impresan.

a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1590) i. xvi. sig. K4^v The Impresa in the shield; was a heauen full of starres, with a speech.

1589 R. Greene Menaphon sig. E2 There was banding of such lookes, as euerie one imported as much as an impreso.

1598 B. Yong tr. G. Polo Enamoured Diana in tr. J. de Montemayor Diana 392 Making verses, impresas, and Anagrammes of her loue and name.

1602 J. Marston Hist. Antonio & Mellida v. sig. H2 I did send for you to drawe me a deuise, an Imprezza, by Sinecdoche a Mott.

1603 M. Drayton Barrons Wars vi. xliii. 136 Emblems, Empresas, Hiroglifiques.

1637 T. Heywood Londini Speculum sig. C3^v Every one of them expressing their natures and conditons in the impresaes of their shields.

a1649 W. Drummond Wks. (1711) 228 Though Emblems and Impresa's sometimes seem like other:..The Words of the Emblem are only placed to declare the Figures of the Emblem; whereas, in an Impresa, the Figures express and illustrate the one part of the Author's Intention, and the Word the other.

1653 T. Urquhart tr. F. Rabelais 1st Bk. Wks. ix. 46 The device or impresa of my Lord Admiral.

1865 F. B. Palliser Hist. Lace 435 Then follow three pages in terzette, and p. 3. dorso, the impresa of the printer, a lion rampant, holding a sword in his fore paws.

1971 Eng. Stud. 52 122 The last impresa in the supplementary chapter is almost certainly a personal device of Daniel's dedicatee, Sir Edward Dymoke.

1622 G. de Malynes Consuetudo 230 The Impresa, Sceptra fouent Artes, may better be attributed to common~weales or popular gouernments, than vnto Monarchies or Kingdomes.

1630 R. Brathwait Eng. Gentleman 139 That Comicke impreza: If wise, seeme not to know that which thou knowest.

1641 R. Greville Disc. Nature Episcopacie i. iii. 5 For a Motto, and impreso, the Poets words,—Et quæ non fecimus ipsi [etc.].