Lauderdale (The Duke of), president of the privy council.—Sir W. Scott, Old Mortality (time, Charles II.).
Laugh (Jupiter’s). Jupiter, we are told, laughed incessantly for seven days after he was born.—Ptol. Hephæstion, Nov. Hist., vii.
Laughing Philosopher (The), Democ´rītos, of Abde´ra (B.C. 460-357).
⁂He laughed or jeered at the feeble powers of man so wholly in the hands of fate, that nothing he did or said was uncontrolled. The “Weeping Philosopher” was Heraclitos.
Dr. Jeddler, the philosopher, who looked upon the world as a “great practical joke, something too absurd to be considered seriously by any rational man.”—C. Dickens, The Battle of Life (1846).
Laughter (Death from). A fellow in rags told Chalchas, the soothsayer, that he would never drink the wine of the grapes growing in his vineyard; and added, “If these words do not come true, you may claim me for your slave.” When the wine was made, Chalchas made a feast, and sent for the fellow to see how his prediction had failed; and when he appeared, the soothsayer laughed so immoderately at the would-be prophet that he died.—Lord Lytton, Tales of Miletus, iv.
Somewhat similar is the tale of Ancæos. This king of the Lelĕgês, in Samos, planted a vineyard, but was warned by one of his slaves that he would never live to taste the wine thereof. Wine was made from the grapes, and the king sent for his slave, and said, “What do you think of your prophecy now?” The slave made answer, “There’s many a slip ’twixt the cup and the lip;” and the words were scarcely uttered, when the king rushed from table to drive out of his vineyard a boar which was laying waste the vines, but was killed in the encounter.—Pausanias.
Crassus died from laughter on seeing an ass eat thistles. Margutte, the giant, died of laughter on seeing an ape trying to pull on his boots. Philemon or Philomēnês died of laughter on seeing an ass eat the figs provided for his own dinner (Lucian, i. 2). Zeuxis died of laughter at sight of an old woman he had painted.
Launay (Vicomte de), pseudonym of Mde. Emile de Girardin (née Delphine Gay).
Launce, the clownish servant of Proteus, one of the two “gentlemen of Verona.” He is in love with Julia. Launce is especially famous for soliloquies to his dog, Crab, “the sourest-natured dog that lives.” Speed is the serving-man of Valentine, the other “gentleman.”—Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594).