E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Limbus Fatuo’rum.
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; so they go to a place called the Paradise of Fools.
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“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.
One cannot wonder that Milton’s great poem was placed by the Catholics in the Index of books forbidden.
