_Ladies' Arms borne in a Lozenge_ (Vol. vii., p. 571. Vol. viii., pp. 37.
83.).--As this question is still open, I forward you the translation of an
article inserted by me in the first volume of the _Navorscher_.
Lozenge-formed shields have not been always, nor exclusively, used by
ladies; for, in a collection of arms from 1094 to 1649 (see _Descriptive
Catalogue of Impressions from Scottish Seals_, by Laing, Edinburgh) are
many examples of ladies' arms, but not one in which the shield has any
other form than that used at the time by men. In England, however, as early
as the fourteenth century, the lozenge was sometimes used by ladies, though
perhaps only by widows. Nisbet (_System of Heraldry_, ii. 35.) mentions a
lozenge-formed seal of Johanna Beaufort, Queen Dowager of Scotland,
attached to a parchment in 1439; while her arms, at an earlier period, were
borne on a common shield (_Gent. Mag._, April, 1851). In France the use of
the lozenge for ladies was very general; yet in the great work of Flacchio
(_Genealogie de la Maison de la Tour_) are found several hundred examples
of ladies' arms on oval {278} shields; and in _Vredii Genealogia comitum
Flandriae_ (p. 130.), on shields rounded off below. On the other hand,
lozenges have sometimes been used by men: for instance, on a seal of
Ferdinand, Infant of Spain, in Vredius, l. c. p. 148.; also on a dollar of
Count Maurice of Hanau, in Kohler's _Muentzbelustig_. 14. See again the arms
of the Count of Sickingen, in Siebmacher, Suppl. xi. 2. So much for the use
of the lozenge. Most explanations of its origin appear equally far-fetched.
That of Menestrier, in his _Pratique des Armoires_ (p. 14.), seems to me
the least forced. He derives the French name _lozange_ from the Dutch
_lofzang_:
"In Holland," he says, "the custom prevails every year, in May, to
affix verses and _lofzangen_ (songs of praise) in lozenge-formed
tablets on the doors of newly-made magistrates. Young men hung such
tablets on the doors of their sweethearts, or newly-married persons.
Also on the death of distinguished persons, lozenge-shaped pieces of
black cloth or velvet, with the arms, name, and date of the death of
the deceased, were exhibited on the front of the house. And since
_there is little to be said of women, except on their marriage or
death, for this reason has it become customary on all occasions to use
for them the lozenge-shaped shield_."
In confirmation of this may be mentioned, that formerly _lozange_ and
_lozanger_ were used in the French for _louange_ and _louer_; of which
Menestrier, in the above-quoted work (p. 431.), cites several instances.
Besides the conjectures mentioned by H. C. K. and BROCTUNA, may be cited
that of Laboureur: who finds both the form and the name in the Greek word
[Greek: oxugonios] (_ozenge_ with the article, _l'ozenge_); and of
Scaliger, who discovers _lausangia_ in _laurangia_, _lauri folia_. See
farther, Bernd. _Wapenwesen_, Bonn, 1841.