Note 91 — Chapter VI · THE BIRDS UNDER DOMESTICATION.
Reading edition
Apropos of ale-house signs, Shakespeare gives us the origin of “The Bear and Ragged Staff.” It is the crest of the Earls of Warwick.
Warwick. “Now, by my father’s badge, old Neville’s crest, The rampant bear chain’d to the ragged staff.” Henry VI. Part II. Act v. Sc. 1.