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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [Xx2r p691]

In detractores.

Against his detractors

EMBLEMA CLXIV.

Two disembodied hands, one holding a flag, surrounded by flying insects.
[Click on image to enlarge]

Audent flagriferi matulae, stupidique magistri
Bilem in me impuri pectoris evomere.
Quid faciam? reddamne vices? sed nonne cicadam
Ala una obstreperam corripuisse[1] ferar?
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [Xx2v p691]Quid prodest muscas operosis pellere[2] flabris?
Negligere est satius, perdere quod nequeas.

Those cane-wielding, empty-headed, thick-skulled teachers dare to spew out on me the bile of their foul minds. What am I to do? Return like for like? But surely I would then be said to have seized the dinning cicada by the wing. What is the good of driving flies away with tiresome swipes? It is better to ignore what you cannot get rid of.

Notes:

1.  cicadam / Ala una...corripuisse, ‘to have seized the...cicada by the wing’. See Erasmus, Adagia, 828 (Cicadam ala corripuisti): if you hold a cicada by the wing, it will only chirp more loudly.

2.  muscas...pellere, ‘driving flies away’. See Erasmus, Adagia, 2660 (Muscas depellere): driving flies away is a waste of effort as they simply return.

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [N1r p193]

Contre les detracteurs.

XXVIII.

Les fessecul, & pedants eslourdis
Osent sur moy vomir leur sotte bile:
Quoy faire, helas! si suis si malhabile
Que de respondre, on dira que j’ay pris
Le bout de l’aisle à cigale criarde,[1]
Pour de tant plus la faire estre bramarde.
Que gaigne-on à des mousches chasser?[2]
Ce qu’on ne peut faire, on le doit laisser.

Commentaires.

Alciat à façonné cest embleme pour soy, mais il se
trouve ailleurs tant en son nom, qu’au nom de Budee,
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [N1v p194] Zaze, & autres: & ce contre un qu’ils nomment
Ranciscus Olidus,[3] par detraction de deux lettres, &
changement d’une. Quand lon saisit la cigale par l’ai-
sle, elle crie tant plus fort. Ainsi, qui voudra respond-
re à un detracteur, tant s’en faut qu’il se taise, qu’il
criera d’avantage, & avec plus d’impudence & de
venim. La mousche est un animal importun, & le-
quel on chasse avec toutes les peines du monde. Un
homme de sçavoir ne se fait point d’honneur quand
il debat avec les ignorans.

Notes:

1.  See Erasmus, Adagia, 828 (Cicadam ala corripuisti): if you hold a cicada by the wing, it will only chirp more loudly.

2.  See Erasmus, Adagia, 2660 (Muscas depellere): driving flies away is a waste of effort as they simply return.

3.  Both Ulrich Zasius and Guillaume Budé (Budaeus) were prominent jurisconsultants, contemporaries of Alciato: Zasius worked at the University of Freiburg and notably opposed the reforms of Luther (d. 1536). Budé had a great impact on the study of Roman law and the Greek language in France (d. 1540).

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