L I L 
as an. example of the gradual unfolding of a fcene of hor¬ 
ror, not lefs perfefl than that which has.been fo much ad¬ 
mired in the CEdipus of Sophocles. Its horrors, how¬ 
ever, are fo little alleviated by any beauties of fentiment 
or defcription, that the attempted revival of it by Mr. 
Colmao had only a (hort-lived fuccefs. Arden of Fever- 
Iham is another piece of Lillo’s, of a fimilar clafs, which 
did not appear on the itage till after his death. His other 
performances are entirely funk in obfcurity. Lillo died 
in 1739- He feems to have moved in a narrow circle in 
private life; but was by no means in indigent circum- 
ftances, as the editor of one of his pofthumous tragedies 
(Elmeric) reprefented. Henry Fielding, in his periodical 
paper of The Champion, gave a handfome atteftation to 
the worth of his charafier. His works were edited in 
2 vols. iamo. 1775, by Mr. Davies, with a Ihort account 
of his life. 
LII/LY. See Lily. 
LIL'LY (John), a dramatic poet, wasborn in the Wealds 
of Kent, about the year 1553; and educated in Magda- 
ien-college, Oxford, where he took the degree of bachelor 
of arts in 1573, and that of mailer in 1575. From Ox¬ 
ford he removed to Cambridge ; but how long he con¬ 
tinued there, is uncertain. On his arrival in London, he 
became acquainted with fome of queen Elizabeth’s cour¬ 
tiers, by whom he was careffed, and admired as a poet and 
a wit; and her majefty, on particular feftivals, honoured 
bis dramatic pieces with her prefence. His plays are nine 
in number. His firft publication, however, printed in 
1580, was a romance called Eupliues, which was univer- 
fally read and admired. This romance, which Blount, 
the editor of fix of his plays, fays introduced a new lan¬ 
guage, efpecially among the ladies, is, according to Ber- 
kenhout, in fa£t a molt contemptible piece of affectation 
and nonlenfe ; neverthelefs it feems very certain, that it 
was in high eftimation with the women of falhion of thofe 
times, who, we are told by Whalley, the editor of Ben 
Jonfon’s works, had all the phrafes by heart; and thofe 
who did not fpeak Euphuifm were as little regarded at 
court as if they could not fpeak French. “He was (lays 
Oldys) a man of great reading, good memory, ready fa¬ 
culty of application, and uncommon eloquence ; but he 
ran into a vail excels of allufion.” When or where he 
died is not known. Anthony Wood lays he was living 
in 1597, when his laft comedy was publifhed. After at¬ 
tending the court for thirteen years, and notwithffanding 
his reputation as an author, he was under a necelfity of 
petitioning the queen for fome fmall ftipend to fupport 
him in his old age. His two letters or petitions to her 
majefty on this fubjecl are preferved in manufeript. 
LIL'LY (William), a noted Englilh aftrologer, was 
born in 1602, at Difeworth in Leicelterlhire. His father 
not being in circumftances to bellow on him an education 
beyond common writing and arithmetic, he refolved to 
feek his fortune in London ; where he arrived in 1620, 
and entered into the fervice of a mantua-maker in thepa- 
rilh of St. Clement-Danes. In 1624. he left that place, 
ami became fervant to the mailer of the Salters’ company, 
who lived in the Strand, and, not being able to write, em¬ 
ployed him, among other doinellic offices, in keeping his 
accounts. When he had been about three years in this 
place, his mailer died ; and foon afterwards Lilly paid his 
addrefles to the widow, whom he married, with a fortune 
of about a thoufand pounds. In 1632 he began to learn 
judicial allrology, under the inftruflion of one Evans, a 
profligate clergyman, who had been obliged to quit a cu¬ 
racy in Leicelterlhire, where he had been detected in fome 
frauds which he had praflifed under the pretence of dif- 
covering lolt and ftolen goods. Lilly does not appear to 
have continued long his pupil, fince he informs us, that 
in feven or eight weeks lie perfectly underllood how “to 
fet a figure.” In the following year he gave to the pub¬ 
lic the firft fpecimen of his altrological Iki 11, in an intima¬ 
tion that the king had chofen an unlucky horofeope for 
bis coronation in Scotland. Having buried his wife dur- 
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ing the fame year, in 1634 he married a fecond, wbofe 
