LÉRIDA,the capital of the Spanish province of Lérida, on the river Segre and the Barcelona-Saragossa and Lérida-Tarragona railways. Pop. (1900) 21,432. The older parts of the city, on the right bank of the river, are a maze of narrow and crooked streets, surrounded by ruined walls and a moat, and commanded by the ancient citadel, which stands on a height overlooking the plains of Noguera on the north and of Urgel on the south. On the left bank, connected with the older quarters by a finestone bridge and an iron railway bridge, are the suburbs, laid out after 1880 in broad and regular avenues of modern houses. The old cathedral, last used for public worship in 1707, is a very interesting late Romanesque building, with Gothic and Mauresque additions; but the interior was much defaced by its conversion into barracks after 1717. It was founded in 1203 by Pedro II. of Aragon, and consecrated in 1278. The fine octagonal belfry was built early in the 15th century. A second cathedral, with a Corinthian façade, was completed in 1781. The church of San Lorenzo (1270-1300) is noteworthy for the beautiful tracery of its Gothic windows; its nave is said to have been a Roman temple, converted by the Moors into a mosque and by Ramon Berenguer IV., last count of Barcelona, into a church. Other interesting buildings are the Romanesque town hall, founded in the 13th century but several times restored, the bishop’s palace and the military hospital, formerly a convent. The museum contains a good collection of Roman and Romanesque antiquities; and there are a school for teachers, a theological seminary and academies of literature and science. Leather, paper, glass, silk, linen and cloth are manufactured in the city, which has also some trade in agricultural produce.
Lérida is theIlerdaof the Romans, and was the capital of the people whom they calledIlerdenses(Pliny) orIlergetes(Ptolemy). By situation the key of Catalonia and Aragon, it was from a very early period an important military station. In the Punic wars it sided with the Carthaginians and suffered much from the Roman arms. In its immediate neighbourhood Hanno was defeated by Scipio in 216B.C., and it afterwards became famous as the scene of Caesar’s arduous struggle with Pompey’s generals Afranius and Petreius in the first year of the civil war (49B.C.). It was already amunicipiumin the time of Augustus, and enjoyed great prosperity under later emperors. Under the Visigoths it became an episcopal see, and at least one ecclesiastical council is recorded to have met here (in 546). Under the MoorsLaredabecame one of the principal cities of the province of Saragossa; it became tributary to the Franks in 793, but was reconquered in 797. In 1149 it fell into the hands of Ramon Berenguer IV. In modern times it has come through numerous sieges, having been taken by the French in November 1707 during the War of Succession, and again in 1810. In 1300 James II. of Aragon founded a university at Lérida, which achieved some repute in its day, but was suppressed in 1717, when the university of Cervera was founded.
LERMA, FRANCISCO DE SANDOVAL Y ROJAS,Duke of(1552-1625), Spanish minister, was born in 1552. At the age of thirteen he entered the royal palace as a page. The family of Sandoval was ancient and powerful, but under Philip II. (1556-1598) the nobles, with the exception of a few who held viceroyalties or commanded armies abroad, had little share in the government. The future duke of Lerma, who was by descent marquis of Denia, passed his life as a courtier, and possessed no political power till the accession of Philip III. in 1598. He had already made himself a favourite with the prince, and was in fact one of the incapable men who, as the dying king Philip II. foresaw, were likely to mislead the new sovereign. The old king’s fears were fully justified. No sooner was Philip III. king than he entrusted all authority to his favourite, whom he created duke of Lerma in 1599 and on whom he lavished an immense list of offices and grants. The favour of Lerma lasted for twenty years, till it was destroyed by a palace intrigue carried out by his own son. Philip III. not only entrusted the entire direction of his government to Lerma, but authorized him to affix the royal signature to documents, and to take whatever presents were made to him. No royal favourite was ever more amply trusted, or made a worse use of power. At a time when the state was practically bankrupt, he encouraged the king in extravagance, and accumulated for himself a fortune estimated by contemporaries at forty-four millions of ducats. Lerma was pious withal, spending largely on religious houses, and he carried out the ruinous measures for the expulsion of the Moriscoes in 1610—a policy which secured him the admiration of the clergy and was popular with the mass of the nation. He persisted in costly and useless hostilities with England till, in 1604, Spain was forced by exhaustion to make peace, and he used all his influence against a recognition of the independence of the Low Countries. The fleet was neglected, the army reduced to a remnant, and the finances ruined beyond recovery. His only resources as a finance minister were the debasing of the coinage, and foolish edicts against luxury and the making of silver plate. Yet it is probable that he would never have lost the confidence of Philip III., who divided his life between festivals and prayers, but for the domestic treachery of his son, the duke of Uceda, who combined with the king’s confessor, Aliaga, whom Lerma had introduced to the place, to turn him out. After a long intrigue in which the king was all but entirely dumb and passive, Lerma was at last compelled to leave the court, on the 4th of October 1618. As a protection, and as a means of retaining some measure of power in case he fell from favour, he had persuaded Pope Paul V. to create him cardinal, in the year of his fall. He retired to the town of Lerma in Old Castile, where he had built himself a splendid palace, and then to Valladolid. Under the reign of Philip IV., which began in 1621 he was despoiled of part of his wealth, and he died in 1625.
The history of Lerma’s tenure of office is in vol. xv. of theHistoria General de Españaof Modesto Lafuente (Madrid, 1855)—with references to contemporary authorities.
