1. In the reign of Sesostris,B.C.866.2. In the reign of Amasis,B.C.566.3. In the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus,B.C.266.4. In the reign of Tiberius, 34A.D.5. In the reign of Constantine, 334A.D.
1. In the reign of Sesostris,B.C.866.
2. In the reign of Amasis,B.C.566.
3. In the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus,B.C.266.
4. In the reign of Tiberius, 34A.D.
5. In the reign of Constantine, 334A.D.
Tacitus in the “Annales,” vi. 28, mentions the first three of these appearances.
ThePhœnix-treeis the palm. In Greek φοίνιξ (phoinix) means both phœnix and palm-tree. It is thus alluded to in Shakespeare:
“Now will I believe ... that in ArabiaThere is one tree, the phœnix throne—one phœnixAt this hour reigneth there.”The Tempest, Act iii. sc. 3.
Pliny[20]gives minute particulars concerning the natural history of thisrara avis in terris. But the ancient fable is most fully given by Ovid and translated by Dryden. Ariosto, also, and many early writers refer to the wonderful creature with fullest faith in its reality. It is no wonder then, that it became a favourite emblem in an age when it was the fashion among persons of distinction to have an impress or device with its accompanying legend or motto. Many persons of historical importance employed the phœnix to express in metaphor the idea they wished to convey regarding themselves. Thus we find the phœnix in flames painted for the device of Jeanne d’Arc, in the Gallery of the Palais Royal, with the motto: “Invito funere vivat” (“Her death itself will make her live”).
Vittoria Colonna (+ 1547) the beautiful and accomplished wife of the Marquis of Pescara, used the device of a phœnix on her medal.
Mary Queen of Scots used the impress of her mother, Mary of Lorraine, a phœnix in flames, and the motto: “En ma fin est mon commencement.” A phœnix in flames upon a castle was the badge of Queen Jane Seymour, the crest of the Seymours being a phœnix in flames issuing from a ducal coronet. Her son, Edward VI., added the motto, “Nascatur ut alter” (“That another may be born”), alluding to the nature of her death. She lies buried in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, with a Latinepitaph by Bishop Godwin, which has been thus translated by his son Morgan:
“Here a phœnix lieth, whose deathTo another phœnix gave birth.It is to be lamented muchThe world at once ne’er knew two such.”
Queen Elizabeth placed a phœnix upon her medals and tokens with her favourite motto: “Semper eadem” (“Always the same”), and sometimes with the motto “Sola phœnix omnis mundi” (“The sole phœnix of the whole world”); and on the other side, “Et Angliæ gloria” (“And the glory of England”), with her portrait full-faced. By the poets of the time, Elizabeth was often compared to the phœnix. Sylvester, in his “Corona Dedicatoria,” says:
“As when the Arabian (only) bird doth burneHer aged bodie in sweet flames to death,Out of her cinders a new bird hath birth,On whom the beauties of the first return;From spicy ashes of the sacred urneOf our dead phœnix (deare Elizabeth)A new true phœnix lively flourisheth.”
And Shakespeare, in the prophecy which he puts into the mouth of Cranmer at the baptism of the Princess Elizabeth, her great and glorious reign is foreshadowed, and finally:
“... as whenThe bird of wonder dies, the maiden phœnix,Her ashes new create another heir,As great in admiration as herself.”
Shakespeare elsewhere uses the simile to denote a phœnix among women—a phœnix, a paragon, unique, because alone of its kind:
“If she be furnished with a mind so rare,She is alone the Arabian bird.”Cymbeline, Act i. sc. 7.
Many other heraldic mottoes have been associated with this celebrated device. The following are from “Historic Devices, Badges,” &c., by Mrs. Bury Palliser:
Eleanor, Queen of Francis I. of Austria: “Non est similis illi” (“There is none like her”). She afterwards changed her motto, either showing how much she was neglected, or to express her determination to remain single: “Unica semper avis” (“Always a solitary bird”).Bona of Savoy: “Sola facta solum deum sequor.”Cardinal Trent: “Ut vivat” (“That it may live”).Linacre: “Vivat post funera virtus” (“Virtue survives death”).“De mi muerte ma vida” (“From my death my life”).“De mort à vie” (“From death to life”).“Et morte vitam protulit” (“And by death has prolonged his life”).“Ex morte, immortalitas” (“Out of death, immortality”).“Murio y nacio” (“I die and am born”).“Ne pereat” (“That it should not perish”).“O mors, ero mors tua” (“O death, I shall be thy death”).“Se necat ut vivat” (“Slays himself that he may live”).“Trouva sol nei tormenti il suo gioire” (“It finds alone its joy in its suffering”).“Vivre pour mourir, mourir pour vivre” (“Live to die, die to live”).“Uror, morior, orior” (“I am burnt, I die, I arise”).
Eleanor, Queen of Francis I. of Austria: “Non est similis illi” (“There is none like her”). She afterwards changed her motto, either showing how much she was neglected, or to express her determination to remain single: “Unica semper avis” (“Always a solitary bird”).
Bona of Savoy: “Sola facta solum deum sequor.”
