488 



LILLE LILY. 



appear to Cromwell and liis council, that he was * 

 again committed for high treason, but, being tried 

 before a special committee, the jury boldly acquitted 

 him. A new otl'riu-e which he gave the parliament, 

 induced that body to pass a heavy fine on him, with 

 an order to quit the country ; on which he retired to 

 Holland, until it was dissolved, when he used all his 

 interest to gain a passport, but, not succeeding, he 

 \ t iiiurril home without one. Being apprehended, 

 II auain committed to Newgate, and once more 

 ined at the Old Bailey, where lie defended himself 

 ?o ably that he was once more acquitted. He then 

 sealed at Elthain, in Kent, became a Quaker, and 

 ] rc.iclictl at the meetings of that body at Woolwich, 

 until his death in 1657, at the early age of thirty- 

 nine. 



LILLE, COMTK DE ; the name which Monsieur 

 (comic de Pros ence, afterwards Louis XVIII.) adopted 

 when he emigrated, during the life of Louis XVI. 

 He was styled thus also by the French imperial 

 government, and in the Moniteur. 



LILLO, GEORGE, an English tragic poet, born 

 1693, in London. He was by trade a jeweller, 

 hut, notwithstanding his attention to business, he 

 dedicated a considerable portion of his time to the 

 cultivation of the drama. Fielding, the author of 

 Tom Jones, himself a dramatist, and the contempor- 

 ary and personal friend of Lillo, bears strong testimony 

 to the integrity of his heart, as well as to the excellence 

 of his social qualities. An edition of his plays was 

 published, in 1775, by Davies, in two volumes, 12mo. 

 The principal are George Barnwell, or the London 

 'Prentice, a tragedy founded on an incident in domestic 

 life, said to have taken place at Camberwell (this 

 play, till within these few years, it was always cus- 

 tomary to represent on lord mayor's day) ; Fatal 

 Curiosity, also said to be founded in fact; Arden of 

 Feversham, which was certainly so ; and Elmeric. 



LILLY, JOHN, a dramatic writer, born about 1553, 

 studied at Oxford and Cambridge. He attempted to 

 reform and purify the English language in two fan- 

 tastic productions entitled Euphues and his England 

 (1580), and Euphues and his Anatomy of Wit (1581), 

 which met with great success. ^. specimen of 

 Euphuism may be seen in the character of Sir Piercie 

 Shafton, in the Monastery of Sir Walter Scott. Lilly 

 was also the author of a famous pamphlet against 

 Martin Marprelate and his party, entitled Pappe with 

 a Hatchet, published about 1589, and attributed to 

 Nashe. See Warton's Hist, of English Poetry; 

 Ellis's Specimens. 



LILLY, WILLIAM, a famous English astrologer, 

 born at Diseworth, in Leicestershire, in 1602, went 

 early to London, where his necessities obliged him to 

 article himself as servant to a mantua-maker, in St 

 Clement Danes. In 1624, he became book-keeper 

 to a tradesman who could not write, on whose death 

 he married his widow, with a fortune of 1000. In 

 1632, he turned his attention to astrology ; and he 

 gave the public a specimen of his skill, by an assu- 

 rance, in 1633, that the king had chosen an unlucky 

 horoscope for his coronation in Scotland. About this 

 time, he procured a manuscript copy of a book by 

 Cornelius Agrippa, entitled Ara notoria, from which 

 he imbibed the doctrine of the magic circle, and in- 

 vocation of demons. In the same year, 1634, he was 

 allowed, by the dean of Westminster, to assist David 

 Ramsay, the king's clock-maker, in search of a hid- 

 den treasure in Westminster abbey, another associate 

 being found in one John Scot, who pretended to 

 understand the mystery of miners' divining rods. 

 These three worthies accordingly made the experi- 

 ment on the night appointed, and, after digging up 

 a coffin to no purpose, they were frightened from the 

 place by a violent storm, which Lilly, in the sequel, 



attributed to demons, whom he had found menus lo 

 dismiss. In 1044, he published his Merlinus 4nglir 

 CHS, which he continued, annually, until his death. 

 Having acquired the friendship of Bulstrode Whit- 

 lock, he devoted himself to the interests of the par- 

 liament, although he occasionally varied his predic- 

 tions, in order the more easily to impose on the 

 credulity of the age. In the year 1648, Lilly and 

 Booker, another astrologer, were sent to the camp at 

 Colchester, to encourage the soldiers by their pre- 

 dictions ; and such was his reputation, that he was 

 rewarded for his various services (one of which was 

 obtaining secret intelligence from France) with a 

 pension of 100 per annum. About this time, he read 

 public lectures on astrology, and succeeded so well, 

 that he was enabled to lay out 2000 in fee-farm 

 rents at Horsham. In 1659, such was the spirit of 

 the age, he received the present of a golden chain 

 from the king of Sweden, whom he had mentioned 

 with great respect in his almanac. On the restora- 

 tion, Lilly was taken into custody by order of parlia- 

 ment, as one of the depositaries of the secrets of the 

 republicans, and examined concerning the persons 

 who beheaded the king, when he declared that he 

 had been informed that cornet Joyce acted as the 

 executioner. A short time after, he sued out his 

 pardon under the great seal, and retired to Horsham. 

 In 1666, some of the members, suspecting, from the 

 hieroglyphic to his almanac, that he might know 

 something of the causes of the great fire which fol- 

 lowed its publication, had him sent for to a committee 

 of inquiry, when he asserted that he had certainly 

 foreseen the event, but could say nothing as to the 

 cause. His life, lately republished, is a very enter- 

 taining production, steering, as he does, between truth 

 and falsehood, and seldom indulging in more of Use 

 latter than is necessary to support his character as an 

 astrologer. 



LILY ; a magnificent genus of plants belonging 

 to the hexandria monogynia of Linneeus. The root 

 is a scaly bulb ; the leaves simple, scattered, or ver- 

 ticillate ; the stem herbaceous, simple, and bearing, 

 at the summit, very large and elegantly formed 

 flowers. The corolla is campanulate, and consists of 

 six petals, which are often reflexed at the extremity. 

 Among the most beautiful of the species, and indeed 

 of all our garden plants, are the lilium candidum, or 

 common white lily ; L. martagon,or Turk's cap; and 

 L. tigrinum all indigenous to Europe. The finest 

 American species is the L. superbum, which grows, 

 in marshes, to the height of six or eight feet, bearing 

 reflexed orange flowers spotted with black, which, 

 when numerous on the same stem, make a splendid 

 appearance. 



The lily has always held a prominent place in em- 

 blematic language. In the middle ages, and in 

 modern times, the white lily has been the emblem of 

 chastity. Hence the Virgin Mary is often represented 

 with a lily in her hand, or by her side. Garcias, the 

 sixth king of Navarre established an order of the 

 lily in 1048, in honour of the Virgin, because her 

 picture had been found on a lily at Nogera, the royal 

 residence. In the beginning of the fifteenth century, 

 Ferdinand I. of Arragon founded an order of the 

 lily or flower-pots, the knights of which wore a 

 double chain, consisting of flower-pots filled with white 

 lilies. The lily, or, rather, i\\e fleur-de-lis, as is well 

 known, is the emblem of the Bourbons, and of many 

 other families. The form is well known, and there 

 are various opinions respecting the origin of this 

 emblem. Some think that the figures originally 

 represented the heads of halberds, which they cer- 

 tainly much resemble. Some take them for the flowers 

 of the iris, which grow on the river Lys. They 

 have even been taken for bees, or for toads. They 



