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he recognizes his weakness. In his vision before dawn upon the battlefield of Wagram, he perceives that, in a sense, he must atone by his sufferings for all the blood that has been spilt to win his father's glory. He accepts his destiny, a passive hero to the last, and dies a theatric death, lying beside his cradle, in the presence of the weeping Austrian court.

The six acts of the play present a few major characters, a host of those that merely come and go, and several striking scenes. Flambeau, the old grenadier of Napoleon, is the most alluring figure. Surprises and coincidences abound, and the atmosphere of the piece is distinctly romantic, although its careful detail and its central conception are almost naturalistic. Rostand's poetic imagination is sufficient to the task of making real here much that might otherwise seem mechanical melodrama. L'Aiglon' has been translated into English by Louis N. Parker (1900).

FRANK W. CHANDLER.

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L'ALLEGRO, la-la'grō. L'Allegro' and 'Il Penseroso' (q.v.) are companion poems by Milton. They are assigned to the period (163238) after his life at Cambridge, in which he retired to his father's house at Horton, Buckinghamshire, for study and reflection. is, they were written about the same time as 'Comus' and 'Lycidas, just before Milton's travels and some time before his prose writings and most of his sonnets and his greater poems. They are really poetic exercises; the young poet expresses his thoughts on life in the forms common in the literary poetry of the day. The two poems are companion pieces; 'L'Allegro gives the gay or cheerful mood or humor, while Il Penseroso gives the contemplative mood. They give their ideas in much the same way: each begins by driving away the mood opposed to the subject of the poem; in 'L'Allegro it is "loathed Melancholy." Each goes on with an invocation, as one may say, to the goddess of the mood; "Thou Goddess fair and free, in Heaven yclept Euphrosyne, and by men heart-easing Mirth.» The main part of each poem, however, presents the mood of the poet by describing a characteristic day; in 'L'Allegro' the poet is waked by the lark, hears the huntsman on the hill and the plowman nearer by, takes a country walk and joins the youths and maidens of the upland hamlets in their merry-making, he goes home and spends the evening in reading and music, or, according to another intepretation, he goes to town and enjoys the gay life of society. The poem is to the average mind old-fashioned and formal; it is classic in form and allusion and has little in it that seems inspired by deep poetic feeling. But on the other hand each word and phrase is so full of meaning and so characteristic of the poetic mood that it makes a definite place in the mind of every lover of poetry. Some other general considerations are noted under Il Penseroso.' There are a good many editions of Milton's Minor Poems, mostly made for school purposes. The first volume of Masson's edition of Milton or Verity's edition of the Minor Poems may be especially noted. EDWARD E. HALE, L'AMI FRITZ, la'mē frits ('Friend Fritz'), published in 1864, formed for Erck

mann-Chatrian a restful interlude between two stirring patriotic novels, 'Le Conscrit de 1813) (1864) and Waterloo' (1865). Indirectly it is like them a plea for quiet living, toleration, peace and concord between nations and between religious confessions as well. The scene, significantly for one writing in the year of the Austro-Prussian attack on Denmark for Schleswig-Holstein, is laid in an idealized Bavarian Highlands. The time is about 1850. The theme is an epicurean idyl, the unobtruded moral that the shortest road to a middle-aged bachelor's heart is by way of his stomach. Seldom have the joys of eating and drinking been so affectionately dwelt upon in fiction. As the story opens, Fritz Kobus, a well-to-do bachelor of 36, rejoicing in his freedom, jests at the matrimonial counsels of his father's friend, the genial old Rabbi Sichel, a matchmaker by instinct and predilection. How in the next two years Fritz comes, step by step, and unconsciously almost to the last, under the spell of Suzel, the ingenious, charming and housewifely young daughter of his anabaptist tenant farmer Christel, is told with rare quiet humor and genial irony. With modifications, natural after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, 'L'ami Fritz was dramatized by its authors in 1876. The play was very popular and has been translated as 'Friend Fritz.'

BENJAMIN W. WELLS. L'ASSOMPTION, la'son'syon', Canada, village and capital of L'Assomption County, Quebec, 23 miles northeast of Montreal, on the Canada Northern Railroad. L'Assomption College is located there and the village is also the site of a Roman Catholic convent and hospital. It has several manufacturing industries. Pop. 1,747.

