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Ars deluditur arte.

Trickery foiled by a trick.

Man sitting on a rock watching a huge fish in the river around it.
[Click on image to enlarge]

Insidias Nili Varus[1] dum tendit inanes,
Et metuit praedam se fore rana, cavet.
Quippe statim accurrens, ubi copia arundinis extat,
Dentibus accisam praeripit, ore tenet.
Sic prensam à Varo praedam transversa tuetur
Cannula, sic inhians luditur arte fames.
Haud igitur veterem repetit limosa querelam,
Decipit & magnos infima turba viros.

While the Varus of the Nile stretches out his empty ambush, and the frog fears that it will fall prey, it takes precaution; for it hastens up where there is a thick stand of rushes, bites one through, tears it off, and holds it in its mouth. In this way a sideways little reed protects the prey caught by the Varus. So gasping hunger is tricked by a trick. In this way the slimy reed recreates no ancient complaint and the dregs of the people trick great men.

Notes:

1.  This word is not in Lewis & Short, but appears to be a kind of catfish. The French edition calls it ‘le vare’; Cotgrave has an entry ‘var’, which is equivalent to ‘bar’, or the barbel, a whiskered fish.

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