heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

INTRODUCTION. 47
That it had become, in some respects, an object of ridicule in Queen
Elizabeth's time is evident for ; Shakespeare, in the first scene of the
Merry Wives of Windsor, thus plays with the luces (i.e. fish, pike), which
were the charges of the Lucy family, one of whom had imprisoned him, it
is
said, for deer-stealing, and whom he characterised as Justice Shallow:
"Shallow. Sir Hugh, persuade me not: I will make a Star Chamber
matter of it. If he were twenty Sir John Falstaffs, he should not abuse
Robert Shallow, Esquire.
" Slender. In the county of Gloster, justice of peace, and coram.
"Shallow. Ay, Cousin Slender, and custalorum.
"Slender. Ay, and ratolorum too: and a gentleman born, Master
Parson, who writes himself armigero, in any bill, warrant, quittance, or
obligation, armigero.
" Shallow. Ay, that we do ;
and have done any time these three
hundred years.
" Slender. All his successors gone before him have done it, and all
his ancestors that come after him :
may they may give the dozen white
luces in their coat.
" Shallow. It is an old coat.
" Sir Hugh Evans. The double white louses do become an old
coat well : it
agrees well, passant. It is a familiar beast to man, and
signifies
love.
" Shallow. The luce is the fresh fish : the salt fish is an old coat.
"Slender. I
may quarter, coz ?
"Shallow. You may by marrying.
"Evans. It is marring indeed if he quarter it.
" Shallow. Not a whit.
" Evans. Yes, by'r lady : if he has a quarter of your coat, there is just
three skirts
for yourself."
Ben Johnson, in a dialogue between Lovel and Goodstock, thus
displays the decadence of chivalry. The former has offered to take
Goodstock's son for his page, which the latter declares to be a desperate
course of life.
" Lovell. Call you that desperate, which by a line
Of institution from our ancestors
Hath been derived down to us, and received
In a succession, for the noblest way
Of breeding up our youth, in letters, arms,
Fair mien, discourses, civil exercise,
And all the blazon of a gentleman ?
Where can he learn to vault, to ride, to fence,
To move his body gracefully to speak
:
His language purer: or to tune his mind
Or manners more to the harmony of nature,
Than in the nurseries of nobility ?
" Goodstock. Ay
: that was when the nursery's self was noble,
And only virtue made it, not the market.
Those titles were not vented at the drum
Or common outcry. Goodness gave the greatness,