LA BALLERINA, la bäl'ler'ina (The Ballet Dancer'). This short realistic novel, by Matilde Serao, which first appeared in the Nuova Antologia (No. 165, 1899), and then in the form of a novel (Catania, 2 vols., 1899) portrays the trials of a poor young Neapolitan girl, Carmela Menino, in her efforts to earn a livelihood in the rank and file of the ballet dancers employed at the San Carlo Theatre in Naples and at other resorts in the vicinity. The interest of the romance centres in the description of the sinister conditions that prevail rather than in the characters themselves, which are of secondary importance and whose sensuality and material needs furnish the dominating motive of their every action. In the case of the heroine of the novel, Carmela Menino, however, it is not sensuality, but a kind of religious sentimentality, together with her poverty, which is the mainspring of her conduct in life. This sentimentality is the cause of her fetich worship for her godmother, the ballet artist, Amina Boschetti, and of her loyalty to the memory of the latter years after her death. It also figures prominently at the end of the novel in the night watch of Carmela Menino at the bedside of the prodigal suicide, Count Ferdinando Terzi di Torregrande. The entire descriptive material is characterized by that vividness and realism displayed in the best of the author's earlier books: Il paese di Cuccagna,' 1891 (The Land of Cockaigne'), showing those keen powers of observation which have placed Matilde Serao

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in the front rank of the contemporary writers of fiction in Italy. Among the salient features clearly drawn in 'La Ballerina,' three stand out conspicuously: (1) The rottenness of the entire ballet system as carried on in Naples. So vivid and effective is the description of the ballet conditions, analagous to that of the lottery system in 'Il paese di Cuccagna,' as to create a strong impulse on the part of the reader never to lose an opportunity, if ever one be presented, of doing his best to purge the entire system. (2) The very important rôle that sentimentality plays in the life of the Neapolitan youth of both sexes, nullifying the possible advantages which the use of ordinary common sense would, in all likelihood, provide. The well-nigh uncontrollable desire of the youth of Naples to pose continually as millionaires is exposed so forcefully as to bring out strikingly the absurdity of creating so false a situation. (3) The distinction between the feeling of reverence, akin to love, as seen in Carmela Menino's life, and the varied and multitudinous congeners of love as seen in the lives of the sensual ballet personnel of which Carmela Menino is one of the links. The inane relations between the ballet dancers and their sentimental lovers contrast rudely with the sincere sentimental loyalty and worship, not, however, very well accounted for by the author, shown by Carmela Menino toward the victim of the suicide with which the romance ends, thus producing a strong revulsion from the false pleasures of life. Together with 'Addio amore' ('Good-bye Love') and 'Dopo il perdono ("After the Pardon'), 'La ballerina' is among the best of the author's later novels. A translation of it was published in England without the translator's name, and issued in London 1901. JAMES GEDDES, JR.

LA BARCA, lå bär'kä, Mexico, town in the state of Jalisco, east of Lake Chapala, and 60 miles southeast of Guadalajara, on the International Railroad between that city and Mexico. The town was founded in 1529 by Nuño de Guzman, and during the Mexican war for independence the town was the scene of two serious battles. Pop. 7,437.

LA BARRACA, là bär-räk'ą ('The Farmhouse'), a novel by Vincente Blasco Ibáñez (q.v.). In 'La Barraca,' the agrarian problem as existing in the territory about Valencia engages the attention. First published in 1898, this work soon made its way into French and, appearing as Terres maudites' in the Revue de Paris in 1901, it established the author's fame abroad and brought him more note at home. With a sure eye and a firm hand, Blasco Ibáñez has outlined for us, on the background of the huerta or suburban district of Valencia, types of character such as Pimento, the local bully, and Batiste, the industrious small farmer. Batiste has the misfortune to take up a farm from which the avaricious landlord had evicted the previous tenant and upon the occupancy of which the people of the huerta had put a ban. The result is the boycotting and ruthless persecution of Batiste by the huerta under the leadership of the worthless bravo, Pimento, the killing of Pimentó by Batiste in defense of his own life, and the burning of Batiste's farmhouse by his neighbors. In the face of a systematic boycott the honest,

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home-providing Batiste has no redress, and he must depart sadly to try his fortunes elsewhere. JEREMIAH D. M. FORD.

