“Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York; And all the clouds, that lour’d upon our house, In the deep bosom of the ocean bury’d.” “Sun of York” is a direct allusion to the heraldic cognizance which Edward IV. adopted, “in memory,” we are told, “of the _three suns_,” which are said to have appeared at the battle which he gained over the Lancastrians at Mortimer’s Cross. Richard then adds,— “Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths, Our bruised arms hung up for monuments; Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings, Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.” We meet, too, in the _Pericles_ (act ii. sc. 3, l. 9, vol. ix. p. 345) with the words of Thaisa to the victor,— “But you, my knight and guest; To whom this wreath of victory I give, And crown you king of this day’s happiness.” But in the pure Roman manner, and according to the usage of Emblematists, Shakespeare also tells of “victors’ crowns;” following, as would appear, “LES DEVISES HEROIQVES” of Paradin, edition Anvers, 1562, f. 147 _verso_, which contains several instances of garlands for noble brows. Of these, one is entitled, _Seruati gratia ciuis_,—“For sake of a citizen saved.” [Illustration] The garland is thus described in Paradin’s French,— “_La Courõne, apellee Ciuique, eſtoit dõnee par le Citoyẽ, au Citoyẽ qu’il auoit ſauué en guerre: en repreſentatiõ de vie ſauuee. Et eſtoit cete Courõne, tiſſue de fueilles, ou petis rameaus de Cheſne: pour autãt qu’au Cheſne, la vielle antiquité, ſouloit prẽdre ſa ſubſtãce, ſõ mãger, ou sa nourriture_.” _i.e._—“The crown called Civic was given by the Citizen to the Citizen[122] whom he had saved in war; in testimony of life saved. And this Crown was an inweaving of leaves or small branches of Oak; inasmuch as from the Oak, old antiquity was accustomed to take its subsistence, its food, or its nourishment.” “Among the rewards” for the Roman soldiery, remarks Eschenburg (_Manual of Classical Literature_, p. 274), “golden or gilded crowns were particularly common; as, the _corona castrensis_, or _vallaris_, to him who first entered the enemy’s entrenchments; _corona muralis_, to him who first scaled the enemy’s walls; and _corona navalis_, for seizing a vessel of the enemy in a sea-fight; also wreaths and crowns formed of leaves and blossoms; as the _corona civica_, of oak leaves, conferred for freeing a citizen from death or captivity at the hands of the enemy; the _corona obsidionalis_, of grass, for delivering a besieged city; and the _corona triumphalis_, of laurel, worn by a triumphing general.”