Richardson and the Emblems on Clarissa’s Coffin

In his account of the coffin which Clarissa was preparing for her expected demise, in Letter 451 of Samuel Richardson's Clarissa, Belford describes two unusual pictorial symbols which Clarissa had adopted, a crowned serpent, with its tail in its mouth, forming a ring, the symbol of eternity, and the head of a white lily snapped short off, and just falling from the stalk. The snake with its tail in its mouth was an ancient motif found in most cultures of Indo-European origin, even appearing as Jormunjandr, or the Midgard Serpent, in Norse mythology, and was a familiar concept in the Roman Empire at least by the fourth century.