The history of Lerma’s tenure of office is in vol. xv. of theHistoria General de Españaof Modesto Lafuente (Madrid, 1855)—with references to contemporary authorities.
LERMONTOV, MIKHAIL YUREVICH(1814-1841), Russian poet and novelist, often styled the poet of the Caucasus, was born in Moscow, of Scottish descent, but belonged to a respectable family of the Tula government, and was brought up in the village of Tarkhanui (in the Penzensk government), which now preserves his dust. By his grandmother—on whom the whole care of his childhood was devolved by his mother’s early death and his father’s military service—no cost nor pains was spared to give him the best education she could think of. The intellectual atmosphere which he breathed in his youth differed little from that in which Pushkin had grown up, though the domination of French had begun to give way before the fancy for English, and Lamartine shared his popularity with Byron. From the academic gymnasium in Moscow Lermontov passed in 1830 to the university, but there his career came to an untimely close through the part he took in some acts of insubordination to an obnoxious teacher. From 1830 to 1834 he attended the school of cadets at St Petersburg, and in due course he became an officer in the guards. To his own and the nation’s anger at the loss of Pushkin (1837) the young soldier gave vent in a passionate poem addressed to the tsar, and the very voice which proclaimed that, if Russia took no vengeance on the assassin of her poet, no second poet would be given her, was itself an intimation that a poet had come already. The tsar, however, seems to have found more impertinence than inspiration in the address, for Lermontov was forthwith sent off to the Caucasus as an officer of dragoons. He had been in the Caucasus with his grandmother as a boy of ten, and he found himself at home by yet deeper sympathies than those of childish recollection. The stern and rocky virtues of the mountaineers against whom he had to fight, no less than the scenery of the rocks and mountains themselves, proved akin to his heart; the emperor had exiled him to his native land. He was in St Petersburg in 1838 and 1839, and in the latter year wrote the novel,A Hero of Our Time, which is said to have been the occasion of the duel in which he lost his life in July 1841. In this contest he had purposely selected the edge of a precipice, so that if either combatant was wounded so as to fall his fate should be sealed.
Lermontov published only one small collection of poems in 1840. Three volumes, much mutilated by the censorship, were issued in 1842 by Glazounov; and there have been full editions of his works in 1860 and 1863. To Bodenstedt’s German translation of his poems (Michail Lermontov’s poetischer Nachlass, Berlin, 1842, 2 vols.), which indeed was the first satisfactory collection, he is indebted for a wide reputation outside of Russia. His novel has found several translators (August Boltz, Berlin, 1852, &c.). Among his best-known pieces are “Ismail-Bey,” “Hadji Abrek,” “Walerik,” “The Novice,” and, remarkable as an imitation of the old Russian ballad, “The song of the tsar Ivan Vasilivitch, his young bodyguard, and the bold merchant Kalashnikov.”See Taillandier, “Le Poète du Caucase,” inRevue des deux mondes(February 1855), reprinted inAllemagne et Russie(Paris, 1856); Duduishkin’s “Materials for the Biography of Lermontov,” prefixed to the 1863 edition of his works.The Demon, translated by Sir Alexander Condie Stephen (1875), is an English version of one of his longer poems.
Lermontov published only one small collection of poems in 1840. Three volumes, much mutilated by the censorship, were issued in 1842 by Glazounov; and there have been full editions of his works in 1860 and 1863. To Bodenstedt’s German translation of his poems (Michail Lermontov’s poetischer Nachlass, Berlin, 1842, 2 vols.), which indeed was the first satisfactory collection, he is indebted for a wide reputation outside of Russia. His novel has found several translators (August Boltz, Berlin, 1852, &c.). Among his best-known pieces are “Ismail-Bey,” “Hadji Abrek,” “Walerik,” “The Novice,” and, remarkable as an imitation of the old Russian ballad, “The song of the tsar Ivan Vasilivitch, his young bodyguard, and the bold merchant Kalashnikov.”
See Taillandier, “Le Poète du Caucase,” inRevue des deux mondes(February 1855), reprinted inAllemagne et Russie(Paris, 1856); Duduishkin’s “Materials for the Biography of Lermontov,” prefixed to the 1863 edition of his works.The Demon, translated by Sir Alexander Condie Stephen (1875), is an English version of one of his longer poems.
(W. R. S. R.)
LEROUX, PIERRE(1798-1871), French philosopher and economist, was born at Bercy near Paris on the 7th of April 1798, the son of an artisan. His education was interrupted by the death of his father, which compelled him to support his mother and family. Having worked first as a mason and then as a compositor, he joined P. Dubois in the foundation ofLe Globewhich became in 1831 the official organ of the Saint-Simonian community, of which he became a prominent member. In November of the same year, when Enfantin preached the enfranchisement of women and the functions of thecouple-prêtre, Leroux separated himself from the sect. In 1838, with J. Regnaud, who had seceded with him, he founded theEncyclopédie nouvelle(eds. 1838-1841). Amongst the articles which he inserted in it wereDe l’égalitéandRéfutation de l’éclectisme, which afterwards appeared as separate works. In 1840 he published his treatiseDe l’humanité(2nd ed. 1845), which contains the fullest exposition of his system, and was regarded as the philosophical manifesto of the Humanitarians. In 1841 he established theRevue indépendante, with the aid of George Sand, over whom he had great influence. HerSpiridion, which was dedicated to him,Sept cordes de la lyre,Consuelo, andLa Comtesse de Rudolstadt, were written under the Humanitarian inspiration. In 1843 he established at Boussac (Creuse) a printing association organized according to his systematic ideas, and founded theRevue sociale. After the outbreak of the revolution of 1848 he was elected to the Constituent Assembly, and in 1849 to the Legislative Assembly, but his speeches on behalf of the extreme socialist wing were of so abstract and mystical a character that they had no effect. After thecoup d’étatof 1851 he settled with his family in Jersey, where he pursued agricultural experiments and wrote his socialist poemLa Grève de Samarez. On the definitive amnesty of 1869 he returned to Paris, where he died in April 1871, during the Commune.
