Chapter Lilli-Burlero to Lincolnshire Bagpipes of L by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Limberham A tame, foolish keeper. The character is in Dryden's comedy of Limberham, or the Kind Keeper, and is supposed to satirise the Duke of Lauderdale.

Limbo A waste-basket; a place where things are stowed, too good to destroy but not good enough to use. In School theology unbaptised infants and good heathens go to Limbo. (Latin, limbus, the edge.) They cannot go to heaven, because they are not baptised, and they cannot go to the place of torment, because they have not committed sin at all, or because their good preponderates. (See Milton: Paradise Lost, bk. iii.) (See Araf.)
   In limbo. Go to limbo - that is, prison.

Limbus preceded by in or to becomes limbo - as, in limbo, to limbo. Occasionally, limbo stands for limbus.

Limbus Fatuorum The Limbus of Fools, or Fool's Paradise. As fools are not responsible for their works, they are not punished in Purgatory, but cannot be received into Heaven; se they go to a place called the Paradise of Fools.

“Then might you see
Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers tossed
And fluttered into rags; then relics, beads,
Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls,
The sport of winds. All these, upwhirled aloft,
Into a Limbo large and broad, since called
The Paradise of Fools.”
Milton: Paradise Lost, book iii. 489-95.

    One cannot wonder that Milton's great poem was placed by the Catholics in the Index of books forbidden.

Limbus Patrum The half-way house between earth and heaven, where the patriarchs and prophets, after death, await the coming of Messiah. According to the Roman Catholic notion, this is the “hell,” or hades, into which Jesus Christ descended after He gave up the ghost on the cross. Limbo, and sometimes Limbo patrum, is used for “quod,” jail, confinement.

“I have some of them in limbo patrum, and there they are like to dance these three days.”- Shakespeare: Henry VIII., v. 4.

Limbus Puerorum The Child's Paradise, for children who die before they are responsible for their actions.

Limbus of the Moon In the limbo of the moon. Ariosto (in his Orlando Furioso, xxxiv. 70) says, in the moon are treasured up such stores as these: Time misspent in play, all vain efforts, all vows never paid, all intentions which lead to nothing, the vanity of titles, flattery, the promises of princes, death-bed alms, and other like vanities.

“There heroes' wits are kept in ponderous vases,
And beaux' 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 and sick man's prayers,
The smiles of harlots, and the tears of heirs.”
Pope: Rape of the Lock, 115-120.

Lime Street London. The place where, in former times, lime was sold in public market. It gives its name to one of the wards of London.

Limited Liability The liability of a shareholder in a company only for a fixed amount, generally the amount of the shares he has subscribed for. The Limited Liability Act was passed 1855.

Limner A drawer, a painter, an artist. A contraction of illuminator, or rather lumenier (one who illuminates manuscripts).

“The limner, or illuminer ... throws us back on a time when the illumination of MSS. was a leading occupation of the painter.”- Trench: On the Study of Words, lecture iv. p. 171.

Limp Formed of the initial letters of Louis (XIV.), James, Mary, Prince (of Wales). A Jacobite toast in the time of William III. (See Notarica.)

Lina The Goddess Flax.

“Inventress of the woof, fair Lina flings
The flying shuttle through the dancing strings.
Darwin: Loves of the Plants, canto ii.

Lincoln A contraction of Lindumcolonia. Lindum was an old British town, called Llyn-