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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [M8v p192]

La sagesse humaine est folie devant
Dieu.[1]

XXVII.

Comme aura nom ce monstre à double forme,
Qui homme n’est, ny serpent, mais difforme?
Homme sans pieds, & un serpent sans teste,
Pieds serpentins, mais homme par le reste.
Homme petant le serpent, & serpent
Qui rotte l’homme, & n’a commencement,
Non plus que n’a fin aucune cest homme.
Tel fut Cecrops[2] Athenien: en somme
Tels les geants, que la terre produist.
Semblable forme aux fins & rusés duit,
Qui, sans souci de paradis acquerre,
Ne pensent rien qu’aux choses de la terre.[3]

Commentaires.

Je croirois volontiers, qu’Alciat par cest emble-
me a voulu pinser quelcun de ceux de son temps.
L’embleme n’est pas sans obscurité. Par ce monstre
difforme, (qui n’est du tout homme, ny du tout ser-
pent, mais de nature double, & auquel on n’a peu en-
cor bonnement trouver nom propre,) sont designés
ceux, qui ayans receu de Dieu une ame raisonnable,
ne pensent neantmoins qu’à la terre: & ne tenans
compte de leur meilleur & principale partie, rampent
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [N1r p193] icy bas, & degenerent en nature bestial. Car ce mon-
stre ne finit pas en homme, & le serpent n’a point de
commencement. Aussi les disciples d’Epicure ne re-
gardent aucunement à la fin, pour laquelle Dieu les
a creés participans de raison: ains abusent miserable-
ment de la vraye raison, l’emprisonnans avec leur
raison sensuelle & pernicieuse. Cecrops fut le premier
Roy d’Athenes, & qui y bastit la forteresse. Les fa-
bulateurs tiennent que luy le premier institua le ma-
riage, & pourtant fut surnommé, de double nature:
pource que par le mariage il avoit conjoint deux e-
speces en une. Autres, & peut estre plus sainement,
disent qu’il a esté ainsi nommé, pource qu’il a esté le
premier inventeur de la superstition & de l’idola-
trie.

Notes:

1.  This epigram is based on Anthologia Graeca, 16.115-6, descriptions of a hippocentaur, the second of which was translated by Alciato at Sel. Ep. p.335.

2.  Cecrops, the mythical wise first king of Athens, the city of Pallas Athene, the goddess of wisdom. Cecrops, like the Giants (l.9) was born of the earth and was represented as half-man, half snake.

3.  See Macrobius, Saturnalia, 1.20.9: the fact that the Giants’ bodies terminated as snakes shows that they had not a single thought that was right or elevated, but that their life in all its comings and goings tended to what was base.

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    Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [O5r p217]

    Insignia Poëtarum.

    Insignia of poets

    EMBLEMA CLXXXIII.

    Shield showing a swan, hanging on a tree.
    [Click on image to enlarge]

    Gentiles clypeos sunt qui in Iovis alite gestant,
    Sunt quibus aut serpens, aut leo, signa ferunt:
    Dira sed haec vatum fugiant animalia ceras,
    Doctaque sustineat stemmata pulcher Olor.
    Hic Phoebo sacer[1], & nostrae regionis alumnus:
    Rex olim[2], veteres servat adhuc titulos.

    Some have a family crest distinguished by the bird of Jove, for others the serpent or the lion provides the sign. But let these dread beasts flee from poets’ images; let the lovely swan support their learned clan. This bird is sacred to Phoebus and is a nursling of my homeland. A king once, it still preserves its ancient titles.

    Notes:

    1.  ‘sacred to Phoebus’, i.e. to the god of music and poetry (Apollo).

    2.  ‘a king once’. See Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.367ff. for the story of Cycnus, king of Liguria, turned into a swan and inhabiting the marshes and lakes of the plain of the Po (Alciato’s homeland).

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