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.

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: 

Detail of etched portrait of Henry VIII by Cornelis Metsys, 1548 (click to see full image)

And seen here in the upper right of the Sieve Portrait of Elizabeth I (on display in the Founders’ Room at the Folger):

Detail of the Sieve Portrait of Elizabeth I, 1579 (click to see full image)

And seen here on the “tails” side of an Elizabethan gold coin in the Folger collection:

Detail of Elizabethan gold pound, 1594-1596 (click to see full image)

The actual royal arms of Richard III, like those of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, have inverted pyramids of fleurs-de-lis and all lions facing to the viewer’s left.

Edwin Booth’s aesthetically balanced but heraldically off-kilter Richard III costume is on display at the Folger through January 12, 2014, in Here is a Play Fitted: Four centuries of staging Shakespeare, curated by Denise A. Walen.