LESBI
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LB800T
actors forced him, like Piron, to go to the minor theatre
of the Foire, for which he coIIalx>rated in writing about
a hundred plays. Amidst the sorrows and mfirmi-
ties of age, he still wrote, hurriedly and incessantly, in
order .o make a living. He resided at Xhv, time with
one of his sons, a canon at Boulogne-sur-Mcr, at which
place he died, aged eighty.
Besides the short farce of " Crispin*', three works of LeSage are worthy of special mention: *'Turcaret'*,
- 'Le Diable Boiteux ", and Gil Bias ". '^Turcaret
ou le Financier" (1709) is a comedy in prose in which the principal character is a financier. This upstart, who has risen by theft and usury, is surrouncled by people equally unscrupulous. It is an assemblage of rogues. A coquette shares her favours between Tur- caret, who loves her and pays her, and a fashionable cavalier whom she loves. Frontin, the cavalier's valet, sums up the play fairly well when he says to his master: " We pluck a cocjuette; the coquette ruins a financier; the financier swindles others, which makes the most amusing ricochet of knavish tricks imag- inable." The dialogue is spirited, the descriptions are true to life, and the action is full of animation. Per- haps no other play approaches so closely to Moliere's great comedies. ' ' Le Diable Boiteux " ( 1 707) is based on a story from the Spanish A\Titer Guevara (1641): The demon Asmodeus removes the roofs of the hoiLscij of Madrid, to show to a Castilian student the foibles and vices within the buildings. Aside from this I^ Sage finds his inspiration in the Parisian himself; he describes Parisian society with truth and pioturcsque- ness in a series of detached adventures and scenes. The success of the work was great. liC Sage's great- est work, however, was '^Ilistoire de Gil Bias de San- tUlane" (4 vols., 1715-35). The Spaniard Gil Bias, hero of the romance, is in turn lackey, physician, maior-domo of the great lord, secretary to an arch- bishop, favourite of the prime minister. He is finally given a title and an estate; he marries and peacefully writes his memoirs. The moral of the book is that one must constantly guard against the wiles of hypocrites and impostors. The writer correctly paints, with art- ful satire, French society as it was in the eighteenth century, and in fact society in j^eneral. In apit« of assertion, "Gil Bias" is not plagiarized from a Span- ish novel. It is an original work, and in France is con- sidered one of the masterpieces of romance.
Walter Scott, Mittcellaneoua Prose Works, III; Ticknor, History of Spantnh Literature^ I; TjIntilhac, Lepage (Purls, 1893); Lb Brettos, Le Roman auXVIJInide (Paris, 1898).
Georcjks Bertrin.
Lesbi, a titular see in Mauretania Sitifensis, suffra- gan of Sitifis, or S6tif , in Algeria. It is not, ajs is some- times stated, the island of I^sbos, which never was a titular bisnopric. and which, moreover, posseases two titular arcnbisnoprics: Mytilene and Methjinna. Of Lesbi we only know, from the " Itinerarium An- tonini", that it was situated twenty-five miles from Tupusuctu or Tiklat, and eighteen miles from Horrea Amnici, now Ain-Roua, south of Bougie. The town, therefore, was on the Sava, i. e. the Oued-Bou-Sellam, but there are no remains to be seen. Two of its bishops are recorded: Romanus, a Donatist, present at the conventionof Carthage, 411; Vadius, a Catho- lic, exiled by King Huneric, 484.
TOULETTK, Ofograpnie de VAfrique ehrHienne; MaurHanies (Montreuil, 1894), 212. S. VailhI^:.
Lescarbot, Marc, French law^'er, writer, and his- torian, b. at Vervins, between 15G5 and 1570; d. about 1629. Curiosity to see the Xew World and devotion to the public weal prompted him to follow Poutrin- court to Port-Royal, in Acadia, in 1606. His profi- ciency in Cliristian doctrine enabled him to instruct the Indians of the neighbourhocxl of Port-Royal. His material aid to the settlers was not less efficient : he built Bgristrinill for their wheat, a still to produce tar, and
ovens for making charcoal. After his return to France
(1607), he published (1609), under the title of "His-
toire de la Nouvelle-France", a narrative of his voy-
age which has made his name famous. Lescarbot
gives in this work a summanr of ail the attempts at
colonising made by the French in America, notaoly in
Florida, Brazil, and Acadia, where he hiinself played
an important part. He was long considered an excel-
lent authority, and is still often quoted as an exact,
alert, and faithful witness. This work underwent six
editions in the beginning of the seventeenth century
from 1609 to 1618, and a seventh in 1866. It was first
translated into English in 1609, and a translation, by
L. W. Grant, was published in 1907. Lescarbot also
wrote " Adieux k la France " (1606) ; " Les Muses de la
Nouvelle-France" (1609); "La d^faite des sauvages
amouchiquois par le Sagamo Membertou" (1609).
After a journey in Switzerland , he publishe*! (1G13),
in verse, "TahlcMMdes treize Cantons".
Dictionnaire de Jctl; Marcel, Une IfUre xnMite de Lf9carboi (Puns, 1885): Grant, The History of New France (Toronto, 1007) (a tr. of Lescarbot *s work).
Lionel Ijni>say.
Lescot, Plerbk, one of the greatest architects of France in the pure Renaissance style, b. at Paris about 1510; d. there, 157 1 . The ver>' improbable report that he was never in Italy has been sufficiently' refuted. Moreover, he was descended from the Italian family of Alessi, Francis I took him into his service, and, by this king and his successors, I^scot was rewarded with many honours and with a benefice. At his death he was a conunendatory ablx)t as well as Lord (sicur) of Clagnv. With the active support of Francis I, the early kenaissance entered on a period of glorious proe- perity, and in the later years of his reign display^ a distinctive cliaracter. From that time it rivalled the Italian Renaissance in its zenith, although, by meet- ing the demands of French taste, it became somewhat more ostentatious. Ixjscot proved its most brilliant exponent. For the decorations of his buildings he as- sociated himself with the sculptor, Trebatti, a pupil of Michelangelo, and especially with the ablest plastic artist of the pure style, Jean Goujon. The perfection of their achievement depended to a ^eat extent upon the harmonious combination of their mutual efforts. It has been thought that, even in architectural mat- ters, Lescot was very dependent upon his friend, though the latter named him with Philibert de L'Orme as the most eminent architects of France, and the ac- counts for the building of the Louvre designate Lescot as the archttect and (joujon as the sculptor. Francis I appointed him architect of the Louvre in' 1546, and with this building his fame will always be connected. For remodelling tlie old Imstions of the fortress into a residence, the celebrated Italian, Serlio, drew up a plan which he himself afterwards put aside in favour of Lescot's design. Three sides of a square court were to \ye enclosed by living apartments of royal splendour, while the fourth or east side was probably destined to open with an arcade. Corner pavilions, remark^le for commanding height and adorned by pillars and statues, replaced the medieval towers.
The master was destined to finish only the west side and part of the south side. The building was two stories high with a richly ornamented attic crowned by a tasteful roof. In the ground story the windows were rounded; the small round windows over the
fortals (ceih de hcenf) afterwards became very popular. n the second story the windows are square and fij> isheil off with plain Renaiasance pediments. Shgfatly
f)rojecting memliers and slabs of coloured marble give ife to the massive masonry. A peculiar effect was ob- tained by the sparing use of rough-hewn stone in the comer decorations. Goujon's noble sculptures and the architectural ornaments, although numerous and splendid, were cleverly subordinated to the construo- tion. The style corresponded to the *' latest manner'*
