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 LANGLfiS LANGTON 145 at Oxford, and became a monk at Malvern. The familiarity of the author with the Scrip- tures and the church fathers indicates that he was an ecclesiastic ; several local allusions in the poem, and the fact that its scene is the " Malverne hilles," prove that it was composed on the borders of Wales; and internal evi- dence fixes its date at about 1362. It narrates the dreams of Piers Ploughman, who, weary of the world, falls asleep beside a stream in a vale among the Malvern hills; and while satirizing in vigorous allegorical descriptions the corruptions in church and state, and the vices incident to the various professions of life, and painting the obstacles which resist the amelioration of mankind, it presents the simple ploughman as the embodiment of virtue and truth, and the representative of the Saviour. Its ancient popularity appears from the large number of MS. copies still extant, most of them belonging to the latter part of the 14th century. It was a favorite of religious and political re- formers, and several imitations of it appeared, the most important of which was "Piers Ploughman's Orede," written about 1393 by some Wyclifiite, assailing the clergy, and es- pecially the monks. In 1550 the " Vision of Piers Ploughman " was printed by the reform- ers, and so favorably received that three edi- tions were sold within a year ; and the name of the ploughman is often introduced in the political tracts of the 16th and 17th centuries. This poem is a remarkable example of a system of verse derived from the Anglo-Saxons, and marked by a regular alliteration instead of rhyme. There are two classes of manuscripts, which give the text with considerable varia- tions. The best edition both of the " Vision " and the " Creed " is that of Thomas Wright (2d ed., 2 vols., London, 1856), with notes, a glossary, and variations. LANGLKS, Louis Mathien, a French orientalist, born near St. Didier, Aug. 23, 1763, died Jan. 28, 1824. He studied Arabic and Persian un- der Sylvestre de Sacy, and in 1787 published a French translation from the Persian of Tam- erlane's "Political and Military Institutes," supposed to have been written by Tamerlane in the Mongol language. He was intrusted with the publication of the Mantchoo-French lexicon by Father Amiot, which he accomplish- ed with accuracy and success. He induced the French republican government to establish the special school of oriental languages, which is still in existence. He was its first adminis- trator, and professor of the Persian, Malay, and Mantchoo, but taught only the first of these languages. The geographical society of Paris was founded principally through his exertions. He published a great number of works relating to oriental literature, history, and geography, and by his enthusiasm and liberality contributed perhaps more than any other man of his time to the extension of oriental studies. But his learning was confused and inexact, and his works are of little authority. LANGLOIS, Jean Charles, a French painter, born at Beaumont-en- A uge, July 22, 1789, died in Paris in 1870. He was in the army more than 40 years, till 1849, and exhibited pano- ramas of the principal battles he had witnessed, his " Capture of the Malakoff " especially at- tracting great attention. He published several military and other narratives. LANGLOIS, Victor, a French orientalist, born in Dieppe, March 20, 1829, died May 14, 1869. He explored Cilicia and Little Armenia in 1852-'3, and the terra cotta figures which he had found in his excavations in the necropolis of Tarsus were exhibited in the Louvre. He discovered more than 80 new Greek inscrip- tions, and published the results of his research- es in four works (1854-'61). In 1857 and in 1861 he went to Italy in search of historical data as to the relations between France and Armenia during the crusades. His other works relate to Egyptian and -Georgian numismatics (1852), and to the convent of St. Lazarus and the Mekhitarist congregation, with an outline of Armenian history and literature (1862). In 1867 appeared his Le mont Athos et ses monas- teres, with a photolithographic reproduction of the geography of Ptolemy, of which the Greek manuscript of the 17th century is pre- served in that monastery. The first volume of his Collection des Mstoriens anciens et mo- dernes de VArmenie, a translation from the Armenian, was published in 1868, under the auspices of the Egyptian prime minister Nubar Pasha, but he did not live to complete the work. LASGKKS. a fortified town of Champagne, France, in the department of Haute-Marne, on the left bank of the Marne, 145 m. S. E. of Paris ; pop. in 1866, 8,320. It has a commu- nal college, a commercial court, and a theologi- cal seminary. The town is on a steep hill, be- longing to the so-called plateau of Langres, and is the most elevated in northern France. The most important manufacture is cutlery. Lan- gres has been the see of a bishop since the 3d century. It is the birthplace of Diderot, to whom a monument has been erected. LANGTOFT, Peter, an English chronicler, so called from the parish of Langtoft in York- shire, flourished in the latter half of the 13th century and the commencement of the 14th. Little is known of his life beyond the fact that he was a canon regular of the order of St. Austin, and produced a translation from the Latin into French verse of Bosenham's "Life of Thomas a Becket," and a French metrical " Chronicle of England," from Trojan times to the end of the reign of Edward I. The manu- scripts of the latter are preserved in the Cot- tonian collection in the British museum, and among the Arundel manuscripts in the same repository. The "Chronicle" was rendered into English verse by Eobert de Brunne, whose version was edited by Hearne and pub- lished in 1725. LANGTOff, Stephen, an English prelate, born in Devonshire according to some authors, in