e
joined with Dickens in founding _Bentley's Magazine_.

LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL (1819-1891).--Poet and essayist, _b._ at Camb.,
Massachusetts, _s._ of a Unitarian minister, was _ed._ at Harvard. He
began active life as a lawyer, but soon abandoned business, and devoted
himself mainly to literature. In 1841 he _pub._ a vol. of poems, _A
Year's Life_, and in 1843 a second book of verses appeared. He also wrote
at this time political articles in the _Atlantic_ and _North American
Review_. In 1848 he _pub._ a third vol. of _Poems_, _A Fable for
Critics_, _The Biglow Papers_, and _The Vision of Sir Launfal_; and he
was in 1855 appointed Professor of Modern Languages at Harvard in
succession to Longfellow. _Among my Books_ appeared in 2 series, in 1870
and 1876. His later poems included various _Odes_ in celebration of
national events, some of which were _coll._ in _Under the Willows_, _The
Cathedral_, and _Heartsease and Rue_. In 1877 he was appointed United
States minister to Spain, and he held a similar appointment in England
1880-85. He _d._ at Elmwood, the house in which he was _b._ L. was a man
of singularly varied gifts, wit, humour, scholarship, and considerable
poetic power, and he is the greatest critic America has yet produced. He
was a strong advocate of the abolition of slavery.

LOWTH, ROBERT (1710-1787).--Theologian and scholar, _s._ of William L.,
Prebendary of Winchester, and author of a _Commentary on the Prophets_,
was _b._ at Winchester, and _ed._ there and at Oxf. Entering the Church
he became Bishop successively of St. David's, Oxf., and London. In 1753
he _pub._ _De Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum_. He also wrote a _Life of William of
Wykeham_, the founder of Winchester Coll., and made a new translation of
Isaiah.

LYDGATE, JOHN (1370?-1451?).--Poet, _b._ in Suffolk, was ordained a
priest in 1397. After studying at Oxf., Paris, and Padua, he taught
literature in his monastery at Bury St. Edmunds. He appears to have been
a bright, clear-minded, earnest man, with a love of the beautiful, and a
faculty of pleasant, flowing verse. He wrote copiously and with tiresome
prolixity whatever was required of him, moral tales, legends of the
saints, and histories, and his total output is enormous, reaching 130,000
lines. His chief works are _Troy Book_ (1412-20), written at the request
of Henry V. when Prince of Wales, _The Falls of Princes_ (1430-38), and
_The Story of Thebes_ (_c._ 1420). These books were first _pr