[1] The verb "to lie," to speak falsely, to tell a falsehood, is in
O. Eng. _léogan_; it appears in most Teutonic languages, e.g. Dutch
_lugen_, Ger. _lügen_.
LAYA, JEAN LOUIS (1761-1833), French dramatist, was born in Paris on the
4th of December 1761 and died in August 1833. He wrote his first comedy
in collaboration with Gabriel M. J. B. Legouvé in 1785, but the piece,
though accepted by the Comédie Française, was never represented. In 1789
he produced a plea for religious toleration in the form of a five-act
tragedy in verse, _Jean Calas_; the injustice of the disgrace cast on a
family by the crime of one of its members formed the theme of _Les
Dangers de l'opinion_ (1790); but it is by his _Ami des lois_ (1793)
that Laya is remembered. This energetic protest against mob-rule, with
its scarcely veiled characterizations of Robespierre as Nomophage and of
Marat as Duricrâne, was an act of the highest courage, for the play was
produced at the Théâtre Français (temporarily Théâtre de la Nation) only
nineteen days before the execution of Louis XVI. Ten days after its
first production the piece was prohibited by the commune, but the public
demanded its representation; the mayor of Paris was compelled to appeal
to the convention, and the piece was played while some 30,000 Parisians
guarded the hall. Laya went into hiding, and several persons convicted
of having a copy of the obnoxious play in their possession were
guillotined. At the end of the Terror Laya returned to Paris. In 1813 he
replaced Delille in the Paris chair of literary history and French
poetry; he was admitted to the Academy in 1817. Laya produced in 1797
_Les Deux Stuarts_, and in 1799 _Falkland_, the title-rôle of which
provided Talma with one of his finest opportunities. Laya's works, which
chiefly owe their interest to the circumstances attending their
production, were collected in 1836-1837.
See _Notice biographique sur J. L. Laya_ (1833); Ch. Nodier, _Discours
de réception_, 26th December (1833); Welschinger, _Théâtre de la
révolution_ (1880).
LAYAMON, early English poet, was the author of a chronicle of Britain
entitled _Brut_, a paraphrase of the _Brut d'Angleterre_ by Wace, a
native of Jersey, who is also known as the author of the _Roman de Rou_.
The excellent edition of Layamon by Sir F. Madden (Society of
Antiquaries, London, 1847) should be consulted. All that is known
concerning Layamon is derived from two extant MSS., which present texts
that often vary considerably, and it is necessary to understand their
comparative value before any conclusions can be drawn. The older text
(here called the A-text) lies very near the original text, which is
unfortunately lost, though it now and then omits lines which are
absolutely necessary to the sense. The later text (here called the
B-text) represents a later recension of the original version by another
writer who frequently omits couplets, and alters the language by the
substitution of better-known words for such as seemed to be obsolescent;
e.g. _harme_ (harm) in place of _balewe_ (bale), and _dead_ in place of
_feie_ (fated to die, or dead). Hence little reliance can be placed on
the B-text, its chief merit being that it sometimes preserves couplets
which seem to have been accidentally omitted in A; besides which, it
affords a valuable commentary on the original version.
We learn from the brief prologue that Layamon was a priest among the
people, and was the son of Leovenath (a late spelling of A.-S.
Leofnoth); also, that he lived at Ernley, at a noble church on Severn
bank, close by Radstone. This is certainly Areley Regis, or Areley
Kings, close by Redstone rock and ferry, 1 m. to the S. of Stourport in
Worcestershire. The B-text turns Layamon into the later form Laweman,
i.e. Law-man, correctly answering to Chaucer's "Man of Lawe," though
here apparently used as a mere name. It also turns Leovenath into Leuca,
i.e. Leofeca, a diminutive of Leofa, which is itself a pet-name for
Leofnoth; so that there is no real contradiction. But it absurdly
substitutes "with the good knight," which is practically meaningless,
for "at a noble church."
We know no more about Layamon except that he was a great lover of books;
and that he procured three books in particular which he prized above
others, "turning over the leaves, and beholding them lovingly." These
were: the English book that St Beda made; another in Latin that St Albin
and St Austin made; whilst the third was made by a French clerk named
Wace, who (in 1155) gave a copy to the noble Eleanor, who was queen of
the high king Henry (i.e. Henry II.).
