“Thus far our fortune keeps an upward course,
And we are grac’d with wreaths of victory.”
Wreaths of honour and of victory are figured by Joachim Camerarius, “Ex Re Herbaria,” edition 1590, in the 99th Emblem. The laurel, the oak, and the olive garlands are ringed together; the motto being, “His ornari avt mori,”—With these to be adorned or to die,—
“Fronde oleæ, lauri, quercus contexta corolla
Me decoret, sine qua viuere triste mihi,”—
i.e.
“From bough of olive, laurel, oak, a woven crown
Adorns me, without which to live is sadness to me.”
Among other illustrations are quoted the words of the Iliad, which are applied to Hector, τεθνάτω, οὔ οἱ ἀεικὲς ἀμυνομένω περὶ πάτρης,—“Let death come, it is not unbecoming to him who dies defending his country.”
Of the three crowns two are named (3 Henry VI., act iv. sc. 6, l. 32, vol. v. p. 309), when Warwick rather blames the king for preferring him to Clarence, and Clarence replies,—