SECTION I.

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SHAKESPEARE

AND

THE EMBLEM WRITERS.

[Illustration]

[Illustration:

LANGTON.SC.MANCR

PORTRAITS FROM ORIGINAL PLATES,—_Bocchius by Bonasone_, A.D. 1555;

_the others by Theodore de Bry_, A.D. 1597.

]

SHAKESPEARE

AND

THE EMBLEM WRITERS

AN EXPOSITION OF THEIR

SIMILARITIES OF THOUGHT AND EXPRESSION.

PRECEDED BY A VIEW OF EMBLEM-LITERATURE DOWN TO A.D. 1616.

BY HENRY GREEN, M.A.

~With numerous Illustrative Devices from the Original Authors.~

[Illustration:

Portrait of Shakespeare.

From the Oil Painting in the possession of Dr. Clay, of Manchester.

]

LONDON: TRÜBNER & CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW.

1870.

[_Right of Translation reserved._]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

PREFACE

FEW only are the remarks absolutely needed by way of introduction to a

work which within itself sufficiently explains and carries out a new

method of illustration for the dramas of Shakespeare. As author, I

commenced this volume because of various observations which, while

reading several of the early Emblem writers, I had made on similarities

of thought and expression between themselves and the great Poet; and I

had sketched the whole outline, and had nearly filled it in, without

knowing that the path pursued by me had in any instance been trodden by

other amateurs and critics. From the writings of the profoundly learned

Francis Douce, whose name ought never to be uttered without deep respect

for his rare scholarship and generous regard to its interests, I first

became aware that Shakespeare’s direct quotation of Emblem mottoes, and

direct description of Emblem devices, had in some degree been already

pointed out to the attention of the literary public.

And right glad am I to observe that I have had precursors in my labours,

and companions in my researches; and that, in addition to Francis Douce,

writers of such repute as Langlois of Rouen, Charles Knight, Noel

Humphreys, and Dr. Alfred Woltmann, of Berlin, have, each by an example

or two, shown how, with admirable skill and yet with evident

appropriation, our great Dramatist has interwoven among his own the

materials which he had gathered from Emblem writers as their source.

To myself the fact is an assurance that neither from aiming at

singularity of conjecture, nor from pretending to a more penetrating

insight into Shakespeare’s methods of composition, have I put before the

world the following pages for judgment. Those pages are the results of

genuine study,—a study I could not have so well pursued had not

liberal-minded friends freely entrusted to my use the book-treasures

which countervailed my own deficiencies. The results arrived at, though

imperfect, are also, I believe, grounded on real similitudes between

Shakespeare and his predecessors and contemporaries; and those

similitudes, parallelisms, or adaptations of thought, by whichever name

distinguished, often arose from the actual impression made on his mind

and memory by the Emblematists whose works he had seen, read, and used.

As a suitable Frontispiece the portraits are presented of five

celebrated authors of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: one a

German—Sebastian Brandt; three Italian—Andrew Alciat, Paolo Giovio, and

Achilles Bocchius; and one from Hungary—John Sambucus. They were all men

of learning and renown, whom kings and emperors honoured, and whom the

foremost of their age admired. The central portrait, that of Bocchius of

Bologna, is from the famous artist Giulio Bonasone, and the original

engraving was retouched by Augustino Caracci. The other portraits have

been reduced from the “ICONES,” or _Figures of Fifty Illustrious Men_,

which Theodore de Bry executed and published during Shakespeare’s prime,

in 1597. In their own day they were regarded as correct delineations and

likenesses, and are said to be authentic copies.

The vignette of Shakespeare on the title-page is now engraved for the

first time. The original is an oil-painting, a head of the life size,

and possessing considerable animation and evidences of power. It is the

property of Charles Clay, Esq., M.D., Manchester. Without vouching for

its authenticity, we are justified in saying, when it is compared with

some other portraits, that it offers equal, if not superior, claims to

genuineness. To discuss the question does not belong to these pages, but

simply and cordially to acknowledge the courtesy with which the

oil-painting was offered for use and allowed to be copied, and to say

that our woodcut is an accurate and well-executed representation of the

original picture.

Of the ornamental capitals at the head of the chapters, and of the

little embellishments at their end, it may be remarked that, with

scarcely an exception, there are none later than our Poet’s day, and but

few that do not belong to Emblem books: they are forty-eight in number.

The illustrative woodcuts and photolith plates, of which there are one

hundred and fifty-three of the former and nineteen of the latter,

partake of the variety, and, it may be said, apologetically, of the

defects of the works from which they have been taken. However fanciful

in themselves, they are realities,—true exponents of the Emblem art of

their day; so that, within the compass of our volume, containing above

two hundred examples of emblematic devices and designs, is exhibited a

very full representation of the various styles of the original works,

and which, in the absence of the works themselves, may serve to show

their chief characteristics. The Photoliths, I may add, have been

executed by Mr. A. Brothers, of Manchester.

Doubtless both the woodcuts and the plates are very unequal in their

execution; but to have aimed at a uniformity even of high excellence

would have been to sacrifice truth to mere embellishment. It should be

borne in mind what one of our objects has been,—namely, to place before

the reader examples of the Emblem devices themselves, very nearly as

they existed in their own day, and not to attempt the ideal perfection

to which modern art rightly aspires.

The Edition of Shakespeare from which the extracts are taken is the very

excellent one, in nine volumes, issued from Cambridge, 1863–1866. Its

numbering of the lines for purposes of reference is most valuable.

Our work offers information, and consequently advantage, to three

classes of the literary public:—

1st. To the Book Agent and Book Antiquarian, so far as relates to books

of Emblems previous to the early part of the seventeenth century, A. D.

1616. In a collected and methodical form, aided not a little by the

General Index, the first chapters and sections of our volume supply

information that is widely scattered, and not to be obtained without

considerable trouble and search. The authors, titles, and dates of the

_chief_ editions of Emblem books within the period treated of, are

clearly though briefly given, arranged according to the languages in

which the books were printed, and accompanied where requisite by notices

and remarks. There is not to be found, I believe, in any other work so

much information about the early Emblem books, gathered together in so

compendious and orderly a manner.

2nd. To the Students and Scholars of Shakespeare,—a widely-extended and

ever-increasing community. Another aspect of the Master’s reading and

attainments is opened to them; and into the yet unquarried illustrations

of which his marvellous writings are susceptible, another adit is

driven. We may have followed him through Histories and Legends, through

the Epic and the Ballad, through Popular Tales and Philosophic

Treatises,—from the forest glade to the halls and gardens of

palaces,—across the wild moor where the weird sisters muttered and

prophesied, and to that moon-lighted bank where the sweet Jessica was

sitting in all maiden loveliness;—but if only for variety’s sake it may

interest us, even if it does not impart pleasure, to mark how much his

mind was in accord with the once popular Emblem literature, which now

perchance awakens scarcely a thought or a regret, though great scholars

and men of genius devoted themselves to it; and how from that

literature, imbued with its spirit and heightening its power, even

he—the self-reliant one—borrowed help and imagery, and made his own

creations more his own than otherwise they would have been.

And 3rd. To the great Brotherhood of nations among the Teutonic race, to

whom Shakespeare is known as a chieftain among the Lares,—the heroes and

guardians of their households. In him they recognise an impersonation of

high poetic Art, and they desire to see unrolled from the treasures of

the past whatever course his genius pursued to elevate and refine its

powers;—persuaded that out of the elevation and refinement ever is

springing something of his own inspiration to improve and ennoble

mankind.

A word or two may be allowed respecting the translations into English

which are offered of the Emblem writers’ verses occurring in the

quotations. An accurate rendering of the original was desirable; and,

therefore, in many instances, rhymes and strictly measured lines have

been abjured, and cadence trusted rather than metre; the defect of the

plan, perhaps, is that cadence varies with the peculiar pitch and

intonation of each person’s voice. Nevertheless, among rhymes the

_Oarsman’s Cry_ (p. 61) might find a place on Cam, or Isis, and the

_Wolf and the Ass_ (p. 54) be entitled to abide in a book of fables.

In behalf of quotations from the original, it is to be urged that, to

defamiliarise the minds of the public, so much as is now the custom,

from the sight of other languages than their own, is injurious to the

maintenance of scholarship; and were it not so, the works quoted from

are many of them not in general use, and some are of highest rarity;—it

is, therefore, only simple justice to the reader to place before him the

original on the very page he is reading.

The value of the work will doubtless be increased by the Appendices and

the very full Index which have been added. These will enable such as are

inclined more thoroughly to compare together the different parts of the

work, and better to judge of it, and to pursue its subjects elsewhere.

My offering I hang up where many brighter garlands have been placed,—and

where, as generations pass away, many more will be brought; it is at his

shrine whose genius consecrated the English tongue to some of the

highest purposes of which speech is capable. For Humanity itself he

rendered his Service of Song a guidance to that which is noble as well

as beautiful,—a sympathy with our nature as well as a truth for our

souls. God’s benison rest upon his memory!

[Illustration]

~Knutsford~,

_August 10, 1869._

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE.

FRONTISPIECE ii

TITLE-PAGE iii

PREFACE vii

CONTENTS xiii

CHAPTER I.

EMBLEMS AND THEIR VARIETIES, WITH SOME EARLY EXAMPLES 1–29

CHAPTER II.

SKETCH OF EMBLEM BOOK LITERATURE PREVIOUS TO A.D. 1616 30–104

Sect. 1. General Extent of the Emblem Literature 30–37

to which Shakespeare might have had

Access

” 2. Emblem Works and Editions down to the end 38–59

of the Fifteenth Century

” 3. Other Emblem Works and Editions previous 60–83

to A.D. 1564

_i.e._ 1. Before Alciat’s first Emblem 60–68

Work, A.D. 1522

2. Down to Holbein, La Perriere, 69–75

and Corrozet, A.D. 1543

3. Down to Shakespeare’s birth, 75–83

A.D. 1564

Sect. 4. Emblem Works and Editions from A.D. 1564 84–104

to 1616

_i.e._ 1. Before Shakespeare had entered 84–92

fully on his Work, A.D. 1590

2. Until he had ended the 92–104

_Twelfth Night_ in 1615

CHAPTER III.

SHAKESPEARE’S ATTAINMENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES WITH 105–118

RESPECT TO THE FINE ARTS

CHAPTER IV.

THE KNOWLEDGE OF EMBLEM BOOKS IN BRITAIN, AND GENERAL 119–155

INDICATIONS THAT SHAKESPEARE WAS ACQUAINTED WITH THEM

CHAPTER V.

SIX DIRECT REFERENCES IN THE _PERICLES_ TO BOOKS OF 156–186

EMBLEMS, SOME OF THEIR DEVICES DESCRIBED, AND OF

THEIR MOTTOES QUOTED

CHAPTER VI.

CLASSIFICATION OF THE CORRESPONDENCIES AND PARALLELISMS 187–462

OF SHAKESPEARE WITH EMBLEM WRITERS

Sect. 1. Historical Emblems 188–211

” 2. Heraldic Emblems 212–240

” 3. Emblems for Mythological Characters 241–301

” 4. Emblems Illustrative of Fables 302–317

” 5. Emblems in connection with Proverbs 318–345

” 6. Emblems from Facts in Nature, and from 346–376

the Properties of Animals

” 7. Emblems for Poetic Ideas 377–410

” 8. Moral and Æsthetic Emblems 411–462

CHAPTER VII.

MISCELLANEOUS EMBLEMS, RECAPITULATION, AND CONCLUSION 463–496

APPENDICES.

I.

COINCIDENCES BETWEEN SHAKESPEARE AND WHITNEY 497–514

II.

SUBJECTS, MOTTOES, AND SOURCES OF THE EMBLEM IMPRESE 515–530

III.

REFERENCES TO PASSAGES FROM SHAKESPEARE, AND TO THE 531–542

CORRESPONDING DEVICES OF THE EMBLEMS TREATED OF

GENERAL INDEX 543–571

PHOTO-LITH PLATES.

PLATE. SUBJECT. SOURCE. PAGE.

I. Dedication Plate Alciat’s _Emb._ Ed. 1661 1

I_a_. Tableau of Human De Hooghe, 1670 13

Life,—Cebes, B.C. 330.

I_b_. Tableau of Human Old Print 68

Life,—Cebes, B.C. 330.

II. Christ’s Adoption of the Otho Vænius, _Divini 32

Human Soul Amoris Emb_. 1615

III. Creation Symeoni’s _Ovid_, Ed. 35

1559, p. 13

IV. Title-page,—_Speculum A MS. of the 1st Edition, 44

Humanæ Salvationis._ 1440

V. Leaf 31,—_Speculum Humana A MS. of the 1st Edition, 44

Salvationis._ 1440

VI. A page from the _Biblia Noel Humphreys, p. 40, Pl. 46

Pauperum_. 2

VII. _Historia S. Joan. per Tracing from the 49

Figuras_,—Corser Block-book

Collection.

VIII. _Historia S. Joan. per Tracing from the 49

Figuras_,—Corser Block-book

Collection.

IX. Title-page of Seb. Locher’s _Stultifera 57

Brandt’s _Fool-freighted Navis_, Ed. 1497

Ship_

X. Title-page of Van der _Adams Appel_, Ed. 1642 132

Veen’s _Emblems_.

XI. Fall of Satan Boissard’s _Theat. Vit. 133

Hum._ 1596 Ed.

XII. Occasion seized David’s _Occasio arr._ &c. 265

Ed. 1605

XIII. The Zodiac Brucioli, _Della Sphera_, 353

Ed. 1543

XIV. Life as a Theatre Boissard’s _Theat. Vit. 405

Hum._ Ed. 1596.

XV. Seven Ages of Life,—an _Archæologia_, vol. xxxv. 407

early Block-Print, 1853, p. 167.

British Museum.

XVI. Providence making Rich and Coornhert, Ed. 1585 489

making Poor.

XVII. Time flying Otho Vænius, _Emblemata_, 491

Ed. 1612.

[Illustration:

_Hesius_, 1636.

_Stans uno capit omnia puncto._

]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Illustration: In Remembrance of Joseph Brooks Yates]

In Remembrance

OF

JOSEPH BROOKS YATES

ESQUIRE,

OF WEST DINGLE,

LIVERPOOL,

WHOSE RARE AND EXTENSIVE

COLLECTION OF

BOOKS OF EMBLEMS

FIRST ENABLED THE

AUTHOR

TO STUDY THEIR LITERATURE,

THESE

_Shakespeare-Illustrations_

ARE GRATEFULLY

DEDICATED.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

SHAKESPEARE

AND THE

EMBLEM-WRITERS OF HIS AGE.

CHAPTER I.

_EMBLEMS, AND THEIR VARIETIES, WITH SOME EARLY EXAMPLES._

WHAT Emblems are, in the general acceptation of the word in modern

times, is well set forth in Cotgrave’s _Dictionary_, Art. EMBLEMA, where

he defines an emblem to be, “a picture and short posie, expressing some

particular conceit;” and very pithily by Francis Quarles, when he

says,—“an Emblem is but a silent Parable.” Though less terse and clear

than either of these, we may also take Bacon’s description, in his

_Advancement of Learning_, bk. v. chap. 5;—“_Embleme_ deduceth

conceptions intellectuall to images sensible, and that which is sensible

more forcibly strikes the memory, and is more easily imprinted than that

which is intellectual.”

By many writers of Emblem books, perhaps by the majority in their

practice if not in their theories, there is very little difference of

meaning observed between Symbols and Emblems. We find, however, in other

Authors a more exact usage of the word Symbol. The Greek poet Pindar[1]

speaks of “a trustworthy symbol, or sign, concerning a future action,”

or from which the future can be conjectured; Iago, recounting the power

of Desdemona over Othello, act ii. scene 3, l. 326, declares it were

easy

“for her

To win the Moor, were’t to renounce his baptism,

All seals and symbols of redeemed sin;”

and Cudworth, in his _True Intellectual System of the Universe_, ed.

1678, p. 388, after giving Aristotle’s assertion “_that Numbers were the

Causes of the Essence of other things_,” adds, “though we are not

ignorant, how the Pythagoreans made also the Numbers within the Decad,

to be Symbols of things.”

Claude Marginality, or Minōs, the famous commentator on the Emblems of

Andreas Alciatus, in his Tract, _Concerning Symbols, Coats of Arms, and

Emblems_,—eds. 1581, or 1608, or 1614,—maintains there is a clear

distinction between emblems and symbols, which, as he affirms, “many

persons rashly and ignorantly confound together.”[2] “We confess,” he

adds, “that the force of the Emblem depends upon the Symbol: but they

differ, I say, as Man and Animal; for people who have any judgment at

all know, that here of a certainty the latter is taken more generally,

the former more specially.” Mignault’s meaning may be carried out by

saying, that all men are animals,—but all animals are not men; so all

emblems are symbols, tokens, or signs, but all symbols are not

emblems;—the two possess affinity but not identity,—they have no

absolute convertibility of the one for the other.

[Illustration: _Symeoni, 1559._]

An example of Emblem and Symbol united occurs in Symeoni’s Dedication[3]

“To Madame Diana of Poitiers, Dutchess of Valentinois;” for Emblem,

there are “picture and short posie” expressing the particular conceit,

“Quodcunque petit, consequitur,”—_She attains whatever she seeks_; and

for Symbols, or signs, the sun, the temple, the dogs, the arrow, and the

stag; and for exposition, the stanza;

“_Sante le Muse son, santa è Diana,

Caste son quelle, et casta è questa anchora.

Dalle Muse il Sol mai non s’ allontana,

Et d’ Apollo Diana vnica è suora.

Nelle Muse è d’ Amore ogni arte vana,

Et de i lacci d’ Amor Diana è fuora.

Chi fia Diana quel dunque che dica,

Che voi non siete delle Muse amica?_”

Thus metrically rendered,

“Holy the Muses are, holy is Diana,

Chaste are they, and chaste also is she.

From the Muses the Sun indeed moves not afar,

And alone of Apollo Diana is sister.

Against the Muses Love’s every art is vain,

And free is Diana from all snares of Love.

Who then is the Diana that says,

That you are not a friend of the Muses?”

The word emblem, ἐμβλημα, is one that has strayed very widely from its

first meaning, and yet by a sort of natural process, as the apple grows

out of the crab, its signification now is akin to what it was in distant

ages. It then denoted the thing, whether implement or ornament, placed

in, or thrown on, and so joined to, some other thing. Thus a word of

cognate origin, _Epiblēs_, in the _Iliad_, bk. xxiv. l. 453,[4] denoted

the bolt of fir that held fast the door;—it was something put against

the door,—the peg or bar that kept it from opening. So in the _Odyssey_,

bk. ii. l. 37,[5] the sceptre, the emblem of command, was the baton

which the herald Peisēnor _placed in_ the hand of the son of Ulysses;

and again in the _Iliad_, bk. xiii. l. 319, 20,[6] the flaming torch was

the implement which the son of Kronos might _throw on_ the swift ships.

Of the changes through which a word may pass, “the word Emblem presents

one of the most remarkable instances.” They cannot be better given than

in the “_Sketch of that branch of Literature called_ BOOKS OF EMBLEMS,”

read in 1848 before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool,

by the late Joseph Brooks Yates, Esq. He says of the word EMBLEM, pp. 8,

9,—“its present signification, ‘Type or allusive representation,’ is of

comparatively modern use, while its original meaning is become obsolete.

Among the Greeks an Emblem (εμβλημα), derived from ενβαλλειν, meant

something thrown in or inserted after the fashion of what we now call

Marquetry and Mosaic work, or in the form of a detached ornament to be

affixed to a pillar, a tablet, or a vase, and put off or on, as there

might be occasion. Pliny, in his _Natural History_,” bk. xxxiii. c. 12,

“mentions an artist called Pytheus, who executed works of this last

description in silver, one of which, intended to be attached to a jar

(in phialæ emblemate), represented Ulysses and Diomed carrying off the

Palladium.[7] It weighed two ounces, and sold for 10,000 sesterces =

80_l_. 14_s_. 7_d_. of our money. According to one ancient manuscript of

Pliny, it sold for double that amount. Marcus Curtius leaping into the

gulph forms the subject of a beautiful silver Emblem, in the possession

of the writer.[8] When the arts of Greece were transplanted into Italy

and Sicily, the word _Emblema_ became naturalised in the Latin tongue,

though not without some resistance on the part of the reigning prince

Tiberius. That emperor is reported by Suetonius,” _Tiber. Cæsar Vita_,

c. 71, “to have found fault with the introduction of the word into a

Decree of the Senate, as being of foreign growth. Cicero, however, had

used it in his orations against Verres, where he accuses that rapacious

governor (amongst other crimes) of having compelled the people of

Haluntium to bring to him their vases, from which he carefully

abstracted the valuable Emblems and inserted them upon his own golden

vessels. Quintilian,” lib. 2, cap. 4, “soon after this period, in

enumerating the arts of oratory used by the pleaders of his day,

describes some of them as in the habit of preparing and committing to

memory certain highly finished clauses, to be inserted (as occasion

might arise) _like Emblems_ in the body of their orations.”[9]

“Such was the meaning of the term in the classical ages of Greece and

Rome; nor was its signification altered until some time after the

revival of literature in the fifteenth century.”

Our own Geoffrey Whitney, deriving, as he does the other parts of his

_Choice of Emblemes_ from the writers on the subject that preceded him,

gives very exactly the same explanation as Mr. Yates. In his address “To

the Reader” (p. 2) he says;—“It resteth now to shewe breeflie what this

worde Embleme signifieth, and whereof it commeth, which thoughe it be

borrowed of others, & not proper in the Englishe tonge, yet that which

it signifieth: Is, and hathe bin alwaies in vse amongst vs, which worde

being in Greek ἐμβάλλεσθαι, vel ἐπεμβλῆσθαι is as muche to saye in

Englishe as _To set in, or to put in_: properlie ment by suche figures,

or workes; as are wroughte in plate, or in stones in the pauementes, or

on the waules, or suche like, for the adorning of the place: hauinge

some wittie deuise expressed with cunning woorkemanship, somethinge

obscure to be perceiued at the first, whereby, when with further

consideration it is vnderstood, it maie the greater delighte the

behoulder. And althoughe the worde dothe comprehende manie thinges, and

diuers matters maie be therein contained; yet all Emblemes for the most

parte, maie be reduced into these three kindes, which is _Historicall_,

_Naturall_, & _Morall_. _Historicall_, as representing the actes of some

noble persons, being matter of historie. _Naturall_, as in expressing

the natures of creatures, for example, the loue of the yonge Storkes, to

the oulde, or of suche like. _Morall_, pertaining to vertue and

instruction of life, which is the chiefe of the three, and the other two

maye bee in some sorte drawen into this head. For, all doe tende vnto

discipline, and morall preceptes of liuing. I mighte write more at large

hereof, and of the difference of _Emblema_, _Symbolum_, _& Ænigma_,

hauinge all (as it weare) some affinitie one with the other. But bicause

my meaning is to write as briefely as I maie, for the auoiding of

tediousnes, I referre them that would further inquire therof, to _And.

Alciatus_, _Guiliel. Perrerius_, _Achilles Bocchius_ & to diuers others

that haue written thereof, wel knowne to the learned. For I purpose at

this present, to write onelie of this worde Embleme: Bicause it chieflie

doth pertaine vnto the matter I haue in hande, whereof I hope this

muche, shall giue them some taste that weare ignoraunt of the same.”

Whitney’s namesake, to whom flattering friendship compared him, Geoffrey

Chaucer, gives us more than the touch of an Emblem, when he describes,

in the _Canterbury Tales_, l. 159–63, the dress of “a Nonne, a

Prioresse,”—

“Of smale corall aboute hire arm she bare

A pair of bedes, gauded all with grene;

And theron heng a broche of gold ful shene,

On whiche was first ywritten a crouned A,

And after, _Amor vincit omnia_.”[10]

So the “Cristofre,” which the Yeoman wore, l. 115,

“A Cristofre on his brest of silver shene,”

was doubtless a true Emblem, to be put on, and taken off, as occasion

served,—and was probably a cross with the image of Christ upon it: and

if pictured forth according to the description in _The Legend of Good

Women_, l. 1196–8, an emblematical device was exhibited, where

“With saddle redde, embrouded with delite

Of gold the barres, up enbossed high,

Sate Dido, all in gold and perrie wrigh.”

This form, the natural form of the Emblem, we may illustrate from a

Greek coin, figured in Eschenburg’s _Manual of Classical Literature_, by

Fisk, ed. 1844, pl. xl. p. 351.

The Flying Horse and other ornaments of this coin on the helmet of

Minerva are Emblems,—and so are the owl, the olive wreath, and the

amphora, or two-handled vase. Were these independent castings or

mouldings, to be put on or taken off, they would be veritable emblems in

the strict literal sense of the word.

[Illustration]

Spenser’s ideas of devices and ornaments correspond to this meaning.

Mercilla, the allegorical representation of the sovereign Elizabeth, is

described as

“that gratious Queene:

Who sate on high, that she might all men see

And might of all men royally be seene,

Upon a throne of gold full bright and sheene,

Adorned all with gemmes of endless price,

As either might for wealth have gotten beene,

Or could be fram’d by workman’s rare device

And all embost with lyons and with flour de lice.”

_Faerie Queene_, v. 9. 27.

In _Cymbeline_, Shakespeare represents Iachimo, act i. sc. 6, l. 188, 9,

describing “a present for the emperor;”

“Tis plate, of rare device; and jewels

Of rich and exquisite form; their values great.”

So Spenser, _Faerie Queene_, iv. 4. 15, sets forth, “a precious rebeke

in an arke of gold,” as

“A gorgeous Girdle, curiously embost

With pearle and precious stone, worth many a marke;

Yet did the workmanship farre passe the cost.”

In the literal use of the word emblem Shakespeare is very exact.

Parolles, _All’s Well_, act ii. sc. 1, l. 40, charges the young lords of

the French court, as

“Noble heroes, my sword and yours are kin;” and adds, “Good sparks

and lustrous, a word, good metals: you shall find in the regiment of the

Spinii one Captain Spurio, with his cicatrice, an emblem of war, here on

his sinister cheek; it was this very sword entrenched it.”

The Coronation Scene in _Henry VIII_., act iv. sc. 1. l. 81–92,

describes the solemnities, when Anne Bullen, “the goodliest woman that

ever lay by man,

“with modest paces

Came to the altar; where she kneel’d, and saint-like

Cast her fair eyes to heaven, and pray’d devoutly:”

Each sacred rite is then observed towards her;—

“She had all the royal makings of a queen;

As holy oil, Edward Confessor’s crown,

The rod, and bird of peace, and all such emblems

Lay’d nobly on her.”

And down to Milton’s time the original meaning of the word Emblem was

still retained, though widely departed from as used by some of the

Emblem writers. Thus he pictures the “blissful bower” of Eden, bk. iv.

l. 697–703, _Paradise Lost_,

“each beauteous flower,

Iris all hues, roses, and jessamin,

Rear’d high their flourish’d heads between, and wrought

Mosaic: underfoot the violet,

Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich inlay

Broider’d the ground, more colour’d than with stone

Of costliest emblem.”

Thus, in their origin, Emblems were the figures or ornaments fashioned

by the tools of the artists, in metal or wood, independent of the vase,

or the column, or the furniture, they were intended to adorn; they might

be affixed or detached at the promptings of the owner’s fancy. Then they

were formed, as in mosaic, by placing side by side little blocks of

coloured stone, or tiles, or small sections of variegated wood. Raised

or carved figures, however produced, came next to be considered as

Emblems; and afterwards any kind of figured ornament, or device, whether

carved or engraved, or simply traced, on the walls and floors of houses

or on vessels of wood, clay, stone, or metal. These ornaments were

sometimes like the raised work on the Warwick and other vases, and

formed a _crust_ which made a part of the vessel which they embellished;

but at other times they were devices, drawings and carvings on a

_framework_ which might be detached from the cup or goblet on which the

owner had placed them, and be applied to other uses.[11]

We may here remark, since embossed ornaments and sculptured figures on

any plain surface are essentially Emblems, the sculptor, the engraver,

the statuary and the architect, indeed all workers in wood, metal, or

stone, who embellish with device or symbol the simplicity of nature’s

materials, are especially entitled to take rank in the fraternity of the

Emblematists. They and their patrons, the whole world of the civilized

and the intellectual, are not content with the beam out of the forest,

or with the marble from the quarry, or with even the gold from the mine.

In themselves cedar, marble and gold are only forms of brute and

unintelligent nature,—and therefore we impose upon them signs of

deep-seated thoughts of the heart and devices of wondrous meaning, and

out of the rocks call forth sermons, and lessons and parables, and

highly spiritual suggestions. On the very shrines of God we place our

images of corruptible things,—but then the soul that rightly reads the

images lifts them out of their corruptibility and makes them the

teachers of eternal truths.

The domains of the statuary and of the architect are however too vast to

be entered upon by us, except with a passing glance; they are like

Philosophy; it is all _Natural_,—and yet wisely men map it out into

kingdoms and divisions, and pursue each his selected work.

So we remember it is not the Universe of Emblematism we must attempt,

even though Shakespeare should lend us

“The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,

_To_ glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;

And as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown,”

should add the gift of “the poet’s pen,” so that we might

“Turn them to shapes, and give to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name.”

_Midsummer Night’s Dream_, act v. sc. 1. l. 12–17.

Our business is only with that comparatively small section of the

Emblem-World, which, “like mummies in their cerements,” is wrapped up

within the covers of the so called Emblem-books. Whether, when they are

unrolled, they are worth the search and the labour, some may doubt;—but

perchance a scarabæus, or an emerald, with an ancient harp upon it, may

reward our patience.

By a very easy and natural step, figures and ornaments of many kinds,

when placed on smooth surfaces, were named emblems; and as these figures

and ornaments were very often symbolical, _i. e._, signs, or tokens of a

thought, a sentiment, a saying, or an event, the term emblem was applied

to any painting, drawing, or print that was representative of an action,

of a quality of the mind, or of any peculiarity or attribute of

character.[12] “Emblems in fact were, and are, a species of

hieroglyphics, in which the figures or pictures, besides denoting the

natural objects to which they bear resemblances, were employed to

express properties of the mind, virtues and abstract ideas, and all the

operations of the soul.”

~Tabula Cebetis philosophi so=~

cratici-cũ Iohãnis Aeſticãpiani Epiſtola.

[Illustration: _Fab. Cebetis, 1507._]

Plate 1^a

[Illustration: _Tableau of Human Life from Cebes B C 390_]

Thus, the _Tablet of Cebes_, a work by one of the disciples of Socrates,

about B.C. 390, is an explanation, in the form of a Dialogue, of a

picture, said to have been set up in the temple of Kronos at Athens or

at Thebes, and which was declared to be emblematical of Human Life.

One of the older Latin versions, printed in 1507, presents the foregoing

illustrative frontispiece.

As the book has come down to modern times it is, generally, what has

sometimes been named, _nudum Emblema_, a naked Emblem, because it has

neither device nor artistic drawing, but, like Shakespeare’s comparison

of all the world to a stage in which man plays many parts, the course of

Life, with its discipline, false hopes and false pleasures, is in the

Tablet so described,—in fact so delineated,[13] as to have enabled the

Dutch designer and engraver, Romyn de Hooghe, in 1670, to have pictured

“the whole story of Human Life as narrated to the Grecian sage.”

The Moral of the Allegory may not be set forth with entire clearness in

the picture, but it can be given in the words of one of the _Golden

Sentences_ of Democritus,—see Gale’s _Opus. Mythol._:—

“That human happiness does not result from bodily excellencies nor

from riches, but is founded on uprightness of mind and on righteousness

of conduct.”

Coins and medals furnish most valuable examples of emblematical figures;

indeed some of the Emblem writers, as Sambucus in 1564, were among the

earliest to publish impressions or engravings of ancient Roman money, on

which are frequently given very interesting representations of customs

and symbolical acts. On Grecian coins, which Priestley, in his _Lectures

on History_, vol. i. p. 126,—highly praises for “a design, an attitude,

a force, and a delicacy, in the expression even of the muscles and veins

of human figures,”—we find, to use heraldic language, that the owl is

the crest of Athens,—a wolf’s head, that of Argos,—and a tortoise the

badge of the Peloponnesus. The whole history of Louis XIV. and that of

his great adversary, William III., are represented in volumes containing

the medals that were struck to commemorate the leading events of their

reigns, and though outrageously untrue to nature and reality by the

adoption of Roman costumes and classic symbols, they serve as records of

remarkable occurrences.

Heraldry throughout employs the language of Emblems;—it is the

picture-history of families, of tribes and of nations, of princes and

emperors. Many a legend and many a strange fancy may be mixed up with it

and demand almost the credulity of simplest childhood in order to obtain

our credence; yet in the literature of Chivalry and Honours there are

enshrined abundant records of the glory that belonged to mighty names. I

recall now but one instance. In the fine folio lately emblazoned with

the well-known motto “GANG FORWARD,” “I AM READY,” what volumes, to

those who can interpret each mark and sign and tutored symbol, are

wrapped up in the _Examples of the ornamental Heraldry of the sixteenth

Century_: London, 1867, 1868.

The custom of taking a device or badge, if not a motto, is traced by

Paolo Giovio, in his _Dialogo dell’ Imprese militari et amorose_, ed.

1574, p. 9,[14] to the earliest times of history. He writes,

“To bear these emblems was an ancient usage.” GIO. “It is a point

not to be doubted, that the ancients used to bear crests and ornaments

on the helmets and on the shields: for we see this clearly in Virgil,

when he made the catalogue of the nations which came in favour of Turnus

against the Trojans, in the eighth book of the Æneid; Amphiaraus then

(as Pindar says) at the war of Thebes bore a dragon on his shield.

Similarly Statius writes of Capaneus and of Polinices, that the one bore

the Hydra, and the other the Sphynx,” &c.

But these were simple emblems, without motto inscribed. The same Paolo

Giovio, and other writers after him,[15] assign both “picture and short

posie,” to two of the early Emperors of Rome.

“Augustus, wishing to show how self-governed and moderate he was in

all his affairs, never rash and hasty to believe the first reports and

informations of his servants, caused to be struck, among several others,

on a gold medal of his own, a Butterfly and a Crab, signifying quickness

by the Butterfly, and by the Crab slowness, the two things which

constitute a temperament necessary for a Prince.”

The motto, as figured below,—“MAKE HASTE LEISURELY.”

AVGVSTE.

[Illustration: _Symeon, Dev. Her. 1561._]

The Device is thus applied in Whitney’s _Emblems_, p. 121, and dedicated

to two eminent judges of Elizabeth’s reign;

“This figure, lo, AVGVSTVS did deuise,

A mirror good, for Iudges iuste to see,

And alwayes fitte, to bee before their eies,

When sentence they, of life, and deathe decree:

Then muste they haste, but verie slowe awaie,

Like butterflie, whome creepinge crabbe dothe staie.”

“The Prince, or Iudge, maie not with lighte reporte,

In doubtfull thinges, giue iudgement touching life:

But trie, and learne the truthe in euerie sorte,

And mercie ioyne, with iustice bloodie knife:

This pleased well AVGVSTVS noble grace,

And Iudges all, within this tracke shoulde trace.”

[Illustration: _Symeoni._]

The other is the device which the Aldi, celebrated printers of Venice,

from A.D. 1490 to 1563, assumed, of the dolphin and anchor, but which

Titus, son of Vespasian, had long before adopted, with the motto

“PROPERA TARDE,”[16] _Hasten slowly_: “_facendo_,” says Symeoni, “_vna

figura moderata della velocità di questo, e della grauezza di quell’

altra, nel modo che noi veggiamo dinanzi à i libri d’ Aldo_.”

But the heraldry of mankind is a boundless theme, and we might by simple

beat of drum heraldic collect almost a countless host of crests, badges,

and quarterings truly emblematical, and adopted and intended to point

out peculiarities or remarkable events and fancies in the histories of

the coat-armour families of the world.

The emblematism of bodily sign or action constitutes the language of the

dumb. An amusing instance occurs in the Abbé Blanchet’s “APOLOGUES

ORIENTAUX,” in his description of “_The Silent Academy, or the

Emblems_:”—

“There was at Hamadan, a city of Persia, a celebrated academy, of

which the first statute was conceived in these terms; _The academicians

shall think much, write little, and speak the very least that is

possible._ It was named _the silent Academy_; and there was not in

Persia any truly learned man who had not the ambition of being admitted

to it. Dr. Zeb, an imaginary person, author of an excellent little work,

THE GAG, learned, in the retirement of the province where he was born,

there was one place vacant in the silent Academy. He sets out

immediately; he arrives at Hamadan, and presenting himself at the door

of the hall where the academicians are assembled, he prays the servant

to give this billet to the president: _Dr. Zeb asks humbly the vacant

place._ The servant immediately executed the commission, but the Doctor

and his billet arrived too late,—the place was already filled.

“The Academy was deeply grieved at this disappointment; it had admitted,

a little against its wish, a wit from the court, whose lively light

eloquence formed the admiration of all _ruelles_.[17] The Academy saw

itself reduced to refuse Doctor Zeb, the scourge of praters, with a head

so well formed and so well furnished! The president, charged to announce

to the Doctor the disagreeable news, could scarcely bring himself to it,

and knew not how to do it. After having thought a little, he filled a

large cup with water, but so well filled it, that one drop more would

have made the liquid overflow; then he made sign that the candidate

should be introduced. He appeared with that simple and modest air which

almost always announces true merit. The president arose and, without

offering a single word, showed, with an appearance of deep sorrow, the

emblematic cup, this cup so exactly filled. The Doctor understood that

there was no more room in the Academy; but without losing courage, he

thought how to make it understood that one supernumerary academician

would disarrange nothing. He sees at his feet a roseleaf, he picks it

up, he places it gently on the surface of the water, and did it so well

that not a single drop escaped.

“At this ingenious answer everybody clapped hands; the rules were

allowed to sleep for this day, and Doctor Zeb was received by

acclamation. The register of the Academy was immediately presented to

him, where the new members must inscribe themselves. He then inscribed

himself in it; and there remained for him no more than to pronounce,

according to custom, a phrase of thanks. But as a truly silent

academician, Doctor Zeb returned thanks without saying a word. He wrote

in the margin the number 100,—it was that of his new brethren; then, by

putting a 0 before the figures, 0100, he wrote below, _they are worth

neither less nor more_. The president answered the modest Doctor with as

much politeness as presence of mind. He placed the figure 1 before the

number 100, _i.e._ 1100; and he wrote, _they will be worth eleven times

more_.”

The varieties in the Emblems which exist might be pursued from “the

bird, the mouse, the frog, and the four arrows,” which, the Father of

history tells us,[18] the Scythians sent to Darius, the invader of their

country,—through all the ingenious devices by which the initiated in

secret societies, whether political, social, or religious, seek to guard

their mysteries from general knowledge and observation,—until we come to

the flower-language of the affections, and learn to read, as Hindoo and

Persian maidens can, the telegrams of buds and blossoms,[19] and to

interpret the flashing of colours, either simple or combined. We should

have to name the Picture writing of the Mexicans, and to declare what

meanings lie concealed in the signs and imagery which adorn tomb and

monument,—or peradventure to set forth the art by which, on so simple a

material as the bark of a birch-tree, some Indians, on their journey,

emblematized a troop with attendants that had lost their way. “In the

party there was a military officer, a person whom the Indians understood

to be an attorney, and a mineralogist; eight were armed: when they

halted they made three encampments.” With their knives the Indians

traced these particulars on the bark by means of certain signs, or,

rather, hieroglyphical marks;—“a man with a sword,” they fashioned “for

the officer; another with a book for the lawyer, and a third with a

hammer for the mineralogist; three ascending columns of smoke denoted

the three encampments, and eight muskets the number of armed men.” So,

without paper or print, a not unintelligible memorial was left of the

company that were travelling together.

And so we come to the very Early Examples—if not the earliest—of

Emblematical Representation, as exhibited in fictile remains, in the

workmanship of the silversmith, and of those by whom the various metals

and precious stones have been wrought and moulded; and especially in the

numerous specimens of the skill or of the fancy which the glyptic and

other artizans of ancient Egypt have left for modern times.

For the nature of Fictile ornamentation it were sufficient to refer to

the recently published _Life of Josiah Wedgwood_;[20] but in the

_antefixæ_, or terra cotta ornaments, derived from the old Etruscan

civilisation, we possess true and literal Emblems. As the name implies,

these ornaments “were _fixed before the buildings_,” often on the

friezes “which they adorned,” and were fastened to them by leaden nails.

For examples, easy of access, we refer to the sketches supplied by James

Yates, Esq., of Highgate; to the _Dictionary of Gk. and Rom.

Antiquities_, p. 51; and especially to that antefixa which represents

Minerva superintending the construction of the ship Argo. The man with

the hammer and chisel is Argus, who built the vessel under her

direction. The pilot Tiphys is assisted by her in attaching the sail to

the yard. The borders at the top and bottom are in the Greek style, and

are extremely elegant.”

And the pressing of clay into a matrix or mould, from which the form is

taken, appears to be of very ancient date. The book of Job xxxviii. 14,

alludes to the practice in the words, “it is turned as clay to the

seal.” Of similar or of higher antiquity is “the work of an engraver in

stone, _like_ the engravings of a signet,” Exodus xxviii. 11. And “the

breastplate of judgment, the Urim and the Thummim,” v. 30, worn “upon

Aaron’s heart,” was probably a similar emblematical ornament to that

which Diodorus Siculus, in his _History_, bk. i. chap. 75, tells us was

put on by the president of the Egyptian courts of justice: “He bore

about his neck a golden chain, at which hung an image, set about, or

composed of precious stones, which was called TRUTH.”[21]

Among instances of emblematical workmanship by the silversmith and his

confabricators of similar crafts, we may name that shield of Achilles

which Homer so graphically describes,[22] “solid and large,” “decorated

with numerous figures of most skilful art;”—or the shields of Hercules

and of Æneas, with which Hesiod, _Eoeæ_, iv. 141–317, and Virgil,

_Æneid_, viii. 615–73, might make us familiar. Or to come to modern

times,—to days our very own,—there is the still more precious, the

matchless shield by Vehm, whereon, in most expressive imagery, are

hammered out the discoveries of Newton, Milton’s noble epics, and

Shakespeare’s dramatic wonders. We may, too, in passing, allude to the

richly-embossed and ornamented cups for which our swift racers and

grey-hounds, and those “dogs of war,” our volunteers, contend; and the

almost imperial pieces of plate, such as the Cæsars never beheld, in

which genius and the highest art combine, by their “cunning work,” to

carve the deeds and enhance the renown of some of our great Indian

administrators and illustrious generals; these all, truly “choice

emblemes,” intimate the extent to which our subject might lead. But I

forbear to pursue it, though scarcely any path offers greater

temptations for wandering abroad amid the marvels of human skill, and

for considering reverently and gladly how men have been “filled with the

spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in

all manner of workmanship.” Exodus xxxi. 3.

Of glyptic art the most ancient, as well as the most ample, remains are

found in the temples and the other monuments of Egypt. Various modern

explorers and writers have given very elaborate accounts of those

remains, and still are carrying on their researches; but of old writers

only Clemens, of Alexandria, who flourished “towards the end of the

second century after Christ,” “has left us a full and correct account of

the principle of the Egyptian writing,”[23] and has declared what the

subjects were which were included in the word hieroglyphics;[24] and as

far as is known, no other early author, except Horapollo of the Nile,

has written expressly on the Hieroglyphics of Egypt, and declared that

his work—which was probably translated into Greek in the reign of the

emperor Zeno, or even later—was derived from Egyptian sources; indeed,

was a book in the language of Egypt.

Probably the best account we have of the author and of the translator,

is given by Alexander Turner Cory, in the Preface to his edition of

Horapollo. He says, pp. viii. and ix.,—

“At the beginning of the fifth century, Horapollo, a scribe of the

Egyptian race, and a native of Phœnebythis, attempted to collect and

perpetuate in the volume before us, the then remaining, but fast fading

knowledge of the symbols inscribed upon the monuments, which attested

the ancient grandeur of his country. This compilation was originally

made in the Egyptian language; but a translation of it into Greek by

Philip has alone come down to us, and in a condition very far from

satisfactory. From the internal evidence of the work, we should judge

Philip to have lived a century or two later than Horapollo; and at a

time when every remnant of actual knowledge of the subject must have

vanished.”

However this may be, it is certainly a book of Emblems, and just

previous to Shakespeare’s age, and during its continuance was regarded

as a high authority. Within that time there were at least five editions

of the work,—and it was certainly the mine in which the writers of

Emblem books generally sought for what were to them valuable

suggestions. The edition we have used is the small octavo of 1551,[25]

with many woodcuts, imaginative indeed, but designed in accordance with

the original text. J. Mercier, a distinguished scholar, who died in

1562, was the editor. In 1547 he was professor of Hebrew at the Royal

College of Paris, and in 1548 edited the quarto edition of Horapollo’s

_Hieroglyphics_.

