Chapter Lillyvick to Linkinwater of L by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Lillyvick to Linkinwater

Lillyvick, the collector of water, rates, and uncle to Mrs. Kenwigs. He considered himself far superior in a social point of view to Mr. Kenwigs, who was only an ivory-turner; but he confessed him to be “an honest, well-behaved, respectable sort of a man.” Mr. Lillyvick looked on himself as one of the élite of society. “If ever an old gentleman made a point of appearing in public shaved close and clean, that old gentleman was Mr. Lillyvick. If ever a collector had borne himself like a collector, and assumed a solemn and portentous dignity, as if he had the whole world on his books, that collector was Mr. Lillyvick.” Mr. Kenwigs thought the collector, who was a bachelor, would leave each of the Kenwigses £100; but he “had the baseness” to marry Miss Petowker of the Theatre Royal, and “swindle the Kenwigses of their golden expectations.”—Dickens: Nicholas Nickleby (1838).

Lily (The), the French king for the time being. So called from the lilies, which, from the time of Clovis, formed the royal device of France. Tasso (Jerusalem Delivered) calls them gigli d’ore (“golden lilies”); but lord Lytton calls them “silver lilies”—

Lord of the silver lilies, canst thou tell
If the same fate await not thy descendant?
   —Lord Lytton: The Duchess de la Vallière (1836).

The Lily Maid of Astolat, Elaine.—Tennyson: Idylls of the King (1859). (“Astolat” is in Guildford, Surrey.)

The Lily of Medicine, a treatise written by Bernard Gordon, called Lilium Medicinœ (1480). (See Gordonius, p. 438.)

Limberham, a tame, foolish keeper. Supposed to be meant for the duke of Lauderdale.—Dryden: Limberham or The Kind Keeper.

Limbo (Latin, limbus, “an edge”), a sort of neutral land on the confines of paradise, for those who are not good enough for heaven and not bad enough for hell, or rather for those who cannot (according to the Church “system”) be admitted into paradise, either because they have never heard the gospel or have never been baptized.

These of sin
Were blameless; and if aught they merited,
It profits not, since baptism was not theirs.
…If they before
The gospel lived, they served not God aright.
…For these defects
And for no other evil, we are lost.
   —Dante: Inferno, iv. (1300).

Limbo of the Moon. Ariosto, in his Orlando Furioso, xxxiv. 70, says, in the moon are treasured up the precious time misspent in play, all vain efforts, all vows never paid, all counsel thrown away, all desires that lead to nothing, the vanity of titles, flattery, great men’s promises, court services, and death-bed alms. Pope says—

There heroes’ wits are kept in ponderous vases,
And beaus’ in snuff-boxes and tweezer-cases;
There broken vows and death-bed alms are found,
And lovers’ hearts with ends of ribbon bound;
The courtier’s promises, the sick man’s prayers,
The smiles of harlots, and the tears of heirs;
Cages for gnats, and chains to yoke a flea,
Dried butterflies, and tomes of casuistry.
   —Pope: Rape of the Lock, v. (1712).

Limbus Fatuorum or the “Fools’ Paradise,” for idiots, madmen, and others who are not responsible for their sins, but yet have done nothing worthy of salvation. Milton says, from the earth fly to the Paradise of Fools

All things transitory and vain…the fruits
Of painful superstition and blind zeal…
All the unaccomplished works of Nature’s hand,
Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mixed…
The builders here of Babel…
Others come single.
He who to be deemed
A god, leaped fondly into Etna’s flames,
Empedoclês; and he who to enjoy
Plato’s elysium, leaped into the sea…
Embryos and idiots, eremites and friars.
   —Milton: Paradise Lost, iii. 448 (1665).

Limbus Patrum, that half-way house between purgatory and paradise, where patriarchs and prophets, saints, martyrs, and confessors, await the “second coming.” This, according to some, is the hadês or