Chapter Lucy to Lumbercourt of L by Brewer's Readers Handbook

docile crew
My bezants went to make me bishop of.
   —R. Browning: The Return of the Druses, v.

Luke (Sir), or Sir Luke Limp, a tuft-hunter, a devotee to the bottle, and a hanger-on of great men for no other reason than mere snobbism. Sir Luke will “cling to sir John till the baronet is superseded by my lord; quitting the puny peer for an earl, and sacrificing all three to a duke.”—Foote: The Lame Lover (1770).

Luke’s Bird (St.), the ox.

Luke’s Iron Crown. George and Luke Dosa headed an unsuccessful revolt against the Hungarian nobles in the sixteenth century. Luke was put to death by a red-hot iron crown, in mockery of his having been proclaimed king.

This was not an unusual punishment for those who sought regal honours in the Middle Ages. Thus, when Tancred usurped the crown of Sicily, kaiser Heinrich VI. of Germany set him on a red-hot iron throne, and crowned him with a red-hot iron crown (twelfth century).

It was not Luke but George Dosa who suffered this punishment. (See Iron Crown, p. 528.)

N.B.—The “iron crown of Lombardy” must not be mistaken for an iron crown of punishment. The former is said to be one of the nails used in the Crucifixion, beaten cut into a thin rim of iron, magnificently set in gold, and adorned with jewels. Charlemagne and Napoleon I. were both crowned with it.

Luke’s Summer (St.), or L’été de S. Martin, a few weeks of fine summerly weather, which occur between St. Luke’s Day (October 18) and St. Martin’s Day (November 11).

In such St. Luke’s short summer lived these men, Nearing the goal of three score years and ten. W. Morris: The Earthly Paradise (“March”).

Lully, (Raymond), an alchemist who searched for the philosopher’s stone by distillation, and made some useful chemical discoveries. He was also a magician and a philosophic dreamer. Generally called Doctor Illuminatus (1235–1315).

He talks of Raymond Lully and the ghost of Lilly (q.v.).—Congreve: Love for Love, iii. (1695).

Lulu, the love-name of the prince imperial, son of Napoleon III, slain in the Zulu war. His full name was Napoleon Eugéne Louis Jean Joseph (1856–1879).

Lumbercourt (Lord), a voluptuary, greatly in debt, who consented, for a good money consideration, to give his daughter to Egerton McSycophant. Egerton, however, had no fancy for the lady, but married Constantia, the girl of his choice. His lordship was in alarm lest this contretemps should be his ruin; but sir Pertinax told him the bargain should still remain good if Egerton’s younger brother, Sandy, were accepted by his lordship instead. To this his lordship readily agreed.

Lady Rodolpha Lumbercourt, daughter of lord Lumbercourt, who, for a consideration, consented to marry Egerton McSycophant; but as Egerton had no fancy for the lady, she agreed to marry Egerton’s brother Sandy on the same terms.

“As I ha’nae reason to have the least affection till my cousin Egerton, and as my intended marriage with him was entirely an act of obedience till my grandmother, provided my cousin Sandy will be as agreeable till her ladyship as my cousin Charles here would have been, I have nae the least objection till the change. Ay, ay, one brother is as good to Rodolpha as another.”—Macklin: The Man of the World, v. (1764).