The Curiosities of Heraldry Part 7

The Allerion Chimera c.o.c.katrice Dragon Griffin Harpy Lyon-Dragon Lyon-Poisson Mermaid Montygre Martlet Opinicus Pegasus Sphinx Sagittary Satyr Unicorn Wyvern Winged Lyon Winged Bull.[117]

The _allerion_ is a fabulous bird without either beak or legs, described by some writers as very small, like a martlet, while others give him the size of an eagle. The name is derived from the circ.u.mstance of his being dest.i.tute of all his extremities except the wings (ailles). Three such birds, according to the chroniclers of the middle ages, were shot with an arrow from a tower, by G.o.dfrey of Boulogne, duke of Lorraine, at the siege of Jerusalem, during the first crusade; and three allerions upon a bend, in honour of that event, are borne as the arms of the duchy of Lorraine to this day.[118]

The _chimera_ is, to use the words of Bossewell, "a beaste or monstre hauing thre heades, one like a Lyon, an other like a Goate, the third like a Dragon."[119]

The _c.o.c.katrice_[120] is a c.o.c.k, with the wings and tail of a dragon. The best account of him is given by Leigh: "Thys though he be but at ye most a foote of length yet is he kyng of all serpentes[121] of whome they are most afrayde and flee from. For with his breath and sight he sleath all thynges that comme within a speare's length of him. He infecteth the water that he commeth neare. His enemy is the wesell, who when he goeth to fight with y{e} c.o.c.katrice eateth the herbe commonlye called Rewe, and so in fight byting him he dyeth and the wesell therewith dyeth also. And though the c.o.c.katrice be veneme withoute remedye whilest he liueth, yet when he is dead and burnt to ashes, he loseth all his malice, and the ashes of him are good for alk.u.mistes, and namely, in turnyng and chaungeyng of mettall." To this latter remark he adds, "I have not seene the proofe thereof, and yet I have been one of Jeber's c.o.kes."

The _dragon_ is usually depicted with a serpentine body, sharp ears, a barbed tongue and tail, strong leathern wings armed with sharp points, and four eagles' feet, strongly webbed; but there are many modifications of this form. "Of fancy monsters, the winged, scaly, fiery dragon is by far the most poetical fabrication of antiquity. To no word, perhaps, are attached ideas more extraordinary, and of greater antiquity, than to that of dragon. We find it consecrated by the religion of the earliest people, and become the object of their mythology. It got mixed up with fable, and poetry, and history, till it was universally believed, and was to be found everywhere but in nature.[122] In our days nothing of the kind is to be seen, excepting a harmless animal hunting its insects. The light of these days has driven the fiery dragon to take refuge among nations not yet visited by the light of civilization. The _draco volans_ is a small lizard, and the only reptile possessing the capacity of flight. For this purpose it is provided on each side with a membrane between the feet, which unfolds like a fan at the will of the animal, enabling it to spring from one tree to another while pursuing its food. It is a provision similar to that of the flying squirrel, enabling it to take a longer leap."[123] The annexed cut represents a _dragon volant_, as borne in the arms of Raynon of Kent, and the _draco volans_ of the zoologists. A fossil flying lizard has been found in the lias of Dorsetshire, which, to employ the words of Professor Buckland, is "a monster resembling nothing that has ever been seen or heard of upon earth, excepting the dragons of romance and heraldry."

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Considering the hideous form and character of the dragon, it is somewhat surprising to find him pourtrayed upon the banner and the shield as an honourable distinction; unless he was employed by way of trophy of a victory gained over some enemy, who might be symbolically represented in this manner. The dragon often occurring at the feet of antient monumental effigies is understood to typify _sin_, over which the deceased has now triumphed; and the celebrated monster of this tribe slain by our patron saint, St. George, was doubtless a figurative allusion to a certain pestilent heresy which he vehemently resisted and rooted out. Favine, on the Order of Hungary, remarks that the French historians speak of Philip Augustus 'conquering the dragon' when he overcame Otho IV, who bore a dragon as the standard of his empire.[124] It has been suggested that the design of commanders in depicting monsters and wild beasts upon their standards was to inspire the enemy with terror.[125]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The dragon forms a part of the fict.i.tious arms of King Arthur; and another early British king bore the surname of =Pen-Dragon=, or the 'dragon's head.' The standard of the West Saxon monarchs was a golden dragon in a red banner. In the Bayeux tapestry a dragon on a pole repeatedly occurs near the person of King Harold; and in the instance which is copied in the margin, the words 'HIC HAROLD' are placed over it.[126] It was an early badge of the Princes of Wales, and was also a.s.sumed at various periods by our English monarchs. Henry III used it at the battle of Lewes in 1264.

