Lab´arum, the imperial standard carried before the Roman emperors in war. Constantine, having seen a luminous cross in the sky the night before the battle of Saxa Rubra, added the sacred monogram XP (Christos).—Gibbon, Decline and Fall, etc., xx. note (1788).
R. Browning erroneously calls the word labā´rum.
Labe (2 syl.), the sorceress-queen of the Island of Enchantments. She tried to change Beder, the young king of Persia, into a halting, one-eyed hack; but Beder was forewarned, and changed Labê herself into a mare.—Arabian Nights (“Beder and Giauharê”).
Labe´rius, a Roman writer of mimes contemporary with Julius Cæsar.
Laberius would be always sure of more followers than Sophoclês.—J. Macpherson, Dissertation on Ossian.
La Creevy (Miss), a little talkative, bustling, cheery miniature-painter. Simple-minded, kind-hearted, and bright as a lark. She marries Tim Linkinwater, the old clerk of the brothers Cheeryble.—C. Dickens, Nicholas NicklebyNickleby (1838).
Lackitt (Widow), the widow of an Indian planter. This rich, vulgar widow falls in love with Charlotte Weldon, who assumes the dress of a young man, and calls herself Mr. Welden. Charlotte even marries the widow, but then informs her that she is a girl in male apparel, engaged to Mr. Stanmore. The widow consoles herself by marrying Jack Stanmore.—Thomas Southern, Oroonoko (1696).
Lacy (Sir Hugo de), constable of Chester, a crusader.
Sir Damian de Lacy, nephew of Sir Hugo. He marries Lady Eveline.
Randal de Lacy, Sir Hugo’s cousin, introduced in several disguises, as a merchant, a hawk-seller, and a robber-captain.—Sir W. Scott, The Betrothed (time, Henry II.).
La´das, Alexander’s messenger, noted for his swiftness of foot.
Ladislaus, a cynic, whose humor is healthy and amusing.—Massinger, The Picture (1629).
Ladon, the dragon or hydra that assisted the Hesperidês in keeping watch over the golden apples of the Hesperian grove.
Ladur´lad, the father of Kail´yal (2 syl.). He killed Ar´valan for attempting to dishonor his daughter, and thereby incurred the “curse of Keha´ma” (Arvalan’s father). The curse was that water should not wet him nor fire consume him, that sleep should not visit him nor death release him, etc. After enduring a time of agony, these curses turned to blessings. Thus, when his daughter was exposed to the fire of the burning pagoda, he was enabled to rescue her, because he was “charmed from fire.” When her lover was carried by the witch Lorrimite (3 syl.) to the city of Baly, under the ocean, he was able to deliver the captive, because he was “charmed from water, the serpent’s tooth, and all beasts of blood.” He could even descend to the infernal regions to crave vengeance against Kehama, because “he was charmed against death.” When Kehama drank the cup of “immortal death,” Ladurlad was taken to Paradise.—Southey, The Curse of Kehama (1809).
Lady (A), authoress of A New System of Domestic Cookery (1808), is Mrs. Rundell.
Lady (A), authoress of The Diary of an Ennuyée (1826), is Mrs. Anna Jameson.
Several other authoresses have adopted the same signature, as Miss Gunn of Christchurch, Conversations on Church Polity (1833); Mrs. Palmer, A Dialogue in the Devonshire Dialect (1837); Miss S. Fenimore Cooper, Rural Hours (1854); Julia Ward, Passion-flowers, etc., (1854); Miss E. M. Sewell, Amy Herbert (1865); etc.
Lady of the Aroostook. A young girl educated in a provincial town, wishes to visit relatives in Italy, and takes passage in a sailing-vessel, not knowing that there was to be no other woman on board. She is treated with chivalric respect by all on board.—W. D. Howells, Lady of the Aroostook (1879).
Lady Bountiful (A). The benevolent lady of a village is so called, from “Lady Bountiful” in the Beaux’ Stratagem, by Farquhar. (See Bountiful, p. 125).
