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.

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_,—

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.

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.”