The writings of Leroux have no permanent significance in the history of thought. He was the propagandist of sentiments and aspirations rather than the expounder of a systematic theory. He has, indeed, a system, but it is a singular medley of doctrines borrowed, not only from Saint-Simonian, but from Pythagorean and Buddhistic sources. In philosophy his fundamental principle is that of what he calls the “triad”—a triplicity which he finds to pervade all things, which in God is “power, intelligence and love,” in man “sensation, sentiment and knowledge.” His religious doctrine is Pantheistic; and, rejecting the belief in a future life as commonly conceived, he substitutes for it a theory of metempsychosis. In social economy his views are very vague; he preserves the family, country and property, but finds in all three, as they now are, a despotism which must be eliminated. He imagines certain combinations by which this triple tyranny can be abolished, but his solution seems to require the creation of families without heads, countries without governments and property without rights of possession. In politics he advocates absolute equality—a democracy pushed to anarchy.See Raillard,Pierre Leroux et ses œuvres(Paris, 1899); Thomas,Pierre Leroux: sa vie, son œuvre, sa doctrine(Paris, 1904); L. Reybaud,Études sur les réformateurs et socialistes modernes; article in R. H. Inglis Palgrave’sDictionary of Pol. Econ.
The writings of Leroux have no permanent significance in the history of thought. He was the propagandist of sentiments and aspirations rather than the expounder of a systematic theory. He has, indeed, a system, but it is a singular medley of doctrines borrowed, not only from Saint-Simonian, but from Pythagorean and Buddhistic sources. In philosophy his fundamental principle is that of what he calls the “triad”—a triplicity which he finds to pervade all things, which in God is “power, intelligence and love,” in man “sensation, sentiment and knowledge.” His religious doctrine is Pantheistic; and, rejecting the belief in a future life as commonly conceived, he substitutes for it a theory of metempsychosis. In social economy his views are very vague; he preserves the family, country and property, but finds in all three, as they now are, a despotism which must be eliminated. He imagines certain combinations by which this triple tyranny can be abolished, but his solution seems to require the creation of families without heads, countries without governments and property without rights of possession. In politics he advocates absolute equality—a democracy pushed to anarchy.
See Raillard,Pierre Leroux et ses œuvres(Paris, 1899); Thomas,Pierre Leroux: sa vie, son œuvre, sa doctrine(Paris, 1904); L. Reybaud,Études sur les réformateurs et socialistes modernes; article in R. H. Inglis Palgrave’sDictionary of Pol. Econ.
LEROY-BEAULIEU, HENRI JEAN BAPTISTE ANATOLE(1842- ), French publicist, was born at Lisieux, on the 12th of February 1842. In 1866 he publishedUne troupe de comédiens, and afterwardsEssai sur la restauration de nos monuments historiques devant l’art et devant le budget, which deals particularly with the restoration of the cathedral of Evreux. He visited Russia in order to collect documents on the political and economic organization of the Slav nations, and on his return published in theRevue des deux mondes(1882-1889) a series of articles, which appeared shortly afterwards in book form under the titleL’Empire des tsars et les Russes(4th ed., revised in 3 vols., 1897-1898). The work entitledUn empereur, un roi, un pape, une restauration. published in 1879, was an analysis and criticism of the politics of the Second Empire.Un homme d’état russe(1884) gave the history of the emancipation of the serfs by Alexander II. Other works areLes Catholiques libéraux, l’église et le libéralisme(1890),La Papauté, le socialisme et la démocracie(1892),Les Juifs et l’antisémitisme; Israël chez les nations(1893),Les Arméniens et la question arménienne(1896),L’Antisémitisme(1897),Études russes et européennes(1897). These writings, mainly collections of articles and lectures intended for the general public, display enlightened views and wide information. In 1881 Leroy-Beaulieu was elected professor of contemporary history and eastern affairs at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques, becoming director of this institution on the death of Albert Sorel in 1906, and in 1887 he became a member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques.
Two of Leroy-Beaulieu’s works have been translated into English: one as theEmpire of the Tsars and the Russians, by Z. A. Regozin (New York, 1893-1896), and another asPapacy, Socialism, Democracy, by B. L. O’Donnell (1892). See W. E. H. Lecky,Historical and Political Essays(1908).
Two of Leroy-Beaulieu’s works have been translated into English: one as theEmpire of the Tsars and the Russians, by Z. A. Regozin (New York, 1893-1896), and another asPapacy, Socialism, Democracy, by B. L. O’Donnell (1892). See W. E. H. Lecky,Historical and Political Essays(1908).