Lady of Castelnore. Châtelaine of Bretagne, sought by many in marriage, but reputed haughtily cold up to the day of her death. One November morning a long delayed ship brought home her lover to weep “too late” over her grave.
Lady Freemason, the Hon. Miss Elizabeth St. Leger, daughter of Lord Doneraile. The tale is that, in order to witness the proceedings of a Freemason’s lodge, she hid herself in an empty clock-case when the lodge was held in her father’s house; but, being discovered, she was compelled to submit to initiation as a member of the craft.
Lady Magistrate, Lady Berkley, made justice of the peace for Gloucestershire by Queen Mary. She sat on the bench at assizes and sessions girt with a sword.
Lady Margaret, mother of Henry VII. She founded a professorship of divinity in the University of Cambridge, 1502; and a preachership in both universities.
Lady in the Sacque. The apparition of this hag forms the story of the Tapestried Chamber, by Sir W. Scott.
Lady of England, Maud, daughter of Henry I. The title of Domina Anglorum was conferred upon her by the council of Winchester, held April 7, 1141.—See Rymer’s Fœdera, i. (1703).
Lady of Lyons (The), Pauline Deschappelles, daughter of a Lyonese merchant. She rejected the suits of Beauseant, Glavis, and Claude Melnotte, who therefore combined on vengeance. To this end, Claude, who was a gardener’s son, aided by the other two, passed himself off as Prince of Como, married Pauline, and brought her home to his mother’s cottage. The proud beauty was very indignant, and Claude left her to join the French army. In two years and a half he became a colonel and returned to Lyons. He found that his father-in-law was on the eve of bankruptcy, and that Beauseant had promised to satisfy the creditors if Pauline would consent to marry him. Pauline was heart-broken; Claude revealed himself, paid the money required, and carried home Pauline as his loving and true-hearted wife.—L. B. Lytton, Lady of Lyons (1838).
Lady of Mercy (Our), an order of knighthood in Spain, instituted in 1218 by James I., of Aragon, for the deliverance of Christian captives amongst the Moors. As many as 400 captives were rescued in six years by these knights.
Lady of Shalott, a maiden who died for love of Sir Lancelot of the Lake. Tennyson has a poem so entitled.
⁂ The story of Elaine, “the lily maid of Astolat,” in Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, is substantially the same.
Lady of the Bleeding Heart, Ellen Douglas. The cognizance of the Douglas family is a “bleeding heart.”—Sir W. Scott, Lady of the Lake (1810).
Lady of the Lake (A), a harlot. (Anglo-Saxon, lác, “a present.”) A “guinea-fowl” or “guinea-hen” is a similar term.
Lady of the Lake (The), Nimue [sic], one of the damsels of the lake, that King Pellinore took to his court. Merlin, in his dotage, fell in love with her, when she wheedled him out of all his secrets, and enclosed him in a rock, where he died. Subsequently, Nimue married Sir Pelleas.
⁂ Tennyson, in his Idylls of the King (“Merlin and Vivien”), makes Vivien the enchantress who wheedled old Merlin out of his secrets; and then, “in a hollow oak,” she shut him fast, and there “he lay as dead, and lost to life and use, and name, and fame.”
Tennyson takes a poet’s privilege, and varies the old legend at pleasure.
Lady of the Lake (The), Nineve. The name of the Lady of the Lake is variously spelled in the old editions of the Mort d’ Arthur. We find: 1, Nimue; 2, Nineve; 3, Vivien; 4, Vivienne. 4 is the French of 3; 1 is probably a misprint for Ninve; and 1, 2, 3 are probably anagrams.
Lady of the Lake (The). Vivienne (3 syl.) is called La Dame du Lac, and dwelt en la marche de la petite Bretaigne. She stole Lancelot in his infancy, and plunged with him into her home lake; hence was Lancelot called du Lac. When her protégé was grown to manhood, she presented him to King Arthur.
Lady of the Lake (The), Ellen Douglas, once a favorite of King James; but when her father fell into disgrace, she retired with him into the vicinity of Loch Katrine.—Sir W. Scott, Lady of the Lake (1810).
