362
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. in. MAY 13, m
ficate must issue from the Government de-
partment (of the country of origin) which
has the control of such matters. I believe
I am correct in saying that there is now some
Government department having proper con-
trol in almost every European country. It
is essential that the certificate should issue
from the Government department, and it has
to be countersigned by the English am-
bassador or minister resident in the country
of origin, which I take it is the guarantee
that the certificate is official and has been
lawfully issued. This certificate is then taken
to the College of Arms and recorded there.
I am not positive regarding all the formalities
of the operation, but the arms are not altered
in any way, their legality is fully admitted,
and will never afterwards be questioned.
After their registration they will be treated as
an. English coat of arms -subject to English
heraldic law. I have often been flatly con-
tradicted on this point of registration, and
informed it is never done and that such certi-
ficates are never issued. It is done constantly.
The supporters granted in Germany to Baron
Rothschild, even (namely, Dexter, a lion or,
and sinister, a unicorn argent), were after-
wards, when the need arose, registered in
England without question, though I do not
for one moment believe or suppose that any
Englishman would ever have been allowed to
obtain such a grant.
A great many people emphatically aver that the English College of Arms insist on regranting or else confirming all foreign arms. Both statements are utter rubbish. The College, nowadays, never " confirm " any arms at all. If a proper certificate is pro- duced, the arms are "recorded," and are neither altered, regranted, nor confirmed. If no certificate is forthcoming, the presump- tion is that the applicant has no arms at all, and arms are then granted in the ordinary way.
With regard to the actual question of your correspondent, B cannot be said to lawfully possess in this country a legal right to arms unless they are officially recorded. Fail- ing such a certificate as I describe, his right to arms would not be admitted (for example, if creation as a baronet compelled him to prove his right), but at the same time one would hesitate to describe the arms as "bogus" or "spurious." I myself should call them " foreign," and mentally class them with the "foreign" titles which (with the exception of the few officially recognized) we all quietly laugh at.
At the same time I would warn not only H. H., but any others interested in the point,
that the proportion of the so-called "foreign"
arms in use in this country which are spurious
or which are rank and impudent assumptions'
is as great as, if not greater than, the propor-
tion in the case of purely English arms.
A. C. FOX-DAVIES.
SHAKSPEARIANA.
'ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA,' III. x. 9-11. On our side, like the Token'd Pestilence, Where death is sure. Yon ribaudred Nagge of
Egypt,
(Whom Leprosie o're-take), &c. The epithet "ribaudred" has hitherto been explained by a mere guess that it means " lewd " but no other instance of its use has been adduced. It may perhaps, therefore, be legitimate to hazard a slight emendation, and conjecture that n has been misprinted u, and that Shakespeare wrote " riband-red," signifying "red with ribands," in reference to Cleopatra's feminine adornments (compare " carnation ribbon " in ' Love's Labour 's Lost,' III. i. 146). Cleopatra is a nag adorned with red ribbons rather than a war-horse. But this will by no means exhaust the meaning of the epithet in connexion with the present context. Scar us has just compared the fight to "the Token'd Pestilence," referring to the spots the appearance of which heralded death from the plague, and it would seem that there were three different kinds of these plague sores namely, the red, the yellow, and the black. Cleopatra's ribbons not unnatur- ally suggest the red plague to Scarus, and it is interesting to note that in ' Troilus and Cressida ' (II. i. 20) we have a reference to an analogous disease among horses : " a red murrain o' thy jade's tricks !" Again, "riband- red " will add much force to the imprecation (" whom Leprosie o're-take ") in the next line, leprosy being characterized by the appear- ance of white patches on the skin. Since red is the colour that matches best with a dark , complexion, it is not at all improbable that the actor who played Cleopatra wore red ribbons, and thus the epithet "riband-red" would seem a very natural one both to the author and the audience. Though it is not without diffidence I would meddle with the Folio text of this play, so slight an emenda- tion, which adds so much force to the passage, , in the absence of a satisfactory explanation of the original term, may be worth considera- tion. ALFRED E. THISELTON.
P.S. Since writing the above, I have had an opportunity of examining a facsimile of the Folio text, which seems to confirm ray view, for the u in the word " ribaudred ' is
