or it may, as Mr. Dyce remarks,[502] simply denote contempt or insult in the sense already mentioned.
Flower-de-luce. The common purple iris which adorns our gardens is now generally agreed upon as the fleur-de-luce, a corruption of fleur de Louis—being spelled either fleur-de-lys or fleur-de-lis. It derives its name from Louis VII., King of France, who chose this flower as his heraldic emblem when setting forth on his crusade to the Holy Land. It had already been used by the other French kings, and by the emperors of Constantinople; but it is still a matter of dispute among antiquarians as to what it was originally intended to represent. Some say a flower, some a toad, some a halbert-head. It is uncertain what plant is referred to by Shakespeare when he alludes to the flower-de-luce in the following passage[503] in “2 Henry VI.” (v. 1), where the Duke of York says:
“A sceptre shall it have,—have I a soul,—
On which I’ll toss the flower-de-luce of France.”
In “1 Henry VI.” (i. 2) Pucelle declares:
“I am prepared; here is my keen-edged sword,
Deck’d with five flower-de-luces on each side.”
Some think the lily is meant, others the iris. For the lily theory, says Mr. Ellacombe,[504] “there are the facts that Shakespeare calls it one of the lilies, and that the other way of spelling is fleur-de-lys.”
Chaucer seems to connect it with the lily (“Canterbury Tales,” Prol. 238):
“Her nekke was white as the flour-de-lis.”
On the other hand, Spenser separates the lilies from the flower-de-luces in his “Shepherd’s Calendar;” and Ben Jonson mentions “rich carnations, flower-de-luces, lilies.”
The fleur-de-lis was not always confined to royalty as a badge. Thus, in the square of La Pucelle, in Rouen, there is a statue of Jeanne D’Arc with fleurs-de-lis sculptured upon it, and an inscription as follows: