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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [m8r p191]

Antiquissima quaeque com-
mentitia.

The oldest things are all invented

VII.

Pellenaee senex, cui forma est histrica, Proteu, [1]
Qui modò membra viri fers, modò membra feri.
Dic agè quae species ratio te vertit in omnes,
Nulla sit ut vario certa figura tibi?
Signa vetustatis, primaevi & praefero secli: [2]
De quo quisque suo somniat arbitrio.

Proteus, old man of Pallene, whose outward appearance changes like an actor’s, assuming sometimes the body of a man, sometimes that of a beast, come, tell me, what is your reason for turning into all kinds of shapes, so that you have no permanent form as you constantly alter? I offer symbols of antiquity and the very first times, concerning which everyone dreams up what he will.

Notes:

1.  Proteus was ‘the Old Man of the Sea’, who evaded capture by constantly changing his shape. See e.g. Homer, Odyssey, 4.400ff.; Vergil, Georgics, 4. 405-10, 440-2; Erasmus, Adagia, 1174 (Proteo mutabilior). Vergil (Georgics, 4.391) describes him living near the headland of Pallene (on the Macedonian coast). The idea of Proteus as a gifted actor or mime-artist is taken from Lucian, Saltatio, 19.

2.  signa vetustatis primaevi et...secli, ‘symbols of antiquity and the very first times’. Pallene (see n.1.) suggested a connection with the Greek word παλαιός ‘ancient’, as the name Proteus was supposedly connected with πρώτιστος, ‘the very first’.

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    Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [O8v p173]

    Armoieries des Poëtes.

    Shield with swan on it leaning against a tree.
    [Click on image to enlarge]

    En leurs escuz aulcuns portent grandz bestes
    Aigles, Lyons, Serpens, Mais des Poëtes
    Les armes, n’hont de telz animaulx signe.
    Mais en ung champ coeleste, le blanc cygne.
    Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [P1r p225]Oyseau Phoebus, & à nous domesticque
    Roy fut,[1] & garde encor’ son tiltre antique.

    Le cygne fut jadis Roy: frere de Phaëton,
    Oyseau fluvial, chantant tresdoulcement, &
    de tresgrande blancheur, consacré à Phoe-
    bus     Prince des Muses, & des Poëtes: Les-
    quelz le portent en leurs enseignes: car ilz
    sont de laurier coronnéz comme Roys: usent
    de telle liberté à escripre, que les Roys,
    à faire: font les guerres par carmes, comme
    les Roys par armes. aiment les rivieres &
    lieux plaisans, sont purs, & candides: & chan-
    tent tresdoulcement en leurs vers bien son-
    nans.

    Notes:

    1.  ‘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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