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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [P1v p226]

Emulation non louable.

LXIX.

Quand l’aigle monte en l’air, le milan fait devoir
De la suyvre, & happer ce qu’elle laisse choir.[1]
Le sargue suit aussi le rouget,[2] & attrappe
La viande & le butin, qui au premier eschappe.
Ainsi ma trace suit le borgne engoulevin,
Qui cuide bien voir clair en tout le droit Latin.
Mais quand il monte en chaire, & qu’au public il sert,
Souvent l’auditoire est d’escholiers tout desert.

Commentaires.

Alciat en veut à un ignorant docteur en droit
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [P2r p227] que quelques uns ont estimé s’appeler Alexandrin.
Alciat l’appelle beuveur de vin, mesdisant, envieux,
& peu sçavant: lequel, quoy qu’il fust grand beste
se faisoit toutesfois bien accroire qu’il estoit habile
homme. Le milan & l’aigle, sont oiseaux qui devo-
rent beaucoup, comme aussi font le sargue & le rou-
get. Le milan suit l’aigle, & le sargue le rouget, à
fin qu’ils attrappent sans peine & sans travail, ce
qui eschappe aux vaillans & hardis, qui ont fait la
conqueste.

Notes:

1.  For the association of the kite and the hawk see Aristotle, Historia animalium, 9.1.609.

2.  For the sargue see Emblem ([FALd029]). For its habit of following the mudfish and eating the food it disturbs as it burrows in the mud, see Pliny, Natural History, 9.30.65; Erasmus, Parabolae, p. 253.

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    Section: PERFIDIA (Treachery). View all emblems in this section.

    Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [D5v p58]

    Dolus in suos.

    Treachery against one’s own kind.

    Several birds diving into a net held by men behind a tree
    [Click on image to enlarge]

    Altilis allectator anas, & caerula pennis
    Adsueta ad dominos ire redire suos.
    Congeneres cernens volitare per aëra turmas
    Garrit: in illarum se recipitque gregem,
    Praetensa incautas donec sub retia ducat.
    Obstrepitant captae, conscia at ipsa silet.
    Perfida cognato se sanguine polluit ales,
    Officiosa aliis, exitiosa suis.[1]

    The well-fed decoy duck with its green-blue wings is trained to go out and return to its masters. When it sees squadrons of its relations flying through the air, it quacks and joins itself to the flock, until it can draw them, off their guard, into the outspread nets. When caught they raise a protesting clamour, but she, knowing what she has done, keeps silence. The treacherous bird defiles itself with related blood, servile to others, deadly to its own kind.

    Notes:

    1.  Cf. Aesop, Fables, 282, where the decoy birds are pigeons.

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