Cardinal Trent: “Ut vivat” (“That it may live”).
Linacre: “Vivat post funera virtus” (“Virtue survives death”).
“De mi muerte ma vida” (“From my death my life”).
“De mort à vie” (“From death to life”).
“Et morte vitam protulit” (“And by death has prolonged his life”).
“Ex morte, immortalitas” (“Out of death, immortality”).
“Murio y nacio” (“I die and am born”).
“Ne pereat” (“That it should not perish”).
“O mors, ero mors tua” (“O death, I shall be thy death”).
“Se necat ut vivat” (“Slays himself that he may live”).
“Trouva sol nei tormenti il suo gioire” (“It finds alone its joy in its suffering”).
“Vivre pour mourir, mourir pour vivre” (“Live to die, die to live”).
“Uror, morior, orior” (“I am burnt, I die, I arise”).
The phœnix in heraldry is never represented in other than in one position,rising from flames, that is, with expanded wings and enveloped in flames of fire in which it is being consumed. It is usually represented exactly as an eagle in shape, but may be of any of the heraldic tinctures.
The phœnix is of frequent use in heraldry, and borne by many families in the United Kingdom. A phœnix issuing from a ducal coronet is the crest of the Duke of Somerset.
Linacre, founder of the College of Physicians, and honorary physician to four sovereigns has on his tomb in Westminster Abbey the device of the phœnix, with the motto, “Vivat post funera virtus” (“Virtue survives death”).
From the association of this fabulous bird with alchemy, Paracelsus wrote concerning it, and several alchemists employed it to symbolise their vocation. It was adopted by the Apothecaries’ Company as crest, and is a frequent sign over chemists’ shops.
A phœnix in flames proper, gorged with a mural coronet, is the allusive crest of the Fenwicks; the motto over the crest is thecri de guerre, “A Fenwick! a Fenwick!” They were a family noted in border warfare. “The house of Percy,” says Mrs. Bury Palliser, “ever ranked the Fenwicks among the most valiant of its retainers, and in border warfare thebanner of the gorged phœnix in the burning flame always appeared with that of the silver crescent of the Percys.”
The bird of paradise is interesting as having for a time been accepted as the veritable phœnix, a fact which has escaped Gibbon. That luxurious Emperor, Heliogabalus, having eaten, as he thought, of every known delicacy, bethought him one day of the fabled phœnix. What mattered it that only one bird existed at a time;that one, the imperial gourmand must have, and was inconsolable that he had not thought of it before. The zeal of proconsuls was equal to the great occasion, and from all parts of the earth came strange and wondrous birds, each affirmed with confidence to be “the sacred solitary bird, that knows no second, knows no third.” The cankerworm of doubt remains! At last, one day there was brought to Rome from the far islands of the Eastern seas a bird, the like of which for the glory of its plumage had never been seen out of paradise, the veritable phœnix, “Bird of the Sun!” The sight of the magnificent creature carried conviction with it. Heliogabalus ate in faith, and went to his fathers contented.
A Harpy, wings disclosed.
A poetical monstrosity of classical origin, described as “winged creatures having the head and breasts of a woman, and the body and limbs of a vulture; very fierce and loathsome, living in an atmosphere of filth and stench, and contaminating anything which theycome near. Pale and emaciated, they were continually tormented with insatiable hunger.” They are best known from the story of the Argonauts, where they appear as the tormentors of the blind king Phineus, whose table they robbed of its viands, which they either devoured or spoiled. They were regarded by the ancients as ministers of sudden death.
The Harpy, Greek sculpture.
In Miss Millington’s admirable book, “Heraldry in History, Poetry and Romance,” it is stated that unlike the generality of such mythical beings, the harpies appear originally, as in Homer’s “Odyssey,” as persons instead of personations; while later authors for the most part reduced them to whirlwinds and whirlpools. Homer mentions but one harpy. Hesiod gives two, later writers three. The names indicate that these monsters were impersonations of whirlwinds and storms. The names were:Ocypeta(rapid),Celeno(blackness),Aello(storm).
“I will ... do any embassage ... rather thanHold three words’ conference with this harpy.”Much Ado About Nothing, Act ii. sc. 1.“Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thouPerformed, my Ariel; a grace it had devouring.”Tempest, Act iii. sc. 3.
A Harpy displayed and crowned. German version.
Azure, a harpy with her wings disclosed, her hair flotant, or, armed of the same.This coat existed in Huntingdon Church in Guillam’s time.
The arms of the City of Nuremberg are:azure, a harpy displayed armed, crined and crowned, or. It occurs as the city device as early as 1243. In German heraldry it is termedjungfraundler.
Shield of Nüremberg.
A creature very similar to the harpy (a combination of several badges), was one of the favourite devices of Richard III., viz., a falcon with the head of a maiden holding the white rose of York.
The character ascribed to the pelican is nearly as fabulous as that of the phœnix. From a clumsy, gluttonous, piscivorous water-bird, it was by the growth of legends transformed into a mystic emblem of Christ, whom Dante terms “Nostro Pelicano.” St. Hieronymus gives the story of the pelican restoring its young ones destroyed by serpents as an illustration of the destruction of man by the old Serpent, and his salvation by the blood of Christ.
