Lionel and Clarissa, an opera by Bickerstaff. Sir John Flowerdale has a daughter named Clarissa, whose tutor is Lionel, an Oxford graduate. Colonel Oldboy, his neighbor, has a son named Jessamy, a noodle and a fop; and a daughter, Diana. A proposal is made for Clarissa Flowerdale to marry Jessamy; but she despises the prig, and loves Lionel. After a little embroglio, Sir John gives his consent to this match. Now for Diana: Harmann, a guest of Oldboy’s, tells him he is in love, but that the father of the lady will not consent to his marriage. Oldboy advises him to elope, lends his carriage and horses, and writes a letter for Harman, which he is to send to the girl’s father. Harman follows this advice, and elopes with Diana; but Diana repents, returns home unmarried, and craves her father’s forgiveness. The old Colonel yields, the lovers are united, and Oldboy says he likes Harman the better for his pluck and manliness.
Lionell (Sir), brother of Sir Launcelot, son of Ban, king of Benwick (Brittany).
Liones (3 syl.), daughter of Sir Persaunt, of Castle Perilous, where she was held captive by Sir Ironside, the Red Knight of the Red Lands. Her sister, Linet´, went to the Court of King Arthur to request that some knight would undertake to deliver her from her oppressor; but as she refused to give up the name of the lady, the king said no Knight of the Round Table could undertake the quest. On this, a stranger, nicknamed “Beaumains,” from the size and beauty of his hands, and who had served in the kitchen for twelve months, begged to be sent, and his request was granted. He was very scornfully treated by Linet; but succeeded in overthrowing every knight who opposed him, and, after combatting from dawn to sunset with Sir Ironside, made him also do homage. The lady, being now free, married the “kitchen knight,” who was, in fact, Sir Gareth, son of Lot, king of Orkney, and Linet married his brother, Ga´heris. (See Lyonors, of Castle Perilous.)—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 120-153 (1470).
Li´onesse (3 syl.), Lyonesse, or Lionés, a tract of land between Land’s End and the Scilly Isles, now submerged “full forty fathoms under water.” It formed a part of Cornwall. Thus Sir Tristram de Lionês is always called a Cornish knight. When asked his name, he tells Sir Kay that he is Sir Tristram de Lionês; to which the seneschal answers, “Yet heard I never in no place that any good knight came out of Cornwall.”—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, ii. 56 (1470). See Leonesse.
⁂ Respecting the knights of Cornwall, Sir Mark, the king of Cornwall, had thrown the whole district into bad odor. He was false, cowardly, mean, and most unknightly.
Lir. The Death of the Children of Lir. This is one of the three tragic stories of the ancient Irish. The other two are The Death of the Children of Touran, and The Death of the Children of Usnach. (See Fionnuala.)—O’Flanagan, Transactions of the Gaelic Society, i.
⁂ Lir (King) father of Fionnuala. On the death of Fingula (the mother of his daughter), he married the wicked Aoife, who, through spite, transformed the children of Lir into swans, doomed to float on the water for centuries, till they hear the first mass-bell ring. Tom Moore has versified this legend.
Silent, O Moyle, be the roar of thy water;
Break not, ye breezes, your chain of repose—
While murmuring mournfully Lir’s lonely daughter