Chapter Lumbey to Lychorida of L by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Lupauski (Prince), father of princess Lodoiska .—J. P. Kemble: Lodoiska (a melodrame).

Lupin (Mrs.), hostess of the Blue Dragon. A buxom, kind-hearted woman, ever ready to help any one over a difficulty.—Dickens: Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).

Luria, a noble Moor, single-minded, warm-hearted, faithful, and most generous; employed by the Florentines to lead their army against the Pisans (fifteenth century). Luria was entirely successful; but the Florentines, to lessen their obligation to the conqueror, hunted up every item of scandal they could find against him; and, while he was winning their battles, he was informed that he was to be brought to trial to answer these floating censures. Luria was so disgusted at this, that he took poison, to relieve the state by his death of a debt of gratitude which the republic felt too heavy to be borne.—R. Browning: Luria.

Lusiad, the adventures of the Lusians (Portuguese), under Vasquez da Gama, in their discovery of India. Bacchus was the guardian power of the Mohammedans, and Venus or Divine Love of the Lusians. The fleet firs t sailed to Mozambique, then to Quiloa, then to Melinda (in Africa), where the adventurers were hospitably received and provided with a pilot to conduct them to India. In the Indian Ocean, Bacchus tried to destroy the fleet; but the “silver star of Divine Love” calmed the sea, and Gama arrived at India in safety. Having accomplished his object, he returned to Lisbon.—Camoëns: The Lusiad, in ten books (1572).

N.B.—Vasquez da Gama sailed thrice to India: (1) In 1497, with four vessels. This expedition lasted two years and two months. (2) In 1502, with twenty ships. In this expedition he was attacked by Zamorin king of Calicut, whom he defeated, and returned to Lisbon the year following. (3) When John III. appointed him viceroy of India. He established his government at Cochin, where he died in 1525. The story of The Lusiad is the first of these expeditions.

This really classic epic in ten books, worthy to be ranked with Virgil’s Æneid, has been translated into English verse by Auberton in 1878; Fanshawe in 1655; and by Mickle in 1775.

(English versions by Fanshawe in 1655; by Mickle (in heroic rhyming metre) in 1775; by Auberton in 1878; and by Burton in 1880.)

Lusignan [d’Outremer], king of Jerusalem, taken captive by the Saracens, and confined in a dungeon for twenty years. When 80 years old, he was set free by Osman the sultan of the East, but died within a few days.—A. Hill: Zara (adapted from Voltaire’s tragedy).

Lusitania, the ancient name of Portugal; so called from Lusus, the companion of Bacchus in his travels. This Lusus colonized the country, and called it “Lusitania,” and the colonists “Lusians.”—Pliny: Historia Naturalis, iii. 1.

Lutetia, , ancient Latin name of Paris (Lutetia Parisiorum, “the mudtown of the Parisii”).

Luther (Martin), at the age of 40, married Katharine Borê or Bora, a nun (1520).

What is called Luther’s Hymn is the hymn beginning thus: “Great God, what do I see and hear?” but in Germany it is Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, translated by Carlyle, “A safe stronghold our God is He.”

Luther (The Danish), Hans Tausen. There is a stone in Viborg called “Tausensminde,” with this inscription: “Upon this stone, in 1528, Hans Tausen first preached Luther’s doctrine in Viborg.”

Lutin, the gipsy page of lord Dalgarno.—Sir W. Scott: Fortunes of Nigel (time, James I.).

Lux Mundi, Johann Wessel; also called Magister Contradictionum, for his opposition to the Scholastic philosophy. He was the predecessor of Luther (1419–1489).