temper was not of the fweetell. About this time he got 
pofleffion of the manufeript copy of a book entitled Ars 
Notoria, treating of the pretended occult fciences, from 
which he eagerly imbibed the dottrine of the magic cir¬ 
cle, the invocation of fpirits, &c. which he praftited for 
lome time, ufing certain prayers preferibed in it, addrefied 
to feveral angels, whom it reprefents to be the inftruClors 
of men in thefe grand arcana. Previoufly to this, few 
perfons who praCtifed in the altrological art pretended to 
go farther than to endeavour to trace out and recover 
ftolen goods; but Lilly treated this part of the rnyllery 
with great contempt, and laid claim to the fupernatural 
fight, and the gift of predicting future events, which he 
well knew how to turn to his own advantage. In 1636 
he fettled at Herfliam, near Walton on Thames, in Surry, 
where he remained till 1641, when he came to London, 
with a number of curious books, in his own art, which 
he Had purchaled in the country, they having been found 
in pulling down the lioufe of another aftrologer. In 1644, 
he publithed his Merlinus Anglicus, an almanac, which 
he continued annually till his death. This work, filled 
with allrological predictions, delivered in the enigmatic 
llyle of the ancient oracles, was fuited to the talte of the 
times, and had a rapid fale. The firft imprefiion was fold 
in a week, though much mangled by the then licenfer of 
mathematical books, John Booker, who was himfelf an 
aftrologer. Of his mutilations Lilly complained to feve¬ 
ral members of parliament, to whom he prefented the book, 
and by that means obtained leave to print a fecond edi¬ 
tion from his own unaltered copy. In the fame year, the 
appearance of three funs in the heavens, which was feen 
at London on the 29th of May, prince Charles’s birth-day, 
engaging the attention of the public, Lilly pretended to 
give an interpretation'of it, in a treatife entitled, The 
Starry Meflenger ; to which he added an altrological judg¬ 
ment concerning the effeCts of a folar eclipfe, which was 
to take place on the nth of Atigull, 1645. This piece 
was followed, at different periods, by feveral altrological 
productions, and prophecies in ambiguous phrafes, which, 
fometimes appeared favourable to the king’s party, and 
fometimes to that of the parliament, but mollly to the 
latter ; by which he fuccelsiully impoied on the credulity 
of the age, and advanced his own fortune. 
During the contefts, in the year 1647, between the pref- 
byterians who ruled in the parliament, and the indepen¬ 
dent party who governed the army, the head-quarters of 
which were at VVindfor ; our author fays, that he and 
Booker were carried thither, and had an audience of ge¬ 
neral Fairfax. His objeCt in fending for them appears to 
have been, a wilh to imprefs their minds, and,, through 
their reprefentations, the public in general, with a per- 
fuafion that the army only laboured to procure the gene¬ 
ral welfare of the nation, and were refolved to facrifice 
their lives and fortunes to obtain that end. The audi¬ 
ence ended in a kind of mutual compliments, the general 
hoping, and they alluring him, that their art was lawful, 
and that God would be with the general and his army. 
In the fame year, 1647, recourle was alio had to our 
altrologer’s advice and afliltance on behalf of the king; 
and thus we have abundant evidence of the univerfal lu- 
perllition and ignorance that prevailed at this time. His 
majefty, who was then in the cullody of the army at Hamp- 
ton-court, having formed a delign of efcaping from the ■ 
foldiery, and of lying private in fome place at no great 
diltance from London ; one Mrs. Whorewood came to 
Lilly, with the king’s confent, as he informs us, to know 
in what quarter ot the nation his majefty might be lafely 
concealed, till he thought proper to difcover himfelf. Our 
author, having ereCted a figure, told her, that the king 
might continue undifeovered, if he retired into fome part 
of Eftex, about twenty miles from London; in which 
county, and about that dillance, the lady recollected a 
houfe fit for his majelly’s reception. Early the next morn¬ 
ing (he went to Hampton-court, to acquaint the king 
witk 
