Link to an image of this page [M4v p184]
Aere quandoque salutem redimendam.
Sometimes money must be spent to purchase safety
LXXXV.
Et pedibus segnis, tumida & propendulus alvo,
Hac tamen insidias effugit arte fiber.
Mordicus ipse sibi medicata virilia vellit
Atque abicit, sese gnarus ob illa peti.
Huius ab exemplo disces non parcere rebus,
Et vitam ut redimas, hostibus aera dare.[1]
Though slow of foot and with swollen belly hanging down, the beaver nonetheless escapes the ambush by this trick: it tears off with its teeth its testicles, which are full of a medicinal substance, and throws them aside, knowing that it is hunted for their sake. - From this creature’s example you will learn not to spare material things, and to give money to the enemy to buy your life.
Link to an image of this page [M5r p185]
Le salut se doibt acheter.
LXXXV.
Le Byevre, qui Castor s’appelle,
Des veneurs, & des chiens pressé,
Aux dens ses genitaulx expelle:
Car pour aultre bien n’est chassé.
Ce mal rend plusgrand mal passé.
Sur quoy le prudent peult entendre,
Qu’il fault quicter bien amassé,
Premier que grand peril attendre.
1. This is based on Aesop, Fables 153, where the same moral is drawn. For the information about the beaver, see Pliny, Natural History 8.47.109; Isidore, Etymologiae (Origines) 12.2.21.
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- rodents: beaver (+ sexual organs of a male animal) [25F26(BEAVER)(+3211)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rodents: beaver (+ animal psychology) [25F26(BEAVER)(+47)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rodents: beaver (+ squatting, crouching animal) [25F26(BEAVER)(+534)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rodents: beaver (+ animal(s) being wounded) [25F26(BEAVER)(+62)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- groups of trees [25G11] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees (+ stem, trunk) [25G3(+21)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rocks [25H112] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (high) hill [25H113] Search | Browse Iconclass
- landscape with tower or castle [25I5] Search | Browse Iconclass
- clouds [26A] Search | Browse Iconclass
- dog (+ movements of animal(s)) [34B11(+952)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- hunt ~ rodents (+ hunting with dogs) [43C11126(+421)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- Prudence, 'Prudentia'; 'Prudenza' (Ripa) ~ one of the Four Cardinal Virtues [11M41] Search | Browse Iconclass
- enemy [33B5] Search | Browse Iconclass
- man and animal (+ castration of animal) [34(+511)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- buying [46B411] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Preservation, Sustenance; 'Salvezza', 'Sostanza' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [54E43(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Offering; 'Offerta overo Oblatione' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [55C22(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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Link to an image of this page [H1r p113]
Captivus ob gulam.
Caught by greed
EMBLEMA XCIIII.
Regnatorque penus, mensaeque arrosor herilis
Ostrea mus summis vidit hiulca labris.
Queis teneram apponens barbam, falsa ossa momordit:
Ast ea clauserunt tacta repentè domum.
Deprensum & tetro tenuerunt carcere furem,
Semet in obscurum qui dederat tumulum.[1]
A mouse, king of the pantry, nibbler at the master’s table, saw oysters with their shells just slightly open. Applying his sensitive whiskers, he nibbled the deceptive bone. But the oysters, when touched, suddenly slammed shut their house and held the thief, caught red-handed, in a noisome prison, a thief who had put himself into a lightless tomb.
1. This poem is a translation of Anthologia graeca 9.86.
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- beach [25H133] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- prospect of city, town panorama, silhouette of city [25I12] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- sailing-ship, sailing-boat (+ under way, at sea (~ travelling)) [46C24(+63)] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- Gluttony, Intemperance, 'Gula'; 'Gola', 'Ingordigia', 'Ingordigia overo Avidità', 'Voracità' (Ripa) ~ personification of one of the Seven Deadly Sins [11N35] Search | Browse Iconclass
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