Link to an image of this page [F7r p93]
In Adulatores.[1]
Flatterers
Semper hiat, semper tenuem qua vescitur auram,
Reciprocat chamaeleon[2],
Et mutat faciem, varios sumitque colores,
Praeter rubrum vel candidum:[3]
Sic & Adulator populari vescitur aura,[4]
Hiansque cuncta devorat,
Et solùm mores imitatur principis atros,
Albi & pudici nescius.
The Chameleon is always breathing in and out with open mouth the bodiless air on which it feeds; it changes its appearance and takes on various colours, except for red and white. - Even so the flatterer feeds on the wind of popular approval and gulps down all with open mouth. He imitates only the black features of the prince, knowing nothing of the white and pure.
1. From 1536 onwards, Wechel editions used a different woodcut which looks slightly more like a chameleon and has a castle in the background.
2. This creature was supposed to feed only on air, keeping its mouth wide open to suck it in. See Pliny, Natural History 8.51.122. For the chameleon cf. Erasmus, Parabolae pp.144, 241, 252.
3. ‘except for red and white’. See Pliny, ib.
4. ‘the wind of popular approval’. This is a common metaphor in Latin, e.g. Horace, Odes 3.2.20, ‘at the behest of the wind of popular approval.’
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Relating to the image:
- lizards: chameleon (+ animals used symbolically) [25F41(CHAMELEON)(+1)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees (+ bare plant) [25G3(+351)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rocks [25H112] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- colours, pigments, and paints (with NAME) [22C4(BLACK)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- colours, pigments, and paints (with NAME) [22C4(RED)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- colours, pigments, and paints (with NAME) [22C4(WHITE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- lizards: chameleon (+ animal(s) changing colour) [25F41(CHAMELEON)(+4831)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- breathing, respiration [31A22221] Search | Browse Iconclass
- royal household; courtiers, retinue, train [44B152] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Innocence; 'Innocenza', 'Innocenza o purit�' (Ripa) [57A631] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Flattery; 'Adulatione' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [57AA6121(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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