Lady of the Lake and Arthur’s Sword. The lady of the Lake gave to King Arthur the sword “Excalibur.” “Well,” said she, “go into yonder barge and row yourself to the sword, and take it.” So Arthur and Merlin came to the sword that a hand held up, and took it by the handles, and the arm and hand went under the lake again (pt. i. 23).
The Lady of the Lake asked in recompense, the head of Sir Balin, because he had slain her brother; but the king refused the request. Then said Balin, “Evil be ye found! Ye would have my head; therefore ye shall lose thine own.” So saying, with his sword he smote off her head in the presence of King Arthur.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 28 (1470).
Lady of the Mercians, Æthelflæd or El´flida, daughter of King Alfred. She married Æthelred, chief of that portion of Mercia not claimed by the Danes.
Lady of the Sun, Alice Perrers (or Pierce), a mistress of Edward III., of England. She was a married woman, and had been lady of the bed-chamber to Queen Philippa. Edwin lavished on her both riches and honors; but when the king was dying, she stole his jewels, and even the rings from his fingers.
Lady or the Tiger? (The). A princess is beloved by a subject, and for this crime he is condemned to die by the king. Two doors open from the amphitheatre. Behind one crouches a tiger; behind the other smiles a woman whom the condemned is to marry. The princess, who loves the doomed man madly, knows which door conceals death, and which marriage, and by preconcert with her lover, gives him a secret signal which to open. He walks directly to the door on the right and opens it.
“Did the tiger come out of the door, or did the lady?”—Francis Richard Stockton, The Lady or the Tiger? (1884).
Lady with a Lamp, Florence Nightingale (1820- ).
Laer´tes (3 syl.), son of Polōnius, lord chamberlain of Denmark, and brother of Ophelia. He is induced by the king to challenge Hamlet to a “friendly” duel, but poisons his own rapier. He wounds Hamlet; and in the scuffle which ensues, the combatants change swords, and Hamlet wounds Laertês, so that both die.—Shakespeare, Hamlet (1596).
Laertes (3 syl.), a Dane, whose life Gustavus Vasa had spared in battle. He becomes the trusty attendant of Christi´na, daughter of the king of Sweden, and never proves ungrateful to the noble Swede.—H. Brooke, Gustavus Vasa (1730).
Laer´tes’s Son, Ulysses.
Lafeu, an old French lord, sent to conduct Bertram, count of Rousillon, to the king of France, by whom he was invited to the royal court.—Shakespeare, All’s Well that Ends Well (1598).
Lafontaine (The Danish), Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875).
Lafontaine of the Vaudeville. So C. F. Panard is called (1691-1765).
Lag´ado, capital of Balnibarbi, celebrated for its grand school of projectors, where the scholars have a technical education, being taught to make pincushions from softened granite, to extract from cucumbers the sunbeams which ripened them, and to convert ice into gunpowder.—Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (“Voyage to Lapu´ta,” 1726).
La Grange and his friend Du Croisy pay their addresses to two young ladies whose heads have been turned by novels. The girls think their manners too natural to be aristocratic, so the gentlemen send to them their lackeys, as “the marquis of Mascarille” and “the viscount of Jodelet.” The girls are delighted with their “aristocratic visitors;” but when the game has been played far enough, the masters enter and unmask the whole trick. By this means the girls are taught a most useful lesson, without suffering any serious ill consequences.—Molière, Les Précieuses Ridicules (1659).
Laider (Donald), one of the prisoners at Portanferry.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.)
Laidley (Genevieve). An ingénue, whose sentimental heroics and tearful blandishments nearly dupe her fifty year old guardian (rich and distinguished) into a proposal.—Frank Lee Benedict, My Daughter Elinor (1869).
Lai´la (2 syl.), a Moorish maiden, of great beauty and purity, who loved Manuel, a youth worthy of her. The father disapproved of the match; and they eloped, were pursued, and overtaken near a precipice on the Gruádalhorcê (4 syl.). They climbed to the top of the precipice, and the father bade his followers discharge their arrows at them. Laila and Manuel, seeing death to be inevitable, threw themselves from the precipice, and perished in the fall. It is from this incident that the rock was called “The Lovers’ Leap.”
