L — Lettre de Cachet to Libel (Part 3 of 3)

in Westminster Abbey under who royal throne, on which the English sovereigns sit at their coronation. (See Coronation Chair, Scone .)

Liakura (3 syl.). Parnassus.

“But where is he that hath beheld
The peak of Liakura unveiled.”
Byron: The Giaour.

Liar (The). Al Aswad, who set himself up as a prophet against Mahomet. He was called the Weathercock because he changed his creed so often, the Impostor, and the Liar.
   Moseilma, another contemporary, who affirmed that the “belly is the seat of the soul.” He wrote to Mahomet, and began his letter: “From Moseilma, prophet of Allah, to Mahomet, prophet of Allah,” and received for answer a letter beginning thus: “From Mahomet the prophet of God, to Moseilma the Liar.” (Anglo-Saxon, leog-an, to tell a falsehood; but to be recumbent is lieg-an or lig-an.)
   Prince of Liars. Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, a Portuguese traveller, whose narrative is so much after Munchausen's style, that Cervantes dubbed him “Prince of Liars.” The Tatler called him a man “of infinite adventure and unbounded imagination.”

Libel means a little book (Latin, libellus). A lampoon, a satire, or any defamatory writings. Originally it meant a plaintiff's statement of his case, which usually “defames” the defendant.
   The greater the truth, the greater the libel. The dictum of William Murray, Earl of Mansfield (1704-1793).

“Dost not know that old Mansfield, who writes like the Bible,
Says: `The more 'tis a truth, sir, the more 'tis a libel'?”
Burus.