LA BARRE, là bär', Antoine Joseph Lefèvre de, French sailor; b. about the beginning of the 17th century; d. 4 May 1688. He rose to early prominence as an officer of the French navy, and was appointed governor of Guiana in 1663. He was successful in recapturing Cayenne (1667), which had been occupied by the Dutch. On being commissioned lieutenantgeneral he sailed for the West Indies, and, in a fight with the English in the Antilles, compelled them to raise the blockade of Saint Christopher. in 1682, his irresolution in his negotiations with Succeeding Frontenac as governor of Canada the Indians was so disastrous that he was recalled in 1685. He obstructed La Salle in his western explorations.

LA BREA, Los Angeles, Cal., a park, west of and within the city limits, on an almost level area bordered by the Santa Mornica Range to the north. It is famous as the site of the "La Brea Tar Swamp," a prehistoric petroleum "trap" which has contributed to paleo-zoology the most extraordinary remains of extinct animals ever discovered. Major Hancock, then owner of the ranch on which the pool was located, as early as 1875, was presumably the first person to take particular notice of the bones in the asphalt, William Denton in that year mentioning a canine of the large sabretooth tiger received from him. After the definite discovery of the historical value of the deposits in 1906, excavation work was carried on by the University of California, and within a space of about 1,400 feet long, northwest by southeast, and 150 feet wide, thousands of skeletons were discovered, many hitherto unknown to science. Pools of water and tar still are characteristic features of this section of California, and in the Pleistocene period were natural drinking places for many kinds of herbivorous animals and for the carnivorous types which preyed upon them. Both in their struggles became trapped in the treacherous tar seep or pool, which has been an excellent preservative of their skeletons. The remains of mammals and birds of extinct type determined thus far in the university collection include 630 sabre-tooth tigers; over 700 "big wolves"; 7 mastodons; 39 giant ground sloths; 39 bison; 39 horses; 39 camels; 17 elephants (including the skeleton of the first "Imperial" elephant found), besides skeletons of the great American lion; the gigantic teratornis, with a 14 foot wing spread; California peacock and a vast number of minor specimens. In 1914 a human skull, possibly several thousand years old, was recovered from the pit. Fifteen mounted examples of the most important of these remarkable prehistoric animals and a great quantity of unmounted specimens are exhibited in the Museum of History, Science and Art in Los Angeles. Mrs. Ida Hancock, the owner of the property, donated 32 acres of the land enclosing the pool to Los Angeles County, which now maintains a park and subsidiary museum around this interesting "death-trap." Consult Merriam, J. C., A Death-trap which antedates Adam and Eve' (in Harper's Weekly, 18 Dec. 1909).

LA BRUYÈRE, là brü-yar, Jean de, French moralist: b. Paris, 17 Aug. 1645; d.

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Versailles, 10 May 1696. He was educated for the law, became treasurer at Caen, and through the influence of Bossuet was employed in the education of the Duke of Bourbon, grandson of the great Condé, with a pension of 3,000 livres, and was attached to his person during the remainder of his life. In 1688 he published the 'Characters of Theophrastus,' translated into French, to which he added others of his own, in which he represented the manners of his time with great accuracy, and in a style epigrammatical, ingenious and witty. The work contained 386 "characters"; the 4th edition (1689), 340 additional ones, while the 9th, in press at the time of the author's death, included over 1,100 "characters." Consult Rahstede, 'La Bruyère und seine Charaktere' (1886); Allaire, 'La Bruyère dans la maison de Condé (1886); Pellisson, La Bruyère' (1893). See CHARACTERS OF THEOPHRASTUS,

LA CALPRENÈDE, lå käl'prĕ'năd, Gautier de Costes de, French novelist: b. Sarlat, Dordogne, 1610; d. 1663. He went (1632) to Paris and entered the guards' regiment as officer, becoming royal chamberlain. His chivalry novels, copying the style of Amadis,? brought him fame, especially his 'Cléopâtre,' extending into 12 volumes (1647-58). He selected names from the period of Augustus as a framework in which to describe persons of his own day, the subtlety and stale sentimentality of the work finding favor. The characters, however, are, for the most part, well drawn and some scenes are excellent. Notable among the novels are 'Cassandre' and other works in 10 volumes (1642-50); (Faramond' and others in seven volumes (1661-70); 'Les nouvelles, ou les divertissements de la princesse Alcidiane' (1661). He also wrote a number of plays, most notable being 'La Mort de Mithridate' (1637); 'Le Comte d'Essex' (1639); 'Edouard, roi d'Angleterre (1640). Consult Körting, 'Geschichte des französischen Romans im XVII ten Jahrhundert) (Vol. I, Oppeln 1891); Hill, H. W., La Calprenède's Romances and the Restoration Drama' (Chicago 1911).