A Pelican in her piety, wings displayed.
The Pelican in Christian Art is an emblem of Jesus Christ, by “whose blood we are healed.” It is also a symbol of charity.
The “Bestiarum” says that Physiologus tells us that the pelican is very fond of its brood, but when the young ones begin to grow they rebel against the male bird and provoke his anger, so that he kills them; the mother returns to the nest in three days, sits on the dead birds, pours her blood over them, and they feed on the blood.
Heraldic Pelican in her piety.
Heralds usually represent this bird with wings endorsed and neck embowed, wounding her breast with her beak. Very many early painters mistakenly represented it similar to an eagle, and not as a natural pelican, which has an enormous bag attached to the lower mandible, and extending almost from the point of the bill to the throat. When in her nest feeding her young with her blood, she is said to beIN HER PIETY.
The Romans called filial love piety, hence Virgil’shero is called the “pious Æneas,” because he rescued his father from the flames of Troy.
Crest, a Pelican vulning herself proper, wings endorsed.
The myth that pelicans feed their young with their blood arose from the following habit, on which the whole superstructure of fable has been erected: They have a large bag attached to their under-bill. When the parent bird is about to feed its brood, itmacerates small fish in this bag or pouch; then, pressing the bag against its breast, transfers the macerated food to the mouths of the young ones.
The pelican in her piety is not an uncommon symbol upon monumental brasses. That of William Prestwick, Dean of Hastings, in Warbleton Church, Sussex, has it with the explanatory motto: “Sic Xtus dilexit nos.”
Examples.—Gules, a pelican in her piety, or.—Chauntrell.
Azure, three pelicans argent, vulning themselves proper.—Pelham,Somerset, &c.
A pelican’s head erased, or otherwise detached from the body, must always be drawn in the same position and vulning itself. It should always be separated as low as the upper part of the breast.
It is said naturalists of old, observing that the pelican had a crimson stain on the tip of its beak, reported that it was accustomed to feed its young with the blood flowing from its breast, which it tore for the purpose. In this belief the Early Christians adopted the pelican to figure Christ, and set forth the redemption through His blood, which was willingly shed for us His children.
Alphonso the Wise, King of Castile (+ 1252). A pelican in its piety. Motto: “Pro lege et grege.”
William of Nassau, founder of the Republic of the United Provinces, one of the noblest characters of modern history. He bore on some of hisstandards the pelican, and on others the motto: “Pro lege, grege et rege.”
The natural Pelican.
Pope ClementIX. One of his devices was the pelican in its piety. Motto: “Aliis non sibi clemens” (“Tender-hearted to others, not himself”).
Other mottoes for the pelican:
“Ut vitam habeant” (“That they may have life”).“Immemor ipse sui” (“Unmindful herself of herself”).“Mortuos vivificat” (“Makes the dead live”).“Nec sibi parcit” (“Nor spares herself”).
“Ut vitam habeant” (“That they may have life”).
“Immemor ipse sui” (“Unmindful herself of herself”).
“Mortuos vivificat” (“Makes the dead live”).
“Nec sibi parcit” (“Nor spares herself”).
The Martlet (MerletteorMerlot, French;Merula, Latin). The house-marten or swallow is a favourite device in heraldry all over Europe, and has assumed a somewhat unreal character from the circumstance that it catches its food on the wing and never appears to alight on the groundas other birds do. It builds its nest frequently under the eaves of houses, from whence it can take flight readily, rarely alighting, as it gains its food while on the wing; the length of its wings and the shortness of its legs preventing it from rising should it rest on the ground.
“No jutty friese,Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this birdHath made his pendant bed, and procreant cradle.”Macbeth, Act i. sc. 6.
It is depicted in armory with wings close, and in profile, with thighs, but with no visible legs or feet.
The martlet is the appropriate “difference” or mark of cadency for the fourth son. Sylvanus Morgan says: “It modernly used to signify, as that bird seldom lights on land, so younger brothers have little land to rest on but the wings of their own endeavours, who, like the swallows, become the travellers in their seasons.”
The swallow (hirondelle) is the punning cognisance for Arundell. The seal of the town of Arundel is a swallow, Baron Arundell of Wardour bears six swallows for his arms. The great Arundells have as motto, “De Hirundine” (“Concerning the swallow”), and “Nulli præda” (“A prey to none”). A Latin poem of the twelfth century is thus rendered:
“Swift as the swallow, whence his arms’ deviceAnd his own arms are took, enraged he fliesThro’ gazing troops, the wonder of the field,And strikes his lance in William’s glittering shield.”