LEROY-BEAULIEU, PIERRE PAUL(1843- ), French economist, brother of the preceding, was born at Saumur on the 9th of December 1843, and educated in Paris at the Lycée Bonaparte and the École de Droit. He afterwards studied at Bonn and Berlin, and on his return to Paris began to write forLe Temps,Revue nationaleandRevue contemporaine. In 1867 he won a prize offered by the Academy of Moral Science with an essay entitled “L’Influence de l’état moral et intellectuel des populations ouvrières sur le taux des salaires.” In 1870 he gained three prizes for essays on “La Colonization chez les peuples modernes,” “L’Administration en France et en Angleterre,” and “L’Impôt foncier et ses conséquences économiques.” In 1872 Leroy-Beaulieu became professor of finance at the newly-founded École Libre des Sciences Politiques, and in 1880 he succeeded his father-in-law, Michel Chevalier, in the chair of political economy in the Collège de France. Several of his works have made their mark beyond the borders of his own country. Among these may be mentioned hisRecherches économiques, historiques et statistiques sur les guerres contemporaines, a series of studies published between 1863 and 1869, in which he calculated the loss of men and capital caused by the great European conflicts. Other works by him are—La Question monnaie au dix-neuvième siècle(1861),Le Travail des femmes au dix-neuvième siècle(1873),Traité de la science des finances(1877),Essai sur la repartition des richesses(1882),L’Algérie et la Tunisie(1888),Précis d’économie politique(1888), andL’État moderne et ses fonctions(1889). He also founded in 1873 theÉconomiste français, on the model of the EnglishEconomist. Leroy-Beaulieu may be regarded as the leading representative in France of orthodox political economy, and the most pronounced opponent of protectionist and collectivist doctrines.
LERWICK,a municipal and police burgh of Shetland, Scotland, the most northerly town in the British Isles. Pop. (1901) 4281. It is situated on Brassay Sound, a fine natural harbour, on the east coast of the island called Mainland, 115 m. N.E. of Kirkwall, in Orkney, and 340 m. from Leith by steamer. The town dates from the beginning of the 17th century, and the older part consists of a flagged causeway called Commercial Street, running for 1 m. parallel with the sea (in which the gable ends of several of the quaint-looking houses stand), and so narrow in places as not to allow of two vehicles passing each other. At right angles to this street lanes ascend the hill-side to Hillhead, where the more modern structures and villas have been built. At the north end stands Fort Charlotte, erected by Cromwell, repaired in 1665 by Charles II. and altered in 1781 by George III., after whose queen it was named. It is now used as a depôt for the Naval Reserve, for whom a large drill hall was added. The Anderson Institute, at the south end, was constructed as a secondary school in 1862 by Arthur Anderson, a native, who also presented the Widows’ Asylum in the same quarter, an institution intended by preference for widows of Shetland sailors. The town-hall, built in 1881, contains several stained-glass windows, two of which were the gift of citizens of Amsterdam and Hamburg, in gratitude for services rendered by the islanders to fishermen and seamen of those ports. Lerwick’s main industries are connected with the fisheries, of which it is animportant centre. Docks, wharves, piers, curing stations and warehouses have been provided or enlarged to cope with the growth of the trade, and an esplanade has been constructed along the front. The town is also the chief distributing agency for the islands, and carries on some business in knitted woollen goods. One mile west of Lerwick is Clickimin Loch, separated from the sea by a narrow strip of land. On an islet in the lake stands a ruined “broch” or round tower.
LE SAGE, ALAIN RENÉ(1668-1747), French novelist and dramatist, was born at Sarzeau in the peninsula of Rhuys, between the Morbihan and the sea, on the 13th of December 1668. Rhuys was a legal district, and Claude le Sage, the father of the novelist, held the united positions of advocate, notary and registrar of its royal court. His wife’s name was Jeanne Brenugat. Both father and mother died when Le Sage was very young, and his property was wasted or embezzled by his guardians. Little is known of his youth except that he went to school with the Jesuits at Vannes until he was eighteen. Conjecture has it that he continued his studies at Paris, and it is certain that he was called to the bar at the capital in 1692. In August 1694 he married the daughter of a joiner, Marie Elizabeth Huyard. She was beautiful but had no fortune, and Le Sage had little practice. About this time he met his old schoolfellow, the dramatist Danchet, and is said to have been advised by him to betake himself to literature. He began modestly as a translator, and published in 1695 a French version of theEpistlesof Aristaenetus, which was not successful. Shortly afterwards he found a valuable patron and adviser in the abbé de Lyonne, who bestowed on him an annuity of 600 livres, and recommended him to exchange the classics for Spanish literature, of which he was himself a student and collector.
