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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [L7v p174]

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  [L8r p175]

In simulachrum Spei.[1]

A picture of hope

LXXVIII.

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?
Quòd 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], praecepsque 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.

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [L8v p176]

Von dem bild der
Hoffnung.

LXXVIII.

Zu himel siht, und lieblich lacht
Die Gottin hye, wer hat sy gmachtt?
Elpidius: sy ist Hoffnung gnant,
Mit trost den armen wol bekant.
Sag was yr griener rock bedeut?
Das sy all welt erhelt in freud:
Doch soelchs allein in lebens weyl,
Das zaygt des tods zerbrochen pfeyl.
Warumb sitzt sy auff einen vaß?
Der alt Hesiodus sagt das:
So alle tugent warnn verjagt
Gen hymel, und die welt geplagt
Mit hadder, zanck, laster und schand,
Plib allein hoffnung in yrem stand.
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [M1r p177] Was deutt die Kraw so bey ir rwet?
Der vogel hat eins weyssag muet,
Kan er nit sprechen, es ghet wol,
Sagt er das morgen gschehen sol.
Waß gsellen hat sy? gueten fal,
Und gach begird, die wunscht on zal.
Wer stet sunst noch bey ir? fraw Rhach,
Lernt das man hoff nur zimlich sach.

Notes:

1.  Before the 1536 edition, Wechel editions used an earlier version of the woodcut in which Nemesis did not figure.

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

3.  For Death’s arrows cf. [A42b065], [A42b066].

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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