Chapter Launcelot to Lay of the Last Minstrel of L by Brewer's Readers Handbook

knight. There is a metrical romance called La Charrette, begun by Chrestiens de Troyes (twelfth century), and finished by Geoffrey de Ligny.

Launcelot, the man of Mons. Thomas. (See Lancelot.)—Fletcher: Mons. Thomas (1619).

Launfal (Sir), steward of king Arthur. Detesting queen Gwennere, he retired to Carlyoun, and fell in love with a lady named Tryamour. She gave him an unfailing purse, and told him if he ever wished to see her, all he had to do was to retire into a private room, and she would be instantly with him. Sir Launfal now returned to court, and excited much attention by his great wealth. Gwennere made advances to him, but he told her she was not worthy to kiss the feet of the lady to whom he was devoted. At this repulse, the angry queen complained to the king, and declared to him that she had been most grossly insulted by his steward. Arthur bade sir Launfal produce this paragon of women. On her arrival, sir Launfal was allowed to accompany her to the isle of Oleron; and no one ever saw him afterwards.—T. Chestre: Sir Launfal (a metrical romance, time, Henry VI.).

(James Russell Lowell has a poem entitled The Vision of Sir Launfal.)

Laura, niece of duke Gondibert, loved by two brothers, Arnold and Hugo, the latter dwarfed in stature. Laura herself loved Arnold; but both brothers were slain in the faction fight stirred up by prince Oswald against duke Gondibert. (For this faction fight, see Gondibert.) As the tale was never finished, we have no key to the poet’s intention respecting Laura.—Davenant: Gondibert (died 1668).

Laura, a Venetian lady, who married Beppo. Beppo, being taken captive, turned Turk, joined a band of pirates, and grew rich. He then returned to his wife, made himself known to her, and “had his claim allowed.” Laura is represented as a frivolous mixture of millinery and religion. She admires her husband’s turban, and dreads his new religion. “Are you really, truly now a Turk?” she says. “Well, that’s the prettiest shawl! Will you give it me? They say you eat no pork. Bless me! Did I ever? No, I never saw a man grown so yellow! How’s your liver?” and so she rattles on.—Byron: Beppo (1820).

We never read of Laura without being reminded of Addison’s Dissection of a Coquette’s Heart, in the endless intricacies of which nothing could be distinctly made out but the image of a flame-coloured hood.—Finden: Byron Beauties.

Laura and Petrarch. Some say La belle Laure was only an hypothetical name used by the poet to hang the incidents of his life and love on. If a real person, it was Laura de Noves, the wife of Hugues de Sade of Avignon, and she died of the plague in 1348.

Think you, if Laura had been Petrarch’s wife,
He would have written sonnets all his life?
   —Byron: Don Juan, iii. 8 (1820).

Laurana, the lady-love of prince Parismus of Bohemia.—E. Foord: The History of Parismus (1598).

Laureate. (See Poets Laureate.)

Laureate of the Gentle Craft, Hans Sachs, the cobbler-poet of Nuremberg. (See Twelve Wise Masters.)

Laurence (Friar), the good friar who promises to marry Romeo and Juliet. He supplies Juliet with the sleeping draught, to enable her to quit her home without arousing scandal or suspicion. (See Lawrence.)—Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet (1597).

Laurringtons (The), a novel by Mrs. Trollope, a satire on “superior people,” the bustling Bothebys of society (1843).

Lausus, son of Mezentius, king of the Rutulians, on the side of Turnus. In the Æneid (bk. vii.), Virgil greatly