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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [N4v p200]

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  [N5r p201]

Schier auff die vorgeend fabel.

XC.

Wie Cupido hoeng fladen stal,
Ein pin hart in die hand in stach,
Seinr mueter klagt er den unfal,
Und wie das sey ein seltzam sach,
Das diß klain thier so groß layd mach:
Sagt Venus mit lachendem mund,
Lieber sun, deiner klaynheyt nach
Machst du die leut vil schwerer wund.

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.

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Section: PUDICITIA (Chastity). View all emblems in this section.

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [D4r p55]

PUDICITIA.

Chastity

A shield bearing a bird, leaning against a tree
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Porphirio domini si incestet in aedibus uxor,
Despondetque animum, praeque dolore perit.
Abdita in arcanis naturae est causa. sit index
Syncerae haec volucris certa pudicitiae.[1]

If the wife in its master’s house is unfaithful, the moorhen despairs and dies of grief. The reason lies hidden in the secrets of nature. This bird may serve as a sure sign of untarnished chastity.

Notes:

1.  For this information about the porphyrio (purple gallinule, a kind of moorhen) see Aelian, De Natura animalium, 3.42; Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, 9,388C: the purple gallinule ... when it is domesticated, ... keeps a sharp eye on married women and is so affected if the wife commits adultery, that it ends its life by strangling and so gives warning to its master.

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