Le Sage began by translating plays chiefly from Rojas and Lope de Vega.Le Traitre puniandLe Point d’honneurfrom the former,Don Félix de Mendocefrom the latter, were acted or published in the first two or three years of the 18th century. In 1704 he translated the continuation ofDon Quixoteby Avellaneda, and soon afterwards adapted a play from Calderon,Don César Ursin, which had a divided fate, being successful at court and damned in the city. He was, however, nearly forty before he obtained anything like decided success. But in 1707 his admirable farce ofCrispin rival de son maîtrewas acted with great applause, andLe Diable boiteuxwas published. This latter went through several editions in the same year, and was frequently reprinted till 1725, when Le Sage altered and improved it considerably, giving it its present form. Notwithstanding the success ofCrispin, the actors did not like Le Sage, and refused a small piece of his calledLes Étrennes(1707). He thereupon altered it intoTurcaret, his theatrical masterpiece, and one of the best comedies in French literature. This appeared in 1709. Some years passed before he again attempted romance writing, and then the first two parts ofGil Blas de Santillaneappeared in 1715. Strange to say, it was not so popular asLe Diable boiteux. Le Sage worked at it for a long time, and did not bring out the third part till 1724, nor the fourth till 1735. For this last he had been part paid to the extent of a hundred pistoles some years before its appearance. During these twenty years he was, however, continually busy. Notwithstanding the great merit and success ofTurcaretandCrispin, the Théâtre Français did not welcome him, and in the year of the publication ofGil Blashe began to write for the Théâtre de la Foire—the comic opera held in booths at festival time. This, though not a very dignified occupation, was followed by many writers of distinction at this date, and by none more assiduously than by Le Sage. According to one computation he produced, either alone or with others, about a hundred pieces, varying from strings of songs with no regular dialogues, to comediettas only distinguished from regular plays by the introduction of music. He was also industrious in prose fiction. Besides finishingGil Blashe translated theOrlando innamorato(1721), rearrangedGuzman d’Alfarache(1732), published two more or less original novels,Le Bachelier de SalamanqueandEstévanille Gonzales, and in 1733 produced theVie et aventures de M. de Beauchesne, which is curiously like certain works of Defoe. Besides all this, Le Sage was also the author ofLa Valise trouvée, a collection of imaginary letters, and of some minor pieces, of whichUne journée des parquesis the most remarkable. This laborious life he continued until 1740, when he was more than seventy years of age. His eldest son had become an actor, and Le Sage had disowned him, but the second was a canon at Boulogne in comfortable circumstances. In the year just mentioned his father and mother went to live with him. At Boulogne Le Sage spent the last seven years of his life, dying on the 17th of November 1747. His last work,Mélange amusant de saillies d’esprit et de traits historiques les plus frappants, had appeared in 1743.
Not much is known of Le Sage’s life and personality, and the foregoing paragraph contains not only the most important but almost the only facts available for it. The few anecdotes which we have of him represent him as a man of very independent temper, declining to accept the condescending patronage which in the earlier part of the century was still the portion of men of letters. Thus it is said that, on being remonstrated with, as he thought impolitely, for an unavoidable delay in appearing at the duchess of Bouillon’s house to readTurcaret, he at once put the play in his pocket and retired, refusing absolutely to return. It may, however, be said that as in time so in position he occupies a place apart from most of the great writers of the 17th and 18th centuries respectively. He was not the object of royal patronage like the first, nor the pet ofsalonsand coteries like the second. Indeed, he seems all his life to have been purely domestic in his habits, and purely literary in his interests.
The importance of Le Sage in French and in European literature is not entirely the same, and he has the rare distinction of being more important in the latter than in the former. His literary work may be divided into three parts. The first contains his Théâtre de la Foire and his few miscellaneous writings, the second his two remarkable playsCrispinandTurcaret, the third his prose fictions. In the first two he swims within the general literary current in France; he can be and must be compared with others of his own nation. But in the third he emerges altogether from merely national comparison. It is not with Frenchmen that he is to be measured. He formed no school in France; he followed no French models. His work, admirable as it is from the mere point of view of style and form, is a parenthesis in the general development of the French novel. That product works its way from Madame de la Fayette through Marivaux and Prévost, not through Le Sage. His literary ancestors are Spaniards, his literary contemporaries and successors are Englishmen. The position is almost unique; it is certainly interesting and remarkable in the highest degree.
Of Le Sage’s miscellaneous work, including his numerous farce-operettas, there is not much to be said except that they are the very best kind of literary hack-work. The pure and original style of the author, his abundant wit, his cool, humoristic attitude towards human life, which wanted only greater earnestness and a wider conception of that life to turn it into true humour, are discernible throughout. But this portion of his work is practically forgotten, and its examination is incumbent only on the critic.CrispinandTurcaretshow a stronger and more deeply marked genius, which, but for the ill-will of the actors, might have gone far in this direction. But Le Sage’s peculiar unwillingness to attempt anything absolutely new discovered itself here. Even when he had devoted himself to the Foire theatre, it seems that he was unwilling to attempt, when occasion called for it, the absolute innovation of a piece with only one actor, a crux which Alexis Piron, a lesser but a bolder genius, accepted and carried through.CrispinandTurcaretare unquestionably Molièresque, though they are perhaps more original in their following of Molière than any other plays that can be named. For this also was part of Le Sage’s idiosyncrasy that, while he was apparently unable or unwilling to strike out an entirely novel line for himself, he had no sooner entered upon the beaten path than he left it to follow his own devices.Crispin rival de son maîtreis a farce in one act and many scenes, after the earlier manner of motion. Itsplot is somewhat extravagant, inasmuch as it lies in the effort of a knavish valet, not as usual to further his master’s interests, but to supplant that master in love and gain. But the charm of the piece consists first in the lively bustling action of the short scenes which take each other up so promptly and smartly that the spectator has not time to cavil at the improbability of the action, and secondly in the abundant wit of the dialogue.Turcaretis a far more important piece of work and ranks high among comedies dealing with the actual society of their time. The only thing which prevents it from holding the very highest place is a certain want of unity in the plot. This want, however, is compensated inTurcaretby the most masterly profusion of character-drawing in the separate parts. Turcaret, the ruthless, dishonest and dissolute financier, his vulgar wife as dissolute as himself, the harebrained marquis, the knavish chevalier, the baroness (a coquette with the finer edge taken off her fine-ladyhood, yet by no means unlovable), are each and all finished portraits of the best comic type, while almost as much may be said of the minor characters. The style and dialogue are also worthy of the highest praise; the wit never degenerates into mere “wit-combats.”
