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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [E3r]

AERE QUANDOQUE SALU
tem redimendam.

Sometimes money must be spent to purchase safety

Beaver biting off its own testicles which are eaten by hunting dogs.
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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [E3v]

Et pedibus segnis, tumida & propendulus alvo,
Hac tamen insidias effugit arte fiber.
Mordicus ipse sibi medicata virilia vellit,
Atque abiicit sese gnarus ob illa peti,
Huius ab exemplo disces non parcere rebus,
Et vitam ut redimas hostibus aera dare.[1]

Though slow of foot and with swollen belly hanging down, the beaver nonetheless escapes the ambush by this trick: it tears off with its teeth its testicles, which are full of a medicinal substance, and throws them aside, knowing that it is hunted for their sake. - From this creature’s example you will learn not to spare material things, and to give money to the enemy to buy your life.

Notes:

1.  This is based on Aesop, Fables 153, where the same moral is drawn. For the information about the beaver, see Pliny, Natural History 8.47.109; Isidore, Etymologiae (Origines) 12.2.21.

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Section: VENGENCE. View all emblems in this section.

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [O6v p220]

Le glaive du furieux.

A soldier killing pigs with his sword.
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Faict furieux Ajax par grandz regretz
Tuoit ses porcz, pensant tuer les Grecz.[1]
Ainsi le porc portoit la penitence
Pour Ulysses, & des Grecz la sentence.
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [O7r p221] Fureur ne peut nuyre. Mais son coup fault,
Et sans advis contre soy mesme sault.

Ajax le vaillant champion, condamné contre
Ulysses par la sentence injuste des Grecz, au pro-
ces des armes d’Achilles, devint fol furieux par
indignation, & en sa rage il rencontra ung grand
tropeau de ses porceaulx: lesquelz (pensant que
fussent les Grecz) il tua à grand [=grandz] coups d’espée: ce
que ne veult aultre chose à dire: sinon que Fureur,
& Ire (qui est temporaire manie) se nuyct plus
que à nul aultre, soit en contention civile, ou d’ar-
mes. Car en l’une perd sens, raison, & parolle, en
l’aultre, perd adresse, & visée, & le plus souvent
par trop grand ardeur s’enferre soy mesme.

Notes:

1.  See Emblem 27 ([A58a027]) for Ajax’ madness and suicide. In his madness, he slaughtered a herd of sheep, thinking them to be the Greeks. The two largest rams he took to be Agamemnon and Menelaus. See Zenobius, Proverbs, 1.43; Horace, Satires, 2.3.197-8; Erasmus, Adagia, 646 (Aiacis risus) - Erasmus makes the animals pigs, which Alciato here follows.

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