Link to an image of this page [C6v p44]
Ocni effigies, de his qui meretricibus donant, quod
in bonos usus verti debeat.[1]
A representation of Ocnus. On those who give to whores what should be turned to good
XVII.
Impiger haud cessat funem contexere sparto,
Humidaque artifici iungere fila manu.
Sed quantum multis vix torquet strenuus horis,
Protinus ignavi ventris asella vorat.
Foemina iners animal, facili congesta marito
Lucra rapit, mundum prodigit inque suum.
Ocnus never stops busily plaiting rope from broom, joining the damp fibres with skilful hand. But what he manages to spin with great effort in many hours the she-ass, a beast with greedy guts, continuously consumes. - Woman, an idle creature, grabs the accumulated savings from her complaisant husband and squanders it on her own adornment.
Link to an image of this page [C7r p45]
L’effigie de Ocnus, contre ceulx qui don-
nent aux garses ce qu’on doibt con-
vertir a bon usaige.
XVII.
Ung homme avec des joncs d’Espaigne
Faisoit cordes incessamment:
Mais pour quelque peine qu’il preigne,
Il n’en a rien finablement:
Car son anesse hastivement
Mangeoit pour foin tout son ouvrage.
Maintes femmes pareillement,
Consument tost grand labourage.
1. The painting by Polygnotus depicting this scene is described in Pausanias, Periegesis 29.2. See also Propertius, Elegies 4.3.21; Erasmus, Adagia 383, Contorquet piger funiculum. Ocnus, idleness personified, was a proverbial example of wasted effort.
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Link to an image of this page [K1v p146]
Paupertatem summis ingeniis obesse
ne provehantur.[1]
Poverty prevents the advancement of the best of abilities
EMBLEMA CXX.
Dextra tenet lapidem, manus altera sustinet alas:
Ut me pluma levat, sic grave mergit onus.
Ingenio poteram superas volitare per arces,
Me nisi paupertas invida deprimeret.
My right hand holds a rock, the other bears wings. As the feathers lift me, so the heavy weight drags me down. By my mental gifts I could have flown through the heights of heaven, if malign poverty did not hold me back.
1. For the sentiment cf. Juvenal, Satires 3.164-5: ‘it is hard for people to rise when straitened circumstances stand in the way of their natural abilities.’
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