“We find it in Glovers’ roll,” says Planché, “borne by Roger de Merley, clearly as ‘armes parlantes,’ although in a border.” Roger de Merley: “barée d’argent et de goulz à la bordure d’azur, et merlots d’or en le bordure”; showing it was some difference of a family coat.
is a heraldic bird, represented as an eaglet displayed, but without beak or claws. Some writers confound it with the martlet, stating that the alerion is the same bird with its wings displayed or extended. They are first found in the arms of Lorraine, which are blazonedor, on a bend gules, three Alerions argent, and are said to be assumed in commemoration of an extraordinary shot made by Godfrey de Boulogne, “who at one draught of his bow, shooting against David’s Tower in Jerusalem, broched three feetless birds called Alerions, which the House of Lorraine,decending from his race, continued to this day.” It is impossible, says Planché, who broached this wonderful story, but it is perfectly evident that the narrator was the party who drew the longbow, and not the noble Godfrey.
The letters of the wordAlerionappear to be merely an anagram formed by the same lettersLoraine, and may account for the birds on the shield (probably eaglets) being called alerions.
The eagle displayed and the two-headed eagle are but extreme conventionalised representations of the natural bird.
Liver, a fabulous bird, supposed to have given its name to Liverpool and commemorated in the arms of that city. It is traditionally described as a bird that frequentedthe pool, near which the town was afterwards founded. The arms granted in 1797 are thus blazoned:Argent a cormorant, in the beak a branch of seaweed all proper, and for crest,on a wreath of the colours, a cormorant, the wings elevated, in the beak a branch of Laver proper. It is more than probable that the bird on the arms suggested the name “Liver” being applied to it. The fiction naturally arose from the desire to find a derivation for the name of the town. It is, however, always depicted as a cormorant. On the shield the bird is always depicted with the wingsclose, and on the crest the wings areelevated.
An Heraldic Tigre passant.
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 assisted 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 suggestedby 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 “noblest English” and “good yeomen” to the assault at Harfleur, declare that
“When the blast of war blows in our earsThen imitate the action of the tiger;Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,Disguise fair Nature with hard-favoured rage.”
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, butmore strong and massive; 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 isan 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 passant or, maned and tufted argent.—Love, Norfolk (granted 1663).
Or, a tigre passant 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 mirroris 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-glasses 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 glasseshe thinketh she seeth one of her young ones; and so they escape the swiftness of her pursuit.”[21]
Tigre and Mirror.
“Argent, a tigre passant 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.
Next to the lion in power is the tiger, an animal not possessed of the noble 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 roundspots, which cover the whole surface of the skin. The use of theroyal tigerin 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.”
A curious character, partly real and partly fictitious 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, socharacterised 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.
A Leopard passant.
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. Planché 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 attitudes. The French heralds call a lion passant aleopard. Thus Bertrand du Guesclin, the famous Breton, declared that men “devoyent bien honorer la noble fleur-de-lis, qu’ils ne faissaient le félon liépard,” and Napoleon, strongly to excite the valour of his soldiers, exclaimed, “Let us drive these leopards (the English) into the sea!”
“Lion Léoparde” is the term used in Frenchheraldry for the lion when bornepassant guardantas in the royal shield of England. Whenrampantthey call it “léoparde lionné,” as if in this attitude the leopard assumed the position and bold character of the lion. The attitudepassant guardantthus 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.
A Leopard’s Face,jessant-de-lis.
It is a great argument in favour of the substitution 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.
“A leopard’s head” should show part of the neck,coupedorerased, as the case may be;guardant, affrontéor 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 afleur-de-lispassing 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 andgenerous warriors who have performed some bold enterprise with force, courage, promptitude, 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 reputationEven 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 passant guardant or, pelletée, 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 sableare given as the arms ofLynch. It is, however, probable that thelynxwas 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, ademi-leopard erect, proper.—Dickens.
A leopard’s face, breaking with his mouth a sword, is the crest ofDisne.
The supporters of the Earl of Northesk aretwo 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 broadHe mantled o’er,”
and the leopard, or panther, is given in the “Odyssey” as one of the forms assumed by Proteus, “the Ancient of the Deep.”
A curious ancient superstition about the leopard is embodied in its name. It was thought not to be actually the same animal as the panther or pard, but to be a mongrel or hybrid between the male pard and the lioness, hence it was called the lion-panther, orleopardus. This error, as Archbishop Trench tells us, “has lasted into modern times”; thus Fuller: “Leopards and mules are properly no creatures.”
Some writers, says Boutell, describe the leopard asthe issue of the pard and lioness, and they assign the unproductiveness of such hybrids as a reason for its frequent adoption in the arms of abbots and abbesses. “Mulus et abbates sunt in honore pares.”
The leopard and panther are now acknowledged to be but slight varieties of the same species. In Wood’s “Natural History” some slight difference is mentioned as to the number of spots. “The panther is fawn-coloured above, white underneath, with six or seven ranges of patches resembling rosettes—that is to say, each composed of an assemblage of five or six simple black spots. It very much resembles the leopard, which inhabits the same region (but has ten rows of spots which are of smaller size), It is the wildest of the feline tribe, always retaining its fierce aspect and perpetual growl.”
