Link to an image of this page [Bb1v f265v]
In fecunditatem sibi ipsi damnosam.
Fruitfulness bringing its own destruction
Emblema cxcii.
Ludibrium pueris lapides iacientibus, hoc me
In trivio posuit rustica cura nucem.
Quae laceris ramis, perstrictóque ardua libro,
Certatim fundis per latus omne petor.
Quid sterili posset contingere turpius? eheu,
Infelix, fructus in mea damna fero![1]
A countryman’s care placed me, a nut tree, at this cross-roads, where I am the butt of stone-throwing boys. I have grown tall, but my branches are broken, my bark bruised, I am attacked with sling-stones, competing on every side. What worse fate could befall a barren tree? Alas, cursed tree that I am, I bear fruit to my own destruction.
HOc transtulit è Graeco Antipatri, seu Stratonis:
similéque est Ovidianum de Nuce argumentum.
Questus est quorundam parentum miserorum de
susceptis liberis, à quibus nonnunquam coniiciun-
tur in extremas aerumnas, & vitae discrimina, unde
illos valdè poenitet se liberos eiusmode tam nefa-
rios & improbos suscepisse.
Link to an image of this page [Bb2r f266r]Sur la fecondité qui est à soy prejudiciable.
JE làs, pauvre Noyer exposé aux passans,
Mesme aux petits garçons, qui de pierres m’assaillent,
De fondes & bastons à tous coups me travaillent,
Et pour mes fruits avoir cent mille coups je sens:
Si sterile j’estois je n’auroy’ tant d’outrage:
Je rapporte des fruits, mais c’est à mon dommage.
IL a translaté cecy du Grec d’Antipater,
ou de Straton: & est semblable l’argument
que traitte Ovide, en l’elegie du Noyer. C’est
une compleinte que font quelques misera-
bles peres, pour avoir de mauvais garnemens
d’enfans qui les reduisent en piteux acces-
soires & dangers de leurs vies, de maniere
qu’ils ont juste occasion de se douloir pour
avoir de tant meschans & malheureux en-
fans.
1. This is a translation of Anthologia graeca 9.3, see also Aesop, Fables 152.
Related Emblems
Iconclass Keywords
Relating to the image:
- arm raised upward (+ holding something) [31A2511(+933)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm raised upward (+ reaching for somebody or something, seizing something, touching) [31A2511(+934)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- barefoot [41D2339] Search | Browse Iconclass
- child (+ two persons) [31D112(+72)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- child with plant (games and plays) (+ variant) [43C735(+0)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- dress, gown (+ children's clothes) [41D211(+83)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- fruits: nuts [5G21(WALNUTS)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- hand made into a fist [31A25513] Search | Browse Iconclass
- hitting at something [31A2743] Search | Browse Iconclass
- looking upwards [31B6211] Search | Browse Iconclass
- low hill country [25H114] Search | Browse Iconclass
- one leg in front of the other (+ standing) [31A2621(+51)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- shaking down, tossing down the fruit [47I4132] Search | Browse Iconclass
- sports, games and physical performances (+ requirements, necessaries ~ sports and games) [43C(+4)(STICK)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- the naughty child [42B832] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees (with NAME) (+ bearing fruit) [25G3(WALNUT-TREE)(+34)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees (with NAME) (+ stem, trunk) [25G3(WALNUT-TREE)(+21)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- vandalism (mischief-making play) [43C755] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- casting weapons (with NAME) [45C11(SLING)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Damage, Disservice; 'Danno' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [54BB31(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Fruitfulness, Productiveness, Fertility, Fecundity; 'Fecondità' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [58A3(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- public road [25I14] Search | Browse Iconclass
Hint: You can turn translations and name underlining on or off using the preferences page.