Southey, The Lovers’ Rock (a ballad, 1798, taken from Mariana, De la Pena de los Enamorados.)
Laila, daughter of Okba, the sorcerer. It was decreed that either Laila or Thalaba must die. Thalaba refused to redeem his own life by killing Laila; and Okba exultingly cried, “As thou hast disobeyed the voice of Allah, God hath abandoned thee, and this hour is mine.” So saying, he rushed on the youth; but Laila, intervening to protect him, received the blow, and was killed. Thalaba lived on, and the spirit of Laila, in the form of a green bird, conducted him to the simorg (q.v.), which he sought, that he might be directed to Dom-Daniel, the cavern “under the roots of the ocean.”—Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer, x. (1797).
La´is (2 syl.), a generic name for a courtezan. Laïs was a Greek hetæra who sold her favors for £200 English money. When Demosthenês was told the amount of the fee, he said he had “no mind to buy repentance at such a price.” One of her great admirers was Diog´enês, the cynic.
Lake Poets (The), Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge, who lived about the lakes of Cumberland. According to Mr. Jeffrey, the conductor of the Edinburgh Review, they combined the sentimentality of Rousseau with the simplicity of Kotzebue and the homeliness of Cowper. Of the same school were Lamb, Lloyd, and Wilson. Also called “Lakers” and “Lakists.”
Laked´ion (Isaac), the name given in France to the Wandering Jew (q.v.).
Lalla Rookh, the supposed daughter of Aurungzebe, emperor of Delhi. She was betrothed to Alĭris, sultan of Lesser Bucharia. On her journey from Delhi to Cashmere, she was entertained by Fer´amorz, a young Persian poet, with whom she fell in love, and unbounded was her delight when she discovered that the young poet was the sultan to whom she was betrothed.—T. Moore, Lalla Rookh (1817).
Lambert (General), parliamentary leader.—Sir W. Scott, Woodstock (time, Commonwealth).
Lambert (Sir John), the dupe of Dr. Cantwell, “the hypocrite.” He entertains him as his guest, settles on him £400 a year, and tries to make his daughter Charlotte marry him, although he is 59 and she under 20. His eyes are opened at length by the mercenary and licentious conduct of the doctor. Lady Lambert assists in exposing him, but old lady Lambert remains to the last a believer in the “saint.” In Molière’s comedy, “Orgon” takes the place of Lambert, “Mde. Parnelle” of the old lady, and “Tartuffe” of Dr. Cantwell.
Lady Lambert, the gentle, loving wife of Sir John. By a stratagem, she convinces her husband of Dr. Cantwell’s true character.
Colonel Lambert, son of Sir John and Lady Lambert. He assists in unmasking “the hypocrite.”
Charlotte Lambert, daughter of Sir John and Lady Lambert. A pretty, bright girl, somewhat giddy, and fond of teasing her sweetheart, Darnley (see act i. 1).—I. Bickerstaff, The Hypocrite (1769).
Lambourne (Michael), a retainer of the earl of Leicester.—Sir W. Scott, Kenilworth (time Elizabeth).
Lambro, a Greek pirate, father of Haidée (q.v.).—Bryon, Don Juan, iii. 26, etc. (1820).(1820).
⁂ The original of this character was Major Lambro, who was captain (1791) of a Russian piratical squadron, which plundered the islands of the Greek Archipelago, and did great damage. When his squadron was attacked by seven Algerine corsairs, Major Lambro was wounded, but escaped. The incidents referred to in canto vi., etc., are historical.
Lamderg and Gelchossa. Gelchossa was beloved by Lamderg and Ullin, son of Cairbar. The rivals fought, and Ullin fell. Lamderg, all bleeding with wounds, just reached Gelchossa to announce the death of his rival, and expired also. “Three days Gelchossa mourned, and then the hunters found her cold,” and all three were buried in one grave.—Ossian, Fingal, ii.
Lame (The).
Jehan de Meung, called “Clopinet,” because he was lame, and hobbled.