The first of these really means the Anglo-Saxon translation of Beda's
_Ecclesiastical History_, which begins with the words: "Ic Beda, Cristes
theow," i.e. "I, Beda, Christ's servant." The second is a strange
description of the original of the translation, i.e. Albinus Beda's own
Latin book, the second paragraph of which begins with the words: "Auctor
ante omnes atque adiutor opusculi huius Albinus Abba reverentissimus vir
per omnia doctissimus extitit"; which Layamon evidently misunderstood.
As to the share of St Augustine in this work, see Book I., chapters
23-34, and Book II., chapters 1 and 2, which are practically all
concerned with him and occupy more than a tenth of the whole work. The
third book was Wace's poem, _Brut d'Angleterre_. But we find that
although Layamon had ready access to all three of these works, he soon
settled down to the translation of the third, without troubling much
about the others. His chief obligation to Beda is for the well-known
story about Pope Gregory and the English captives at Rome; see Layamon,
vol. iii. 180.
It is impossible to enter here upon a discussion of the numerous points
of interest which a proper examination of this vast and important work
would present to any careful inquirer. Only a few bare results can be
here enumerated. The A-text may be dated about 1205, and the B-text
(practically by another writer) about 1275. Both texts, the former
especially, are remarkably free from admixture with words of French
origin; the lists that have been given hitherto are inexact, but it may
be said that the number of French words in the A-text can hardly exceed
100, or in the B-text 160. Layamon's work is largely original; Wace's
_Brut_ contains 15,300 lines, and Layamon's 32,240 lines of a similar
length; and many of Layamon's additions to Wace are notable, such as his
story "regarding the fairy elves at Arthur's birth, and his
transportation by them after death in a boat to Avalon, the abode of
Argante, their queen"; see Sir F. Madden's pref. p. xv. Wace's _Brut_ is
almost wholly a translation of the Latin chronicle concerning the early
history of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who said that he obtained
his materials from a manuscript written in Welsh. The name Brut is the
French form of Brutus, who was the fabulous grandson of Ascanius, and
great-grandson of Aeneas of Troy, the hero of Virgil's _Aeneid_. After
many adventures, this Brutus arrived in England, founded Troynovant or
New Troy (better known as London), and was the progenitor of a long line
of British kings, among whom were Locrine, Bladud, Leir, Gorboduc,
Ferrex and Porrex, Lud, Cymbeline, Constantine, Vortigern, Uther and
Arthur; and from this mythical Brutus the name Brut was transferred so
as to denote the entire chronicle of this British history. Layamon gives
the whole story, from the time of Brutus to that of Cadwalader, who may
be identified with the Caedwalla of the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_,
baptized by Pope Sergius in the year 688. Both texts of Layamon are in a
south-western dialect; the A-text in particular shows the Wessex dialect
of earlier times (commonly called Anglo-Saxon) in a much later form, and
we can hardly doubt that the author, as he intimates, could read the old
version of Beda intelligently. The remarks upon the B-text in Sir F.
Madden's preface are not to the point; the peculiar spellings to which
he refers (such as _same_ for _shame_) are by no means due to any
confusion with the Northumbrian dialect, but rather to the usual
vagaries of a scribe who knew French better than English, and had some
difficulty in acquiring the English pronunciation and in representing it
accurately. At the same time, he was not strong in English grammar, and
was apt to confuse the plural form with the singular in the tenses of
verbs; and this is the simple explanation of most of the examples of
so-called "nunnation" in this poem (such as the use of _wolden_ for
_wolde_), which only existed in writing and must not be seriously
considered as representing real spoken sounds. The full proof of this
would occupy too much space; but it should be noticed that, in many
instances, "this pleonastic _n_ has been struck out or erased by a
second hand." In other instances it has escaped notice, and that is all
that need be said. The peculiar metre of the poem has been sufficiently
treated by J. Schipper. An abstract of the poem has been given by Henry
Morley; and good general criticisms of it by B. ten Brink and others.
See _Layamon's Brut, or a Chronicle of Britain; a Poetical Semi-Saxon
Paraphrase of the Brut of Wace; ..._ by Sir F. Madden (1847); B. ten
Brink, _Early English Literature_, trans. by H. M. Kennedy (in Bonn's
Standard Library, 1885); H. Morley, _English Writers_, vol. iii.
(1888); J. Schipper, _Englische Metrik_, i. (Bonn, 1882), E. Guest, _A
History of English Rhythms_ (new ed. by W. W. Skeat, 1882), Article
"Layamon," in the _Dict. Nat. Biog.; Six Old English Chronicles_,
including Gildas, Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth (in Bohn's
Antiquarian Library); _Le Roux de Lincy, Le Roman de Brut, par Wace,
avec un commentaire et des notes_ (Rouen, 1836-1838), E. Mätzner,
_Altenglische Sprachproben_ (Berlin, 1867). (W. W. S.)
