poetry in 1889, 1890 (Der Heidegänger und andere Gedichte), 1893, and 1903 (Bunte Beute). Interesting, too, is the humorous epic Poggfred (1896; 2nd ed. 1904). Liliencron is one of the most eminent of recent German lyric poets; his Adjutantenritte, with its fresh original note, broke with the well-worn literary conventions which had been handed down from the middle of the century. Liliencron’s work is, however, somewhat unequal, and he lacks the sustained power which makes the successful prose writer.
Liliencron’s Sämtliche Werke have been published in 14 vols. (1904–1905); his Gedichte having been previously collected in four volumes under the titles Kampf und Spiele, Kämpfe und Ziele, Nebel und Sonne and Bunte Beute (1897–1903). See O. J. Bierbaum, D. von Liliencron (1892); H. Greinz, Liliencron, eine literarhistorische Würdigung (1896); F. Oppenheimer, D. von Liliencron (1898).
LILITH (Heb. lilâtu, “night”; hence “night-monster”),
a female demon of Jewish folk-lore, equivalent to the English
vampire. The personality and name are derived from a Babylonian-Assyrian demon Lilit or Lilu. Lilith was believed to
have a special power for evil over children. The superstition
was extended to a cult surviving among some Jews even as late
as the 7th century A.D. In the Rabbinical literature Lilith
becomes the first wife of Adam, but flies away from him and
becomes a demon.
LILLE, a city of northern France, capital of the department of Nord, 154 m. N. by E. of Paris on the Northern railway.
Pop. (1906) 196,624. Lille is situated in a low fertile plain on
the right bank of the Deûle in a rich agricultural and industrial
region of which it is the centre. It is a first-class fortress and
headquarters of the I. army corps, and has an enceinte and a
pentagonal citadel, one of Vauban’s finest works, situated to
the west of the town, from which it is divided by the Deûle.
The modern fortifications comprise over twenty detached forts
and batteries, the perimeter of the defences being about 20 m.
Before 1858 the town, fortified by Vauban about 1668, occupied
an elliptical area of about 2500 yds. by 1300, with the church
of Notre-Dame de la Treille in the centre, but the ramparts on
the south side have been demolished and the ditches filled up,
their place being now occupied by the great Boulevard de la
Liberté, which extends in a straight line from the goods station
of the railway to the citadel. At the S.E. end of this boulevard
are grouped the majority of the numerous educational establishments
of the city. The new enceinte encloses the old communes
of Esquermes, Wazemmes and Moulins-Lille, the area of the town
being thus more than doubled. In the new quarters fine boulevards
and handsome squares, such as the Place de la République,
have been laid out in pleasant contrast with the sombre aspect
of the old town. The district of St André to the north, the only
elegant part of the old town, is the residence of the aristocracy.
Outside the enceinte populous suburbs surround the city on
every side. The demolition of the fortifications on the north and
east of the city, which is continued in those directions by the
great suburbs of La Madeleine, St Maurice and Fives, must
accelerate its expansion towards Roubaix and Tourcoing. At
the demolition of the southern fortifications, the Paris gate, a
triumphal arch erected in 1682 in honour of Louis XIV., after
the conquest of Flanders, was preserved. On the east the
Ghent and Roubaix gates, built in the Renaissance style, with
bricks of different colours, date from 1617 and 1622, the time
of the Spanish domination. On the same side the Noble-Tour
is a relic of the medieval ramparts. The present enceinte is
pierced by numerous gates, including water gates for the canal
of the Deûle and for the Arbonnoise, which extends into a marsh
in the south-west corner of the town. The citadel, which contains
the barracks and arsenal, is surrounded by public gardens.
The more interesting buildings are in the old town, where, in
the Grande Place and Rue Faidherbe, its animation is concentrated.
