Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/867

* LA KOCHE. 783 his first appearance in Dresden at seventeen, and playing in Danzig, Lomberg, Berlin, Kijnigsberg, and, in 1823, Weimar, where he met Goethe. In 1883, after several tours, he was engaged for life in the Vienna Burgtheater. He received the order of the Iron Crown, with the title of cheva- lier, in 1873. His roles were many and varied, and were famed fur their vcrisiiiiilit iiili' nncl tlic coiisfieiitious stiiiiy oi tlic autliin'. wiiicii thf' evidenced. Chief among them were Mepliis- toplieles (a part La Roche learned under Goethe's supervision), Lear, Shylock, Cromwell, and ilal- volio. Consult Mautncr, /iTorl Z/O ifocAe (Vienna, 1873). LA ROCHE, Sophie (1731-1807). A German novelist, born at Kauflieure'n. After her father's second marriage, Sopliie was sent to Biberach to live in the family of Wieland, the poet's father (1750); and four years later, after a long platonie friendship with the young poet, who wrote of her under the names Doris, Serena, and Sylvia, she married Georg Michael Frank von La Roche (or Lichtenfels). Their home near Coblenz became a meeting-place for the literary men of the day. Goethe celebrates it in the thirteenth book of his Dichtuiig und Wahrheit. Her romances are written in the epistolic manner of Richardson, and the char- acters of her best-known novel. Gcscliichte des h'mulein von Sternhcim (1771), bear a close resemblance to those in Clarissa Barloue. Her other books are : Moralische Erzuhhtni/eii (1782) : Gcscliichte von Miss Long (1789) ; Kchiines Bild der Resiymition (179.5); and Mchisincns .S'om- merabende (1806). Consult RidderhofT, Sophie La Roche, die Schiilrrin liichaiJsons und Jfoiis- seaus (Einbcck, 189.5). LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, la rosh'foo'kd', FRAxrois (1013-80), sixtli Duke of. Prince of !Marcillac. A French epigrammatic moralist, born in Paris, December 15, l(il3. He is a type of the cynical satirist of liuman nature. Of ancient and powerful family, he had little scholastic education, but was an apt pupil in the school of public life. He .joined the army at sixteen, be- ing already nominally married to Andree de Vi- vonne, of whom little is known. He served in the army for some years bravely but without dis- tinction, became attached to Madame de Chev- reuse. and through her to Queen Anne, and en- gaged in intrigues against Richelieu and in the plots of the Fronde. His Apolofiie du prince de Marcillnc appeared in 1049. His father died in 1650. He was shot in the head at the battle of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. 1652; spent some years in country retirement, returned to Court shortly before Mazarin's death, became a leading light of the literary salon of iladame de Sable, was vexed and imperiled by the pulilication of alleged ilcmoires in 1662, and in 1665 published anonymously liis famims .l/f/j-i'm cs, under the title h'c/lcxions OH srnlciicis cl ina.rinics iiionilis. From this year till his death (March 17, 1680) he was a close friend of Madame de La Fay- ette (q.v.), and lived in dignity and honor, troubled only by the gout, of which he died. His Mihnoircs. first published in an approximate- ly genuine form in 1817, are among the best of a time peculiarly rich in this form of writing; his Leitres, first published in 1818, are of great historic and social interest; his Maximes, pass- ing through five e<litions in his lifetime, and in- creased by 50 in an edition of 1693, are astonish- LAROCHEJACQUELELN. ingly acute jinalyses of motive. They combine to a degree never surpassed clearness, point, preg- nancy, and brevity. The social philosophy that they enforce is that of self-interest, "in which ail virtues are lost like rivers in the sea;" but it is an inference, not a doctrine. There are some 700 of these maxims, often of but two or three lines, never of more than twenty, and all so ex- pressed as to be an enduring artistic delight. La Rocliefoucauld's (Euvrcs are admirably edited by Gilbert and Gourdault (3 vols., Paris, 1868- 84). Editions of the Maximes are many. The finest is the Edition des bibliophiles (1870). Consult: Sainte-Beuve, C'auseries, vol. ii. (Paris 1881) ; Levasseur, La Rochefoucauld (ib., 1862) ; Deschanel, Pascal, La Rochefoucauld, Bossuet (ib., 1885) ; Rahstede, Studien zu La Rochefoucauld (Brunswick, 1888) ; Bourdeau, La Rochefoucauld (Paris, 1895) ; H^mon, La Rochefoucauld ( ib., 1896). LA _ROCHEFOUCAULD - LIANCOURT, lyax'koUr', Fk.4N(oi.s Alexandre Frkueric, Duke of (1747-1827). An eminent French philanthro- pist. In the period preceding the outbreak of the French Revolution he devoted himself to the study and practice of benevolent works, founding on his estate near Clermont a model school for the education of the children of poor soldiers. He was a representative of the nobles of Clermont in the States-General, where he displayed remarkable activity in matters con- cerning the amelioration of the condition of the poor and the defective. After the dissolution of the National Assembly he was made lieutenant- general and placed in command of the depart- ment of Xormandy. He fled from the Terror to England (1792), and visited North America (1795-97), a journey on which he published Voy- age dans les Etats-Unis d'Amcrit]ue (8 vols., 1798). He wrote also Les prisons dc Philadelphie ( 1796), in which he advocated radical penological reforms and the abolition of capital punishment. From 1799 La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt lived quietly in Paris, occupied only with the exten- sion of vaccination and similar works of benevo- lence. Napoleon restored to him his ducal title in 1809. After the Restoration he was made a peer, but soon gave oftense to the Court by opposing its unconstitutional polic.v. He founded the first savings bank in France. — His second son, Alex- * ANDBE, Count of La Rochefoucauld (1767-1841), served under Lafayette in the early years of the Revolution, but fled the country at the same time as his father. Under Napoleon he was diplomatic representative at the Saxon Court, at Vienna, and in Holland. After the fall of Napoleon III. he was a member repeatedly of the Chamber of Deputies and in 1833 was raised to the peerage. LAROCHEJACQUELEIN", M-n'.sh'zhik'laN', T)v Verger de. An ancient and noble family of Poitou in France, distinguished for its devotion to the cause of the Bourbons after 1789. Henri DU Verger, Count de Larochejacquelein (1772- 94). was born at the Chateau of La Darbelli^re, near Cli.ltillon, became an officer in the Guard of Louis XVI., and after the bloody event of August 10. 1792, left Paris and joined the Royalists in La Vcndf'e. He fought in all the long series of bat- tles at Aubiers, BeauprCaux, Thouars, Fontenay, Saumur, and Chatonav. .fter the decisive defeat at Cholet (October. 1793) he was made generalis- simo of the Vendcan forces, though only twentv- one years of age. He led his men successfully