[Illustration: _Horapollo, 1551._]

From the edition of 1551, p. 52, we take a very popular illustration; it

is the Phœnix, and may serve to show the nature of Horapollo’s work.

“How,” he asks, “do the Egyptians represent a soul passing a long time

here?” “They paint a bird—the Phœnix; for of all creatures in the world

this bird has by far the longest life.”

Again, bk. i. 37, or p. 53, “How do they denote the man who after long

absence will return to his friends from abroad?” By the Phœnix; “for

this bird, after five hundred years, when the death hour is about to

seize it, returns to Egypt, and in Egypt, paying the debt of nature, is

burned with great solemnity. And whatever sacred rites the Egyptians

observe towards their other sacred animals, these they observe towards

the Phœnix.”

And bk. ii. 57,—“The lasting restoration which shall take place after

long ages, when they wish to signify it, they paint the bird Phœnix. For

when it is born this bird obtains the restoration of its properties. And

its birth is in this manner: the Phœnix being about to die, dashes

itself upon the ground, and receiving a wound, ichor flows from it, and

through the opening another Phœnix is born. And when its wings are

fledged, this other sets out with its father to the city of the Sun in

Egypt, and on arriving there, at the rising of the Sun, the parent dies;

and after the death of the father, the young one sets out again for its

own country. And the dead Phœnix do the priests of Egypt bury.”

But the drawings, which in the old editions of Horapollo were

fancy-made, have, through the researches of a succession of Egyptian

antiquaries, assumed reality, and may be appealed to for proof that

Horapollo described the very things which he had seen, though

occasionally he, or his translator Philip, attributes to them an

imaginative or highly mythical meaning. The results of those researches

we witness in the editions of Horapollo, first by the celebrated Dr.

Conrad Leemans, of Leyden, in 1835,[26] and second, by Alexander Turner

Cory, Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1840;[27] both of which

editions, by their illustrative plates, taken from correct drawings of

the originals, present Horapollo with an accuracy that could not have

been approached in the sixteenth century. We have indeed of that age the

great work of Pierius Valerian (ed. folio, Bâle, 1556, leaves 449), the

_Hieroglyphica_, dedicated to Cosmo de’ Medici, with almost innumerable

emblems, in fifty-eight books, and with about 365 devices. But it cannot

be regarded as an exposition of the Egyptian art, and labours under the

same defect as the early editions of Horapollo,—the illustrations are

not taken from existing monuments.

An example or two from Leemans and Cory will supply sufficient

information to enable the reader to understand something of the nature

of Horapollo’s work, and of the actual Hieroglyphics from which that

work has in great part been verified.

[Illustration: _Leemans’ Horapollo, 1835._]

The following is the 31st figure in the plates which Leemans gives; it

is the pictorial representation to explain “What the Egyptians mean when

they engrave or paint a star.”[28] “Would they signify the God who sets

in order the world, or destiny, or the number five, they paint a star;

God, indeed, because the providence of God, to which the motion of the

stars and of all the world is subject, determines the victory; for it

seems to them that, apart from God, nothing whatever could endure; and

destiny _they signify_, since this also is regulated by stellar

management,—and the number five, because out of the multitude which is

in heaven, five only, by motion originating from themselves, make

perfect the management of the world.”

[Illustration]

Of the three figures which are delineated above, the one to the left

hand symbolizes God, that in the middle destiny, and the third, the

number 5, from five rays being used to indicate a star.

The same subjects are thus represented in Cory’s Horapollo.

[Illustration: _Cory’s Horapollo, 1840._]

Cory’s Horapollo, bk. i. c. 8, p. 15, also illustrates the question,

“How do they indicate the soul?” by the accompanying symbols; of which

I. represents the mummy and the departing soul, II. the hawk found

sitting on the mummy, and III. the external mummy case. The answer to

the question is:—

“Moreover, the HAWK is put for the soul, from the signification of

its name; for among the Egyptians the hawk is called BAIETH: and this

name in decomposition signifies soul and heart; for the word BAI is the

soul, and ETH the heart: and the heart according to the Egyptians is the

shrine of the soul; so that in its composition the name signifies ‘soul

enshrined in heart.’ Whence also the hawk, from its correspondence with

the soul, never drinks water, but blood, by which, also, the soul is

sustained.”

And in a similar way many of the sacred engravings or drawings are

interpreted. A serpent with its tail covered by the rest of its body,

“depicts Eternity;”[29] “to denote an _only begotten_, or _generation_,

or a _father_, or the _world_, or a _man_, they delineate a

SCARABÆUS;”[30] a LION symbolises _intrepidity_,—its FOREPARTS,

_strength_, and its HEAD, _watchfulness_;[31] the STORK denotes _filial

affection_, the CRANE on the watch, a man on guard against his enemies,

and the FEATHER of an Ostrich, _impartial justice_,—for, adds the

author, “this animal, beyond other animals, has the wing feathers equal

on every side.”[32]

Christian Art, like the Religious Art of the world in general,—from the

_thou_ and _thee_ of simplest Quakerism, outward and audible sounds of

an inward and silent spirit, up to the profoundest mystic ritualism of

the Buddhist,—Christian Art abounds in Emblems; gems and colours,

genuflexions and other bodily postures supply them; they are gathered

from the mineral, animal, and vegetable kingdoms, and besides are

enriched from the whole domain of imaginary devices and creatures. Does

the emerald flash in its mild lustre?—it is of “victory and hope, of

immortality, of faith, and of reciprocal love,” that it gives forth

light. Is blue, the colour of heaven, worn in some religious

ceremony?—it betokens “piety, sincerity, godliness, contemplation,

expectation, love of heavenly things.” Do Christian men bare the head in

worship?—it is out of reverence for the living God, whose earthly

temples they have entered. The badge of St. John the Baptist, is a lamb

on a book,—that of St. John the Evangelist is a cup of gold with a

serpent issuing from it. The Pomegranate, “showing its fulness of seed

and now bursting,” typifies the hope of immortality;—and a Fleur-de-lys,

or the Rose of Sharon, embroidered or painted on a robe,—it marks the

Blessed Virgin. With more intricate symbolism the Greek Church

represents the Saviour’s name =ΙHϹΟΥϹ ΧΡΙϹΤΟϹ=.—IesuS CHristuS.

The first finger of the hand extended is for I, the second bent for =C=

or s, the thumb crossed upon the third finger for =Χ= or Ch, and the

fourth finger curved for =Ϲ= or s. Thus are given the initial and final

letters of that Holy Name, the Saviour, the Christ.[33]

Of early Emblems examples enough have now been given to indicate their

nature. Whether in closing this part of the subject we should name a

work of more ancient date even than the Greek version of Horapollo would

admit of doubt, were it not that every work partakes of an emblematical

character, when the descriptions given or the instances taken pertain,

as

Whitney says, “to vertue and instruction of life,” or “doe tende vnto

discipline, and morall preceptes of living.”

Under this rule we hesitate not to admit into the wide category of

Emblem writers, EPIPHANIUS, who was chosen bishop of Constantia in

Cyprus, A.D. 367, and who died in 402. His _Physiologist_, published

with his sermon on the Feast of Palms, is, like many writings of the

Fathers, remarkable for highly allegorical interpretations. An edition,

by Ponce de Leon, a Spaniard of Seville, was printed at Rome in 1587,

and repeated at Antwerp[34] in 1588. It relates to the real and

imaginary qualities of animals, and to certain precepts and doctrines of

which those qualities are supposed to be symbolical. As an example we

give here an extract from chapter XXV. p. 106, “_Concerning the Stork._”

[Illustration: _Epiphanius, 1588._]

The Stork is described as a bird of extreme purity; and as nourishing,

with wonderful affection, father and mother in their old age. The

“interpretation” or application of the fact is;—“So also it behoves us

to observe these two divine commands, that is to turn aside from evil

and to do good, as the kingly prophet wrote; and likewise in the

decalogue the Lord commands, thus saying;—Honour thy father and thy

mother.”

In a similar way the properties and habits of various animals,—of the

lion, the elephant, the stag, the eagle, the pelican, the partridge, the

peacock, &c., are adduced to enforce or symbolize virtues of the heart

and life, and to set forth the doctrines of the writer’s creed.

To illustrate the Emblem side of Christian Art a great variety of

information exists in _Sketches of the History of Christian Art_, by

Lord Lindsay (3 vols. 8vo: Murray, London, 1847); and Northcote and

Brownlow’s _Roma Sotterranea_, compiled from De Rossi (8vo: Longmans,

London, 1869) promises to supply many a symbol and type of a remote age

fully to set forth the same subject.

[Illustration: _Giovio, 1556._]

-----

Footnote 1:

See the _Olympica_, 12. 10: “σύμβολον πιστὸν ἀμφὶ πράξιος ἐσομένης.”

Also Æschylus, _Agamemnon_, 8: “καὶ νῦν φυλάΣΣΑ λαμπ/δος τὸ σύμβολον.”

Footnote 2:

_Syntagma De Symbolis_, &c., per Clavdivm Minoëm, Lvgdvni, M.DC.XIII.

p. 13: “Plerique sunt non satis acuti, qui Emblema cum Symbolo, cum

Ænigmate, cum Sententia, cum Adagio, temerè & imperitè confundunt.

Fatemur Emblematis quidem vim in symbolo sitam esse: sed differunt,

inquam, vt Homo & Animal: alterum enim hîc maximè generaliùs accipi,

specialiùs verò alterum norũt omnes qui aliquid indicii habeant.”

Footnote 3:

“LA VITA ET METAMORFOSEO:” “A Lione, per Giouanni di Tornes,” 8vo,

1559, pp. 2, 3.

Footnote 4:

... “θύρην δ’ ἔχε μοῦνος ἐπιβλὴς

Εἰλάτινος.”

Footnote 5:

... “σκῆπτρον δέ οἱ ἔμβαλε χερὶ

Κήρυξ Πεισήνωρ.”

Footnote 6:

... “Νῆας ἐνιπρῆσαι, ὅτε μὴ αὐτὸς γε Κρονίων

Ἐμβάλοι αἰθόμενον δαλὸν νήεσσι θοῇσιν.”

Footnote 7:

Philemon Holland names the work of art, “A broad goblet or standing

piece,”—_“with a device appendant to it,_ for to be set on and taken

off with a vice.”

Footnote 8:

Now the property of his grandson, Mr. Henry Yates Thompson, of

Thingwall, near Liverpool.

Footnote 9:

“Quidam . . . . scriptos eos (scilicet locos) memoriæque

diligentissime mandatos, inpromptu habuerent, ut quoties esset

occasio, extemporales eorum dictiones, his, velut Emblematibus

exornarentur.”—_Quint. Lib. 2, cap. 4._

Footnote 10:

So the note in illustration quotes from Gower, _Conf. Am_. f. 190,

“Upon _the gaudees_ all without

Was wryte of gold, _pur reposer_.”

Footnote 11:

See Smith’s _Dictionary of Gk. and Rom. Ant._, p. 377 _b_, article

EMBLEMA.

Footnote 12:

See the Author’s _Introductory Dissertation_, p. x, to the Fac-simile

Reprint of Whitney’s _Emblems_.

Footnote 13:

See Plate I., containing De Hooghe’s engraving, reproduced on a

smaller scale.

Footnote 14:

“_Il portar queste imprese fu costume antico_. GIO. _Non è punto da

dubitare, che gli antichi vsassero di portar Cimieri & ornamenti ne

gli elmetti e ne gli scudi: perche si vede chiaramẽte in Vergil, quãdo

fa il Catalago delli genti, che vẽnero in fauore di Turno contra i

Troiani, nell’ ottauo dell’ Eneida; Anfiarao ancora (come dice

Pindaro) alla guerra di Thebe porto vn dragone nello scudo. Statio

scriue similmente di Capaneo & di Polinice; che quelli portò l’ Hidra,

e queste la Sfinge,_” &c.

Footnote 15:

See Gabriel Symeon’s _Devises ov Emblemes Heroiqves et Morales_, ed. à

Lyon, 1561, pp. 218, 219, 220.

Footnote 16:

See Paolo Giovio’s _Dialogo_, p. 10, and Symeon’s _Devises Heroiques_,

p. 220. Also _Le Imprese del. S. Gab. Symeoni_, ed. in Lyone 1574;

from which, p. 175, the above device is figured.

Footnote 17:

_i.e._, the space left between one of the sides of a bed and the wall.

Employed figuratively, this word relates to a custom which has passed

away, when people betook themselves to the alcove or sleeping room of

their friends to enjoy the pleasure of conversation.

Footnote 18:

Herodotus, in the _Melpomene_, bk. iv. c. 131.

Footnote 19:

So in the autumn and winter which preceded Napoleon’s return from

Elba, the question was often asked in France by his adherents,—“Do you

like the violet?” and if the answer was,—“The violet will return in

the spring,” the answer became a sure revelation of attachment to the

Emperor’s cause. For full information on _Flower signs_ see Casimir

Magnat’s _Traité du Langage symbolique, emblématique et religieux des

Fleurs_. 8vo: A. Touzet, Paris, 1855. In illustration take the lines

from Dr. Donne, at one time secretary to the lord keeper Egerton:—

“I had not taught thee then the alphabet

Of flowers, how they devisefully being set

And bound up, might with speechless secresy

Deliver errands mutely and mutually.”—_Elegy_ 7.

Footnote 20:

See also “REAL MUSEO BORBONICO,” _Napoli Dalla Stamperia Reale_, 1824.

Vol. i. tavola viii. e ix. Avventura e Imprese di Ercoli. Vol. ii.

tav. xxviii. Dedalo e Icaro. Vol. iii. tav. xlvi. Vaso Italo-Greco

depinto. Vol. v. tav. li. Vaso Italo-Greco,—a very fine example of

emblem ornaments in the literal sense.

Footnote 21:

“Εφορει δ’ αυτος περι τον τραχηλον εκ χρυσης ἁλυσεως ηρτημενον ζωδιον

των πολυτελων λιθων, ὁ προσηγορευον ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑΝ.”

Footnote 22:

_Iliad_, xviii. 478, “Ποίει δὲ πρώτιστα σάκος μέγα τε στιβαρόντε,—”

” ” _ 482, “Ποίει δαίδαλα πολλὰ ἰδυίῃσι πραπίδεσσιν.”

Footnote 23:

See Kenrick’s _Ancient Egypt under the Pharaohs_, vol. i. p. 291.

Footnote 24:

See the _Stromata_ of Clemens, vi. 633,—where we learn that it was the

duty of the Hierogrammateis, or Sacred Scribe, to gain a knowledge of

“what are named Hieroglyphics, which relate to cosmography, geography,

the action of the sun and moon, to the five planets, to the topography

of Egypt, and to the neighbourhood of the Nile, to a record of the

attire of the priests and of the estates belonging to them, and to

other things serviceable to the priests.”

Footnote 25:

“ORI APOLLINIS NILIACI, De Sacris notis et sculpturis libri duo,” &c.

“Parisiis: apud Jacobum Keruer, via Jacobæa, sub duobus Gallis,

M.D.LI.” Also, _Martin’s_ “Orus Apollo de Ægypte de la sygnification

des notes hieroglyphiques des Ægyptiens: Paris, Keruer, sm. 8vo,

1543.”

Footnote 26:

_Horapollinis Niloi Hieroglyphica_, 8vo, pp. xxxvi. and 446:

“Amstelodami, apud J. Muller et Socios, MDCCCXXXV.”

Footnote 27:

_The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo Nilous_, sm. 8vo, pp. xii. and 174:

“London, William Pickering, MDCCCXL.”

Footnote 28:

Horapollo’s _Hieroglyphica_, by Conrad Leemans, bk. i. c. 13, p.

20:—Τί ἀστέρα γράφοντες δηλοῦσι. Θεὸν δέ ἐγκόσμιον σημαίνοντες, ἢ

εἰμαρμένην, ἢ τὸν πέντε ἀριθμὸν, ἀστέρα ζωγραφοῦσι· θεὸν μὲν, ἐπειδὴ

πρόνοια θεοῦ τῆν νίκην προστάσσει, ᾗ τῶν ἀστέρων καὶ τοῦ παντὸς κόσμου

κίνησις ἐκτελεῖται· δοκεῖ γὰρ αὐτοῖς δίχα θεοῦ, μηδὲν ὃλως συνεστάναι·

ἑιμαρμένην δέ, ἐπεὶ καὶ αὔτη ἐξ ἀστρικῆς οἰκονομίας συνίσταται· τὸν δὲ

πέντε ἀριθμὸν, ἐπειδὴ πλήθους ὂντος ἐν οὐρανῷ, πέντε μόνοι ἐξ αὐτῶν

κινούμενοι, τὴν τοῦ κὸσμου οἰκονομίαν ἐκτελοῦσι.

Footnote 29:

Horapollo, bk. i. c. 1.

Footnote 30:

Bk. i. c. 10.

Footnote 31:

Bk. i. c. 17–19.

Footnote 32:

Bk. ii. c. 58, 94, 118.

Footnote 33:

For a further and very interesting account of the Emblems of Christian

Art, reference may be made to a work full of information,—too brief it

may be for all that is desirable,—but to be relied on for its

accuracy, and to be imitated for its candid and charitable

spirit:—_Sacred Archæology_, by Mackenzie E.C. Walcott, B.D., 8vo, pp.

640: London, Reeve & Co. 1868.

Footnote 34:

“Ex Officina Christophori Plantini, Architypographi Regij, 1588.”

-----

------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER II.

SKETCH OF EMBLEM-BOOK LITERATURE PREVIOUS

TO A.D. 1616.

SECTION I.

_EXTENT OF THE EMBLEM LITERATURE TO WHICH SHAKESPEARE MIGHT HAVE HAD ACCESS._

IN the use of the word Emblem there is seldom a strict adherence

observed to an exact definition,—so, when Emblem Literature is spoken

of, considerable latitude is taken and allowed as to the kind of works

which the terms shall embrace. In one sense every book which has a

picture set in it, or on it, is an emblem-book,—the diagrams in a

mathematical treatise or in an exposition of science, inasmuch as they

may be, and often are, detached from the text, are emblems; and when to

Tennyson’s exquisite poem of “ELAINE,” Gustave Doré conjoins those

wonderful drawings which are themselves poetic, he gives us a book of

emblems;—Tennyson is the one artist that out of the gold of his own soul

fashioned a vase incorruptible,—and Doré is that second artist who

placed about it ornaments of beauty, fashioned also out of the riches of

his mind.

Yet by universal consent, these and countless other works, scientific,

historical, poetic, and religious, which artistic skill has embellished,

are never regarded as emblematical in their character. The “picture and

short posie, expressing some particular conceit,” seem almost essential

for bringing any work within the province of the Emblem Literature;—but

the practical application of the test is conceived in a very liberal

spirit, so that while the small fish sail through, the shark and the

sea-dog rend the meshes to tatters.

A proverb or witty saying, as, in Don Sebastian Orozco’s “EMBLEMAS

MORALES” (Madrid 1610), “Divesqve miserqve,” _both rich and wretched_,

may be pictured by king Midas at the table where everything is turned to

gold, and may be set forth in an eight-lined stanza, to declare how the

master of millions was famishing though surrounded by abundance;—and

these things constitute the Emblem. Some scene from Bible History shall

be taken, as, in “~Les figures du vieil Testament, & du nouuel~”

(at Paris, about 1503), _Moses at the burning bush_; where are printed,

as if an Emblem text, the passage from Exodus iii. 2–4, and by its side

the portraits of David and Esaias; across the page is a triplet woodcut,

representing Moses at the bush, and Mary in the stable at Bethlehem with

Christ in the manger-cradle; various scrolls with sentences from the

Scriptures adorn the page:—such representations claim a place in the

Emblem Literature. Boissard’s _Theatrum Vitæ Humanæ_ (Metz, 1596) shall

mingle, in curious continuity, the Creation and Fall of Man, Ninus king

of the Assyrians, Pandora and Prometheus, the Gods of Egypt, the Death

of Seneca, Naboth and Jezabel, the Advent of Christ and the Last

Judgment;—yet they are all Emblems,—because each has a “picture and a

short posie” setting forth its “conceit.” To be sure there are some

pages of Latin prose serving to explain or confuse, as the case may be,

each particular imagination; but the text constitutes the emblem, and

however long and tedious the comment, it is from the text the

composition derives its name.

“~Stam und Wapenbuch hochs und niders Standts~,”—_A stem and

armorial Bearings-book of high and of low Station_,—printed at

Frankfort-on-Mayne, 1579, presents above 270 woodcuts of the badges,

shields and helmets, with appropriate symbols and rhymes, belonging as

well to the humblest who can claim to be “vom gutem Geschlecht,” _of

good race_, as to the Electoral Princes and to the Cæsarean Majesty of

the Holy Roman Empire. Most of the figures are illustrated by Latin and

German verses, and again “picture and short posie” vindicate the

title,—book of Emblems.

And of the same character is a most artistic work by Theodore de Bry,

lately added to the treasure-house at Keir; it is also a _Stam und

Wapenbuch_, issued at Frankfort in 1593, with ninety-four plates all

within most beautiful and elaborate borders. Its Latin title, _Emblema

Nobilitate et Vulgo scitu digna, &c._, declares that these Emblems are

“worthy to be known both by nobles and commons.”

And so when an Emperor is married, or the funeral rites of a Sovereign

Prince celebrated, or a new saint canonized, or perchance some proud

cardinal or noble to be glorified, whatever Art can accomplish by symbol

and song is devoted to the emblem-book pageantry,—and the graving tool

and the printing press accomplish as enduring and wide-spread a

splendour as even Titian’s Triumphs of Faith and Fame.

Devotion that seeks wisdom from the skies, and Satire that laughs at

follies upon the earth, both have claimed and used emblems as the

exponents of their aims and purposes.

_Plate 2_

[Illustration: _Christ’s adoption of the Human Soul @span 2: Otho Vænius

1615@_]

With what surpassing beauty and nobleness both of expression and of

sentiment does Otho Vænius in his “AMORIS DIVINI EMBLEMATA,” Antwerp,

1615, represent to the mind as well as to the eye the blessed Saviour’s

adoption of a human soul, and the effulgence of love with which it is

filled! (See Plate II.) They are indeed divine Images portrayed for us,

and the great word is added from the beloved disciple,—“Behold, what

manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be

called the sons of God.” And the simple _Refrain_ follows,—

_“C’est par cet Amour que les hommes

Sont esleuez de ce bas lieu;

C’est par cet Amour que nous sommes

Enfans legitimes de Dieu:

Car l’Ame qui garde en la vie

De son Pere la volonté,

Doit au Pere ès cieux estre vnie

(Comme fille) en eternité.”_

And that clever imitation of the “~Stultifera Nauis~,” _the

Fool-freighted Ship_, of the fifteenth century, namely, the “CENTIFOLIUM

STULTORUM,” edition 1707, or _Hundred-leaved Book of Fools_ of the

eighteenth, proves how the Satirical may symbolize and fraternize with

the Emblematical. The title of the book alone is sufficient to show what

a vehicle for lashing men’s faults the device with its stanzas and

comment may be made; it is, “A hundred-leaved book of Fools, in Quarto;

or an hundred exquisite Fools newly warmed up, in Folio,—in an

Alapatrit-Pasty for the show-dish; with a hundred fine copper

engravings, for honest pleasure and useful pastime, intended as well for

frolicsome as for melancholy minds; enriched moreover with a delicate

sauce of many Natural Histories, gay Fables, short Discourses, and

edifying Moral Lessons.”

Among the one hundred _distinguished_ characters, we might select, were

it only in self-condemnation, the Glass and Porcelain dupe, the

Antiquity and Coin-hunting dupe, and especially the Book-collecting

dupe. These are among the best of the devices, and the stanzas, and the

expositions. Dupes of every kind, however, may find their reproof in the

six simple German lines,—p. 171,

~“Wer Narren offt viel predigen will,

Ben ihnen nicht wird schaffen viel:

Dann all’s was man am besten redt,

Der Narr zum ärgsten falsch versteht,

Ein Narr, ein Narr, bleibt ungelehrt,

Wann man ihn hundert Jahr schon lehrt.”~

meaning pretty nearly in our vernacular English,

“Whoso to fools will much and oft be preaching,

By them not much will make by all his teaching.

For though we of our very best be speaking,

Falsely the fool the very worst is seeking.

Therefore the fool, a fool untaught, remains,

Though five score years we give him all our pains.”

But Politics also have the bright, if not the dark, side of their nature

presented to the world in Emblems. Giulio Capaccio, Venetia, 1620,

derives “IL PRINCIPE,” _The Prince_, from the Emblems of Alciatus, “with

two hundred and more Political and Moral Admonitions,” “useful,” he

declares, “to every gentleman, by reason of its excellent knowledge of

the customs, economy, and government of States.” Jacobus à Bruck, of

Angermunt, in his “EMBLEMATA POLITICA,” A.D. 1618, briefly demonstrates

those things which concern government; but Don Diego Saavedra Faxardo,

who died in 1648, in a work of considerable repute,—“IDEA de vn Principe

Politico-Christiano, representada EN CIEN EMPRESAS,”—_Idea of a

Politic-Christian Prince, represented in one hundred Emblems_ (edition,

Valencia, 1655), so accompanies his Model Ruler from the cradle to

maturity as almost to make us think, that could we find the bee-bread on

which Kings should be nourished, it would be no more difficult a task

for a nation to fashion a perfect Emperor than it is for a hive to

educate their divine-right ruling Queen.

_Plate 3_

La Creatione & confuſuione

del Mondo, 1

[Illustration: _Creation, Symeoni 1559_]

Prima ch’ il gran futtor dell’ Vniuerſo

Con pietà gli poneſſe intorno mente,

Era cieco nel Mar l’ Aer ſommerſo,

Nel centro il Fuoco, e’l tutto era niente,

Ch’ ogni Elemento, di virtù diuerſo,

Non hauea luogo à lui conueniente:

Ma del verbo diuím l’amor profondo

D’ vn C A O S ordinò ſi bello il Mondo,

But, so great is the variety of subjects to which the illustrations from

Emblems are applied, that we shall content ourselves with mentioning one

more, taking out the arguments, as they are named, from celebrated

classic poets, and converting them into occasions for pictures and short

posies. Thus, like the dust of Alexander, the remains of the mighty

dead, of Homer and Virgil, of Ovid and Horace, have served the base uses

of Emblem-effervescence, and in nearly all the languages of Europe have

been forced to misrepresent the noble utterances of Greece and Rome.

Many of the pictures, however, are very beautiful, finely conceived, and

skilfully executed;—we blame not the artists, but the false taste which

must make little bits of verses where the originals existed as mighty

poems.

Generally it is considered that the Ovids of the fifteenth century were

without pictorial illustrations, and could not, therefore, be classed

among books of Emblems; but the Blandford Catalogue, p. 21, records an

edition, “Venetia, 1497,” “_cum figuris depictis_,”—with figures

portrayed. Without discussing the point, we will refer to an undoubted

emblematized edition of the _Metamorphoses_ of Ovid, “Figurato &

abbreviato in forma d’Epigrammi da M. Gabriello Symeoni,”—_figured and

abbreviated in form of Epigrams by M. Gabriel Symeoni_. The volume is a

small 4to of 245 pages, of which 187 have each a title and device and

Italian stanza, the whole surrounded by a richly figured border. The

volume, dedicated to the celebrated “Diana di Poitiers, Dvchessa di

Valentinois,” was published “A Lione per Giouanni di Tornes nella via

Resina, 1559.” An Example, p. 13, (see Plate III.,) will show the

character of the work, of which another edition was issued in 1584. The

Italian stanzas are all of eight lines each, and the passages of the

original Latin on which they are founded are collected at the end of the

volume. Thus, for “La Creatione & confusione del Mondo,” the Latin lines

are,

“_Ante mare & terras & quod tegit omnia, cœlum.

. . . . . . . Nulli sua forma manebat.

Hanc Deus, & melior litem natura diremit._”

Of the devices several are very closely imitated in the woodcuts of

Reusner’s Emblems, published at Frankfort, in 1581. The engravings in

Symeoni’s Ovid are the work of Solomon Bernard, “the little Bernard,” a

celebrated artist born at Lyons in 1512; who also produced a set of

vignettes for a French translation of Virgil, _L’Eneide de Virgile,

Prince des Poetes latins_, printed at Lyons in 1560.

“QVINTI HORATII FLACCI EMBLEMATA,” as Otho Vænius names one of his

choicest works, first published in 1607, is a similar adaptation of a

classic author to the prevailing taste of the age for emblematical

representation. The volume is a very fine 4to of 214 pages, of which 103

are plates; and a corresponding 103 contain extracts from Horace and

other Latin authors, followed, in the edition of 1612, by stanzas in

Spanish, Italian, French and Flemish. An example of the execution of the

work will be found as a Photolith, Plate XVII., near the end of our

volume; it is the “VOLAT IRREVOCABILE TEMPUS,”—_Irrevocable time is

flying_,—so full of emblematical meaning.

From the office of the no less celebrated Crispin de Passe, at Utrecht,

in 1613, issued, in Latin and French verse, “SPECVLVM HEROICVM Principis

omnium temporum Poëtarum HOMERI,”—_The Heroic Mirror of Homer, the

Prince of the Poets of all times_. The various arguments of the

twenty-four books of the _Iliad_ have been taken and made the groundwork

of twenty-four Emblems, with their devices most admirably executed. The

Latin and French verses beneath each device unmistakeably impress a true

emblem-character on the work. The author, “le Sieur J. Hillaire,”

appends to the Emblems, pp. 69–75, “Epitaphs on the Heroes who perished

in the Trojan War,” and also “La course d’Vlisses, son tragitte retour,

& deffaicte des amans qui poursuivoient la chaste & vertueuse Penelope.”

What might not in this way be included within the wide-encompassing

grasp of the determined Emblematist it is almost impossible to say; and

therefore it ought to be no matter of surprise to find there is

practically a greater extent given to the Literature of Emblems than of

absolute right belongs to it. We shall not go much astray if we take

Custom for our guide, and keep to its decisions as recorded in the chief

catalogues of Emblem works.

[Illustration: _Horapollo, 1551._]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

SECTION II.

_EMBLEM WORKS AND EDITIONS DOWN TO THE END OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY._

LEAVING for the most part out of view the discussions which have taken

place as to the exact time and the veritable originators of the arts of

printing by fixed or moveable types, and of the embellishing of books by

engravings on blocks of wood or plates of copper, we are yet—for the

full development of the condition and extent of the Emblem Literature in

the age of Shakespeare—required to notice the growth of that species of

ornamental device in books which depends upon Emblems for its force and

meaning. We say advisedly “ornamental device in books,” for infinite

almost are the applications of Symbol and Emblem to Architecture,

Sculpture, and Painting, as is testified by the Remains of Antiquity in

all parts of the world, by the Pagan tombs and Christian catacombs of

ancient Rome, by nearly every temple and church and stately building in

the empires of the earth, and especially in those wonderful creations of

human skill in which form and colour bring forth to sight nearly every

thought and fancy of our souls.

Long before either block-printing or type-printing was practised, it is

well known how extensively the limner’s art was employed “to

illuminate,” as it is called, the Manuscripts that were to be found in

the rich abbeys or convents, and in the mansions of the great and noble.

For instance, the devices in the _Dance of Macaber_, undoubtedly an

Emblem Manuscript of the fourteenth century, were of painter’s

workmanship, and afterwards employed by the wood-engravers to embellish

type-printed volumes of a devotional character. To this Brunet, in his

_Manuel du Libraire_, vol. v. c. 1557–1560, bears witness, when speaking

of the printer Philip Pigouchet, and of the bookseller Simon Vostre, who

“furent les premiers à Paris qui surent allier avec succès la gravure à

la typographie;” and adds in a note, “La plus ancienne édition de la

Danse macabre que citent les bibliographes est celle de Paris, 1484;

mais, plus d’un siècle avant cette date, des miniaturistes français

avaient déjà figuré, sur les marges de plusieurs Heures manuscrites, des

Danses de morts, représentées et disposées à peu près comme elles l’ont

été depuis dans les livres de Simon Vostre; c’est ce que nous avons pu

remarquer dans un magnifique manuscrit de la seconde moitié du

quatorzième siècle, enrichi de nombreuses et admirables miniatures qui,

après avoir été conservé en Angleterre dans le cabinet du docteur Mead,

à qui le roi Louis XV. en avait fait présent, est venu prendre place

parmi les curiosités de premier ordre réunies dans celui de M. Ambr.

Firmin Didot.”

_From Brunet, v. 1559._

A strictly emblematical work in English is the following, “from a finely

written and illuminated parchment roll, in perfect preservation, about

two yards and three quarters in length,” “~The Five Wounds of

Christ~.” “~By William Billyng~;” “Manchester: Printed by R.

and W. Dean, 4to, 1814.” The date is fixed by the editor, William

Bateman, “between the years 1400 and 1430;” and the poem contains about

120 lines, with six illuminated devices. We give here, on page 40, in

outline, the DEVICE of “_The Heart of Jesus the Well of everlasting

Lyfe_.”

[Illustration: _Five wounds of Christ, 1400–1430._]

There follows, as to each of the Emblems, a Prayer, or Invocation; the

Device in question has these lines,—

~“Hayle welle and cõdyte of eu̾lastyng lyffe

Thorow launced so ferre w^tyn my lordes syde

The flodys owt traylyng most aromatys

Hayle prious ♥ wounded so large and wyde

Hayle trusty treuloue our joy to provide

Hayle porte of glorie w^t paynes alle embrued

On alle I sprynglyde lyke purpul dew enhuede.”~

An Astronomical Manuscript in the Chetham Library, Manchester, the

eclipses in which are calculated from A.D. 1330 to A.D. 1462, contains

emblematical devices for the months of the year, and the signs of the

zodiac; these are painted medallions at the beginning of each month; and

to each of the months is attached a metrical line explanatory of the

device.

~Januarius.~ Ouer yis feer I warme myn handes.

~Februarius.~ Wyth yis spade I delve my londes.

~Martius.~ Here knitte I my vynes in springe.

~Aprilis.~ So merie I here yese foules singe.

~Mayus.~ I am as Joly as brid on bouz.

~Junius.~ Here wede I my corn, clene I houz.

~Julius.~ Wyth yis sythe my medis I mowe.

~Augustus.~ Here repe I my corn so lowe.

~September.~ Wyth ys flayll I yresche my bred.

~October.~ Here sowe I my Whete so reed.

~November.~ Wyth ys knyf I steke my swyn.

~December.~ Welcome cristemasse Wyth ale and Wyn.

This manuscript contains, as J. O. Halliwell says of it, “an

astrological volvelle—an instrument mentioned by Chaucer: it is the only

specimen, I believe, now remaining in which the steel stylus or index

has been preserved in its original state.”

Doubtless it is a copy of the _Kalendrier des Bergers_, which with the

_Compost des Bergers_, has in various forms been circulated in France

from the fourteenth century almost, if not quite, to the present day. An

edition in 4to, of 144 pages, printed at Troyes, in 1705, bears the

title, _Le Grand Calendrier et Compost des Bergers; composé par le

Berger de la grand Montagne_.

Kindred works issued from the presses of Venice, of Nuremberg, and of

Augsburg, between 1475 and 1478, in Latin, Italian, and German, and are

ascribed to John Muller, more known under the name of Regiomontanus, a

celebrated astronomer, born in 1436, at Koningshaven, in Franconia, and

who died at Rome in 1476. One of these editions, in folio, was printed

at Augsburg in 1476 by Erhard Ratdolt, being the first work he sent

forth after his establishment in that city. (See _Biog. Univ._, vol.

xxx. p. 381, and vol. xxxvii. p. 25.) But the most thoroughly

emblematical work from Ratdolt’s press was an “~Astrolabium planũ in

tabulis~,” “wrought out anew by John Angeli, master of liberal arts,

MCCCCLXXXVIII.” There are 414 woodcuts, and all of them emblematical.

The library at Keir contains a perfect copy, 4to, in most admirable

condition. Brunet, i. c. 290, names a Venice edition in 1494, and refers

to other astronomical works by the same author.

In its manuscript form, too, the celebrated “SPECULUM HUMANÆ

SALVATIONIS,” _Mirror of Human Salvation_, exhibits throughout the

emblem characteristics. Of this work, both as it exists in manuscript

and in the earliest printed form by Koster of Haarlem, about 1430,

specimens are given in “A History of the Art of Printing from its

invention to its wide spread developement in the middle of the sixteenth

century;” “by H. NOEL HUMPHREYS,” “with one hundred illustrations

produced in Photo-lithography;” folio: Quaritch, London, 1867. Pl. 8 of

Humphreys’ learned and magnificent volume exhibits “a page from a

manuscript copy of the _Speculum Humanæ Salvationis_, executed previous

to the printed edition attributed to Koster;” and pl. 10, “A page from

the _Speculum Humanæ Salvationis_ attributed to Koster of Haarlem, in

which the text is printed from moveable types.”

The inspection of these plates, and the assurance by Humphreys, p. 60,

that “the illustrations, though inferior to Koster’s woodcuts, are of

similar arrangement,” may satisfy us that the _Speculum Humanæ

Salvationis_, and all its kindred works, in German, Dutch, and French,

amounting to many editions previous to the year 1500,[35] are truly

books that belong to the Emblem literature. Thus pl. 8, “though without

the decorative Gothic framework which separates, and, at the same time,

binds together the double illustrations of the xylographic artist,”

exhibits to us the exact character of “the double pictures of the

_Speculum_.” “These double pictures,” p. 60 of Humphreys, “illustrate

first a passage in the New Testament, and secondly the corresponding

subject of the Old, of which it is the antitype. In the present page we

have Christ bearing His cross (Christus bajulat crucem) typified by

Isaac carrying the wood for his own sacrifice (Isaac portat ligna sua).”

“The engravings,” p. 58, “_i.e._, of Koster’s first great effort, occur

at the top of each leaf, and the rest of the page is filled with two

columns of text, which, in the supposed first edition, is composed of

Latin verse

(or, rather, Latin prose with rhymed terminations to the lines, as the

lines do not scan); and in later editions, in Dutch prose.” “This

specimen,” pl. 8, p. 60, “will enable the student to understand

precisely the kind of manuscript book which Koster reproduced in a

cheaper form by xylography, to which he eventually allied the still more

important invention of moveable types.”

From a very fine MS. copy of the _Speculum Humanæ Salvationis_,

belonging to Mr. Henry Yates Thompson, our fac-simile Plates IV. and V.,

though on a smaller scale, present the Title and the first Pair of

devices with their text. The work is in twenty-nine chapters, and to

each there are four devices in four columns, with appropriate

explanations in Latin verse, and at the foot of the columns are the

references to the Old or the New Testament.

The manuscript entitled “~De Volueribus, sive de tribus

Columbis~,”—_Concerning Birds, or the Three Doves_, in the library

“du Grand Seminaire,” at Bruges, is also an emblem-book. It is

excellently illuminated, and the workmanship is probably of the

thirteenth century. (See the Whitney Reprint, p. xxxii.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Plate 4_

[Illustration: _Title Page from a M.S.: “Speculum Humanæ Salvationis”_]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Plate 5_

[Illustration: _Leaf 31 from a M.S. “Speculum Humanæ Salvationis”_]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The illuminated _Missal_,[36] executed in 1425 for John, Duke of Bedford

and regent of France, according to the account published of it by

Richard Gough, 4to, London, 1794, and by others, abounds in emblem

devices. It contains “fifty-nine large miniatures, which nearly occupy

the page, and above a thousand small ones in circles of about an inch

and half diameter, displayed in brilliant borders of golden foliage,

with variegated flowers, &c. At the bottom of every page are two lines

in blue and gold letters, which explain the subject of each miniature.”

“The Missal,” says Dibdin, “frequently displays the arms of these noble

personages,” (John, Duke of Bedford, and of his wife Jane, daughter of

the Duke of Burgundy,) “and also affords a pleasing testimony of the

affectionate gallantry of the pair: the motto of the former being ‘A

VOUS ENTIER;’ that of the latter, ‘J’EN SUIS CONTENTE.’” Among its

ornaments are emblems or symbols of the twelve months, and a large

variety of paintings derived from the Sacred Scriptures, many of which

possess an emblematical meaning.

Not aiming at any exhaustive method in the information we gather and

impart respecting Emblem works and editions previous to the year A.D.

1500, we pass by the very numerous other instances in support of our

theme which a search into manuscripts would supply. The

“Block-Books,”[37] which, in the main, are especially emblematical, we

next consider. We select two instances as representative of the whole

set;—namely, the “BIBLIA PAUPERUM,” _Bibles of the Poor_, and the “ARS

MEMORANDI,” _The Art of Remembering_.

In his “BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DECAMERON,” vol. i. p. 160, Dibdin tells us,

“The earliest printed book, containing _text_ and _engravings_

illustrative of scriptural subjects, is called the _Histories of Joseph,

Daniel, Judith, and Esther_. This was executed in the German language,

and was printed by Pfister at Bamberg in 1462. It is among the rarest of

typographical curiosities in existence.” Dibdin’s dictum is considerably

modified, if not set aside, by Noel Humphreys; who, though affirming, p.

41, that “a late German edition of the _Biblia Pauperum_ has the date

1475, but that before that period editions had been printed at the

regular press with moveable types, as, for instance, that of Pfister,

printed at Bamberg in 1462,”—yet had previously declared, p. 39, “many

suppose that Laurens Koster, of Haarlem, who afterwards invented

moveable types, was one of the earliest engravers of Block-books, and

that in fact the _Biblia Pauperum_ was actually his work.” “The period

of its execution may probably be estimated as lying between 1410 and

1420: probably earlier, but certainly not later.”

The earliest editions of these _Biblia Pauperum_ contain forty leaves,

the later editions fifty, printed only on one side. Opposite to p. 40,

Noel Humphreys gives, pl. 2, “A Page from the Biblia Pauperum generally

supposed to be one of the earliest block-books.”

_Plate 6_

[Illustration: _A Page from the “Biblia Pauperum” generally supposed one

of the earliest Block Books_]

Availing ourselves of the Author’s remarks, p. 40, we yet prefer, on

account of some inaccuracies in his decyphering the Latin contractions,

giving our own description of this plate. The page is in _three_

divisions, all in the Gothic decorative style, with separating archways

between the subjects. In the _upper_ division, in the centre, are

seated, each in his niche, “Isaya” and “Dauid.” (See Plate VI.) In the

upper corners, on the right hand of the first, and on the left hand of

the second, are Latin inscriptions,—the former relating to Eve’s seed

bruising the serpent’s head, Genesis iii. c., and the latter to Gideon’s

fleece saturated with dew, Judges vi. c. The _middle_ compartment is a

triptych, consisting of Eve’s Temptation, the Annunciation by the Angel

to the Blessed Virgin; and Gideon in his armour, on his knees, with his

shield on the ground, watching the fleece. Over Eve’s Temptation there

is a scroll issuing from Isaiah’s niche, and having this inscription:

~“Ecce virgo concipiet et pariet filium,”~—_Behold a virgin shall

conceive and bear a son_, Is. vii. 14; Eve stands near the tree of life,

emblematized by God the Father among the branches,—and erect before her

is the serpent, almost on the tip of its tail, with its body slightly

curved. In the Annunciation appears a ray of light breathed upon the

Virgin from God the Father seated in the clouds, and in the ray are the

dove, the emblem of the Holy Spirit, descending, and an infant Christ

bearing his cross; the Angel stands before Mary addressing to her the

salutation, “~Ave gratiâ plena, dominus tecum~,”—_Hail full of

grace, the Lord is with thee_, Luke i. 28; and Mary, seated with a book

on her knees, and her hands devoutly crossed on her breast, replies,

“~Ecce, ancilla domini, fiat mihi~,”—Behold, _the handmaid of the

Lord, be it unto me_, Luke i. 38. Of Gideon and the fleece little needs

be said, except that over him from the niche of David issues a scroll

with the words “~Descendet dominus sicut pluvia in vellus~,” in

the Latin Vulgate, Ps. lxxi. 6, _i.e. The Lord shall descend as rain

upon the fleece_; but in the English version, Ps. lxxii. 6, _He shall

come down like rain upon the mown grass_. The Angel also addressing

Gideon bears a scroll, not quite legible, but evidently meaning,

“~Dominus tecum virorum fortissime~,” Judges vi. 12,—English

version, _The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour_. The _lower_

compartment, like the upper, has in the centre two arched niches, which

contain, the one Ezekiel, the other Jeremiah; beneath Eve’s temptation

and Gideon’s omen are the alliterative and rhyming couplets

~“Vipera vim perdet,

Sine vi pariente puella.”~

and

~“Rore madet vellus

Permansit arida tellus;”~[38]

and beneath the Annunciation, “~Virgo salutatur, Innupta manens

gravidatur~.”

