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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [N1v p194]

Ferè simile ex Theocrito.[1]

Something more or less the same from Theocritus

XC.

Child showing a bee sting on his finger to a woman (Venus).
[Click on image to enlarge]

Alveolis dum mella legit, percussit Amorem
Furacem mala apes, & summis spicula liquit
In digitis: tumido gemit at puer anxius ungue,
Et quatit errabundus humum, Venerique dolorem
Indicat, & graviter queritur, quòd apicula parvum
Ipsa inferre animal tam noxia vulnera possit.
Cui ridens Venus, hanc imitaris tu quoque dixit
Nate feram, qui das tot noxia vulnera parvus.

While he was taking honey from the hives, a vicious bee stung thieving Amor, and left its sting in the end of his finger. The boy in distress cried out as his finger-end swelled up. He ran about, stamping his foot, showed his hurt to Venus, and complained bitterly that a little bee, that tiny creature, could inflict such grievous wounds. Venus smiled at him and said, “You are like this creature, my son; small as you are you deal many a grievous wound”.

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [N2r p195]

Presque semblable au precedent,
compris de Theocrite.

XC.

Cupido chast du miel desrobe,
La mouche a miel sur ce le pique.
Il va puis, il vient, puis ne hobe,
Frappant du pied en fantastique:
Ha, dit il, ma mere impudicque,
Je meurs sans que eusse sceu penser,
Que si peu de corps mellificque,
Eust peu tant asprement blesser.
Aultrement.
Cupido yvrognet & chast,
Roba du miel pour sa pasture:
Mais pas n’advient qu’il y touchast,
Sans soudain recepvoir poincture:
Venus le ot crier d’aventure,
Lors dit, regarde doncq’ foireux,
Si telle petite creature
Te ard, que fais tu aux amoureux.[2]

Notes:

1.  3rd-century BC bucolic poet, who may or may not have wrriten the Idylls (19, The Honey Stealer), of which this is a fairly close translation, in dactylic hexameters, as in the Greek original.

2.  These French verses were introduced in the 1539 edition.

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [E3r]

AERE QUANDOQUE SA-
lutem redimendam.

Sometimes money must be spent to purchase safety

Beaver biting off its own testicles which are eaten by hunting dogs.
[Click on image to enlarge]

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [E3v]

Et pedibus segnis, tumida & propendulus alvo,
Hac tamen insidias effugit arte fiber.
Mordicus ipse sibi medicata virilia vellit,
Atque abiicit, 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.

Notes:

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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