Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PART I. THE HERALDS AND HERALDRY OF JONSON'S DAY. CHAPTER I. THE SOURCES FOR OUR STUDY. N VIEW of the vast and varied technical knowl- edge displayed by Jonson in his dramatic works, it is not surprising to find that he possessed a detailed familiarity with the science of Heraldry. The wonder is rather that, although the casual heraldic allusions in the plays of Shakspere have been made the subject of a monograph, ' no one has written, heretofore, on the far more numerous and technical heraldic passages in the plays of Jonson. The heraldry of Shakspere has far less need of annotation. "They may give," says Slender, "the dozen white luces in their coat;" to which the Welshman replies, "The dozen white louses do become an old coat well." 2 But Jonson's heraldic jests are buried beneath a mass of technical terminology. For example : "Gyrony of eight pieces, azure and gules; between three plates, a chevron engrailed checquy, or, vert, and ermins ; on a chief argent, between two ann'lets sable, a boar's head proper." 3 That much excellent satire exists even in such passages as the foregoing, I hope presently to show. Such is at least one of my purposes in the notes that constitute "Part II." But before I annotate particular passages, it is desirable that I present, as "Part I," a clear statement of so much of the science of Heraldry as actually appears in the dramatic works of Jonson. This statement, moreover, should be based not on the theory of heraldry as taught by modern manuals, nor on the theory of heraldry as it was practiced in its prime, but on heraldry as it was popularly known and practiced in Jonson's day, a period of heraldic decadence. 1 Heraldik in Diensten der Shakespeares Forschung. Selbstsludien von Alfred von Mauntz. Berlin. Mayer and Mutter. 1903. z Mer...