Tyrtæus, the Greek poet, was called the lame or hobbling poet, because he introduced the pentameter verse alternately with the hexameter. Thus his distich consisted of one line with six feet and one line with only five.
The Lame King, Charles II., of Naples, Boiteux (1248, 1289-1309).
Lamech’s Song. “Ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt! If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.”—Gen. iv. 23, 24.
As Lamech grew old, his eyes became dim, and finally all sight was taken from them, and Tubal-Cain, his son, led him by the hand when he walked abroad. And it came to pass ... that he led his father into the fields to hunt, and said to his father: “Lo! yonder is a beast of prey; shoot thine arrow in that direction.” Lamech did as his son had spoken, and the arrow struck Cain, who was walking afar off, and killed him.... Now when Lamech ... saw [sic] that he had killed Cain, he trembled exceedingly ... and being blind, he saw not his son, but struck the lad’s head between his hands, and killed him.... And he cried to his wives, Ada and Zillah, “Listen to my voice, ye wives of Lamech.... I have slain a man to my hurt, and a child to my wounding!”—The Talmud, i.
Lamia. Libyan Queen, wronged by Jupiter and hated by Juno. Robbed of her children, she became a child murderess and a monster.—Greek and Roman Mythology.
Lamia.
Lamia. Beautiful woman, with a serpent’s nature and much of the serpent’s glittering, sinuous charm. A seductive creature who lures men only to destroy.—Lamia, poem by John Keats (1820).
Lamin´ak. Basque fairies, little folk, who live under ground, and sometimes come into houses down the chimney, in order to change a fairy child for a human one. They bring good luck with them, but insist on great cleanliness, and always give their orders in words the very opposite of their intention. They hate church bells. Every Basque Laminak is named Guïllen (William). (See Say and Mean).
Lamington, a follower of Sir Geoffrey Peveril.—Sir W. Scott, Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).
Lami´ra, wife of Champernel, and daughter of Vertaigné (2 syl.), a nobleman and a judge.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Little French Lawyer (1647).
Lamkin (Mrs. Alice), companion to Mrs. Bethune Baliol.—Sir W. Scott, The Highland Widow (time, George II.).
Lammeter (Nancy), fair, good and sensible girl, who marries Geoffrey Cass, in Silas Warner, and when she learns that the waif brought up by Silas is her husband’s child, would gladly adopt her.—George Eliot, Silas MarnerMarner.
Lammikin, a blood-thirsty builder, who built and baptized his castle with blood. He was long a nursery ogre, like Lunsford.—Scotch Ballad.
Lammle (Alfred), a “mature young gentleman with too much nose on his face, too much ginger in his whiskers, too much torso in his waistcoat, too much sparkle in his studs, his eyes, his buttons, his talk, his teeth.” He married Miss Akershem, thinking she had money, and she married him under the same delusion; and the two kept up a fine appearance on nothing at all. Alfred Lammle had many schemes for making money; one was to oust Rokesmith from his post of secretary to Mr. Boffin, and get his wife adopted by Mrs. Boffin in the place of Bella Wilfer; but Mr. Boffin saw through the scheme, and Lammle, with his wife, retired to live on the Continent. In public they appeared very loving and amiable to each other, but led at home a cat-and-dog life.
Sophronia Lammle, wife of Alfred Lammle. “A mature young lady, with raven locks, and complexion that lit up well when well powdered.”powdered.”—C. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (1864).
Lamoracke (Sir), Lamerocke, Lamorake, Lamorock, or Lamarecke, one of the knights of the Round Table, and one of the three most noted for deeds of prowess. The other two were Sir Launcelot and Sir Tristram. Sir Lamoracke’s father was King Pellinore of Wales, who slew King Lot. His brothers were Sir Aglavale and Sir Percival; Sir Tor, whose mother was the wife of Aries, the cowherd, was his half-brother (pt. ii. 108). Sir Lamoracke was detected by the sons of King Lot in adultery with their mother, and they conspired his death.
