[1489]This—
..., a bend engrailed between 6 martletts ..., was the seale[FV] he commonly sealed his letters with, but 'twas not his coate.
Quare whose coate it may be—if Hobbes?
Quaere James Wheldon the executor if this be his coate of armes—for 'tis some seale—and what the colours are.—Respondet that the heralds did offer him a coat of armes but he refused it.
<He was 'plebeius homo.'>
[1490]Sir William Dugdale (Clarenceux), and Sir Edward Bisshe, the heralds, had an esteeme and respect for him, in so much that they would have graunted him a coate of armes; but he refused it—which methinkes he neede[1491] not have donne.
Vide Alexander Broome's poemes:—
He that weares a brave soule and dares honestly doe
Is a herault to himselfe and a godfather too.
[1492]Vide Ben Jonson's Underwoods—that 'the most worthy men have been rock't in meane cradles.'