1828. His father had been one of Napoleon’s officers. The son studied philosophy and history in Paris and wrote historical works of an anti-clerical and rationalizing tendency. These included L’Église et les philosophes au XVIII e siècle (1855; new edition, with a notice of the author by E. de Pressensé, 1879); Essai sur la révolution française (1858); Histoire politique des papes (1860); Lettres d’Evérard (1860), a novel in the form of letters; Le Rétablissement de la Pologne (1863). His magnum opus was his Histoire de Napoléon I er (5 vols., 1867–1875 and 1886; Eng. trans., 4 vols., 1871–1879), which ceased unfortunately at the end of 1811 with the preparations for the Russian campaign of 1812. This book, based on the emperor’s correspondence published in 1858–1870, attempted the destruction of the legends which had grown up around his subject, and sought by a critical examination of the documents to explain the motives of his policy. In his desire to controvert current misconceptions and exaggerations of Napoleon’s abilities Lanfrey unduly minimized his military and administrative genius. A stanch republican, he was elected to the National Assembly in 1871, became ambassador at Bern (1871–1873), and life senator in 1875. He died at Pau on the 15th of November 1877.
His Œuvres complètes were published in 12 vols. (1879 seq.), and his Correspondance in 2 vols. (1885).
LANG, ANDREW (1844– ), British man of letters, was
born on the 31st of March 1844, at Selkirk, Scotland. He was
educated at the Edinburgh Academy, St Andrews University
and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he took a first class in the
final classical schools in 1868, becoming a fellow and subsequently
honorary fellow of Merton College. As a journalist,
poet, critic and historian, he soon made a reputation as one of
the ablest and most versatile writers of the day. His first
publication was a volume of metrical experiments, The Ballads
and Lyrics of Old France (1872), and this was followed at intervals
by other volumes of dainty verse, xxii. Ballades in Blue China
(1880, enlarged edition, 1888), Ballads and Verses Vain (1884),
selected by Mr Austin Dobson; Rhymes à la Mode (1884), Grass
of Parnassus (1888), Ban and Arrière Ban (1894), New Collected
Rhymes (1905). He collaborated with S. H. Butcher in a prose
translation (1879) of the Odyssey, and with E. Myers and Walter
Leaf in a prose version (1883) of the Iliad, both of them remarkable
for accurate scholarship and excellence of style. As a
Homeric scholar, of conservative views, he took a high rank. His
Homer and the Epic appeared in 1893; a new prose translation of
The Homeric Hymns in 1899, with essays literary and mythological,
in which parallels to the Greek myths are given from the
traditions of savage races; and his Homer and his Age in 1906.
His purely journalistic activity was from the first of a varied
description, ranging from sparkling “leaders” for the Daily
News to miscellaneous articles for the Morning Post, and for
many years he was literary editor of Longman’s Magazine;
no critic was in more request, whether for occasional articles
and introductions to new editions or as editor of dainty reprints.
To the study of Scottish history Mr Lang brought a scholarly
care for detail, a piquant literary style, and a gift for disentangling
complicated questions. The Mystery of Mary Stuart (1901,
new and revised ed., 1904) was a consideration of the fresh light
thrown on Mary’s history by the Lennox MSS. in the University
library, Cambridge, strengthening her case by restating the
perfidy of her accusers. He also wrote monographs on The
Portraits and Jewels of Mary Stuart (1906) and James VI. and
the Gowrie Mystery (1902). The somewhat unfavourable view of
John Knox presented in his book John Knox and the Reformation
(1905) aroused considerable controversy. He gave new information
about the continental career of the Young Pretender in
Pickle the Spy (1897), an account of Alastair Ruadh Macdonell,
whom he identified with Pickle, a notorious Hanoverian spy.