From Ezekiel’s niche issues the scroll, Ez. xliv. 2, “~Porta hæc

clausa erit, et non aperietur;~” and from Jeremiah’s, xxxi. 22,

“~Creavit dominus novum super terram, femina circumdabit virum.~”

It requires no argument to prove the emblematical nature of the _middle_

compartment of this page from the _Biblia Pauperum;_ and the texts on

scrolls are but the accessories to the devices, and serve only the more

clearly to mark this Block-book as an Emblem-book.

_Plate 7_

[Illustration: _S. John the Evangelist. 1st edition Block Book from the

Corser Collection._]

_Plate 8_

[Illustration: _A Page of the Apocalypse from Block Book in the Corser

Collection._]

Passing by similar Block-books, as _The Book of Canticles_, and _The

Apocalypse of St. John_, we will conclude the subject with a notice of

Humphreys’ pl. 5, following p. 42 of his text; it is “A Subject from the

Block-book entitled ‘Ars memorandi,’ executed probably at the beginning

of the fifteenth century.”

“The entire work,” we are informed, p. 42, “consists of the symbols of

the four evangelists, each occupying a page, and being most grotesquely

treated, the bull of St. Luke and the lion of St. Mark standing upright

on their hind legs. These symbols are surrounded with various objects,

calculated to recall the leading events in their respective Gospels.”

But the whole passage in explanation of the Plate is so much to our

purpose, that we ask pardon of the author for inserting it entire. He

says:—

“The page I have selected for reproduction is the fourth ‘image or

symbol’ of St. Matthew—the Angel. The objects grouped around are many of

them very curious, and, without the assistance of the accompanying

explanations, would certainly not serve to aid the memory of the modern

Biblical students. The symbolic Angel holds in the left hand objects

numbered 18, which by the explanation we learn to be the sun and moon,

accompanied by an unusual arrangement of stars and planets; intended to

recall the passage, ‘there were signs in the sun and moon’—_erant signa

in sole et luna_. I give the text of monkish explanation in MS. No. 19,

the clasped hands, represents marriage, in reference to the generations

of the Ancestors of Christ as enumerated by St. Matthew. No. 20, the

cockle shell and the bunch of grapes are emblems of travelling and

pilgrimage, and appear to represent the flight into Egypt; 21, the head

of an ass, is intended to recall the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem

riding on an ass; 22, a table, with bread-knife and drinking cup,

recalls the Last Supper (_Cæna magna_); and the accompanying symbol,

without a number, represents the census rendered to Cæsar.”[39]

With great kindness Mr. Corser, of Stand, offered me, in the spring of

1868, the use of a very choice Block-book, soon after sold for £415,

entitled _Historia S. Joan. Euangelist. per Figuras_, and which is, I

believe, the very copy from which Sotheby’s specimens of the work are

taken. Whether it be the “_editio princeps_,” as a former owner claimed

it to be, is doubted on merely conjectural grounds; but a most precious

copy it is, internally vindicating its claim to priority. The volume

measures 2.82 decimetres by 2.14; or 11 inches by 8.42. There are

forty-eight leaves, in perfect preservation, printed on one side. The

figures, all coloured, relate either to the traditions and legends of

the Evangelist, or to the visions of the Apocalypse, the former being

simply pictorial, the latter emblematical.

The two Plates uncoloured (Plate VII. and Plate VIII.) very clearly show

the difference between the mere drawing and the device. The pictures of

the Evangelist preaching, of Drusiana being baptized, and of the search

after John, have no meaning beyond the historical or legendary

event;—but the two wings of an eagle given to the woman, of the angel

flying with a book above the tree of life, of the dragon persecuting the

woman, and of the mother-church passing into the desert: these have a

meaning beyond that of the figures delineated;—they are emblematical of

hidden truths;—so are all the other plates of this Block-book which

represent the visions of the Apocalypse. The date is probably 1420 to

1425.

The Bodleian Library at Oxford is very rich in this particular

Block-book, possessing no fewer than _three_ copies of the _History of

S. John the Evangelist_. Among its treasures, however, is a MS. on the

same subject, worth them all by reason of its beauty and exquisite

finish, which the Block-books certainly do not claim. This MS., on fine

vellum and finely drawn and illuminated, is said to have been written in

the twelfth century, and to have belonged to Henry II.

But the printing with moveable types is firmly established, and

Emblem-books are among its earliest productions. At Bamberg, a city on

the Regnitz, near its influx into the Main, the first purely German book

was printed in 1461, by the same Pfister who published an edition of the

_Biblia Pauperum_, and who probably learned his art at Mayence with

Guttenberg himself. The work in question was a Collection of eighty-five

Fables in German, with 101 vignettes cut on wood, each accompanied by a

German text of rhyming verses. The first device, says Brunet, vol. i. p.

1096, represents three apes and a tree, and the verses begin with—

“Once on a time came an ape (_gerãt_) upright.”

The colophon, or subscription, at the end informs us,

“At Bamberg this little book ended is

After the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ,

When one counts a thousand four hundred year,

And to it, as truth, one and sixty more,

On the day of holy Valentine;

God shield us from the wrath divine. Amen.”

The fables were collected by Ulric Boner, a Dominican friar of Bonn, in

the thirteenth or at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Their

chief value is that they present the most precious remains of the

Minnesingers, or German Troubadours, and possess much grace, and “une

moralité piquante.” See _Biographie Universelle_, vol. v. pp. 97, 98:

Paris, 1812; and vol. xxxiii. p. 584: Paris, 1823.

Of Æsop’s _Fables_ in Greek, the Milan edition, about A.D. 1480, was the

earliest. There had been Latin versions, previously at Rome in 1473, at

Bologna and Antwerp in 1486, and elsewhere. The German translation

appeared in 1473, the Italian in 1479, the French and the English in

1484, and the Spanish in 1489. Besides these there were at least thirty

other editions previous to the year 1500.

It has been doubted if Fables should be classed among the Emblem

Literature,—but whether _nude_, as other emblems have been named when

unclothed in the ornaments of wood or copper engravings, or _adorned_

with richly embellished devices, they are, as Whitney would name them,

_naturally_ emblematical. Apart from whatever artistic skill can effect

for them, they have in themselves meanings to be evolved different from

those which the words convey. The Lion, the Fox, and the Ass are not

simply names for the veritable animals, but emblems of different

characters and qualities among the human race; they symbolize moral

sentiments and actions, and when we add the figures of the creatures,

though we may make pleasing and significant pictures, we do little for

the real development of the emblems.

Books of Fables, however, are so numerous that they and their editors

may be counted by hundreds; and as Dibdin intimates, the Bibliomaniac

who had gathered up all the editions of Æsop in nearly all the languages

of the civilized world, would have formed a very considerable library.

Only on a few occasions therefore shall we make mention of books of

Fables in our present inquiries.

We shall not however pass unnoticed, since it belongs especially to this

period, the “~Dyalogus Creaturarum~,” or, _Dialogues of the

Creatures_, a collection of Latin Fables, attributed in the fourteenth

century to Nicolas Pergaminus, first printed at Gouda in Holland by

Gerard Leeu in 1480, and at Stockholm by John Snell in 1483. (See

Brunet, vol. ii. p. 674.) A French version, by Colard Mansion, was

issued at Lyons in 1482, _Dialogue des Creatures moralizie_; and an

English version, about 1520, by J. Rastall, “Powly’s Churche,” London,

namely, “The Dialogue of Creatures moralyzed, of late translated out of

latyn in to our English tonge.”

[Illustration: _Dyalogus Creat., ed. 1480._]

There were various editions and modifications of the work,[40] but

perhaps the contrast between them cannot be better pointed out than by

selecting the Fable of the Wolf and the Ass from the Gouda edition of

1480, and also from the Antwerp edition of 1584. The original edition,

with the woodcut on the next page in mere outline, tells in simple Latin

prose how a wolf and an ass were sawing a log of wood together. From

good nature the ass worked up above, the wolf through maliciousness down

below, desiring to find an opportunity for devouring the ass; therefore

he complained that the ass was sending the sawdust into his eyes. The

ass replied, “It is not I who am doing this,—I only guide the saw. If

you wish to saw up above I am content,—I will work faithfully down

below.” And so they talked on, until the wolf threatening revenge drew

back, and the fissure in the beam being suddenly widened, the wedge fell

upon the wolf’s head, and the wolf himself was killed.

The Antwerp edition of 1584[41] changes the simple Latin prose into the

elegant Latin elegiacs of John Moerman, and the outline woodcuts of an

unknown artist into the copperplate engravings of Gerard de Jode, the

eldest of four generations of engravers. THE WOLF and THE ASS are made

to emblematize, “scelesti hominis imago et exitus,”—_the image and end

of a wicked man_. Moerman’s Latin may thus be rendered, from leaf 54,

ed. 1584:—

“The Wolf and careless Ass a treaty made,

Both studious with a saw a beam to rive;—

The ready Ass above directs the blade,

The Wolf doth down below deceit contrive.

He seeks for cause the wretched Ass to slay,

And cries,—‘With sawdust much thou troublest me,—

The trouble check, or with these teeth, I say,

My spoil to be devoured thou straight shalt be.’

To this the Ass,—‘Friend Wolf, be not annoyed;

Guileless the saw I guide with might and main.’

But soon the long-eared brute would be destroyed,

When falls the wedge;—ah! ’tis the Wolf is slain.”

[Illustration: _Apologi Creaturarum_, 1584.]

MORAL.

“Insonti qui insidias struit, ipse perit.”

“Who for the innocent spreads snares,

Himself shall perish unawares.”

“_The wicked man his nets doth spread

The innocent to take the while;

But who would harm his brother’s head

Doth perish from his selfish guile.

God will not deem him innocent,

Nor raise him to the stars above,

Who on unrighteous thoughts is bent,

Or neighbours serves with feigned love.

But after death to the fiery marsh

Of Phlegethon shall he be hurled,

Where Tartaræan Pluto harsh

With hated sceptres rules a world_.”

As in the Blandford Catalogue, it has been usual to count among

Emblem-books the “ECATONPHYLA,” printed at Venice in 1491. The French

translation of 1536 describes the title as, “signifiãt centiesme amour,

sciemment appropriees a la dame ayãt en elle autant damour que cent

aultres dames en pouroient comprendre,” _signifying a hundredth love,

knowingly appropriated to the lady having in her as much love as a

hundred other ladies could possibly comprehend_. (Brunet’s _Manuel_, i.

c. 131, 132.) The author of this work, of which there are several

editions, was the celebrated Italian architect, Leoni-Baptista Alberti,

born of a noble family of Florence in 1398, and living as some suppose

up to 1480. He was a universal scholar, a doctor of laws, a priest, a

painter, and a good mechanic.

We are inclined to ask whether _Gli Trionfi del Petrarcha_, printed at

Bologna in 1475,—especially, when as in the Venice editions of 1500 and

1523 they were adorned by the vignettes and wood engravings of Zoan

Andrea Veneziano,—whether these “Triumphs of Love, Chastity, and Death”

may not, from their highly allegorical character, be included among the

Emblem-books of this age?[42] The same question we might ask respecting

“~Das Heldenbuch~,”—_The Book of Heroes_,—printed at Augsburg, in

1477, by Gunther Zainer, who had first been a printer at Cracow about

1465; and also concerning the “~Libri Cronicarum cũ figuris et

imaginibus ab inicio mũdi~,” a large folio known as the _Chronicles

of Nuremberg_, which with its 2000 fine wood engravings, attributed to

Michael Wohlgemuth, was published in that city in 1493.[43]

The original “~Todtentanz~,” or _Dance of Death_, painted as a

memorial of the plague which raged during the Council of Bâle, held

between 1431 and 1446 (Bryan, p. 335), certainly was not the work of

either of the Holbeins. There are several representations of a

Death-dance in the fifteenth century, between 1485 and 1496 (Brunet, v.

873, 874); and there can be little doubt of their emblematical

character. The renowned _Dance of Death_ by Hans Holbein the younger we

will reserve for its proper place in the next section.

We must not however leave unmentioned _The Dance of Macaber_, especially

as it is presented to us in an English form by John Lydgate, a monk of

the Benedictine abbey of Bury St. Edmunds, who was born about 1375, and

attained his greatest eminence about 1430. His own power for supplying

the materials for an Emblem-device we observe in the lines on “_God’s

Providence_.”

“God hath a thousand handés to chastise;

A thousand dartés of punicion;

A thousand bowés made in divers wise;

A thousand arlblasts bent in his dongèon.”

For an account of Lydgate’s _Dance of Macaber_, and indeed for his

version in English, we should do well to consult the remarks by Francis

Douce, in Wenceslaus Hollar’s _Dance of Death_, published about the year

1790, and more particularly the remarks in Douce’s Dissertation, edition

1833.

_Plate 9_

~Stultifera Nauis.~

~Narragonice profectionis nunquam satis laudata Nauis: per Sebastianũ

Brant: vernaculo vulgarique sermone & rhythmo / pro cũctorum mortaliũ

fatuitatis semitas effugere cupiẽtiũ directione / speculo / cõmodoque &

salute: proque inertis ignaue̦que stultitie̦ perpetua infamia /

execratione / & confutatione / nuper fabricata: Atque iam pridem per

Iacobum Locher / cognomẽto Philomusum: Sue̦uũ: in latinũ traducta

eloquiũ: & per Sebastianũ Brant denuo seduloque reuisa / & noua quadã

exactaque emendatõe elimata: atque superadditis quibusdã nouis /

admirãdisque fatuorum generibus suppleta: fœlĩci exorditur

principio.~

_~.1497.

Nihil sine causa.

Io.de.Olpe.~_

[Illustration: _Title of Brandts Stultifera Navis edition, 1497._]

The earliest known edition of _La Danse Macabre_, originally composed in

German, is dated at Paris, 1484, but before the completion of the

century there were seven or eight other reprints, some with alterations

and others with additions. It was a most popular work, issued at least

eight or ten times during the sixteenth century, and still exciting

interest.[44] At p. 39 may be seen copies of some of the devices as used

by Verard.

The chief Emblem deviser and writer towards the end of the century was

Sebastian Brandt, born at Strasburg in 1458, and after a life of great

usefulness and honour dying at Bâle in 1520. The publication in German

Iambic verse of his “~Narren Schyff~,” Bâle, Nuremberg,

Rüttlingen, and Augsburg, A.D. 1494, forms quite an epoch in Emblem-book

literature. Previous to A.D. 1500, _Locher_, crowned poet laureate by

the Emperor Maximilian I., translated the German into Latin verse, with

the title “~Stultifera Nauis~” (see Plate IX.); _Riviere_ of

Poitiers, the Latin into French verse, “~La Nef des Folz du

Monde~;” and _Droyn_ of Amiens, into French prose, “~La grãt Nef

des Folz du Monde~.” Early in the next century, 1504, or even in

1500, there was a Flemish version; and in 1509 two English

versions,—_one_ translated out of French, “THE SHYPPE OF FOOLES,” by

Henry Watson, and printed by “Wynkyn de Worde, MCCCCCIX.” (see Dibdin’s

_Tour_, ii. p. 103); _the other_,—“STULTIFERA NAUIS,” or “~The Shyp

of Folys of the Worlde~;” “Inprentyd in the Cyte of London, by

Richard Pynson, M.D.IX.” (Dibdin’s _Typ. Ant._ ii. p. 431.) This latter

was “_translated out of Latin, French, and Duch into Englishe_, by

Alexander Barclay, _Priest_;” and reprinted in 1570, during

Shakespeare’s childhood by the “Printer to the Queenes Maiestie.” At the

same time, 1570, another work by Barclay was published, which, although

without devices, partakes of an allegorical or even of an emblematical

character; it is _The Mirrour of good Maners_; “conteining the foure

Cardinal Vertues.”

Dibdin, in his _Bibliographical Antiquarian_, iii. p. 101, mentions “a

pretty little volume—‘as fresh as a daisy,’ the _Hortulus Rosarum de

Valle Lachrymarum_, ‘A little Garden of Roses from the Valley of Tears’

(to which a Latin ode by S. Brandt is prefixed), printed by J. de Olpe

in 1499,”—but he gives no intimation of its character; conjecturing from

its title and from the woodcuts with which it is adorned, it will

probably on further inquiry be found to bear an emblematical meaning.

Dibdin also, in the same work, iii. p. 294, names “a German version of

the ‘HORTULUS ANIMÆ’ of S. Brant,” in manuscript; “undoubtedly,” he

says, “among the loveliest books in the Imperial Library.” The Latin

edition was printed at Strasburg in 1498, and is ornamented with figures

on wood; many of these are mere pictures, without any symbolical

meaning,—but it often is the case that the illuminated manuscripts,

especially if devotional, and the early printed books of every kind that

have pictorial illustrations in them, present various examples of

symbolical and emblematical devices.

The last works we shall name of the period antecedent to A.D. 1501, are

due to the industry and skill of John Sicile, herald at arms to Alphonso

King of Aragon, who died in 1458. Sicile, it seems, prepared two

manuscripts, _one_ the Blazonry of Arms,—the _other_, the Blazonry of

Colours. Of the former there was an edition printed at Paris in 1495,

_Le_ BLASON _de toutes Armes et Ecutz_, &c.—and of the latter at Lyons

early in the sixteenth century, _Le Blason des Couleurs en Armes,

Liurees et deuises_. Within an hundred years, ending with 1595, above

sixteen editions of the two works were issued.

Several other authors there are belonging to the period of which we

treat,—but enough have been named to show to what an extent Emblem

devices and Emblem-books had been adopted, and with what an impetus the

invention of moveable types and greater skill in engraving had acted to

multiply the departments of the Emblem Literature. It was an impetus

which gathered new strength in its course, and which, previous to

Shakespeare’s youth and maturity, had made an entrance into almost every

European nation. Already in 1500, from Sweden to Italy and from Poland

to Spain, the touch was felt which was to awaken nearly every city to

the west of Constantinople, to share in the supposed honours of adding

to the number of Emblem volumes.

[Illustration: _Picta Poesis, 1552._]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

SECTION III.

_OTHER EMBLEM WORKS AND EDITIONS BETWEEN A.D. 1500 AND 1564._

LABORIOUS in some degree is the enterprise which the title of this

Section will indicate before it shall be ended. Perchance we shall have

no myths to perplex us, but the demands of sober history are often more

inexorable than those flexible boundaries within which the imagination

may disport amid facts and fictions.

Better, as I trust, to set this period of _sixty-three_ years before the

mind, it may be well to take it in three divisions: 1st, the twenty-one

years before Alciatus appeared, to conquer for himself a kingdom, and to

reign king of Emblematists for about a century and a half; 2nd, the

twenty-one years from the appearance of the first edition of Alciat’s

_Emblems_ in 1522 at Milan, until Hans Holbein the younger had

introduced the _Images and Epigrams of Death_, and La Perriere and

Corrozet, the one his _Theatre of good Contrivances in one hundred

Emblems_, and the other his _Hecatomgraphie_, or descriptions of one

hundred figures; 3rd, the twenty-one years up to Shakespeare’s birth,

distinguished towards its close chiefly by the Italian writers on

_Imprese_, Paolo Giovio, Vincenzo Cartari, Girolamo Ruscelli, and

Gabriel Symeoni.

~Stulte̦ gustationis scapha.~

[Illustration: _Badius_, 1502.]

I.—_A Fool-freighted Ship_ was the title of almost the last book of the

fifteenth century,—by a similar title is the Emblem-book called which

was launched at the beginning of the sixteenth century; it is,

“~Jodoci Badii ascē~sii Stultifere̦ nauicule̦ seu scaphe̦

Fatuarum mulierum: circa sensus quinq̃ exteriores fraude

nauigantium,”—_The Fool-freighted little ships of Josse Badius

ascensius, or the skiffs of Silly women in delusion sailing about the

five outward senses_,—“printed by honest John Prusz, a citizen of

Strasburg, in the year of Salvation M.CCCCC.II.” There was an earlier

edition in 1500,—but almost exactly the same. From that before us we

give a specimen of the work, _The Skiff of Foolish Tasting_. A discourse

follows, with quotations from Aulus Gellius, Saint Jerome, Virgil,

Ezekiel, Epicurus, Seneca, Horace, and Juvenal; and the discourse is

crowned by twenty-four lines of Latin elegiacs, entitled “~Celeusma

Gustationis fatue̦~,”—_The Oarsman’s cry for silly Tasting_,—thus

exhorting—

“Slothful chieftains of the gullet!

Offspring of Sardanapálus!

In sweet sleep no longer lull it,—

Rouse ye, lest good cheer should fail us.

Gentle winds to pleasures calling

Waft to regions soft and slow;

On a thousand dishes falling,

How our palates burn and glow!

Suppers of Lucillus name not,

Ancient faith! nor plate of veal;

Ancient faith to luncheon came not

Crowned with flowers that age conceal.

Let none boast of pontiff’s dishes,—

Nor Mars’ priests their suppers spread;

Alban banquets bless our wishes,—

Cæsar’s garlands deck our head.

Now the dish of Æsop yielding,

Apicius all his luxuries pours;

And Ptolomies the sceptres wielding

Richest viands give in showers.”

And so on, until in the concluding stanza Badius declares—

“If great Jove himself invited

At our feasting takes his seat,

Jove would say, ‘I am delighted,

Not in heaven have I such meat.’

Therefore, stupids! what of summer

Enters now our pinnace gay,—

Onward in three hours ’twill bear us

Where kingdoms blessed bid us stay.”[45]

The same work was published in another form, “La nef des folles, selon

les cinq sens de nature, composé selon levangile de monseigneur saint

Mathieu, des cinq vierges qui ne prindrent point duylle avec eulx pour

mectre en leurs lampes:” Paris 4to, about 1501.

Of Badius himself, born in 1462 and dying in 1535, it is to be said that

he was a man of very considerable learning, professor of “belles

lettres” at Lyons from 1491 to 1511, when he was tempted to settle in

Paris. There he established the famous Ascensian Printing Press,—and

like Plantin of Antwerp, gave his three daughters in marriage to three

very celebrated printers: Michel Vascosan, Robert Etienne, and Jean de

Poigny. He was the author of several works besides those that have been

mentioned. (_Biog. Univ._ vol. iii. p. 201.)

Symphorien Champier, Doctor in Theology and Medicine, a native of Lyons,

who was physician to Anthony Duke of Lorraine when he accompanied Louis

XII. to the Italian war, graduated at Pavia in 1515, and, after laying

the foundations of the Lyons College of Physicians, and enjoying the

highest honours of his native city, died about 1540. (Aikin’s _Biog._

ii. 579.) His medical and other works are of little repute, but among

them are two or three which may be regarded as imitations of

Emblem-books. We will just name,—Balsat’s work with Champier’s

additions, _La Nef des Princes et des Batailles de Noblesse, &c._

(Lyons, 4to goth. with woodcuts, A.D. 1502.); also, _La Nef des Dames

vertueuses cōposee par Maistre Simphoriē Champier, &c._ (Lyons, 4to

goth. with woodcuts, A.D. 1503.)

“Bible figures,” too, again have a claim to notice. A very fine copy of

“~Les figures du vieil Testament, & du nouuel~,” which belonged

to the Rev. T. Corser, Rector of Stand, near Manchester, supplies the

opportunity of noticing that it is decidedly an Emblem work. It is a

folio, of 100 leaves, containing forty-one plates, of which one is

introductory, and forty are on Scriptural subjects, unarranged in order

either of time or place. The work was published in Paris in 1503 by

Anthoine Verard, and is certainly, as Brunet declares, ii. c. 1254, “une

imitation de l’ouvrage connu sous le nom de _Biblia Pauperum_.” There

are forty sets of figures in triptychs, the wood engravings being very

bold and good. Each is preceded or followed by a French stanza of eight

lines, declaring the subject; and has appended two or three pages of

Exposition, also in French. The Device pages, each in three

compartments, are in Latin, and may thus be described. At the top to the

left hand, a quotation from the Vulgate appropriate to the pictorial

representation beneath it; in the centre two niches, of which David

always occupies one, and some writer of the Old Testament the other, a

scroll issuing from each niche. The middle compartment is filled by a

triptych, the centre subject from the New Testament, the right and left

from the Old. At the bottom are Latin verses to the right and left, with

two niches in the centre occupied by biblical writers. The Latin verses

are rhyming couplets, as on fol. a. iiij, beneath Moses at the burning

bush, “~Lucet et ignescit, sed non rubus igne calescit~,”—_It

shines and flames, but the bush is not heated by the fire_. In triptych,

on p. i. _rev._ are, Enoch’s Translation, Christ’s Ascension, and the

Translation of Elijah.

The Aldine press at Venice, A.D. 1505, gave the world the first printed

edition of the “HIEROGLYPHICA” of Horapollo. It was in folio, having in

the same volume the Fables of Æsop, of Gabrias, &c. See Leemans’

_Horapollo_, pp. xxix-xxxv. A Latin version by Bernard Trebatius was

published at Augsburg in 1515, at Bale in 1518, and at Paris in 1521;

and another Latin version by Phil. Phasianinus, at Bologna in 1517.

Previous to Shakespeare’s birth there were translations into French in

1543, into Italian in 1548, and into German in 1554,—and down to 1616

sixteen other editions may readily be counted up.

John Haller, who had introduced printing into Cracow in 1500, published

in 1507 the first attempt to teach logic by means of a game of cards; it

was in Murner’s quarto entitled, “CHARTILUDIUM logice̦ seu Logica

poetica vel memorativa cum jocundo Pictasmatis Exercimento,”—_A

Card-game of Logic, or Logic poetical or memorial, with the pleasant

Exercise of pictured Representation_. It is a curious and ingenious

work, and reprints of it appeared at Strasburg in 1509 and 1518; at

Paris, by Balesdens, in 1629; and again in 1650, 4to, by Peter Guischet.

As an imitation of Brandt’s _Ship of Fools_, so far as it relates to the

follies and caprices of mankind, mention should also be made of Murner’s

“~Narren Beschwo^erung~,”—_Exorcism of Fools_,—Strasburg, 4to,

1512 and 1518; which certainly at Francfort, in 1620, gave origin to

Flitner’s “NEBVLO NEBVLONVM,”—or, _Rascal of Rascals_.

“~Speculū Paciētierum~ theologycis Consolationibus Fratris

Ioannis de Tambaco,”—_The Mirror of Patience with the theological

Consolations of Brother John Tambaco_,—Nuremberg, MCCCCCIX., 4to, is a

work of much curiousness. On the reverse of the title is an Emblematical

device of Job, Job’s wife, and the Devil, followed by exhortations to

patience; and on the reverse of the introduction to the second part,

also an Emblematical device,—the Queen of Consolation, with her four

maidens by her side, and two men kneeling before her. The chapters on

consolation are generally in the form of _sermonettes_, in which the

maidens, three or four, or even a dozen, expatiate on different subjects

proper for reproof, exhortation, and comfort. The devices in this volume

are understood to be from the pencil of Albert Durer.

This same year, 1509, witnessed two English translations, or

paraphrases, of Brandt’s “~Narren Schif~,”—the one _The Shyppe of

Fooles_, taken from the French by Henry Watson, and printed by De

Worde;—the other rendered out of Latin, German, and French, _The Ship of

Fooles_, by Alexander Barclay, and printed by Pinson. Of Watson little,

if anything, is known, but Barclay is regarded as one of the improvers

of the English tongue, and to him it is chiefly owing that a true

Emblem-book was made popular in England.

Of the “~Dyalogus Creaturarum~,” written in the fourteenth

century by Nicolas Pergaminus, and printed by Gerard Leeu, at Gouda, in

1480, an English version appeared about 1520,—“The dialogue of Creatures

moralyzed, of late translated out of Latyn in to our English tonge.”

The famous preacher and the founder of the first public school in

Strasburg was John Geyler, born in 1445. He was highly esteemed by the

Emperor Maximilian, and after a ministry of about thirty years, died

in 1510. Two Emblem-books were left by him, both published in 1511 by

James Other;—the one “~Navicula sive Speculũ Fatuorum~,”—_The

little Ship or Mirror of Fools_; the other, “~Navicula

Penitentie~,”—_The little Ship of Penitence_. To the first there

are 110 emblems and 112 devices, each having a discourse delivered on

one of the Sabbaths or festivals of the Catholic Church—the text

always being, _Stultorum infinitus est_,—“Infinite is the number of

fools.” The second, not strictly an Emblem-book, is devoted “to the

praise of God and the salvation of souls in Strasburg,” and consists

really of a series of sermons for Lent and other seasons of the year,

but all having the same text, _Ecce ascendimus Hierosolimam_,—“Behold

we go up to Jerusalem.” There were several reprints of both the works,

and two German translations; and the edition of 1520, folio, with wood

engravings, is remarkable for being the first book to which was

granted the “Imperial privilege.” It is said that the rhymes of

Brandt’s _Ship of Fools_ which Geyler had translated into Latin in

1498, not unfrequently served him for texts and quotations for his

sermons. Alas! we have no such lively preachers in these sleepy days

of perfect propriety of phrase and person. Our prophets, in putting

away “locusts and wild honey,” too often forget to cry, “Repent, for

the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Next, however, to the famous preacher, we name a notorious prophet, the

Abbot Joachim, who died between the years 1201 and 1202, but whose

works, if they really were his, did not appear in print, until the folio

edition was issued about 1475,—_Revelations concerning the State of the

chief Pontiffs_. An Italian version, “PROPHETIA dello Abbate Joachimo

circa li Pontefici & Re,” appeared in 1515; and another Latin edition,

with wood engravings, by Marc-Antoine Raimondi, in 1516.[46] Many tales

are related of the Abbot and of his followers; suffice it to say, that

they maintained the Gospel of Christ would be abolished A.D. 1260; and

thenceforward Joachim’s “true and everlasting Gospel” was to be

prevalent in the world.

According to the Blandford _Catalogue_, p. 6, we should here insert P.

Dupont’s _Satyriques Grotesques_ (Desseins Orig.), 8vo, Paris, 1513; but

it may be passed over with the simplest notice.

If we judge from the wonderfully beautiful copy on finest vellum in

the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow, the next Emblem-book surpasses all

others we have named; it is the “~Tewrdannckh~”—or,

_Dear-thought_,—usually attributed to Melchior Pfintzing, a German

poet, born at Nuremberg in 1481, and who at one time was secretary to

the Emperor Maximilian. The poem is allegorical and chivalric, and

adorned with 118 plates, some of which are considered the workmanship

of Albert Durer.[47]

The _Tewrdanck_ was intended to set forth the dangers and love

adventures of the emperor himself on occasion of his marriage to the

great heiress of that day, Mary of Burgundy. There are some who believe

that Maximilian was the author, or at least that he sketched out the

plan which Pfintzing executed. As, however, the espousals took place in

1479, before the poet was born, and Mary had early lost her life from a

fall,—the probability is that the emperor supplied some of the incidents

and suggestions, and that his secretary completed the work. The splendid

volume was dedicated to Charles V. in 1517, and published the same year,

a noble monument of typographic art.

Of a later work known under the name of “~Turnierbuch~,”—_The

Tournament-book_,—by George Rüxner, namely, _Beginning, Source, and

Progress of Tournaments in the German nation_ (Siemern, S. Rodler, 1530,

folio, pp. 402), Brunet informs us (_Manuel_, vol. iv. c. 1471), “There

are found for the most part in this edition printed at the castle of

Simmern” (about twenty-five miles south of Coblentz) “in 1530, the

characters already employed in the two editions of the _Tewrdannckh_ of

1517 and 1519; there may also be remarked numerous engravings on wood of

the same kind as those of the romance in verse we have just cited.” The

edition of 1532 “printed at the same castle,” is not in the same

characters as that of 1530.

CEBES, the Theban, the disciple of Socrates, though mentioned at pp. 12,

13, must again be introduced, for an edition of his little work in Latin

had appeared at Boulogne in 1497, and at Venice in 1500; also at

Francfort, “by the honest men Lamperter and Murrer,” in 1507, with the

letter of John Æsticampianus; the Greek was printed by Aldus in 1503,

and several other editions followed up to the end of the century;—indeed

there were translations into Arabic, French, Italian, German, and

English.[48]

_Plate 1^b_

[Illustration: _Tableau of Human Life from Cebes. B.C. 390._]

II.—ANDREW ALCIAT, the celebrated jurisconsult, remarkable, as some

testify, for serious defects, as for his surpassing knowledge and power

of mind, is characterized by Erasmus as “the orator best skilled in

law,” and “the lawyer most eloquent of speech;”—of his composition there

was published in 1522, at Milan, an _Emblematum Libellus_, or “Little

Book of Emblems.”[49] It established, if it did not introduce, a new

style for Emblem Literature, the classical in the place of the simply

grotesque and humorous, or of the heraldic and mythic. It is by no means

certain that the change should be named an unmixed gain. Stately and

artificial, the school of Alciat and his followers indicates at every

stanza its full acquaintance with mythologies Greek and Roman, but it is

deficient in the easy expression which distinguishes the poet of nature

above him whom learning chiefly guides: it seldom betrays either

enthusiasm of genius or depth of imaginative power.

Nevertheless the style chimed in with the taste of the age, and the

little book,—at least that edition of it which is the earliest we have

seen, Augsburg, A.D. 1531,[50] contained in eighty-eight pages, small

8vo, with ninety-seven Emblems and as many woodcuts,—won its way from

being a tiny volume of 11.5 square inches of letterpress on each of

eighty-eight pages, until with notes and comments it was comprised only

in a large 4to of 1004 pages with thirty-seven square inches of

letter-press on each page. Thus the little one that had in it only 1012

square inches of text and picture became a mountain, a monument in

Alciat’s honour, numbering up 37,128 square inches of text, picture, and

comment. The _little_ book of Augsburg, 1531, may be read and digested,

but only an immortal patience could labour through the entire of the

_great_ book of Padua, 1621. In that interval of ninety years, however,

edition after edition of the favourite emblematist appeared; with

translations into French 1536, into German 1542, into Spanish and

Italian in 1549, and, if we may credit Ames’ _Antiquities of Printing_,

Herbert’s edition, p. 1570, into English in 1551. The total number of

the editions during that period was certainly not less than 130, of

seventy of which a pretty close examination has been made by the writer

of this sketch. The list of editions, as far as completed, numbers up

about 150, and manifests a persistence in popularity that has seldom

been attained.

The earliest French translator was John Lefevre, an ecclesiastic, born

at Dijon in 1493,—_Les Emblemes de Maistre Andre Alciat_: Paris, 1536.

He was secretary to Cardinal Givry, whose protection he enjoyed, and

died in 1565. Bartholomew Aneau, himself an emblematist, was the next

translator into French, 1549; and a third, Claude Mignault, appeared in

1583. Wolfgang Hunger, a Bavarian, in 1542,[51] and Jeremiah Held of

Nördlingen, were the German translators; Bernardino Daza Pinciano, in

1549, _Los Emblemas de Alciato_, was the Spanish; and Giovanni Marquale,

in 1547, the Italian,—_Diverse Imprese_.

The notes and comments upon Alciat’s Emblems manifest great research and

very extensive learning. Sebastian Stockhamer supplied _commentariola_,

short comments, to the Lyons edition of 1556. Francis Sanctius, or

Sanchez, one of the restorers of literature in Spain, born in 1523, also

added _commentaria_ to the Lyons edition of 1573. Above all we must name

Claude Mignault, whose praise is that “to a varied learning he joined a

rare integrity.” He was born near Dijon about 1536, and died in 1606.

His comments in full appeared in Plantin’s[52] Antwerp edition, 8vo, of

1573, and may be appealed to in proof of much patient research and

extensive erudition. Lorenzo Pignoria, born at Padua in 1571, and

celebrated for his study of Egyptian antiquities, also compiled notes on

Alciat’s Emblems in MDCXIIX.[53] The results of the labours of the

three, Sanchez, Mignault, and Pignorius, were collected in the Padua

editions of 1621 and 1661. It is scarcely possible that so many editions

should have issued from the press, and so much learning have been

bestowed, without the knowledge of Alciat’s Emblems having penetrated

every nook and corner of the literary world.

With a glance only at the “PROGNOSTICATIO,” of Theophrastus Paracelsus,

the alchemist and enthusiast, written in 1536, and expressed in

thirty-two copperplates, we pass at once to the _Dance of Death_, by

Hans Holbein, which Bewick, 1789, and Douce, 1833, in London, and

Schlotthauer and Fortoul, 1832, in Munich and Paris, have made familiar

to English, German, and French readers. Of Holbein himself, it is

sufficient here to say that he was born at Bâle in 1495, and died in

London in 1543.

Mr. Corser’s copy of the first edition of the _Dance of Death_, and

which was the gift of Francis Douce, Esq., to Edward Vernon Utterson,

supplies the following title, “LES SIMULACHRES & HISTORIEES FACES DE LA

MORT, avtant elegammēt pourtraictes, que artificiellement imaginées: A

Lyon, soubz l’escu de Coloigne, M.D.XXXVIII.” The volume is a small

quarto of 104 pages, unnumbered, dedicated to Madame Johanna de

Touszele, the Reverend Abbess of the convent of Saint Peter at Lyons.

There are forty-one emblems, each headed by a text of scripture from the

Latin version; the devices follow, with a French stanza of four lines to

each; and there are sundry Dissertations by Jean de Vauzelles, an

eminent divine and scholar of the same city. But who can speak of the

beauty of the work? The designs by Holbein are many of them wonderfully

conceived,—the engravings by Hans Lützenberge, or Leutzelburger, as

admirably executed.[54]

Rapidly was the work transferred into Latin and Italian, and before the

end of the century at least fifteen editions had issued from the presses

of Lyons, Bâle, and Cologne.

Scarcely less celebrated are Holbein’s _Historical Figures of the Old

Testament_, which Sibald Beham’s had preceded in Francfort by only two

years. Beham’s whole series of Bible Figures are contained in 348

prints, and were published between 1536 and 1540. Dibdin’s _Decameron_,

vol. i. pp. 176, 177, will supply a full account of Holbein’s

“Historiarum Veteris Instrumenti icones ad vivum expressæ una cum brevi,

sed quoad fieri potuit, dilucida earundem expositione:” Lyons, small

4to, 1538. The edition of Frellonius, Lyons, 1547, is a very close

reprint of the second edition, and from this it appears that the work is

contained in fifty-two leaves, unnumbered, and that there are

ninety-four devices, which are admirable specimens of wood-engraving.

The first four are from the _Dance of Death_, but the others appropriate

to the subjects, each being accompanied by a French stanza of four

lines.

A Spanish translation was issued in 1543; and in 1549, at Lyons, an

English version, “The Images of the Old Testament, lately expressed, set

forthe in Ynglishe and Frenche, vuith a playn and brief exposition.” All

the editions of the century were about twelve.

Hans Brosamer, of Fulda, laboured in the same mine, and between

1551 and 1553, copying chiefly from Holbein and Albert Durer,

produced at Francfort his “~Biblische Historien kunstlich

fürgemalet~,”—_Bible Histories artistically pictured_ (3 vols.

in 1).

We will, though somewhat earlier than the exact date, continue the

subject of Bible-Figure Emblem-books by alluding to the _Quadrins

historiques de la Bible_,—“Historic Picture-frames of the Bible,”—for

the most part engraved by “Le Petit Bernard,” _alias_ Solomon Bernard,

who was born at Lyons in 1512. Of these works in French, English,

Spanish, Italian, Latin, Flemish, and German, there were twenty-two

editions printed between 1553 and 1583. Their general nature may be

known from the fact that to each Scripture subject there is a device, in

design and execution equally good, and that it is followed or

accompanied by a Latin, Italian, &c. stanza, as the case may be. In the

Italian version, Lyons, 1554, the Old Testament is illustrated by 222

engravings, and the New by ninety-five.

The first of the series appears to be _Quadrins historiques du Genèse_,

Lyons, 1553; followed in the same year by _Quadrins historiques de

l’Exode_. There is also of the same date (see Brunet, iv. c. 996), “The

true and lyuely historyke Pvrtreatures of the woll Bible (with the

arguments of eache figure, translated into english metre by Peter

Derendel): Lyons; by Jean of Tournes.”

To conclude, there were _Figures of the Bible_, illustrated by French

stanzas, and also by Italian and by German; published at Lyons and at

Venice between 1564 and 1582. (See Brunet’s _Manuel_, ii. c. 1255.) Also

Jost Amman, at Francfort, in 1564; and Virgil Solis, from 1560 to 1568,

contributed to German works of the same character.

Two names of note among emblematists crown the years 1539 and 1540, both

in Paris: they are William de la Perrière, and Giles Corrozet; of the

former we know little more than that he was a native of Toulouse, and

dedicated his chief work to “Margaret of France, Queen of Navarre, the

only sister of the very Christian King of France;” and of the latter,

that, born in Paris in 1510, and dying there in 1568, he was a

successful printer and bookseller, and distinguished (see Brunet’s

_Manuel_, ii. cc. 299–308) for a large number of works on History,

Antiquities, and kindred subjects.

La Perrière’s chief Emblem-work is _Le Theatre des bons Engins, auquel

sont contenus cent Emblemes_: Paris, 8vo, 1539. There are 110 leaves and

really 101 emblems, each device having a pretty border. His other

Emblem-works are—_The Hundred Thoughts of Love_, 1543, with woodcuts to

each page; _Thoughts on the Four Worlds_, “namely, the divine, the

angelic, the heavenly, and the sensible,” Lyons, 1552; and “LA

MOROSOPHIE,”—_The Wisdom of Folly_,—containing a hundred moral emblems,

illustrated by a hundred stanzas of four lines, both in Latin and in

French.

Corrozet’s “HECATOMGRAPHIE,” Paris, 1540, is a description of a hundred

figures and histories, and contains Apophthegms, Proverbs, Sentences,

and Sayings, as well ancient as modern. Each page of the 100 emblems is

surrounded by a beautiful border, the devices are neat woodcuts, having

the same borders with La Perrière’s _Theatre of good Contrivances_.

There is also to each a page of explanatory French verses.

It requires a stricter inquiry than I have yet been able to make in

order to determine if Corrozet’s _Blasons domestiques_; _Blason du Moys

de May_; and _Tapisserie de l’Eglise chrestienne & catholique_, bear a

decided emblematical character; the titles have a taste of emblematism,

but are by no means decisive of the fact.

III.—Maurice Sceve’s _Delie, Object de plus haulte Vertu_, Lyons, 1544,

with woodcuts, and 458 ten-lined stanzas on love, is included in the

Blandford _Catalogue_; and in the Keir Collection are both _The very

admirable, very magnificient and triumphant Entry of Prince Philip of

Spain into Antwerp in 1549_,[55] by Grapheus, _alias_ Scribonius;

edition 1550: and Gueroult’s _Premier Livre des Emblemes_; Lyons, 1550.

The same year, 1550, at Augsburg, has marked against it

“~Geschlechtes Buch~,”—_Pedigree-book_,—which recurs in 1580.

Claude Paradin, the canon of Beaujeu, a small town on the Ardiere, in

the department of the Rhone, published the first edition of his simple

but very interesting _Devises heroiques_, with 180 woodcuts, at Lyons in

1557. It was afterwards enlarged by gatherings from Gabriel Symeoni and

other writers; but, either under its own name or that of _Symbola

heroica_ (edition 1567) was very popular, and before 1600 was printed at

Lyons, Antwerp, Douay, and Leyden, not fewer than twelve times. The

English translation, with which it is generally admitted that

Shakespeare was acquainted, was printed in London, in 12mo, in 1591, and

bears the title, _The Heroicall Devises of M. Clavdivs Paradin, Canon of

Beauieu_, “Whereunto are added the Lord Gabriel Symeons and others.

Translated out of Latin into English by P.S.”

To another Paradin are assigned _Quadrins historiques de la Bible_,

published at Lyons by Jean de Tournes, 1555; and of which the same

publisher issued Spanish, English, Italian, German, and Flemish

versions.

The rich Emblem Collection at Keir furnishes the first edition of each

of Doni’s three Emblem-works, in 4to, printed by Antonio Francesco

Marcolini at Venice in 1552–53; they are: 1. “I MONDI,”—_i.e._, _The

Worlds, celestial, terrestrial, and infernal_,—2 parts in 1, with

woodcuts. 2. “I MARMI,”—_The Marbles_,—4 parts in 1, a collection of

pleasant little tales and interesting notices, with woodcuts by the

printer; who also, according to Bryan, was an engraver of “considerable

merit.” 3. “LA MORAL FILOSOFIA,”—_Moral Philosophy drawn from the

ancient Writers_,—2 parts in 1, with woodcuts. In it are abundant

extracts from the ancient fabulists, as Lokman and Bidpai, and a variety

of little narrative tales and allegories.

