dignity, forbade her to discourage a style of
address equally disgraceful to those who employed and to her who
permitted it; and it was this unfortunate habit of receiving, and at
length requiring, a species of flattery which became every year more
grossly preposterous, which depraved by degrees her taste, infected her
whole disposition, and frequently lent to the wisest sovereign of Europe
the disgusting affectation of a heroine of French romance.

Tilts and tournaments were still the favorite amusements of all the
courts of Europe; and it was in these splendid exhibitions that the
rival courtiers of Elizabeth found the happiest occasions of displaying
their magnificence, giving proof of their courage and agility, and at
the same time insinuating, by a variety of ingenious devices, their
hopes and fears, their amorous pains, and their profound devotedness to
her service.

In the purer ages of chivalry, no other cognisances on shields were
adopted, either in war or in these games which were its image, than the
armorial bearings which each warrior had derived from his ancestors, or
solemnly received at the hands of the heralds before he entered on his
first campaign. But as the spirit of the original institution declined,
and the French fashion of gallantry began to be engrafted upon it, an
innovation had taken place in this matter, which is thus commemorated
and deplored by the worthy Camden, Clarencieux king-at-arms, who treats
the subject with a minuteness and solemnity truly professional.
"Whoever," says he, "would note the manners of our progenitors,--in
wearing their coat-armour over their harness, and bearing their arms in
their shields, their banners and pennons, and in what formal manner they
were made bannerets, and had license to rear their banner of arms, which
they presented rolled up, unto the prince, who unfolded and re-delivered
it with happy wishes; I doubt not but he will judge that our ancestors
were as valiant and gallant as they have been since they left off their
arms and used the colors and curtains of their mistress' bed instead of
them." The same author afterwards observes, that these fopperies, as
well as the adoption of _impresses_, first prevailed in the expedition
of Charles VIII. against Naples in 1494, and that it was about the
beginning of the reign of Henry VIII. that the English wits first
thought of imitating the French and Italians in the invention of these
devices.

An _impress_,