This beast, like the leopard, has been the object of much mistaken or fictitious history. Pliny, who is responsible for many of the errors in natural history since his time, says of the panther: “It is said that all four-footed beasts are wonderfullydelighted and enticed by the smell of panthers; but their hideous looke and crabbed countenance which they bewray so soon as they show their heads skareth them as much again: therefore their manner is to hide their heads, and when they have trained other beasts within their reach by their sweet savour, they fall upon them and worry them.”[23]And again, Sir William Segar, Garter King-of-Arms, following the same credulous historian, says: “The panther is admired of all other beasts for the beauty of his skyn, being spotted with variable colours, and beloved of them for the sweetness of his breath that streameth forth of his nostrils and ears like smoke which our paynters mistaking, corruptly do make fire.”[24]
Panther incensed.
It is, however, more probable that the creature was represented emitting flame and smoke to denote and give characteristic expression to the native savagery of the brute when irritated. If one can imagine the terror inspired by remorseless and unpitying fury,sudden and impetuous, we see its object fairly typified in the panther “incensed.” The idea of fire and smoke darting from its mouth, eyes and ears was doubtless suggested by that habit peculiar to the feline race, observable even in the domestic cat, to “spit fire” and “swear” when rudely attacked, and as an emblem in this sense it is extremely well indicative of sudden fury.
Guillam says: “Some authors are of opinion that there are no panthers bred in Europe; but in Africa, Lybia and Mauritania they are plentiful. The panther is a beast of a beautiful aspect, by reason of the manifold variety of his divers coloured spots wherewith his body is overspread. As a lion doth in most things resemble the nature of a man, so, after a sort, doth the panther of a woman; for it is a beautiful beast, and fierce, yet very loving to their young ones, and will defend them with the hazard of their own lives; and if they miss them, they bewail their loss with loud and miserable howling.”
The Lancastrian badge “the panther,” says Planché, “which is attributed by Sir William Segar to Henry VI. and blazoned passant guardant argent spotted of all colours with vapour issuant from her mouth and ears; but there is no authority quoted for it, and there is no example extant, the only collateral evidence being the supporters of the Somerset Dukes of Beaufort, who are supposed to have used it as a token of their Lancastrian descent.” The dextersupporter of the Duke of Beaufort thus is blazoned:Dexter, a panther argent, semée of torteaux, hurts and pomies alternately, flames issuant from the mouth and ears proper, gorged with a plain collar, chained, or.
The heraldic panther, or as it is more frequently termed, a panther incensed, is always borneguardant,i.e., full-faced; and “incensed,” that is to say, it is depicted with flames and smoke issuing from its mouth and ears. Its coat is spotted of various tinctures as the blazon may state.
Odet de Foix, Sieur de Lautrec, Marshal of France (+ 1528) being considered a person of fierce appearance, took for device a panther, with the motto “Allicit ulterius” (“He entices further”), alluding to the attractive power of that animal notwithstanding its fierce exterior, “an evidence,” remarks a modern writer, “that he had as much vanity as ambition.”
The town of Lucca for arms bears a panther: “La pantera, che Lucca abbraccia e onora.”
Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, surnamed the Great (+ 1518), a celebrated Italian soldier, bore a panther on his standard, with the motto, “Mens sibi conscia facti” (“The mind conscious to itself of the deed”), the panther signifying foresight (providence) from the number of eyes in his coat. Others said he wished to imply that he knew how to manage for himself in the various changes of his capricious fortune.[25]
The Lynx.
Felis Lynx, or mountain cat, is found in the northern parts of Europe, Asia and America, and climbs the highest trees. He preys on squirrels, deer, hares, &c. He is fond of blood and kills great numbers of animals to satisfy his unconquerable thirst. He is smaller than the panther, about three feet and a half in length, his tail is much shorter and black at the extremity. His ears are erect with a pencil of black hair at the tips. The fur is long and thick, the upper part of the body is a pale grey, the under parts white.
The sight of the lynx is said to be so piercing that the ancients attributed to it the faculty of seeing through stone walls: it may, however, be asserted with truth that it distinguishes its prey at a greater distance than any other carnivorous quadruped. On this account it is frequently employed in heraldry,symbolising watchfulness, keenness of vision, and also the ability to profit by it.
Lynx-eyed, “oculis lynceis,” originally referred to Lynceus, the argonaut, who was famed for the keenness of his vision; then it was transferred to the lynx and gave rise to the fable that it could see through a wall (notes to “Philobiblon,” by E. C. Thomas).
The Accademia de Lincei, founded in Rome in 1603, with the object of encouraging a taste for natural history, adopted the name and device of the lynx because the members should have the eyes of a lynx to penetrate the secrets of nature. Galileo, Fabio Colonna, and Gianbattista Porta were among the members of the academy, the latter philosopher and mathematician, who was the inventor of the camera obscura, bore the device of the academy, the lynx, and the motto “Aspicit et inspicit” (“Looks at and looks into”).
Charles IV. of Luxemburg, Emperor of Germany, adopted the lynx for his impress, with the motto, “Nullius pavit occursum” (“He fears not meeting with any one”).
The Lizard Lynxis an animal of the lynx or wild cat kind of a dark brown colour, spotted black; the ears and tail are short. They are frequent in the woods of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, where they are usually termed lizards.