Of an English translation, two editions appeared in London in 1570 and

1601, during Shakespeare’s lifetime; namely, “~The Morall

Philosophie~ of Doni, englished out of italien by sir Th.

North,”[56] 4to, with engravings on wood.

Under the two titles of “PICTA POESIS,” and “LIMAGINATION POETIQUE,”

Bartholomew Aneau, or Anulus, published his “exquisite little gem,” as

Mr. Atkinson, a former owner of the copy which is now before me,

describes the work. It appeared at Lyons in 1552, and contains 106

emblems, the stanzas to which, in the Latin edition, are occasionally in

Greek, but in the French edition, “vers François des Latins et Grecz,

par l’auteur mesme d’iceux.”

Achille Bocchi, a celebrated Italian scholar, the founder, in 1546, of

the Academy of Bologna, Virgil Solis, of Nuremberg, an artist of

considerable repute, Pierre Cousteau, or Costalius, of Lyons, and Paolo

Giovio, an accomplished writer, Bishop of Nocera, give name to four of

the Emblem-books which were issued in the year 1555. That of Bocchius is

entitled “SYMBOLICARVM QVAESTIONVM, LIBRI QVINQVE,” Bononiæ, 1555, 4to;

and numbers up 146, or, more correctly, 150 emblems in 340 pages: the

devices are the work of Giulio Bonasone, from copper-plates of great

excellence. In 1556, _Bononiæ_ Sambigucius put forth _In Hermathenam

Bocchiam Interpretatio_, which is simply a comment on the 102nd emblem

of Bocchius. Virgil Solis published in 4to, at Nuremberg, the same year,

“LIBELLUS Sartorum, seu Signorum publicorum,”—_A little Book of

Cobblers, or of public Signs_. Cousteau’s “PEGMA,”[57] which some say

appeared first in 1552, is, as the name denotes, a _Structure_ of

emblems, ninety-five in number, with _philosophical narratives_,—each

page being surrounded by a pretty border. And Giovio’s “DIALOGO dell’

Imprese Militari et Amore,”—_Dialogue of Emblems of War and of Love_;

or, as it is sometimes named, “RAGIONAMENTO, _Discourse concerning the

words and devices of arms and of love, which are commonly named

Emblems_,”—is probably the first regular treatise on the subject which

had yet appeared, and which attained high popularity.

Its estimation in England is shown by the translation which was issued

in London in 1585, entitled, “THE Worthy tract of Paulus Iouius,

contayning a Discourse of rare inuentions, both Militarie and Amorous,

_called Imprese. Whereunto is added_ a Pre_face_ _contay_-ning the Arte

of composing them, with _many other notable deuises_. _By Samuell

Daniell late Student_ in Oxenforde.”

Intimately connected with Giovio’s little work, indeed often

constituting parts of the same volume, were Ruscelli’s “DISCORSO” on the

same subject, Venice, 1556; and Domenichi’s “RAGIONAMENTO,” also at

Venice, in 1556. From the testimony of Sir Egerton Brydges (_Res Lit._),

“Ruscelli was one of the first literati of his time, and was held in

esteem by princes and all ranks of people.”

Very frequently, too, in combination with Giovio’s Dialogue on Emblems,

are to be found Ruscelli’s “IMPRESE ILLVSTRI,” Venice, 1566; or

Symeoni’s “IMPRESE HEROICHE ET MORALI,” Lyons, 1559; and “SENTENTIOSE

IMPRESE,” Lyons, 1562.

Roville’s Lyons edition, of 1574, thus unites in one title-page Giovio,

Symeoni, and Domenichi, “DIALOGO DELLIMPRESE MILITARI ET AMOROSE, De

Monsignor Giouio Vescouo di Nocera _Et del S. Gabriel Symeoni

Fiorentino_, Con vn ragionamento di M. Lodouico Domenichi, nel medesimo

soggetto.”

Taking together all the editions in Italian, French, and Spanish, of

these four authors, single or combined, which I have had the opportunity

of examining, there are no less than _twenty-two_ between 1555 and 1585,

besides five or six other editions named by Brunet in his _Manuel du

Libraire_. Roville’s French edition, 4to, Lyons, 1561, is by Vasquin

Philieul, “Dialogve des Devises d’Armes et d’Amovrs dv S. Pavlo Iovio,

_Auec vn Discours de M. Loys Dominique_—et _les Deuises Heroiques et

Morales du Seigneur Gabriel Symeon_.”

At this epoch we enter upon ground which has been skilfully upturned and

cultivated by Claude Francis Menestrier, born at Lyons in 1631, and

“distinguished by his various works on heraldry, decorations, public

ceremonials, &c.” (Aikin’s _Gen. Biog._ vii. p. 41.) In his “PHILOSOPHIA

IMAGINUM,”—_Philosophy of Images_,—an octavo volume of 860 pages,

published at Amsterdam, 1695, he gives, in ninety-four pages, a

“JUDICIUM,” _i.e._, _a judgment respecting all authors who have written

on Symbolic Art_; and of those Authors whom we have named, or may be

about to name, within the Period to which our Sketch extends, he

mentions that he has examined the works of

A.D.

1555.[58] _Paulus Jovius_, p. 1.

1556. _Ludovicus Dominicus_, p. 3.

” _Hieronymus Ruscellius_, p. 4.

1561. _Alphonsus Ulloa_, ibid.

1562. _Scipio Amiratus_, p. 5.

1571. _Alexander Farra_, p. 6.

” _Bartholoæmus Taëgius_, p. 7.

1574. _Lucas Contile_, p. 9.

1577. _Johannes Andreas Palatius_, p. 10.

1578. _Scipio Bergalius_, p. 12.

1580. _Franciscus Caburaccius_, p. 12.

1588. _Abrahamus Fransius_, p. 15.

1591. _Julius Cæsar Capacius_, ibid.

” _D. Albertus Bernardetti_, p. 17.

1594. _Torquatus Tassus_, p. 14.

1600. _Jacobus Sassus_, p. 18.

1601. _Andreas Chioccus_, ibid.

1612. _Hercules Tassus_, p. 19.

” _P. Horatius Montalde_, p. 23.

” _Johannes Baptista Personé_, ib.

1620. _Franciscus d’Amboise_, ibid.

It may also be gathered from the “JUDICIUM” that Menestrier had read

with care what had been written on Emblems by the following authors:—

A.D.

1551. _Gabriel Simeoni_, p. 63.

1557. _Claudius Paradinus_, p. 68.

1562. _Mauritius Sevus_, p. 55.

1565. _J. Baptista Pittonius_, p. 70.

1573. _Claudius Minos_, p. 54.

1588. _Bernardinus Percivalle_, p. 64.

” _Principius Fabricius_, p. 76.

1600. _Johannes Pinedi,_ p. 60.

1609. _Jacobus Le Vasseur_, p. 91.

1613. _J. Franciscus de Villava_, p. 55.

Excluding the editions before enumerated, the books of emblems which I

have noted from various sources as assigned to the authors in the above

lists from Menestrier, amount to from _twenty-five_ to _thirty_, with

the titles of which there is no occasion to trouble the reader.

Returning from this digression, Vincenzo Cartari should next be named in

order of time. At Venice, in 1556, appeared his “IMAGINI DEI _Dei degli

Antichi_,”—_Images of the Gods of the Ancients_,—4to, of above 500

pages. It contains an account of the Idols, Rites, Ceremonies, and other

things appertaining to the old Religions. It was a work often reprinted,

and in 1581 translated into French by Antoine du Verdier, the same who,

in 1585, gave in folio a Catalogue of all who have written or translated

into French up to that time.

A folio of 1100 pages, which within the period of our sketch

was reprinted four times, issued from Bâle in 1556; it is,

“HIEROGLYPHICA,”—_Hieroglyphics_, or, _Commentaries on the Sacred

Literature of the Egyptians_,—by John Pierius Valerian, a man of

letters, born in extreme poverty at Belluno in 1477, and untaught the

very elements of learning until he was fifteen. (Aikin’s _Gen. Biog._

ix. 537.) He died in 1558. As an exposition of the Egyptian

hieroglyphics, his very learned work is little esteemed; but it contains

emblems innumerable, comprised in fifty-eight books, each book dedicated

to a person of note, and treating one class of objects. The

devices—small woodcuts—amount to 365.

Etienne Jodelle, a poet, equally versatile whether in Latin or in

French, was skilled in the ancient languages, and acquainted with the

arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture, as well as dexterous in

the use of arms. He published, in 1558, a thin quarto “RECUEIL,” or

_Collection_ of the inscriptions, figures, devices, and masks ordained

in Paris at the Hôtel de Ville. The same year, and again in 1569 and

1573, appeared the large folio volume, in five parts, “AUSTRIACIS GENTIS

IMAGINES,”—_Portraits of the Austrian family_,—full lengths, engraved by

Gaspar ab Avibus, of Padua. At the foot of each portrait are a

four-lined stanza, a brief biographical notice, and some emblematical

figure. Of similar character, though much inferior as a work of art, is

Jean Nestor’s HISTOIRE _des Hommes illustres de la Maison de Medici_; a

quarto of about 240 leaves, printed at Paris in 1564. (See the Keir

_Catalogue_, p. 143.) It contains “twelve woodcuts of the emblems of the

different members of the House of Medici.”

Hoffer’s “ICONES CATECHESEOS,” or _Pictures of instruction_, and of

virtues and vices, illustrated by verses, and also by seventy-eight

figures or woodcuts, was printed at Wittenberg in 1560. The next year,

1561—if not in 1556 (see Brunet’s _Manuel_, vol. ii. cc. 930, 931)—John

Duvet, one of the earliest engravers on copper in France, at Lyons,

published in twenty-four plates, folio, his chief work, “LAPOCALYPSE

FIGUREE;” and in 1562, at Naples, the Historian of Florence, Scipione

Ammirato, gave to the world “IL ROTA OVERO DELL’ IMPRESE,” or, _Dialogue

of the Sig. Scipione Ammirato_, in which he discourses of many emblems

of divers excellent authors, and of some rules and admonitions

concerning this subject written to the Sig. Vincenzo Carrafa.

Were it less a subject of debate between Dutch and German critics as to

the exact character of the “SPELEN VAN SINNE,”[59] which were published

by the Chambers of Rhetoric at Ghent in 1539, and by those of Antwerp in

1561 and 1562 (see Brunet’s _Manuel_, vol. v. c. 484), we should claim

these works for our Emblem domain. But whether claimed or not, the

exhibitions and amusements of the Chambers of Rhetoric, especially at

their great gatherings in the chief cities of the Netherlands, were

often very lively representations by action and accessory devices of

dramatic thought and sentiment, from “King Herod and his Deeds,”

“enacted in the Cathedral of Utrecht in 1418,” to what Motley, in his

_Dutch Republic_, vol. i. p. 80, terms the “magnificent processions,

brilliant costumes, living pictures, charades, and other animated,

glittering groups,”—“trials of dramatic and poetic skill, all arranged

under the superintendence of the particular association which in the

preceding year had borne away the prize.”

“The Rhetorical Chambers existed in the most obscure villages” (Motley,

i. p. 79); and had regular constitutions, being presided over by

officers with high-sounding titles, as kings, princes, captains, and

archdeacons,—and each having “its peculiar title or blazon, as the Lily,

the Marigold, or the Violet, with an appropriate motto.” After 1493 they

were “incorporated under the general supervision of an upper or

mother-society of Rhetoric, consisting of fifteen members, and called by

the title of ‘Jesus with the balsam flower.’”

As I have been informed by Mr. Hessells, Siegenbeek, in his

_Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Letterkunde_, says,—“Besides the

ordinary meetings of the Chambers, certain poetical feasts were in vogue

among the Rhetor-gevers, whereby one or other subject, to be responded

to in burdens or short songs (_liedekens_), according to the contents of

the card, was announced, with the promise of prizes to those who would

best answer the proposed question. But the so-called _Entries_ deserve

for their magnificence, and the diversity of poetical productions which

they give rise to, especially our attention.

“It happened from time to time that one or other of the most important

Chambers sent a card in rhyme to the other Chambers of the same

province, whereby they were invited to be at a given time in the town

where the senders of the card were established, for the sake of the

celebration of a poetical feast. This card contained further everything

by which it was desired that the Chambers, which were to make their

appearance, should illustrate this feast, viz., the performance of an

allegorical play (_zinnespel_) in response to some given question;[60]

the preparation of _esbatementez_ (drawings), _facéties_ (jests),

prologues; the execution of splendid entries and processions; the

exhibitions of beautifully painted coats of arms, &c. These entries were

of two kinds, _landiuweelen_, and _haagspelen_>;—the _landjewels_ were

the most splendid, and were performed in towns; the _hedge-plays_

belonged properly to villages, though sometimes in towns these followed

the performance of a landjewel.” Originally, _landjewel_ meant a prize

of honour of the land; called also _landprys_ (land-prize).

Such were the periodic jubilees of a neighbouring people, their

“land-jewels,” as they were termed, when the birthtime of our greatest

English dramatist arrived. And as we mark the wide and increasing

streams of the Emblem Literature flowing over every European land, and

how the common tongue of Rome gave one language to all Christendom, can

we deem it probable that any man of genius, of discernment, and of only

the usual attainments of his compeers, would live by the side of these

streams and never dip his finger into the waters, nor wet even the soles

of his feet where the babbling emblems flowed?

Some there have been to maintain that Shakespeare had visited the

Netherlands, or even resided there; and it is consequently within the

limits of no unreasonable conjecture that he had seen the _landjewels_

distributed, and at the sight felt himself inspirited to win a nobler

fame.

[Illustration: _Whitney, 1586._]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

SECTION IV.

_EMBLEM WORKS AND EDITIONS BETWEEN A.D. 1564 AND A.D. 1616._

IN the year at which this Section begins, Shakespeare was born, and for

a whole century the Emblem tide never ebbed. There was an uninterrupted

succession of new writers and of new editions. Many eminent names have

appeared in the past, and names as eminent will adorn the future.

The fifty years which remain to the period comprised within the limits

of this Sketch of Emblem Literature we divide into two portions of

twenty-five years each: 1st, up to 1590, when Shakespeare had fairly

entered on his dramatic career; and 2nd, from 1590 to 1615, when,

according to Steevens (edition 1785, vol. i. p. 354), his labours had

ended with _The Twelfth Night, or, What You Will_. As far as actual

correspondences between Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers demand, our

Sketch might finish with 1610, or even earlier: for some time will of

necessity intervene, after a work has been issued, before it will modify

the thoughts of others, or enter into the phrases which they employ.

However, there is nothing very incongruous in making this Sketch and the

last of Shakespeare’s dramas terminate with the same date.

I.—In 1564, at Rome, in 4to, the distinguished Latinist, Gabriel

Faerno’s Fables were first printed, 100 in number;—it was three years

after his death. The plates are from designs which Titian is said to

have drawn. Our English Whitney adopts several of Faerno’s Fables among

his Emblems, and on this authority we class them with books of Emblems.

From time to time, as late as to 1796, new editions and translations of

the Fables have been issued. A copy in the Free Library, Manchester,

“Romæ Vincentius Luchinus, 1565,” bears the title, _Fabvlae Centvm ex

antiqvis avctoribvs delectae, et a Gabriele Faerno, Cremonensi

carminibvs explicatae_.

Virgil Solis, a native of Nuremberg, where he was born in 1514, and

where he died in 1570; and Jost Amman, who was born at Zurich in 1539,

but passed his life at Nuremberg, and died there in 1591, were both

artists of high repute, and contributed to the illustration of

Emblem-works. The former, between 1560 and 1568, produced 125 _New

Figures for the New Testament_, and _An Artistic little Book of

Animals_; and the latter, from 1564 to 1586, contributed very largely to

books of _Biblical Figures_, of “Animals,” of “Genealogies,” of

“Heraldry,” and of the _Habits_ and _Costumes_ of All Ranks of the

_Clergy of the Roman Church_, and of _Women_ of every “Condition,

profession, _and age_,” throughout the nations of Europe.

From the press of Christopher Plantin, of Antwerp, there issued nearly

fifty editions of Emblem-books between 1564 and 1590. Of these, one of

the earliest was, “EMBLEMATA CVM ALIQVOT NVMMIS ANTIQVIS,”—_Emblems with

some ancient Coins_,—4to, 1564, by the Hungarian, John Sambucus, born at

Tornau in 1531. A French version, _Les Emblemes de Jehan Sambucus_,

issued from the same press in 1567. Among Emblematists, none bears a

fairer name as “physician, antiquary, and poet.” According to De Bry’s

_Icones_, pt. iii., ed. 1598, pp. 76–83, he obtained the patronage of

two emperors, Maximilian II. and Rudolph II., under whom he held the

offices of counsellor of state and historian of the empire. To him also

belonged the rare honour of having his work commented on by one of the

great heroes of Christendom, Don John of Austria, in 1572.

_Les Songes drolatiqves de Pantagrvel_, by Rabelais, appeared at Paris

in 1565, but its emblematical character has been doubted. Not so,

however, the ten editions of the “EMBLEMATA” of _Hadrian Junius_, a

celebrated Dutch physician, of which the first edition appeared in 1565,

and justly claims to be “the most elegant which the presses of Plantin

had produced at this period.”

We may now begin to chronicle a considerable number of works and

editions of Emblems by ITALIAN writers, which, to avoid prolixity and

yet to point out, we present in a tabulated form, giving only the

earliest editions:—

Pittoni’s _Imprese di diversi sm.fol. Venice 1566

principi, duchi, &c._ _k._[61]

Troiano’s _Discorsi delli triomfi, 4to Monica 1568

giostre, &c._ _k._

Rime _Rime de gli Academici 4to Brescia 1568

occvlti, &c._ _k._

Farra’s _Settenario dell’ humana ... ... 1571

riduttione_ _v._

Dolce’s _Le prime imprese del 4to Venice 1572

conte Orlando_ _v._

” _Dialogo_ 8vo Venice 1575

_k._

Contile’s _Ragionamento—sopra la Fol. Pavia 1574

proprieta delle Imprese, _k._

&c._

Fiorino’s _Opera nuova, &c._ 4to Lyons 1577

_k._

Palazza’s _I Discorsi—Imprese, &c._ 8vo Bologna 1577

_k._

Caburacci’s _Trattato,—dove si 4to Bologna 1580

dimostra il vero e novo _k._

modo di fare le

Imprese._

Guazzo’s _Dialoghi piacevoli_ 4to Venice 1585

_k._

Camilli’s _Imprese—co i discorsi, et 4to Venice 1586

con le figure_ _k._

Cimolotti’s _Il superbi_ 4to Pavia 1587

_k._

Fabrici’s _Delle allusioni, imprese 4to Roma 1588

& emblemi sopra la vita, _k._

&c., di Gregorio XIII._

Rinaldi’s _Il mostruosissimo_ 8vo Ferrara 1588

_k._

Porro’s _Il primo libro_ 4to Milano 1589

_k._

Pezzi’s _La Vigna del 4to Venetia 1589

Signore—Sacramenti, _t._

Paradiso, Limbo, &c._

Bargagli’s _Dell’ Imprese_ 4to Venetia 1589

_v._

So, briefly, in the order of time, may we name several of the French,

Latin, and German Emblem-writers of this period, together with the

Spanish and English:—

FRENCH.

Grevin’s _Emblemes d’Adrian La 16mo Anvers 1568

Jeune_ _v._

Vander _Theatre ... les 8vo Londres 1568

Noot’s inconueniens et miseres _v._

qui suiuent les mondains

et vicieux, &c._

De _Emblêmes ou devises 4to Lyon 1571

Montenay’s chrestiennes_ _k._

Chartier’s _Les Blasons de vertu par 4to Aureliæ 1574

vertu_ _v._

Droyn’s[62] _La Grand nef des fols du fol. à Lyon 1579

monde_ _c._

Goulart’s _Les Vrais Pourtraits des 4to Genue 1581

Hommes illustres._ _k._

Verdier’s _Les images des anciens 4to Lyon 1581

dieux (par V. Cartari)._ _v._

Anjou _La joyeuse et magnif. fol. à Anvers 1582

entrée de Mons. _k._

Françoys, duc de

Brabant, Anjou, &c., en

ville d’Anvers._

L’Anglois _Discours des hierog. 4to Paris 1583

égyptiens, emblêmes, _k._

&c._

Messin _Emblêmes latins de J.J. 4to Metis 1588

Boissard, avec _c._

l’interpretation

françoise_.

Of these works, Vander Noot’s was translated into English, says Brunet,

(v. c. 1072,) by Henry Bynneman, 1569, and is remarkable for containing

(see _Ath. Cantab._ ii. p. 258) certain poems, termed sonnets, and

epigrams, which Spenser wrote before his sixteenth year. Mademoiselle

Georgette de Montenay was a French lady of noble birth, and dedicated

her 100 Emblems “to the very illustrious and virtuous Princesse, Madame

Jane D’Albret, Queen of Navarre.” Chartier, a painter and engraver,

flourished about 1574; L’Anglois is not mentioned in the _Hieroglyphics_

of Dr. Leemans, nor do I find any notice of Messin.

LATIN.

Schopperus Πανοπλία, _omnium 8vo Francof 1568

illiberalium _v._

mechanicarum, &c._

” _De omnibus illiberalibus 8vo Francof 1574

sive mechanicis _t._

artibus._

Arias _Humanæ salutis monumenta, 4to Antverpiæ 1572

Montanus &c._ _k._

Sanctius _Commentaria in A. Alciati 8vo Lugduni 1573

Emblemata._ _k._

Furmerus _De rerum usu et abusu_ 4to Antverpiæ 1575

_t._

Lonicer, Ph. _Insignia sacræ Cæsareæ, 4to Francof 1579

maj. &c._ _k._

Estienne, _Anthologia gnomica_ 8vo Francof 1579

Henri _k._

Freitag _Mythologia ethica_ 4to Antverpiæ 1579

_t._

Microcosm Μικροκοσμος, _parvus 4to ... 1579

mundus, &c._ _v._

ΜΙΚΡΟΚΟΣΜΟΣ _Parvus Mundus_ 4to Antverpiæ 1592

_k._

Beza _Icones—accedunt 4to Genevæ 1581

emblemata_ _c._

Hesius, G. _Emblemata sacra_ 4to Francof 1581

_v._

Reusner _Emblemata—partim ethica 4to Francof 1581

et physica, &c._ _k._

” _Aureolorum Emblem. liber 8vo Argentor 1591

singularis._ _t._

Lonicer, _Venatus et Aucupium 4to Francof 1582

J.A. Iconibus artif._ _c._

Moherman _Apologi Creaturarum_ 4to Antverpiæ 1584

_t._

Emblemata _Emblemata Evangelica ad fol. ... 1585

XII. signa, &c._ _k._

Bol. _Emblemata Evang. ad. XII. 4to Francof 1585

Signa cœlestia._ _v._

Hortinus _Icones operum, &c._ 4to Romæ 1585

_k._

Modius _Liber—ordinis 8vo Francof 1585

Ecclesiastici origo, _t._

&c._

” _Pandectæ triumphales, fol. Francof 1586

&c._ _k._

Fraunce _Insignium, Armorum, 4to Londini 1588

Emblematum, Hierogl., _t._

&c._

Zuingerus _Icones aliquot clarorum 8vo Basileæ 1589

Virorum, &c._ _t._

Cælius _Emblemata Sacra_ 8vo Romæ 1589

(S.S.) _v._

Hortinus _Emblemata Sacra_ 4to Trajecti 1589

_v._

Camerarius _Symbolorum et Emblematum, 4to Norimberg 1590

&c._ _k._

Arias Montanus, born in Estremadura in 1527, was one of the very eminent

scholars of Spain; Furmerus, a Frieslander, flourished during the latter

half of the sixteenth century, and his work was translated into Dutch by

Coörnhert in 1585; Henri Estienne, one of the celebrated printers of

that name, was born in Paris in 1528, and died at Lyons in 1598; a list

of his works, many of them of high scholarship, occupies eight pages in

Brunet’s _Manuel du Libraire_. The name of Beza is of similar

renown;—both Etienne and he had to seek safety from persecution; and

when Etienne’s effigy was being burnt, he pleasantly said “that he had

never felt so cold as on the day when he was burning.” Laurence

Haechtanus was the author of the _Parvus Mundus_, 1579, which Gerardt de

Jode _den liefhebbers der consten_, the lover of art, has so admirably

adorned. Nicolas Reusner was a man of extensive learning, to whom the

emperor Rudolph II. decreed the poetic crown. Francis Modius was a

Fleming, a learned jurisconsult and Latinist, who died at Aire in

Artois, in 1597, at the age of sixty-one; Theodore Zuinger was a

celebrated physician of Bâle; and Joachim Camerarius, born at Nuremberg

in 1534, also a celebrated physician, one of the first to form a

botanical garden, “attained high reputation in his profession, and was

consulted for princes and persons of rank throughout Germany.”

An edition of a work reputed to be emblematic belongs to this period—to

1587; it is the _Physiologist_, by S. Epiphanius, to whom allusion has

been made at p. 28.

GERMAN.

Stimmer _Neue Kunstliche Figuren 4to Besel 1576

Biblischen, &c._ _t._

Feyrabend _Stam und Wapenbuch_ 4to Franckfurt 1579

_k._

Schrot _Wappenbuch_ 8vo Munich 1581

_k._

Lonicer, J. _Stand und Orden der 4to Francfurt 1585

A. heiligen Römischen _v._

Catholischen Kirchen._

Clamorinus _Thurnier-buch_ 4to Dresden 1590

_k._

Tobias Stimmer was an artist, born at Schaffhausen in 1544, and in

conjunction with his younger brother, John Christopher Stimmer, executed

part of the woodcuts in the Bible of Basle, 1576 and 1586. The younger

brother also prepared the prints for a set of Emblems, _Icones Affabræ_,

published at Strasburg in 1591. Sigismund Feyrabend is a name of great

note as a designer, engraver on wood, and bookseller, at Francfort,

towards the end of the sixteenth century. Who Martin Schrot was, does

not appear from the _Biographie Universelle_; and Clamorinus may

probably be regarded as only the editor of a republication of Rüxner’s

_Book of Tournaments_ that was printed in 1530.

DUTCH OR FLEMISH.

Van Ghelen Flemish translation, ... Anvers 1584

_Navis stultorum._ _v._

Coörnhert _Recht Ghebruyck ende 4to Leyden 1585

Misbruyck van tydlycke _v._

Have._

SPANISH.

Manuel _El conde Lucanor_ 4to Sevilla 1575

(apologues & fables). _v._

Boria _Emprese Morales_ 4to Praga 1581

_k._

Guzman _Triumphas morales_ 8vo Medina 1587

(nueuamente corregidos). _t._

Horozco _Emblemas Morales_ 8vo Segovia 1589

_t._

Don Juan Manuel was a descendant of the famous Alphonso V. His work

consists of forty-nine little tales, with a moral in verse to each. It

is regarded, says the _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxvi. p. 541, “as the finest

monument of Spanish literature in the sixteenth century.” There are

earlier editions of Francisco de Guzman’s _Moral Triumphs_, as at

Antwerp in 1557, but the edition above named claims to be more perfect

than the others. Horozco y Covaruvias was a native of Toledo, and died

in 1608; one of his offices was that of Bishop of Girgenti in Sicily. In

1601 he translated his Emblems into Latin, and printed it under the

title of _Symbolæ Sacræ_.

ENGLISH.

Bynneman’s _Translation of Vander 8vo London 1569

Noot’s Theatre._ _v._

North _The Morall Philosophie of 4to London 1570

Doni_ _v._

Daniell _The worthy tract of 8vo London 1585

Paulus Jovius, &c._ _k._

Whitney _A Choice of Emblemes, 4to Leyden 1586

&c._ _k._

Henry Bynneman, whose name is placed before the version of Vander Noot’s

_Theatre_, is not known with any certainty to have been the translator.

He was a celebrated printer in London from about 1566 to 1583. Sir

Thomas North, to whose translation of Plutarch, Shakespeare was largely

indebted, was probably an ancestor of the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal

under Charles II. Samuel Daniell enjoyed considerable reputation as a

poet, and on Spenser’s death in 1598, was appointed poet-laureate to the

Queen. Of Whitney it is known that he was a scholar of Oxford and of

Cambridge, and that his name appears on the roll of the university of

Leyden. He was a native of Cheshire, and died there in 1601. It may be

added that an edition of Barclay’s _Ship of Fooles_ was in 1570

“Imprinted at London in Paules Churchyarde by John Cawood Printer to the

Queenes Maiestie.”

Thus, in the period between Shakespeare’s birth and his full entry on

his dramatic career, we have named above sixty persons, many of great

eminence, who amused their leisure, or indulged their taste, by

composing books of Emblems; had we named also the editions of the same

authors, within these twenty-five years, they would have amounted to

156, exclusive of many reprints from other authors who wrote Emblems

between A.D. 1500 and A.D. 1564.

II.—Shakespeare’s Dramatic Career comprises another period of

twenty-five years,—from 1590 to 1615. From the necessity of the case,

indeed, few, if any of the Emblem writers and compilers towards the end

of the time could be known to him, and any correspondence between them

in thoughts or expressions must have been purely accidental. For the

completion of our Sketch, however, we proceed to the end of the period

we had marked out. And to save space, and, we hope, to avoid

tediousness, we will continue the tabulated form adopted in the last

Section.

ITALIAN.

Bernardetti _Giornata prima dell’ ... ... about

Imprese_ 1592

_v._

Capaccio _Delle Imprese trattato, 4to Napoli 1594

in tre libri diviso._ _k._

Tasso _Discorsi del Poeme_ 4to Napoli 1594

_k._

Porri _Vaso di verita ... dell’ 4to Venetia 1597

antichristo_ _v._

Dalla Torre _Dialogo_ 4to Trivegi 1598

_k._

Caputi _La Pompa_ 4to Napoli 1599

_k._

Zoppio _La Montagna_ 4to Bologna 1600

_k._

Belloni _Discorso_ 4to Padova 1601

_k._

Chiocci _Delle imprese, e del vero ... ... 1601

modo di formarle._ _v._

Pittoni _Imprese di diversi fol. Venezia 1602

principi, &c._ _v._

(reprint).

Ripa _Iconologia, &c., 4to Roma 1603

Concetti, Emblemi, ed _k._

Imprese._

” ” ” ” 4to Siena 1613

_t._

Vænius _Amorum Emblemata_, in obl. Antverp 1608

Latin, English, and 4to _k.t._

Italian.

Glissenti _Discorsi morali ... 4to Venetia 1609

contra il dispiacer del _v._

morire, &c._

Giulio Cesare Capaccio, besides his Neapolitan History, and one or two

other works, is also the author of _Il Principe_, Venetia, 1620, a

treatise on the Emblems of Alciatus, with more than 200 political and

moral notices. Torquato Tasso is a name that needs no praise here. Of

Alessio Porri I have found no other mention; and I may say the same of

Gio. Dalla Torre, of Ottavio Caputi, and of Gio. Belloni. Melchior

Zoppio, born in 1544 at Bologna (_Biog. Univ._ vol. lii. p. 430), was

one of the founders of the Academia di Gelati, in his native town.

Battisti Pittoni was a painter and engraver, who flourished between 1561

and 1585. The extensive work of Cesare Ripa of Perugia, which has passed

through about twenty editions in Italian, Latin, Dutch, Spanish, German,

and English, is alphabetically arranged, and treats of nearly 800

different subjects, with about 200 devices. Otho van Veen, or Vænius,

belongs to Holland, not to Italy,—and his name appears here simply

because his _Emblems of Love_ were translated into Italian. Fabio

Glissenti in 1609 introduced into his work (Brunet, iii. c. 256, 7)

twenty-four of the plates out of the forty-one which adorned an Italian

edition of the _Images of Death_ in 1545.

FRENCH.

Desprez _Théatre des animaux ... 4to Paris 1595

actions de la vie _v._

humaine._

Boissart _Mascarades recueillies_, 4to ... 1597

Geyn (J. de) Opera. _v._

Emblesmes _Emblesmes sus les 12mo Mildelbourg 1605

Actions—du Segnor _k._

Espagnol._

Hymnes _Hymnes des vertus ... par 8vo Lyon 1605

belles et délicates _v._

figures._

Vænius _Amorum Emblemata_ 4to Antverpiæ 1608

(Latin,Italian, and _v._

French).

Vasseur _Les Devises des Empereurs 8vo Paris 1608

Romains, &c._ _t._

” _Les Devises des Rois de ... Paris 1609

France._ _v._

Valence _Emblesmes sur les 8vo ... 1608

Actions—du Segnor _k._

Espagnol._

Rollenhagen _Les Emblemes ... mis en 4to Coloniæ 1611

vers françois._ _v._

Dinet _Les cinq Livres des 4to Paris 1614

Hiéroglyphiques._ _v._

De Bry _Pourtraict de la 4to Francfort 1614

Cosmographie morale._ _v._

Robert Boissart, a French engraver (Bryan, p. 90) flourished about 1590,

and is said to have resided some time in England. Of Vænius, so well

known, there is no occasion to speak here. Jacques de Vasseur was

archdeacon of Noyon, celebrated as the birth-place of Calvin, and in

1608 also published another work in French verse, _Antithises, ov

Contrepointes du Ciel & de la Terre_. Desprez and Valence are unknown

save by their books of Emblems. Pierre Dinet is very briefly named in

_Biog. Univ._ vol. ii. p. 371; and Rollenhagen and De Bry will be

mentioned presently.

LATIN.

Callia _Emblemata sacra, e libris 32mo Heidelbergæ 1591

Mosis excerpta._ _k._

Borcht _P. Ovidii Nasonis obl. 16mo 1591

Metamorphoses._ Antverpiæ _t._

Stimmer _Icones Affabræ_ ... Strasburg 1591

_v._

Mercerius _Emblemata_ 4to Bourges 1592

_t._

De Bry _Emblemata nobilitate et obl. Francof 1592

vulgo scitu digna._ 4to _v._

” _Emblemata secularia_ 4to ” 1593

_v._

Freitag _Viridiarium Moralis Phil. 4to Coloniæ 1594

per fabulas, &c._ _k._

Taurellius _Emblema physico-ethica, 8vo Norimbergæ 1595

&c._ _k._

Boissard _Theatrum vitæ Humanæ_ 4to Metz 1596

_t._

Franceschino _Hori Apollinis selecta 16mo Romæ 1597

hieroglyphica._ _v._

Le Bey de _Emb. a J. Boissard 4to Francof 1596

Batilly. delineata, &c._ _t. k._

Altorfinæ _Emb. anniversaria 4to Norimbergæ 1597

Academiæ Altorfinæ._ _k.c.t._

David _Virtutis spectaculum_ 4to Francof 1597

_v._

” _Veridicus christianus_ 4to Antverpiæ 1601

_t. k._

David _Occasio arrepta, 4to Antverpiæ 1605

neglecta, &c._ _c. t._

” _Pancarpium Marianum_ 8vo ” 1607

_t._

” _Messis myrrhæ et 8vo ” 1607

aromatum, &c._ _v._

” _Paradisus sponsi et 8vo ” 1607

sponsæ, &c._ _k._

” _Dvodecim Specvla, &c._ 8vo ” 1610

_t. k._

Sadeler, Æg. _Symbola Divina et Humana fol. Prague 1600

Pontif. Imper., &c._ _k._

” _Symb. Div. et. Hum., fol. Francof 1601, 2,

&c.;Isagoge Jac. 3 _k._

Typotii._

Passæus _Metamorphoseωn obl.4to ... 1602

Ouidianarum typi, &c._ _t._

Epidigma _Emblematum Philomilæ 4to ... 1603

Thiloniæ Epidigma._ _v._

Vænius _Horatii Emblemata, 4to Antuerp 1607

imaginibus_ (ciii.) _in _k._

æs incisis._

” _Amorvm Emblemata, Figvris 4to Antuerpiæ 1608

æneis incisa._ _t. k._

” _Amoris Divini Emblemata_ 4to Antuerpiæ 1615

_t._

Pignorius _Vetustissimæ tabulæ æneæ 4to Venetia 1605

sacris Ægyptiorum _v._

simulacris cœlatæ

explicatio._

” _Characteres Ægyptii ... 4to Francofurti 1608

per Jo. Th. et Jo. Isr. _v._

de Bry._

Sadeler, Æg. _Theatrum morum. Artliche 4to Pragæ 1608

gespräch der Thier met

wahren Historien, &c._

Broecmer _Emblemata moralia et 4to Arnhemi 1609

œconomica._ _t._

Aleander _Explicatio antiquæ Fabulæ 4to Romæ 1611

marmoreæ Solis effigie, _k._

symbolisque exsculptæ,

&c._

Rollenhagen _Nvclevs Emblematum 4to Coloniæ 1611–13

selectissimorum._ _c. t._

” ” ” ” 4to Arnhemi 1615

_k._

Hillaire _Specvlvm 4to Traject. 1613

Heroicvm—Homeri—Iliados._ Bat. _c._

À Bruck _Emblemata moralia et 4to Argentinæ 1615

bellica_ _v._

Peter Vander Borcht, born at Brussels about A.D. 1540, engraved numerous

works, and among them 178 prints for this edition of Ovid. The Stimmers

have been mentioned before, p. 90. Jean Mercier, born at Uzès in

Languedoc, wrote the Latin version of the _Hieroglyphics_ of Horapollo,

Paris, 1548,—but probably it was his son Josias whose Emblems are

mentioned under the year 1592, and who dates them from Bruges. Theodore

De Bry, born at Liege in 1528 (Bryan, p. 119), carried on the business

of an engraver and bookseller in Francfort, where he died in 1598. He

was greatly assisted by his sons John Theodore and John Israel. _The

Procession of the Knights of the Garter in 1566_, and that at the

_Funeral of Sir Philip Sidney_, are his workmanship. Nicolas Taurellius

was a student, and afterwards professor of Physic and Medicine in the

University of Altorf in Franconia. An oration of his appears in the

_Emblemata Anniversaria_ of that institution. He was named “the German

Philosopher.” Denis le Bey de Batilly appears to have been royal

president of the Consistory of Metz. John David, born at Courtray in

Flanders, in 1546, entered the Society of the Jesuits, and was rector of

the colleges of Courtray, Brussels, and Ghent; he died in 1613. Ægidius

Sadeler, known as the Phœnix of engravers, was a native of Antwerp, born

in 1570, the nephew and disciple of the two eminent engravers John and

Raphael Sadeler. He enjoyed a pension from three successive emperors,

Rodolphus II., Matthias, and Ferdinand II. Of Crispin de Passe, born at

Utrecht about 1560, Bryan (p. 548) says, “He was a man of letters, and

not only industrious to perfect himself in his art, but fond of

promoting it.” His works were numerous, and have examples in the

Emblem-books of his day. Otho van Veen, of a distinguished family, was

born at Leyden in 1556. After a residence of seven years in Italy, he

established himself at Antwerp, and had the rare claim to celebrity that

Rubens became his disciple. In his Emblem-works the designs were by

himself, but the engravings by his brother Gilbert van Veen. (Bryan, p.

853, 4.) Lawrence Pignorius, born at Padua, 1571, and educated at the

Jesuits’ school and the university of that city, gained a high

reputation by several learned works, and especially by those on Egyptian

antiquities. He died of the plague in 1631. The work of Richard Lubbæus

Broecmer, is little more than a reprint of one by Bernard Furmer, in

1575, _On the Use and Abuse of Wealth_. Jerome Aleander, nephew of one

of Luther’s stoutest opponents, the Cardinal Aleander, was of

considerable literary reputation at Rome, being a member of the society

of Humourists, established in that city,—his death was in 1631.

According to Oetlinger’s brief notice, _Bibliog. Biograph. Univ._,

Gabriel Rollenhagen, of Magdeburg, was a German schoolmaster, born in

1542, and dying in 1609; his _Kernel of Emblems_ is well illustrated by

Crispin de Passe. The same “excellent engraver” adorned _The Mirror of

Heroes_, founded on Homer’s _Iliad_ by “le sieur de la Rivière, Isaac

Hillaire.” Both Latin and French verses are appended to the Emblems, and

at their end are curious “Epitaphs on the Heroes who fell in the Trojan

war,” too late, it is to be feared, to afford any gratification to their

immediate friends. To Jacobus à Bruck, surnamed of Angermunde, a town of

Brandenberg, there belongs another Emblem-book, _Emblemata Politica_,

Cologne, 1618. In it are briefly demonstrated the duties which belong to

princes; it is dedicated “to his most merciful Prince and Lord, the

Emperor Matthias I., ‘semper Augusto.’”

GERMAN.

De Bry _Emblemata 4to Francofurti 1596

Secvlaria—rhythmis _v._

Germanicis, &c._

” ” ” ” 4to Oppenhemii 1611

_t._

Boissard _Shawspiel Menschliches 4to Franckf. 1597

Lebens_ _v._

Sadeler _Theatrum morum. Artliche 4to Praga 1608

gespräch der Thier, &c._ _v._

DUTCH OR FLEMISH.

David _Christelücke_ 4to Antuerp 1603

_k._

Vænius _Zinnebeelden der 4to Amstel. 1603

Wereldtsche Liefde._ _v._

À Ganda _Spiegel van de obl. Amsterod. 1606

doorluchtige,&c., 4to _t._

Vrouwen._

” _Emblemata Amatoria Nova_ obl. Lugd. Bat. 1613

4to _k._

Moerman _De Cleyn Werelt ... 4to Amstelred. 1608

metover schoone _k._

Const-platen._

Ieucht _Den nieuwen Ieucht obl. ... 1610

spieghel ... C. de 4to _t._

Passe._

Embl. Amat. _Afbeeldinghen, &c._ obl. Amsterd. 1611

4to _k._

Gulden _Den Gulden Winckel der 4to Amsterdam 1613

Konstliev ende _k._

Nederlanders

Gestoffeert._

Bellerophon _Bellerophon, of Lust tot 4to Amsterdam 1614

Wysheyd._ _k._

Visscher _Sinnepoppen_ (or Emblem 12mo Amsterdam 1614

Play) _van Roemer _k._

Visscher._

De Bry, Sadeler, David, and Vænius have been mentioned in page 96.

Theocritus à Ganda is known for this work, _The Mirror of virtuous

Women_, for which Jost de Hondt executed the fine copper-plates that

accompany it; and also for _Emblemata Amatoria Nova_, published at

Amsterdam in 1608, and at Leyden in 1613. _The Little World_, by Jan

Moerman, is of the same class with _Le Microcosme_, Lyons, 1562, by

Maurice de Sceve; or with “ΜΙΚΡΟΚΟΣΜΟΣ,” Antwerp, 1584 and 1594, and

which Sir Wm. Stirling-Maxwell attributes to Henricus Costerius of

Antwerp. _The New Mirror of Youth_, 1610; _The Delineations_, 1611; _The

golden Ship of the Art-loving Netherlander finished_, 1613; and

_Bellerophon, or Pleasure of Wisdom_, 1614; are all anonymous. Roemer

van Visscher, born at Amsterdam in 1547 (_Biog. Univ._ vol. xlix. p.

276), is of high celebrity as a Dutch poet,—with Spiegel and Coörnhert,

he was one of the chief restorers of the Dutch language, and an

immediate predecessor of the two illustrious poets of Holland, Cornelius

van Hooft and Josse du Vondel.

SPANISH.

De Soto _Emblemas Moralizadas_ 8vo Madrid 1599

_t. k._

Vænius _Amorum emblemata._ (Latin 4to Antuerpiæ 1608

and Spanish verses). _v._

” _Amoris divini 4to ” 1615

Emb....hispanicè, &c._ _t._

Orozco _Emblemas Morales_ 4to Madrid 1610

_t. k._

Villava _Empresas Espirituales y 4to Baeça 1613

Morales_ _k._

Hernando de Soto was auditor and comptroller for the King of Spain in

his house of Castile. At the end are stanzas of three verses each, in

Latin and Spanish on alternate pages, “to our Lady the Virgin.” Don

Sebastian de Couarrubias Orozco was chaplain to the King of Spain,

schoolmaster and canon of Cuenca, and adviser of the Holy Office. Both

Soto and Orozco dedicate their works to Don Francisco Gomez de Sandoual,

Duke of Lerma. Juan Francisco de Villava dedicates his first Emblem “to

the Holy and General Inquisition of Spain.” Neither of the three names

occurs in the Biographies to which I have access.

ENGLISH.

P. S. _The Heroicall Devises of 8vo London 1591

M. Clavdivs Paradin._ _c._

Wyrley _The true use of Armorie, 4to London 1592

shewed by historic, and _v._

plainly proved by

example._

Willet _Sacrorvm Emblematvm 4to Cambridge 1598

Centvria vna, &c. A _v._

Century of Sacred

Emblems._

Crosse _Crose his Covert, or a MS. About

Prosopopœicall 1600

Treatise._ _c._

Vænius _Amorum Emblemata_ (Latin, 4to Antverpiæ 1608

English, and Italian). _k. t._

Guillim _A Display of Heraldry_ fol. London 1611

_k._

Peacham _Minerva Britanna, or a 4to London 1612

Garden of Heroical _c. t.

