Fictitious & Symbolic Creatures in Art Part 16

"_A savage tygress on her helmet lies; The famous badge Clorinda us'd to wear._"

FAIRFAX'S "Ta.s.so."

The tigre or tyger of the old heralds still holds its place in English armory, retaining the ancient name to distinguish it from the natural tiger, to which it bears but little resemblance except the name. The early artists probably had no better authority for the strange creature they depicted than the wild tales of Eastern travel and their own lively imaginations. The habit of drawing in a conventional manner may also have a.s.sisted in producing such a monster. This type of wild and ruthless ferocity, approaching the draconic in its power and destructiveness, was to their minds fitly suggested by exaggerations of those attributes of savageness and bloodthirstiness with which it was supposed to be endowed.

Shakespeare makes King Henry V., when urging on his "n.o.blest English" and "good yeomen" to the a.s.sault at Harfleur, declare that

"When the blast of war blows in our ears Then imitate the action of the tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Disguise fair Nature with hard-favoured rage."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Supporter, an Heraldic Tigre, collared and lined.]

"The tyger," says Bossewell, "is a beast wonderful in strength, and most swift in flight as it were an arrow. For the Persians call an arrow tygris. He is distinguished with diverse speckes; and of him the floode Tygris tooke the name. It is said Bacchus used these beastes in his chariot, for their marveilous swiftness in conveying of the same."

_The heraldic tigre_, the invention of the early heralds, is depicted as having the body similar to a wolf, but more strong and ma.s.sive; powerful jaws armed with prominent canine tusks, and with a short curved horn or spike at the end of his nose. A row of knotted tufts of hair adorn the back of his neck as a mane; tufts also on his breast and thighs, and with strong claws; the tail of a lion completes his equipment. He is a most effective creature in a heraldic emblazonment, especially when "_armed_"

and "_tufted_" of tinctures differing from his body.

The sinister supporter of the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava is _an heraldic tigre ermine, gorged with a tressure flory counter flory or_.

_Gules a chevron argent, between three tigres_, &c., _of the second_.--_Butler_, Calais.

_Vert, a tigre pa.s.sant or, maned and tufted argent._--_Love_, Norfolk (granted 1663).

_Or, a tigre pa.s.sant gules._--_Lutwych_, Lutwich, Salop.

Baron Harlech has for dexter supporter, and also for crest, _an heraldic tigre argent, maned and tufted sable_.

_The tigre and mirror_ is an uncommon but very remarkable bearing. Amongst other remarkable ideas which our ancestors entertained respecting foreign animals, "some report that those who rob the tigre of her young use a policy to detaine their damme from following them by casting sundry looking-gla.s.ses in the way, whereat she useth to long to gaze, whether it be to beholde her owne beauty or because when she seeth her shape in the gla.s.se she thinketh she seeth one of her young ones; and so they escape the swiftness of her pursuit."[21]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Tigre and Mirror.]

"_Argent, a tigre pa.s.sant regardant looking into a mirror lying fessways, the handle to the dexter all proper_," is said to have been the coat of Hadrian de Bardis (probably an Italian), Prebendary of Oxfordshire. These arms still remain, or were lately remaining, in a window of Thame Church.

Only two other examples occur, viz.:

"_Argent a tigre and mirror_ (as before) _gules_."--_Sibell_, Kent.

The Royal Tiger

Next to the lion in power is the tiger, an animal not possessed of the n.o.ble qualities of the lion, being fierce without provocation, and cruel without cause. The chief difference of the tiger from every other animal of the mottled kind is in the shape of the spots on the skin, which run in streaks or bands in the direction of the ribs. The leopard, panther and the ounce are all, in a certain degree, marked like this animal, except that the lines are broken by round spots, which cover the whole surface of the skin. The use of the _royal tiger_ in modern coats of arms is frequent, and has reference to services in the East.

Outram, Bart., has for supporters: _two royal Bengal tigers guardant proper, gorged with a wreath of laurel vert, crowned with an Eastern crown_.

_Note._--In a heraldic description (or blazon as it is termed) it is necessary for the sake of greater clearness, and to prevent confusion, to name the older mythical creature the "HERALDIC TIGRE," that it may not be confounded with its natural representative usually called the "ROYAL TIGER."

Leopard, or Panther, Felis Pardus, Lybbarde

"_Upon his shoulders a scheld of stele With the lybbardes painted wele._"

"The Metrical Romance of Richard Cur de Lyon."

"_Make the libbard stern Leave roaring, when in rage he for revenge did yearn._"

SPENSER, "Faerie Queen," Book i. canto vi.

A curious character, partly real and partly fict.i.tious has been ascribed to the lybbard or leopard of heraldry. It was said to be the offspring of a lioness and a panther, the Northmen or Normans, according to some authorities, having adopted that beast of prey, noted for rashness, as typical of themselves, so characterised by boldness and impetuosity. The standard of Rollo, first Duke of Normandy, they say, bore a leopard. A second lion or leopard was added to the Norman shield when the county of Maine became annexed to the Duchy of Normandy; and the two lions or leopards--for they are indiscriminately so termed--were thus borne, it is said, upon the standard of William the Conqueror, and by his descendants.

A third lion was added by Henry II. on his marriage with Eleanor of Aquitain, a lion being also the arms of that province.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Leopard pa.s.sant.]

It has been keenly contested whether the three animals in the royal shield of England were lions or leopards. The subject has been ably treated by Mr. J. R. Planche in the "Pursuivant of Arms," and also by Charles Boutell, M.A., in several of his works. The case seems to stand thus:

In ancient coats the name is believed to be given to the lion in certain att.i.tudes. The French heralds call a lion pa.s.sant a _leopard_. Thus Bertrand du Guesclin, the famous Breton, declared that men "devoyent bien honorer la n.o.ble fleur-de-lis, qu'ils ne faissaient le felon liepard," and Napoleon, strongly to excite the valour of his soldiers, exclaimed, "Let us drive these leopards (the English) into the sea!"

"_Lion Leoparde_" is the term used in French heraldry for the lion when borne _pa.s.sant guardant_ as in the royal shield of England. When _rampant_ they call it "leoparde lionne," as if in this att.i.tude the leopard a.s.sumed the position and bold character of the lion. The att.i.tude _pa.s.sant guardant_ thus denoted the peculiar stealthy tread and cat-like watchfulness of the leopard and panther.

The Emperor Frederick II. (1235) sent King Henry of England three leopards as a present in token of his armorial bearings.

It is a great argument in favour of the subst.i.tution of the lion for the leopard, Mr. Boutell thinks, that the latter should have almost disappeared from English heraldry, the face and head only retaining their place in modern coats.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Leopard's Face, jessant-de-lis.]

"_A leopard's head_" should show part of the neck, _couped_ or _erased_, as the case may be; _guardant, affronte_ or front face, is always to be understood of the leopard, and never in profile.

"_A leopard's face_" shows no part of the neck, and in conjunction with the term "_jessant-de-lis_" is used with respect to a leopard's face having a _fleur-de-lis_ pa.s.sing through it.

The insignia of the See of Hereford is: _gules three leopards' heads reversed jessant-de-lis, or_.

In heraldry the leopard represents those brave and generous warriors who have performed some bold enterprise with force, courage, prompt.i.tude, and activity. Thus Shakespeare alludes to the character of the bold soldier

"Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon's mouth."

In Christian Art the leopard is employed to represent that beast spoken of in the Apocalypse, with seven heads and ten horns. Six of the heads are nimbed, but the seventh, being "wounded to death," has lost its power, and consequently has no nimbus.

_Three leopards pa.s.sant guardant or, pelletee_, appear on the arms of the Marquis of Downshire. It is also the sinister supporter.

The supporters of the town of Aberdeen are leopards.

_Sable three leopards rampant argent spotted sable_ are given as the arms of _Lynch_. It is, however, probable that the _lynx_ was the animal originally blazoned as "arms parlantes" for the name.

_Ermine on a cross patonce sable, a leopard's head, issuing out of a ducal coronet or_, crest, a _demi-leopard erect, proper_.--_d.i.c.kens._

_A leopard's face, breaking with his mouth a sword_, is the crest of _Disne_.

The supporters of the Earl of Northesk are _two leopards reguardant_.

The leopard or panther, says Dr. P. M. Duncan, F.R.S.,[22] was the only one of the greater feline animals, except the lion and tiger, which seems to have been known to the ancients. It is always represented as drawing the chariot of Bacchus, and the forlorn Ariadne is sculptured as riding on one of the spotted steeds of her divine lover. The panther was also constantly used in the barbarous sports of the amphitheatre, and, in common with the lion and tiger, has been both executioner and grave to many a bold-hearted martyr.

The leopard's skin was a favourite mantle in the olden times in Greece. In the "Iliad," Homer, speaking of Menelaus, says:

"With a pard's spotted hide his shoulders broad He mantled o'er,"