(1837), Hellenics (1847), and Poemata et Inscriptiones (1847).  He quarrelled finally with his wife in 1835, and returned to England, which, however, he had to leave in 1858 on account of an action for libel arising out of a book, Dry Sticks Fagoted.  He went to Italy, where he remained, chiefly at Florence, until his death.  L. holds one of the highest places among the writers of English prose.  His thoughts are striking and brilliant, and his style rich and dignified.

Works ed.  C.G.  Crump, 10 vols.

LANE, EDWARD WILLIAM (1801-1876).—­Arabic scholar, s. of a prebendary of Hereford, where he was b., began life as an engraver, but going to Egypt in search of health, devoted himself to the study of Oriental languages and manners, and adopted the dress and habits of the Egyptian man of learning.  He pub. Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (1836), which remains a standard authority, and a translation of The Thousand and One Nights (1838-40) (Arabian Nights).  What was intended to be the great work of his life, his Arabic Lexicon, was left unfinished at his death, but was completed by his nephew, Prof.  S.L.  Poole.  L. was regarded as the chief European Orientalist of his day.

LANGHORNE, JOHN (1735-1779).—­Poet, s. of a clergyman, was b. at Kirkby Stephen; having taken orders, he was for two years a curate in London, and from 1776 Rector of Blagdon, Somerset, and Prebendary of Wells.  He is chiefly remembered as being the translator, jointly with his brother, Rev. William L., of Plutarch’s Lives, but in his day he had some reputation as a poet, his chief work in poetry being Studley Park and Fables of Flora.  In his Country Justice (1774-77) he dimly foreshadows Crabbe, as in his descriptive poems he dimly foreshadows Wordsworth.  He was twice married, and both of his wives d. in giving birth to a first child.

LANGLAND, WILLIAM (OR WILLIAM of LANGLEY) (1330?-1400?).—­Poet.  Little can be gleaned as to his personal history, and of that little part is contradictory.  In a note of the 15th century written on one MS. he is said to have been b. in Oxfordshire, the s. of a freeman named Stacy de Rokayle, while Bale, writing in the 16th century, makes his name Robert (certainly an error), and says he was b. at Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire.  From his great poem, Piers the Plowman, it is to be gathered that he was bred to the Church, and was at one time an inmate of the monastery at Great Malvern.  He m., however, and had a dau., which, of course, precluded him from going on to the priesthood.  It has further been inferred from his poem that his f., with the help of friends, sent him to school, but that on the death of these friends the process of education came to an end, and he went to London, living in a little house in Cornhill and, as he says, not only in