Cat-a-Mountain saliant, collared and lined.
The Clan Chattan, who gave their name to the county of Caithness, bore as their cognisance the wild mountain cat, and called their chieftain, the Earl of Sutherland, “Mohr an chat” (The Great Wild Cat). The Mackintoshes still bear as their crests and supporters these ferocious cats, with the appropriate warning as a motto, “Touch not the cat but a glove.”
The whole is a pun upon the word “Catti,” the Teutonic settlers of Caithness,i.e., Catti-ness, and means “Touch not the Clan Cattan (or mountain cat) without a glove.” Here “but” is used in theoriginal meaning, beout,i.e., without. For another example of “but” meaning without, see Amos iii. 7. The same words are also used as the motto of several Scottish families.
None will forget how the cat-a-mountain showed her claws to the Clan Kay, in the Wynds of Perth in Sir Walter Scott’s “Fair Maid of Perth.”
Crest, a Cat-a-Mountain, sejant, collared and lined.
The Heraldic Musion.—Bossewell, in his work on heraldry published 1572, describes a musion as “a beaste that is enimie to myse and rattes.” He adds also that he is “slye and wittie, and seeth so sharply, that he overcommeth darkness of the nighte by the shyninge lighte of his eyne. In the shape of body, he is like unto a leoparde, and hath a greate mouthe. He doth delighte that he enjoyeth his libertie, and in his youthe he is swifte, plyante, and merrie. He maketh a rufull noyse, and a gastefull when he proffereth to fighte with another. He is a cruel beaste when he is wilde and falleth on his owne feet from moste high places, and uneth (scarce) is hurte therewith. When he hathe a fayre skinne, he is, as it were, prowde thereof, and then he goeth fast aboute to be seene.”
Childebert, King of France, in token of his havingtaken captive Gondomar of Bourgogne, assumed the device of a tiger-cat or ounce behind a grating or troillis, gules cloué argent. This recalls the famous scene between Sanglier Rouge and Toison d’Or in “Quentin Durward,” when Charles the Bold’s jester professes to help the unhappy envoy of De la Marck by describing it as a cat looking out of a dairy window.
The cat, though domesticated, is considered as possessed of ingratitude; in its friendship so uncertain and so vicious in its nature, “that,” say old writers, “it is only calculated for destroying the obnoxious race of rats and other small game.”
From the mediæval superstition that Satan’s favourite form was a black cat, it was superstitiously called “a familiar.” Hence witches were said to have a cat as their familiar.
The Cat:A symbol of liberty.—The Roman goddess of Liberty was represented as holding a cup in one hand, a broken sceptre in the other, and a cat lying at her feet. No animal is so great an enemy to all constraint as a cat.
The cat was held in veneration by the Egyptians as sacred to the goddess Bubastis. This deity is represented with a human body and a cat’s head. Diodorus tells us that whoever killed a cat, even by accident, was by the Egyptians punished with death. According to Egyptian tradition, Diana assumed the form of a cat, and thus excited the fury of the giants. TheLondon Reviewsays: “The Egyptians worshippedthe cat as a symbol of the moon, not only because it is more active after sunset, but from the dilation and contraction of its orb, symbolical of the waxing and waning of the night goddess.”
In heraldry it should always be represented full-faced like the leopard.
Erminois three cats-a-mountain passant gardant, in pale azure, each charged on the body with an ermine spot or.Crest:a demi cat-a-mountain gardant, azure, gorged with a collar gemel, and charged with ermine spots, two and one.—Tibbets.
The supporters of the Earl of Clanricarde are wild cats, and also those of the Earl of Belmore. It is the crest of De Burgh.
“Æneas.—His mantle was the lion’s,With all its tawny bars,His falchion, like Orion’s,Was gemmed with golden stars.Upon his lofty helmetA brazen terror rode;No sword could overwhelm itWhen in the fight it glowed.For like a wild cat brindled,It spat with eyes on fire,And in the battle kindledImmortal rage and ire,Now in the sunshine sleeping,How gently it reposed;But still in wisdom keepingA single eye unclosed.”Queen Dido, by T. S.
The Crowned Salamander of Francis I.
The salamander has been immemorially credited with certain fabulous powers. Less than a century ago the creature was seriously described as a “spotted lizard, which will endure the flames of fire.” Divested of its supernatural powers it is simply a harmless little amphibian of the “newt” family, from six to eight inches in length, with black skin and yellow spots. The skin was long thought to be poisonous, though it is in reality perfectly harmless; but the moist surface is so extremely cold to the touch that, from this peculiar quality in the creature, the idea must have arisen, not only that it could withstand any heat to which it was exposed, but it would actually subdue and put out fire.
This was a widespread belief long before the timeof Pliny, whose account of the creature is thus paraphrased by Swift:
“Further, we are by Pliny toldThis serpent is extremely cold;So cold that, put it in the fire,’Twill make the very flames expire.”