Deuises, &c._ k._

Yates, MS. _The Emblems of Alciatus MS. About

in English verse._ 1610

_t._

William Wyrley’s _True use of Arms_, was reprinted in 1853. In _Censura

Lit._, i. p. 313, Samuel Egerton Brydges gives a pleasing account of the

character of Andrew Willet, whom Fuller ranks among England’s worthies

(vol. i. p. 238). Of John Crosse himself, nothing is known, but his MS.

is certainly not later than Elizabeth’s reign, for the royal arms, at p.

33, are of earlier date than the accession of the Stuarts; and the

allusion to the Belgian dames, pp. 2–6, agrees with her times. The work

contains 120 shields and devices, and was lent me by my very steadfast

friend in Emblem lore, Mr. Corser of Stand. At pp. 10 and 37, it is

said,—

“In Troynovant a famous schoole was founde

By famous Citizens; whilome the grounde

Of noble Boone;”—

and

“To traine vp youth in tongues fewe might compare

With Mulcaster, whose fame shall never fade.”

Now it was in 1561 Richard Mulcaster, of King’s College, Cambridge, and

of Christchurch, Oxford, was appointed head master of Merchant-Taylor’s

School in London, then just founded. (Warton, iii. 282.) Thus it is

shown to be very probable that _Crosse his Covert_ may take date not

later than A.D. 1600. It may be added that at the end of the MS. the

figure of Fortune, or Occasion, on a wheel, is almost a fac-simile from

Whitney’s Device, p. 181, which was itself struck from the block (Emb.

121. p. 438) of Plantin’s edition of Alciatus, MDLXXXI. John Guillim’s

work on _Heraldry_ passed through five editions previous to that of

Capt. John Logan, in 1724; the original folio is one of the

book-treasures at Keir. Henry Peacham, _M^r. of Artes_, as he terms

himself, was a native of Leverton in Holland, in the county of Lincoln,

and a student under “the right worshipfull Mr. D. Laifeild,” in Trinity

College, Cambridge. He has dedicated his work “to the Right High and

Mightie Henrie, Eldest Sonne of our Soveraigne Lord the King.”

Singular it is, that except the MS. which belonged to the late Joseph B.

Yates, of Liverpool, there is not known to exist any translation into

English of the once famous _Emblems of Alciatus_. That MS. (see

_Transact. Liverpool L. and P. Society, Nov. 5, 1849_) “appears to be of

the time of James the First.” The Devices are drawn and coloured, and

have considerable resemblance to those in Rapheleng’s edition of

Alciatus, 1608. As a specimen we add the translation of Emblem XXXIII.

p. 39, “Signa fortium.”

“O Saturn’s birde! what cause doth thee incyte

Upon Aristom’s tombe so highe to sitt?

‘As I all other birds excell in mighte—

So doth Aristom, Lords, in strength and witt.

Let fearful Doves on cowards’ tombs take rest—

We Eagles stoute to stoute men give a crest.’”

How pleasant to feel that this Sketch of Emblem-books and their authors,

previous to and during the times of Shakespeare, has been brought to an

end. “Vina coronant,” _fill a bumper_, “let the sparkling glass go

round.”

The difficulty really has been to compress. The materials collected were

most abundant. From curiously or artistically arranged title pages,—from

various dedications,—from devices admirably designed or of wondrous

oddity,—and from the countless collateral subjects among which the

Emblem writers and their commentators disported themselves, the

temptations were so rich to wander off here and there, that it was

necessary continually to remember that it was a veritable sketch I was

engaged on and not a universal history. I lashed myself therefore to the

mast and sailed through a whole sea of syrens, deaf, though they charmed

ever so sweetly to make me sing with them of emperors and kings, of

popes and cardinals, of the learned and the gay, who appeared to believe

that everyone’s literary salvation depended on the contrivance of a

device and the interpretation of an emblem.

Had I known where to refer my readers for a general view of my subject,

either brief or prolix, I should have spared myself the labour of

compiling one. The results are, that, previous to the year 1616, the

Emblem Literature of Europe could claim for its own at least 200

authors, not including translators, and that above 770 editions of

original texts and of versions had issued from the press.[63]

If Shakespeare knew nothing of so wide-spread a literature it is very

wonderful; and more wondrous far, if knowing, he did not inweave some of

the threads into the very texture of his thoughts.

In this Sketch of Emblem writers, it will be perceived, though their

names are seldom heard of except among the antiquaries of letters, that,

as a class, they were men of deep erudition, of considerable natural

power, and of large attainments. To the literature of their age they

were as much ornaments as to the literature of our modern times are the

works, illustrated or otherwise, with which our hours of leisure are

wont to be both amused and instructed. No one who is ignorant of them

can possess a full idea of the intellectual treasures of the more

cultivated nations of Europe about the period of which the works of

Alciatus and of Giovio are the types. We may be learned in its

controversies, well read in its ecclesiastical and political history,

intimate even with the characters and pursuits of its great statesmen

and sovereigns, and strong as well as enlightened in our admiration of

its painters, statuaries, poets, and other artistic celebrities, but we

are not baptized into its perfect spirit unless we know what

entertainment and refreshing there were for men’s minds when serious

studies were intermitted and the weighty cares and business of life for

a while laid aside.

Take up these Emblem writers as great statesmen and victorious

commanders did; read them as did the recluse in his study and the man of

the world at his recreation; search into them as some did for good

morals suitable to the guidance of their lives, and as others did for

snatches of wit and learning fitted to call forth their merriment; and

see, amid divers conceits and many quaintnesses, and not a few inanities

and vanities, how richly the fancy was indulged, and how freely the play

of genius was allowed; and then will you be better prepared to estimate

the whole literature of the nations of that busy, stirring time, when

authorities were questioned that had reigned unchallenged for centuries,

and men’s minds were awakened to all the advantages of learning, and

their tastes formed for admiring the continually varying charms of the

poet’s song and the artist’s skill.

True; those strange turns of thought, those playings upon mere words,

those fanciful dreamings, those huntings up and down of some unfortunate

idea through all possible and impossible doublings and windings, are not

approved either by a purer taste, or by a better-trained judgment. We

have outgrown the customs of those logo-maniacs, or word-worshippers,

whom old Ralph Cudworth, in his _True Intellectual System of the

Universe_, p. 67, seems to have had in view, when he affirms, “that they

could not make a Rational Discourse of anything, though never so small,

but they must stuff it with their Quiddities, Entities, Essences,

Hæcceities, and the like.”

But at the revival of literature, when the ancient learning was devoured

without being digested, and the modern investigations were not always

controlled by sound discretion,—when the child was as a giant, and the

giant disported himself in fantastic gambols,—we must not wonder that

compositions, both prose and poetic, were perpetrated which receive

unhesitatingly from the higher criticism the sentence of condemnation.

But in condemning let not the folly be committed of despising and

undervaluing. We may devotedly love our more advanced civilization, our

finer sensibilities, and our juster estimate of what true taste for the

beautiful demands, and yet we may accord to our leaders and fathers in

learning and refinement the no unworthy commendation, that, with their

means and in their day, they gave a mighty onward movement to those

literary pursuits and pleasures in which the powers of the fancy

heighten the glow of our joy, and the resources of accurate knowledge

bestow an abiding worth upon our intellectual labours.

[Illustration: _Sambucus, 1564._]

-----

Footnote 35:

See Brunet’s _Manuel du Libraire_, vol. v. col. 476–483, and col. 489;

also vol. iv. col. 1343–46.

Footnote 36:

Sold at the Duchess of Portland’s sale in 1789 to Mr. Edwards for

£215,—and at his sale in 1815 to the Duke of Marlborough for £637

15_s._ See Dibdin’s “_Bibliomania_,” ed. 1811, p. 253; and Timperley’s

_Dictionary of Printers and Printing_, ed. 1839, p. 93.

Footnote 37:

One of the earliest and most curious of the Block-books, _Biblia

Pauperum_, has been reproduced in fac-simile by Mr. J. Ph. Berjeau,

from a copy in the British Museum.

Footnote 38:

Mr. Humphreys reads “Pluviam sicut arida tellus;” but in this, as in

two or three other instances in this pl. 2, and p. 40, a botanical

lens will show that the readings are those which I have given. I

desire here to express to him my obligation for the courteous

permission to make use of pl. 2, p. 40, of his work, for a photolith

(see Plate VI.), to illustrate my remarks.

Footnote 39:

To follow out the subject of the _Biblia Pauperum_, or of Block-books

in general, the Reader may consult Sotheby’s _Principia typographica,

The Block-Books_, &c., 3 vols. 4to, London, 1858; Dibdin’s

_Bibliotheca Spenseriana_, 4 vols. London, 1814, 1815; or Berjeau’s

_Biblia Pauperum_, a fac-simile with an historical introduction, 4to:

Trübner, London, 1859.

Footnote 40:

As in Nourry’s Lyons editions of 1509 and 1511, where the title given

is, “~Destructoriũ vitiorum ex similitudinũ creaturarum exemplorũ

appropriatiõe per modum dialogi~,” &c.; lge. 4to, in the Corser

Library, from which we take—~De Sole et Luna~.

[Illustration: _Lyons ed. 1511._]

Footnote 41:

The Title is “APOLOGI CREATVRARVM;” “Vtilia prudenti, imprudenti

futilia. _G. de Jode excu._ 1584.”

Footnote 42:

An English translation, with wood engravings, appeared about the time

of Shakespeare’s birth, it may be a few years earlier:—_The Tryumphes

of Fraunces Petrarche_, “translated out of Italian into English by

Hẽrye Parker knyght, lorde Morley,” sm. 4to.

Footnote 43:

See Brunet’s _Manuel_, iii. c. 85, and i. c. 1860; _Biog.

Universelle_, “Zainer;” Timperley’s _Dictionary of Printers_, p. 197;

and Bryan’s _Dict. of Engravers_, p. 918.

Footnote 44:

Langlois in his _Essai_, pp. 331–340, names thirty-two editions

previous to A.D. 1730.

Footnote 45:

Be lenient, gentle Reader, if you chance to compare the above

translation with the original; for even should you have learned by

heart the two very large 4to volumes of Forcellini’s _Lexicon of all

Latinity_, I believe you will find some nuts you cannot crack in the

Latin verses of Jodocus Badius.

Footnote 46:

For a very good account of Joachim’s supposed works, consult a paper

in _Notes and Queries_, September, 1862, pp. 181–3, by Mr. Jones, the

excellent Librarian of the Chetham Library, Manchester; and for an

account of the man, Aikin’s _General Biography_, v. pp. 478–80.

Footnote 47:

The “~Ehrenpforte~,” or _Triumphal Arch_, about 1515, and the

“~Triumphwagen~,” or _Triumphal Car_, A.D. 1522, both in honour

of Maximilian I., are among the noblest of Durer’s engravings; but the

_Biographie Universelle_, t. 33, p. 582, attributes the engravings in

the “~Tewrdannckh~” to Hans Shaeufflein the younger, who was

born at Nuremberg about 1487; and with this agrees Stanley’s _Dict. of

Engravers_, ed. 1849, p. 705. There are other works by Durer which, it

may be, should be ranked among the Emblematical, as _Apocalypsis cum

Figuris_, Nuremberg, 1498; and _Passio Domini nostri Jesu_, 1509 and

1511. It is, however, now generally agreed that Durer designed, but

did not engrave, on wood. See Stanley, p. 224.

Footnote 48:

Belonging to one of the earlier editions, or else as an Imagination of

the Tablet itself, is a wonderfully curious woodcut, in folio, of

which our Plate 1. _b_ is a smaller fac-simile.

Footnote 49:

The title is rather conjectured than ascertained, for owing, as it is

said, to Alciat’s dissatisfaction with the work, or from some other

cause, he destroyed what copies he could, and not one is now of a

certainty known to exist. For solving the doubt, the Editor of the

Holbein Society of Manchester has just issued a note of inquiry to the

chief libraries of Europe, _Enquête pour découvrir la première Edition

des Emblêmes d’André Alciat, illustre Jurisconsulte Italien_. Milan,

A.D. 1522.

Footnote 50:

A copy was in the possession of the Rev. Thos. Corser, and has passed

through the hands of Dr. Dibdin and Sir Francis Freeling; also another

copy is at Keir, Sir William Stirling Maxwell’s; both in admirable

condition.

Footnote 51:

CLARISSIMI VIRI D. ANDREÆ AL_ciati Emblematum libellus, uigilanter

recognitus, et iã recens per Wolphgangum Hungerum Bauarum, rhythmis

Germanicis uersus._ PARISIIS, _apud Christianum Wechelum, &c., Anno_

M.D.XLII.

Footnote 52:

“OMNIA ANDREÆ ALCIATI V. C. EMBLEMATA. Adiectis commentariis, &c. Per

Clavdivm Minoim Diuionesem. ANTVERPIÆ, Ex officina Christophori

Plantini, Architypographi Regij, M.D.LXXIII.;” also, “Editio tertia

multo locupletior,” M.D.LXXXI.

Footnote 53:

“Emblemata v. Cl. Andreæ Alciati—_notulis extemporarijs Laurentij

Pignorij Patauini. Patauij, apud Pet. Paulum Tozzium_, M.DCXIIX,” sm.

8vo.

Footnote 54:

The Holbein Society of Manchester have just completed, May, 1869, a

Photo-lithographic Reprint of the whole work, with an English

Translation, Notes, &c., by the Editor, Henry Green, M.A.

Footnote 55:

_La tres admirable, &c., entrée du Prince Philipe d’Espaignes—en la

ville d’Anvers, anno 1549._ 4to, Anvers, 1550.

Footnote 56:

North’s translation of Plutarch’s _Lives_, we may remark, was the

great treasury to which Shakespeare often applied in some of his

Historical Dramas; and we may assume that other productions from the

same pen would not be unknown to him.

Footnote 57:

“PETRI COSTALII PEGMA _Cum narrationibus philosophicis_.” 8vo,

LVGDVNI, 1555.

“LE PEGME DE PIERRE COVSTAV auec les Narr. philosophiqves.” 8vo, A

Lyon, M.D.LX.

Footnote 58:

The dates have been added to Menestrier’s list.

Footnote 59:

A friend, Mr. Jan Hendrik Hessells, now of Cambridge, well acquainted

with his native Dutch literature, informs me the “_Spelen van Sinnen_

(Sinnespelen, Zinnespelen) were thus called because allegorical

personifications, _Zinnebeildige personen_ (in old Dutch,

_Sinnekens_), for instance reason, religion, virtue, were introduced.”

They were, in fact, “allegorical plays,” similar to the “Interludes”

of England in former times.

Footnote 60:

As “Wat den mensch aldermeest tot’ conste verwect?”—_What most of all

awakens man to art?_

Footnote 61:

The works to which a _k_ is appended are all in the very choice and

yet most extensive collection of Emblem-books at Keir, made by the

Author of _The Cloister Life of Charles V._, Sir William Stirling

Maxwell, Bart.; _c_, in the Library formed by the Rev. Thomas Corser,

Rector of Stand, near Manchester; _t_, in that of Henry Yates

Thompson, Esq., of Thingwall, near Liverpool. I have had the

opportunity, most kindly given, of examining very many of the

Emblem-works at Keir, and nearly all of those at Stand and Thingwall.

The three collections contained at the time of my examination of them

934, 204, and 248 volumes, in the whole 1386 volumes. Deducting

duplicates, the number of distinct editions in the three libraries is

above 900. Where I have placed a _v_, it denotes that the sources of

information are various, but those sources I possess the means of

verifying. I name these things that it may be seen I have not lightly

nor idly undertaken the sketch which I present in these pages.

Footnote 62:

First printed at Lyons in 1498.

Footnote 63:

Since the above was written I have good reasons for concluding that

the fact is very much understated. I am now employed, as time allows,

in forming an Index to my various notes and references to Emblem

writers and their works: the Index so far made comprises the letters

A, B, C, D (very prolific letters indeed), and they present 330

writers and translators, and above 900 editions.

-----

------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER III.

SHAKESPEARE’S ATTAINMENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES

WITH RESPECT TO THE FINE ARTS.

AMONG some warm admirers of Shakespeare it has not been unusual to

depreciate his learning for the purpose of exalting his genius. It is

thought that intuition and inborn power of mind accomplished for him

what others, less favoured by the inspiration of the all-directing

Wisdom, could scarcely effect by their utmost and life-patient labours.

The worlds of nature and of art were spread before him, and out of the

materials, with perfect ease, he fashioned new creations, calling into

existence forms of beauty and grace, and investing them at will with the

rare attributes of poetic fancy.

On the very surface, however, of Shakespeare’s writings, in the subjects

of his dramas and in the structure of their respective plots, though we

may not find a perfectly accurate scholarship, we have ample evidence

that the choicest literature of his native land, and, through

translations at least, the ample stores of Greece and of Italy were open

to his mind. Whether his scenes be the plains of Troy, the river of

Egypt, the walls of Athens, or the capitol of Rome, his learning is

amply sufficient for the occasion; and though the critic may detect

incongruities and errors,[64] they are probably not greater than those

which many a finished scholar falls into when he ventures to describe

the features of countries and cities which he has not actually visited.

The heroes and heroines of pagan mythology and pagan history, the

veritable actors in ancient times of the world’s great drama,—or the

more unreal characters of fairy land, of the weird sisterhood, and of

the wizard fraternity,—these all stand before us instinct with life.[65]

And from the old legends of Venice, of Padua and Verona,—from the

traditionary lore of England, of Denmark, and of Scotland,—or from the

more truth-like delineations of his strictly historical plays, we may of

a certainty gather, that his reading was of wide extent, and that with a

student’s industry he made it subservient to the illustration and

faithfulness of poetic thought.

Trusting, as we may do in a very high degree, to Douce’s _Illustrations

of Shakspeare and of Ancient Manners_ (2 vols., London, 1807), or to the

still more elaborate and erudite work of Dr. Nathan Drake, _Shakspeare

and his Times_ (2 vols., 4to, London, 1817), we need not hesitate at

resting on Mr. Capel Lofft’s conclusion, that Shakespeare possessed “a

very reasonable portion of Latin; he was not wholly ignorant of Greek;

he had a knowledge of French, so as to read it with ease; and I believe

not less of the Italian. He was habitually conversant with the

chronicles of his country. He lived with wise and highly cultivated men,

with Jonson, Essex, and Southampton, in familiar friendship.” (See

Drake, vol. i. pp. 32, 33, _note_.) And again, “It is not easy, with due

attention to his poems, to doubt of his having acquired, when a boy, no

ordinary facility in the _classic_ language of Rome; though his

knowledge of it might be small, comparatively, to the knowledge of that

great and indefatigable scholar, Ben Jonson.”

Dr. Drake and Mr. Capel Lofft differ in opinion, though not very widely,

as to the extent of Shakespeare’s knowledge of Italian literature. The

latter declares, “My impression is, that Shakespeare was not

unacquainted with the most popular authors in _Italian prose_, and that

his ear had listened to the enchanting tones of _Petrarca_, and some

others of their great poets.” And the former affirms, that “From the

evidence which his genius and his works afford, his acquaintance with

the French and Italian languages was not merely confined to the picking

up _a familiar phrase or two_ from the conversation or writings of

others, but that he had actually commenced, and at an early period too,

the study of these languages, though, from his situation, and the

circumstances of his life, he had neither the means, nor the

opportunity, of cultivating them to any considerable extent.” (See

Drake, vol. i. pp. 54, _note_, and 57, 58.)

Now the Emblem-writers of the sixteenth century, and previously, made

use chiefly of the Latin, Italian, and French languages. Of the

Emblem-books in Spanish, German, Flemish, Dutch, and English, only the

last would be available for Shakespeare’s benefit, except for the

suggestions which the engravings and woodcuts might supply. It is then

well for us to understand that his attainments with respect to language

were sufficient to enable him to study this branch of literature, which

before his day, and in his day, was so widely spread through all the

more civilized countries of Europe. He possessed the mental apparatus

which gave him power, should inclination or fortune lead him there, to

cultivate the _viridiaria_, the pleasant blooming gardens of emblem,

device, and symbol.

Even if he had not been able to read the Emblem writers in their

original languages, undoubtedly he would meet with their works in the

society in which he moved and among the learned of his native land. As

we have seen, he was in familiar friendship with the Earl of Essex. To

that nobleman Willet, in 1598, had dedicated his _Sacred Emblems_. Of

men of Devereux’s stamp, several had become acquainted with the Emblem

Literature. To his rival, Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, Whitney

devoted the _Choice of Emblemes_, 1586; in 1580, Beza had honoured the

young James of Scotland with the foremost place in his _Portraits of

Illustrious Men_, to which a set of Emblems were appended; Sir Philip

Sidney, during his journey on the continent, 1571–1575, became

acquainted with the works of the Italian emblematist, Ruscelli; and as

early as 1549, it was “to the very illustrious Prince James earl of

Arran in Scotland,” that “Barptolemy Aneau” commended his French version

of Alciat’s classic stanzas.

And were it not a fact, as we can show it to be, that Shakespeare quotes

the very mottoes and describes the very drawings which the Emblem-books

contain, we might, from his highly cultivated taste in other respects,

not unreasonably conclude that he must both have known them and have

used them. His information and exquisite judgment extended to works of

highest art,—to sculpture, painting, and music, as well as to

literature. There is, perhaps, no description of statuary extant so

admirable for its truth and beauty as the lines quoted by Drake, p. 617,

from the _Winter’s Tale_,[66] “where Paulina unveils to Leontes the

supposed statue of Hermione.”

“_Paulina._ As she lived peerless,

So her dead likeness, I do well believe,

Excels whatever yet you look’d upon,

Or hand of man hath done; therefore I keep it

Lonely, apart. But here it is: prepare

To see the life as lively mock’d as ever

Still sleep mock’d death: behold, and say ’tis well.

[PAULINA _draws a curtain, and discovers_ HERMIONE

_standing like a statue._

I like your silence, it the more shows off

Your wonder: but yet speak; first, you, my liege.

Comes it not something near?

_Leontes._ Her natural posture!

Chide me, dear stone, that I may say indeed

Thou art Hermione. . . .

O, thus she stood,[67]

Even with such life of majesty, warm life,

As now it coldly stands, when first I woo’d her!

I am ashamed: does not the stone rebuke me

For being more stone than it?

. . . . . .

_Paul._ No longer shall you gaze on’t, lest your fancy

May think anon it moves.

_Leon._ Let be, let be.

Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already—

What was he that did make it? See, my lord,

Would you not deem it breathed? and that those veins

Did verily bear blood?

_Paul._ Masterly done:

The very life seems warm upon her lip.

_Leon._ The fixure of her eye has motion in’t,

As we are mock’d with art. . . .

Still, methinks

There is an air comes from her: what fine chisel

Could ever yet cut breath? Let no man mock me,

For I will kiss her.

_Paul._ Good my lord, forbear:

The ruddiness upon her lip is wet;

You’ll mar it if you kiss it; stain your own

With oily painting. Shall I draw the curtain?

_Leon._ No, not these twenty years.

_Perdita._ So long could I

Stand by, a looker on.”

This exquisite piece of statuary is ascribed by Shakespeare (_Winter’s

Tale_, act v. sc. 2, l. 8, vol. iii. p. 420) to “that rare Italian

master Julio Romano, who, had he himself eternity, and could put breath

into his work, would beguile Nature of her custom, so perfectly is he

her ape: he so near to Hermione hath done Hermione, that they say one

would speak to her, and stand in hope of answer.”

According to Kugler’s “GESCHICHTE DER MALEREI,”—_History of Painting_

(Berlin, 1847, vol. i. p. 641),—Julio Romano was one of the most

renowned of Raphael’s scholars, born about 1492, and dying in 1546.

“Giulio war ein Künstler von rüstigem, lebendig, bewegtem, keckem

Geiste, begabt mit einer Leichtigkeit der Hand, welche den kühnen und

rastlosen Bildern seiner Phantasie überall Leben und Dasein zu geben

wusste.”[68]

His earlier works are to be found at Rome, Genoa, and Dresden. Soon

after Raphael’s death he was employed in Mantua both as an architect and

a painter; and here exist some of his choice productions, as the Hunting

by Diana, the frescoes of the Trojan War, the histories of Psyche, and

other Love-tales of the gods. Pictures by him are scattered over

Europe,—some at Venice, some in the sacristy of St. Peter’s, and in

other places in Rome; some in the Louvre, and some in the different

collections of England,[69] as the Jupiter among the Nymphs and

Corybantes.

Whether any of his works were in England during the reign of Elizabeth,

we cannot affirm positively; but as there were “sixteen by Julio Romano”

in the fine collection of paintings at Whitehall, made, or, rather,

increased by Charles I., of which Henry VIII. had formed the nucleus, it

is very probable there were in England some by that master so early as

the writing of the _Winter’s Tale_, or even before, in which, as we have

seen, he is expressly named. It may therefore be reasonably conjectured

that in the statue of Hermione Shakespeare has accurately described some

figure which he had seen in one of Julio Romano’s paintings.

The same rare appreciation of the beautiful appears in the _Cymbeline_,

act ii. sc. 4, lines 68–74, 81–85, 87–91, vol. ix. pp. 207, 208, where

the poet describes the adornments of Imogen’s chamber:—

“It was hang’d

With tapestry of silk and silver; the story

Proud Cleopatra, when she met her Roman,

And Cydnus swell’d above the banks, or for

The press of boats, or pride: a piece of work

So bravely done, so rich, that it did strive

In workmanship and value. . . . . .

And the chimney-piece

Chaste Dian, bathing:[70] never saw I figures

So likely to report themselves: the cutter

Was as another nature, dumb; outwent her,

Motion and breath left out. . . . . . .

The roof o’ the chamber

With golden cherubins is fretted: her andirons—

I had forgot them—were two winking Cupids

Of silver, each on one foot standing, nicely

Depending on their brands.”

So, in the _Taming of the Shrew_, act ii. sc. 1, lines 338–348, vol.

iii. p. 45, Gremio enumerates the furniture of his house in Padua:—

“First, as you know, my house within the city

Is richly furnished with plate and gold;

Basins and ewers to lave her dainty hands;

My hangings all of Tyrian tapestry;

In ivory coffers I have stuff’d my crowns;

In cypress chests my arras counterpoints,

Costly apparel, tents, and canopies,

Fine linen, Turkey cushions boss’d with pearl,

Valance of Venice gold in needlework,

Pewter and brass and all things that belong

To house or housekeeping.”

And Hamlet, when he contrasts his father and his uncle, act iii. sc. 4,

lines 55–62, vol. viii. p. 111, what a force of artistic skill does he

not display! It is indeed a poet’s description, but it has all the power

and reality of a most finished picture. The very form and features are

presented, as if some limner, a perfect master of his pencil, had

portrayed and coloured them:—

“See what a grace was seated on this brow;

Hyperion’s curls, the front of Jove himself,

An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;

A station like the herald Mercury

New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;

A combination and a form indeed,

Where every god did seem to set his seal

To give the world assurance of a man.”

In the _Merchant of Venice_, too, act iii. sc. 2, lines 115–128, vol.

ii. p. 328, when Bassanio opens the leaden casket and discovers the

portrait of Portia, who but one endowed with a painter’s inspiration

could speak of it as Shakespeare does!—

“Fair Portia’s counterfeit! What demi-god

Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes?

Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,

Seem they in motion? Here are sever’d lips,

Parted with sugar breath: so sweet a bar

Should sunder such sweet friends. Here in her hairs

The painter plays the spider, and hath woven

A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men,

Faster than gnats in cobwebs; but her eyes,—

How could he see to do them? Having made one,

Methinks it should have power to steal both his

And leave itself unfurnish’d.”

Such power of estimating artistic skill authorises the supposition that

Shakespeare himself had made the painter’s art a subject of more than

accidental study; else whence such expressions as those which in the

_Antony_, act ii. sc. 2, lines 201–209, vol. ix. p. 38, are applied to

Cleopatra?—

“For her own person.

It beggar’d all description: she did lie

In her pavilion, cloth-of-gold of tissue,

O’er-picturing that Venus where we see

The fancy outwork nature: on each side her

Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,

With divers-colour’d fans, whose wind did seem

To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,

And what they undid did.”

Or, even when sportively, in _Twelfth Night_, act i. sc. 5, lines

214–230, vol. iii. p. 240, Olivia replies to Viola’s request, “Good

Madam, let me see your face,”—is it not quite in an artist’s or an

amateur’s style that the answer is given? “We will draw the curtain and

show you the picture. Look you, sir, such a one I was this present: is’t

not well done?” [_Unveiling_.

“_Viol._ Excellently done, if God did all.

_Oli._ ’Tis in grain, sir; ’twill endure wind and weather.

_Vio._ ’Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white

Nature’s own sweet and cunning hand laid on:

Lady, you are the cruel’st she alive,

If you will lead these graces to the grave

And leave the world no copy.

_Oli._ O, sir, I will not be so hard-hearted; I will give out divers

schedules of my beauty: it shall be inventoried, and every particle and

utensil labelled to my will: as, item, two lips, indifferent red; item,

two grey eyes, with lids to them; item, one neck, one chin, and so

forth.”

But from certain lines in the _Taming of the Shrew_ (Induction, sc. 2,

lines 47–58), it is evident that Shakespeare had seen either some of the

mythological pictures by Titian, or engravings from them, or from

similar subjects. Born in 1477, and dying in 1576, in his ninety-ninth

year, the great Italian artist was contemporary with a long series of

illustrious men, and his fame and works had shone far beyond their

native sky. Our distant and then but partially civilised England awoke

to a perception of their beauties, and though few—if any—of Titian’s

paintings so early found a domicile in this country, yet pictures were,

we are assured,[71] “a frequent decoration in the rooms of the wealthy.”

Shakespeare even represents the Countess of Auvergne, _1 Henry VI._, act

ii. sc. 3, lines 36, 37, vol. v. p. 33, as saying to Talbot,—

“Long time thy shadow hath been thrall to me,

For in my gallery thy picture hangs.”

The formation of a royal gallery, or collection of paintings, had

engaged the care of Henry VIII.; and the British nobility at the time of

his daughter Elizabeth’s reign, “deeply read in classical learning,

familiar with the literature of Italy, and polished by foreign travel,”

“were well qualified to appreciate and cultivate the true principles of

taste.”

Titian, as is well known, “displayed a singular mastery in the

representation of nude womanly forms, and in this the witchery of his

colouring is manifested with fullest power.”[72] Many instances of this

are to be found in his works. Two are presented by the renowned

Venus-figures at Florence, and by the beautiful Danae at Naples. The

Cambridge gallery contains the Venus in whose form the Princess Eboli is

said to have been portrayed, playing the lute, and having Philip of

Spain seated at her side. In the Bridgewater gallery are two

representations of Diana in the bath,—the one having the story of

Actæon, and the other discovering the guilt of Calisto; and in the

National Gallery are a Bacchus and Ariadne, and also a good copy, from

the original at Madrid, of Venus striving to hold back Adonis from the

chase. To these we may add the Arming of Cupid, in the Borghese palace

at Rome, in which he quietly permits Venus to bind his eyes, while

another Cupid whispering leans on her shoulder, and two Graces bring

forward quivers and bows.

It is to such a School of Painting, or to such a master of his art, that

Shakespeare alludes, when, in the Induction scene to the _Taming of the

Shrew_, Christopher Sly is served and waited on as a lord:—

_Sec. Serv._ Dost thou love pictures? we will fetch thee straight

Adonis painted by a running brook.

And Cytherea all in sedges hid,

Which seem to move and wanton with her breath,

Even as the waving sedges play with wind.

_Lord._ We’ll show thee Io as she was a maid,

And how she was beguiled and surprised,

As lively painted as the deed was done.

_Third Serv._ Or Daphne roaming through a thorny wood,

Scratching her legs that one shall swear she bleeds,

And at that sight shall sad Apollo weep,

So workmanly the blood and tears are drawn.”

Among Shakespeare’s gifts was also the power to appreciate the charms of

melody and song. Their influence he felt, and their effect he most

eloquently describes. He speaks of them with a sweetness, a gentleness,

and force which must have had counterparts in his own nature. As in the

_Midsummer Night’s Dream_, act ii. sc. 1, line 148, vol. ii. p. 215,

when Oberon bids Puck to come to her,—

“Thou rememberest

Since once I sat upon a promontory,

And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin’s back,

Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,

That the rude sea grew civil at her song,

And certain stars shot madly from their spheres

To hear the sea-maid’s music.”

And again, in the _Merchant of Venice_, act v. sc. 1, lines 2 and 54,

vol. ii. p. 360, how exquisite the description!—

“When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees,

And they did make no noise.”

Lorenzo’s discourse to Jessica is such as only a passion-warmed genius

could conceive and utter:—

“How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!

Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music

Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night

Become the touches of sweet harmony.

Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:

There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st

But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;

Such harmony is in immortal souls.”

And Ferdinand, in the _Tempest_, act i. sc. 2, l. 387, vol. i, p. 20,

after listening to Ariel’s song, “Come unto these yellow sands,” thus

testifies to its power:—

“Where should this music be? i’ th’ air, or th’ earth?

It sounds no more: and sure it waits upon

Some god o’ th’ island. Sitting on a bank,

Weeping again the king my father’s wreck,

This music crept by me upon the waters

Allaying both their fury and my passion

With its sweet air: thence have I follow’d it,

Or it hath drawn me rather.”

Thus, from his sufficient command over the requisite languages, from his

diligent reading in the literature of his country, translated as well as

original, from his opportunities of frequent converse with the

cultivated minds of his age, and still more from what we have shown him

to have possessed,—accurate taste and both an intelligent and a warm

appreciation of the principles and beauties of Imitative Art,—we

conclude that Shakespeare found it a study congenial to his spirit and

powers, to examine and apply, what was both popular and learned in its

day,—the illustrations, by the graver’s art and the poet’s pen, of the

proverbial wisdom which constitutes almost the essence of the

Emblematical writers of the sixteenth century. To him, as to others,

their works would be sources of interest and amusement; and even in

hours of idleness many a sentiment would be gathered up to be afterwards

almost unconsciously assimilated for the mind’s nurture and growth.

When we maintain that Shakespeare not unfrequently made use of the

Emblem writers, we do not mean to imply that he was generally a direct

copyist from them. This is seldom the case. But a word, a phrase, or an

allusion, sufficiently demonstrates whence particular thoughts have been

derived, and how they have been coloured and clothed. They have been

gathered as flowers in a country-walk are gathered—one from this

hedge-side, another from that, and a third from among the standing corn,

and others from the margin of some murmuring stream; but all have their

natural beauty heightened by the skill with which they are blended so as

to impart gracefulness to the whole. Flora’s gems they may be, but the

enwoven coronal borrows its chief charm from the artistic power and

fitness with which its parts are arranged: break the thread, or cut the

string with which Genius has bound them together, and they fall into

inextricable confusion—a mass of disorder—no longer a pride and a joy:

but let them remain, as a most excellent skill has placed them, and for

ever could we gaze on their loveliness. A matchless beauty has been

achieved, and all the more do we value it, because upon it there is also

stamped eternal youth.

[Illustration: _Symbola, 1679._]

-----

Footnote 64:

We select an instance common to both Holbein and Shakespeare; it is

pointed out by Woltmann, in his _Holbein and his Time_, vol. ii. p.

23, where, speaking of the Holbein painting, _The Death of Lucretia_,

the writer says,—“The costume is here, as ever, that of Holbein’s own

time. The painter reminds us of Shakespeare, who also conceived the

heroes of classic antiquity in the costume of his own days; in the

_Julius Cæsar_ the troops are drawn up by beat of drum, and Coriolanus

comes forth like an English lord: but the historical signification of

the subject nevertheless does in a degree become understood, which the

later poetry, with every instrument of archæological learning,

troubles itself in vain to reach.”

It may be noted that in other instances both Wornum, the English

biographer of Holbein, and Woltmann, the German, compare Holbein and

Shakespeare, or, rather, illustrate the one by the other.

Footnote 65:

As when Cooper, at the tomb of Shakespeare, describes it,—

“The scene then chang’d from this romantic land,

To a bleak waste by bound’ry unconfin’d,

Where three swart sisters of the weird band

Were mutt’ring curses to the troublous wind.”

Footnote 66:

Act v. sc. 3, lines 14–84, Cambridge edition, vol iii. pp. 422–25.

Footnote 67:

The ivory statue changed into a woman, which Ovid describes,

_Metamorphoses_, bk. x. fab. viii. 12–16, is a description of kindred

excellence to that of Shakespeare:

“Sæpe manus operi tentantes admovet, an sit

Corpus, an illud ebur: nec ebur tamen esse fatetur.

Oscula dat, reddique putat; loquiturque, tenetque;

Et credit tactis digitos insidere membris:

Et metuit, pressos veniat ne livor in artus.”

Footnote 68:

“Julio was an artist of vigorous, lively, active, fearless spirit,

gifted with a lightness of hand which knew how to impart life and

being to the bold and restless images of his fancy.” The same volume,

pp. 641–5, continues the account of Romano.

Footnote 69:

“An important one,” says Kugler, “at Lord Northwick’s, in London.”

Footnote 70:

Two of Titian’s large paintings, now in the Bridgewater Gallery,

represent “Diana and her Nymphs bathing.” (See Kugler, vol. ii. p.

44.)

Footnote 71:

See Drake’s _Shakspeare and his Times_, vol. ii. p. 119.

Footnote 72:

See D. Franz Kugler’s _Handbuch der Geschichte der Malerei_, vol. ii.

pp 44–6.

-----

------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER IV.

THE KNOWLEDGE OF EMBLEM-BOOKS IN BRITAIN, AND GENERAL INDICATIONS THAT SHAKESPEARE WAS ACQUAINTED WITH THEM.

MONUMENTS, or memorial stones, with emblematical figures and characters

carved upon them, are of ancient date in Britain as elsewhere—probably

antecedent even to Christianity itself. Manuscripts, too, ornamented

with many a symbolical device, carry us back several hundred years.

These we may dismiss from consideration at the present moment, and

simply take up printed books devoted chiefly or entirely to Emblems.

I.—Of printed Emblem-books in the earlier time down to 1598, when

Willet’s _Century of Sacred Emblems_ appeared, though there were several

in the English language, there were only few of pure English origin.

Watson and Barclay, in 1509, gave English versions of Sebastian Brant’s

_Fool-freighted Ship_. Not later than 1536, nor earlier than 1517, _The

Dialogue of Creatures moralysed_ was translated “out of latyn in to our

English tonge.” In 1549, at Lyons, _The Images of the Old Testament,

&c._, were “set forthe in Ynglishe and Frenche;” and in 1553, from the

same city, Peter Derendel gave in English metre _The true and lyvely

historyke Portreatures of the woll Bible_.

_The Workes of Sir Thomas More Knyght, sometyme Lorde Chauncellour of

England_, were published in small folio, London, 1557, and in them at

the beginning (signature C ij_v_—C iiij) are inserted what the author

names “nyne pageauntes,” which, as they existed in his father’s house

about A.D. 1496, were certainly Emblems. To this list Sir Thomas North,

in London, 1570, added _The Morall Philosophie of Doni_, “out of

Italien;” Daniell, in 1585, _The worthy Tract of Paulus Jovius_, which

Whitney, in 1586, followed up by _A Choice of Emblemes_, “Englished and

moralized;” and Paradin’s _Heroicall Devises_ were “Translated out of

Latin into English,” London, 1591.

To vindicate something of an English origin for a few emblems at least,

reference may again be made to the fact that about the year 1495 or 6,

“Mayster Thomas More in his youth deuysed in hys fathers house in

London, a goodly hangyng of fyne paynted clothe, with nyne

pageauntes,[73] and verses ouer of euery of those pageauntes: which

verses expressed and declared, what the ymages in those pageauntes

represented: and also in those pageauntes were paynted, the thynges that

the verses ouer them dyd (in effecte) declare.” In 1592, Wyrley

published at London _The true use of Armories, &c._; soon after appeared

Emblems by Thomas Combe, which, however, are no longer known to be in

existence; and then, in 1598, Andrew Willet’s _Sacrorvm Emblematvm

Centvria vna, &c._,—“A Century of Sacred Emblems.” Guillim, in 1611,

supplied _A Display of Heraldry_; and Peacham, in 1612, _A Garden of

Heroical Devices_. There were, too, in MSS., several Emblem-works in

English, some of which have since been edited and made known.

Yet we must not suppose that the knowledge of Emblem-books in Britain

depended on those only of which an English version had been achieved. To

men of culture, the whole series was open in almost its entire extent.

James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, had resided in France, and in 1555, being

high in the favour of Henry II., “was made captain of his Scotch

life-guards.” A few years before, namely, in 1549, as we have mentioned,

p. 108, Aneau’s French translation of Alciat’s _Emblems_ had been

dedicated to him as, “filz de tres noble Prince Jacque Due de Chastel le

herault, Prince Gouverneur du Royaume d’Escoce.”

Among the rare books in the British Museum is Marquale’s Italian Version

of Alciat’s _Emblems_, printed at Lyons in 1549; a copy of it, a very

lovely book, in the original binding, bears on the back the royal crown,

and at the foot the letters “E. VI. R.,”—_Edwardus Sextus Rex_; and, as

he died in 1553, we thus have evidence at how early a date the work was

known in England. To the young king it would doubtless be a book “for

delight and for ornament.”

Of Holbein’s _Imagines Mortis_, Lyons, 1545, by George Æmylius, Luther’s

brother-in-law, a copy now in the British Museum “was presented to

Prince Edward by Dr. William Bill, accompanied with a Latin dedication,

dated from Cambridge, 19th July, 1546, wherein he recommends the

prince’s attention to the figures in the book, in order to remind him

that all must die to obtain immortality; and enlarges on the necessity

of living well. He concludes with a wish that the Lord will long and

happily preserve his life, and that he may finally reign to all eternity

with his _most Christian father_. Bill was appointed one of the king’s

chaplains in ordinary, 1551, and was made the first Dean of Westminster

in the reign of Elizabeth.”—Douce’s _Holbein_, Bohn’s ed., 1858, pp. 93,

94.

In 1548, Mary of Scotland was sent into France for her education (Rapin,

ed. 1724, vol. vi. p. 30), and here imbibed the taste for, or rather

knowledge of, Emblems, which afterwards she put into practice. To her

son, in his fourteenth year, emblems were introduced by no less an

authority than that of Theodore Beza. A copy indeed of the works of

Alciatus was bound for him when he became King of England,—it is a folio

edition, in six volumes or parts, and is still preserved in the British

Museum; the royal arms are on the cover, front and back, and

fleurs-de-lis in the corners. It was printed at Lyons in 1560, and

possibly the Emblems in vol. vi., leaves 334–354, with their very

beautiful devices, may have been the companions of his boyhood and early

years. By the Emblem-works of Beza and of Alciat probably was laid the

foundation of the king’s love for allegorical representations, which,

under the name of masques, were provided by Jonson for the Court’s

amusement. The king’s weakness in this respect is wittily set forth in

the French epigram soon after his death (Rapin’s _History_, 4to, vol.

vii. p. 259):—

“_Tandis qu’ Elisabeth fut Roi,

L’Anglois fut d’Espagne l’effroi;

Maintenant, dévise & caquette,

Régi par la Reine Jaquette_.”[74]

To English noblemen, in 1608, Otho van Veen, from Antwerp, commends his

_Amorum Emblemata_,—“Emblems of the Loves,”—with 124 excellent devices.

Thus the dedication runs: “To the moste honorable and woerthie brothers,

_William_ Earle of _Pembroke_, and _Philip_ Earle of _Mountgomerie_,

patrons of learning and cheualrie.” In England, therefore, as in

Scotland, there were eminent lovers of the Emblem literature.

But an acquaintance with that literature may be regarded as more spread

abroad and increased when Emblem-books became the sources of

ornamentation for articles of household furniture, and for the

embellishment of country mansions. A remarkable instance is supplied

from _The History of Scotland_, edition London, 1655, “By William

Drummond of Hauthornden.” It is in a letter “_To his worthy Friend_

Master Benjamin Johnson,” dated July 1, 1619, respecting some

needle-work by Mary Queen of Scots, and shows how intimately she was

acquainted with several of the Emblem-books of her day, or had herself

attained the art of making devices. The whole letter, except a few lines

at the beginning, is most interesting to the admirers of Emblems.

