Note to A Midsummer's Night Dream, 3.2.213-214: "Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, / Due but to one and crowned with one crest."


Return
to
A Midsummer's Night Dream,
Act 3, Scene 2, Lines 213-214.
Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, / Due but to one and crowned with one crest: "We had two of the first, i.e., bodies, like double coats in heraldry that belong to a man and wife as one person, but which, like our single heart, have but one crest" (Francis Douce).
coats in heraldry
Queen Elizabeth I chose as her supporters the English Royal Lion (on the left)
and the Welsh Dragon (on the right), symbolizing she was Queen of England and Wales.