nd o'er the sea,
Maintain her sway triumphantly."

This, unfortunately, is only one side of the question: and, though
satisfactorily accounting for the shape of the shield of royalty, does not
enlighten us on the "origin and meaning" of the lozenge.

BARRINGTON, _Display of Heraldry_, 1844:--

"An unmarried daughter bears her father's arms on a lozenge-shaped
shield, without any addition or alteration."

BERRY, _Encycl. Herald._ 1830:--

"The arms of maidens and widows should be borne in shields of this
shape."

ROBSON, _British Herald_, 1830:--

"Lozenge, a four-cornered figure, differing from the fusil, being
shorter and broader. Plutarch says that in Megara [read Megura], an
ancient town of Greece, _the tombstones under which the bodies of
Amazons lay_ were of that form: some conjecture this to be the cause
why ladies have their arms on lozenges."

PORNY, _Elements of Heraldry_, 1795, supposes--

"The lozenge may have been originally a _fusil_, or _fusee_, as the
French call it: it is a figure longer than the lozenge, and _signifies
a spindle_, which is a woman's instrument."

This writer also quotes _Sylvester de Petra Sancta_, who would have this
shield to "_represent a cushion_, whereon women used to sit and spin, or do
other housewifery."

BRYDSON, _Summary View of Heraldry_, 1795:--

"The shields on which armorial bearings are represented are of various
forms, as round, oval, or somewhat resembling a heart; which last is
the most common form. Excepting sovereigns, women unmarried, or widows,
bear their arms on a lozenge shield, which is of a square form, so
placed as to have one of its angles upwards, _and is supposed to
resemble a distoff_."

BOYES, _Great Theatre of Honour_, 1754. In this great work the various
forms of shields, and the etymology of their names, are treated on at
considerable length. The Greeks had five:--the _Aspis_, the _Gerron_ or
_Gerra_, the _Thurios_, the _Laiveon_, and the _Pelte_ or _Pelta_. The
Romans had the _Ancile_, the _Scutum_, the _Clypeus_, the _Parma_, the
_Cetra_, and others; but none of these approached the shape of the lozenge.
The shields of modern nations are also dealt with at length; still the
author appears to have had no information nor an opinion upon the lozenge,
which he dismisses with these remarks:--

"L'ecu des filles est _en lozenge_, de meme de celui des veuves; et e