The Curiosities of Heraldry Part 4

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER III.

Rationale of Heraldic Charges, etc.

[Ill.u.s.tration: (Arms of the See of Chichester)]

"The Formes of the pure celestiall bodies mixt with grosse terrestrials; earthly animals with watery; sauage beasts with tame; whole-footed beasts with diuided; reptiles with things gressible; fowles of prey with home-bred; these again with riuer fowles; aery insecta with earthly; also things naturall with artificiall; arts liberall with mechanicall; military with rusticall; and rusticall with ciuil. Which confused mixture hath not a little discouraged many persons--otherwise well affected to the study of Armory--and impaired the estimation of the profession."

_Guillim._

Dictionaries of the technical terms employed in heraldry are so common, and the elements of the science so well explained in various popular treatises,[83] that it would be impertinent in an essay like the present to go into all the details usually comprised in those useful books of reference. Still it may interest the general reader, and will, I trust, give no offence to adepts in the science, if I offer a few observations on this subject, with ill.u.s.trations from our old writers, adding some etymological conjectures of my own.

The origin of the expression 'a coat of arms' we have already seen, as also the cause why heraldric ensigns are borne upon a shield. Shields have been made of every imaginable shape according to the taste of the age or the fancy of the bearer, with these two restrictions, that the shields of knights-bannerets must be square, and those of ladies in the form of a lozenge. The most usual, because the most convenient, shape is that which is technically called the _heater_-shield--from its resemblance to the heater of an iron--with some slight variations. Our friend Sylva.n.u.s Morgan, whose ingenuity all must admire, in defiance of the oft-quoted proverb:

"=When Adam digged and Eve span, Who was then the Gentleman?="

deduces this shape for men, and that of the lozenge for women, from the _spade_ of Adam, and the _spindle_ of Eve!

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The ground or field of every coat of arms must be either of metal, colour, or fur. The METALS of heraldry are, Or==gold, and argent==silver, and as the shield of war was antiently of metal, either embossed or enamelled, the retention of the two precious metals as the field of an escocheon is easily accounted for. The COLOURS are gules, azure, vert, purpure, sable, tenne, and sanguine. While some of these terms are French; others, though coming to us through that medium, are originally from other languages.

GULES, according to Ducange, is _goulis_, _guelle_, _gula_ sive _guella_, the red colour of the mouth or throat of an animal. Mackenzie derives it from the Hebrew _gulude_, a piece of red cloth, or from the Arabic _gule_, a red rose. _Ghul_ in the Persian signifies rose-coloured, and _Ghulistan_ is 'the country of roses.' It is probably one of those importations from the East which the Crusades introduced, both into the elements of armory and the nomenclature of the science. It was sometimes called _vermeil_[84]

(vermilion) and _rouget_. An antient knight is represented as bearing a plain red banner without any charge:

"Mais Eurmenions de la Brette La baniere eut _toute rougecte_."[85]

The barbarous term _blodius_ was likewise occasionally used to express this colour.

AZURE==light-blue, is a French corruption of the Arabic word _lazur_ or _lazuli_. The lapis lazuli is a copper ore, very compact and hard, which is found in detached lumps, of an elegant blue colour, and to it the artist is indebted for his beautiful ultra-marine. This colour, still one of the dearest of pigments, was antiently in great request, and called 'beyond-sea azure.'[86] The lapis lazuli is found in Persia, Bucharia, and China.

VERT (French) is light green. This word was applied at an early period "to every thing," says Cowell, "that grows and bears a _green_ leaf within the forest that may cover and hide a deer." Vert and venison, in the vocabulary of woodcraft, were as inseparable as shadow and substance. _To vert_ signified to enter the forest, as in an old song of the thirteenth century:

"Sumer is i-c.u.men in, Lhude sing cuccu; Groweth sed and bloweth med, And springeth the wde nu.

