1886.1 D\) i [Brinton. 



ings, we find a class of scutal devices called in Latin arma can- 

 tantia, in English canting arms, in French armes parlantes. The 

 English term canting is from the Latin cantare, in its later 

 sense of chanting or announcing. Armorial bearings of this 

 character present charges, the names of which resemble more or 

 less closely in sound the proper names of the family who carry 

 them. 



Some writers on heraldry have asserted that bearings of this 

 character should be considered as what are known as assumptive 

 arms, those which have been assumed by families, without just 

 title. Excellent authorities, however, such as Woodham and 

 Lower, have shown that these devices were frequent in the remot- 

 est ages of heraldry.* For instance, in the earliest English Roll 

 of Arms extant, recorded in the reign of the third Henry, about 

 the year 1240, nine such charges occur, and still more in the 

 Rolls of the time of Edward the Second. They are also abun- 

 dant in the heraldry of Spain, of Italy and of Sweden; and 

 analogous examples have been adduced from ancient Rome. In 

 fact, the plan is so obvious that instances could be adduced from 

 every quarter of the globe. In later centuries, such punning 

 allusions to proper names became unpopular in heraldry, and are 

 now considered in bad taste. 



To illustrate their character, I will mention a few which are of 

 ancient date. The well-known English family of Dobells carry a 

 hart passant, and three bells argent, thus expressing very accu- 

 rately their name, doe-bells. The equally ancient family of Bol- 

 tons carry a device representing a cask or tun, transfixed by a 

 crossbow or bolt. Few canting arms, however, are so perfect as 

 these. The Swinburnes, who are among those mentioned on the 

 Roll of 1240, already referred to, bear three boar-heads, symboli- 

 cal of swine; the Boleynes carry three bulls' heads, which re- 

 minds us of Cardinal Wolsey's pronunciation of the name in 

 Shakespeare's Henry VIII, Bullen : 



"Anne Bullen? No ; I'll no Anne Bullens for him : 

 There's more in't than fair visage. — Bullen ! 

 No, we'll no Bullens."— King Henry VIII, Act Hi. 



Not rarely the antiquity of such bearings is evidenced by the 



*See M. A. Lower, Curiosities of Heraldry, Chap, vi (London, 1815). An appro- 

 priate motto of one of these bearings was : " Nou verois sed rebus loquimur." 



PltOC. AMER. FHTLOS, S0C. XXIII. 124. 3m. PRINTED NOV. 2, 1880. 