LAYARD, SIR AUSTEN HENRY (1817-1894), British author and diplomatist,
the excavator of Nineveh, was born in Paris on the 5th of March 1817.
The Layards were of Huguenot descent. His father, Henry P. J. Layard, of
the Ceylon Civil Service, was the son of Charles Peter Layard, dean of
Bristol, and grandson of Daniel Peter Layard, the physician. Through his
mother, a daughter of Nathaniel Austen, banker, of Ramsgate, he
inherited Spanish blood. This strain of cosmopolitanism must have been
greatly strengthened by the circumstances of his education. Much of his
boyhood was spent in Italy, where he received part of his schooling, and
acquired a taste for the fine arts and a love of travel; but he was at
school also in England, France and Switzerland. After spending nearly
six years in the office of his uncle, Benjamin Austen, a solicitor, he
was tempted to leave England for Ceylon by the prospect of obtaining an
appointment in the civil service, and he started in 1839 with the
intention of making an overland journey across Asia. After wandering for
many months, chiefly in Persia, and having abandoned his intention of
proceeding to Ceylon, he returned in 1842 to Constantinople, where he
made the acquaintance of Sir Stratford Canning, the British ambassador,
who employed him in various unofficial diplomatic missions in European
Turkey. In 1845, encouraged and assisted by Canning, Layard left
Constantinople to make those explorations among the ruins of Assyria
with which his name is chiefly associated. This expedition was in
fulfilment of a design which he had formed, when, during his former
travels in the East, his curiosity had been greatly excited by the ruins
of Nimrud on the Tigris, and by the great mound of Kuyunjik, near Mosul,
already partly excavated by Botta. Layard remained in the neighbourhood
of Mosul, carrying on excavations at Kuyunjik and Nimrud, and
investigating the condition of various tribes, until 1847; and,
returning to England in 1848, published _Nineveh and its Remains: with
an Account of a Visit to the Chaldaean Christians of Kurdistan, and the
Yezidis, or Devil-worshippers; and an Inquiry into the Manners and Arts
of the Ancient Assyrians_ (2 vols., 1848-1849). To illustrate the
antiquities described in this work he published a large folio volume of
_Illustrations of the Monuments of Nineveh_ (1849). After spending a few
months in England, and receiving the degree of D.C.L. from the
university of Oxford, Layard returned to Constantinople as attaché to
the British embassy, and, in August 1849, started on a second
expedition, in the course of which he extended his investigations to the
ruins of Babylon and the mounds of southern Mesopotamia. His record of
this expedition, _Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon_,
which was illustrated by another folio volume, called _A Second Series
of the Monuments of Nineveh_, was published in 1853. During these
expeditions, often in circumstances of great difficulty, Layard
despatched to England the splendid specimens which now form the greater
part of the collection of Assyrian antiquities in the British Museum.
Apart from the archaeological value of his work in identifying Kuyunjik
as the site of Nineveh, and in providing a great mass of materials for
scholars to work upon, these two books of Layard's are among the
best-written books of travel in the language.
Layard now turned to politics. Elected as a Liberal member for Aylesbury
in 1852, he was for a few weeks under-secretary for foreign affairs, but
afterwards freely criticized the government, especially in connexion
with army administration. He was present in the Crimea during the war,
and was a member of the committee appointed to inquire into the conduct
of the expedition. In 1855 he refused from Lord Palmerston an office not
connected with foreign affairs, was elected lord rector of Aberdeen
university, and on 15th June moved a resolution in the House of Commons
(defeated by a large majority) declaring that in public appointments
merit had been sacrificed to private influence and an adherence to
routine. After being defeated at Aylesbury in 1857, he visited India to
investigate the causes of the Mutiny. He unsuccessfully contested York
in 1859, but was elected for Southwark in 1860, and from 1861 to 1866
was under-secretary for foreign affairs in the successive
administrations of Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell. In 1866 he
was appointed a trustee of the British Museum, and in 1868 chief
commissioner of works in W. E. Gladstone's government and a member of
the Privy Council. He retired from parliament in 1869, on being sent as
envoy extraordinary to Madrid. In 1877 he was appointed by Lord
Beaconsfield ambassador at Constantinople, where he remained until
Gladstone's return to power in 1880, when he finally retired from public
life. In 1878, on the occasion of the Berlin conference, he received the
grand cross of the Bath. Layard's political life was somewhat stormy.
