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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [E5v]

IN EUM QUI SIBI IPSI[1]
damnum apparat.

One who brings about his own downfall

A wolf cub being suckled by a goat.
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Capra lupum non sponte meo nunc ubere lacto,
Quod male pastoris provida cura iubet.[2]
Creverit ille simul, mea me[3] post ubera pascet,
Improbitas nullo flectitur obsequio.[4]

I am a goat giving suck against my will - to a wolf. The improvident kindness of the shepherd makes me do this. Once the wolf has grown, after feeding at my teats, he will then eat me. Wickedness is never deterred by services rendered.

Notes:

1.  Textual variant: ‘ipsi’ omitted.

2.  This is a translation of Anthologia graeca 9.47. For the content cf. Aesop, Fables 313-5.

3.  Corrected from the Errata.

4.  ‘Wickedness is never deterred by services rendered’. See Erasmus, Adagia 1086, Ale luporum catulos.

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [K7r f91r]

Ira.

Rage.

Emblema lxiii.

Lion surrounded by hunting dogs and men on horseback.
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Alcaeam veteres caudam dixere leonis,
Qua stimulante iras concipit ille graves.
Lutea cùm surgit bilis, crudescit & atro
Felle dolor, furias excitat indomitas.[1]

The ancients called the lion’s tail alcaea, for under its stimulus he takes on dreadful fury. When the yellow bile rises and his temper grows savage with the black gall, the tail incites his indomitable rage.

ADmonemur irae impetum cohibendum esse,
omnésque occasiones devitandas, quòd ea per-
turbatio sic hominem extra se deiiciat, ut quasi
transformetur in belluam ferocissimam.

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [K7v f91v]

Cholere.

LEs anciens ont nommé la queuë du Lyon
Alcee: car estant de quelque motion
Espris, il se transporte, & se jette en furie.
Quand la cholere monte, elle saisist le coeur,
Trouble l’homme, & ravit de tresforte douleur,
Et luy baille le saut d’une extreme agonie.

NOus sommes advertis d’arrester la ve-
hemence & impetuosité de cholere, &
qu’il fault eviter toutes occasions inclinan-
tes à icelle, parce que ceste perturbation
met l’homme hors de soy, de sorte qu’il
semble qu’il soit mué en une beste tres-
cruelle.

Notes:

1.  The Greek word ἀλκαία was supposedly derived from ἀλκή ‘strength’ (see emblem 3, n.3, [FALc003]). The Etymologicum Magnum, an ancient Greek lexicon, defines ἀλκαία as ‘properly the tail of the lion, because it urges him on to strength (ἀλκή)’. Pliny, Natural History, 8.16.49, describes how the lion’s tail lashes with increasing fury and spurs him on. See also Aelian, De natura animalium, 5.39.

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