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.

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.

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._

_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.”