LARRA, MARIANO JOSfc DE. 



LASCARIS, ANDREAS JOHANNES. 



603 



defence of Christianity that lii yet been prejiared. Them are his 

 great work*, but there are betide them many other treatise* in which 

 be bat brought hit atora of learning to bcr on queitiuni which aro 

 important in Christ in theology. The most remarkable of tbeee his 

 minor publication* it bit ' Letter on tho Logon,' in which it distinctly 

 appear* that he was of the Unitarian or Sooinian tchooL The best 

 edition of I-ardixr's workt it that by Dr. Andrew Kippia ; but it U no 

 mean proof of the estimation in which they are held, that Urge at 

 they are when collected together, the booksellers but a few yean ago 

 ventured on a rrpublication of them. 



LARRA, MARIANO JOSK DE, a popular Spanish writer on 

 literary anil political subjects, was born at Madrid on the 4th of March 

 1809. Hit father, a physician of repute, wot an adherent of King 

 Joseph, and found himself obliged to leave Spain with the French 

 army when it was driven out of the country at the close of the 

 Pemntular War. The boy, who wat taken with him, was first tent to 

 school in France, and when the family obtained permission to return 

 to Spain in 1817, it wat found that he had almost entirely forgotten 

 the Spanish language. This deficiency was however soon repaired, 

 and be wat noted in after life for the freedom and raciness of his 

 Spanish, and his hostility to the practice of sullying its purity with 

 Gallic idioma, As a boy he was remarkably fond of study and averse 

 to ordinary pastimes, and it was then generally augured that he 

 would become what is termed a bookish man. As he approached 

 manhood his whole character appeared to change; a quarrel with 

 his father, which was never made up, and which was connected, cither 

 as cause or effect, with his abandonment of the study of the law, 

 threw him on the world without resources, and at the age of twenty 

 he contracted a marriage which he afterwards repented, and gave his 

 wife reason to repent. For a profession he adopted that of literature, 

 which, in the time of Ferdinand, was miserably ill-paid in Spain, and 

 so surrounded with restrictions that the works then published had 

 no value in hi) own eyes, and they were systematically omitted by 

 himself in afterwards collecting his works. It was in 1832 when these 

 restrictions were relaxed that he first gained a success with a series 

 of periodical essays called 'El Pobrecito Hablador,' which however 

 was impeded by Calomardc't ministry, and stopped by Zea's at its 

 fourteenth number. The freedom of the press however soon followed, 

 and Larra commenced in the ' Revista Espanolo,' under the signature 

 of Figaro, a series of sketches of Spanish manners, similar to those 

 of Jouy's ' Hermit in Paris,' and Macdonough's now forgotten 

 ' Hermit in London.' Intermingled with these were lively theatrical 

 criticisms, and some sharp political articles of a witty character, and 

 Larra also wrote a novel and a play, besides translating several plays 

 from the French. The name of Figaro was soon universally known, 

 Larra began to move in the first circles, was a constant guest at 

 the English embassy, where he was a favourite companion of the 

 ambassador Mr. Yilliers, now earl of Clarendon, and was presented to 

 Queen Christina at her own desire. In 1835 he took a trip to 

 Portugal, England and France, and was received in the best society 

 of London and Paris, but at the end of ten months returned abruptly 

 to Madrid, and gave as a reason that he could not do without the 

 " sun and chocolate." He said in one of his Figaro essays, speaking 

 of comic authors, " If I might dare to mention myself in company 

 with Moliere and Moratin, if I too might be allowed to claim the 

 title of 'satirical writer,' I would frankly confe.-s that it is only in 

 momenta of melancholy that I aspire to amuse the public." His 

 friends knew this to be too true. He was a prey to the blackest and 

 most incessant melancholy. While also his manners in society were 

 the perfection of polish, his wife and family were tho victims of his 

 ill-temper at home. All came to a sudden close. An intrigue with n 

 married woman, which had lasted five years, was cut short by a deter- 

 mination on her part to relinquish his society : on the 13th of 

 February 1837 Larra had an interview with her at his own house, to 

 prevail on her to give up her intention, but his entreaties were in 

 vain. She left him, and, when some time after, his little daughter 

 entered the room she found her father's corpse stretched on the floor 

 before a mirror, which had probably helped him to aim the pistol 

 which blew his brains out. His remains, even under these circum- 

 stances, were honoured with a public funeral, and among those who 

 recited verses over his grave was a boy of eighteen, whose fame dates 

 from that day, when he was hailed by the mourners with sudden 

 enthusiasm at a compensation for their loss. This was the leading 

 iving poet of Spain, Don Josd Zorrilla. 



A collection of Larra's articles in the periodicals was made, and 

 had partly run to a second edition during his life-time. A collection 

 of his entire works was published after his death in Spanish America, 

 another collection appeared at Madrid in 1843, and this was 

 reprinted in two volumes in 1848 in Baudry's Paris 'Coleccion de los 

 mcjores Autores Espaboles.' The short essays are undoubtedly his 

 best productions, they are happily deficient in that "gravity" of 

 which the Spaniards are in general too fond, and yet arc so thoroughly 

 Spanish in their colouring that after the lapse of more than twenty 

 yean they seem to have rather gained than lost in popularity. 

 Hit novel ' El Doncel de Don Enrique el Doliente,' (' The Page of Don 

 Henry the Melancholy '), written in imitation of Walter Scott, is on 

 tho contrary heavy and cumbersome. It i* founded on the history 

 of the Uallican poet of tho 15th century, Macias 'el Enamorudo, 



who was killed by the husband of a lady to whom he addressed his 

 verses. The same story U tho theme of one of Lam's play a, ' Macias,' 

 in which he treats the whole subject so differently and with so much 

 more spirit, that no one would, without positive information of the 

 fact, suppose that both play and novel were by the tame author, lli.i 

 other diamas are mottly adaptation! or translations from the I . 