It is, however, as a novelist that the world has agreed to remember Le Sage. A great deal of unnecessary labour has been spent on the discussion of his claims to originality. What has been already said will give a sufficient clue through this thorny ground. In mere form Le Sage is not original. He does little more than adopt that of the Spanish picaroon romance of the 16th and 17th century. Often, too, he prefers merely to rearrange and adapt existing work, and still oftener to give himself a kind of start by adopting the work of a preceding writer as a basis. But it may be laid down as a positive truth that he never, in any work that pretends to originality at all, is guilty of anything that can fairly be called plagiarism. Indeed we may go further, and say that he is very fond of asserting or suggesting his indebtedness when he is really dealing with his own funds. Thus theDiable boiteuxborrows the title, and for a chapter or two the plan and almost the words, of theDiablo Cojueloof Luis Velez de Guevara. But after a few pages Le Sage leaves his predecessor alone. Even the plan of the Spanish original is entirely discarded, and the incidents, the episodes, the style, are as independent as if such a book as theDiablo Cojuelohad never existed. The case ofGil Blasis still more remarkable. It was at first alleged that Le Sage had borrowed it from theMarcos de Obregonof Vincent Espinel, a curiously rash assertion, inasmuch as that work exists and is easily accessible, and as the slightest consultation of it proves that, though it furnished Le Sage with separate incidents and hints for more than one of his books,Gil Blasas a whole is not in the least indebted to it. Afterwards Father Isla asserted thatGil Blaswas a mere translation from an actual Spanish book—an assertion at once incapable of proof and disproof, inasmuch as there is no trace whatever of any such book. A third hypothesis is that there was some manuscript original which Le Sage may have worked up in his usual way, in the same way, for instance, as he professes himself to have worked up theBachelor of Salamanca. This also is in the nature of it incapable of refutation, though the argument from theBacheloris strong against it, for there could be no reason why Le Sage should be more reticent of his obligations in the one case than in the other. Except, however, for historical reasons, the controversy is one which may be safely neglected, nor is there very much importance in the more impartial indication of sources—chiefly works on the history of Olivares—which has sometimes been attempted. That Le Sage knew Spanish literature well is of course obvious; but there is as little doubt (with the limitations already laid down) of his real originality as of that of any great writer in the world.Gil Blasthen remains his property, and it is admittedly the capital example of its own style. For Le Sage has not only the characteristic, which Homer and Shakespeare have, of absolute truth to human nature as distinguished from truth to this or that national character, but he has what has been called the quality of detachment, which they also have. He never takes sides with his characters as Fielding (whose master, with Cervantes, he certainly was) sometimes does. Asmodeus and Don Cleofas, Gil Blas and the Archbishop and Doctor Sangrado, are produced by him with exactly the same impartiality of attitude. Except that he brought into novel writing this highest quality of artistic truth, it perhaps cannot be said that he did much to advance prose fiction in itself. He invented, as has been said, no newgenre; he did not, as Marivaux and Prévost did, help on the novel as distinguished from the romance. In form his books are undistinguishable, not merely from the Spanish romances which are, as has been said, their direct originals, but from the medievalromans d’aventuresand the Greek prose romances. But in individual excellence they have few rivals. Nor should it be forgotten, as it sometimes is, that Le Sage was a great master of French style, the greatest unquestionably between the classics of the 17th century and the classics of the 18th. He is perhaps the last great writer before the decadence (for since the time of Paul Louis Courier it has not been denied that thephilosopheperiod is in point of style a period of decadence). His style is perfectly easy at the same time that it is often admirably epigrammatic. It has plenty of colour, plenty of flexibility, and may be said to be exceptionally well fitted for general literary work.
The dates of the original editions of Le Sage’s most important works have already been given. He published during his life a collection of his regular dramatic works, and also one of his pieces for the Foire, but the latter is far from exhaustive; nor is there any edition which can be called so, though theŒuvres choisiesof 1782 and 1818 are useful, and there are so-calledŒuvres complètesof 1821 and 1840. Besides critical articles by the chief literary critics and historians, the work of Eugène Lintilhac, in the Grandsécrivains français(1893), should be consulted. TheDiable boiteuxandGil Blashave been reprinted and translated numberless times. Both will be found conveniently printed, together withEstévanille GonzalesandGuzman d’Alfarache, the best of the minor novels, in four volumes of Garnier’sBibliothèque amusante(Paris, 1865).TurcaretandCrispinare to be found in all collected editions of the French drama. There is a useful edition of them, with ample specimens of Le Sage’s work for the Foire, in two volumes (Paris, 1821).