=Sing Cuccu, Cuccu!=

Awe bleteth after lomb, Lhouth after calve cu, Bulluc sterteth, Bucke VERTETH, =Murie sing Cuccu=," etc.

This colour was antiently called _synople_, and in the Boke of St. Albans _syn.o.bylt_, a word which Colombiere derives from the Latin _sinopis_, a dyeing mineral,[87] or from Synople, a town in the Levant, whence a green dye was procured.

Of SABLE the derivation is very uncertain. It seems unlikely to have been taken from the colour of the diminutive animal now known by this name, first, because it would then rank under the category of _furs_; and, secondly, because that animal is far from black. Indeed, the best sable is of a light brown or sand colour. Dallaway quotes a line, however, which might be adduced in support of this derivation:

"Sables, ermines, vair et gris."

Guillim derives it from _sabulum_, gross sand or gravel, but this seems very improbable, although I have nothing better to subst.i.tute. It is curious that 'sable' and 'azure' should have been selected from the 'jargon' of heraldry for poetical use, to the exclusion of other similar terms:

"By this the drooping daylight 'gan to fade, And yield his room to sad succeeding night, Who with her _sable_ mantle 'gan to shade The face of earth, and ways of living wight."

_Faerie Queen._

"Thus replies Minerva, graceful, with her _azure_ eyes."

_Pope._

PURPURE (purple) is not common in English armory: still less so are the _stainant_ or disgraceful colours, TENNY (orange) and MURREY, which Dr.

Johnson defines as "darkly red," deriving it through the French _moree_, and the Italian _morello_. The fine cherry designated by this last word is, when ripe, of the exact colour intended by murrey. Bacon says, "Leaves of some trees turn a little _murrey_, or reddish;" and "a waistcoat of _murrey_-coloured satin" occurs in the writings of Arbuthnot.

By these terms were the arms of gentlemen described; but for the arms of n.o.bility they were not sufficiently lofty. These were blazoned by the precious stones, as _topaz_ for yellow, _ruby_ for red, &c. For the arms of princes it was necessary to go a step higher, namely, to the heavenly bodies, _Sol_, _Luna_, _Mars_, &c. Sir John Ferne enumerates several other sets of terms, in all thirteen, which he cla.s.sifies thus: 1, planets; 2, precious stones; 3, vertues; 4, celestiall signes; 5, months; 6, days of the week; 7, ages of man; 8, flowers; 9, elements; 10, sesons of the yeer; 11, complexions; 12, numbers; 13, mettailes. What would those who are disgusted with the 'jargon' of our science say to such blazon as the following?--

He beareth _Sunday_, a lion rampant _Tuesday_.

He beareth _Faith_, a wolf salient _Loyalty_.

He beareth _Marigold_, a bear pa.s.sant, _Blue Lily_, muzzled _White Rose_.

He beareth, _Infancy_, three gra.s.shoppers _Virility_.

He beareth, _Melancholy_, three a.s.ses' heads, _Flegmatique_!

I must confess that, in the course of my heraldric reading, I have never met with blazon of this singular description, but Ferne a.s.sures his reader that it may be his fortune "to light upon such phantasticall termes," and he gives an historical and philosophical account of their origin. So recently as the last century the planets and gems were used in royal and n.o.ble armory, but of late good taste has limited blazon to the first-mentioned and most simple set of terms in all cases.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The _furs_ are ermine, ermines, erminois, erminites, pean, vair, and potent counter-potent. They are all said to be indicative of dignity. In armorial painting their effect is very rich. ERMINE, which may be taken as the type of the five first mentioned, is represented by three spots placed triangularly, and three hairs in black upon a white ground. It is intended to represent the black tail of a species of weasel fixed upon the white skin of the animal. Guillim[88] gives a coat, containing six _whole ermines_, as represented in the margin. Sir G. Mackenzie informs us that "the first user of this fur in arms was Brutus, the son of Silvius, who having by accident killed his father, left that unhappie ground, and travelling in Bretaigne in France, fell asleep, and when he awoke he found this little beast upon his shield, and from that time wore a shield ermine!" This fur is said to have been introduced into England by Alan, Earl of Richmond, so created by William the Conqueror. The ermine (_mustela erminea_) is found in all the northern regions of the old continent, and as far southward as Persia and China. It was originally brought into western Europe from Armenia, then called _Ermonie_, whence its name. Chaucer employs _ermin_ for the adjective Armenian. VAIRE is composed of miniature shields of blue and white alternately placed.

