WOMEN AND THEIR MOTTOES.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXV, Issue 6161, 5 March 1914, Page 4

WOMEN AND THEIR MOTTOES.

The Suffragette sets up as her motto: “Votes for Women.” But the great women of history had their mottoes symbolising or expressing the ideals which they cherished and in no one of the great queens or famous women but had one or more of these mottoes, which in some instances became war cries, and the devices which they had adopted were borne upon their banners. Joan of Arc had as her special device a bee upon a hive, with a Latin motto meaning: “This Virgin defends the kingdom with a sword.” Diane de Poitiers adopted a motto in memory of her deceased h'usband: “She lives only i n him.” The unfortunate Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland and France, had many devices. On the death of Francis 11. she adopted the licorice plant, the root only of which is sweet, and the motto, “The earth' covers my sweet one.” Later she embroidered on a cushion the de-. sign of a hand pruning a vine with’ a knife, with the words: “Virtue is strengthened by affliction.’* Another motto embroidered by her wasu Through chains it increases,” refer* ring of course to her imprisonment. A more elaborate design worked by her was of two women on {he wheel' of fortune, typifying herself and Quen Elizabeth, with the words : “The Companions of Fortune.” But she never lacked courage, as expressed in that other device of a lioness and one whelp: “One only* but that one a lion.” She saw herself as doomed in that device of a bird in a cage with a hawk hovering over it, and the words: “It is ill with me now, and I fear woe betides me.” But the saddest of all her devices was that one of three towns, with the words: “Darkness at noonday.” . Catherine de Medici, queen of ! Henry 11. took as her device after Henry’s death a harp of burning ashes with drops of water falling and the words: “Extinct flame proves that heat survives.” She also used the picture of a comet crowned with the motto: Prudence is greater than fate.” A hen and chicken found another device, with the words, “She preserves and fosters.’ ’ Margaret of Anjou chose the daisy as her emblem, and the motto: “Humble and Loyal.” Isabella of Valois, on account of her marriage which secured peace, had a device of a sky studded with stars, on one side the sun, on the other the moon, and the motto: “Now all is well.” Anne of Austria had pictured two cloves on a tree, in a ring and the motto: “In eternal union,” rather suggestive, as she was the fourth wife of Phillip ll.' Queen Christina of Sweden, forshadowing the intricacies before her, took the device of a labyrinth, and the words: “Fate will find a way.” Queen Elizabeth placed a Phoenix on her medals with th e words: “AN ways the same.”