Le´lia, a cunning, wanton widow, with whom Julio is in love.—Beaumont and Fletcher, The Captain (1613).
Lélie (2 syl.) a young man engaged to Célie, daughter of Gorgibus; but Gorgibus insists that his daughter shall give up Lélie for Valère, a much richer man. Célie faints on hearing this, and drops the miniature of Lélie, which is picked up by Sganarelle’s wife. Sganarelle finds it, and, supposing it to be a lover of his wife, takes possession of it, and recognizes Lélie as the living original. Lélie asks how he came by it, is told he took it from his wife, and concludes that he means Célie. He accuses her of infidelity in the presence of Sganarelle, and the whole mystery is cleared up.—Molière, Sganarelle (1660).
Lélie, an inconsequential, light-headed, but gentlemanly coxcomb.—Molière, L’Etourdi (1653).
Lemnian Deed (A), one of unparalleled cruelty and barbarity. This Greek phrase owes its origin to the legend that the Lemnian women rose one night, and put to death every man and male child in the island.
On another occasion they slew all the men and all the children born of Athenian parents.
Lemuel Barker, young rustic, who, encouraged by Rev. Mr. Sewall’s praise of certain of his verses, comes to Boston in the hope of achieving literary fame. He is, in turn, fleeced by sharpers, almost starved, put into the positions of elevator boy, private reader, horse-car conductor, etc. Is entrapped into an engagement of marriage with a vulgar, but respectable girl, and wiser and soberer for each experience, takes his place as a worthy citizen.—W. D. Howells, The Minister’s Charge (1886).
Lenore, a name which Edgar Poe has introduced in two of his poems; one called The Raven, and the other called Lenore (1811-1849).
Lenore, the heroine of Bürger’s ballad of that name, in which a spectral lover appears to his mistress after death, and carries her on horseback, behind him, to the graveyard, where their marriage is celebrated amid a crew of howling goblins.
⁂ The Suffolk Miracle is an old English ballad of like character.
Lenormand (Mdlle.), a famous tireuse de cartes. She was a squat, fussy, little old woman, with a gnarled and knotted visage, and an imperturbable eye. She wore her hair cut short, and parted on one side, like that of a man; dressed in an odd-looking casaquin, embroidered and frogged like the jacket of an hussar; and snuffed continually. This was the little old woman whom Napoleon I. regularly consulted before setting out on a campaign. Mdlle. Lenormand foretold to Josephine her divorce; and when Murat, king of Naples, visited her in disguise, she gave him the cards to cut, and he cut four times in succession le grand pendu (king of diamonds); whereupon Mdlle. rose and said, “La séance est terminée; c’est dix louis pour les rois;” pocketed the fee, and left the room taking snuff.