Chapter Les Anguilles de Melun to Letters of the Sepulchre of L by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Les Anguilles de Melun to Letters of the Sepulchre

Les Anguilles de Melun Crying out before you are hurt. When the Mystery of St. Bartholomew was performed at Melun, one Languille took the character of the saint, but when the executioner came to “flay him alive,” got nervous and began to shriek in earnest. The audience were in hysterics at the fun, and shouted out, Languille crie avant qu'on l'écorche, ” and “Les anguilles de Melun” passed into a French proverb.

Lesbian Poets (The). Terpander, Alcæus, Arion, and the poetess Sappho, all of Lesbos.

Lesbian Rule (The). A post facto law. Making an act the precedent for a rule of conduct, instead of squaring conduct according to law.

Lese Majesty (See Leze Majesty .)

Lessian Diet Great abstinence; so called from Lessius, a physician who prescribed very stringent rules for diet. (See Banting.)

Lestrigons A race of giants who lived in Sicily. Ulysses sent two of his men to request that he and his crew might land, but the king of the place ate one for dinner and the other fled. The Lestrigons assembled on the coast and threw stones against Ulysses and his crew. Ulysses fled with all speed, but lost many of his men. There is considerable resemblance between this tale and that of Polypheme, who ate one of Ulysses' companions, and on the flight of the rest assembled with other giants on the shore, and threw stones at the retreating crew, whereby several were killed.

Let, to permit, is the Anglo-Saxon læt-an, to suffer or permit; but let (to hinder) is the verb lett-an. It is a pity we have dropped the second t in the latter word.

“Oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, but was [have been] let hitherto.”- Romans i. 18.

Let Drive (To). To attack; to fall foul of. A Gallicism. “Se laisser aller à ...”- i.e. to go without restraint.

“Thou knowest my old ward; here I [Falstaff] lay, and thus I bore my point. Four rogues in buckram let drive at me. These four came all a-front, and mainly thrust at me.”- Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., ii 4.

Let us Eat and Drink; for tomorrow we shall Die (Isaiah xxii. 13). The Egyptians in their banquets exhibited a skeleton to the guests, to remind them of the brevity of human life saying as they did so, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.”

Leth'e (2 syl.), in Greek mythology, is one of the rivers of Hades, which the souls of all the dead are obliged to taste, that they may forget everything said and done in the earth on which they lived. (Greek letho, latheo, lanthano, to cause persons not to know.)

Lethean Dew Dreamy forgetfulness; a brown study. Lethe, in mythology, is the river of forgetfulness. Sometimes incorrectly called Lethean.

“The soul with tender luxury you [Muses] fill,
And o'er the senses Lethean dews distill.”
Falconer: The Shipwreck, iii. 4.

Letter-Gae The precentor is called by Allen Ramsay “The Letter-gae of haly rhyme.” “Holy rhyme” means hymns or chants.

“There were no sae mony hairs on the warlock's face as there's on Letter-gae's ain at this moment.”- Sir W. Scott: Guy Mannering, chap. xi.

Letter-lock A lock that cannot be opened unless certain chosen letters are arranged in a certain order.

“A strange lock that opens with A M E N" Beaumont and Fletcher: Noble Gentleman.

Letter of Credit A letter written by a merchant or banker to another, requesting him to credit the bearer with certain sums of money. Circular Notes are letters of credit carried by gentlemen when they travel.

Letter of Licence (A). An instrument in writing made by a creditor, allowing a debtor longer time for the payment of his debt.