His manner was brusque, and his advocacy of the causes which he had at
heart, though always perfectly sincere, was vehement to the point
sometimes of recklessness. Layard retired to Venice, where he devoted
much of his time to collecting pictures of the Venetian school, and to
writing on Italian art. On this subject he was a disciple of his friend
G. Morelli, whose views he embodied in his revision of F. Kugler's
_Handbook of Painting, Italian Schools_ (1887). He wrote also an
introduction to Miss Ffoulkes's translation of Morelli's _Italian
Painters_ (1892-1893), and edited that part of Murray's _Handbook of
Rome_ (1894) which deals with pictures. In 1887 he published, from notes
taken at the time, a record of his first journey to the East, entitled
_Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana and Babylonia_. An abbreviation of
this work, which as a book of travel is even more delightful than its
predecessors, was published in 1894, shortly after the author's death,
with a brief introductory notice by Lord Aberdare. Layard also from time
to time contributed papers to various learned societies, including the
Huguenot Society, of which he was first president. He died in London on
the 5th of July 1894. (A. Gl.)
LAYMEN, HOUSES OF, deliberative assemblies of the laity of the Church of
England, one for the province of Canterbury, and the other for the
province of York. That of Canterbury was formed in 1886, and that of
York shortly afterwards. They are merely consultative bodies, and the
primary intention of their foundation was to associate the laity in the
deliberations of convocation. They have no legal status. The members are
elected by the various diocesan conferences, which are in turn elected
by the laity of their respective parishes or rural deaneries. Ten
members are appointed for the diocese of London, six for each of the
dioceses of Winchester, Rochester, Lichfield and Worcester; and four for
each of the remaining dioceses. The president of each house has the
discretionary power of appointing additional laymen, not exceeding ten
in number.
LAYNEZ (or LAINEZ), DIEGO (1512-1565), the second general of the Society
of Jesus, was born in Castile, and after studying at Alcala joined
Ignatius of Loyola in Paris, being one of the six who with Loyola in
August 1534 took the vow of missionary work in Palestine in the
Montmartre church. This plan fell through, and Laynez became professor
of scholastic theology at Sapienza. After the order had been definitely
established (1540) Laynez was sent to Germany. He was one of the pope's
theologians at the council of Trent (q.v.), where he played a weighty
and decisive part. When Loyola died in 1556 Laynez acted as vicar of the
society, and two years later became general. Before his death at Rome,
on the 19th of January 1565, he had immensely strengthened the despotic
constitution of the order and developed its educational activities (see
JESUITS).
His _Disputationes Tridentinae_ were published in 2 volumes in 1886.
Lives by Michel d'Esne (Douai, 1597) and Pet. Ribadeneira (Madrid,
1592; Lat. trans. by A. Schott, Antwerp, 1598). See also H. Müller,
_Les Origines de la Compagnie de Jésus: Ignace et Lainez_ (1898).
LAZAR, one afflicted with the disease of leprosy (q.v.). The term is an
adaptation in medieval Latin of the name of Lazarus (q.v.), in Luke xvi.
20, who was supposed to be a leper. The word was not confined to persons
suffering from leprosy; thus Caxton (_The Life of Charles the Great_,
37), "there atte laste were guarysshed and heled viij lazars of the
palesey."
LAZARETTO or LAZAR-HOUSE is a hospital for the reception of poor persons
suffering from the plague, leprosy or other infectious or contagious
diseases. A peculiar use of "lazaretto" is found in the application of
the term, now obsolete, to a place in the after-part of a merchant
vessel for the storage of provisions, &c. _Lazzarone_, a name now often
applied generally to beggars, is an Italian term, particularly used of
the poorest class of Neapolitans, who, without any fixed abode, live by
odd jobs and fishing, but chiefly by begging.
LAZARITES (LAZARISTS or LAZARIANS), the popular names of the
"Congregation of Priests of the Mission" in the Roman Catholic Church.
