Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/88

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Lacy
74
Lacy

of the Library at Chatsworth' (London, 1879, 4 vols. large 8vo) for the seventh Duke of Devonshire, and edited the first complete publication of the famous Latin lectures on Dante of Benvenuto da Imola, delivered in 1375, 'Comentum super Dantis Aldigherij Comoediam nunc primum integre in lucem editum, sumptibus Guil. Warren Vernon,' Florence, 1887, 5 vols. large 8vo.

He died at Posilipo, near Naples, on 4 Jan. 1895, in his eighty-second year, leaving an only son, Charles Carmichael Lacaita (b. 1853), M.P. for Dundee, 1885-7.

During forty-five years his life and interests were divided between this country and Italy; in the one a polished Englishman, in the other a vivacious Neapolitan and a conscientious landowner. He was a notable Dante scholar, an excellent, bibliographer, a man of wide reading and intellectual sympathy, of great social tact and goodness of heart.

[Information kindly furnished by Mr. C. C. Lacaita; see also the Times, 8 Jan. p. 10, 10 Jan. p. 1, 4, 1895; Lettere ad Antonio Panizzi, pubbl. da L. Pagan, 1880, p. 463, &c.; Minghetti, Miei Ricordi, 1890, iii. 228; Burke's Peerage, 1894, p. 1607.]

H. R. T.

LACY, EDMUND (1370?1455), bishop of Exeter, born probably about 1370, was son of Stephen Lacy and his wife Sibilla, who were buried in the conventual church of the Carmelites at Gloucester. Edmund was probably a native of that city, and was educated at Oxford, where he graduated D.D. In 1398 he was master of University College, and is said to have presided over that society for five years (Wood, Hist. and Ant. ii. 59). On 4 Jan. 1400-1 he appears as canon of Windsor. He was installed prebendary of Hereford Cathedral on 25 Sept. 1412, and in 1414 also held the prebend of Nassington in Lincoln Cathedral. On 12 May 1409 he was sent as envoy to France, and on 22 May 1413 he was appointed agent to the papal court. In Henry V's reign he was dean of the chapel royal, and accompanied the king to Agincourt in 1415 (Nicolas, Agincourt, p. 389). On 8 Feb. 1416-17 he was granted, custody of the temporalities of the bishopric of Hereford; the pope assented to his election on 3 March, and Henry V was present at his consecration on 18 April. In 1420 he was translated to Exeter, the temporalities were restored on 31 Oct., and he was installed on 29 March 1421. In that year he preached before Henry V at Westminster (Walsingham, Hist. Angl. ii. 337). He was one of Henry V's executors, but seems to have taken little part in politics in the following reign, though he is mentioned in a political satire about 1450 (Bentley, Excerpta Historica, p. 162). He was bishop of Exeter for thirty-five years. In 1434 he was excused attendance at parliament on account of his bodily infirmities, but twenty years later he was fined eighty marks for not being present. He died at Chudleigh on 18 Sept. 1455, and was buried on the north side of the choir in Exeter Cathedral. His tomb, which still remains, was long the resort of pilgrims. His will, proved on 8 Oct. 1455, is lost, but his register, covering more than seventeen hundred pages, remains. He gave various books to his chapter, and made other benefactions to the diocese. His 'Liber Pontificalis' was edited from an original fifteenth-century manuscript (the title-page says fourteenth century) by Ralph Barnes and published in 1847 (Exeter, 8vo).

[Preface to Lacy's Liber Pontificalis; Oliver's Bishops of Exeter; Rymer's Fœdera, ix. 404, 422, 450; Beckington Corresp. (Rolls Ser.); Nicolas's Ordinances of the Privy Council; Rolls of Parliament; Ramsay's Lancaster and York, ii. 193; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl., ed. Hardy, passim; Godwin's De Præsulibus Anglise; Stubbs's Reg. Sacrum.]

A. F. P.

LACY, WALTER (1809–1898), actor, whose real name was Williams, the son of a coach-builder in Bristol, born in 1809, was educated for the medical profession, went to Australia, and was first seen on the stage in Edinburgh, in 1829, as Montalban in the 'Honeymoon,' was playing there again in 1832, and acted also in Glasgow, Liverpool, and Manchester. His debut in London was at the Haymarket on 21 Aug. 1838 as Charles Surface. At Covent Garden he appeared, about 1841, as Captain Absolute, and at Drury Lane as Wildrake in the 'Love Chase.' With Charles Kean [q. v.] at the Princess's he was, on 18 Sept. 1852, the original Rouble in Boucicault's 'Prima Donna,' and made a great success as Chateau Renaud in the 'Corsican Brothers.' With Kean he played John of Gaunt in 'Richard II,' Edmund in 'Lear,' Gratiano and Lord Trinket in the 'Jealous Wife.' On 30 June 1860 he was, at the Lyceum, the Marquis of Saint Evremont in 'A Tale of Two Cities,' and at Drury Lane on 17 Oct. 1864 was Cloten to Miss Faucit's Imogen. He was Flutter in the 'Belle's Stratagem' on 8 Oct. 1866 at the St. James's, where he was on 5 Nov. the first John Leigh in 'Hunted Down, or Two Lives of John Leigh.' In two Lyceum revivals of 'Romeo and Juliet' he was Mercutio. On 12 Aug. 1868 he was, at the Princess's, the original Bellingham in Boucicault's 'After Dark.' Other