The dates of the original editions of Le Sage’s most important works have already been given. He published during his life a collection of his regular dramatic works, and also one of his pieces for the Foire, but the latter is far from exhaustive; nor is there any edition which can be called so, though theŒuvres choisiesof 1782 and 1818 are useful, and there are so-calledŒuvres complètesof 1821 and 1840. Besides critical articles by the chief literary critics and historians, the work of Eugène Lintilhac, in the Grandsécrivains français(1893), should be consulted. TheDiable boiteuxandGil Blashave been reprinted and translated numberless times. Both will be found conveniently printed, together withEstévanille GonzalesandGuzman d’Alfarache, the best of the minor novels, in four volumes of Garnier’sBibliothèque amusante(Paris, 1865).TurcaretandCrispinare to be found in all collected editions of the French drama. There is a useful edition of them, with ample specimens of Le Sage’s work for the Foire, in two volumes (Paris, 1821).
(G. Sa.)
LES ANDELYS,a town of northern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Eure about 30 m. S.E. of Rouen by rail. Pop. (1906) 3955. Les Andelys is formed by the union of Le Grand Andely and Le Petit Andely, the latter situated on the right bank of the Seine, the former about half a mile from the river. Grand Andely, founded, according to tradition, in the 6th century, has a church (13th, 14th and 15th centuries) parts of which are of fine late Gothic and Renaissance architecture. The works of art in the interior include beautiful stained glass of the latter period. Other interesting buildings are the hôtel du Grand Cerf dating from the first half of the 16th century, and the chapel of Sainte-Clotilde, close by a spring which, owing to its supposed healing powers, is the object of a pilgrimage. Grand Andely has a statue of Nicolas Poussin, a native of the place. Petit Andely sprang up at the foot of the eminence on which stands the château Gaillard, now in ruins, but formerly one of the strongest fortresses in France (seeFortification and SiegecraftandCastle). It was built by Richard Cœur de Lion at the end of the 12th century to protect the Norman frontier, was captured by the French in 1204 and passed finally into their possession in 1449. The church of St Sauveur at Petit Andely also dates from the end of the 12th century. Les Andelys is the seat of a sub-prefect and of a tribunal of first instance, has a preparatory infantry school; it carries on silk milling, and the manufacture of leather, organs and sugar. It has trade in cattle, grain, flour, &c.
LES BAUX,a village of south-eastern France, in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône, 11 m. N.E. of Arles by road. Pop. (1906) 111. Les Baux, which in the middle ages was a flourishing town, is now almost deserted. Apart from a few inhabited dwellings, it consists of an assemblage of ruined towers, fallen walls and other débris, which cover the slope of a hill crowned by the remains of a huge château, once the seat of a celebrated “court of love.” The ramparts, a medieval church, the château, parts of which date to the 11th century, and many of the dwellings are,in great part, hollowed out of the white friable limestone on which they stand. Here and there may be found houses preserving carved façades of Renaissance workmanship. Les Baux has given its name to the reddish rock (bauxite) which is plentiful in the neighbourhood and from which aluminium is obtained. In the middle ages Les Baux was the seat of a powerful family which owned the Terre Baussenques, extensive domains in Provence and Dauphiné. The influence of the seigneurs de Baux in Provence declined before the power of the house of Anjou, to which they abandoned many of their possessions. In 1632 the château and the ramparts were dismantled.
LESBONAX,of Mytilene, Greek sophist and rhetorician, flourished in the time of Augustus. According to Photius (cod.74) he was the author of sixteen political speeches, of which two are extant, a hortatory speech after the style of Thucydides, and a speech on the Corinthian War. In the first he exhorts the Athenians against the Spartans, in the second (the title of which is misleading) against the Thebans (edition by F. Kiehr,Lesbonactis quae supersunt, Leipzig, 1907). Some erotic letters are also attributed to him.
The Lesbonax described in Suidas as the author of a large number of philosophical works is probably of much earlier date; on the other hand, the author of a small treatiseΠερὶ Σχημάτωνon grammatical figures (ed. Rudolf Müller, Leipzig, 1900), is probably later.
The Lesbonax described in Suidas as the author of a large number of philosophical works is probably of much earlier date; on the other hand, the author of a small treatiseΠερὶ Σχημάτωνon grammatical figures (ed. Rudolf Müller, Leipzig, 1900), is probably later.
LESBOS(Mytilene, Turk.Midullu), an island in the Aegean sea, off the coast of Mysia, N. of the entrance of the Gulf of Smyrna, forming the main part of a sanjak in the archipelago vilayet of European Turkey. It is divided into three districts, Mytilene or Kastro in the E., Molyvo in the N., and Calloni in the W. Since the middle ages it has been known as Mytilene, from the name of its principal town. Strabo estimated the circumference of the island at 1100 stadia, or about 138 m., and Scylax reckoned it seventh in size of the islands of the Mediterranean. The width of the channel between it and the mainland varies from 7 to 10 m. The island is roughly triangular in shape; the three points are Argennum on the N.E., Sigrium (Sigri) on the W., and Malea (Maria) on the S.E. The Euripus Pyrrhaeus (Calloni) is a deep gulf on the west between Sigrium and Malea. The country though mountainous is very fertile, Lesbos being celebrated in ancient times for its wine, oil and grain. Homer refers to its wealth. Its chief produce now is olives, which also form its principal export. Soap, skins and valonea are also exported, and mules and cattle are extensively bred. The sardine fishery is an important trade, and antimony, marble and coal are found on the island. The surface is rugged and mountainous, the highest point, Mount Olympus (Hagios Elias) being 3080 ft. The island has suffered from periodical earthquakes. The roads were remade in 1889, and there is telegraphic communication on the island, and to the mainland by cable. The ports are Sigri and Mytilene. The Gulf of Calloni and Hiera or Olivieri can only be entered by vessels of small draught.
