Link to an image of this page [M3v p182]
Impossibile.
The impossible
Abluis Aethiopem quid frustrà? ah desine, noctis
Illustrare nigrae nemo potest tenebras.[1]
Why are you washing an Ethiopian in vain? Oh, do stop. No one can turn the shades of black night into light.
Link to an image of this page [M4r p183]
Impossible.
Il est ung milier de negoces,
Ou lon ne peult remede mettre.
Et quoy que ardemment ten courrouces,
Si nen seras tu ja le maistre.
Parquoy si tu quiers hors blasme estre,
Ne prans peine a blanchir ung More.
En la nuict, ne peult clarte naistre.
Ung vice invetere demoure.
1. This is a translation of Anthologia graeca 11.428. See also Aesop, Fables 11; Erasmus, Adagia 350, Aethiopen lavas.
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- head bent forward; bowing (+ standing) [31A244(+51)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- head bent forward; bowing [31A2445] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm raised upward (+ holding something) [31A2511(+933)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm stretched forward [31A2512] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm held downwards [31A2515] Search | Browse Iconclass
- gripping someone by the arm [31A2541] Search | Browse Iconclass
- brush, sponge, etc. (toilet articles) [31A5462] Search | Browse Iconclass
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Relating to the text:
- (personifications of) 'Vanitas', the vanity of human life; Fragilit� humana, Fugacit� delle grandezze & della gloria mondana, Meditatione della morte, Opera vana, Piacere vano, Vana gloria, Vanit� (Ripa) [11R5] Search | Browse Iconclass
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Link to an image of this page [P6v f105v]
EMBLEMA CLXIIII [=163] .
In adulatores.
Flatterers
Semper hiat, semper tenuem qua vescitur auram,
Reciprocat Chamaeleon[1],
Et mutat faciem, varios sumitque colores,
Praeter rubrum, vel candidum,[2]
Sic & Adulator populari vescitur aura,[3]
Hiansque cuncta devorat.
Link to an image of this page [P7r f106r]Et solum mores imitatur principis atros,
Albi & pudici nescius.
The Chameleon is always breathing in and out with open mouth the bodiless air on which it feeds; it changes its appearance and takes on various colours, except for red and white. - Even so the flatterer feeds on the wind of popular approval and gulps down all with open mouth. He imitates only the black features of the prince, knowing nothing of the white and pure.
Das CLXIIII [=163] .
Vergleichung der Schmeichler und
Zutüttler.
Stäts gint und schnappet nach dem lufft
Der Rattedex so lebt vom dufft
Verkehrt sein gstalt und nimpt an gschwind
All farbn, on die rot und weiß sind
Also auch der schmeichler sich nehrt
Deß gmeinen gsangs uns als verzert
Folgt nur der Herren heßlich sit
Und der schön und züchtigen nit.
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.
3. ‘the wind of popular approval’. This is a common metaphor in Latin, e.g. Horace, Odes 3.2.20, ‘at the behest of the wind of popular approval.’
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- Innocence; 'Innocenza', 'Innocenza o purità' (Ripa) [57A631] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Flattery; 'Adulatione' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [57AA6121(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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