"_A savage tygress on her helmet lies;
The famous badge Clorinda us'd to wear._"
FAIRFAX'S "Tasso."
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 suggested by 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 ears
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair Nature with hard-favoured rage."
[Illustration: 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, but more 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 is _an 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 mirror_ is 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
glasse she thinketh she seeth one of her young ones; and so they escape
the swiftness of her pursuit."[21]
[Illustration: 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.