Sir Gawain and his three brethren, Sir Agrawain, Sir Gahĕris, and Sir Modred, met him [Sir Lamoracke] in a privy place, and there they slew his horse; then they fought with him on foot for more than three hours, both before him and behind his back, and all-to hewed him in pieces.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, ii. 144 (1470).
Roger Ascham says: “The whole pleasure of La Mort d’Arthur standeth in two special poyntes: in open manslaughter and bold bawdye, in which booke they are counted the noblest knights that doe kill most men without any quarrell, and commit foulest adulteries by sutlest shiftes; as Sir Launcelote, with the wife of King Arthur, his master, Sir Tristram, with the wife of King Marke, his uncle, and Sir Lamerocke with the wife of King Lote, that was his aunt.”—Works, 254 (fourth edit.).
Lamorce´ (2 syl.), a woman of bad reputation, who inveigles young Mirabel into her house, where he would have been murdered by four bravoes, if Oriana, dressed as a page, had not been by.—G. Farquhar, The Inconstant (1702).
Lamourette’s Kiss (A), a kiss of peace when there is no peace; a kiss of apparent reconciliation, but with secret hostility. On July 7, 1792, the Abbé Lamourette induced the different factions of the Legislative Assembly of France to lay aside their differences; so the deputies of the Royalists, Constitutionalists, Girondists, Jacobins, and Orleanists, rushed into each others’ arms, and the king was sent for, that he might see “how these Christians loved one another;” but the reconciliation was hardly made when the old animosities burst forth more furiously than ever.
Lampad´ion, a lively, petulant courtezan. A name common in the later Greek comedy.
Lampe´do, of Lacedæmon. She was daughter, wife, sister, and mother of a king. Agrippina was granddaughter, wife, sister, and mother of a king.—Tacitus, Annales, xii. 22, 37.
⁂ The wife of Raymond Ber´enger (count of Provence), was grandmother of four kings, for her four daughters married four kings; Margaret married Louis IX., king of France; Eleanor married Henry III., king of England; Sancha married Richard, king of the Romans; and Beatrice married Charles I., king of Naples and Sicily.
Lampedo, a country apothecary-surgeon, without practice; so poor and ill-fed that he was but “the sketch and outline of a man.” He says of himself:
Lamplugh (Will), a smuggler.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).
Lance (1 syl.), falconer and ancient servant to the father of Valentine, the gallant, who would not be persuaded to keep his estate.—Beaumont and Fletcher, Wit Without Money (1622).
Lancelot or Launcelot Gobbo, servant of Shylock. He assists Jessica, Shylock’s daughter, in running away from her father, and accompanies her in her flight.—Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice (1598).
Lancelot du Lac, by Ulrich of Zazikoven, the most ancient poem of the Arthurian series. It tells the adventures of a young knight, gay and joyous, with animal spirits and light-heartedness. (See Launcelot.)—One of the minnesongs of Germany (twelfth century).
Lancelot du Lac and Tarquin. Sir Lancelot, seeking adventures, met with a lady who prayed him to deliver certain knights of the Round Table from the power of Tarquin. Coming to a river, he saw a copper basin hung on a tree for gong, and he struck it so hard that it broke. This brought out Tarquin, and a furious combat ensued, in which Tarquin was slain. Sir Lancelot then liberated three score and four knights, who had been made captives by Tarquin. (See Launcelot.)—Percy, Reliques, I. ii. 9.
Lancelot of the Laik, a Scotch metrical romance, taken from the French Launcelot du Lac. Galiot, a neighboring king, invaded Arthur’s territories, and captured the castle of Lady Melyhalt among others. When Sir Lancelot went to chastise Galiot, he saw Queen Guinevere, and fell in love with her. The French romance makes Galiot submit to King Arthur; but the Scotch tale terminates with his capture. (See Launcelot.)
Lanciotto Da Rimini. The brave, deformed victim of a state-marriage. Loving his wife and brother best of created things, he is deceived by both, and goaded to fury by the discovery and the taunts of the spy, Pepe, seeks to wash out his dishonor in blood.—George Henry Boker, Francesca Da Rimini; A Tragedy (1856).
