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

DONEC TOTVM IMPLEAT ORBEN

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

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

_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._

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.

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

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.”

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.”

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.”

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._

_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.

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._