Emblematic Flag Devices of the English Civil Wars 1642-1660 (review)

Reviews 259 suggestion that the senna in this pdttr represents a game familiar to the medieval audience from forensic and other traditions. The endnotes offer valuable information on the legal intricacies of Olkofra pdttr and other topics. A s to content, though, these notes are often cluttered and obscured by irrelevant side-issues, partial analogues, and orthographical minutiae. The occasional careless translation, such as 'question' rather than 'rejoinder' for svar (p. 34), may also prove confusing. As to format, especially given the tight binding of the book, an arrangement of text and greatly abridged notes on facing pages might better serve the reader. The weaknesses I have pointed to in introduction and notes are of course prevalent in theses but should have been eliminated before publication, especially if the intention was to produce instructional material. Typographical and spelling errors are minimal in this modestly but clearly presented book. With its attractive subject-matter, it will provide valuable additional reading for students of Old Icelandic literature. Russell Poole Department of English Massey University Young, Alan R., ed., Emblematic Flag Devices of the English Civil Wars 1642-1660 (The English Emblem Tradition 3), Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1995; cloth; pp. lxvi, 345; 394 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. US$95.00. This, the third volume in The English Emblem Tradition sub-series of Index Emblematicus, is a logical extension of Alan R. Young's earlier work, The English Tournament Imprese (1988). In his article, 'Tournament Imprese', in The English Emblem and the Continental Tradition (1988), Young wrote of the untapped 'rich and abundant source' of imprese stretching into the time of the Civil Wars. In this book he has drawn on that source to produce a volume of fascination both to those whose interest is in the emblematic and those who are concerned with the internecine struggles of the age. Further, as the use of an emblematic device presupposes recognition by the observer, this collection illustrates the continuing strength of the emblematic tradition into the second half of the seventeenth century. In his introduction Young provides the context from which to consider the flags and their role in the complex religious and political struggles of the day. Further historical background is contained in a list of key events which 260 Reviews would have had broader appeal and accessibility had it been presented as a time-line, and enhanced by the provision of a relevant map. Drawing attention to the prolific printed propaganda of the age, both in word and visual image, through which each side strove to win the hearts and minds of the populace, he judges the emblematic flag devices a 'small but potent part' of this broader propaganda war. Even without their emblematic content the flags were highly emotive symbols, enabling recognition of friend or foe, embodying the honour and military reputation of their unit. M e n swore allegiance to them and defended them to the death. They were, therefore, an ideal medium for the transmission of the ideological or religious message. Young notes that ensigns of foot were regarded as belonging to the company, and few used mottoes or emblematic devices. By contrast, comets, smaller and easier to carry on a horse, were associated far more with the officer w h o commanded the troop, probably his own invention, and, as such, the descendant of the tournament impresa, carrying the individual's 'personal intentions, aspirations, or state of mind' into battle. As he reports, this living tradition was noted at the time by Thomas Blount, who observed that, with tournaments replaced by war, the emblematic devices formerly used on knights' shields were now transferred to the factional flags. Young's discussion of the general characteristics of the opposing parties' propaganda, and the projection of these attitudes and themes through the individual devices, is an aid to interpretation of the listed flag devices, whose descriptions are kept deliberately neutral. For his list of emblematic flag devices Young has garnered information on nearly 500 flags having mottoes, pictures, or both, from surviving contemporary sources. Compiled for motives ranging from the official listing of captured flags to possible espionage, the compilations are seen as proof of contemporary interest in...