Drummond thus writes:—

“I have been curious to find out for you the _Impresaes_ and

Emblemes on a Bed of State[75] wrought and embroidered all with gold and

silk by the late Queen _Mary_, mother to our sacred Sovereign, which

will embellish greatly some pages of your Book, and is worthy your

remembrance; the first is the Loadstone turning towards the pole, the

word her Majesties name turned on an Anagram, _Maria Stuart, sa virtu,

m’attire_, which is not much inferiour to _Veritas armata_. This hath

reference to a Crucifix, before which with all her Royall Ornaments she

is humbled on her knees most liuely, with the word, _undique_; an

_Impresa_ of _Mary_ of _Lorrain_, her Mother, a _Phœnix_ in flames, the

word,[76] _en ma fin git mon commencement_. The _Impressa_ of an

Apple-Tree growing in a Thorn, the word, _Per vincula crescit_. The

_Impressa_ of _Henry_ the second, the _French King_, a _Cressant_, the

word, _Donec totum impleat orbem_. The _Impressa_ of King _Francis_ the

first, a _Salamander_ crowned in the midst of Flames, the word,

_Nutrisco et extinguo_. The _Impressa_ of _Godfrey_ of _Bullogne_, an

arrow passing through three birds, the word, _Dederit ne viam Casusve

Deusve_. That of _Mercurius_ charming _Argos_, with his hundred eyes,

expressed by his _Caduceus_, two _Flutes_, and a Peacock, the word,

_Eloquium tot lumina clausit_. Two Women upon the Wheels of Fortune, the

one holding a Lance, the other a _Cornucopia_; which _Impressa_ seemeth

to glaunce at Queen _Elizabeth_ and herself, the word, _Fortunæ

Comites_. The _Impressa of_ the Cardinal of _Lorrain_ her Uncle, a

_Pyramid_ overgrown with ivy, the vulgar word, _Te stante virebo_; a

Ship with her Mast broken and fallen in the Sea, the word, _Nusquam nisi

rectum_. This is for herself and her Son, a Big _Lyon_ and a young Whelp

beside her, the word, _Unum quidem, sed Leonem_. An embleme of a _Lyon_

taken in a Net, and Hares wantonly passing over him, the word, _Et

lepores devicto insultant Leone_. _Cammomel_ in a garden, the word,

_Fructus calcata dat amplos_. A Palm Tree, the word, _Ponderibus virtus

innata resistit_. A Bird in a _Cage_, and a _Hawk_ flying above, with

the word, _Il mal me preme et me spaventa a Peggio_. A triangle with a

Sun in the middle of a Circle, the word, _Trino non convenit orbis_. A

Porcupine amongst Sea Rocks, the word, _Ne volutetur_. The _Impressa_ of

king Henry the eight, a _Portculles_, the word, _altera securitas_. The

_Impressa_ of the Duke of _Savoy_, the annunciation of the Virgin

_Mary_, the word, _Fortitudo ejus_ Rhodum _tenuit_. He had kept the Isle

of _Rhodes_. Flourishes of Armes, as Helms, Launces, Corslets, Pikes,

Muskets, Canons, the word, _Dabit Deus his quoque finem_. A Tree planted

in a Church-yard environed with dead men’s bones, the word, _Pietas

revocabit ab orco_. Ecclipses of the Sun and the Moon, the word, _Ipsa

sibi lumen quod invidet aufert_, glauncing, as may appear, at Queen

_Elizabeth_. _Brennus_ Ballances, a sword cast in to weigh Gold, the

word, _Quid nisi Victis dolor!_ A Vine tree watred with Wine, which

instead to make it spring and grow, maketh it fade, the word, _Mea sic

mihi prosunt_. A wheel rolled from a Mountain in the Sea, the word,

_Piena di dolor voda de Sperenza_. Which appeareth to be her own, and it

should be, _Precipitio senza speranza_. A heap of Wings and Feathers

dispersed, the word, _Magnatum Vicinitas_. A Trophie upon a Tree, with

Mytres, Crowns, Hats, Masks, Swords, Books, and a Woman with a Vail

about her eyes or muffled, pointing to some about her, with this word,

_Ut casus dederit_. Three crowns, two opposite and another above in the

Sea, the word, _Aliamque moratur_. The Sun in an Ecclipse, the word,

_Medio occidet Die_.”

“I omit the Arms of _Scotland_, _England_, and _France_ severally by

themselves, and all quartered in many places of this Bed. The

workmanship is curiously done, and above all value, and truely it may be

of this Piece said, _Materiam superabat opus_.”[77]

It would be tedious to verify, as might be done in nearly every

instance, the original authors of these twenty-nine _Impreses_ and

Emblems. Several of them are in our own Whitney, several in Paradin’s

_Devises heroiques_, and several in _Dialogve des Devises d’armes et

d’amovrs dv S. Pavlo Jovio, &c._, 4to, A Lyon, 1561.

From the last named author we select as specimens two of the Emblems

with which Queen Mary embellished the bed for her son;—the first is “the

_Impressa_ of King _Francis_ the First,” who, as the _Dialogue_, p. 24,

affirms, “_changea la fierté des deuises de guerre en la douceur &

ioyeuseté amoureuse_,”—“And to signify that he was glowing with the

passions of love,—and so pleasing were they to him, that he had the

boldness to say that he found nourishment in them;—for this reason he

chose the Salamander, which dwelling in the flames is not consumed.”

(See woodcut next page.) The second, p. 25, is “the _Impressa_ of

_Henry_ the second, the _French King_,” the son and successor of Francis

in 1547. (See woodcut, p. 127.)

He had adopted the motto and device when he was Dauphin, and continued

to bear them on his succession to the throne;—in the one case to signify

that he could not show his entire worth until he arrived at the heritage

of the kingdom; and in the other that he must recover for his kingdom

what had been lost to it, and so complete its whole orb.

It may appear almost impossible, even on a “Bed of State,” to work

twenty-nine Emblems and the arms of Scotland, England, and France,

“severally by themselves and all quartered in many places of the

bed,”—but a bed, probably of equal antiquity, was a few years since, if

not now, existing at Hinckley in Leicestershire, on which the same

number “of emblematical devices, and Latin mottoes in capital letters

conspicuously introduced,” had found space and to spare. All these

emblems are, I believe, taken from books of Shakespeare’s time, or

before him; as, “An ostrich with a horseshoe in the beak,” the word,

_Spiritus durissima coquit_; “a cross-bow at full stretch,” the word,

_Ingenio superat vires_. “A hand playing with a serpent,” the word,

_Quis contra nos?_ “The tree of life springing from the cross on an

altar,”[78] the word, _Sola vivit in illo_. (See _Gentleman’s Magazine_,

vol. lxxxi. pt. 2, p. 416, Nov. 1811.)

NVTRISCO·ET·EXTINGVO

[Illustration: _Paolo Jovio, 1561._]

DONEC TOTVM IMPLEAT ORBEN

[Illustration: _Paolo Jovio, 1561._]

Of the use of Emblematical devices in the ornamenting of houses, it will

be sufficient to give the instance recorded in “The History and

Antiquities of Hawsted and Hardwick, in the county of Suffolk, by the

Rev. Sir John Cullum, Bart:” the 2nd edition, royal 4to, London, 1813,

pp. 159–165. This History makes it evident that in the reign of James

I., if not earlier, Emblems were so known and admired as to have been

freely employed in adorning a closet for the last Lady Drury. “They mark

the taste of an age that delighted in quaint wit, and laboured conceits

of a thousand kinds,” says Sir John; nevertheless, there were

_forty-one_ of them in “the painted closet” at Hawsted, and which, at

the time of his writing, were put up in a small apartment at Hardwick.

To all of them, as for King James’s bed, and for the “very antient oak

wooden bedstead, much gilt and ornamented,” at Hinckley, there were a

Latin motto and a device. Some of them we now present to the reader,

adding occasionally to our author’s account a further notice of the

sources whence they were taken:

Emblem 1. _Ut parta labuntur_,—“As procured they are slipping away.” “A

monkey, sitting in a window and scattering money into the streets, is

among the emblems of Gabriel Simeon:” it is also in our own English

Whitney, p. 169, with the word, _Malè parta malè delabuntur_,—“Badly

gotten, badly scattered.”

Emblem 5. _Quò tendis?_—“Whither art thou going?” “A human tongue with

bats’ wings, and a scaly contorted tail, mounting into the air,” “is

among the _Heroical Devises of Paradin_:” leaf 65 of edition Anvers,

1562.

Emblem 8. _Jam satis_,—“Already enough.” “Some trees, leafless, and torn

up by the roots; with a confused landscape. Above, the sun, and a

rainbow;” a note adds, “the most faire and bountiful queen of France

Katherine used the sign of the rainbow for her armes, which is an

infallible sign of peaceable calmeness and tranquillitie.”—Paradin.

Paradin’s words, ed. 1562, leaf 38, are “_Madame Catherine,

treschretienne Reine de France, a pour Deuise l’Arc celeste, ou Arc en

ciel: qui est le vrai signe de clere serenité & tranquilité de Paix_.”

Emblem 20. _Dum transis_, _time_,—“While thou art crossing, fear.” “A

pilgrim traversing the earth: with a staff, and a light coloured hat,

with a cockle shell in it.” In _Hamlet_, act iv. sc. 5, l. 23, vol.

viii. p. 129,—

“How should I your true love know

From another one?

By his cockle hat and staff,

And his sandal shoon.”

“Or,” remarks Sir John Cullum, “as he is described in Greene’s _Never

too Late_, 1610;”—

“With _Hat of straw_, like to a swain,

Shelter for the sun and rain,

With scallop-shell before.”

Emblem 24. _Fronte nulla fides_,—“No trustworthiness on the brow.” The

motto with a different device occurs in Whitney’s _Emblems_, p. 100, and

was adopted by him from the Emblems of John Sambucus; edition Antwerp,

1564, p. 177. The device, however, in “the painted closet” was “a man

taking the dimensions of his own forehead with a pair of compasses;” “a

contradiction,” inaptly remarks Sir J. Cullum, “to a fancy of

Aristotle’s that the shape and several other circumstances, relative to

a man’s forehead, are expressive of his temper and inclination.”

POVR CONGNOISTRE

VN HOMME.

FRONS HOMINEM PRAEFERT

[Illustration: _Symeoni, 1561._]

Upon this supposition Symeon,[79] before mentioned, has invented an

Emblem, representing a human head and a hand issuing out of a cloud, and

pointing to it, with this motto, _Frons hominem præfert_,—“The forehead

shows the man.”

Emblem 33. _Speravi et perii_,—“I hoped and perished;”—the device, “A

bird thrusting its head into an oyster partly open.” A very similar

sentiment is rather differently expressed by Whitney, p. 128, by

Freitag, p. 169, and by Alciat, edition Paris, 1602, emb. 94, p. 437,

from whom it was borrowed. Here the device is a mouse invading the

domicile of an oyster, the motto, _Captivus ob gulam_,—“A prisoner

through gluttony;” and the poor little mouse—

“That longe did feede on daintie crommes,

And safelie search’d the cupborde and the shelfe:

At lengthe for chaunge, vnto an Oyster commes,

Where of his deathe, he guiltie was him selfe:

The Oyster gap’d, the Mouse put in his head,

Where he was catch’d, and crush’d till he was dead.”

Now, since so many Emblems from various authors were gathered to adorn a

royal bed,[80] “a very antient oak wooden bed,” and “a lady’s closet,”

in widely distant parts of Britain, the supposition is most reasonable

that the knowledge of them pervaded the cultivated and literary society

of England and Scotland; and that Shakespeare, as a member of such

society, would also be acquainted with them. The facts themselves are

testimonies of a generally diffused judgment and taste, by which

Emblematic devices for ornaments would be understood and appreciated.

And the facts we have mentioned are not solitary. About the period in

question, in various mansions of the two kingdoms, Device and Emblem

were employed for their adorning. In 1619, close upon Shakespeare’s

time, and most likely influenced by his writings, there was set up in

the Ancient Hall of the Leycesters of Lower Tabley, Cheshire, a richly

carved and very curious chimney-piece, which may be briefly described as

emblematizing country pursuits in connection with those of heraldry,

literature, and the drama. In high relief, on one of the upright slabs,

is a Lucrece, as the poet represents the deed, line 1723,—

“Even here she sheathed in her harmless breast

A harmful knife, that thence her soul unsheathed.”

On the other slab is a Cleopatra, with the deadly creature in her hand,

though not at the very moment when she addressed the asp;—act. v. sc. 2,

l. 305, vol. ix. p. 151,—

“Peace, peace!

Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,

That sucks the nurse asleep?”

The cross slab represents the hunting of stag and hare, which with the

hounds have wonderfully human faces. Here might the words of Titus

Andronicus, act. ii. sc. 2, l. 1, vol. vii. p. 456, be applied,—

“The hunt is up, the moon is bright and gray,

The fields are fragrant, and the woods are green;

Uncouple here, and let us make a bay,

And wake the emperor and his lovely bride,

And rouse the prince, and ring a hunter’s peal

That all the court may echo with the noise.”

The heraldic insignia of the Leycesters surmount the whole, but just

below them, in a large medallion, is an undeniable Emblem, similar to

one which in 1624 appeared in Hermann Hugo’s _Pia Desideria_, bk. i.

emb. xv. p. 117; _Defecit in dolore vita mea et anni mei in gemitibus_

(_Psal._ xxx. or rather _Psal._ xxxi. 10),—“My life is spent with grief,

and my years with sighing.” Appended to Hugo’s device are seventy-six

lines of Latin elegiac verses, and five pages of illustrative quotations

from the Fathers; but the character of the Emblem will be seen from the

device presented.

Drayton in his _Barons’ Wars_, bk. vi., published in 1598, shows how the

knowledge of our subject had spread and was spreading; as when he says

of certain ornaments,—

“About the border, in a curious fret,

Emblems, impressas, hieroglyphics set.”

There is, however, no occasion to pursue any further this branch of our

theme, except it may be by a short continuation or extension of our

Period of time, to show how Milton’s greater Epic most curiously

corresponds with the title-page of a Dutch Emblem-book, which appeared

in 1642, several years before _Paradise Lost_ was written. (See Plate

X.) The book is, _Jan Vander Veens Zinne-beelden, oft Adams

Appel_,—“John Vander Veen’s Emblems, or Adam’s Apple,”—presenting some

Dutch doggerel lines, of which this English doggerel contains the

meaning,—

“When wounded Adam lay from the sin and the fall,

Out of the accursed wound flowed corruption and gall;

Hence is all wickedness and evil bred,

As here in print ye see the Devil fashioned.”

And again,—

“Out of Adam’s Apple springs

Misery, Sin, and deadly things.”

Singularly like to Milton’s Introduction (bk. i. lines 1–4),—

“Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit

Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste

Brought death into the world, and all our woe,

With loss of Eden.”

_Plate 10_

IAN VANDER VEENS

ZINNE-BEELDEN,

OFT

ADAMS APPEL.

Verciert met ſeer aerdige Conſt-Plaeten

Meſgaders

Syne oude ende nieuwe ongemeene Bruyde-lofs ende Zege-zangen.

t’AMSTERDAM

BY EVERHARD CLOPPENBURGH, Boeck vercooper op’t Water 1642

[Illustration: _Title of “Adam’s Appel” Vander Veen 1642_]

_Plate 11_

_Lapsus diaboli._

CAP. III.

_LAPSVS SATANÆ._

_Cœlestes Genios perfecta luce creatos

Peccatum horrendo perdidit exitio.

Sub Phlegethonte Satan Cocyti mergitur undis:

Pœna eadem reliquis addita dœmonibus._

[Illustration: _Fall of Satan from Boissard’s “Theatrum Vitæ Humanæ,”

1596_]

With equal singularity appears in Boissard’s _Theatrum Vitæ

Humanæ_,—“Theatre of Human Life,”—edition Metz, 1596, p. 19, the

coincidence with Milton’s Fall of the rebel Angels. We have here

pictured and described the Fall of Satan (see Plate XI.) almost as in

modern days Turner depicted it, and as Milton has narrated the terrible

overthrow (_Paradise Lost_, bk. vi.), when they were pursued

“With terrors, and with furies, to the bounds

And crystal wall of heaven; which, opening wide,

Roll’d inward, and a spacious gap disclosed

Into the wasteful deep: the monstrous sight

Struck them with horror backward, but far worse

Urged them behind: headlong themselves they threw

Down from the verge of heaven....

Nine days they fell: confounded Chaos roar’d,

And felt tenfold confusion in their fall

Through his wild anarchy.”[81]

That same _Theatre of Human Life_, p. 1 (see Plate XIV.), also contains

a most apt picture of Shakespeare’s lines, _As You Like It_, act. ii.

sc. 7, l. 139, vol. ii. p. 409,—

“All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages.”

The same notion is repeated in the _Merchant of Venice_, act. i. sc. 1,

l. 77, vol. ii. p. 281, when Antonio says,—

“I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano;

A stage where every man must play a part,

And mine a sad one.”

In England, as elsewhere, emblematical carvings and writings preceded

books of Emblems, that is, books in which the art of

the engraver and the genius of the poet were both employed to illustrate

one and the same motto, sentiment, or proverbial saying. Not to repeat

what may be found in Chaucer and others, Spenser’s _Visions of

Bellay_,[82] alluded to in the fac-simile reprint of Whitney, pp. xvi &

xvii, needed only the designer and engraver to make them as perfectly

Emblem-books as were the publications of Brant, Alciatus and Perriere.

Those visions portray in words what an artist might express by a

picture. For example, in Moxon’s edition, 1845, p. 438, iv.,—

“I saw raisde vp on pillers of Iuorie,

Wereof the bases were of richest golde,

The chapters Alabaster, Christall frises,

The double front of a triumphall arke.

On eche side portraide was a Victorie,

With golden wings, in habite of a nymph

And set on hie vpon triumphing chaire;

The auncient glorie of the Romane lordes.

The worke did shew it selfe not wrought by man,

But rather made by his owne skilfull hands

That forgeth thunder dartes for Ioue his sire.

Let me no more see faire thing vnder heauen,

Sith I haue seene so faire a thing as this,

With sodaine falling broken all to dust.”

Now what artist’s skill would not suffice from this description to

delineate “the pillers of Iuorie,” “the chapters of Alabaster,” “a

Victorie with golden wings,” and “the triumphing chaire, the auncient

glorie of the Romane lordes;” and to make the whole a lively and most

cunning Emblem?

FEBRVARIE.

[Illustration: _Spenser, 1616._]

In his _Shepheards Calender_, indeed, to each of the months Spenser

appends what he names an “Emblem;” it is a motto, or device, from Greek,

Latin, Italian, French, or English, expressive of the supposed leading

idea of each Eclogue, and forming a moral to it. The folio edition of

Spenser’s works, issued in 1616, gives woodcuts for each month, and so

approaches very closely to the Emblematists of a former century. In the

month “FEBRVARIE,” there is introduced a veritable word-picture of “the

Oake and the Brier,” and also a pictorial illustration, with the sign of

the Fishes in the clouds, to indicate the season of the year. The oak is

described as “broughten to miserie:” l. 213,—

“For nought mought they quitten him from decay,

For fiercely the goodman at him did laye.

The blocke oft groned under the blow,

And sighed to see his neere overthrow.

In fine, the steele had pierced his pith,

Tho downe to the earth hee fell forthwith.”

The Brier, “puffed up with pryde,” has his turn of adversity: l. 234,—

“That nowe upright hee can stand no more;

And, being downe, is trod in the durt

Of cattel, and brouzed, and sorely hurt.”

The whole Eclogue, or Fable, is rounded off by the curious Italian

proverbs, to which Spenser gives the name of Emblems,—

THENOTS EMBLEME.

“Iddio, perche é vecchio,

Fa suoi al suo essempio.”

CUDDIES EMBLEME.

“Niuno vecchio

Spaventa Iddio.”

_i.e._, “God, although he is very aged, makes his friends copies of

himself,” makes them aged too; but the biting satire is added. “No old

man is ever terrified by Jove.”

IVNE

[Illustration: _Spenser, 1616._]

The Emblem for June represents a scene which the poet does not describe;

it is the field of the haymakers, with the zodiacal sign of the Crab,

and appropriate to the characters of Hobbinoll and Colin Clout,— but it

certainly does not translate into pictures what the poet had delineated

in words of great beauty:

“Lo! Colin, here the place whose plesaunt syte

From other shades hath weaned my wandring minde,

Tell mee, what wants mee here to worke delyte?

The simple ayre, the gentle warbling winde,

So calme, so coole, as nowhere else I finde;

The grassie grounde with daintie daysies dight,

The bramble bush, where byrdes of every kinde

To the waters fall their tunes attemper right.”

No more needs be said respecting the knowledge of Emblem-books in

Britain, unless it be to give the remarks of Tod, the learned editor of

Spenser’s works, edition 1845, p. x. “_The Visions_ are little things,

done probably when Spenser was _young_, according to the taste of the

times for Emblems.[83] The _Theatre of Wordlings_, I must add, evidently

presents a series of Emblems.”

II. We will now state some of the general indications that Shakespeare

was acquainted with Emblem-books, or at least had imbibed “the taste of

the times.”

Here and there in Shakespeare’s works, even from the way in which

sayings and mottoes, in Spanish, as well as in French and Latin, are

employed, we have indications that he had seen and, it may be, had

studied some of the Emblem-writers of his day, and participated of their

spirit. Thus Falstaff’s friend, the ancient Pistol, _2 Henry IV._ act.

ii. sc. 4, l. 165, vol. iv. p. 405, quotes the doggerel line, as given

in the note, _Si fortuna me tormenta, il sperare me contenta_,—“If

fortune torments me, hope contents me,”—which doubtless was the motto on

his sword, which he immediately lays down. As quoted, the line is

Spanish; a slight alteration would make it Italian; but Douce’s

conjecture appears well founded, that as Pistol was preparing to lay

aside his sword, he read off the motto which was upon it. Such mottoes

were common as inscriptions upon swords; and Douce, vol. i. pp. 452, 3,

gives the drawing of one with the French line, “Si fortune me tourmente,

L’esperance me contente.”

[Illustration: _Douce, 1807._]

He gives it, too, as a fact, that “Haniball Gonsaga being in the

low-countries overthrowne from his horse by an English captaine and

commanded to yeeld himselfe prisoner, _kist his sword_, and gave it to

the Englishman, saying, ‘_Si fortuna me tormenta, il speranza me

contenta_.’” Allow that Shakespeare served in the Netherlands, and we

may readily suppose that he had heard the motto from the very Englishman

to whom Gonsaga had surrendered.

The Clown in _Twelfth Night_, act. i. sc. 5, l. 50, vol. iii. p. 234,

replies to the Lady Olivia ordering him as a fool to be taken

away,—“Misprision in the highest degree! Lady, _cucullus non facit

monachum_, [—it is not the hood that makes the monk,]—that’s as much to

say as I wear not motley in my brain.” The saying is one which might

appropriately adorn any Emblem-book of the day;—and the motley-wear

receives a good illustration from a corresponding expression in Whitney,

p. 81:

“The little childe, is pleas’de with cockhorse gaie,

Although he aske a courser of the beste:

The ideot likes, with bables for to plaie,

And is disgrac’de when he is brauelie dreste:

A motley coate, a cockescombe, or a bell,

Hee better likes, than Jewelles that excell.”

So, during Cade’s rebellion, when the phrase is applied by Lord Say, in

answer to Dick the butcher’s question, “What say you of Kent?” _2 Henry

VI._ act. iv. sc. 7, l. 49, vol. v. p. 197,—

“Nothing but this: ’Tis _bona terra, mala gens_;”

or when falling under the attack of York on the field of St. Alban’s,

Lord Clifford exclaims, _La fin couronne les œuvres_ (_2 Henry VI._ act.

v. sc. 2, l. 28, vol. v. p. 217); these again are instances after the

methods of Emblem-writers; and if they were carried out, as might be

done, would present all the characteristics of the Emblem, in motto,

illustrative woodcut, and descriptive verses.

It is but an allusion, and yet the opening scene, act. i. sc. 1, l. 50,

vol. ii. p. 280, of the _Merchant of Venice_ might borrow that allusion

from an expression of Alciatus, edition Antwerp, 1581, p. 92, _Jane

bifrons_,—“two-headed Janus.” (See woodcut, p. 140.)

IANE _bifrons, qui iam transacta futuraq̃ calles,

Quiq̃ retro sannas, sicut & ante, vides_;—

“Janus two-fronted, who things past and future well knowest,

And who mockings behind, as also before dost behold.”[84]

The friends of Antonio banter him for his sadness, and one of them

avers,—

“Now by two-headed Janus,

Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time:

Some that will evermore peep through their eyes,

And laugh like parrots at a bag-piper;

And other of such vinegar aspect

That they’ll not show their teeth in way of smile,

Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.”

[Illustration: _Alciat, 1581._]

Even if Shakespeare understood no Latin, the picture itself, or a

similar one, would be sufficient to give origin to the phrase

“two-headed Janus.” He adopts the picture, but not one of the

sentiments; these, however, he did not need: it was only as a passing

illustration that he named Janus, and how the author described the god’s

qualities was no part of his purpose.

Or if the source of the phrase be not in Alciatus, it may have been

derived either from Whitney’s _Choice of Emblemes_, p. 108, or from

Perriere’s _Theatre des Bons Engins_, Paris, 1539, emb. i., reproduced

in 1866 to illustrate pl. 30 of the fac-simile reprint of Whitney.

Perriere’s French stanza is to this effect:—

“In old times the god Janus with two faces

Our ancients did delineate and portray,

To demonstrate that counsels of wise races

Look to a future, as well as the past day;

In fact all time of deeds should leave the traces,

And of the past recordance ever have;

The future should foresee like providence,

Following up virtue in each noble quality,

Seeking God’s strength from sinfulness to save.

Who thus shall do will learn by evidence

That he has power to live in great tranquillity.”[85]

Another instance of Emblem-like delineation, or description, we have in

_King Henry V._ act iii. sc. 7, lines 10–17, vol. iv. p. 549. Louis the

Dauphin, praising his own horse, as if bounding from the earth like a

tennis ball (see woodcut on next page), exclaims,—

“I will not change my horse with any that treads but on four

pasterns. Ça, ha! he bounds from the earth, as if his entrails were

hairs; le cheval volant, the Pegasus, chez les narines de feu! When I

bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth sings

when he touches it; the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the

pipe of Hermes.[86]

_Orl._ He’s of the colour of the nutmeg.

_Dau._ And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for Perseus: he is

pure air and fire; and the dull elements of earth and water never appear

in him, but only in patient stillness, while his rider mounts him: he is

indeed a horse; and all other jades you may call beasts.

_Con._ Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and excellent horse.

_Dau._ It is the prince of palfreys; his neigh is like the bidding of

a monarch, and his countenance enforces homage.”

[Illustration: _Bocchius, 1555._]

This lively description suits well the device of a Paris printer,

Christian Wechel, who, in 1540,[87] dwelt “a l’enseigne du Cheval

volant;” or that of Claude Marnius of Francfort, who, before 1602, had a

similar trade-mark. At least three of Reusner’s _Emblems_, edition

Francfort, 1581, have the same device; and the Dauphin’s paragon answers

exactly to a Pegasus in the first Emblem, dedicated to Rudolph II., who,

on the death of his father, Maximilian, became Emperor of Germany.

ΣΥΝ ΔΥΩ ΕΡΧΟΜΕΝΩ.

Non abſque Theſeo.

_EMBLEMA I._

[Illustration: _Reusner_, 1581.]

_Ad Diuum Rudolphum Secundum_

_Cæſarem Romanum._

Here[88] we have a Pegasus like that which Shakespeare praises; it has a

warrior on its back, and bounds along, trotting the air. In other two of

Reusner’s _Emblems_, the Winged Horse is standing on the ground, with

Perseus near him; and in a third, entitled _Principis boni

imago_,—“Portrait of a good prince,”—St. George is represented on a

flying steed[89] attacking the Dragon, and delivering from its fury the

Maiden chained to a rock, that shadows forth a suffering and persecuted

church. Shakespeare probably had seen these or similar drawings before

he described Louis the Dauphin riding on a charger that had nostrils of

fire.

The qualities of good horsemanship Shakespeare specially admired. Hence

those lines in _Hamlet_, act iv. sc. 7, l. 84, vol. viii. p. 145,—

“I’ve seen myself, and served against, the French,

And they can well on horseback: but this gallant

Had witchcraft in’t; he grew unto his seat,

And to such wondrous doing brought his horse,

As he had been incorpsed and demi-natured

With the brave beast.”

An emblem in Alciatus, edition 1551, p. 20, also gives the mounted

warrior on the winged horse;—it is Bellerophon in his contest with the

Chimæra. The accompanying stanza has in it an expression like one which

the dramatist uses,—

“Sic tu Pegaseis vectus petis æthera pennis,”—

“So thou being borne on the wings of Pegasus seekest the air.”

Equally tasting of the Emblem-writers of Henry’s and Elizabeth’s reigns

is that other proverb in French which Shakespeare places in the mouth of

the Dauphin Louis. The subject is still his “paragon of animals,” which

he prefers even to his mistress. See _Henry V._ act iii. sc. 7, l. 54,

vol iv. p. 550. “I had rather,” he says, “have my horse to my mistress;”

and the Constable replies, “I had as lief have my mistress a jade.”

“_Dau._ I tell thee, constable, my mistress wears his own hair.

_Con._ I could make as true a boast as that, if I had a sow to my

mistress.

_Dau._ Le chien est retourné à son propre vomissement, et la truie

lavée au bourbier. Thou makest use of anything.” [“The dog has returned

to his vomit, and the sow that had been washed, to her mire.”]

Though the French is almost a literal rendering of the Latin Vulgate, _2

Pet._ ii. 23, “Canis reversus ad suum vomitum: & sus lota in volutabro

luti;” the whole conception is in the spirit of Freitag’s _Mythologia

Ethica_, Antwerp, 1579, in which there is appended to each emblem a text

of Scripture. A subject is chosen, a description of it given, an

engraving placed on the opposite page, and at the foot some passage from

the Latin vulgate is applied.

It may indeed be objected that, if Shakespeare was well acquainted with

the Emblem literature it is surprising he should pass over, almost in

silence, some Devices which partake peculiarly of his general spirit,

and which would furnish suggestions for very forcible and very

appropriate descriptions. Were we to examine his works thoroughly, we

should discover some very remarkable omissions of subjects that appear

to be exactly after his own method and perfectly natural to certain

parts of his dramas. We may instance the almost total want of

commendation for the moral qualities of the dog, whether “mastiff,

greyhound, mongrel grim, hound or spaniel, brach or lym, or bob-tail

tike, or trundle-tail.” The whole race is under a ban.

[Illustration: _Perriere, 1539._]

So industry, diligence, with their attendant advantages,—negligence,

idleness, with their disadvantages, are scarcely alluded to, and but

incidentally praised or blamed.

We may take one of Perriere’s Emblems, the 101st of _Les Bons Engins_,

as our example, to show rather divergence than agreement,—or, at any

rate, a different way of treating the subject.

“En ce pourtraict pouuez veoir diligence,

Tenant en main le cornet de copie:

Elle triumph[e/] en grand magnificence:

Car de paress[e/] one ne fut assoupie:

Dessoubz ses piedz tiẽt famin[e/] acroupie

Et attaché[e/] en grand captiuité:

Puis les formys par leur hastiuité

Diligemment tirent le tout ensemble:

Pour demonstrer qu’ auec oysiuité,

Impossibl[e/] est que grãdz biẽs l’õ assẽble.”

“A portrait here you see of diligence

Bearing in hand full plenty’s horn,

Triumphant in her great magnificence,

And ever holding laziness in scorn;

Crouching beneath her feet famine forlorn

In fetters bound of strong captivity.

And then the ants with their activity

The whole most diligently along do draw,—

A demonstration clear that idleness

Finds it impossible by nature’s law

With stores of goods her poverty to bless.”

Under the motto, _Otiosi semper egentes_,—“The idle always

destitute,”—Whitney, p. 175, describes the same conditions,—

“HERE, Idlenes doth weepe amid her wantes,

Neare famished: whome, labour whippes for Ire:

Here, labour sittes in chariot drawen with antes:

And dothe abounde with all he can desire.

The grashopper, the toyling ante derides,

In Sommers heate, cause she for coulde prouides.”

The idea is in some degree approached in the Chorus of _Henry V._ act i.

l. 5, vol. iv. p. 491,—

“Then should the warlike Harry, like himself

Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,

Leash’d in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire

Crouch for employment.”

The triumph of industry may also be inferred from the marriage blessing

which Ceres pronounces in the Masque of the _Tempest_, act iv. sc. 1, l.

110, vol. i. p. 57,—

“Earth’s increase, foison plenty,

Barns and garners never empty;

Vines with clustering bunches growing;

Plants with goodly burthen bowing;

Spring come to you at the farthest

In the very end of harvest!

Scarcity and want shall shun you,

Ceres’ blessing so is on you.”

Yet for labour, work, industry, diligence, or by whatever other name the

virtue of steady exertion may be known, there is scarcely a word of

praise in Shakespeare’s abundant vocabulary, and of its effects no clear

description. We are told in _Cymbeline_, act iii. sc. 6, l. 31, vol. ix.

p. 240,—

“The sweat of industry would dry and die,

But for the end it works to.... Weariness

Can snore upon the flint, when resty sloth

Finds the down pillow hard.”

And in contrasting the cares of royalty with the sound sleep of the

slave, Henry V. (act iv. sc. 1, l. 256, vol iv. p. 564) declares that

the slave,—

“Never sees horrid night, the child of hell;

But like a lacquey, from the rise to set,

Sweats in the eye of Phœbus, and all night

Sleeps in Elysium; next day, after dawn,

Doth rise, and help Hyperion to his horse;

And follow so the ever running year

With profitable labour to his grave;”

but the subject is never entered upon in its moral and social aspects,

unless the evils which are ascribed by the Duke of Burgundy (_Henry V._

act v. sc. 2, l. 48, vol. iv. p. 596) to war, are also to be attributed

to the negligence which war creates,—

“The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth

The freckled cowslip, burnet and green clover,

Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,

Conceives by idleness; and nothing teems

But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs,

Losing both beauty and utility.”

Another instance we may give of that Emblem spirit, which often occurs

in Shakespeare, and at the same time we may supply an example of

Freitag’s method of illustrating a subject, and of appending to it a

scriptural quotation. (See _Mythologia Ethica_, Antwerp, 1579, p. 29.)

The instance is from _King Lear_, act ii. sc. 4, l. 61, vol. viii. p.

317, and the subject, _Contraria industriæ ac desidiæ præmia_—“The

opposite rewards of industry and slothfulness.”

When Lear had arrived at the Earl of Gloster’s castle, Kent inquires,—

“How chance the king comes with so small a train?

_Fool._ An thou hadst been set i’ the stocks for that question, thou

hadst well deserv’d it.

_Gent._ Why, fool?

_Fool._ We’ll set thee to school to an ant to teach thee there’s no

labouring in the winter.”

That school we have presented to us in Freitag’s engraving (see woodcut

on next page), and in the stanzas of Whitney, p. 159. There are the

ne’er-do-well grasshopper and the sage schoolmaster of an ant,

propounding, we may suppose, the wise saying, _Dum ætatis ver agitur:

consule brumæ_,—“While the spring of life is passing, consult for

winter,”—and the poet moralizes thus:

“IN winter coulde, when tree, and bushe, was bare,

And frost had nip’d the rootes of tender grasse:

The antes, with ioye did feede vpon their fare,

Which they had stor’de, while sommers season was:

To whome, for foode the grashopper did crie,

And said she staru’d, if they did helpe denie.

Whereat, an ante, with longe experience wise?

And frost, and snowe, had manie winters seene:

Inquired, what in sommer was her guise.

Quoth she, I songe, and hop’t in meadowes greene:

Then quoth the ante, content thee with thy chaunce,

For to thy songe, nowe art thou light to daunce?”

Contraria induſtriae ac deſidiæ præmia.

[Illustration: _Freitag_, 1579.]

_Propter frigus piger arare noluit: mendicabit ergo æſtate, & non

dabitur illi._

_Prouerb. 20, 4._

“The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall

he beg in harvest, and have nothing.”

Freitag’s representation makes indeed a change in the season at which

the “ante, with longe experience wise,” administers her reproof; but it

is equally the school for learning in the time of youth and strength, to

provide for the infirmities of age and the adversities of fortune.

And more than similar in spirit to the Emblem writers which preceded,

almost emblems themselves, are the whole scenes from the _Merchant of

Venice_, act ii. sc. 7 and 9, and act iii. sc. 2, where are introduced

the three caskets of gold, of silver, and of lead, by the choice of

which the fate of Portia is to be determined,[90]—

“The first, of gold, who this inscription bears,

‘Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire;’

The second, silver, which this promise carries,

‘Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves;’

This third, dull lead, with warning all as blunt,

‘Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.’”

Act ii. sc. 7, lines 4–9.

And when the caskets are opened, the drawings and the inscriptions on

the written scrolls, which are then taken out, examined and read, are

exactly like the engravings and the verses by which emblems and their

mottoes are set forth. Thus, on unlocking the golden casket, the Prince

of Morocco exclaims,—

“O hell! what have we here?

A carrion Death, within whose empty eye

There is a written scroll! I’ll read the writing. [_Reads._]

All that glisters is not gold;

Often have you heard that told:

Many a man his life hath sold

But my outside to behold:

Gilded tombs do worms infold.

Had you been as wise as bold,

Young in limbs, in judgment old,

Your answer had not been inscroll’d:

Fare you well; your suit is cold.”

Act ii. sc. 7, lines 62–73.

The Prince of Arragon, also, on opening the silver casket, receives not

merely a written scroll, as is represented in Symeoni’s “DISTICHI

MORALI,”—_Moral Stanzas_,—but what corresponds to the device or woodcut

of the Emblem-book; “The portrait of a blinking idiot,” who presents to

him “The schedule,” or explanatory rhymes,—

“The fire seven times tried this:

Seven times tried that judgment is,

That did never choose amiss.

Some there be that shadows kiss;

Such have but a shadow’s bliss:

There be fools alive, I wis,

Silver’d o’er; and so was this.

Take what wife you will to bed,

I will ever be your head:

So be gone: you are sped.”

Act ii. sc. 9, lines 63–72.

These Emblems of Shakespeare’s are therefore complete in all their

parts; the mottoes, the pictures, “a carrion Death” and “a blinking

idiot,” and the descriptive verses.

Coſi viuo Piacer conduce à morte.

[Illustration: _Paradin, 1562._]

The words of Portia (act. ii. sc. 9, l. 79, vol. ii. p. 319), when the

Prince of Arragon says,—

“Sweet adieu, I’ll keep my oath,

Patiently to bear my wroth;”

are moreover a direct reference to the Emblems which occur in various

authors. _Les Devises Heroiqves_, by Claude Paradin, Antwerp, 1562,

contains the adjoining Emblem, _Too lively a pleasure conducts to

death_.

And Giles Corrozet in his “HECATOMGRAPHIE, C’est à dire, les

descriptions de cent figures, &c.,”[91] adopting the motto, _War is

sweet only to the inexperienced_, presents, in illustration, a butterfly

fluttering towards a candle.

La guerre doulce aux inexperimentez.

[Illustration: _Corrozet, 1540._]

Les Papillons ſe vont bruſler

A la chandelle qui reluyct.

Tel veult à la bataill[e/] aller

Qui ne ſcaict combien guerre nuyct.

“The Butterflies themselves are about to burn,

In the candle which still shines on and warms;

Such foolish, wish to battle fields to turn,

Who know not of the war, how much it harms.”

This device, in fact, was one extremely popular with the Emblem

literati. Boissard and Messin’s _Emblems_, 1588, pp. 58, 59, present

it to the mottoes, “Temerité dangereuse,” or _Temere ac

Pericvlose_,—“rashly and dangerously.” Joachim Camerarius, in his

Emblems _Ex Volatilibus et Insectis_ (Nuremberg, 4to, 1596), uses it,

with the motto, _Brevis et damnosa Voluptas_—“A short and destructive

pleasure,”—and fortifies himself in adopting it by no less authorities

than Æschylus and Aristotle. _Emblemes of Love, with Verses in Latin,

English, and Italian_, by Otho Vænius, 4to, Antwerp, 1608, present

Cupid to us, at p. 102, as watching the moths and the flames with

great earnestness, the mottoes being, _Brevis et damnosa

voluptas_,—“For one pleasure a thousand paynes,”—and _Breue

gioia_,—“Brief the gladness.”

There is, too, on the same subject, the elegant device which Symeoni

gives at p. 25 of his “DISTICHI MORALI,” and which we repeat on the next

page.

The subject is, _Of Love too much_; and the motto, “Too much pleasure

leads to death,” is thus set forth, almost literally, by English

rhymes:—

“In moderation Love is praised and prized,

Loss and dishonour in excess it brings:

In burning warmth how fail its boasted wings,

As simple butterflies in light chastised.”

_D’AMOR SOVERCHIO._

[Illustration: _Giovio and Symeoni, 1561._]

_Il moderato amor ſi loda & prezza,

Ma il troppo apporta danno & diſhonore,

Et ſpeſſo manca nel ſouerchio ardore,

Qual ſemplice farfalla al lume auuezza._

Coſi piacer conduce à morte.

Now can there be unreasonableness in supposing that out of these many

Emblem writers Shakespeare may have had some one in view when he

ascribed to Portia the words,—

“Thus hath the candle singed the moth.

O, these deliberate fools! when they do choose,

They have the wisdom by their wit to lose.”

Act ii. sc. 9, lines 79–81.

The opening of the third of the caskets (act. iii. sc. 2, l. 115, vol.

ii. p. 328), that made of lead, is also as much an Emblem delineation as

the other two, excelling them, indeed, in the beauty of the language as

well as in the excellence of the device, a very paragon of gracefulness.

“What find I here?” demands Bassanio; and himself replies,—

“Fair Portia’s counterfeit! What demi-god

Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes?

Or whether, riding on the balls of mine

Seem they in motion? Here are sever’d lips,

Parted with sugar breath: so sweet a bar

Should sunder such sweet friends. Here in her hairs

The painter plays the spider, and hath woven

A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men,

Faster than gnats in cobwebs:[92] but her eyes,—

How could he see to do them? Having made one,

Methinks it should have power to steal both his,

And leave itself unfurnish’d. Yet look, how far

The substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow

In underprizing it, so far this shadow

Doth limp behind the substance. Here’s a scroll,

The continent and summary of my fortune.

[_Reads_] You that choose not by the view,

Chance as fair, and choose as true!

Since this fortune falls to you,

Be content and seek no new.

If you will be pleased with this,

And hold your fortune for your bliss,

Turn you where your lady is,

And claim her with a loving kiss.”

In these scenes of the casket, Shakespeare himself, therefore, is

undoubtedly an Emblem writer; and there needs only the woodcut, or the

engraving, to render them as perfect examples of Emblem writing as any

that issued from the pens of Alciatus, Symeoni, and Beza. The dramatist

may have been sparing in his use of this tempting method of

illustration, yet, with the instances before us, we arrive at the

conclusion that Shakespeare knew well what Emblems were. And surely he

had seen, and in some degree studied, various portions of the Emblem

literature which was anterior to, or contemporary with himself.

[Illustration:

ΜΙΚΡΟΝ ΦΡΟΝΤΙΣΑΝΤΕΣ ΖΩΚΡΑΤΟΥΣ.

ΤΗΣ ΔΕ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑΣ ΗΟΛΥ ΜΑΛΛΟΝ.

_Cebes_, _ed._ 1552. Motto _from Plate_

]

-----

Footnote 73:

The subjects of the “nyne pageauntes,” and of their verses,

are—~“Chyldhod, Manhod, Venus and Cupyde, Age, Deth, Fame, Tyme,

Eternitee,”~ in English; and ~“The Port”~ in Latin.

Footnote 74:

Thus to be rendered—

While Elizabeth, as king, did reign,

England the terror was of Spain;

Now, chitter-chatter and Emblemes

Rule, through our queen, the little James.

Footnote 75:

Through Mr. Jones, of the Chetham Library, Manchester, I applied to D.

Laing, Esq., of the Signet Library, Edinburgh, to inquire if the bed

of state is known still to exist. The reply, Dec. 31st, 1867, is—

“In regard to Queen Mary’s bed at Holyrood, there is one which is

shown to visitors, but I am quite satisfied that it does not

correspond with Drummond’s description, as ‘wrought in silk and gold.’

There are some hangings of old tapestry, but in a very bad state of

preservation. Yesterday afternoon I went down to take another look at

it, but found, as it was getting dark, some of the rooms locked up,

and no person present. Should, however, I find anything further on the

subject, I will let you know, but I do not expect it.”

Footnote 76:

This mode of naming the motto appears taken from Shakespeare’s

_Pericles_, as—

“A black Æthiop, reaching at the sun:

The word, _Lux tua vita mihi_.”

Footnote 77:

In two other Letters Drummond makes mention of Devices or Emblems.

