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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [D7r]

IUSTA ULTIO.

Just revenge

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

A bird carrying off a scorpion.
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Raptabat volucres captum pede corvus in auras,
Scorpion, audaci praemia parta gulae.
Ast ille infuso sensim per membra veneno,
Raptorem in stygias compulit ultor aquas.
O risu res digna, aliis qui fata parabat,
Ipse perit, propriis sucubuitque dolis.[1]

A raven was carrying off into the flying winds a scorpion gripped in its talons, a prize won for its audacious gullet. But the scorpion, injecting its poison drop by drop through the raven’s limbs, despatched the predator to the waters of the Styx and so took its revenge. What a laughable thing! The one who was preparing death for others himself perishes and has succumbed to his own wiles.

Notes:

1.  This is a fairly free translation of Anthologia graeca 9.339. See Erasmus, Adagia 58, Cornix scorpium, where the Greek epigram is again translated.

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [Ll8v f272v]

AMOR VIRTUTIS.

Love of virtue.

Emblema 108.

Cupid sitting without his bow and arrows or wings holding three garlands and wearing a fourth on his head.
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Dic ubi sunt incurvi arcus? ubi tela Cupido?
Mollia queis iuvenum figere corda soles?[1]
Fax ubi tristis? ubi pennae? tres unde corollas
Fert manus? unde aliam tempora cincta gerunt?
Haud mihi vulgari est, hospes, cum Cypride quicquam,
Ulla voluptatis nos neque forma tulit.
Sed puris hominum succendo mentibus ignes
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [Mm1r f273r] Disciplinae, animos astraque ad alta traho.
Quattuor equè[2] ipsa texo virtute corollas,[3]
Quarum, quae Sophiae est, tempora prima tegit.

Tell me, where are your arching bows, where your arrows, Cupid, the shafts which you use to pierce the tender hearts of the young? Where is your hurtful torch, where your wings? Why does your hand hold three garlands? Why do your temples wear a fourth? - Stranger, I have nothing to do with common Venus, nor did any pleasurable shape bring me forth. I light the fires of learning in the pure minds of men and draw their thoughts to the stars on high. I weave four garlands out of virtue’s self and the chief of these, the garland of Wisdom, wreathes my temples.

Notes:

1.  This is a translation of Anthologia graeca 16.201.

2.  Corrected by hand in the Glasgow copy.

3.  ‘I weave four garlands out of virtue’s self’, a reference to the four cardinal virtues, justice, temperance, courage and wisdom.

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