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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [D7r p61]

Il se fault endurcir contre les ad-
versitez presentes.

Apostrophe.

Child hanging on to the branches of a palm tree.
[Click on image to enlarge]

Contre la charge hault la Palme s’eleve
Et croist tant plus, que sa charge est plus greve,[1]
Glandz odorans portant, & delectables,[2]
Ayans l’honneur premier es bonnes tables.
Or monte (enfant) es rameaulx le fruict pris:
Car Qui sera constant: aura le pris.

Pour quelque adversité, ou contrarieté qui advien-
ne, point ne fault laisser une bonne entreprinse, Mais
perseverer constamment jusque à fin heureuse.

Notes:

1.  The reaction of palm to a heavy weight is mentioned in various ancient sources, e.g. Pliny, Natural History 16.81.223; Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 3.6. See also Erasmus, Parabolae p.263. It probably refers to a plank of palm-wood, rather than a branch of the living tree.

2.  See Erasmus, Parabolae p.241: ‘the palm-tree, having bark with knife-sharp edges, is difficult to climb, but it bears delicious fruit’.

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [B7r p29]

Tumulus meretricis.

The courtesan’s tomb

Corpse on tomb and lion holding on to hind quarters of ram
[Click on image to enlarge]

Quis tumulus? cuia urna? Ephyraeae est Laidos,[1] & non
Erubuit tantum perdere Parca[2] decus?
Nulla fuit tum forma, illam iam carpserat aetas,
Iam speculum Veneri cauta dicarat[3] anus.
Quid scalptus sibi vult Aries[4], quem parte leaena
Unguibus appraensum posteriore tenet?
Non aliter captos quòd & ipsa teneret amantes,
Vir gregis est aries, clune tenetur amans.

What tomb, whose urn is this? - It belongs to Lais of Ephyre. - Ah, was not the goddess of Fate ashamed to destroy such loveliness? - She had no beauty then. Age had already worn it away. She had become an old woman and had already wisely dedicated her mirror to Venus. - What’s the meaning of the ram carved there, which a lioness holds tight, gripping its hind-quarters with her claws? - It is there because she too would hold her captive lovers in just this way. The male of the flock is the ram. The lover is held by the buttocks.

Notes:

1.  ‘Lais of Ephyre’. Ephyre is an old name for Corinth, the home of several famous courtesans called Lais.

2.  One of the Parcae or Fates, here presumably Atropos, the Fate who cut off the thread of the individual’s life.

3.  As a symbol of retirement, the tools of one’s trade were dedicated to the presiding deity. For Lais dedicating her mirror to Venus, see Anthologia graeca 6.1 and 18.

4.  Scalptus...aries, ‘the ram carved there’. Pausanias Periegesis 2.2.4 describes such a tomb of Lais at Corinth.

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