Page:A life of William Shakespeare (IA lifeofwilliamsha02lees).pdf/25

torical scholar, who have calendared them for the Historical Manuscripts Commission. The entry concerning Shakespeare in the Belvoir Household Book for 1612-3 runs thus: 'Item 31 Martij [1613] to Mr. Shakspeare in gold about my Lordes Impreso xliiijs. To Richard Burbadge for paynting and making yt in gold xliiijs. [Total] iiij^ll viij^s.' It thus appears that the dramatist joined with his friend and actor-colleague, Richard Burbage, in designing for the Earl of Rutland an 'impresa,' i.e. a semi-heraldic pictorial badge with an attached motto, by which men of fashion set at the time much store.

Elizabethan men of letters, in imitation of their Italian contemporaries, habitually applied their ingenuity to the invention of such fantastic devices for their patrons and for themselves. Ben Jonson was proud of an 'impresa' that he had designed for himself. Sir Philip Sidney was reckoned an expert in the pursuit. Samuel Daniel translated an Italian treatise on it, with abundance of original illustration. English essays on the theme came from the pens of the scholarly antiquary, William Camden, and of the Scottish poet, Drummond of Hawthornden. No Elizabethan writer deemed it beneath his dignity to identify himself with the prevailing taste, and the great dramatist in his declining days made his obeisance to the accepted vogue. Previously he had only betrayed a knowledge of 'imprese' by mentioning in his play of Richard II, III. i. 25, that they were