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Aulx bastardz.

APOSTROPHE.

A Hercules (Bastardz) faictes honneur,
Car de vostre ordre il est prince, & Seigneur.[1]
Si de Juno le laict il n’heust teté,[2]
(Sans quelle [=qu’elle] sceust) jamais Dieu n’heust esté.[3]

Il ha este des Bastardz grandz hommes, com-
me tous les enfans de Jupiter. Romulus Jugur
tha
, mais entre les aultres, Hercules. Lequel
n’heust jamais este deifié, s’il n’heust gousté le
laict de Juno, elle dormante. Qui denote que
Bastardz à peine jamais viennent à bien: s’ilz
ne sont legitiméz, & faictz participans des ri-
chesses hereditaires.

Notes:

1.  Hercules was fathered by Jupiter on Alcmene, wife of Amphitryon of Thebes, and became his father’s favourite. Juno, wife of Jupiter, in jealousy pursued Hercules with implacable hatred.

2.  For the story of Juno tricked by Jupiter into suckling the loathed Hercules see Pausanias, 9.25.2. This divine milk apparently counteracted Hercules’ illegitimate birth which otherwise disqualified him for heaven. See Erasmus, Adagia, 2070 (Ad Cynosarges).

3.  After all his Labours (see previous emblem) and other exploits, Hercules, by the will of Jupiter, was received among the gods. See e.g. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 9.156ff; Cicero, De officiis, 3.25.


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