According to Mackenzie it represents the skin of a small quadruped called _varus_, the back of which is of a bluish grey, and the belly white; and Guillim adds that when the head and feet of the animal are cut off from the skin, the latter resembles the figure of vaire used in heraldry. The costly fur so much spoken of by our old poets under the name of _miniver_ is derived by Dallaway from the French _menu vair_, on account of its smallness and delicacy. The old French _vairon_ signifies anything of two colours, and may possibly be the etymon of _vaire_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: (Temp Edw. I.) Arms of Sackville.]

POTENT-COUNTER-POTENT, literally "crutch-opposite-crutch," resembles the tops of crutches counter-placed. What the origin of this figure may have been does not appear, although the word potent, in the sense of crutch, was common in the days of Chaucer.

"When l.u.s.te of youth wasted be and spent, Then in his hand he takyth a _potent_."

And again,

"So eld she was that she ne went A foote, but it were by potent."

_Romaunt of the Rose._

[Ill.u.s.tration: ("Gules, a bend argent")]

Having thus taken a glance at the field, or ground of the heraldric shield, let us next briefly notice what are called the honourable ordinaries, one or other of which occurs in the great majority of arms, viz., the CHIEF, BEND, BEND-SINISTER, FESSE, PALE, CROSS, SALTIRE, CHEVERON, and PILE. The =chief= is a fifth part of the shield nearest the top; _unde nomen_. In the primitive bearings, which were literally coats, or rather mantles of arms, the chief might be formed by turning the upper part of the garment back in form of a collar, thus exposing the lining, which doubtless was often of a different colour from the mantle itself. A knight who might chance at a tournament to wear a scarlet mantle lined with white, would in this manner acquire as arms, 'Gules, a chief argent.'

The =bend= is a stripe pa.s.sing diagonally across the shield from the dexter corner; (and the =bend-sinister=, the contrary way,) and is, etymologically, the same word with the French _bande_ and Saxon band.[89]

This ordinary evidently represents a band or scarf worn over one shoulder, and pa.s.sing under the opposite arm, and is well exemplified in the white belt worn by a soldier over his red coat. Of a similar origin is the =fesse=, a horizontal stripe across the middle of the shield, which represents a sash or military girdle. The term is evidently derived from the Latin _fascia_, through the French _fasce_. The =pale= is like the fesse, except that its direction is perpendicular. From its name it has been supposed to represent the _pales_, or palisades of a camp, and in support of this origin it has been remarked that, in antient warfare, every soldier was obliged to carry a pale, and to fix it as the lines were drawn for the security of the camp. This hypothesis seems to be one of those _after-thoughts_ with which heraldric theories abound. There is no doubt that most armorial _forms_ existed long before the invention of blazon, and that when it was found necessary to give every figure its distinctive appellation, the real origin of many bearings had been lost sight of, and the names a.s.signed them were those of objects they were _conjectured_ to represent.

