Chapter Lantern-Land to Larks of L by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Lantern-Land to Larks

Lantern-Land The land of literary charlatans, whose inhabitants are graduates in arts, doctors, professors, prelates, and so on. (Rabelais: Pantagruel, v. 33.) (See City Of Lanterns )

Lanterns Authors, literary men, and other inmates of Lantern-land (q.v.). Rabelais so calls the prelates and divines of the Council of Trent, who wasted the time in great displays of learning, to little profit; hence “lanternise” (q.v.).

Lanternise Spending one's time in learned trifles; darkening counsel by words; mystifying the more by attempting to unravel mysteries; putting truths into a lantern through which, at best, we see but darkly. When monks bring their hoods over their faces “to meditate,” they are said by the French to lanternise, because they look like the tops of lanterns; but the result of their meditations is that of a “brown study,” or “fog of sleepy thought.” (See above.)

Laocoon [La-ok'-o-on ]. A son of Priam, famous for the tragic fate of himself and his two sons, who were crushed to death by serpents. The group representing these three in their death agony, now in the Vatican, was discovered in 1506, on the Esquiline Hill (Rome). It is a single block of marble, and was the work of Agesander of Rhodes and two other sculptors. Thomson has described the group in his Liberty, pt. iv. (Virgil Æneid, ii. 40 etc., 212 etc.)

“The miserable sire,
Wrapped with his sons in Fate's severest grasp”.

Laodami'a The wife of Protesilaos, who was slain before Troy. She begged to be allowed to converse with her dead husband for only three hours, and her request was granted; when the respite was over, she accompanied the dead hero to the shades of death. Wordsworth has a poem on the subject.

Laodicean One indifferent to religion, caring little or nothing about the matter, like the Christians of that church, mentioned in the Book of Revelation (chapter iii. 14-18).

Lapet (Mons.). The beau-ideal of poltroonery. He would think the world out of joint if no one gave him a tweak of the nose or lug of the ear. (Beaumont and Fletcher: Nice Valor, or the Passionate Madman.)
   Mons Lapet was the author of a book on the punctilios of duelling.

Lapithæ A people of Thessaly, noted for their defeat of the Centaurs. The subject of this contest was represented on the Parthenon, the Theseum at Athens, the Temple of Apollo at Basso, and on numberless vases. Raphael painted a picture of the same subject. (Classic mythology.)

Lapping Water When Gideon's army was too numerous, the men were taken to a stream to drink, and 300 of them lapped water with their tongue; all the rest supped it up (Judges. vii. 4-7). All carnivorous animals lap water like dogs, all herbivorous animals suck it up like horses. The presumption is that the lappers of water partook of the carnivorous character, and were more fit for military exploits. No doubt those who fell on their knees to drink exposed themselves to danger far more than those who stood on their feet and lapped water from their hands.

Laprel The rabbit, in the tale of Reynard the Fox. (French, lapin, rabbit.)

Lapsus Linguæ (Latin). A slip of the tongue, a mistake in uttering a word, an imprudent word inadvertently spoken.
   We have also adopted the Latin phrases lapsus calami (a slip of the pen), and lapsus memoriæ (a slip of the memory).

Laputa The flying island inhabited by scientific quacks, and visited by Gulliver in his “travels.” These dreamy philosophers were so absorbed in their speculations that they employed attendants called “flappers,” to flap them on the mouth and ears with a blown bladder when their attention was to be called off from “high things” to vulgar mundane matters. (Swift.)

“Realising in a manner the dreams of Laputa and endeavouring to extract sunbeams from cucumbers.”- De Quincy.

Lapwing (The). Shakespeare refers to two peculiarities of this bird; (1) to allure persons