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Malè parta, malè dilabuntur.[1]

Ill gotten, ill spent

Emblema cxxviii.

Two birds of prey, one vomiting.
[Click on image to enlarge]

Miluus edax,[2] nimiae quem nausea torserat escae,
Hei mihi mater, ait, viscera ab ore fluunt.
Illa autem, quid fles? cur haec tua viscera credas,
Qui rapto vivens sola aliena vomis?

A voracious kite, which had eaten too much, was racked with vomiting. ‘O dear, mother’, it said, ‘entrails are pouring out of my mouth.’ She however replied: ‘What are you crying about? Why do you think these are your entrails? You live by plunder and vomit only what belongs to others.’

EX apologo Gabriae[3]: in eos qui quae rapto & frau-
de congesserunt, tam aegrè perdunt ac si sua es-
sent. Et vulgò nostri dictitant, Eum qui censum
perdat, sensum amittere: at magni illi fures, ut ra-
bulae praedatores, & divites aeruscatores, qui hîc no-
mine milui designantur, non ita debent aegrè ferre,
si opum iacturam faciant, cùm nihil, aut certè pa-
rum de suo amittant.

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [R10v f178v]

Les biens mal acquis se per-
dent aussi mal.

LE Milan estoit en grand’ peine,
Pour avoir la panse trop pleine,
Et à sa mere se monstroit,
Comme si ses boyaux jettoit[4].
Elle luy dit; Tu te tourmentes,
Et bien en vain tu te lamentes:
Ce que tu vomis aussi bien
Est de l’autruy, & rien du tien.

C’Est une fable de Gabrias, contre ceux
qui perdent à grand regret ce qu’ils
ont amassé par fraude & larcin, comme si
c’estoit de leur bien. Nos François ont ac-
coustume de dire, celuy qui perd la sien, perd le sens:
mais ces grands larrons, comme sont ces pil-
lars & tire-argents de chicaneurs, qui sont
icy depeints soubs le nom du Milan, ne doi-
vent porter si impatiemment quand ils vien-
nent à perdre quelque chose, veu que ce
qu’ils perdent n’est pas du leur.

Notes:

1.  The title is proverbial. See Cicero, Philippics, 2.65.

2.  ‘A voracious kite’. The kite was a figure of greed and extortion.

3.  Or Babrius, as in Emblem 125 ([FALc125]).

4.  Corrected from the Errata.

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