It is far more probable that this ordinary originated in the insertion of a perpendicular stripe of a different colour from the mantle itself, an idea which is supported by the fact that the pale occupies in breadth a third of the escocheon. Two breadths of blue cloth divided by one of yellow, would produce a blazonable coat, '_Azure, a pale or_.' When a shield is divided into several horizontal stripes of alternate colours it is called _barry_; when the stripes run perpendicularly it is said to be _paly_; and when they take a diagonal direction it is styled _bendy_. The love of a striking contrast of colours in costume is characteristic of a semi-barbarous state of society, and the shawls and robes of the orientals of the present day afford a good ill.u.s.tration of the origin of these striped bearings.[90] Such vestments were not peculiar to the military, with whom we must always a.s.sociate the heraldry of the earliest times; for, so lately as the time of Chaucer, they were the favourite fashion of civilians. This author, in his 'Parson's Tale,' makes that worthy ecclesiastic complain of the "sinful costly array of clothing in the embrouding, the disguising, indenting or _barring_, ounding, _paling_, winding or _bending_, and semblable waste of cloth in vanity."[91]

Arms divided into two compartments by a horizontal line are said to be _parted per fesse_; when the line is perpendicular, _parted per pale_; and so of the others. Ridiculous as it may seem, our ancestors, from the reign of Edward II to that of Richard II, affected this kind of dress. In a contemporary illumination, John of Gaunt is represented in a long robe divided exactly in half, one side being blue, the other white, the colours of the House of Lancaster. Chaucer's Parson, just now quoted, inveighs against the "wrappings of their hose which are departed of two colours, white and red, white and blue, or black and red," making the wearers seem as though "the fire of St. Anthony or other such mischance had consumed one half of their bodies." "These party-coloured hose," humorously remarks Mr. Planche, "render uncertain the fellowship of the legs, and the common term _a pair_ perfectly inadmissible." But to return to the honourable ordinaries. The =cross=. It would not be difficult to fill a volume with disquisitions upon this bearing, forming, as it does, a prominent feature in the heraldry of all Christendom; but I must content myself with a general view, without entering much into detail. The cross, as the symbol of Christianity, naturally engaged the reverent and affectionate regard of the early Christians, a feeling which lapsed first into superst.i.tion, and eventually into idolatry. In those chivalrous but ill-directed efforts of the princes and armies of Christian Europe to gain possession of the Holy Land, the cross was adopted as the sign or mark of the common cause; it floated upon the standard, was embroidered upon the robes, and depicted on the shields of the enthusiastic throng whose campaigns hence took the designation of _Croisades_, or _Crusades_. On subsequent occasions the cross was employed in this general manner, especially when the interests of the church were concerned, as, for instance, at the battle of Lewes in 1264, when the soldiers of the baronial army marked themselves with a white cross for the purpose of distinguishing each other from the king's forces.[92] The plain cross, or cross of St. George, is the most antient form of this bearing; it differed, however, from the form now in use in having the horizontal bar placed higher than the centre of the upright.

The alteration was doubtless a matter of convenience to allow the common charges of the field, when any occurred, a more equal s.p.a.ce. But the cross has been so modified by the varying tastes of different ages, that Dame Juliana Berners, at a time when armory was comparatively simple, declares that "crossis innumerabull are borne dayli." The princ.i.p.al and most usual varieties of this ordinary are described in the 'Boke of St. Albans.' One of the most interesting forms is the _cross fitchee_, or 'fixibyll,'

because being sharpened at the lower end it could be fixed into the ground, like the little crosses in Catholic cemeteries. It probably originated in the cross antiently carried by pilgrims, which answered the purpose of a walking-staff, and served, when occasion required, for the use of devotion. Next to this may be reckoned the _cross patee_, the _cross-crosslet_, the _cross patonce_, and the _cross moline_, called in the Boke a "mylneris cros," "for it is made to the similitude of a certain instrument of yrne in mylnys, the which berith the mylneston."[93] The plain cross _corded_, or entwined with ropes, was borne, according to the same authority, in the "armys of a n.o.bull man, the which was some tyme a crafty man (handicraftsman), a _roper_ as he himself said." These crosses are fully described in the larger treatises on heraldry, together with numerous others. Berry's Encyclopaedia Heraldica enumerates no less than THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-FIVE varieties.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Crosslet fitchee patee patonce moline Calvary.]