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Statues in a courtyard of Hope (Spes), Love (Amor) and Happy Ending (Bonus Eventus).
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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [F2r p83]

In simulachrum Spei.[1]

A picture of hope

Quae Dea tam laeto suspectans sydera vultu?
Cuius penniculis reddita imago fuit.
Elpidii[2] 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[3] refracta geris?
Quod vivos sperare decet, praecido sepultis,
Cur in dolioli tegmine pigra sedes?
Sola domi mansi volitantibus undique noxis,
Ascraei[4] ut docuit musa verenda senis.
Quae tibi adest volucris? Cornix fidissimus oscen,[5]
Est bene cùm nequeat dicere, dicit erit.
Qui comites? bonus Eventus[6], praecepsve Cupido,
Qui praeeunt, vigilum somnia vana vocant.
Quae tibi iuncta astat, scelerum Rhamnusia[7] 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.  From the 1536 Wechel edition onwards, the woodcut is revised: Nemesis is added, just peeping round the corner.

2.  Elpidius is an invented name derived from Greek elpis, ‘hope’.

3.  For Death’s arrows cf. [A34b065], [A34b066].

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

5.  ‘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.’

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

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

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