"Symoun com to the feld, And put up his banere; The Kyng schewed forth his scheld, His _Dragon_ fulle austere.

The Kyng said 'On hie, Symon jeo vous defie!'"

_Robert Brunne._

"The order for the creation of this 'austere' beast," says Mr. Blaauw, "is still extant. Edward Fitz-Odo, the king's goldsmith, was commanded, in 1244, to make it 'in the manner of a standard or ensign, of red samit,' to be embroidered with gold, and his tongue to appear as though continually moving, and his eyes of sapphire, or other stones agreeable to him."[127]

"Then was ther a Dragon grete and grimme, Full of fyre and also venymme, With a wide throte and tuskes grete."[128]

The dragon-standard must have been in high favour with commanders, for in the same war we find it unfurled in the opposite cause by the leader of the baronial party:

"When Sir Simoun wist the dome ageyn them gone, His felonie forth thrist, somned his men ilkon, Displaied his banere, lift up his Dragoun!"

_Robt. Brunne._

"When Sir Simon knew the judgment given against them, his wickedness burst forth, he gathered all his men, displayed his banner, and lifted up his Dragon."[129] The expression '_his_ dragon' must not be understood to imply any peculiar right to the device, for the arms of De Montfort were widely different, viz. 'Gules, a lion rampant, double queue, argent.' From the indiscriminate use of the monster by different, and even by contending parties, I should consider him merely as the emblem of defiance. The Dragon must not be confounded with the usual pennon, or standard of an army, as it was employed in addition to it. Matthew of Westminster, speaking of the early battles of this country, says, "The king's place was _between_ the Dragon and the standard."[130] Among the ensigns borne at Cressy was a burning dragon, to show that the French were to receive little mercy.[131] This dragon was of red silk, adorned and beaten with very broad and fair lilies of gold, and bordered about with gold and vermilion. The French frequently carried a red pennon, embroidered with a dragon of gold. Our Henry VI caused a particular coin to be struck, the reverse of which exhibited a banner charged with a demi-dragon, and a black dragon was one of the badges of Edward IV. A red dragon was one of the supporters of Henry VII, Henry VIII, and Elizabeth, whence the t.i.tle, Rouge-dragon, of one of the existing pursuivants in the College of Arms.

The _griffin_, or griphon, scarcely less famous than the dragon, was a compound animal, having the head, wings, and feet of an eagle, with the hinder part of a lion. He is thus described by Sir John Maundevile in the 26th chapter of his 'ryght merveylous' Travels:

"In that contree [Bacharie] ben many Griffounes, more plentee than in ony other contree. Sum men seyn that thei han the body upward as an egle, and benethe as a lyoun; and treuly thei seyn sothe that thei ben of that schapp. But 0 Griffoun hathe the body more gret and more strong thane 8 lyouns, of such lyouns as ben o' this half (hemisphere); and more gret and strongere than an 100 egles, suche as we han amonges us. For 0 Griffoun there wil bere fleynge to his nest a gret hors, or 2 oxen yoked to gidere as thei gon at the plowghe. For he hathe his talouns so longe and so large and grete upon his feet, as thowghe thei weren hornes of grete oxen, or of bugles or of kygn, so that men maken cuppes of hem to drynke of, and of hire ribbes and of the pennes of hire wenges men maken bowes fulle stronge to schote with arwes, and quarell."

Casley says that in the Cottonian Library there was a cup of the description just referred to, four feet in length, and inscribed--

"=Griphi unguis divo Cuthberto Dunelmensi sacer=,"

a dedication which, I must confess, puzzles me sorely. A griffin's claw and the 'saint-bishop' of Durham seem as absurd a combination of ideas as that presented in the old proverbial phrase of 'Great A and a Bull's Foot,' or by the tavern sign of 'The Goat and Compa.s.ses.' If wisdom, according to cla.s.sical authority, lies in a well, so does the wit of this a.s.sociation. Another griffin's claw, curiously mounted on an eagle's leg of silver, which came at the Revolution from the Treasury at St. Denis, is preserved in the cabinet of antiquities in the King's Library at Paris.

