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In pudoris statuam.

A statue of Modesty

Emblema cxcvi.

Young woman sitting between two men covering her eyes.
[Click on image to enlarge]

Penelope desponsa sequi cupiebat Ulyssem,
Ni secum Icarius mallet habere pater.[1]
Ille Ithacam, hic offert Sparten. manet anxia virgo.
Hinc pater, inde viri mutuus urget amor.
Ergo sedens velat vultus, obnubit ocellos.
Ista verecundi signa pudoris erant.
Queis sibi praelatum Icarius cognovit Ulyssem,
Hócque pudori aram schemate constituit.[2]

When Penelope was betrothed, she wished to go with Ulysses, except that her father Icarius would have preferred to keep her with him. Ulysses offers Ithaca, her father Sparta. The girl is distressed: on opposite sides her father and the mutual love between her and her man make their claims on her. So she sits and covers her face, veils her eyes - those were the signs of seemly modesty. By them Icarius knew that Ulysses was preferred to himself, and he set up an altar to Modesty in this form.

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [Bb6v f270v]

AGnoverunt vel ipsi paganae superstitionis affecta-
tores quàm sancta & necessaria esset matrimnoii [=matrimonii]
recte instituti copula, qua uxor admoneretur mari-
tum etiam parentibus esse praeferendum, & contrà.
Quod ipsum perspicuè sancitum constat Evangeli-
cis literis, quo loco dicitur, Virum relinquere debere
parentum convictum ut uxori adhaereat. Sumitur haec
emblematis historia ex Laconicis Pausaniae lib. 3.

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [Bb7r f271r]

Sur la statue de Pudicité.

LOrs que Penelopé vouloit son mary suyvre,
Son Pere Icarius sans elle n’aymant vivre,
La vouloit retenir tousjours aveques soy:
L’un Itaque luy offre: & l’autre, Sparte: en quoy
La pauvre jeune Dame ignoroit à qui plaire,
Et à qui se donner, au mary, ou au Pere.
Doubtant donques ainsi, se bousche estant assise,
Et sur ses yeux pudics l’une & l’autre main mise.
C’estoit un signe vray de sa pudicité.
Par lequel à son Pere Icare ayant monstre
Que le mary devoit avoir la preference,
Mais bienhonnestement, & sans autre apparence:
De cest acte d’honneur la memoire il laissa,
Et à pudicité un autel en dressa.

CEux mesmes qui ont vescu au paganis-
me ont bien cognu combien sainct &
necessaire estoit le lien de mariage deuëment
reglé, par lequel la femme est advertie qu’el-
le doibt preferer son mari à son pere & mere
mesme: comme aussi le mary de son costé. Ce
qui est estably apertement es sainctes lettres,
là où il est dit, Que l’homme doibt laisser pere &
mere, pour adherer à sa femme. Or l’histoire de cest
embleme est tiree des Laconiques de Pau-
sanias, qui est le livre 3.

Notes:

1.  Some editions give a variant reading, Ni secus Icarius ..., ‘except that ... Icarius would have preferred to have it otherwise’.

2.  See Pausanias, Periegesis, 3.20.10, for this statue and the story behind it.

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