetry of the 17th century.
Guidi was squint-eyed, humpbacked, and of a delicate constitution,
but possessed undoubted literary ability. His poems were
printed at Parma in 1671, and at Rome in 1704. In 1681 he
published at Parma his lyric tragedy Amalasunta in Italy, and
two pastoral dramas Daphne and Endymion. The last had the
honour of being mentioned as a model by the critic Gravina, in
his treatise on poetry. Less fortunate was Guidi’s poetical
version of the six homilies of Pope Clement XI., first as having
been severely criticized by the satirist Settano, and next as
having proved to be the indirect cause of the author’s death.
A splendid edition of this version had been printed in 1712,
and, the pope being then in San Gandolfo, Guidi went there to
present him with a copy. On the way he found out a serious
typographical error, which he took so much to heart that he
was seized with an apoplectic fit at Frascati and died on the
spot. Guidi was honoured with the special protection of
Ranuccio II., duke of Parma, and of Queen Christina of Sweden.
GUIDICCIONI, GIOVANNI (1480–1541), Italian poet, was born
at Lucca in 1480, and died at Macerata in 1541. He occupied a
high position, being bishop of Fossombrone and president of
Romagna. The latter office nearly cost him his life; a murderer
attempted to kill him, and had already touched his breast with
his dagger when, conquered by the resolute calmness of the
prelate, he threw away the weapon and fell at his feet, asking
forgiveness. The Rime and Letters of Guidiccioni are models of
elegant and natural Italian style. The best editions are those
of Genoa (1749), Bergamo (1753) and Florence (1878).
GUIDO OF AREZZO (possibly to be identified with Guido
de St Maur des Fosses), a musician who lived in the 11th century.
He has by many been called the father of modern music, and a
portrait of him in the refectory of the monastery of Avellana
bears the inscription Beatus Guido, inventor musicae. Of his
life little is known, and that little is chiefly derived from the
dedicatory letters prefixed to two of his treatises and addressed
respectively to Bishop Theodald (not Theobald, as Burney writes
the name) of Arezzo, and Michael, a monk of Pomposa and
Guido’s pupil and friend. Occasional references to the celebrated
musician in the works of his contemporaries are, however,
by no means rare, and from these it may be conjectured with all
but absolute certainty that Guido was born in the last decade
of the 10th century. The place of his birth is uncertain in
spite of some evidence pointing to Arezzo; on the title-page of
all his works he is styled Guido Aretinus, or simply Aretinus.
At his first appearance in history Guido was a monk in the
Benedictine monastery of Pomposa, and it was there that he
taught singing and invented his educational method, by means
of which, according to his own statement, a pupil might learn
within five months what formerly it would have taken him ten
years to acquire. Envy and jealousy, however, were his only
reward, and by these he was compelled to leave his monastery—“inde
est, quod me vides prolixis finibus exulatum,” as he says
himself in the second of the letters above referred to. According
to one account, he travelled as far as Bremen, called there by
Archbishop Hermann in order to reform the musical service.
But this statement has been doubted. Certain it is that not
long after his flight from Pomposa Guido was living at Arezzo,
and it was here that, about 1030, he received an invitation to
Rome from Pope John XIV. He obeyed the summons, and the