Landois (Peter), the favorite minister of the Duc de Bretagne.—Sir. W. Scott, Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).
Landscape Gardening (Father of), Lenôtre (1613-1700).
Lane (Mr.). The victim of another man’s dishonesty. Retires from the world and lives in Ivy Lane, London, in rags and poverty, lamenting “a lost life.” Meeting him to whom he owes his ruin, he pursues him, overtakes him at the river, seizes him and sinks with him to rise no more.
“When the victim recovered his life, what did his tempter and oppressor recover?”—Walter Besant; Children of Gibeon, (1890).
Lane (Jane), daughter of Thomas, and sister of Colonel John Lane. To save King Charles II. after the battle of Worcester, she rode behind him from Bentley, in Staffordshire, to the house of her cousin, Mrs. Norton, near Bristol. For this act of loyalty, the king granted the family the following armorial device: A strawberry horse saliant (couped at the flank), bridled, bitted, and garnished, supporting between its feet a royal crown proper. Motto: Garde le roy.
Laneham (Master Robert), clerk of the council-chamber door.
Sybil Laneham, his wife, one of the revellers at Kenilworth Castle.—Sir W. Scott, Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).
Langcale (The laird of), a leader in the covenanters’ army.—Sir W. Scott, Old Mortality (time, Charles II.).
Langley (Sir Frederick), a suitor to Miss Vere, and one of the Jacobite conspirators with the laird of Ellieslaw.—Sir W. Scott, The Black Dwarf (time, Anne).
Langosta (Duke of), the Spanish nickname of Aosta, the elected king of Spain. The word means “a locust” or “plunderer.”
Language: (The Primeval).
Psammetichus, king of Egypt, desiring to learn what was the original language, shut up two infants with a goat to suckle them, in a place where they could hear no human voice, and gave orders to report to him the first word they should utter. At the end of two years they cried “Bekos,” and as this resembled the Phrygian word for “bread,” Psammetichus decided that the Phrygians were older than the Egyptians. The word was really the echo of the cry of the goat.
Languish (Lydia), a romantic young lady, who is for ever reading sensational novels, and molding her behavior on the characters which she reads of in these books of fiction. Hence she is a very female Quixote in romantic notions of a sentimental type (see act i. 2).—Sheridan, The Rivals (1775).
Lantern-Land, the land of authors, whose works are their lanterns. The inhabitants, called “Lanterners” (Lanternois), are bachelors and masters of arts, doctors, and professors, prelates and divines of the council of Trent, and all other wise ones of the earth. Here are the lanterns of Aristotle, Epicūros, and Aristophănês; the dark earthen lantern of Epictētos, the duplex lantern of Martial, and many others. The sovereign was a queen when Pantag´ruel visited the realm to make inquiry about the “Oracle of the Holy Bottle.”—Rabelais, Pantagruel, v. 32, 33 (1545).
Lanternois, pretenders to science, quacks of all sorts, and authors generally. They are the inhabitants of Lantern-land,¤ and their literary productions are “lanterns.”—Rabelais, Pantagruel, v. 32, 33 (1545).
Laocoon [La.ok´.o.on], a Trojan priest, who, with his two sons, was crushed to death by serpents. Thomson, in his Liberty, iv., has described the group, which represents these three in their death agony. It was discovered in 1506, in the baths of Titus, and is now in the Vatican. This exquisite group was sculptured at the command of Titus by Agesander, Polydorus, and Athenodorus, in the fifth century B.C.—Virgil, Æneid, ii. 201-227.
Laodami´a, wife of Protesila´os, who was slain at the siege of Troy. She prayed that she might be allowed to converse with her dead husband for three hours, and her request was granted; but when her husband returned to hadês, she accompanied him thither.
⁂ Wordsworth has a poem on this subject, entitled Laodamia.
Laodice´a, now Lataki´a, noted for its tobacco and sponge.—See Rev. iii. 14-18.
Lapet (Mons.), a model of poltroonery, the very “Ercles’ Vein” of fanatical cowardice. M. Lapet would fancy the world out of joint if no one gave him a tweak of the nose or lug of the ear. He was the author of a book on the “punctilios of duelling.”—Beaumont and Fletcher, Nice Valour or The Passionate Madman (1647).