Marco Polo, the early Venetian traveller, who tells of many strange and wonderful things seen and heard of in his journeyings, was not a believer in the fabulous stories of the salamander, for he dismisses the subject with the curt remark, “Everybody knows that it could be no animal’s nature to live in fire.” An early heraldic writer of a somewhat later period, with greater credulity, stoutly maintains its reality, and in describing the creature states that he actually possessed some of the hair or down of the salamander. “This,” he goes on to say, “I have several times put in the fire and made it red-hot, and after taken out; which, being cold, yet remaineth perfect wool, or fine downy hair.”
Marco Polo further on assures his readers that the true salamander is nothing but an incombustible substance found in the earth, “all the rest being fabulous nonsense.” He tells of a mountain in Tartary, “there or thereabouts,” in which a “vein” of salamander was found; and so we arrive at the fact that this salamander’s wool was nothing but the “asbestos” of the ancients. It is easy to see why asbestos became known as “salamanders’ wool.” The nameresulted from the juxtaposition of ideas, and shows how deeply impressed was the belief in the salamander’s mysterious powers. A late writer tells us that some of the lizard tribe are known to enjoy warmth, and alligators are said to revel in hot water. It needed only that an insignificant member of the genus should have been found among the dead embers of a fire to prove at once the invulnerability of the reptile and its ability to extinguish the flames.
The salamander of mediæval superstition was a creature in the shape of a man, which lived in fire (Greek, salambeander, chimney-man), meaning a man that lives in a chimney. It was described by the ancients as bred by fire and existing in flames, an element which must inevitably prove destructive of life. Pliny describes it as “a sort of lizard which seeks the hottest fire to breed in, but quenches it with the extreme frigidity of its body.” He tells us he tried the experiment once, but the creature was soon reduced to powder.[26]
Gregory of Nazianzen says that the salamander not only lived in and delighted in flames, but extinguished fire. St. Epiphanius compares the virtues of the hyacinth and the salamander. The hyacinth, he states, is unaffected by fire, and will even extinguish it as the salamander does. “The salamander and the hyacinth were symbols of enduring faith, which triumphs over the ardour of the passions.Submitted to fire the hyacinth is discoloured and becomes white. We may here perceive,” says M. Portal, “a symbol of enduring and triumphant faith.”
Salamander crest of James, Earl of Douglas.From garter-plate.
This imaginary creature is generally represented as a small wingless dragon or lizard, surrounded by and breathing forth flames. Sometimes it is represented somewhat like a dog breathing flames. A golden salamander is so represented on the garter-plate of James, Earl of Douglas, K.G., the first Scottish noble elected into the Order of the Garter, and who died 1483A.D.Tincturedvert; andin flames properit is the crest of Douglas, Earl of Angus.
François I. of France adopted as his badge the salamander in the midst of flames, with the legend, “Nutrisco et extinguo” (“I nourish and extinguish”). The Italian motto from which this legend was borrowed was, “Nudrisco il buono e spengo il reo” (“I nourish the good and extinguish the bad;” “Fire purifies good metal, but consumes rubbish”). In his castle of Chambord, the galleries of the Palaceof Fontainebleau, and the Hôtel St. Bourg Thoroulde at Rouen, this favourite device of the crowned salamander, with the motto, may be everywhere seen.
Azure, a salamander or, in flames proper, is the charge on the shield of the Italian family of Cennio.
The “lizards” which form the crest of the Ironmongers’ Company, were probably intended for salamanders on the old seal of the company in 1483, but are now blazoned as lizards.
The heraldic signification of the salamander was that of a brave and generous courage that the fire of affliction cannot destroy or consume.
In the animal symbolism of the ancients the salamander may be said to represent the element ofFire; the eagle,Air; the lion,Earth; the dolphin,Water.
This fictitious animal, when depicted in heraldry, has a body like that of a stag, the tail of a unicorn, a head like the heraldic tiger, with two serrated horns, and a tusk growing from the tip of his nose, a row of tufts down the back of his neck, and the like on his tail, chest and thighs. Thus represented it is termed an heraldic antelope to distinguish it from the real or natural antelope, which is also borne in modern coats of arms.
Heraldic Antelope.
The old heralds, with their scant knowledge ofthe rarer kinds of foreign animals, represented the antelope as a fierce beast of prey, and totally unlike in appearance and in disposition to the beautiful small-limbed gentle creature with which we are acquainted. That such was the prevailing opinion in the time of Spenser is evident. In the “Faerie Queen” he makes the stout Sir Satyrane—
“In life and manners wild,Amongst wild beasts and woods from laws of man exiled.”
—more than a match for the most ferocious brutes, all of whom he subdues:
“Wild beasts in iron yokes he would compel;The spotted panther, and the tuskèd boar;The pardale swift, and the tiger cruel,Theantelopeand wolf, both fierce and fell;And them constrain in equal team to draw.”
Some authorities give the heraldic antelope with two straight horns, but as the ancient badge of the House of Lancaster it was represented with two serrated horns curving backward.
In blazon, the term “heraldic antelope” should always be used unless the natural antelope is intended.
is an imaginary beast resembling the heraldic antelope in appearance, with the exception of the horns projecting from his forehead, which are serrated like a saw. Perhaps it would not be erroneous to consider it identical with the heraldic antelope.
The Heraldic Ibex.
The real or natural ibex is a native of the Alps, the Pyrenees and the Grecian mountains, where they abound in defiance of the hunters. It resembles a goat, but the horns are much larger, bent backwards, and full of knots, one of which is added every year.
A fabulous beast like the heraldic antelope, but having the tail of a horse, and long horns of a goat curved backwards. The dexter supporter of the arms of Carey, Lord Hundson, in Westminster Abbey, is a Bagwyn.
The Giraffe figures a few times in blazon under these names. It is described by old heralds as half camel and half leopard. A curious word-combination was made by the Romans when wishing to find a name for the giraffe. “It is,” says Archbishop Trench, “a creature combining, though with infinitely more grace, yet some of the height and even the proportions ofa camel, with the spotted skin of thepard.” They called it “camelopardus,” the camel-panther.
There are two heraldic creatures based upon the above which are referred to in heraldic works, viz., theAllocamelusor ass-camel, having the body of the camel conjoined to the head of an ass; and theCamelopardel, which is like the camelopard, but with two long horns curved backwards.
A fictitious animal mentioned by Guillim and others. It nearly resemblesa goat, with the head and horns of a ram, but has besides the horns of that beast,a pair of goat’s horns. It is also mentioned in Guillim’s “Display,” where it is said to be a bigenerous beast, of unkindly procreation, engendered between a goat and a ram, like the Tityrus, the offspring of a sheep and goat, as noted by Upton.
Musimon, Tityrus.
An imaginary hybrid animal withthe head of a fox, chest of a greyhound, talons of an eagle, and body of a lion; the hind legs and tail of a wolf. It occurs as the crest of some Irish families of the name of Kelly.
Mantygre—Satyral.
A chimerical creature of mediæval invention, having the body of an heraldic tiger with mane, and the head of an old man with long spiral horns. Some heraldic authorities make the horns more like those of an ox, and the feet like a dragon’s.
The Satyralis apparently identical with the man-tiger.
The belief that certain persons have the power of assuming the shape of the tiger is common in India, and the Khonds say that a man-killing tiger is either an incarnation of the Earth’s goddess or a transfigured man. It is thus with the Lavas of Birma, supposedto be the broken-down remains of a cultured race and dreaded as man-tigers.[27]
Two satyrals supported the arms of the Lords Stawell.
The supporters of the arms of the Earl of Huntingdon are mantigers, but are represented without horns.
Manticora. From ancient Bestiaria.
From a mediæval “Bestiaria” we have a description and illustration of a gruesome creature of this name (manticora), evolved no doubt from some traveller’s marvellous tale. We are told that it is “bred among the Indians,” has a triple row of teeth, in bigness and roughness like a lion’s, face and ears like a man’s, a tail like a scorpion’s “with a sting and sharp-pointed quills,” and that “his voice is like a small trumpet,” and that he is “very wild,” and that after having his tail bruised, he can be tamed without danger.
There are several other fictitious creatures, which, if we may believe certain old writers, excited the minds of our credulous wonder-loving forefathers. Of these little need be said, as they rarely, if ever, appear in modern works on heraldry, and may therefore be classed as extinct monsters.
A curious creature of the imagination is the lamia, of which we are told many fictitious stories. It is said to be “the swiftest of all four-footed creatures, that it is very treacherous and cruel to men. It is stated to be bred in Lybia, and sometimes devours its own young.” It is represented in an ancient “Bestiaria” as having the head and breasts of a woman, and the body of a four-footed animal with flowing tail, the hind feet having divided hoofs. It is “thought to be the creature mentioned in Isaiah xxxiv., called in HebrewLilith, as also the same which is mentioned in Lamentations iv.”
Lamia. From old Bestiary.
In Dr. Brewer’s “Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,”Lamiais “a female phantom whose name was used by the Greeks and Romans as a bugbear to children, from the classic fable of a Lybian Queen beloved by Jupiter, but robbed of her children by Juno; and in consequence she vowed vengeance against all children, whom she delighted to entice and murder.” They are again described as spectres of Africa, who attracted strangers and then devoured them. In the story of “Machatës and Philemon,” a young man isrepresented as marrying an Empusa, who sucks his blood at night. Goethe borrowed his ballad of the “Bride of Corinth” from this tale.
Beyond casual mention this mythical creature does not appear in heraldry.
A fictitious creature having two heads, male and female, the rest of the body female; said to be used as an idol or symbol by the Templars in their mysterious rites. The word is a corruption of Mahomet. Though mentioned in old works it does not now appear in British heraldry.
A fictitious animal resembling a bull, with a short tail like that of a bear. It is the sinister supporter of the arms of the Company of Muscovy Merchants.
The supporters of the Ironmongers’ Company of London are two lizards. Bossewell describes beasts of similar shape—“Stelliones” as he terms them, evidently in allusion to steel. He says, “Stellio is a beaste like a lysard, having on his back spotts like starres.”[28]
Stellione-serpent, a serpent with the head of a weasel, borne by the name of Baume.