It had its origin in the successful mission to the common people
conducted by St Vincent de Paul (q.v.) and five other priests on the
estates of the Gondi family. More immediately it dates from 1624, when
the little community acquired a permanent settlement in the collège des
Bons Enfans in Paris. Archiepiscopal recognition was obtained in 1626;
by a papal bull of the 12th of January 1632, the society was constituted
a congregation, with St Vincent de Paul at its head. About the same time
the canons regular of St Victor handed over to the congregation the
priory of St Lazarus (formerly a lazar-house) in Paris, whence the name
of Lazarites or Lazarists. Within a few years they had acquired another
house in Paris and set up other establishments throughout France;
missions were also sent to Italy (1638), Tunis (1643), Algiers and
Ireland (1646), Madagascar (1648) and Poland (1651). A fresh bull of
Alexander VII. in April 1655 further confirmed the society; this was
followed by a brief in September of the same year, regulating its
constitution. The rules then adopted, which were framed on the model of
those of the Jesuits, were published at Paris in 1668 under the title
_Regulae seu constitutiones communes congregationis missionis_. The
special objects contemplated were the religious instruction of the lower
classes, the training of the clergy and foreign missions. During the
French Revolution the congregation was suppressed and St Lazare
plundered by the mob; it was restored by Napoleon in 1804 at the desire
of Pius VII., abolished by him in 1809 in consequence of a quarrel with
the pope, and again restored in 1816. The Lazarites were expelled from
Italy in 1871 and from Germany in 1873. The Lazarite province of Poland
was singularly prosperous; at the date of its suppression in 1796 it
possessed thirty-five establishments. The order was permitted to return
in 1816, but is now extinct there. In Madagascar it had a mission from
1648 till 1674. In 1783 Lazarites were appointed to take the place of
the Jesuits in the Levantine and Chinese missions; they still have some
footing in China, and in 1874 their establishments throughout the
Turkish empire numbered sixteen. In addition, they established branches
in Persia, Abyssinia, Mexico, the South American republics, Portugal,
Spain and Russia, some of which have been suppressed. In the same year
they had fourteen establishments in the United States of America. The
total number of Lazarites throughout the world is computed at about
3000. Amongst distinguished members of the congregation may be
mentioned: P. Collet (1693-1770), writer on theology and ethics; J. de
la Grive (1689-1757), geographer; E. Boré (d. 1878), orientalist; P.
Bertholon (1689-1757), physician; and Armand David, Chinese missionary
and traveller.
See _Regulae seu constitutiones communes congregationis missionis_
(Paris, 1668); _Mémoires de la congrégation de la mission_ (1863);
_Congrégation de la mission. Répertoire historique_ (1900); _Notices
bibliographiques sur les écrivains de la congrégation de la mission_
(Angoulême, 1878); P. Hélyot, _Dict. des ordres religieux_, viii.
64-77; M. Heimbrecher, _Die Orden und Kongregationen der katholischen
Kirche_, ii. (1897); C. Stork in Wetzer and Welte's _Kirchenlexikon_
(Catholic), vii.; E. Bougaud, _History of St Vincent de Paul_ (1908).
LAZARUS (a contracted form of the Heb. name Eleazar, "God has helped,"
Gr. [Greek: Lazaros]), a name which occurs in the New Testament in two
connexions.
1. LAZARUS OF BETHANY, brother of Martha and Mary. The story that he
died and after four days was raised from the dead is told by John (xi.,
xii.) only, and is not mentioned by the Synoptists. By many this is
regarded as the greatest of Christ's miracles. It produced a great
effect upon many Jews; the _Acta Pilati_ says that Pilate trembled when
he heard of it, and, according to Bayle's _Dictionary_, Spinoza declared
that if he were persuaded of its truth he would become a Christian. The
story has been attacked more vigorously than any other portion of the
Fourth Gospel, mainly on two grounds, (i.) the fact that, in spite of
its striking character, it is omitted by the Synoptists, and (ii.) its
unique significance. The personality of Lazarus in John's account, his
relation to Martha and Mary, and the possibility that John reconstructed
the story by the aid of inferences from the story of the supper in Luke
x. 40, and that of the anointing of Christ in Bethany given by Mark and
Matthew, are among the chief problems. The controversy has given rise to
a great mass of literature, discussions of which will be found in the
lives of Christ, the biblical encyclopaedias and the commentaries on St
John.
2. LAZARUS is also the name given by Luke (xvi. 20) to the beggar in the
parable known as that of "Lazarus and Dives,"[1] illustrating the misuse
of wealth. There is little doubt that the name is introduced simply as
part of the parable, and not with any idea of identifying the beggar
with Lazarus of Bethany. It is curious, not only that Luke's story does
not appear in the other gospels, but also that in no other of Christ's
parables is a name given to the central character. Hence it was in early
times thought that the story was historical, not allegorical (see
LAZAR).