Link to an image of this page [O8v p224]
La clemencia d’el Principe.
SONETO.
D’el Rey de abejas se affirma y escrive
Que por que herir no pueda estā privado
D’el aguijon,[1] con quien su pueblo armado
Contrasta a’l enemigo y se apercibe.
Link to an image of this page [P1r p225]
Ansi de sus abejas bien recibe,
Ansi le guardan siempre en el estado
Donde de la Fortuna fue encumbrado
Porque sin hazer mal govierna y bive.
O Reyes que subis ā bien tamaņo
O por Fortuna, ō por merecimiento,
Sabed con no hazer mal no hazeros daņo!
Mirad que basta el pueblo estar contento
Para libraros de qualquier engaņo,
Y para os encumbrar en todo aumento.
1. According to Pliny, Natural History, 11.21.74, wasps do not have ‘kings’: it is the ‘mother’ wasps that are without stings. On the other hand, the ‘king’ bee (the ancients believed the queen bee to be male) and its lack of sting, or refusal to use its sting, was often mentioned; e.g. Aelian, De natura animalium, 5.10; Pliny, ibid., 17.52. For the analogy with kingship, see e.g. Seneca, De Clementia, 1.19; Erasmus, Adagia, 2601 (Scarabaeus aquilam quaerit).
Related Emblems
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Iconclass Keywords
Relating to the image:
- insects: wasp (+ animals used symbolically) [25F711(WASP)(+1)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- insects: wasp (+ postures, positions of animal(s)) [25F711(WASP)(+53)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees [25G3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- low hill country [25H114] Search | Browse Iconclass
- farm or solitary house in landscape [25I3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- clouds [26A] Search | Browse Iconclass
- dove-cote [34B2311] Search | Browse Iconclass
- farm (building) [41A17] Search | Browse Iconclass
- bee-hive [47I242] Search | Browse Iconclass
- swarm ~ bees (+ postures, positions of animal(s)) [47I243(+953)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- pedestal of a piece of sculpture (perhaps in the form of a herm) (+ variant) [48C244(+0)] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- poison ~ product of animal [25F(+92)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- virtues of the ruler [44B10] Search | Browse Iconclass
- ruler and his subjects [44B1270] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Indulgence, Clemency; 'Clemenza', 'Clemenza & Moderatione', 'Indulgenza' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [57A73(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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