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EMBLEMA CLXXXI [=180] .

In fraudulentos.

Deceivers

Parva lacerta, atris stellatus corpora guttis
Stellio,[1] qui latebras, & cava busta colit.
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [Q7r f114r]Invidiae, pravique doli fert symbola pictus.
Heu nimium nuribus cognita zelotypis.
Nam turpi obtegitur faciem, lentigine quisquis,
Sit quibus immersus Stellio, vina bibat.[2]
Hinc vindicta frequens decepta pellice vino,
Quam formae amisso flore relinquit amans.

The little lizard, called the ‘starred’ gecko from the dark star-shaped marks sprinkled all over its body, a creature that lurks in holes and hollow tombs, is pictured here and presents symbols of resentment and wicked deception, known only too well to jealous wives. For anyone who drinks wine in which a spotted gecko has been soaked comes out in ugly spots all over the face. This is often a way of taking revenge - the husband’s fancy woman is tricked with wine, and, when the flower of her beauty is gone, her lover abandons her.

Das CLXXXI [=180] .

Von den trügenhafftigen arglistigen .[3]

Das Edexen Gschlecht so ist klein
Und gesprecklet an der Haut sein
Darnach mans auch zu nennen pflegt
Und in die höler sich versteckt
Ist ein bedeutnuß abgebildt
Der verbunst, deß trug und lists milt
Fürwar den Hünen ist bekannt
Die uber ir man eyffrn im Welschlandt
Dann welches trincken thut den wein
Darinn diese würm erseufft sein
Diß angsicht wirt voll flecken gsetzt
Gantz ungstalt und die schön verletzt
Offt reichen sich mit diesem Wein
Die in nagen an irem beyn
Daß der Buler die dirne haßt
Weil sie ir schöne gstalt verlaßt.

Notes:

1.  stellio, ‘the ‘starred’ gecko’. See Ovid, Metamorphoses, 5.461 for the explanation of the name stellio.

2.  Nam turpi...vina bibat, ‘anyone who drinks wine...all over the face’. See Pliny, Natural History, 29.22.73.

3.  The German in certain parts of this emblem is particularly puzzling.

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    IN EOS QUI SUPRA VIRES
    quicquam audent.

    Those who venture on what is beyond their powers.

    Emblema 58.

    Sleeping giant being attacked by a band of small men.
    [Click on image to enlarge]

    Dum dormit, dulci recreat dum corpora somno
    Sub picea, & clavam, caeteraque arma tenet.
    Alciden Pygmaea manus[1] prosternere letho
    Posse putat, vires non bene docta suas.
    Excitus ipse, velut pulices, sic proterit hostem,
    Et saevi implicitum pelle leonis[2] agit.

    While Alceus’ descendant was sleeping, while he was refreshing his body with gentle slumber, beneath a spruce tree, keeping hold of his club and other weapons, a band of pygmies thought they could lay him low in death, not really grasping the limit of their powers. But he, waking up, crushed the foe like fleas, and carried them off, wrapped up in the fierce lion’s skin.

    Notes:

    1.  Hercules’ confrontation with the pygmies is described by Philostratus, Eikones 2.22.

    2.  ‘the fierce lion’s skin’, the skin of the Nemean lion which Hercules always wore after slaying the beast. (See [A15a136], notes; [A15a179]).

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