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Flatteurs.

LXXXVIII.

A chameleon.
[Click on image to enlarge]

Chameleon soufflant sans cesse,
Vivant d’air,[1] n’a fixes couleurs.
Ores bleu, verd, ou jaunes, & laisse
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [H8v p128] Rouge & blanc, couleurs de valeurs.[2]
Flatteurs de Prince ont tels malheurs,
Mangeans peuple en ville & cité:
Des moeurs du Prince grands parleurs:
Fors de blancheur & purité.

commentaires.

Le chameleon est frequent aux Indes, tousjours
beant, & à gorge ouverte humant l’air, qui est sa seu-
le vie & nourriture. Il se change en diver-
ses couleurs, excepté en rouge & blanc. Ainsi le flat-
teur ne se nourrit & sustante que des nouvelles de la
populace, ouvrant la gueule pour tout devorer. Il imi-
te volontiers les noires & perverses moeurs de son
superieur: mais des blanches & des rouges il n’en a
cure ny souci: c’est à dire de celles qui sont pures &
honnestes, & sans aucune tare.

Notes:

1.  This creature was supposed to feed only on air, keeping its mouth wide open to suck it in. See Pliny, Natural History 8.51.122. For the chameleon cf. Erasmus, Parabolae pp.144, 241, 252.

2.  ‘except for red and white’. See Pliny, ib.

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [M2r f77r]

EMBLEMA CXVII.

In receptatores sicariorum.

Those who harbour cut-throats

Deer with a man's face being attacked by dogs
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Latronum furumque manus tibi saeva[1] per urbem
It comes: & diris cincta cohors gladiis.
Atque ita te mentis generosum prodige censes,
Quod tua complures allicit olla malos,
En novus Actaeon, qui postquàm cornua sumpsit,
In praedam canibus se dedit ipse suis.[2]

A fierce band of ruffians and thieves accompanies you about the city, a gang of supporters armed with lethal swords. And so, you wastrel, you consider yourself a fine lordly fellow because your cooking pot draws in crowds of scoundrels. - Here’s a fresh Actaeon - he, after he grew his horns, became the prey of his own hunting dogs.

Das CXVII.

Wider die so sich zu der Landsknecht und
Buben Rott gesellen.

Dich Lurtsch, So du gehst durch dstat
Volget dir nach ein hauffen drat
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [M2v f77v] Der frechen und verwegnen Knecht
Mit gwerter hand ein unnütz Gschlecht
Und meinst also seystdu alsdann
Dester Edler im Gschlecht und Stamm
Dieweil du hast an dich gehengt
Ein Gottloß Rott, durch miet und schenck
Sich an ein neuwen Actean
Welcher da er die Hörner gewan
Wurd er von seinen eigen Wind [=Hind]
Zerrissen und gefressen gschwind.

Notes:

1.  Other editions read scaeva, ‘evil-minded’. The capital letter in some editions suggests that the Latin word could be taken as a proper name in the vocative case, i.e addressing one Scaeva.

2.  For the story of Actaeon turned into a stag and killed by his own hounds, see Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.138ff. Similarly, the hangers-on will destroy the one who has fed them.

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