Writing from Paris, p. 249, he describes “the Fair of St. Germain:”—

“The diverse Merchandize and Wares of the many nations at that

Mart;” and adds, “Scarce could the wandering thought light upon any

Storie, Fable, Gayetie, which was not here represented to view.”

A letter to the Earl of Perth, p. 256, tells of various Emblems:—

“MY NOBLE LORD,—After a long inquiry about the Arms of your

Lordships antient House, and the turning of sundry Books of

_Impresaes_ and Herauldry, I found your V N D E S. famous and very

honourable.”

“In our neighbour Countrey of _England_ they are born, but inverted

upside down and diversified. _Torquato Tasso_ in his _Rinaldo_ maketh

mention of a Knight who had a Rock placed in the Waves, with the Worde

_Rompe ch’il percote_. And others hath the Seas waves with a Syren

rising out of them, the word _Bella Maria_, which is the name of some

Courtezan. _Antonio Perenotto, Cardinal Gravella_, had for an

_Impresa_ the sea, a Ship on it, the word _Durate_ out of the first of

the Æneades, _Durate et vosmet rebus servate secundis_. _Tomaso de

Marini_, Duca di terra nova, had for his _Impresa_ the Waves with a

sun over them, the word, _Nunquam siccabitur æstu_. The Prince of

Orange used for his _Impresa_ the _Waves_ with an _Halcyon_ in the

midst of them, the word, _Mediis tranquillus in undis_, which is

rather an _Embleme_ than _Impresa_, because the figure is in the

word.”

Footnote 78:

See device at a later part of our volume.

Footnote 79:

See Symeon’s _Deuises Heroiques & Morales_, edition, 4to, Lyons, 1561,

p. 246, where the motto and device occur, followed by the explanation,

“_Ceux qui ont escrit de la Physiognomie, & mesme Aristote, disent

parmy d’autres choses que le front de l’homme est celuy, par lequell’

on peut facilement cognoistre la qualité de ses mœurs, & la complexion

de sa nature_,” &c.

Footnote 80:

It may be named as a curious fact that a copy of Alciat’s _Emblemes en

Latin et en Francois Vers pour Vers_, 16mo, Paris, 1561, contains the

autograph of the Prolocutor against Mary Queen of Scots, W. PYKERYNGE,

1561, which would be about _five_ years before Mary’s son was born,

for whom she wrought a bed of state. The edition of Paradin, a copy of

which bears Geffrey Whitney’s autograph, was printed at Antwerp in

1562; and one at least of his Emblems to the motto, _Video et taceo_,

was written as early as 1568.

Footnote 81:

In some of the more elaborate of Plantin’s devices, the action of “the

omnific word” seems pictured, though in very humble degree,—

“In his hand

He took the golden compasses, prepared

In God’s eternal store, to circumscribe

This universe, and all created things:

One foot he centred, and the other turn’d

Round through the vast profundity obscure.”—_Par. Lost_, bk. vii.

Footnote 82:

Derived from Joachim du Bellay (who died in 1560 at the age of

thirty-seven), the excellence of whose poetry entitled him to be named

the Ovid of France. There is good evidence to show that Du Bellay was

well acquainted with the Emblematists, who in his time were rising

into fame.

Footnote 83:

Dibdin, in his _Bibliomania_, p. 331, adduces an instance; he says,

“In the PRAYER-BOOK which goes by the name of QUEEN ELIZABETH’S, there

is a portrait of her Majesty kneeling, upon a superb cushion, with

elevated hands, in prayer. This book was first printed in 1575, and is

decorated with woodcut borders of considerable spirit and beauty,

representing, among other things, some of the subjects of Holbein’s

_Dance of Death_.”

Footnote 84:

Amplified by Whitney, p. 108, _Respice, et prospice_, “Look back, and

look forward.”

“THE former parte, nowe paste, of this my booke,

The seconde parte in order doth insue:

Which, I beginne with IANVS double looke,

That as hee sees, the yeares both oulde, and newe,

So, with regarde, I may these partes behoulde,

Perusinge ofte, the newe, and eeke the oulde

And if, that faulte within vs doe appeare,

Within the yeare, that is alreadie donne,

As IANVS biddes vs alter with the yeare,

And make amendes, within the yeare begonne,

Even so, my selfe suruayghinge what is past;

With greater heede, may take in hande the laste.”

Footnote 85:

We subjoin the old French,—

“LE Dieu Ianus iadis à deux visages,

Noz anciẽs ont pourtraict & trassé,

Pour demõstrer que l’aduis des gẽs sages.

Vis[e/] au futur aussi bien qu’ au passé,

Tout temps doibt estr[e/] en effect cõpassé,

Et du passé auoir la recordance,

Pour au futur preueoir en providence,

Suyuant vertu en toute qualité.

Qui le fera verra par euidence,

Qu’il pourra viure en grãd tranquillité.”

Footnote 86:

The illustration we immediately choose is from Sym. cxxxvii. p.

cccxiiii. of Achilles Bocchius, edition Bologna, 1555, with the motto—

“ARS RHETOR, TRIPLEX MOVET, IVVAT, DOCET,

SED PRÆPOTENS EST VERITAS DIVINITVS.

SIC MONSTRA VITIOR, DOMAT PRVDENTIA.”

Rhetoric’s art threefold, it moves, delights, instructs,

But powerful above all is truth of heaven inspired.

So the monsters of our vices doth wisdom’s self subdue.

Footnote 87:

See _Les Emblemes de Maistre Andre Alciat, mis en rime françoyse_,

Paris, 1540.

Footnote 88:

The device, however, of this Emblem is copied from Symeoni’s _Vita et

Metamorfoseo d’Ovidio_, Lyons, 1559, p. 72; as also are some others

used by Reusner.

Footnote 89:

In _Troilus and Cressida_, act i. sc. 3, l. 39, vol. vi. p. 142, we

read,—

“Anon beheld

The strong-ribb’d bark through liquid mountains cut,

Bounding between the two moist elements,

Like Perseus’ horse.”

Footnote 90:

The description and quotations are almost identical with the Whitney

_Dissertations_, pp. 294–6.

Footnote 91:

See Whitney’s _Fac-simile Reprint_, plate 32.

Footnote 92:

In the work of Joachim Camerarius, just quoted, at p. 152, to the

motto, “VIOLENTIOR EXIT,”—_The more violent escapes_, p. 99,—there is

the device of Gnats and Wasps in a cobweb, with the stanza,—

“_Innodat culicem, sed vespæ pervia tela est:

Sic rumpit leges vis, quibus hæret inops._”

“The gnat the web entangles, but to the wasp

Throughout is pervious; so force breaks laws,

To which the helpless is held bound in chains.”

-----

------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER V.

SIX DIRECT REFERENCES IN THE PERICLES TO BOOKS OF EMBLEMS, SOME OF THEIR DEVICES DESCRIBED, AND OF THEIR MOTTOES QUOTED.

SHAKESPEARE’S name, in three quarto editions, published during his

lifetime, appears as author of the play of _Pericles, Prince of Tyre_;

and if a decision be made that the authorship belongs to him, and that

in the main the work was his composition, then our previous conjectures

are changed into certainties, and we can confidently declare who were

the Emblem writers he refers to, and can exhibit the very passages from

their books which he has copied and adopted.

The early folio editions of the plays, those of 1623 and 1632, omit the

_Pericles_ altogether, but later editions restore it to a place among

the works of Shakespeare. Dr. Farmer contends that the hand of the great

dramatist is visible only in the last act; but others controvert this

opinion, and maintain, though he was not the fabricator of the plot, nor

the author of every dialogue and chorus, that his genius is evident in

several passages.

In Knight’s _Pictorial Shakspere_, supplemental volume, p. 13, we are

informed: “The first edition of _Pericles_ appeared in 1609,”—several

years before the dramatist’s death,—“under the following title,—‘The

late and much admired play, called _Pericles, Prince of Tyre, &c._ By

William Shakespeare: London, Glosson, 1609.’”

According to the Cambridge editors, vol. ix. p. i, Preface, “another

edition was issued in the same year.” The publication was repeated in

1611, 1619, 1630 and 1635, so that at the very time when Shakespeare was

living, his authorship was set forth; and after his death, while his

friends and contemporaries were alive, the opinion still prevailed.

The conclusion at which Knight arrives, sup. vol. pp. 118, 119, is thus

stated by him: “We advocate the belief that _Pyrocles_, or _Pericles_

was a very early work of Shakspere in some form, however different from

that which we possess.” And again, “We think that the _Pericles_ of the

beginning of the seventeenth century was the revival of a play written

by Shakspere some twenty years earlier.... Let us accept Dryden’s

opinion, that

“‘Shakespeare’s own Muse his Pericles first bore.’”

The Cambridge editors, vol. ix. p. 10, ed. 1866, gave a firmer

judgment:—“There can be no doubt that the hand of Shakespeare is

traceable in many of the scenes, and that throughout the play he largely

retouched, and even rewrote, the work of some inferior dramatist. But

the text has come down to us in so maimed and imperfect a state that we

can no more judge of what the play was when it left the master’s hand

than we should have been able to judge of _Romeo and Juliet_, if we had

only had the first quarto as authority for the text.”

Our own Hallam tells us,—“_Pericles_ is generally reckoned to be in

part, and only in part, the work of Shakespeare:” but with great

confidence the critic Schlegel declares,—“This piece was acknowledged to

be a work, but a youthful work of Shakespeare’s. It is most undoubtedly

his, and it has been admitted into several later editions of his works.

The supposed imperfections originate in the circumstance that

Shakespeare here handled a childish and extravagant romance of the old

poet Gower, and was unwilling to drag the subject out of its proper

sphere. Hence he even introduces Gower himself, and makes him deliver a

prologue in his own antiquated language and versification. This power of

assuming so foreign a manner is at least no proof of helplessness.”

There are, then, strong probabilities that in the main the _Pericles_

was Shakespeare’s own composition, or at least was adopted by him; it

belongs to his early dramatic life, and at any rate it may be taken as

evidence to show that the Emblem writers were known and made use of

between 1589 and 1609 by the dramatists of England.

Books of Emblems are not indeed mentioned by their titles, nor so quoted

in the _Pericles_ as we are accustomed to do, by making direct

references; they were a kind of common property, on which everyone might

pasture his Pegasus or his Mule without any obligation to tell where his

charger had been grazing. The allusions, however, are so plain, the

words so exactly alike, that they cannot be misunderstood. The author

was of a certainty acquainted with more than one Emblem writer, in more

than one language, and Paradin, Symeoni, and our own Whitney may be

recognised in his pages. We conclude that he had them before him, and

copied from them when he penned the second scene of the Second Act of

_Pericles_.

The Dialogue is between Simonides, king of Pentapolis, and his daughter,

Thaisa, on occasion of the “triumph,” or festive pageantry, which was

held in honour of her birthday. (_Pericles_, act. ii. sc. 2, lines

17–47, vol. ix. pp. 343, 344.)

“_Enter a_ Knight; _he passes over, and his_ Squire _presents his shield

to the_ Princess.

_Sim._ Who is the first that doth prefer himself?

_Thai._ A knight of Sparta, my renowned father;

And the device he bears upon his shield

Is a black Ethiope reaching at the sun;

The word, ‘Lux tua vita mihi.’

_Sim._ He loves you well that holds his life of you.

[_The_ Second Knight _passes_.

Who is the second that presents himself?

_Thai._ A prince of Macedon, my royal father;

And the device he bears upon his shield

Is an arm’d knight that’s conquer’d by a lady;

The motto thus, in Spanish, ‘Piu por dulzura que por fuerza.’

[_The_ Third Knight _passes_.

_Sim._ And what’s the third?

_Thai._ The third of Antioch;

And his device, a wreath of chivalry;

The word, ‘Me pompæ provexit apex.’

[_The_ Fourth Knight _passes_.

_Sim._ What is the fourth?

_Thai._ A burning torch that’s turned upside down;

The word, ‘Quod me alit, me extinguit.’

_Sim._ Which shows that beauty hath his power and will,

Which can as well inflame as it can kill.

[_The_ Fifth Knight _passes_.

_Thai._ The fifth, an hand environed with clouds,

Holding out gold that’s by the touchstone tried;

The motto thus, ‘Sic spectanda fides.’

[_The_ Sixth Knight _passes_.

_Sim._ And what’s

The sixth and last, the which the knight himself

With such a graceful courtesy deliver’d?

_Thai._ He seems to be a stranger; but his present is

A wither’d branch, that’s only green at top;

The motto, ‘In hac spe vivo.’

_Sim._ A pretty moral;

From the dejected state wherein he is,

He hopes by you his fortunes yet may flourish.”

As with the ornaments “in silk and gold,” which Mary Queen of Scotland

worked on the bed of her son James, or with those in “the lady’s closet”

at Hawsted, we trace them up to their originals, and pronounce them,

however modified, to be derived from the Emblem-books of their age; so,

with respect to the devices which the six knights bore on their shields,

we conclude that these have their sources in books of the same

character, or in the genius of the author who knew so well how to

contrive and how to execute. Emblems beyond a doubt they are, though not

engraved on our author’s page, as they were on the escutcheons of the

knightly company. Take the device and motto of the gnats or butterflies

and the candle; we trace them from Vænius, Camerarius, and Whitney, to

Paradin, from Paradin to Symeoni, and from Symeoni to Giles Corrozet,—at

every step we pronounce them Emblems,—and should pass the same judgment,

though we could not trace them at all. It is the same with these devices

in the Triumph Scene of _Pericles_; we discover the origin of some of

them in Emblem works of, or before Shakespeare’s era,—and where we fail

to discover, there we attribute invention, invention guided and

perfected by masters in the art of fashioning pictures to portray

thoughts by means of things. We will, however, in due order consider the

devices and mottoes of these six knights who came to honour the king’s

daughter.

The first knight is the Knight of Sparta,—

“And the device he bears upon his shield

Is a black Ethiope reaching at the sun;

The word, _Lux tua vita mihi_.”

Act ii. sc. 2, lines 19–21.

A motto almost identical belongs to an old family of Worcestershire, the

Blounts, of Soddington, of which Sir Edward Blount, Bart., is, or was

the representative; their motto is, _Lux tua vita mea_,—“Thy light, my

life;”—but their crest is an armed foot in the sun, not a black Ethiop

reaching towards him. There was a Sir Walter Blount slain on the king’s

side at the battle of Shrewsbury, and whom, previous to the battle,

Shakespeare represents as sent by Henry IV. with offers of pardon to

Percy. (_Henry IV._ Pt. 1. act. iv. sc. 3, l. 30, vol. iv. p. 323.) A

Sir James Blount is also briefly introduced in _Richard III._ act. v.

sc. 2, l. 615. The name being familiar to Shakespeare, the motto also

might be;—and by a very slight alteration he has ascribed it to the

Knight of Sparta.

I have consulted a considerable number of books of Emblems published

before the _Pericles_ was written, but have not discovered either the

device or “the word” exactly in the form given in the play. There is a

near approach to the device in Reusner’s _Emblems_, printed at Francfort

in 1581 (Emb. 7, lib. i. p. 9). A man is represented stretching forth

his hand towards the meridian sun, and the device is surmounted by the

motto, _Sol animi virtus_,—“Virtue the sun of the soul.” The elegiac

verses which follow carry out the thought with considerable clearness,—

_“Sol, oculus cœli, radijs illuminat orbem:

Et Phœbe noctem disjicit alba nigram.

Sol animi virtus sensus illuminat ægros:

Et tenebras mentis discutit alma fides.

Si menti virtus, virtuti præuia lucet

Pura fides: nihil hoc clarius esse potest.

Aurea virtutis species, fideiq., Philippe,

Præradians, cœlo sic tibi monstrat iter.

Scilicet hic vitæ Sol est, & Lucifer vnus:

Hæc Phœbe, noctem quæ fugat igne suo.

Quæ dum mente vides correcta lumina; mundi

Impauidus tenebras despicis, atq. metus.

Sol magno Phœbeq. micent, & Lucifer orbi:

Dum tibi sic virtus luceat, atq. fides.”_[93]

Among these lines is one to illustrate the first knight’s motto;

“_Scilicet hic vitæ Sol est, & Lucifer vnus_,”

“_This in truth is the Sun of life, and the one Light-bringer._”

But Plautus, the celebrated comic poet of Rome, gives in his _Asinaria_,

3. 3. 24, almost the very words of the Spartan knight: _Certe tu vita es

mihi_,—“Of a truth thou art life to me.”

The introduction of an Ethiop was not unusual with Shakespeare. In the

_Two Gentlemen of Verona_ (act. ii. sc. 6. l. 25, vol. i. p. 112),

Proteus avers,—

“And Silvia,—witness Heaven that made her fair!—

Shows Julia but a swarthy Ethiope;”

and in _Love’s Labour’s Lost_ (act. iv. sc. 3, l. 111, vol. ii. p. 144),

Dumain reads these verses,—

“Do not call it sin in me,

That I am forsworn for thee;

Thou for whom Jove would swear

Juno but an Ethiope were.”

A genius so versatile as that of Shakespeare, and capable of creating

almost a whole world of imagination out of a single hint, might very

easily accommodate to his own idea Reusner’s suggestive motto, and make

it yield the light of love to the lover rather than to the reverend

sage. Failing in identifying the exact source of the “black Ethiope

reaching at the sun,” we may then not unreasonably suppose that

Shakespeare himself formed the device, and fitted the Latin to it.

In the Emblem-books of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the

Latin mottoes very greatly preponderated over those of other languages;

and had Shakespeare confined himself to Latin, it might remain doubtful

whether he knew anything of Emblem works beyond those of our own

countrymen—Barclay and Whitney—and of the two or three translations into

English from Latin, French, and Italian. But the quotation of a purely

Spanish motto, that on the second knight’s device, _Piu por dulzura que

por fuerza_,—“More by gentleness than by force” (act ii. sc. 2, l.

27),—shows that his reading and observation extended beyond mere English

sources, and that with other literary men of his day he had looked into,

if he had not studied, the widely-known and very popular writings of

Alciatus and Sambucus among Latinists, of Francisco Guzman and Hernando

Soto among Spaniards, of Gabriel Faerni and Paolo Giovio among Italians,

and of Bartholomew Aneau and Claude Paradin among the French.

Shakespeare gives several snatches of French, as in _Twelfth Night_, act

iii. sc. 1, l. 68, vol. iii. p. 265,—

“_Sir Andrew._ Dieu vous garde, monsieur,

_Viola._ Et vous aussi; votre serviteur;”

and in _Henry V._ act iii. sc. 4; act iv. sc. 4 and 5; act v. sc. 2,

vol. iv. pp. 538–540, 574–577, and 598–603: in the scenes between

Katharine and Alice; Pistol and the French soldier taken prisoner; and

Katharine and King Henry. Take the last instance,—

“_K. Hen._ Fair Katharine, and most fair,

Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms

Such as will enter at a lady’s ear

And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?

_Kath._ Your majesty shall mock at me; I cannot speak your England.

_K. Hen._ O fair Katharine, if you will love me soundly with your

French

heart, I will be glad to hear you confess it brokenly with your English

tongue. Do you like me, Kate?

_Kath._ Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is ‘like me.’

_K. Hen._ An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel.

_Kath._ Que dit-il? que je suis semblable à les anges?

_Alice._ Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grace, ainsi dit-il.

_K. Hen._ I said so, dear Katharine; and I must not blush to affirm

it.

_Kath._ O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines de

tromperies.”

Appropriately also to the locality of the _Taming of the Shrew_ (act i.

sc. 2, l. 24, vol. iii. p. 23), Hortensio’s house in Padua, is the

Italian quotation.

“_Pet._ ‘Con tutto il core ben trovato,’ may I say.

_Hor._ Alla nostra casa ben venuto, molto honorato, signor mio

Petrucio.”

We find only two Spanish sentences, those already quoted,—one being

Pistol’s motto on his sword, _Si fortuna me tormenta sperato me

contenta_; the other, that of the Prince of Macedon, on his shield, _Piu

por dulzura que por fuerza_.

Similar proverbs and sayings abound both in Cervantes, who died in 1616,

the year of Shakespeare’s death, and in the Spanish Emblem-books of an

earlier date. I have very carefully examined the Emblems of Alciatus,

translated into Spanish in 1549, but the nearest approach to the motto

of the Prince of Macedon is, _Que mas puede la eloquençia que la

fortaliza_ (p. 124),—“Eloquence rather than force prevails,”—which may

be taken from Alciat’s 180th Emblem, _Eloquentia fortitudine

præstantior_.

Other Spanish Emblem-books of that day are the _Moral Emblems_ of

Hernando de Soto, published at Madrid in 1599, and _Emblems Moralized_,

of Don Sebastian Orozco, published in the year 1610, also at Madrid; but

neither of these gives the words of the second knight’s device. Nor are

they contained in the _Moral Triumphs_, as they are entitled, of

Francisco Guzman, published in 1587, the year after Whitney’s work

appeared. The _Moral Emblems_, too, of Juan de Horozco, are without

them,—an octavo, published at Segovia in 1589.

But, although there has been no discovery of this Spanish motto in a

Spanish Emblem-book, the exact literal expression of it is found in a

French work of extreme rarity—Corrozet’s “HECATOMGRAPHIE,” Paris, 1540.

There, at Emblem 28, _Plus par doulceur que par force_,[94]—“More by

gentleness than by force,”—is the saying which introduces the old fable

of the Sun and the Wind, and of their contest with the travellers.

Appended are a symbolical woodcut and a French stanza,

Contre la froidure du vent,

L’homme ſe tient clos & ſe ſerre,

Mais le Soleil le plus ſouuent

Luy faict mettre ſa rob[e/] à terre.

Plus par doulceur que par force.

[Illustration: _Corrozet, 1540._]

which may be pretty accurately rendered by the English quatrain,—

“Against the wind’s cold blasts

Man draws his cloak around;

But while sweet sunshine lasts,

He leaves it on the ground.”

This comment in verse follows Corrozet’s Emblem,—

“Qvand le vent est fort & subit,

Violent pour robe emporter,

L’homme se serr[e/] en son habit,

Affin qu’il ne luy puisse oster.

Mais quand le Soleil vient iecter

Sur luy ses rays clers & luysantz,

Le cauld le faict sans arrester

Despouiller ses habitz plaisantz.

* Ainsi ãmytié & doulceur

Faict plus que force & violence,

Doulceur est d’amour propre sœur,

Qui rend l’homme plein d’excellence.

II ne fault doncq mettr[e/] en silence

Ceste tres noble courtoisie,

Mais l’extoller en precellence;

Comm[e/] vne vertu bien choisie.

* Hommes, chassez de vous rigueur

Qui vostre grand beaulté efface,

Prenez de doulceur la vigueur,

Qui enrichera vostre face.

Doulceur ci bien meilleure grace,

Qui rend le visag[e/] amoureux,

Que d’estre dict en toute place

L’oultre cuidé, fol, rigoureuz.”

There is a brief allusion to this fable in _King John_ (act iv. sc. 3,

l. 155, vol. iv. p. 76), in the words of Philip, the half-brother of

Faulconbridge,—

“Now happy he whose cloak and cincture can

Hold out this tempest.”

_Moderata vis impotenti violentia potior_,—

[Illustration: _Freitag, 1579._]

The same fable is given in Freitag’s “MYTHOLOGIA ETHICA,” Antwerp, 1579,

p. 27. It is to a very similar motto,—

“Moderate force more powerful than impotent violence,”—to which are

added, below the woodcut, two quotations from the Holy Scriptures,—

“_Non quia dominamur fidei._”—2 Cor. i. 24.

“_Factus sum infirmis infirmus; vt infirmos lucrifacerem._”—1 Cor. ix.

22.

“Not that we have dominion over your faith;”

“To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak;”

implying that not by the rigid exercise of authority, but by a

sympathising spirit, the true faith will be carried onward unto victory.

Now, as the motto of the second knight existed in French, and, as we

have seen, Emblem-books were translated into Spanish, the supposition is

justifiable, though we have failed to trace out the very fact, that the

author of the _Pericles_—Shakespeare, if you will—copied the words of

the motto from some Spanish Emblem-book, or book of proverbs, that had

come within his observation, and which applied the saying to woman’s

gentleness subduing man’s harsher nature. Future inquirers will,

perhaps, clear up this little mystery, and trace the very work in which

the Spanish saying is original, _Piu por dulzura que por fuerza_.

We pass to the third, the fourth, and the fifth knights, with their

“devices” and “words;” and to illustrate these we have almost a

superabundant wealth of emblem-lore, from any portion of which

Shakespeare may have made his choice. His materials may have come from

some one of the various editions of Claude Paradin’s, or of Gabriel

Symeoni’s “DEVISES HEROIQVES,” which appeared at Lyons and Antwerp, in

French and Italian, between the years 1557 and 1590; or, as the learned

Francis Douce supposes, in his _Illustrations of Shakspere_, pp. 302,

393, the dramatist may have seen the English translation of these

authors, which was published in London in 1591, or, with greater

probability, as some are inclined to say, he may have used the emblems

of our countryman, Geffrey Whitney. Were it not that Daniell’s

translation, in 1585, of _The Worthy Tract of Paulus Jovius_ is without

plates, we should include this in the number.

Of the devices in question, Whitney’s volume contains two, and the other

works the three; but between certain expressions of Whitney’s and those

of the _Pericles_, the similarity is so great, that the evidence of

circumstance inclines, I may say decidedly inclines, to the conclusion

that for two out of the three emblems referred to, Shakespeare was

indebted to his fellow Elizabethan poet, and not to a foreign source.

From his use of Spanish and French mottoes, as well as Latin, it is

evident that Shakespeare, no more than Spenser, needed the aid of

translations to render the emblem treasures available to himself; and

if, as some maintain,[95] the _Pericles_ was in existence previous to

the year 1591, it could not have been that use was made of the English

translation of that date of the “DEVISES HEROIQVES,” by P. S.; it

remains, therefore, that for two out of the three emblems he must either

have employed one of the original editions of Lyons and of Antwerp, or

have been acquainted with our Whitney’s _Choice of Emblemes_, and have

obtained help from them; and for the third emblem he must have gone to

the French or Italian originals.

The third knight, named of Antioch, has for his device “a wreath of

chivalry,”—

“The word, _Me pompæ provexit apex_;”—

(Act ii. sc. 2, l. 30,)

_i. e._, “The crown at the triumphal procession has carried me onward.”

On the 146th leaf of Paradin’s “DEVISES HEROIQVES,” edition Antwerp,

1562, the wreath and the motto are exactly as Shakespeare describes

them. But Paradin gives a long and interesting account of the

laurel-wreath, and of the high value accorded to it in Roman estimation.

“It was,” as that author remarks, “the grandest recompense, or the

grandest reward which the ancient Romans could think of to offer to the

Chieftains over armies, to Emperors, Captains, and victorious Knights.”

Me pompæ prouexit apex.

[Illustration: _Paradin, 1562._]

To gratify the curiosity which some may feel respecting this subject, I

add the whole of the original.

“_La plus grande recompense, ou plus grãd loyer que les antiques

Rommains estimassent faire aus Chefz d’armee, Empereurs, Capitaines, et

Cheualiers victorieux, c’estoit de les gratifier & honnorer (selon

toutefois leurs merites, estats, charges, & degrez) de certaines belles

Couronnes: qui generalemẽt (à cette cause) furent apellees Militaires.

Desquelles (pour auoir estées indice & enseignes de prouesse & vertu)

les figures des principales & plus nobles, sont ci tirees en deuises:

tant a la louange & memoire de l’antique noblesse, que pareillement à la

recreation, consolation, & esperance de la moderne, aspirãt & desirãt

aussi de paruenir aus gages & loyers apartenãs & dediez aus defenseurs

de la recommendable Republique. La premiere donques mise en reng,

representera la Trionfale: laquelle estant tissue du verd Laurier, auec

ses bacques, estoit donnée au Trionfateur, auquel par decret du Senat,

estoit licite de trionfer parmi la vile de Romme, sur chariot, comme

victorieus de ses ennemis. Desquels neantmoins lui conuenoit deuant la

pompe, faire aparoir de la deffaite, du nombre parfait de cinq mile, en

vne seule bataille. La susdite Couronne trionfale, apres long trait de

temps (declinant l’Empire) fut commẽcee à estre meslee, & variée de

Perles & pierrerie, & puis entierement changée de Laurier naturel en

Laurier buriné, & enleué, sus vn cercle d’or: comme se void par les

Medailles, de plusieurs monnoyes antiques._”[96]

Shakespeare does not add a single word of explanation, or of

amplification, which he might be expected to have done, had he used an

English translation; but simply, and without remark, he adopts the

emblem and its motto, as is natural to anyone who, though not unskilled

in the language by which they are expressed, is not perfectly at home in

it.

Of chivalry, however, he often speaks,—“of chivalrous design of knightly

trial.” To Bolingbroke and Mowbray wager of battle is appointed to

decide their differences _(Richard II._ act i. sc. 1, l. 202, vol. iv.

p. 116), and the king says,—

“Since we can not atone you, we shall see

Justice design the victor’s chivalry.”

And (vol. iv. p. 137) John of Gaunt declares of England’s kings; they

were,—

“Renowned for their deeds as far from home,

In Christian service and true chivalry,

As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry

Of the world’s ransom, blessed Mary’s Son.”

But in the case of the fourth and fifth knights, it is not the simple

adoption of a device which we have to consider; the very ideas, almost

the very phrases in which those ideas were clothed, have also been

given, pointing out that the Dramatist had before him something more

than explanations in an unfamiliar tongue.

The device of the fourth knight is both described and interpreted,—

“A burning torch that’s turned upside down;

The word, _Quod me alit, me extinguit._

Which shows, that beauty hath this power and will,

Which can as well inflame as it can kill.”

Act ii. sc. 2, lines 32–35.

Thus presented in Symeoni’s “TETRASTICHI MORALI,” edition Lyons, 1561,

p. 35,—

_SIGNOR DI S._

VALIER.

[Illustration: _Symeoni, 1561_ (_diminished copy_).]

An Italian stanza explains the device,—

“_Nutriſce il fuoco à lui la cera intorno,

Et la cera l’eſtingue. ò quanti ſono,

Che dopo vn riceuuto & largo dono,

Dal donator riceuon danno & ſcorno._”

“Qui me alit,

me extinguit.”

The sense of which we now endeavour to give,—

“The wax here within nourishes the flames

And the wax stifles them; how many names

Who after a large gift and kindness shown,

Get from the giver harm and scorn alone.”

“Who nourishes me,

extinguishes me.”

Symeoni (from edition Lyons, 1574, p. 200) adds this little piece of

history:—

“In the battle of the Swiss, routed near Milan by King Francis, M. de

Saint Valier, the old man, father of Madame the Duchess de

Valentinois,[97] and captain of a hundred gentlemen of the king’s house,

bore a standard, whereon was painted a lighted torch with the head

downward, on which flowed so much wax as would extinguish it, with this

motto ‘QVI ME ALIT, ME EXTINGVIT,’ imitating the emblem of the king his

master; that is, ‘NVTRISCO ET EXTINGVO.’ It is the nature of the wax,

which is the cause of the torch burning when held upright, that with the

head downward it should be extinguished. Thus he wished to signify, that

as the beauty of a lady whom he loved nourished all his thoughts, so she

put him in peril of his life. See still this standard in the church of

the Celestins at Lyons.”[98]

Paradin, who confessedly copies from Symeoni, agrees very nearly with

this account, but gives the name of the Duchess “Diane de Poitiers,” and

omits mentioning “the emblem of the king.”

_Qui me alit, me extinguit._

[Illustration: _Paradin, 1562._]

As stated in the _fac-simile Reprint_ of Whitney’s _Emblemes_, p. 302,

Douce in his _Illustrations of Shakespeare_, pp. 302, 393, advances the

opinion that the translation of Paradin into English, 1591, by P. S.,

was the source of Shakespeare’s torch-emblem; “but it is very

note-worthy that the torch in the English translation is not a torch

‘that’s turned upside down,’ but one held uninverted, with the flame

naturally ascending. This contrariety to Shakespeare’s description seems

fatal therefore to the translator’s claim.” P. S., however, renders the

motto, “He that nourisheth me, killeth me;” and so may put in a claim to

the suggestion of the line,—

“Which can as well inflame as it can kill.”

Let us next take Whitney’s stanza of six lines to the same motto and the

same device, p. 183; premising that the very same wood-block appears to

have been used for the Paradin in 1562, and for the Whitney in 1586.

“Even as the waxe dothe feede, and quenche the flame,

So, loue giues life; and loue, dispaire doth giue:

The godlie loue, doth louers croune with fame:

The wicked loue, in shame dothe make them liue.

Then leaue to loue, or loue as reason will,

For, louers lewde doe vainlie languishe still.”

Now, comparing together Symeoni, Paradin, Whitney, and Shakespeare, as

explanatory of the fourth knight’s emblem, we can scarcely fail to

perceive in the _Pericles_ a closer resemblance, both of thought and

expression, to Whitney than to the other two. Whitney wrote,—

“So, loue giues life; and loue, dispaire doth giue,”

which the _Pericles_ thus amplifies:

“Which shows, that beauty hath this power and will,

Which can as well inflame as it can kill.”

We conclude, therefore, from this instance, that Whitney’s _Choice of

Emblemes_ was known to the author of the _Pericles_, and that in this

instance he has simply carried out the idea which was there suggested to

him.

A slight allusion to this same device of the burning torch is made in _3

Henry VI._ (act iii. sc. 2, l. 51, vol. v. p. 281), when Clarence

remarks,—

“As red as fire! nay, then her wax must melt;”

but a very distinct one in Hamlet’s words (act iii. sc. 4, l. 82, vol.

viii. p. 112),—

“O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,

If thou canst mutine in a matron’s bones,

To flaming youth let virtue be as wax

And melt in her own fire; proclaim no shame

When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,

Since frost itself as actively doth burn,

And reason panders will.”

The “AMORVM EMBLEMATA,”—_Emblemes of Loue,—with verses in Latin,

English, and Italian_: 4to, Antverpiæ, M.DC.IIX., gives the same

variation in the reading of the motto as Shakespeare does, namely,

“Quod” for “Qui;” and as Daniell had done in _The Worthy Tract of Paulus

Jouius_, in 1585, by substituting “_Quod me alit_” for “_Qui me

alit_.”[99] The latter is the reading in Paulus Jovius himself,—and is

also found in some of the early editions of this play. (See Cambridge

_Shakespeare_, vol. ix. p. 343.) The _Amorum Emblemata_, by Otho Vænius,

named above, and dated 1608—one year before “PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE,”

was first published, in quarto—has the Latin motto, “QVOD NVTRIT,

EXTINGVIT,” Englished and Italianised as follows:

“_Loue killed by his owne nouriture._”

“The torche is by the wax maintayned whyle it burnes,

But turned vpsyde-down it straight goes out & dyes,

Right so by Cupids heat the louer lyues lykewyse,

But thereby is hee kild, when it contrarie turnes.”

“Quel che nutre, estingue.”

“_Nutre la cera il foco, e ne lo priua

Quando è riuolto in giù: d’Amor l’ardore

Nutre e sfare l’Amante in vn calore,

Contrario effetto vn sol suggetto auiua._”

At a much earlier date, 1540, Corrozet’s _Hecatomgraphie_ gives the

inverted torch as a device, with the motto, “Mauluaise nourriture,”—

“Quelcun en prenant ses esbatz

M’ainsi mise contrebas

La cire le feu nourrissant

L’estainct & le faict perissant.”

DEVISES

Sic spectanda fides.

[Illustration: _Paradin, 1562._]

But the “device” and “the word” of the fifth knight,—

“An hand environed with clouds,

Holding out gold that’s by the touchstone tried;

The motto thus, _Sic spectanda fides_,”

(Act ii. sc. 2, lines 36–38,)

“So is fidelity to be proved,”—occur most exactly in Paradin’s “DEVISES

HEROIQUES,” edition 1562, leaf 100, _reverse_; they are here figured.

Paradin often presents an account of the origin and appropriation of his

emblems, but, in this instance, he offers only an application. “If, in

order to prove fine gold, or other metals, we bring them to the touch,

without trusting to their glitter or their sound;—so, to recognise good

people and persons of virtue, it is needful to observe the splendour of

their deeds, without dwelling upon their mere talk.”[100]

The narrative which Paradin neglects to give may be supplied from other

sources. This Emblem or Symbol is, in fact, that which was appropriated

to Francis I. and Francis II., kings of France from 1515 to 1560, and

also to one of the Henries—probably Henry IV. The inscription on the

coin, according to Paradin and Whitney’s woodcut, is “FRANCISCVS DEI

GRATIA FRAN. REX;” this is for Francis I.; but in the _Hierographia

Regvm Francorvm_[101] (vol. i. pp. 87 and 88), the emblem is inscribed,

“Franciscus II. Valesius Rex Francorum XXV. Christianissimus.” A device

similar to Paradin’s then follows, and the comment, _Coronatum aureum

nummum, ad Lydium lapidem dextra hæc explicat & sic, id est, duris in

rebus fidem explorandam docet_,—“This right hand extends to the Lydian

stone a coin of gold which is wreathed around, and so teaches that

fidelity in times of difficulty is put to the proof.” The coin applied

to the touchstone bears the inscription, “FRANCISCVS II. FRANCORV. REX.”

An original drawing,[102] by Crispin de Passe, in the possession of Sir

William Stirling Maxwell, Bart., of Keir, presents the inscription in

another form, “HENRICVS, D. G. FRANCORV. REX.” The first work of Crispin

de Passe is dated 1589, and Henry IV. was recognised king of France in

1593. His portrait, and that of his queen, Mary of Medicis, were painted

by De Passe; and so the Henry on the coin in the drawing above alluded

to was Henry of Navarre.

The whole number of original drawings at Keir, by Crispin de Passe, is

thirty-five, of the size of the following plate,—No 27 of the series.

[Illustration: _Crispin de Passe, about 1595._[103]]

The mottoes in _Emblemata Selectiora_ are,—

“PECUNIA SANGUIS ET ANIMA MORTALIUM.

Quidquid habet mundus, regina Pecunia vincit,

Fulmineoque ictu fortius una ferit.”

“’T GELD VERMAG ALLES.

’t Geld houd den krygsknecht in zyn plichten,

Kan meer dan’t dondertuig uit richten.”

“MONEY THE BLOOD AND LIFE OF MEN.

Whatever the world possesses, money rules as queen,

And more strongly than by lightning’s force smites together.”

“MONEY CAN DO EVERYTHING.

To his duty the warrior, ’tis money can hold,—

Than the thunderbolt greater the influence of gold.”

Very singular is the correspondence of the last two mottoes to a scene

in _Timon of Athens_ (act iv. sc. 3, lines 25, 377, vol. vii. pp. 269,

283). Timon digging in the wood finds gold, and asks,—

“What is here?

Gold! yellow, glittering, precious gold!”

and afterwards, when looking on the gold, he thus addresses it,—

“O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce

’Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler

Of Hymen’s purest bed! thou valiant Mars!

Thou ever young, fresh, loved, and delicate wooer,

Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow

That lies on Dian’s lap! thou visible god,

That solder’st close impossibilities,

And makest them kiss! that speak’st with every tongue,

To every purpose! O thou touch of hearts!

Think, thy slave man rebels; and by thy virtue

Set them into confounding odds, that beasts

May have the world in empire!”

The Emblem which Shakespeare attributes to the fifth knight is fully

described by Whitney (p. 139), with the same device and the same motto,

_Sic spectanda fides_,[104]—

“THE touche doth trye, the fine, and purest goulde:

And not the sound, or els the goodly showe.

So, if mennes wayes, and vertues, wee behoulde,

The worthy men, wee by their workes, shall knowe.

But gallant lookes, and outward showes beguile,

And ofte are clokes to cogitacions vile.”

If, in the use of this device, and in their observations upon it,

Paradin, either in the original or in the English version, and Whitney

be compared with the lines on the subject in _Pericles_, it will be seen

“that Shakespeare did not derive his fifth knight’s device either from

the French emblem or from its English translator, but from the English

Whitney which had been lately published. Indeed, if _Pericles_ were

written, as Knight conjectures, in Shakespeare’s early manhood, previous

to the year 1591, it could not be the English translation of Paradin

which furnished him with the three mottoes and devices of the Triumph

Scene.”

To the motto, “AMOR CERTVS IN RE INCERTA CERNITVR,”—_Certain love is

seen in an uncertain matter_,—Otho Vænius, in his _Amorum Emblemata_,

4to, Antwerp, 1608, represents two Cupids at work, one trying gold in

the furnace, the other on the touchstone. His stanzas, published with an

English translation, as if intended for circulation in England, may, as

we have conjectured, have been seen by Shakespeare before 1609, when the

_Pericles_ was revived. They are to the above motto,—

“_Nummi vt adulterium exploras priùs indice, quam sit

Illo opus: haud aliter ritè probandus Amor.

Scilicet vt fuluium spectatur in ignibus aurum:

Tempore sic duro est inspicienda fides._”

“_Loues triall._

As gold is by the fyre, and by the fournace tryde,

And thereby rightly known if it be bad or good,

Hard fortune and distresse do make it vnderstood,

Where true loue doth remayn, and fayned loue resyde.”

“Come l’oro nel foco.

_Sû la pietra, e nel foco l’or si proua,

E nel bisogno, come l’or nel foco,

Si dee mostrar leale in ogni loco

l’Amante; e alhor si vee d’Amor la proua._”

The same metaphor of attesting characters, as gold is proved by the

touchstone or by the furnace, is of frequent occurrence in Shakespeare’s

undoubted plays; and sometimes the turn of the thought is so like

Whitney’s as to give good warrant for the supposition, either of a

common original, or that Shakespeare had read the Emblems of our

Cheshire poet and made use of them.

King Richard III. says to Buckingham (act iv. sc. 2, l. 8, vol. v. p.

580),—

“O Buckingham, now do I play the touch,

To try if thou be current gold indeed.”

And in _Timon of Athens_ (act iii. sc. 3, l. 1, vol. vii. p. 245), when

Sempronius observes to a servant of Timon’s,—

“Must he needs trouble me in’t,—hum!—’bove all others?

He might have tried Lord Lucius and Lucullus;

And now Ventidius is wealthy too,

Whom he redeem’d from prison: all these

Owe their estates unto him.”

The servant immediately replies,—

“My lord,

They have all been touch’d and found base metal, for

They have all denied him.”

Isabella, too, in _Measure for Measure_ (act ii. sc. 2, l. 149, vol. i.

p. 324), most movingly declares her purpose to bribe Angelo, the

lord-deputy,—

“Not with fond shekels of the tested gold,

Or stones whose rates are either rich or poor

As fancy values them; but with true prayers

That shall be up at heaven and enter there

Ere sun-rise, prayers from preserved souls,

From fasting maids whose minds are dedicate

To nothing temporal.”

In the dialogue from _King John_ (act iii. sc. 1, l. 96, vol. iv. p. 37)

between Philip of France and Constance, the same testing is alluded to.

King Philip says,—

“By heaven, lady, you shall have no cause

To curse the fair proceedings of this day:

Have I not pawn’d to you my majesty?”

But Constance answers with great severity,—

“You have beguiled me with a counterfeit

Resembling majesty, which being touch’d and tried,

Proves valueless: you are forsworn, forsworn.”

One instance more shall close the subject;—it is from the _Coriolanus_

(act iv. sc. 1, l. 44, vol. vi. p. 369), and contains a very fine

allusion to the testing of true metal; the noble traitor is addressing

his mother Volumnia, his wife Virgilia, and others of his kindred,—

“Fare ye well:

Thou hast years upon thee; and thou art too full

Of the wars’ surfeits, to go rove with one

That’s yet unbruised: bring me but out at gate.

Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and

My friends of noble touch, when I am forth,

Bid me farewell, and smile.”

So beautifully and so variously does the great dramatist carry out that

one thought of making trial of men’s hearts and characters to learn the

metal of which they are made.

To finish our notices and illustrations of the Triumph Scene in

_Pericles_, there remain to be considered the device and the motto of

the sixth—the stranger knight—who “with such a graceful courtesy

delivered,”—

“A wither’d branch, that’s only green at top,[105]

The motto, _In hac spe vivo_;”

(Act ii. sc. 2, lines 43, 44;)

and on which the remark is made by Simonides,—

“A pretty moral:

From the dejected state wherein he is,

He hopes by you his fortune yet may flourish.”

With these I have found nothing identical in any of the various books of

Emblems which I have examined; indeed, I cannot say that I have met with

anything similar. The sixth knight’s emblem is very simple, natural, and

appropriate; and I am most of all disposed to regard it as invented by

Shakespeare himself to complete a scene, the greater part of which had

been accommodated from other writers.

