Chapter Lady with a Lamp to Laminak of L by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Lame (The).

Jehan de Meung (1260–1320), called “Clopinel,” 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).

Lame Lover (The), by Foote (1770). (See Luke.)

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 Lemech 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.” Lemech did as his son had spoken, and the arrow struck Cain, who was walking afar off, and killed him. … Now when Lemech …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 Lemech…. I have slain a man to my hurt, and a child to my wounding!”—The Talmud, i. (See Loki.)

Lamia, a poem by Keats, of a young man who married a lamia (or serpent), which had assumed the form of a beautiful woman (1820).

The idea is borrowed from Philostratus, De Vita Apollonii, bk. iv. (See Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy.)

Laminak, 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 lamiñak is named Guïllen (William). (See Say and Mean.)