and making a last remonstrance to the
misguided King, news of whose death may have reached him while at the
work, as it stops in the middle of a paragraph. He is not much of an
artist, being intent rather on delivering his message than that it should
be in a perfect dress. Prof. Manley, in the _Cambridge History of English
Literature_, advances the theory that _The Vision_ is not the work of
one, but of several writers, W.L. being therefore a dramatic, not a
personal name. It is supported on such grounds as differences in metre,
diction, sentence structure, and the diversity of view on social and
ecclesiastic matters expressed in different parts of the poem.

LANIER, SIDNEY (1842-1881).--Miscellaneous writer, _s._ of a lawyer of
Huguenot descent, was _b._ at Macon, Georgia. He had a varied career,
having been successively soldier, shopman, teacher, lawyer, musician, and
prof. His first literary venture was a novel, _Tiger Lilies_ (1867).
Thereafter he wrote mainly on literature, his works including _The
Science of English Verse_ (1881), _The English Novel_ (1883), and
_Shakespeare and his Forerunners_ (1902); also some poems which have been
greatly admired, including "Corn," "The Marshes of Glynn," and "The Song
of the Chattahoochee"; ed. of Froissart, and the Welsh _Mabinogion_ for
children. He worked under the shadow of serious lung trouble, which
eventually brought about his death.

LARDNER, DIONYSIUS (1793-1859).--Scientific writer, _s._ of a solicitor
in Dublin, and _b._ there, was intended for the law, but having no taste
for it, he entered Trinity Coll., Dublin, and took orders, but devoted
himself to literary and scientific pursuits, and became a contributor to
the _Edinburgh Review_, and various Encyclopaedias. In 1827 he was
appointed Prof. of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy in the Univ. of
London (afterwards Univ. Coll.), and in 1829 began his great work, _The
Cabinet Cyclopaedia_, which was finished in 133 vols. 20 years later. In
his literary undertakings, which included various other schemes of
somewhat similar character, he was eminently successful, financially and
otherwise. He lived in Paris from 1845 until his death.

LATIMER, HUGH (1485-1555).--Reformer and divine, _s._ of a Leicestershire
yeoman, went to Camb. in 1500, and became Fellow of Clare Hall. Taking
orders, he was at first a defender of the ancient faith, but convinced by
the arguments of Bilney, embraced the reformed doctrines. He w