Single Emblem View

« Previous EmblemNext Emblem »
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [n6r p203]

Nupta contagioso.

A woman married to a diseased man

L.

Dii meliora piis,[1] Mezenti. cur agè sic me
Compellas?[2] emptus quòd tibi dote gener,
Gallica quem scabies,[3] dira & mentagra perurit.
Hoc est quidnam aliud, dic mihi saeve pater,
Corpora corporibus quàm iungere mortua vivis,
Efferaque Etrusci facta novare ducis?[4]

O Mezentius, God grant a better fate to the dutiful! - Now why do you address me by that name? - Because with a dowry you have purchased a son-in-law seared by the Gallic scab and the dreaded sore on the face. What else is this - o tell me, cruel father - but to join corpses to living bodies and repeat the savage deeds of the Etruscan leader?

Notes:

1.  Vergil, Georgics, 3.513.

2.  sic me compellas, ‘address me by that name’, i.e. Mezentius. This is explained below, note 4.

3.  Gallica...scabies, ‘the Gallic scab’: Osseous lesions caused by syphilis, which was epidemic in Europe following Charles VIII’s first Italian war. Spreading to the French army following its occupation of Naples (February 1495), it became known to the French as “the Neapolitan sickness”, to the Italians as “the French sickness.” It acquired its modern name from a mythological Latin poem on the subject by Girolamo Fracastoro, “Syphilis sive morbus gallicus”, a popular favourite first published in 1530. Fracastoro later used the name Syphilus (a mythical shepherd) when he contributed to the scientific literature on the disease (Liber I de sympathia et antipathia rerum, de contagione et contagiosis morbis, 1550). Note that here the French uses ‘un villain Podagre’ instead, which Cotgrave lists as the gout. Of the two corresponding emblems with this one, the 1549 edition uses verolle (pox), and 1615 uses podagre in the title and verolle in the verse.

4.  See Vergil, Aeneid, 8.483-88, for the crimes of Mezentius, the Etruscan king who opposed Aeneas on his arrival in Italy. He inflicted a dreadful fate on his victims by tying them face to face with a corpse and leaving them to die.

« Previous EmblemNext Emblem »

Related Emblems

Show related emblems Show related emblems

Hint: You can set whether related emblems are displayed by default on the preferences page

Iconclass Keywords

Relating to the image:

    Relating to the text:

    Hint: You can turn translations and name underlining on or off using the preferences page.

    Single Emblem View

    « Previous EmblemNext Emblem »
    Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [O1r p209]

    Fureur & rage.

    XLIX.

    Ce bouclier un lion porte plein de fureur,
    Le lion, lequel est des humains la terreur:
    De ce bouclier estoit Agamemnon le maistre,
    Le plus fort & vaillant qu’aucun autre eust peu estre.[1]

    Commentaires.

    Anciennement la plus part des Princes & grands
    Seigneurs, ne chargeoyent leurs armoiries de chose
    qui ressentist sa superbe ou cruauté: mais l’expedition
    de Godefroy de Bouillon en la terre saincte, remplit
    les armoiries des Rois & Princes d’Aigles, de Gry-
    phons, de Lions, & autres furieux animaux. Le Roy
    de France presque seul entre tous retint ses blanches
    fleurdelis. Mais, helas! & jadis, & de nostre siecle,
    plusieurs Seigneurs font sentir & experimenter à
    leurs peuples la tyrannie & cruauté des animaux
    qu’ils portent en leurs armoiries. Peu, ou peut estre,
    pas un, n’aspire à acquerir le surnom d’Aristide. Le
    bouclier d’Agamemnon a demeuré quelque temps
    pendu au temple Olympique.

    Notes:

    1.  This poem is based on Pausanias, Periegesis, 5.19.4. For the ‘raging lion’. Cf. Emblem 63,‘Ira’ ([FALc063]). For Agamemnon’s savage temper, see e.g. Homer, Iliad, 1.103-4.

    « Previous EmblemNext Emblem »

    Related Emblems

    Show related emblems Show related emblems

    Hint: You can set whether related emblems are displayed by default on the preferences page

    Iconclass Keywords

    Relating to the image:

      Relating to the text:

      Hint: You can turn translations and name underlining on or off using the preferences page.

       

      Back to top