Lapham (Silas). Boston man who has made a fortune, and means to enjoy it. His future son-in-law thus hits him off: “Simple-hearted and rather wholesome. He could be tiresome, and his range of ideas is limited. But he is a force, and not a bad one. He hasn’t got over being surprised at the effect of rubbing his lamp.” His most attractive qualities are his appreciation of his faithful wife, Persis, and prideful fondness for his pretty daughters. He is honest, too, through and through, and sacrifices much to sturdy integrity.—W. D. Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885).
Lappet, the “glory of all chambermaids.”—H. Fielding, The Miser.
Lapraick (Laurie), friend of Steenie Steenson, in Wandering Willie’s tale.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).
Laprel, the rabbit, in the beast-epic entitled Reynard the Fox (1498).
Lara, the name assumed by Conrad, the corsair, after the death of Medo´ra. On his return to his native country, he was recognized by Sir Ezzelin, at the table of Lord Otho, and charged home by him. Lara arranged a duel for the day following, but Sir Ezzelin disappeared mysteriously. Subsequently, Lara headed a rebellion, and was shot by Otho.—Byron, Lara (1814).
Lara (The Seven Sons of), sons of Gonzalez Gustios de Lara, a Castilian hero, brother of Ferdinand Gonzalez, count of Castile. A quarrel having arisen between Gustios and Rodrigo Velasquez, his brother-in-law, Rodrigo caused him to be imprisoned in Cor´dova, and then allured his seven nephews into a ravine, where they were all slain by an ambuscade, after performing prodigies of valor. While in prison, Zaïda, daughter of Almanzor, the Moorish prince, fell in love with Gustios, and became the mother of Mudarra, who avenged the death of his seven brothers (A.D. 993).
⁂ Lope de Vega has made this the subject of a Spanish drama, which has several imitations, one by Mallefille, in 1835.—See Ferd. Denis, Chroniques Chevaleresques d’Espagne (1839).
Larder (The Douglas), the flour, meal, wheat, and malt of Douglas Castle, emptied on the floor by good Lord James Douglas, in 1307, when he took the castle from the English garrison. Having staved in all the barrels of food, he next emptied all the wine and ale, and then, having slain the garrison, threw the dead bodies into this disgusting mess, “to eat, drink, and be merry.”—Sir W. Scott, Tales of a Grandfather, ix.
Wallace’s Larder is a similar mess. It consisted of the dead bodies of the garrison of Ardrossan, in Ayrshire, cast into the dungeon keep. The castle was surprised by him in the reign of Edward I.
Lardoon (Lady Bab), a caricature of fine life, the “princess of dissipation,” and the “greatest gamester of the times.” She becomes engaged to Sir Charles Dupely, and says, “to follow fashion where we feel shame, is the strongest of all hypocrisy, and from this moment I renounce it.”—J. Burgoyne, The Maid of the Oaks.
La Roche, a Swiss pastor, travelling through France with his daughter Margaret, was taken ill, and like to die. There was only a wayside inn in the place, but Hume, the philosopher, heard of the circumstance, and removed the sick man to his own house. Here, with good nursing, La Roche recovered, and a strong friendship sprang up between the two. Hume even accompanied La Roche to his manse in Berne. After the lapse of three years, Hume was informed that Mademoiselle was about to be married to a young Swiss officer, and hastened to Berne to be present at the wedding. On reaching the neighborhood, he observed some men filling up a grave, and found on inquiry that Mademoiselle had just died of a broken heart. In fact, her lover had been shot in a duel, and the shock was too much for her. The old pastor bore up heroically, and Hume admired the faith which could sustain a man in such an affliction.—H. Mackenzie, “Story of La Roche” (in The Mirror).
Lars, the emperor or over-king of the ancient Etruscans. A khedive, satrap, or under-king, was called lŭcŭmo. Thus the king of Prussia, as emperor of Germany, is lars, but the king of Bavaria is a lucumo.