Three such talons were formerly kept at Bayeux, and were fastened on high days to the altar as precious relics! A 'corne de griffoun' is mentioned in the Kalend. of Excheq. iii, 176. Another, about an ell in length, is mentioned by Dr. Grew in his 'History of the Rarities of the Royal Society,' p. 26. The Doctor thinks it the horn of a roebuck, or of the _Ibex mas_. Leigh says that griffyns "are of a great hugenes, for I have a clawe of one of their pawes, which should show them to be as bygge as _two_ lyons." The egg was likewise preserved as a valuable curiosity, and used as a goblet. "Item, j oef de griffon, garnis d'argent, od pie et covercle." The griffin was a.s.sumed by the family of Le Dispenser, and the upper part appears as the crest on the helm of Hugh le Dispenser, who was buried at Tewkesbury in 1349. Another strikingly designed representation of this curious animal is seen at Warwick, at the feet of Richard Beauchamp, who died in 1439.[132]

The _harpy_, unusual in English armory, has the head and b.r.e.a.s.t.s of a woman, with the body, legs, and wings of a vulture. This was a cla.s.sical monster. Guillim, imitating Virgil,[133] says:

"Of monsters all, most monstrous this; no greater wrath G.o.d sends 'mongst men; it comes from depths of pitchy h.e.l.l; And virgin's face, but wombe like gulfe insatiate hath; Her hands are griping clawes, her colour pale and fell."

The coat 'Azure, a harpy or,' was 'in Huntingdon church' in Guillim's time.

The _lyon-dragon_ and the _lyon-poisson_ are compound monsters; the former of a lion and a dragon, and the latter of a lion and a fish. These are of very rare occurrence, as is also the _monk-fish_, or Sea Friar, which Randle Holme tells us 'is a fish in form of a frier.' 'Such a monstrous and wonderful fish,' he adds, 'was taken in Norway.'

The ident.i.ty of the popular idea of the _mermaid_ with the cla.s.sical notion of the syren is shown in the following pa.s.sage from Shakspeare:

"Thou rememberest Since once I sat upon a promontory, And heard a Mermaid on a dolphin's back Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, That the rude sea grew civil at her song."

And Brown, in his 'Vulgar Errours,' observes, "few eyes have escaped [that] the picture of a Mermaid, with woman's head above, and fishy extremity below, answers the shape of the antient syrens that attempted upon Ulysses." The heraldric mermaid usually holds a mirror in her right hand and a comb in her left. The existence of mermaids was religiously believed not many ages since, and many accounts of their being captured on the English coast occur in the writings of our old chroniclers, and other retailers of marvels. The specimens exhibited of late years have been p.r.o.nounced ingenious combinations of the upper half of the ape with the tail of a fish.

The montegre, manticora, or _man-tyger_, had the body of a lion (q.

tiger?), the head of an old man, and the horns of an ox. Some heralds, by way of finish, give him dragon's feet.

Butler's well-known line,

"The herald's _martlet_ hath no legs,"

has rendered most readers aware of the singular defect of this otherwise beautiful charge. Heraldric authors differ as to the ident.i.ty of this bird. Its being called in Latin blazon 'merula,' and in French 'merlotte,'

the diminutive of 'merle,' has induced some to consider it a blackbird; while others, with greater plausibility, decide in favour of the common house martin, the legs of which are so short and the wings so long that when it alights upon the ground it cannot rise without great difficulty.

Hence originated the mistake of pourtraying it without legs, "and for this cause," sagely observes Guillim, "it is also given for a _difference_ of younger brethren to put them in minde to trust to their wings of vertue and merit to raise themselves, and not to their legges, having but little land to put their foot on."

The _opinicus_ differs slightly from the griffin, having four lion's legs instead of two, and the tail is short like that of a camel. It is used as the crest of the Barber-Chirurgeons Company. The _pegasus_ or winged-horse ranks among the chimerical figures of heraldry borrowed from cla.s.sical fable, and is more frequently employed as a crest or supporter than as a charge. The _sphinx_ occurs very rarely. The _satyr_ or satyral exhibits a human face attached to the body of a lion, and has the horns and tail of an antelope.