_Illicitum non ſperandum._

[Illustration: _Whitney, 1586._]

“SPES _ſimul & Nemeſis noſtris altaribus adſunt,

Scilicet vt ſperes non niſi quod liceat._”

The unlawful thing not to be hoped for.

“HERE NEMESIS, and Hope: our deedes doe rightlie trie,

Which warnes vs, not to hope for that, which justice doth denie.”

Yet the sixth device and motto need not remain without illustration.

Hope is a theme which Emblematists could not possibly omit. Alciatus

gives a series of four Emblems on this virtue,—Emblems 43, 44, 45, and

46; Sambucus, three, with the mottoes “Spes certa,” “In spe fortitudo,”

and “Spes aulica;” and Whitney, three from Alciatus (pp. 53, 137, and

139); but none of these can be accepted as a proper illustration of the

_In hac spe vivo_. Their inapplicability may be judged of from Alciat’s

46th Emblem, very closely followed by Whitney (p. 139).

In the spirit, however, if not in the words of the sixth knight’s

device, the Emblem writers have fashioned their thoughts. From Paradin’s

“DEVISES HEROIQVES,” so often quoted, we select two devices (fol. 30 and

152) illustrative of our subject. The one, an arrow issuing from a tomb,

on which is the sign of the cross, and having verdant shoots twined

around it, was the emblem which Madame Diana of Poitiers adopted to

express her strong hope of a resurrection from the dead;[106] and the

same hope is also shadowed forth by ears of corn growing out of a

collection of dry bones, and ripening and shedding their seed.

[Illustration: _Paradin, 1562._]

The first, _Sola viuit in illo_,—“Alone on that,” _i.e._, on the cross,

“she lives,”—we now offer with Paradin’s explanation; “_L’esperance que

Madame Diane de Poitiers Illustre Duchesse de Valentinois, a de la

resurrection, & que son noble esprit, contemplant les cieus en cette

view, paruiendra en l’autre après la mort: est possible signifié par sa

Deuise, qui est d’vn Sercueil, ou tombeau, duquel sort vn trait,

acompagné de certains syons verdoyans._” _i.e._,—“The hope which Madame

Diana of Poitiers, the illustrious Duchess de Valentinois, has of the

resurrection, and which her noble spirit, contemplating the heavens in

this life, will arrive at in the other, after death: it is really

signified by her Device, which is a Sepulchre or tomb, from which issues

an arrow, accompanied by certain verdant shoots.”

The motto of the second is more directly to the purpose, _Spes altera

vitæ_,—“Another hope of life,” or “The hope of another life,”—and its

application is thus explained by Paradin (leaf 151 _reverso_),—“_Les

grains des Bleds, & autres herbages, semées & mortifiées en terre, se

reuerdoyent, & prennent nouuel accroissement: aussi les corps humains

tombãs par Mort, seront relevés en gloire, par generale

resurrection._”—_i.e._, “The seeds of wheat, and other herbs, sown and

dying in the ground, become green again, and take new growth: so human

bodies cast down by Death will be raised again in glory, by the general

resurrection.”

We omit the woodcut which Paradin gives, and substitute for it the 100th

Emblem, part i. p. 102, from Joachim Camerarius, edition, 1595, which

bears the very same motto and device.

SPES ALTERA VITÆ.

[Illustration: _Camerarius, 1595._]

“_Securus moritur, qui scit se morte renasci:

Non ea mors dici, sed noua vita potest._”

“Fearless doth that man die, who knows

From death he again shall be born;

We never can name it as death,—

’Tis new life on eternity’s morn.”

A sentence or two from the comment may serve for explanation; “The seeds

and grains of fruits and herbs are thrown upon the earth, and as it were

entrusted to it; after a certain time they spring up again and produce

manifold. So also our bodies, although already dead, and destined to

burial in the earth, yet at the last day shall arise, the good to life,

the wicked to judgment.”... “Elsewhere it is said, ONE HOPE SURVIVES,

doubtless beyond the grave.”[107]

“MORT VIVIFIANTE,” of Messin, _In Morte Vita_, of Boissard, edition

1588, pp. 38, 39, also receive their emblematical representation, from

wheat growing among the signs of death.

“En vain nous attendons la moisson, si le grain

Ne se pourrit au creux de la terre beschée.

Sans la corruption, la nature empeschée

Retient toute semence au ventre soubterrain.”

At present we must be content to say that the source of the motto and

device of the sixth knight has not been discovered. It remains for us to

conjecture, what is very far from being an improbability, that

Shakespeare had read Spenser’s _Shepherd’s Calendar_, published in 1579,

and from the line, on page 364 of Moxon’s edition, for January (l. 54),—

“Ah, God! that love should breed both ioy and paine!”—

and from the Emblem, as Spenser names it, _Anchora speme_,—“Hope is my

anchor,”—did invent for himself the sixth knight’s device, and its

motto, _In hac spe vivo_,—“In this hope I live.” The step from applying

so suitably the Emblems of other writers to the construction of new ones

would not be great; and from what he has actually done in the invention

of Emblems in the _Merchant of Venice_ he would experience very little

trouble in contriving any Emblem that he needed for the completion of

his dramatic plans.

The _Casket_ Scene and the _Triumph_ Scene then justify our conclusion

that the correspondencies between Shakespeare and the Emblem writers

which preceded him are very direct and complete. It is to be accepted as

a fact that he was acquainted with their works, and profited so much

from them, as to be able, whenever the occasion demanded, to invent and

most fittingly illustrate devices of his own. The spirit of Alciat was

upon him, and in the power of that spirit he pictured forth the ideas to

which his fancy had given birth.

[Illustration: _Horapollo, ed. 1551._]

-----

Footnote 93:

Thus to be rendered into symmetrical lines of English,—

“The Sun, the eye of heaven, with beams the world illumes,

And the pale Moon afar scatters black night.

So virtue, the soul’s sun, our pining senses illumes,

And genial faith dispels the darkness of the mind.

If virtue to the mind,—so leading the way to virtue shines

Faith in her purity: nothing can be brighter than this.

The golden splendour of virtue and faith, O Philip,

Throwing out beamings, shows to thee paths to the sky.

This in truth is the Sun of life, and the one Light-bringer,

This in truth the Moon which by shining drives away night.

While in thy mind these lights thou seest on high,—of the world

The darkness and terrors untrembling thou dost behold.

Sun and Moon and the Light-bringer flash light to their orbs,

And the while on thee shine, too, virtue and faith.”

Footnote 94:

Of cognate meaning is Messin’s motto in Boissard’s _Emblems_, 1588,

pp. 82–3, “Plvs par vertv qve par armes,”—_Plus virtute quàm

armis_,—the device being a tyrant, with spearmen to guard him, but

singeing his beard because he was afraid of his barber,—

“Et vuyde d’asseurance, il aymoit fier

La façon de son poil au charbon, qu’au barbier

Tant l’injustice au cœur ente de meffiance.”

Footnote 95:

See _Penny Cyclopædia_, vol. xxi. p. 343, where the _Pericles_ and

eight other plays are assigned “to the period from Shakspere’s early

manhood to 1591. Some of those dramas may possibly then have been

created in an imperfect state, very different from that in which we

have received them. If the _Titus Andronicus_ and _Pericles_ are

Shakspere’s, they belong to this epoch in their first state, whatever

it might have been.” See also Knight’s _Pictorial Shakspere_,

supplemental volume, p. 119, where, as before mentioned, the opinion

is laid down,—“We think that the _Pericles_ of the beginning of the

seventeenth century was the revival of a play written by Shakspere

some twenty years earlier.”

Footnote 96:

It may be mentioned that Paradin describes five other Roman wreaths of

honour.

Footnote 97:

Symeoni, in 1559, dedicated “All’ Illustrissima Signora Duchessa di

Valentinois,” his “VITA ET METAMORFOSEO D’OVIDIO,” 8vo, containing 187

pages of devices, with beautiful borders.

Footnote 98:

“_Nella giornata de Suizzeri, rotti presso à Milano dal Rè Francesco,

Monsignor di San Valiere il Vecchio, padre di Madama la Duchessa di

Valentinoys, e Capitano di cento Gentil’huomini della Casa del Rè,

portò vno Stendardo, nel quale era dipinto vn torchio acceso con la

testa in giù, sulla quale colaua tanta cera, che quasi li spegneua,

con queste parole_, QVI ME ALIT, ME EXTINGVIT, _imitando l’impresa del

Rè suo Padrone: cio è_, NVTRISCO ET EXTINGVO. _È la natura della cera,

la quale è cagione che ’l torchio abbrucia stando ritto, che col capo

in giù si spegne: volendo per ciò significare, che come la bellezza

d’vna Donna, che egli amaua, nutriua tutti i suoi pensieri, così lo

metteua in pericolo della vita. Vedesi anchora questo stendardo nella

Chiesa de Celestini in Lyone._”

Footnote 99:

See _Essays Literary and Bibliographical_, pp. 301–2, and 311, in the

Fac-simile Reprint of Whitney’s _Emblemes_, 1866.

Footnote 100:

“_Si pour esprouuer la fin Or, ou autre metaus, lon les raporte sus la

Touche, sans qu’on se confie de leurs tintemens, ou de leurs sons,

aussi pour connoitre les gens de bien, & vertueus personnages, se faut

prendre garde à la splendeur de leurs œuures, sans s’arrester au

babil._”

Footnote 101:

See _Symbola Diuina & Humana Pontificvm, Imperatorvm, Regvm_, 3 vols.

folio in one, Franckfort, 1652.

Footnote 102:

This original drawing, with thirty-four others by the same artist,

first appeared in _Emblemata Selectiora_, 4to, Amsterdam, 1704; also

in _Acht-en-Dertig Konstige Zinnebeelden_,—“Eight-and-thirty Artistic

Emblems,”—4to, Amsterdam, 1737.

Footnote 103:

Or it may be a few years later. The drawings, however, are undoubted

from which the above woodcut has been executed.

Footnote 104:

This Emblem is dedicated to “GEORGE MANWARINGE _Esquier_,” son of “Sir

Arthvre Menwerynge,” “of Ichtfeild,” in Shropshire, from whom are

directly descended the Mainwarings of Oteley Park, Ellesmere, and

indirectly the Mainwarings of Over-Peover, Cheshire.

Footnote 105:

The phrase is matched by another in _Much Ado about Nothing_ (act ii.

sc. 1, l. 214, vol. ii. p. 22), when Benedict said of the Lady

Beatrice, “O, she misused me past endurance of a block! an oak but

with one green leaf on it would have answered her.”

Footnote 106:

“The sixth device,” say the _Illustrations of Shakespeare_, by Francis

Douce, vol. ii. p. 127, “from its peculiar reference to the situation

of Pericles, may, perhaps, have been altered from one in the same

collection (Paradin’s), used by Diana of Poitiers. It is a green

branch springing from a tomb, with the motto, ‘SOLA VIVIT IN

ILLO,’”—_Alone on that she lives._

Footnote 107:

“_Frvmentorvm ac leguminum semina ac grana in terram projecta, ac illi

quasi concredita, certo tempore renascuntur, atque multiplices fructus

producunt. Sic nostra etiam corpora, quamvis: jam mortua, ac terrestri

sepulturæ destinata, in die tamen ultima resurgent, & piorum quidem ad

vitam, impiorum vero ad judicium._”... “_Alibi legitur, SPES VNA

SVPERSTES, nimirum post funus._”

-----

------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER VI.

CLASSIFICATION OF THE CORRESPONDENCIES AND PARALLELISMS OF SHAKESPEARE WITH EMBLEM WRITERS.

HAVING established the facts that Shakespeare invented and described

Emblems of his own, and that he plainly and palpably adopted several

which had been designed by earlier authors, we may now, with more

consistency, enter on the further labour of endeavouring to trace to

their original sources the various hints and allusions, be they more or

less express, which his sonnets and dramas contain in reference to

Emblem literature. And we may bear in mind that we are not now

proceeding on mere conjecture; we have dug into the virgin soil and have

found gold that can bear every test, and may reasonably expect, as we

continue our industry, to find a nugget here and a nugget there to

reward our toil.

But the correspondencies and parallelisms existing in Shakespeare

between himself and the earlier Emblematists are so numerous, that it

becomes requisite to adopt some system of arrangement, or of

classification, lest a mere chaos of confusion and not the symmetry of

order should reign over our enterprise. And as “all Emblemes for the

most part,” says Whitney to his readers, “maie be reduced into these

three kindes, which is _Historicall_, _Naturall_, & _Morall_,” we shall

make that division of his our foundation, and considering the various

instances of imitation or of adaptation to be met with in Shakespeare,

shall arrange them under the _eight_ heads of—1, Historical Emblems; 2,

Heraldic Emblems; 3, Emblems of Mythological Characters; 4, Emblems

illustrative of Fables; 5, Emblems in connexion with Proverbs; 6,

Emblems from Facts in Nature, and from the Properties of Animals; 7,

Emblems for Poetic Ideas; and 8, Moral and Æsthetic, and Miscellaneous

Emblems.

------------------

SECTION I.

_HISTORICAL EMBLEMS._

AS soon as learning revived in Europe, the great models of ancient times

were again set up on their pedestals for admiration and for guidance.

Nearly all the Elizabethan authors, certainly those of highest fame,

very frequently introduce, or expatiate upon, the worthies of Greece and

Rome,—both those which are named in the epic poems of Homer and Virgil,

and those which are within the limits of authentic history. It seemed

enough to awaken interest, “to point a moral, or adorn a tale,” that

there existed a record of old.

Shakespeare, though cultivating, it may be, little direct acquaintance

with the classical writers, followed the general practice. He has built

up some of the finest of his Tragedies, if not with chorus, and

semi-chorus, strophe, anti-strophe, and epode, like the Athenian models,

yet with a wonderfully exact appreciation of the characters of

antiquity, and with a delineating power surprisingly true to history and

to the leading events and circumstances in the lives of the personages

whom he introduces. From possessing full and adequate scholarship,

Giovio, Domenichi, Claude Mignault, Whitney, and others of the Emblem

schools, went immediately to the original sources of information.

Shakespeare, we may admit, could do this only in a limited degree, and

generally availed himself of assistance from the learned translators of

ancient authors. Most marvellously does he transcend them in the

creative attributes of high genius: they supplied the rough marble,

blocks of Parian perchance, and a few tools more or less suited to the

work; but it was himself, his soul and intellect and good right arm,

which have produced almost living and moving forms,—

“See, my lord,

Would you not deem it breath’d? and that those veins

Did verily bear blood?”

_Winter’s Tale_, act v. sc. 3, l. 63.

For Medeia, one of the heroines of Euripides, and for Æneas and Anchises

in their escape from Troy, Alciat (Emblem 54), and his close imitator

Whitney (p. 33), give each an emblem.

To the first the motto is,—

“_Ei qui semel sua prodegerit, aliena credi non oportere_,”—

“To that man who has once squandered his own, another person’s ought not

to be entrusted,”—

similar, as a counterpart, to the Saviour’s words (_Luke_ xvi. 12), “If

ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give

you that which is your own.”

The device is,—

[Illustration: _Alicat, 1581._]

with the following Latin elegiacs,—

COLCHIDOS _in gremio nidum quid congeris? eheu

Neſcia cur pullos tam malè credis auis?

Dira parens Medea ſuos ſæuiſſima natos

Perdidit; & ſperas parcat vt illa tuis?_

Which Whitney (p. 33) considerably amplifies,—

“MEDEA loe with infante in her arme,

Whoe kil’de her babes, shee shoulde haue loued beste:

The swallowe yet, whoe did suspect no harme,

Hir Image likes, and hatch’d vppon her breste:[108]

And lifte her younge, vnto this tirauntes guide,

Whoe, peecemeale did her proper fruicte deuide.

Oh foolishe birde, think’ste thow, shee will haue care,

Vppon thy yonge? Whoe hathe her owne destroy’de,

And maie it bee, that shee thie birdes should spare?

Whoe slue her owne, in whome shee shoulde haue ioy’d.

Thow arte deceau’de, and arte a warninge good,

To put no truste, in them that hate theire blood.”

And to the same purport, from Alciat’s 193rd Emblem, are Whitney’s lines

(p. 29),—

“MEDEA nowe, and PROGNE, blusshe for shame:

By whome, are ment yow dames of cruell kinde

Whose infantes yonge, vnto your endlesse blame,

For mothers deare, do tyrauntes of yow finde:

Oh serpentes seede, each birde, and sauage brute,

Will those condempne, that tender not theire frute.”

The stanza of his 194th Emblem is adapted by Alciat, and by Whitney

after him (p. 163), to the motto,—

_Pietas filiorum in parentes_,—

“The reverence of sons towards their parents.”

[Illustration: _Alicat, 1581._]

PER _medios hoſteis patriæ cùm ferret ab igne

Aeneas humeris dulce parentis onus:

Parcite, dicebat: vobis ſene adorea rapto

Nulla erit, erepto ſed patre ſumma mihi._

“AENEAS beares his father, out of Troye,

When that the Greekes, the same did spoile, and sacke:

His father might of suche a sonne haue ioye,

Who throughe his foes, did beare him on his backe:

No fier, nor sworde, his valiaunt harte coulde feare,

To flee awaye, without his father deare.

Which showes, that sonnes must carefull bee, and kinde,

For to releeue their parentes in distresse:

And duringe life, that dutie shoulde them binde,

To reuerence them, that God their daies maie blesse:

And reprehendes tenne thowsande to their shame,

Who ofte dispise the stocke whereof they came.”

The two emblems of Medeia and of Æneas and Anchises, Shakespeare, in _2

Henry VI._ (act. v. sc. 2, l. 45, vol. v. p. 218), brings into close

juxta-position, and unites by a single description; it is, when young

Clifford comes upon the dead body of his valiant father, stretched on

the field of St. Albans, and bears it lovingly on his shoulders. With

strong filial affection he addresses the mangled corpse,—

“Wast thou ordain’d, dear father,

To lose thy youth in peace, and to atchieve

The silver livery of advised age;

And, in thy reverence, and thy chair-days, thus

To die in ruffian battle?”

On the instant the purpose of vengeance enters his mind, and fiercely he

declares,—

“Even at this sight,

My heart is turn’d to stone; and, while ’tis mine,

It shall be stony. York not our old men spares;

No more will I their babes: tears virginal

Shall be to me even as the dew to fire;

And beauty, that the tyrant oft reclaims,

Shall to my flaming wrath be oil and flax.

Henceforth I will not have to do with pity:

Meet I an infant of the house of York,

Into as many gobbets will I cut it,

As wild Medea young Absyrtus did:

In cruelty will I seek out my fame.”

Then suddenly there comes a gush of feeling, and with most exquisite

tenderness he adds,—

“Come, thou new ruin of old Clifford’s house:

As did Æneas old Anchises bear,

So bear I thee upon my manly shoulders:

But then Æneas bare a living load,

Nothing so heavy as these woes of mine.”

The same allusion, in _Julius Cæsar_ (act. i. sc. 2, l. 107, vol. vii.

p. 326), is also made by Cassius, when he compares his own natural

powers with those of Cæsar, and describes their stout contest in

stemming “the troubled Tyber,”—

“The torrent roar’d, and we did buffet it

With lusty sinews, throwing it aside

And stemming it with hearts of controversy;

But ere he could arrive the point proposed,

Cæsar cried, ‘Help me, Cassius, or I sink!’

I, as Æneas our great ancestor

Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder

The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber

Did I the tired Cæsar: and this man

Is now become a god, and Cassius is

A wretched creature, and must bend his body

If Cæsar carelessly but nod on him.”

[Illustration: _Aneau, 1552._]

Progne, or Procne, Medeia’s counterpart for cruelty, who placed the

flesh of her own son Itys before his father Tereus, is represented in

Aneau’s “PICTA POESIS,” ed. 1552, p. 73, with a Latin stanza of ten

lines, and the motto, “IMPOTENTIS VINDICTÆ FOEMINA,”—_The Woman of

furious Vengeance._ In the _Titus Andronicus_ (act. v. sc. 2, l. 192,

vol. vi. p. 522) the fearful tale of Progne enters into the plot, and a

similar revenge is repeated. The two sons of the empress, Chiron and

Demetrius, who had committed atrocious crimes against Lavinia the

daughter of Titus, are bound, and preparations are made to inflict such

punishment as the world’s history had but once before heard of. Titus

declares he will bid their empress mother, “like to the earth swallow

her own increase.”

“This is the feast that I have bid her to,

And this the banquet she shall surfeit on;

For worse than Philomel you used my daughter,

And worse than Progne I will be revenged.”

’Tis a fearful scene, and the father calls,—

“And now prepare your throats. Lavinia, come,

[_He cuts their throats._

Receive the blood: and when that they are dead,

Let me go grind their bones to powder small,

And with this hateful liquor temper it;

And in that paste let their vile heads be baked.

Come, come, be every one officious

To make this banquet; which I wish may prove

More stern and bloody than the Centaurs’ feast.”

A character from Virgil’s _Æneid_ (bk. ii. lines 79–80; 195–8;

257–9),[109] frequently introduced both by Whitney and Shakespeare, is

that of the traitor Sinon, who, with his false tears and lying words,

obtained for the wooden horse and its armed men admission through the

walls and within the city of Troy. Asia, he averred, would thus secure

supremacy over Greece, and Troy find a perfect deliverance. It is from

the “PICTA POESIS” of Anulus (p. 18), that Whitney (p. 141) on one

occasion adopts the Emblem of treachery, the untrustworthy shield of

Brasidas,—

_Perfidvs familiaris_,—

“The faithless friend.”

[Illustration: _Aneau_, 1552.]

PER _medium Brasidas clypeum traiectus ab hoſte:

Quóque foret læſus ciue rogante modum.

Cui fidebam (inquit) penetrabilis vmbo fefellit._

SIC CVI _ſæpe fides credita: proditor eſt._

Thus rendered in the _Choice of Emblemes_,—

“While throughe his foes, did boulde BRASIDAS thruste,

And thought with force, their courage to confounde:

Throughe targat faire, wherein he put his truste,

His manlie corpes receau’d a mortall wounde.

Beinge ask’d the cause, before he yeelded ghoste:

Quoth hee, my shielde, wherein I trusted moste.

Euen so it happes, wee ofte our bayne doe brue,

When ere wee trie, wee trust the gallante showe:

When frendes suppoas’d, do prooue them selues vntrue.

When SINON false, in DAMONS shape dothe goe:

Then gulfes of griefe, doe swallowe vp our mirthe,

And thoughtes ofte times, doe shrow’d vs in the earthe.

* * * * * *

But, if thou doe inioye a faithfull frende,

See that with care, thou keepe him as thy life:

And if perhappes he doe, that may offende,

Yet waye thy frende: and shunne the cause of strife,

Remembringe still, there is no greater crosse;

Then of a frende, for, to sustaine the losse.

Yet, if this knotte of frendship be to knitte,

And SCIPIO yet, his LELIVS can not finde?

Content thy selfe, till some occasion fitte,

Allot thee one, according to thy minde:

Then trie, and truste: so maiste thou liue in rest,

But chieflie see, thou truste thy selfe the beste?”

[Illustration: _Sambucus_, 1564.]

And again, adopting the Emblem of John Sambucus, edition Antwerp, 1564,

p. 184,[110] and the motto,

_Nusquam tuta fides_,—

“Trustfulness is never sure,”

with the exemplification of the Elephant and the undermined tree,

Whitney writes (p. 150),—

“No state so sure, no seate within this life

But that maie fall, thoughe longe the same haue stoode:

Here fauninge foes, here fained frendes are rife.

With pickthankes, blabbes, and subtill Sinons broode,

Who when wee truste, they worke our ouerthrowe,

And vndermine the grounde, wheron wee goe.

The Olephant so huge, and stronge to see,

No perill fear’d: but thought a sleepe to gaine

But foes before had vndermin’de the tree,

And downe he falles, and so by them was slaine:

First trye, then truste: like goulde, the copper showes:

And NERO ofte, in NVMAS clothinge goes.”

Freitag’s “MYTHOLOGIA ETHICA,” pp. 176, 177, sets forth the well-known

fable of the Countryman and the Viper, which after receiving warmth and

nourishment attempted to wound its benefactor. The motto is,—

_Maleficio beneficium compensatum_,—

“A good deed recompensed by maliciousness.”

[Illustration: _Freitag, 1579._]

“_Qui reddit mala pro bonis, non recedet malum de domo

eius._”—_Prouerb_, 17, 13.

“Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house.”

Nicolas Reusner, also, edition Francfort, 1581, bk. ii. p. 81, has an

Emblem on this subject, and narrates the whole fable,—

_Merces anguina_,—“Reward from a serpent.”

“Frigore confectum quem rusticus inuenit anguem

Imprudens fotum recreat ecce sinu.

Immemor hic miserum lethale sauciat ictu:

Reddidit hìc vitam; reddidit ille necem.

Si benefacta locis malè, simplex mente, bonusq.:

Non benefacta quidem, sed malefacta puta.

Ingratis seruire nefas, gratisq. nocere:

Quod benè fit gratis, hoc solet esse lucro.”[111]

In several instances in his historical plays, Shakespeare very expressly

refers to this fable. On hearing that some of his nobles had made peace

with Bolingbroke, in _Richard II._ (act. iii. sc. 2, l. 129, vol. iv. p.

168), the king exclaims,—

“O villains, vipers, damn’d without redemption!

Dogs, easily won to fawn on any man!

Snakes, in my heart blood warm’d that sting my heart!”

In the same drama (act. v. sc. 3, l. 57, vol. iv. p. 210) York urges

Bolingbroke,—

“Forget to pity him, lest thy pity prove,

A serpent that will sting thee to the heart.”

And another, bearing the name of York, in _2 Henry VI._ (act. iii. sc.

1, l. 343, vol. v. p. 162), declares to the nobles,—

“I fear me, you but warm the starved snake,

Who, cherish’d in your breasts, will sting your hearts.”

Also Hermia, _Midsummer Night’s Dream_ (act. ii. sc. 2, l. 145, vol. ii.

p. 225), when awakened from her trance-like sleep, calls on her

beloved,—

“Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy best

To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast.”

Whitney combines Freitag’s and Reusner’s Emblems under one motto (p.

189), _In sinu alere serpentem_,—“To nourish a serpent in the

bosom,”—but applies them to the siege of Antwerp in 1585 in a way which

Schiller’s famous history fully confirms:[112]—“The government of the

citizens was shared among too many hands, and too strongly influenced by

a disorderly populace to allow any one to consider with calmness, to

decide with judgment, or to execute with firmness.”

The typical Sinon is here introduced by Whitney,—

“Thovghe, cittie stronge the cannons shotte dispise,

And deadlie foes, beseege the same in vaine:

Yet, in the walles if pining famine rise,

Or else some impe of SINON, there remaine.

What can preuaile your bulwarkes? and your towers,

When, all your force, your inwarde foe deuoures.”

In fact, Sinon seems to have been the accepted representative of

treachery in every form; for when Camillus, at the siege of Faleria,

rewarded the Schoolmaster as he deserved for attempting to give up his

scholars into captivity, the occurence is thus described in the _Choice

of Emblemes_, p. 113,—

“With that, hee caus’de this SINON to bee stripte,

And whippes, and roddes, vnto the schollers gaue:

Whome, backe againe, into the toune they whipte.”

Shakespeare is even more frequent in his allusions to this same Sinon.

The _Rape of Lucrece_, published in 1594, speaks of him as “the perjured

Sinon,” “the false Sinon,” “the subtle Sinon,” and avers (vol. ix. p.

537, l. 1513),—

“Like a constant and confirmed devil,

He entertain’d a show so seeming just,

And therein so ensconc’d his secret evil,—

That jealousy itself could not mistrust,

False creeping craft and perjury should thrust

Into so bright a day such black-faced storms,

Or blot with hell-born sin such saint-like forms.”

Also in _3 Henry VI._ (act. iii. sc. 2, l. 188, vol. v. p. 285), and in

_Titus Andronicus_ (act. v. sc. 3, l. 85, vol. vi. p. 527), we read,—

“I’ll play the orator as well as Nestor,

Deceive more slyly than Ulysses could,

And like a Sinon, take another Troy;”

and,—

“Tell us what Sinon hath bewitch’d our ears,

Or who hath brought the fatal engine in

That gives our Troy, our Rome, the civil wound.”

But in _Cymbeline_ (act. iii. sc. 4, l. 57, vol. ix. p. 226), Æneas is

joined in almost the same condemnation with Sinon. Pisano expostulates

with Imogen,—

“_Pis._ Good madam, hear me.

_Imo._ True honest men being heard, like false Æneas,

Were in his time thought false; and Sinon’s weeping

Did scandal many a holy tear, took pity

From most true wretchedness: so thou, Posthumus,

Wilt lay the leaven on all proper men;

Goodly and gallant shall be false and perjured

From thy great fail.”

Doubtless it will be said that such allusions to the characters in

classical history are the common property of the whole modern race of

literary men, and that to make them implies no actual copying by later

writers of those who preceded them in point of time; still in the

examples just given there are such coincidences of expression, not

merely of idea, as justify the opinion that Shakespeare both availed

himself of the usual sources of information, and had read and taken into

his mind the very colour of thought which Whitney had lately spread over

the same subject.

The great Roman names, Curtius, Cocles, Manlius and Fabius gave Whitney

the opportunity for saying (p. 109),—

“With these, by righte comes _Coriolanus_ in,

Whose cruell minde did make his countrie smarte;

Till mothers teares, and wiues, did pittie winne.”

And these few lines, in fact, are a summary of the plot and chief

incidents of Shakespeare’s play of _Coriolanus_, so that it is far from

being unlikely that they may have been the germ, the very seed-bed of

that vigorous offset of his genius. Almost the exact blame which Whitney

imputes is also attributed to Coriolanus by his mother Volumnia (act. v.

sc. 3, l. 101, vol. vi. p. 407), who charges him with,—

“Making the mother, wife and child, to see

The son, the husband and the father, tearing

His country’s bowels out.”

And when wife and mother have conquered his strong hatred against his

native land (act. v. sc. 3, l. 206, vol. vi. p. 411), Coriolanus

observes to them,—

“Ladies, you deserve

To have a temple built you: all the swords

In Italy, and her confederate arms,

Could not have made this peace.”

The subject of Alciat’s 119th Emblem, edition 1581, p. 430, is the

_Death of Brutus_, with the motto,—

_Fortuna virtutem superans_,—

“Fortune overcoming valour.”

[Illustration: _Alicat, 1581._]

CÆSAREO _poſtquàm ſuperatus milite, vidit

Ciuili vndantem ſanguine Pharſaliam;

Jam iam ſtricturus moribunda in pectora ferrum,

Audaci hos Brutus protulit ore ſonos:

Infelix virtus; & ſolis prouida verbis,

Fortunam in rebus cur ſequeris dominam?_

On the ideas here suggested Whitney enlarges, p. 70, and writes,—

“When BRVTVS knewe, AVGVSTVS parte preuail’de,

And sawe his frendes, lie bleedinge on the grounde,

Such deadlie griefe, his noble harte assail’de,

That with his sworde, hee did him selfe confounde:

But firste, his frendes perswaded him to flee,

Whoe aunswer’d thus, my flighte with handes shalbee.

And bending then to blade, his bared breste,

Hee did pronounce, theise wordes with courage great:

Oh Prowes vaine, I longe did loue thee beste,

But nowe I see, thou doest on fortune waite.

Wherefore with paine, I nowe doe prouue it true,

That fortunes force, maie valiant hartes subdue.”

So, in the _Julius Cæsar_ (act. v. sc. 5, l. 25, vol. vii. p. 413), the

battle of Philippi being irretrievably lost to the party of the

Republic, and Marcus Cato slain, Brutus, meditating self-destruction,

desires aid from one of his friends that he may accomplish his purpose,—

“Good Volumnius,

Thou know’st that we two went to school together:

Even for that our love of old, I prithee,

Hold thou my sword-hilts, whilst I run on it.

_Vol._ That’s not an office for a friend, my lord.”

The alarum continues,—the friends of Brutus again remonstrate, and

Clitus urges him to escape (l. 30),—

“_Cli._ Fly, fly, my lord; there is no tarrying here.

_Bru._ Farewell to you; and you; and you, Volumnius.

Strato, thou hast been all this while asleep;

Farewell to thee, too, Strato. Countrymen,

My heart doth joy that yet in all my life

I found no man but he was true to me.

I shall have glory by this losing day,

More than Octavius and Mark Antony

By this vile contest shall attain unto.

So, fare you well at once; for Brutus’ tongue

Hath almost ended his life’s history:

Night hangs upon mine eyes; my bones would rest,

That have but labour’d to attain this hour.”

Once more is the alarum raised,—“Fly, fly, fly.” “Hence, I will follow

thee,” is the hero’s answer; but when friends are gone, he turns to one

of his few attendants, and entreats (l. 44),—

“I prithee, Strato, stay thou by thy lord:

Thou art a fellow of a good respect;

Thy life hath had some smatch of honour in it:

Hold then my sword, and turn away thy face,

While I do run upon it. Wilt thou, Strato?

_Stra._ Give me your hand first: fare you well, my lord.

_Bru._ Farewell, good Strato. [_Runs on his sword._] Cæsar, now be

still:

I kill’d not thee with half so good a will.@span 6: [_Dies._]”@

In the presence of the conquerors Strato then declares,—

“The conquerors can but make a fire of him;

For Brutus only overcame himself,

And no man else hath honour by his death.

_Lucil._ So Brutus should be found. I thank thee, Brutus,

That thou hast proved Lucilius’ saying true.”

And we must mark how finely the dramatist represents the victors at

Philippi testifying to the virtues of their foe (l. 68),—

“_Antony._ This was the noblest Roman of them all:

All the conspirators, save only he,

Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar;

He only, in a general honest thought

And common good to all, made one of them.

* * * * * *

_Octavius._[113] According to his virtue let us use him,

With all respect and rites of burial.

Within my tent his bones to-night shall lie,

Most like a soldier, order’d honourably.”

The mode of the catastrophe differs slightly in the two writers; and

undoubtedly, in this as in most other instances, there is a very wide

difference between the life and spiritedness of the dramatist, and the

comparative lameness of the Emblem writers,—the former instinct with the

fire of genius, the latter seldom rising above an earth-bound

mediocrity; yet the references or allusions by the later poet to the

earlier can scarcely be questioned; they are too decided to be the

results of pure accident.

In one instance Whitney (p. 110, l. 32) hits off the characteristics of

Brutus and Cassius in a single line,—

“With _Brutus_ boulde, and _Cassius_, pale and wan.”

It is remarkable how Shakespeare amplifies these two epithets, “pale and

wan” into a full description of the personal manner and appearance of

Cassius. Cæsar and his train have re-entered upon the scene, and (act.

i. sc. 2, l. 192, vol. vii. p. 329) the dictator haughtily and

satirically gives order,—

“_Cæs._ Let me have men about me that are fat,

Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o’ nights:

Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;

He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.

_Ant._ Fear him not, Cæsar; he’s not dangerous;

He is a noble Roman, and well given.

_Cæs._ Would he were fatter! but I fear him not:

Yet if my name were liable to fear,

I do not know the man I should avoid

So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much;

He is a great observer, and he looks

Quite through the deeds of men: he loves no plays,

As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music;

Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort

As if he mock’d himself and scorn’d his spirit

That could be moved to smile at any thing.

Such men as he be never at heart’s ease

Whiles they behold a greater than themselves,

And therefore are they very dangerous.”

“Pale and wan,”—two most fruitful words, certainly, to bring forth so

graphic a description of men that are “very dangerous.”

Of names historic the Emblem writers give a great many examples, but

only a few, within the prescribed boundaries of our subject, that are at

the same time historic and Shakespearean.

_Vel post mortem formidolosi_,—“Even after death to be dreaded,”—is the

sentiment with which Alciatus (Emblem 170), and Whitney after him (p.

194), associate the noisy drum and the shrill-sounding horn; and thus

the Emblem-classic illustrates his device,—

“CÆTERA _mutescent, coriumq. silebit ouillum,

Si confecta lupi tympana pelle sonent.

Hanc membrana ouium sic exhorrescit, vt hostem

Exanimis quamuis non ferat exanimem.

Sic cute detracta Ziscas, in tympana versus,

Boëmos potuit vincere Pontifices._”

Literally rendered the Latin elegiacs declare,—

“Other things will grow dumb, and the sheep-skin be silent,

If drums made from the hide of a wolf should sound.

Of this so sore afraid is the membrane of sheep,

That though dead it could not bear its dead foe.

So Zisca’s skin torn off, he, changed to a drum,

The Bohemian chief priests was able to conquer.”

These curious ideas Whitney adopts, and most lovingly enlarges,—

“A Secret cause, that none can comprehende,

In natures workes is often to bee seene;

As, deathe can not the ancient discorde ende,

That raigneth still, the wolfe and sheepe betweene;

The like, beside in many thinges are knowne,

The cause reueal’d, to none, but GOD alone.

For, as the wolfe, the sillye sheepe did feare,

And make him still to tremble, at his barke:

So beinge dead, which is most straunge to heare,

This feare remaynes, as learned men did marke;

For with their skinnes, if that two drommes bee bounde,

That, clad with sheepe, doth iarre; and hathe no sounde.

And, if that stringes bee of their intrailes wroughte,

And ioyned both, to make a siluer sounde:

No cunninge care can tune them as they oughte,

But one is harde, the other still is droun’de:

Or discordes foule, the harmonie doe marre;

And nothinge can appease this inward warre.

So, ZISCA thoughte when deathe did shorte his daies,

As with his voice, hee erste did daunte his foes;

That after deathe hee shoulde new terror raise,

And make them flee, as when they felte his bloes.

Wherefore, hee charg’d that they his skinne shoulde frame,

To fitte a dromme, and marche forth with the same.

So, HECTORS sighte greate feare in Greekes did worke,

When hee was showed on horsebacke, beeinge dead:

HVNIADES, the terrour of the Turke,

Thoughe layed in graue, yet at his name they fled:

And cryinge babes, they ceased with the same,

The like in FRANCE, sometime did TALBOTS name.”

The cry[114] “A Talbot! a Talbot!” is represented by Shakespeare as

sufficient in itself to make the French soldiers flee and leave their

clothes behind; _1 Henry VI._ (act ii. sc. 1, l. 78, vol. v. p. 29),—

_Sold._i> I’ll be so bold to take what they have left.

The cry of Talbot serves me for a sword;

For I have loaden me with many spoils

Using no other weapon but his name.”

And in the same play (act ii. sc. 3, l. 11, vol. v. p. 32), when the

Countess of Auvergne is visited by the dreaded Englishman, the

announcement is made,—

“_Mess._ Madam,

According as your ladyship desired,

By message craved, so is Lord Talbot come.

_Count._ And he is welcome. What! is this the man?

_Mess._ Madam, it is.

_Count._ Is this the scourge of France?

Is this the Talbot, so much fear’d abroad

That with his name the mothers still their babes?”

[Illustration: _Whitney, 1586._]

Five or six instances may be found in which Shakespeare introduces the

word “lottery;” and, historically, the word is deserving of notice,—for

it was in his boyhood that the first public lottery was set on foot in

England; and judging from the nature of the prizes, he appears to have

made allusion to them. There were 40,000 chances,—according to Bohn’s

_Standard Library Cyclopædia_, vol. iii. p. 279,—sold at ten shillings

each: “The prizes consisted of articles of plate, and the profit was

employed for the repair of certain harbours.” The drawing took place at

the west door of St. Paul’s Cathedral; it began “23rd January, 1569, and

continued incessantly drawing, _day and night_, till the 6th of May

following.”[115] How such an event should find its record in a Book of

Emblems may at first be accounted strange; but in addition to her other

mottoes, Queen Elizabeth had, on this occasion of the lottery, chosen a

special motto, which Whitney (p. 61) attaches to the device,—

_Silentium_,—“Silence,”—

which, after six stanzas, he closes with the lines,—

“Th’ Ægyptians wise, and other nations farre,

Vnto this ende, HARPOCRATES deuis’de,

Whose finger, still did seeme his mouthe to barre,

To bid them speake, no more than that suffis’de,

Which signe thoughe oulde, wee may not yet detest,

But marke it well, if wee will liue in reste.”

[Illustration: decoration]

_Written to the like effecte, vppon

Video, & taceo.

Her Maieſties poëſie, at the great Lotterie in_ LONDON,

_begon_ M.D.LXVIII. _and ended_ M.D.LXIX.

I See, and houlde my peace: a Princelie Poëſie righte,

For euerie faulte, ſhoulde not provoke, a Prince, or man of mighte.

For if that IOVE ſhoulde ſhoote, ſo ofte as men offende,

The Poëttes ſaie, his thunderboltes ſhoulde ſoone bee at an ende.

Then happie wee that haue, a Princeſſe ſo inclin’de.

That when as iuſtice drawes hir ſworde, hath mercie in her minde,

And to declare the ſame, howe prone ſhee is to ſaue:

Her Maieſtie did make her choice, this Poëſie for to haue.

_Sed piger ad pœnas princeps, ad prœmia velox:

Cuique dolet, quoties cogitur eſſe ferox._[116]

Lines from Ovid, _2 Trist._, are in the margin,—

“_Si quoties peccãt homines sua fulmina mittat

Jupiter, exiguo tempore inermis erit._”[117]

Silence, also, was represented by the image of the goddess Ageniora. In

an Emblem-book by Peter Costalius, _Pegma_, edition Lyons, 1555, p. 109,

he refers to her example, and concludes his stanza with the words, _Si

sapis à nostra disce tacere dea_,—“If thou art wise, learn from our

goddess to be silent.”

That Casket Scene in the _Merchant of Venice_ (act i. sc. 2, l.

24),—from which we have already made long extracts,—contains a reference

to lotteries quite in character with the prizes, “articles of plate and

rich jewelry.” Portia is deeming it hard, that according to her father’s

will, she “may neither choose whom she would, nor refuse whom she

disliked.” “Is it not hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one, nor

refuse none?”

“_Ner._ Your father was ever virtuous; and holy men, at their

death, have good inspirations: therefore, the lottery, that he hath

devised in these three chests of gold, silver, and lead,—whereof who

chooses his meaning chooses you—will, no doubt, never be chosen by any

rightly, but one who shall rightly love.”

The Prince of Morocco (act ii. sc. 1, l. 11) affirms to Portia,—

“I would not change this hue,

Except to steal your thoughts, my gentle queen;”

and Portia answers,—

“In terms of choice I am not solely led

By nice direction of a maiden’s eyes;

Besides the lottery of my destiny

Bars me the right of voluntary choosing.”

The prevalence of lotteries, too, seems to be intimated by the Clown in

_All’s Well that Ends Well_ (act i. sc. 3, l. 73, vol. iii. p. 123),

when he repeats the song,—

“Among nine bad if one be good,

Among nine bad if one be good,

There’s yet one good in ten;”

and the Countess reproving him says,—

“What, one good in ten? you corrupt the song, sirrah.

_Clo._ One good woman in ten, madam; which is a purifying o’ the

song: would God would serve the world so all the year! we’d find no

fault with the tithe-woman, if I were the parson: one in ten, quoth a’!

an’ we might have a good woman born but one every blazing star, or at an

earthquake, ’twould mend the lottery well: a man may draw his heart out,

ere a’ pluck one.”

Shakespeare’s words will receive a not inapt illustration from the

sermon of a contemporary prelate, Dr. Chatterton, Bishop of Chester from

1579 to 1595, and to whom Whitney dedicated the Emblem on p. 120,

_Vigilantia et custodia_,—“Watchfulness and guardianship.”[118] He was

preaching a wedding sermon in Cambridge, and Ormerod, i. p. 146, quoting

King’s _Vale Royal_, tells us,—

“He used this merry comparison. The choice of a wife is full of

hazard, not unlike to a man groping for one fish in a barrel full of

serpents: if he escape harm of the snakes, and light on the fish, he may

be thought fortunate; yet let him not boast, for perhaps it may be but

an eel.”

That “good woman” “to mend the lottery well,” that “one fish in a barrel

full of serpents,” came, however, to the chance of one of Cæsar’s

friends. Even when Antony (_Antony and Cleopatra_, act ii. sc. 2, l.

245, vol. ix. p. 40) was under the witchery of the “rare Egyptian

queen,” that “did make defect, perfection,” the dramatist says,—

“If beauty, wisdom, modesty, can settle

The heart of Antony, Octavia is

A blessed lottery to him.”

The Emblems applicable to Shakespeare’s historical characters are only a

few among the numbers that occur in the Emblem writers, as Alciat,

Cousteau, Giovio, Symeoni, &c.: but our choice is limited, and there

would be no pertinency in selecting devices to which in the dramas of

our author there are no corresponding expressions of thought, though

there may be parallelisms of subject.

[Illustration:

Virtati fortuna comes

_Alciat’s Arms (Giovio, ed. 1562)._

]

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