LESTOCQ LESUEUR. 



449 



changed his intention. The little court of Bruns- 

 wick was. then almost the only one in Germany 

 which fostered German literature : the others confin- 

 ed their attention to the French. In 1769, he left 

 Hamburg. In the library of Wolfenbuttel, he dis- 

 covered the MSS. of the exsubstantiator Berenga- 

 rius of Tours, in which he refutes the work of the 

 transubstantiator Lanfrancus. He also published 

 some theological treatises, under the title of Wolfen- 

 biittel Fragments of an unknown Author, which in- 

 volved him in a theological war. In 1775, he went 

 to Vienna, having received an invitation to that 

 city, and accompanied prince Leopold of Brunswick 

 to Italy, which he had Jong desired to see. He left 

 Germany in April, but returned the same year; and 

 the theological disputes in which he was involved, 

 now became so acrimonious, that it was proposed, at 

 Wolfenbiittel, to subject his writings to a strict cen- 

 sorship. His Nathan the Wise, from its supposed 

 irreligious tendency, added to the fierceness of the 

 controversy. As a poem, it is, in our opinion, much 

 the finest that he has written. The persecutions 

 which he encountered destroyed his peace, and he 

 died February 15, 1781. His complete works were 

 published at Berlin (1771, etseq.); another edition 

 (Berlin, 1 796, et seq. 30 vols.); to which must be add- 

 ed his Correspondence, in 2 vols. (Berlin, 1798); a 

 new edition appeared at Berlin (1824), in 34 vols.; 

 a pocket edition has been published at the same 

 place since 1825. Lessing's Thoughts and Opinions, 

 collected and explained from his Writings, by F. 

 Schlegel, appeared at Leipsic (1804, 3 vols.). His 

 brother, K. G. Lessing, published an account of his 

 life (Berlin, 1793, 2 vols.). 



LESTOCQ, JOHN HERMANN ; a favourite of the 

 Russian empress Elizabeth, twice elevated by fortune 

 to be twice precipitated from his high honours. Le- 

 stocq was born in Hanover, in 1692, of French parents, 

 who had fled from the religious persecutions of Louis 

 XIV. He studied surgery under his father, went to 

 Russia, then a good field for men of talents, and en- 

 tered the service of Peter the Great, as a surgeon, and 

 enjoyed his entire confidence. A sudden change in 

 the emperor's dispositions towards him took place, 

 and Lestocq, without knowing the cause, was ban- 

 ished to Kasan. Catharine I. recalled him after the 

 death of Peter, and gave him the place of surgeon at 

 the court of her daughter Elizabeth. Entirely devot- 

 ed to the interests of his mistress, he offered her his 

 assistance in gaining possession of the crown, after 

 the death of Peter II., but his daring plans were then 

 rejected. Eleven years later (1740), when the youth 

 of Ivan, and the regency of his mother Anne, again 

 presented an opportunity, his advice was adopted. 

 The active and politic Lestocq guided the daring 

 enterprise, never, even in moments of the greatest 

 danger, losing his presence of mind, and, November 

 24, 1741, Elizabeth ascended the throne. The new 

 empress made him her privy counsellor, and chief 

 physician, and director-general of medical institutions. 

 The king of Poland created him count, and sent him 

 his miniature to be worn in his button-hole, like an 

 order. In compliance with the wishes of the em- 

 press, Lestocq was obliged to interfere in affairs 

 foreign to his province. This circumstance, and the 

 frankness of his character, increased the number of 

 his enemies, who succeeded in exciting the suspicions 

 of the empress. Lestocq was arrested in 1748, and 

 confined in the fortress of St Petersburg for trial. 

 At first, he bore this change of circumstances with 

 cheerfulness and calmness ; but when he was to be 

 subjected to the rack, he confessed himself guilty. 

 He was deprived of all his honours and estates, and 

 banished to Uglitsch, where he remained three years, 

 and then to Ustjug- Veliki, where he was in prison 



nine years. His third wife, Maria Aurora, shared 

 the fate of her husband with an exemplary firmness. 

 When Peter III. ascended the throne, Lestocq was 

 restored to his honours. Catharine II. continued 

 his pension without his offices. He died in 1767. 



LESTRANGE, SIR ROGER, a political partisan and 

 controversialist, was the youngest son of Sir Ham- 

 mond Lestrange, knight, of Hunstanton-hall, Norfolk, 

 where he was born in 1616. His father, being a 

 zealous royalist, brought up his son in the same prin- 

 ciples. At the age of twenty-two, he attended 

 Charles I. in his expedition into Scotland, and laid a 

 plan for surprising Lynn, but being detected with the 

 king's commission in his pocket, he was tried by a 

 court martial, as a spy. and condemned. He was, 

 however, respited from time to time, until he had lain 

 in prison four years, when, by the connivance of his 

 gaoler, he made his escape to the continent. On the 

 dissolution of the long parliament, he returned home. 

 On the restoration, he was made licenser of the press 

 a profitable post. In 1663, he set up the Public 

 Intelligencer, which he discontinued on the design, 

 then concerted, of publishing a London Gazette, the 

 first number of which appeared February 4, 1665. 

 In 1679, he set up a paper, called the Observator, in 

 defence of the measures of the court. In 1687, he 

 was obliged to give up the Observator, because he 

 could not agree with James, who had knighted him, 

 in the doctrine of toleration, although lie had written 

 in favour of the dispensing power. His death took 

 place in 1704, at the age of eighty-eight, his faculties 

 having become impaired some years before. He was 

 the author of a great number of political tracts, full 

 of coarse and virulent abuse, and in a style so rude 

 and vulgar, that lie was regarded by Granger as one 

 of the great corrupters of the English language. 

 Lestrange translated Josephus (his best work), Cicero's 

 Offices, Seneca's Morals, Quevedo's Visions, &c. 



LESUEUR, EUSTACHE, one of the most distin- 

 guished French painters, born at Paris, in 1617, was 

 instructed in drawing by his father, a statuary, and 

 was afterwards placed at the school of Simon Vouet, 

 the true founder of the French school of painting. 

 He soon distinguished himself by several pieces in 

 the true Italian style; but his reputation was not 

 completely established till he had executed his paint- 

 ings for the Carthusian monastery in Paris. In 

 twenty-two pictures, he delineated (1649 1651), the 

 principal scenes in the life of St Bruno, the founder 

 of the order. Lithographic sketches of this work 

 were published at Paris, in 1822 and 23. In 1 650, 

 he painted, for the corporation of goldsmiths, the 

 preaching of the apostle Paul at Ephesus. This 

 painting was presented to the church of Notre-Dame, 

 and was exhibited annually on the first of May. His 

 next works were a Magdalen and a St Lawrence, 

 and, in 1651, two scenes from the life of St Martin, 

 &c. Among the most distinguished of his later 

 works are some mythological scenes in the hotel 

 Lambert relating to Cupid and the Muses with Apollo. 

 After completing this work, he died, in the thirty- 

 eighth year of his age. Incessant toil, and the jea- 

 lousy of his companions in art, brought him to his 

 grave. His countrymen call him the French Raphael, 

 and it is not to be denied that he had great merit. 

 His conceptions are noble and elevated ; his compo- 

 sition is simple, careful, and well arranged ; the 

 drawing is correct, in good taste, and proves his 

 diligent study of the antique and of the great Italian 

 masters, particularly of Raphael ; his drapery is art- 

 fully disposed, and executed with great truth. His 

 figures are full of animation and character ; the posi- 

 tions are various, and free from manner. He displays 

 great boldness and freedom of pencil ; his colouring 

 is delicate and simple, but deficient in truth and 



2F 