The _sagittary_ is the centaur of antiquity--half man, half horse, and is said to have been a.s.sumed as the arms of king Stephen on account of the great a.s.sistance he had received from the archers, and also because he had entered the kingdom while the sun was in the sign Sagittarius. Sir John Maundevile tells us that in Bacharie "ben many Ipotaynes, that dwellen somtyme in the watre and somtyme on the lond; and thei ben half man and half hors: and thei eten men _when they may take hem_"--an excellent _gloss_ upon Mrs. _Gla.s.s_, 'First _catch_ your hare,' &c.[134]

The _unicorn_ is the most elegant of all these fanciful figures, and is too well known as the sinister supporter of the royal arms to need any description. Mr. Dallaway derives the heraldric unicorn from the spike antiently fixed to the headpiece of a war-horse, and resembling a horn; but as this does not account for the cloven hoofs and slender, tufted tail, I should reverse the inference, and derive that appendage from the popular notion of the unicorn.

The unicorn of antiquity was regarded as the emblem of strength; and as the dragon was the guardian of wealth, so was the unicorn of chast.i.ty. His horn was a test of poison, and in virtue of this peculiarity the other beasts of the forest invested him with the office of water-'conner,' never daring to taste the contents of any pool or fountain until the unicorn had stirred the waters with his horn to ascertain if any wily serpent or dragon had deposited his venom therein. Upton and Leigh detail the 'wonderful art' by which the unicorn is captured. "A mayde is set where he haunteth, and she openeth her lappe, to whome the Vnicorne, as seeking rescue from the force of the hunter, yeldeth his head and leaueth all his fierceness, and resting himself vnder her protection, sleapeth vntyll he is taken and slayne!"

The Hebrew _reem_ being rendered in our version of the Bible unicorn, has confirmed the vulgar notion that the animal intended was the cloven-hoofed and single-horned figure of heraldry; but there is nothing in the word sanctioning the idea that the animal was single-horned; and on referring to the pa.s.sages in which the term is introduced, the only one which is quite distinct on this point seems clearly to intimate that the animal had _two_ horns. That pa.s.sage is Deut. x.x.xiii, 17. 'His horns are like the _horns_ of the reem;' the word here is singular, not plural, and should have been 'unicorn,' not 'unicorns,' in our version.[135] It has lately been attempted to prove that the reem of Scripture was the animal now known as the nhyl-gau.[136] Reem is translated in the Septuagint by '[Greek: monokeros],' which is exactly equivalent to our unicorn. If a one-horned animal be contended for, the rhinoceros is the only one now known that is ent.i.tled to the attribute of _unicornity_. Leigh declares the unicorn of our science to be a mortal foe to elephants, and such, according to zoologists, is the character of the rhinoceros. These two are, however, the only points of resemblance; for while the unicorn of heraldry is of light and elegant symmetry, the rhinoceros of the African deserts is an animal so clumsy and ponderous that it has been known to require eight men to lift the head of one into a cart.[137]

The _wyvern_ is one of the most usual of this description of charges. It is represented as a kind of flying serpent, the upper part resembling a dragon with two fore legs, and the lower part a snake or adder. The name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon 'wivere,' a serpent.

The bull and the lion with the wings of an eagle occasionally occur in continental armory, but I do not recollect an instance of either in English heraldry. The winged lion is the achievement of the city of Venice.

The foregoing enumeration of heraldric monsters includes all that are generally borne, and even some that scarcely ever occur; but Randle Holme, in his 'Academy of Armory,' figures and describes a mult.i.tude of others, some of which I strongly suspect to have been the offspring of his own prolific fancy. The triple-headed Cerberus was borne, this writer tells us, by the name of _Goaler_, while another family bore 'the scarlet beast of the bottomless pit:' ensigns of _honour_, truly!

What shall we say of

The _Nependis_, or ape-hog, half ape, half swine; The _Minocane_, or _h.o.m.ocane_, half child, half spaniel dog; The _Lamya_, a compound of a woman, a dragon, a lyon, a goat, a dog, and a horse; The Dragon-tyger, and Dragon-wolf; The Lyon-wyvern; The Winged Satyr-fish; The Cat-fish and Devil-fish; The a.s.s-bittern (the arms of Mr. Asbitter!) The Ram-eagle; The Falcon-fish with a hound's ear; and The 'Wonderfull Pig of the Ocean?'

_From Holme's Academy of Armory._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ram-eagle.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cat-fish.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: a.s.s-bittern.]

CHAPTER V.