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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [D7v p62]

In simulachrum Spei.

A picture of hope.

EMBLEMA XLIIII.

A woman sitting on a barrel, with a crow, a cupid, a man with a sheaf of grain and a goblet, and Nemesis behind her.
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Quae Dea tam laeto suspectans sidera vultu?
Cuius peniculis reddita imago fuit?
Elpidii[1] fecere manus. Ego nominor illa,
Quae miseris promptam Spes bona praestat opem.
Cur viridis tibi palla? quòd omnia me duce vernent.
Quid manibus mortis tela[2] refracta geris?
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [D8r p63]Quod vivos sperare decet, praecido sepultis.
Cur in dolioli tegmine pigra sedes?
Sola domi mansi volitantibus undique noxis,
Ascraei[3] ut docuit Musa verenda senis.
Quae tibi adest volucris? Cornix fidissimus oscen[4];
Est bene cùm nequeat dicere, dicit, erit.
Qui comites? bonus Eventus[5], praecepsque Cupido.
Qui praeeunt? Vigilum somnia vana vocant.
Quae tibi iuncta astat? scelerum Ramnusia[6] vindex,
Scilicet ut speres nil, nisi quod liceat.

What goddess is this, looking up to the stars with face so glad? By whose brush was this image depicted? - The hands of Elpidius made me. I am called Good Hope, the one who brings ready aid to the wretched. - Why is your garment green? - Because everything will spring green when I lead the way. - Why do you hold Death’s blunt arrows in your hands? - The hopes that the living may have, I cut short for the buried. - Why do you sit idle on the cover of a jar? - I alone stayed behind at home when evils fluttered all around, as the revered muse of the old poet of Ascra has told you. - What bird is at your side? - A crow, the faithful prophet. When it cannot say, ‘All’s well’, it says, ‘All shall be well’. - Who are your companions? - Happy Ending and Eager Desire. - Who go before you? - They call them the idle dreams of those who are awake. - Who stands close beside you? - Rhamnusia, the avenger of crimes, to make sure that you hope for nothing but what is allowed.

Notes:

1.  Elpidius is an invented name derived from Greek ἐλπίς, ‘hope’.

2.  For Death’s arrows cf. [A91a154], [A91a155].

3.  ‘the old poet of Ascra’, i.e. Hesiod. See Hesiod, Opera et dies 90ff. for the story of Pandora’s box or jar.

4.  ‘a crow, the faithful prophet’. The crow was a bird of prophecy and an emblem of hope. Its caw was interpreted as cras, cras, ‘tomorrow, tomorrow’. Cf. the proverb, Quod hodie non est, cras erit: ‘What is not today shall be tomorrow.’

5.  Bonus Eventus or Bonne Aventure, cf. Evento Buono in Ripa, Iconologia; also called ‘Success’ or ‘Happy Ending’.

6.  Rhamnusia, i.e. Nemesis, who had a shrine at Rhamnus in Attica.

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [A6r]

AMICITIA ETIAM POST MOR-
TEM DURANS.[1]

Friendship lasting even beyond death

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [A6v]

Grape vine wound round a tree
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Arentem senio, nudam quoque frontibus [=frondibus] ulmum,
Complexa est viridi vitis opaca coma.[2]
Agnoscitque vices naturae & grata parenti.
Officii reddit mutua iura suo.
Exemploque monet, tales non [=nos] quaerere amicos,
Quos neque disiungat foedere summa dies.

A vine shady with green foliage embraced an elm tree that was dried up with age and bare of leaves. The vine recognises the changes wrought by nature and, ever grateful, renders to the one that reared it the duty it owes in return. By the example it offers, the vine tells us to seek friends of such a sort that not even our final day will uncouple them from the bond of friendship.

Notes:

1.  See Erasmus’ famous variations on this theme in De copia (CWE 24. pp. 354-64).

2.  In ancient Italy young vines were often supported by elm trees. See Vergil, Georgics 1.2.

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