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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [N6v p204]

Fidei symbolum.

The symbol of good faith

Figure of Cupid standing between figures of Honour and Truth
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Stet depictus Honortyrio velatus amictu,
Eiusque iungat nuda dextram Veritas.
Sitque Amor in medio castus,[1] cui tempora circum
Rosa it, Diones pulchrior Cupidine.[2]
Constituunt haec signa fidem, reverentia Honoris
Quam fovet, alit Amor, parturitque Veritas.

Let Honour stand depicted, clothed in a garment of Tyrian purple, and let naked Truth hold his right hand. Between them, let chaste Love be represented, his brow garlanded with roses, but fairer than Cupid, Dione’s boy. These images constitute good faith, which the reverence due to Honour fosters, Love feeds, Truth brings to birth.

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [N7r p205]

La divise de Foy.

Honneur descarlate vestu,
Touchant en main a Verite,
Entre eulx deux amour de vertu.
Qui a lart de Venus quicte.
Lhistoire est de fidelite,
Estant par vray dire produicte,
Damour nourrie en purite,
Et soubz crainte dhonneur conduite.

Notes:

1.  Amor...castus, ‘chaste love’ (Anteros), for which see [A39a072] and [A39a081].

2.  ‘Dione’s boy’. Strictly Dione was the mother of Venus, but was often identified in poetry with Venus herself, the mother of Cupid.

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [Q8r p255]

In adulatores.

Flatterers

EMBLEMA LIII.

A Chameleon
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Semper hiat, semper tenuem, qua vescitur, auram
Reciprocat Chamaeleon[1]:
Et mutat faciem, varios sumitque colores,
Praeter rubrum, vel candidum.[2]
Sic & adulator populari vescitur aura,[3]
Hiansque cuncta devorat:
Et solųm 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.

Notes:

1.  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.

2.  ‘except for red and white’. See Pliny, ib.

3.  ‘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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