Chapter Longius to Lorelei of L by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Longius to Lorelei

Longius, the name of the Roman soldier who pierced the crucified Saviour with a spear. The spear came into the possession of Joseph of Arimathæa.—Sir T. Malory: History of Prince Arthur, i. 41 (1470). Often called Longinus.

Longomontanus (Christian), of Jutland, a Danish astronomer (1562–1647).

What did your Cardan [an Italian astronomer], and your Ptolemy, your Messahalah, and your Longomontanus, your harmony of chiromancy with astrology—Congreve: Love for Love, iv. (1695).

Lonna, that is, Colonna, the most southern point of Attica, called “Sunium’s marbled steep.” Here once stood a temple to Minerva, called by Falconer, in The Shipwreck, “Tritonia’s sacred fane.” The ship Britannia struck against “the cape’s projecting verge,” and was wrecked.

Yes, at the dead of night, by Lonna’s steep,
The seaman’s cry was heard along the deep.
   —Campbell: The Pleasures of Hope, ii. (1799).

Loose-Coat Field. The battle of Stamford (1470). So called because the men led by lord Wells, being attacked by the Yorkists, threw off their coats, that they might flee the faster.

Cast off their county’s coats, to haste their speed away.
Which “Loose-Coat Field” is called e’en to this day.
   —Drayton: Polyolbion, xxii. (1622).

Lope de Vega (Felix), a Spanish poet, born at Madrid. He was one of those who came i n the famous “Armada” to invade England. Lope wrote altogether 1800 tragedies, comedies, dramas, or religious pieces called autos sacramentales (1562–1635).

Her memory was a mine. She knew by heart
All Calderon and greater part of Lopé.
   —Byron: Don Juan, i. II (1819).

Lopez, the “Spanish curate.”—Fletcher: The Spanish Curate (1622).

Lopez (Don), a Portuguese nobleman, the father of don Felix and donna Isabella.—Mrs. Centlivre: The Wonder (1714).

Lorbrulgrud, the capital of Brobdingnag. The word is humorously said to mean “Pride of the Universe.”—Swift: Gulliver’s Travels (“Voyage to Brobdingnag,” 1726).

Lord, a hunchback. (Greek, lordos, “crooked.”)

Lord Peter. The pope is so called in Dr. Arbuthnot’s History of John Bull. Swift, in his Tale of a Tub, introduces the three brothers Peter, John, and Martin, meaning the pope, Calvin, and Luther.

Lord Strutt. Charles II. of Spain is so called by Dr. Arbuthnot, in his History of John Bull (1712).

Every one must remember the paroxysm of rage into which poor lord Strutt fell, on hearing that his runaway servant Nic Frog, his clothier John Bull, and his old enemy Lewis Baboon, had come with quadrants, poles, and ink-horns, to survey his estate, and to draw his will for him.—Macaulay.

Lord Thomas and Annet had a lovers’ quarrel; whereupon lord Thomas, in his temper, went and offered marriage to the nut-brown maid, who had houses and lands. On the wedding day, Annet went to the church, and lord Thomas gave her a rose, but the nut-brown maid killed her with a “bodkin from her headgear.” Lord Thomas, seeing Annet fall, plunged his dagger into the heart of the murderess, and then stabbed himself. Over the graves of lord Thomas and the fair Annet grew “a bonny briar, and by this ye may ken that they were lovers dear.” In some versions of this story Annet is called “Elinor.”—Percy: Reliques, etc., III. iii. (See Bodkin, p. 133.)