 It is singular that the last of them bears the title of ' Thy Love or 

 Death ' (' Tu Amor 6 la Muerte '), so applicable to his own unhappy end. 



LARREY, DOMINIQUE-JEAN, B.VltuN, was born at lieaudeau, 

 near Bagueret de Bigorre, in France, in July 1708. He studied the 

 elements of medicine and surgery at the hospital at Toulouse, under tho 

 direction of his uncle Alexis Larrey, who practised medicine in that city. 

 In 1787 he went to study his profession in Paris, and obtained the ap- 

 pointment of surgeon to the frigate Vigilante, in which he visited North 

 America. He returned to Pari* at the commencement of the revo- 

 lution, and in 1792 joined the French army which was then carrying 

 on its operations on the Rhine. Here he distinguished himself l>v thu 

 invention of the ambulances volantea, by means of which the wouuded, 

 being first dressed, were carried off the field of buttle, even uuiler tho 

 fire of batteries. He was at the siege of Toulon, where he became 

 acquainted with Napoleon Bonaparte, who was then a lieutenant of 

 artillery. In 1796 he was appointed a professor in the school of 

 medicine and military surgery at Val de Grace. In 1798 he accom- 

 panied tho French army with Napoleon to Egypt, and on his return 

 published an historical and surgical account of the expedition, with 

 the title 'Relation historique el chirurgicale de 1'Expeditiou de 

 1'Armde d'Orient en Egypte et on Syrie,' 8vo, Paris, 1803. From this 

 time he was advanced to various honourable positions ; after the 

 battle of Wagram ho was mode a Baron of the Empire, and in 1812 

 he was made turgeou-in-chief of the imperial army. 



An anecdote is related of Larrey which shows his courage, and 

 proves that he did not obtain tho good graces of the Emperor by any 

 sacrifice of character. After the battles of Bautzen and VVurcheu it 

 was suggested to Bonaparte that the number of the wounded hod been 

 increased by voluntary mutilation. He immediately ordered that tho 

 suspected, to the number of 1200, should be separated from the rest 

 to be examined by tho surgeons, and if found guilty they should be 

 shot. Nobody doubted the guilt of the parties, and great anxiety was 

 shown to put the sentence into execution, when Larrey demanded 

 time to examine the suspected persons accurately, and he reported 

 that all the accused were innocent. He addressed a report to this 

 effect to Napoleon, expecting that his dismissal would follow. The 

 contrary was the case, for Napoleon sent him a letter in return with 

 a present of 6000 francs, and the warrant of a pension of 3000 to be 

 paid from his own privy purse. Napoleon bequeathed to Larrey at 

 his death 10,000 francs, at the same time expressing his conviction 

 " Larrey was the most virtuous man he had ever known." 



Larrey published many works besides that above referred to, which 

 contain a great moss of valuable surgical observations. One of his 

 earliest publications was his ' Dissertation sur les Amputations des 

 Membres a la suite des coups de feu, <5tay<5e de plusieurs operations,' 

 Paris, 1796. In this work he demonstrated the necessity of imme- 

 diate amputation after gun-shot wounds, and for the first time clearly 

 pointed out the cases in which it was indicated. In addition to these 

 works he published ' Me'moires de Chirurgie militaire et Campagnes,' 

 8vo, Paris, 1812; 'Recueil de Mdmoires de Chirurgie, 1 8vo, < 

 1821. A multitude of papers scattered throughout the medical and 

 surgical journals of France, the Bulletins of the Academy of Paris, 

 and other volumes, on almost every department of surgery, bear 

 testimony to his industry and talent, and tho enlightened principles 

 on which he based the practice of his profession. Some of these 

 have been translated into most of the languages of Europe, and have 

 obtained for Larrey a first position amongst modern surgeons. He 

 died at Lyon, on the 25th of July 1841. 



LA'SCARIS, ANDREAS JOHANNES, of the same family, but some- 

 what younger than COSSTANTINE LASCAIUS, was called RUYNDACENUS, 

 because he came from some placa in Bithyuia, near the banks of the 

 Rhyudacus. Andreas Loscaris left Greece at the time of the Turkish 

 conquest, and repaired to Florence, where Lorenzo do' Medici took 

 him under his patronage, and afterwards sent him to Greece in order 

 to collect valuable manuscripts, of which Lascaris brought back a 

 considerable number to Italy. After the death of Lorenzo he went 

 to France, and gave lessons in Greek at Paris. Budicus was one of 

 his pupils. In 1503 he was sent by Louis XII. on a mission to Venice ; 

 after fulfilling which he went to Rome, where Leo X. gave him the 

 direction of the Greek college which he had just founded. In 1518 

 Lascaris returned to Paris, and was employed, together with Budaeus, 

 in collecting and arranging the royal library of Fontainebleau ; after 

 which Francis I. sent him again to Venice as his ambassador. At last 

 Pope Paul III. having pressed him very urgently to come to Rome, 

 Lascaris set out, notwithstanding his advanced age and his infirmi- 

 ties; but a few mouths after his arrival at Rome he died, in 1535, 

 being about ninety years of age. Lascaris published or edited tho 

 following Greek works: 'The Hymns of Calliiuachus,' with scholia; 

 ' Commentaries on Sophocles :' a Greek Anthology, fol., 1494 ; ' Scholia 

 on tho Iliad,' and a dissertation, with the title, ' Homericarum Qutes- 

 tionum et de Nympharum antro in Odyssjoa Opusoolum,' Rome, 1518. 

 Some other works ore also attributed to Lascaris, such as 'De veria 