This was followed in 1898 by The Companions of Pickle, and in
1900 by a monograph on Prince Charles Edward. In 1900 he
began a History of Scotland from the Roman Occupation, the
fourth volume of which (1907) brought Scottish history down
to 1746. The Valet’s Tragedy (1903), which takes its title from an
essay on the “Man with the Iron Mask,” (see Iron Mask), collects
twelve papers on historical mysteries, and A Monk of Fife
(1896) is a fictitious narrative purporting to be written by
a young Scot in France in 1429–1431. Mr Lang’s versatility
was also shown in his valuable works on folk-lore and on primitive
religion. The earliest of these works was Custom and Myth
(1884); in Myth, Literature and Religion (2 vols., 1887, French
trans., 1896) he explained the irrational elements of mythology
as survivals from earlier savagery; in The Making of Religion
(an idealization of savage animism) he maintained the existence
of high spiritual ideas among savage races, and instituted
comparisons between savage practices and the occult phenomena
among civilized races; he dealt with the origins of totemism (q.v.)
in Social Origins, printed (1903) together with J. J. Atkinson’s
Primal Law. He was one of the founders of the study of
“Psychical Research,” and his other writings on anthropology
include The Book of Dreams and Ghosts (1897), Magic and Religion
(1901) and The Secret of the Totem (1905). He carried the
humour and sub-acidity of discrimination which marked his
criticism of fellow folk-lorists into the discussion of purely
literary subjects in his Books and Bookmen (1886), Letters to
Dead Authors (1886), Letters on Literature (1889), &c. His Blue
Fairy Tale Book (1889), beautifully produced and illustrated,
was followed annually at Christmas by a book of fairy tales and
romances drawn from many sources. He edited The Poems and
Songs of Robert Burns (1896), and was responsible for the Life
and Letters (1897) of J. G. Lockhart, and The Life, Letters and
Diaries (1890) of Sir Stafford Northcote, first earl of Iddesleigh.
LANG, KARL HEINRICH, Ritter von (1764–1835), German
historian, was born on the 7th of June 1764 at Balgheim, near
Nördlingen. From the first he was greatly attracted towards
historical studies, and this was shown when he began to attend
the gymnasium of Oettingen, and in 1782, when he went to the
university of Altdorf, near Nuremberg. At the same time he
studied jurisprudence, and in 1782 became a government clerk
at Oettingen. About the same period began his activities as a
journalist and publicist. But Lang did not long remain an
official. He was of a restless, changeable character, which
constantly involved him in personal quarrels, though he was
equally quick to retire from them. In 1788 he obtained a
position as private tutor in Hungary, and in 1789 became private
secretary to Baron von Bühler, the envoy of Württemberg at
Vienna. This led to further travels and to his entering the
service of the prince of Oettingen-Wallerstein. In 1792 Lang
again betook himself to a university, this time to Göttingen.
Here he came under the influence of the historian, Ludwig
Timotheus Spittler, from whom, as also from Johannes von
Müller and Friedrich Schlegel, his historical studies received a
fresh impulse. At intervals from 1793 to 1801 Lang was closely
connected with the Prussian statesman Hardenberg, who
employed him as his private secretary and archivist, and in
1797 he was present with Hardenberg at the congress of Rastadt
as secretary to the legation. He was occupied chiefly with
affairs of the principalities of Anspach and Bayreuth, newly
acquired by Prussia, and especially in the settlement of disputes
with Bavaria as to their boundaries.
When in 1805 the principalities became part of Bavaria, Lang entered the Bavarian service (1806), was ennobled in 1808 and from 1810 to 1817 held the office of archivist in Munich. He again devoted himself with great enthusiasm to historical studies, which naturally dealt chiefly with Bavarian history. He evolved the theory, among other things, that the boundaries of the old counties or pagi (Gaue) were identical with those of the dioceses. This theory was combated in later days, and caused great confusion in the province of historical geography. For the rest, Lang did great service to the study of the history of Bavaria, especially by bringing fresh material from the archives to bear upon it. He also kept up his activity as a publicist, in 1814 defending in a detailed and somewhat biassed pamphlet the policy of the minister Montgelas, and he undertook critical studies in the history of the Jesuits. In 1817 Lang retired from active life, and until his death, which took place on the 26th of March 1835, lived chiefly in Ansbach.
