[1] The verb “to lie,” to speak falsely, to tell a falsehood, is in O. Eng. léogan; it appears in most Teutonic languages, e.g. Dutch lugen, Ger. lügen.
LAYA, JEAN LOUIS (1761-1833), French dramatist, was born in Paris on the 4th of December 1761 and died in August 1833. He wrote his first comedy in collaboration with Gabriel M. J. B. Legouvé in 1785, but the piece, though accepted by the Comédie Française, was never represented. In 1789 he produced a plea for religious toleration in the form of a five-act tragedy in verse, Jean Calas; the injustice of the disgrace cast on a family by the crime of one of its members formed the theme of Les Dangers de l’opinion (1790); but it is by his Ami des lois (1793) that Laya is remembered. This energetic protest against mob-rule, with its scarcely veiled characterizations of Robespierre as Nomophage and of Marat as Duricrâne, was an act of the highest courage, for the play was produced at the Théâtre Français (temporarily Théâtre de la Nation) only nineteen days before the execution of Louis XVI. Ten days after its first production the piece was prohibited by the commune, but the public demanded its representation; the mayor of Paris was compelled to appeal to the convention, and the piece was played while some 30,000 Parisians guarded the hall. Laya went into hiding, and several persons convicted of having a copy of the obnoxious play in their possession were guillotined. At the end of the Terror Laya returned to Paris. In 1813 he replaced Delille in the Paris chair of literary history and French poetry; he was admitted to the Academy in 1817. Laya produced in 1797 Les Deux Stuarts, and in 1799 Falkland, the title-rôle of which provided Talma with one of his finest opportunities. Laya’s works, which chiefly owe their interest to the circumstances attending their production, were collected in 1836-1837.
See Notice biographique sur J. L. Laya (1833); Ch. Nodier, Discours de réception, 26th December (1833); Welschinger, Théâtre de la révolution (1880).
LAYAMON, early English poet, was the author of a chronicle of Britain entitled Brut, a paraphrase of the Brut d’Angleterre by Wace, a native of Jersey, who is also known as the author of the Roman de Rou. The excellent edition of Layamon by Sir F. Madden (Society of Antiquaries, London, 1847) should be consulted. All that is known concerning Layamon is derived from two extant MSS., which present texts that often vary considerably, and it is necessary to understand their comparative value before any conclusions can be drawn. The older text (here called the A-text) lies very near the original text, which is unfortunately lost, though it now and then omits lines which are absolutely necessary to the sense. The later text (here called the B-text) represents a later recension of the original version by another writer who frequently omits couplets, and alters the language by the substitution of better-known words for such as seemed to be obsolescent; e.g. harme (harm) in place of balewe (bale), and dead in place of feie (fated to die, or dead). Hence little reliance can be placed on the B-text, its chief merit being that it sometimes preserves couplets which seem to have been accidentally omitted in A; besides which, it affords a valuable commentary on the original version.
We learn from the brief prologue that Layamon was a priest among the people, and was the son of Leovenath (a late spelling of A.-S. Leofnoth); also, that he lived at Ernley, at a noble church on Severn bank, close by Radstone. This is certainly Areley Regis, or Areley Kings, close by Redstone rock and ferry, 1 m. to the S. of Stourport in Worcestershire. The B-text turns Layamon into the later form Laweman, i.e. Law-man, correctly answering to Chaucer’s “Man of Lawe,” though here apparently used as a mere name. It also turns Leovenath into Leuca, i.e. Leofeca, a diminutive of Leofa, which is itself a pet-name for Leofnoth; so that there is no real contradiction. But it absurdly substitutes “with the good knight,” which is practically meaningless, for “at a noble church.”
We know no more about Layamon except that he was a great lover of books; and that he procured three books in particular which he prized above others, “turning over the leaves, and beholding them lovingly.” These were: the English book that St Beda made; another in Latin that St Albin and St Austin made; whilst the third was made by a French clerk named Wace, who (in 1155) gave a copy to the noble Eleanor, who was queen of the high king Henry (i.e. Henry II.).
The first of these really means the Anglo-Saxon translation of Beda’s Ecclesiastical History, which begins with the words: “Ic Beda, Cristes theow,” i.e. “I, Beda, Christ’s servant.” The second is a strange description of the original of the translation, i.e. Albinus Beda’s own Latin book, the second paragraph of which begins with the words: “Auctor ante omnes atque adiutor opusculi huius Albinus Abba reverentissimus vir per omnia doctissimus extitit”; which Layamon evidently misunderstood. As to the share of St Augustine in this work, see Book I., chapters 23-34, and Book II., chapters 1 and 2, which are practically all concerned with him and occupy more than a tenth of the whole work. The third book was Wace’s poem, Brut d’Angleterre. But we find that although Layamon had ready access to all three of these works, he soon settled down to the translation of the third, without troubling much about the others. His chief obligation to Beda is for the well-known story about Pope Gregory and the English captives at Rome; see Layamon, vol. iii. 180.