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The Collation

Can you spot the differences?

Have a look at the coat of arms worn by Edwin Booth (1833–1893) in the title role of Shakespeare’s King Richard III. Notice something wrong?

Richard III tunic worn by Edwin Booth in the 1870s.

Richard III tunic worn by Edwin Booth in the 1870s.

Hint: The conventions Victorian aesthetics aren’t the same as the conventions of medieval heraldry.

Give up?

Aesthetic rules call for heavier design elements below lighter ones (hence a pyramid of fleurs-de-lis) and bilateral symmetry (hence sets of lions facing each other). But compare the costume’s arms with the actual royal arms, seen here in a detail from a severely unflattering etching of Henry VIII: