Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/509

 i28.ii.DKc.23, i9i6.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

503'

for Ireland. This last-named change is referred to in the verses as follows :

King .lames the First to England brought

The Arms her might had braved, A bold ally as ever fought

Where freedom's banner waved, And he did charge the Shield beside With Erin's harp of fire.



Tho' silent now, tradition's words

Do tell how sweet it rung When native bards attuned the chords, And native minstrels sung.

The next change in the shield, namely, the charging by William III. of his paternal shield of Nassau, Azure, billeted, a lion rampant or, in pretence upon the royal shield, is thus referred to :

When Nassau in the pomp of War

Bode proudly to Torbay, And landing under freedom s star

Drove dastard James away, The Royal Shield escutcheoned bore

The Dutchman's lion bold; For He and Lady Mary wore

The people's Crown of gold.

The change in the shield made in the reign cf Queen Anne, namely, England impaling Scotland in the 1st and 4th grand quarters, France modern in the 2nd, but re- taining Ireland in the 3rd, is described thus : When Anne's transcendent glories burst,

And held the world in awe, She bore the Shield of James the First

Unburdened by Nassau, And soon with Albion's ancient foe A solemn contract sealed.



And when that bond the people hailed With shouts from shore to shore,

The Scotch and English Arms impaled The same Grand Quarters bore

referring, of course, to the union of the two kingdoms of Ireland and Scotland.

When Koyal George th First so named Did England's Sceptre wield,

The Hanoverian ensign claimed A fourth of Britain's Shield.



King George the Third for forty years

IIi> drandsiiv's arms displayed, Till common cause the Irish peers

With England's Senate made. Then vanished Gallia's lys forlorn

From Britain's flag, and hence The King's Germanic Arms were borne

On 'scutcheon of pretence.

The last change of all is thus described : When time to Albion's sceptre bore

A young and lovely Queen, On Albion's Standards now no more

Were foreign ensigns seen; And where Victoria's banners wave

The Hfi-alds charge alone The symliul- of those Kingdoms brave

Great Britain's name that own.

In the original copy each change of the- arms is shown by a very carefully drawn escutcheon .correctly blazoned in its proper tinctures, from which, and from other manuscript books containing instructions and exercises in heraldry which were found in this collection of papers, it can be inferred that the proprietors of the old Lancashire - school held the same views on heraldry being a necessary branch of education as the charming Diana Vemon did when she said to Frank Osbaldistone : " What ! is it possible ? Not know the figures of" heraldry ! Of what could your father be- thinking ? " A. B.

OF

PEELE'S AUTHOKSHIP

' ALPHONSUS, EMPEROR OF GERMANY.'

(See ante, pp. 464, 484.)

MR. H. C. HART AND MR. J. M. ROBERTSON are both of opinion that the hands of Greene and Peele are to be found at work together not only in ' Locrine,' but in the kindred tragedy of ' Selimus,' which appears to be of" a later date and contains a number of iden- tical lines ; and certainly a comparison of" their texts with the independent works of" these dramatists seems to support this conclusion. With regard to ' Locrine ' the internal indications of Peele's handiwork are so conspicuous that Prof. Schelling has been led to declare that his authorship " ha,s - long been accepted." As, however, it possesses many characteristics pointing al- most equally strongly to Greene we are scarcely warranted in saying more than that the presence of Peele's hand in ' Locrine ' has been established beyond reasonable doubt. At any rate, ' Alphonsus, Emperor - of Germany,' is like all the rest of Peele's works in that we find in it a number of links connecting it with ' Locrine.' Considera- tions of space forbid notice of all these, but there is one too important to be overlooked, connected as it is not only with ' Locrine,' but with an acknowledged production of" Peele's. Dyce long ago noticed that two lines in Act III. sc. ii. of ' Locrine ' : To arms, my Lord, to honourable arms, Take helm and targe in hand, are paralleled in Peele's ' Farewell to Norris and Drake,' where (1. 50) we have : To arms, to arms, to honourable arms, and (11. 10, 11) : Change love for arms ; girt to your blades, my

boys, Your rests and muskets take, take helm and forget'