St Maurice, a church in the late Gothic style, dates
in its oldest portions from the 15th century, and was restored
in 1872; Ste Cathérine belongs to the 15th, 16th and 18th
centuries, St André to the first years of the 18th century, and
Ste Madeleine to the last half of the 17th century; all possess
valuable pictures, but St Maurice alone, with nave and double
aisles, and elegant modern spire, is architecturally notable.
Notre-Dame de la Treille, begun in 1855, in the style of the 15th
century, possesses an ancient statue of the Virgin which is the
object of a well-known pilgrimage. Of the civil buildings the
Bourse (17th century) built round a courtyard in which stands
a bronze statue of Napoleon I., the Hôtel d’Aigremont, the
Hôtel Gentil and other houses are in the Flemish style; the
Hôtel de Ville, dating in the main from the middle of the 19th
century, preserves a portion of a palace built by Philip the Good,
duke of Burgundy, in the 15th century. The prefecture, the
Palais des Beaux-Arts, the law-courts, the school of arts and
crafts, and the Lycée Faidherbe are imposing modern buildings.
In the middle of the Grande Place stands a column, erected in
1848, commemorating the defence of the town in 1792 (see below),
and there are also statues to Generals L. L. C. Faidherbe and
F. O. de Négrier, and busts of Louis Pasteur and the popular
poet and singer A. Desrousseaux. The Palais des Beaux-Arts
contains a museum and picture galleries, among the richest in
France, as well as a unique collection of original designs of the
great masters bequeathed to Lille by J. B. Wicar, and including a
celebrated wax model of a girl’s head usually attributed to some
Italian artist of the 16th century. The city also possesses a
commercial and colonial museum, an industrial museum, a fine
collection of departmental and municipal archives, the museum
of the Institute of Natural Sciences and a library containing
many valuable manuscripts, housed at the Hôtel de Ville. The
large military hospital, once a Jesuit college, is one of several
similar institutions.
Lille is the seat of a prefect and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade arbitrators, a chamber of commerce and a branch of the Bank of France. It is the centre of an académie (educational division) and has a university with faculties of laws, letters, science and medicine and pharmacy, together with a Catholic institute comprising faculties of theology, law, medicine and pharmacy, letters, science, a technical school, and a department of social and political science. Secondary education is given at the Lycée Faidherbe, and the Lycée Fénelon (for girls), a higher school of commerce, a national technical school and other establishments; to these must be added schools of music and fine arts, and the Industrial and Pasteur Institutes.
The industries, which are carried on in the new quarters of the town and in the suburbs, are of great variety and importance. In the first rank comes the spinning of flax and the weaving of cloth, table-linen, damask, ticking and flax velvet. The spinning of flax thread for sewing and lace-making is specially connected with Lille. The manufacture of woollen fabrics and cotton-spinning and the making of cotton-twist of fine quality are also carried on. There are important printing establishments, state factories for the manufacture of tobacco and the refining of saltpetre and very numerous breweries, while chemical, oil, white lead and sugar-works, distilleries, bleaching-grounds, dye-works, machinery and boiler works and cabinet-making occupy many thousands of workmen. Plant for sugar-works and distilleries, military stores, steam-engines, locomotives, and bridges of all kinds are produced by the company of Fives-Lille. Lille is one of the most important junctions of the Northern railway, and the Deûle canal affords communication with neighbouring ports and with Belgium. Trade is chiefly in the raw material and machinery for its industries, in the products thereof, and in the wheat and other agricultural products of the surrounding district.
Lille (l’Île) is said to date its origin from the time of Count Baldwin IV. of Flanders, who in 1030 surrounded with walls a little town which had arisen around the castle of Buc. In the first half of the 13th century, the town, which had developed rapidly, obtained communal privileges. Destroyed by Philip Augustus in 1213, it was rebuilt by Joanna of Constantinople, countess of Flanders, but besieged and retaken by Philip the Fair in 1297. After having taken part with the Flemings against the king of France, it was ceded to the latter in 1312. In 1369 Charles V., king of France, gave it to Louis de Male, who