He

LA CHALOTAIS, lạ shalotā, Louis René de Caradeuc de, French magistrate: b. Rennes, 6 March 1701; d. Rennes, 12 July 1785. He was a procureur-général of the Parliament of Brittany and one of the most ardent adversaries of the Jesuits in the reign of Louis XV. His notes under title of 'Compte rendu des constitution des jésuites,' placed before the Brittany government (1761) led to the abolition of the order from France. next hoped to reorganize public education and wrote Essai d'éducation nationale) (Geneva 1763, Paris 1825), a remarkable treatise and translated into several languages, which was highly eulogized by Voltaire. The enmity of the Duke d'Aiguillon and others brought false persecution against him successfully and he was arrested in 1765 and imprisoned. Failing to bring about a fair trial after several attempts his friends demanded justice and Louis XVI placed him back in his former parliamentary position at Rennes in 1775. Consult Robidou, La Chalotais et les jésuites) (Rennes 1879); 'La Chalotais et le duc d'Aiguillon,' (published by Henri Carré, Paris 1893), from 'Chevalier de Foulette's Correspondence.'

LA CHARTREUSE DE PARME, là zhär'trüz de parm'. 'La Chartreuse de Parme,) esteemed the best of the novels of Stendhal (Henri Beyle), was written in 1830, though not published till 1839. In time it belongs to the first flush of the Romantic movement, and it has highly romantic passages, but there are others which seem clearly to foreshadow the naturalistic and the psychological schools of fiction. Some descriptive passages are of rare brilliancy. The story, opening in 1796, passes rapidly to the decade following Waterloo. The scene is chiefly in Milan or Parma; the plot, ingenious but over-tortuous, deals with the intrigues of a petty Italian court; the interest, whether for author or reader, is almost wholly in character. Though crude in coloring and melodramatic in treatment the novel seems the first serious attempt in French fiction to exhibit not merely foreign scenes but foreign ideals and psychic life. Fabrice, the hero, his military career closed by the fall of Napoleon, turns his ambition, though not his heart, to the Church, and after adventures that show him, in Sainte-Beuve's phrase, “like an animal given over to his appetites or like a wanton child who follows his caprices," not, indeed, without shrewdness, dies an archbishop in a Carthusian monastery, whence the story's title. The heroine, Duchess Sanseverina, beautiful, witty and loving Fabrice, her nephew, with the desperation of a last passion, murders, marries and forgets her marriage vows in his behalf, reincarnating the intense passions of some familiar female figures of the Italian renaissance. Count Mosca, to Balzac a glorified Metternich, is for us a diplomatic courtier, ingeniously unscrupulous in reconciling the duties of his station with the demands of his lusts. Palla, a political outlaw and highwayman, the philandeṛing agent of the duchess' criminal designs, is an interesting age-fellow of Hugo's Hernani. All four illustrate as many phases of Stendhal's conception of the unreasoning fatality of love. BENJAMIN W. WELLS.

LA CHAUSSÉE, là shō-sã, Pierre Claude Nivelle de, French dramatist, founder of the so-called "pathetic comedy" or melodrama: b. Paris, 1692; d. there, 14 March 1754. Le Préjugé à la Mode' (1735) by him was the first French pathetic comedy. Of 18 dramas by him, among the best are School of Friendship' (1737); Melanide) (1741); 'Love for Love' (1742); Pamela' (1743); 'School of Mothers (1745); The Governess (1747). His plays were all written in verse and followed strictly the rules of the classic drama.

LA CITTÀ MORTA (The City of the Dead'), a modern tragedy in five acts and in prose, by Gabriele d'Annunzio, performed for the first time in Paris at the Renaissance Theatre, 21 Jan. 1898. Although every effort was made to expose to the best advantage the artistic possibilities of the tragedy, Sara Bernhardt playing the part of the blind Anna with all her rare skill and intelligence, the play was not a success. It has been played in England and in America, but received rather coldly, and for several reasons, one of which may be said to be its lack of dramatic action; for it is more a lyric poem in dialogue, or a succession of descriptions artistically composed, than a drama as ordinarily understood.