The chief town, called Mytilene, is built in amphitheatre shape round a small hill crowned by remains of an ancient fortress. There are now 14 mosques and 7 churches, including a cathedral. It was originally built on an island close to the eastern coast of Lesbos, and afterwards when the town became too large for the island, it was joined to Lesbos by a causeway, and the city spread along the coast. There was a harbour on each side of the small island. Maloeis, by some surmised to be the northern of these, was not far away. Besides the five cities which gave the island the name of Pentapolis (Mytilene, Methymna, Antissa, Eresus, Pyrrha), there was a town called Arisba, destroyed by an earthquake in the time of Herodotus. Professor Conze thinks that this is the site now called Palaikastro, N.E. of Calloni. Pyrrha lay S.E. of Calloni, and is now also called Palaikastro. Antissa was on the N. coast near Sigri. It was destroyed by the Romans in 168B.C.Eresus was also near Sigri on the S. coast. Methymna was on the N. coast, on the site of Molyvo, still the second city of the island. The name Methymna is derived from the wine (Gr.μέθυ) for which it was famous. Considerable remains of town walls and other buildings are to be seen on all these sites.
(E. Gr.)
History.—Although the position of Lesbos near the old-established trade-route to the Hellespont marks it out as an important site even in pre-historic days, no evidence on the early condition of the island is as yet obtainable, beyond the Greek tradition which represented it at the time of the Trojan war as inhabited by an original stock of Pelasgi and an immigrant population of Ionians. In historic times it was peopled by an “Aeolian” race who reckoned Boeotia as their motherland and claimed to have migrated about 1050B.C.; its principal nobles traced their pedigree to Orestes, son of Agamemnon. Lesbos was the most prominent of Aeolian settlements, and indeed played a large part in the early development of Greek life. Its commercial activity is attested by several colonies in Thrace and the Troad, and by the participation of its traders in the settlement of Naucratis in Egypt; hence also the town of Mytilene, by virtue of its good harbour, became the political capital of the island. The climax of its prosperity was reached about 600B.C., when a citizen named Pittacus was appointed asaesymnetes(dictator) to adjust the balance between the governing nobility and the insurgent commons and by his wise administration and legislation won a place among the Seven Sages of Greece. These years also constitute the golden age of Lesbian culture. The lyric poetry of Greece, which owed much to two Lesbians of the 7th century, the musician Terpander and the dithyrambist Arion, attained the standard of classical excellence under Pittacus’ contemporaries Alcaeus and Sappho. In the 6th century the importance of the island declined, partly through a protracted and unsuccessful struggle with Athens for the possession of Sigeum near the Hellespont, partly through a crushing naval defeat inflicted by Polycrates of Samos (about 550). The Lesbians readily submitted to Persia after the fall of Croesus of Lydia, and although hatred of their tyrant Coës, a Persian protégé, drove them to take part in the Ionic revolt (499-493), they made little use of their large navy and displayed poor spirit at the decisive battle of Lade. In the 5th century Lesbos for a long time remained a privileged member of the Delian League (q.v.), with full rights of self-administration, and under the sole obligation of assisting Athens with naval contingents. Nevertheless at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War the ruling oligarchy of Mytilene forced on a revolt, which was ended after a two years’ siege of that town (429-427). The Athenians, who had intended to punish the rebels by a wholesale execution, contented themselves with killing the ringleaders, confiscating the land and establishing a garrison. In the later years of the war Lesbos was repeatedly attacked by the Peloponnesians, and in 405 the harbour of Mytilene was the scene of a battle between the admirals Callicratidas and Conon. In 389 most of the island was recovered for the Athenians by Thrasybulus; in 377 it joined the Second Delian League, and remained throughout a loyal member, although in the second half of the century the dominant democracy was for a while supplanted by a tyranny. In 334 Lesbos served as a base for the Persian admiral Memnon against Alexander the Great. During the Third Macedonian war the Lesbians sided with Perseus against Rome; similarly in 88 they became eager allies of Mithradates VI. of Pontus, and Mytilene stood a protracted siege on his behalf. This town, nevertheless, was raised by Pompey to the status of a free community, thanks no doubt to his confidant Theophanes, a native of Mytilene.
Of the other towns on the island, Antissa, Eresus and Pyrrha possess no separate history. Methymna in the 5th and 4th centuries sometimes figures as a rival of Mytilene, with an independent policy. Among the distinguished Lesbians, in addition to those cited, may be mentioned the cyclic poet Lesches, the historian Hellanicus and the philosophers Theophrastus and Cratippus.
During the Byzantine age the island, which now assumes the name of Mytilene, continued to flourish. In 1091 it fell for a while into the hands of the Seljuks, and in the following century was repeatedly occupied by the Venetians. In 1224 it was recovered by the Byzantine emperors, who in 1354 gave it as a dowry to the Genoese family Gattilusio. After prospering undertheir administration Mytilene passed in 1462 under Turkish control, and has since had an uneventful history. The present population is about 130,000 of whom 13,000 are Turks and Moslems and 117,000 Greeks.