Chapter II · SKETCH OF EMBLEM-BOOK LITERATURE PREVIOUS TO A.D. 1616. (continued 2)

Dutch or Flemish.

Van Ghelen Flemish translation, Navis stultorum. ... Anvers 1584 v.

Coörnhert Recht Ghebruyck ende Misbruyck van tydlycke Have. 4to Leyden 1585 v.

Spanish.

Manuel El conde Lucanor (apologues & fables). 4to Sevilla 1575 v.

Boria Emprese Morales 4to Praga 1581 k.

Guzman Triumphas morales (nueuamente corregidos). 8vo Medina 1587 t.

Horozco Emblemas Morales 8vo Segovia 1589 t.

Don Juan Manuel was a descendant of the famous Alphonso V. His work consists of forty-nine little tales, with a moral in verse to each. It is regarded, says the Biog. Univ. vol. xxvi. p. 541, “as the finest monument of Spanish literature in the sixteenth century.” There are earlier editions of Francisco de Guzman’s Moral Triumphs, as at Antwerp in 1557, but the edition above named claims to be more perfect than the others. Horozco y Covaruvias was a native of Toledo, and died in 1608; one of his offices was that of Bishop of Girgenti in Sicily. In 1601 he translated his Emblems into Latin, and printed it under the title of Symbolæ Sacræ.

English.

Bynneman’s Translation of Vander Noot’s Theatre. 8vo London 1569 v.

North The Morall Philosophie of Doni 4to London 1570 v.

Daniell The worthy tract of Paulus Jovius, &c. 8vo London 1585 k.

Whitney A Choice of Emblemes, &c. 4to Leyden 1586 k.

Henry Bynneman, whose name is placed before the version of Vander Noot’s Theatre, is not known with any certainty to have been the translator. He was a celebrated printer in London from about 1566 to 1583. Sir Thomas North, to whose translation of Plutarch, Shakespeare was largely indebted, was probably an ancestor of the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under Charles II. Samuel Daniell enjoyed considerable reputation as a poet, and on Spenser’s death in 1598, was appointed poet-laureate to the Queen. Of Whitney it is known that he was a scholar of Oxford and of Cambridge, and that his name appears on the roll of the university of Leyden. He was a native of Cheshire, and died there in 1601. It may be added that an edition of Barclay’s Ship of Fooles was in 1570 “Imprinted at London in Paules Churchyarde by John Cawood Printer to the Queenes Maiestie.”

Thus, in the period between Shakespeare’s birth and his full entry on his dramatic career, we have named above sixty persons, many of great eminence, who amused their leisure, or indulged their taste, by composing books of Emblems; had we named also the editions of the same authors, within these twenty-five years, they would have amounted to 156, exclusive of many reprints from other authors who wrote Emblems between A.D. 1500 and A.D. 1564.

II.—Shakespeare’s Dramatic Career comprises another period of twenty-five years,—from 1590 to 1615. From the necessity of the case, indeed, few, if any of the Emblem writers and compilers towards the end of the time could be known to him, and any correspondence between them in thoughts or expressions must have been purely accidental. For the completion of our Sketch, however, we proceed to the end of the period we had marked out. And to save space, and, we hope, to avoid tediousness, we will continue the tabulated form adopted in the last Section.

Italian.

Bernardetti Giornata prima dell’ Imprese ... ... about 1592 v.

Capaccio Delle Imprese trattato, in tre libri diviso. 4to Napoli 1594 k.

Tasso Discorsi del Poeme 4to Napoli 1594 k.

Porri Vaso di verita ... dell’ antichristo 4to Venetia 1597 v.

Dalla Torre Dialogo 4to Trivegi 1598 k.

Caputi La Pompa 4to Napoli 1599 k.

Zoppio La Montagna 4to Bologna 1600 k.

Belloni Discorso 4to Padova 1601 k.

Chiocci Delle imprese, e del vero modo di formarle. ... ... 1601 v.

Pittoni Imprese di diversi principi, &c. (reprint). fol. Venezia 1602 v.

Ripa Iconologia, &c., Concetti, Emblemi, ed Imprese. 4to Roma 1603 k.

” ” ” ” 4to Siena 1613 t.

Vænius Amorum Emblemata, in Latin, English, and Italian. obl. 4to Antverp 1608 k.t.

Glissenti Discorsi morali ... contra il dispiacer del morire, &c. 4to Venetia 1609 v.

Giulio Cesare Capaccio, besides his Neapolitan History, and one or two other works, is also the author of Il Principe, Venetia, 1620, a treatise on the Emblems of Alciatus, with more than 200 political and moral notices. Torquato Tasso is a name that needs no praise here. Of Alessio Porri I have found no other mention; and I may say the same of Gio. Dalla Torre, of Ottavio Caputi, and of Gio. Belloni. Melchior Zoppio, born in 1544 at Bologna (Biog. Univ. vol. lii. p. 430), was one of the founders of the Academia di Gelati, in his native town. Battisti Pittoni was a painter and engraver, who flourished between 1561 and 1585. The extensive work of Cesare Ripa of Perugia, which has passed through about twenty editions in Italian, Latin, Dutch, Spanish, German, and English, is alphabetically arranged, and treats of nearly 800 different subjects, with about 200 devices. Otho van Veen, or Vænius, belongs to Holland, not to Italy,—and his name appears here simply because his Emblems of Love were translated into Italian. Fabio Glissenti in 1609 introduced into his work (Brunet, iii. c. 256, 7) twenty-four of the plates out of the forty-one which adorned an Italian edition of the Images of Death in 1545.

French.

Desprez Théatre des animaux ... actions de la vie humaine. 4to Paris 1595 v.

Boissart Mascarades recueillies, Geyn (J. de) Opera. 4to ... 1597 v.

Emblesmes Emblesmes sus les Actions—du Segnor Espagnol. 12mo Mildelbourg 1605 k.

Hymnes Hymnes des vertus ... par belles et délicates figures. 8vo Lyon 1605 v.

Vænius Amorum Emblemata (Latin,Italian, and French). 4to Antverpiæ 1608 v.

Vasseur Les Devises des Empereurs Romains, &c. 8vo Paris 1608 t.

” Les Devises des Rois de France. ... Paris 1609 v.

Valence Emblesmes sur les Actions—du Segnor Espagnol. 8vo ... 1608 k.

Rollenhagen Les Emblemes ... mis en vers françois. 4to Coloniæ 1611 v.

Dinet Les cinq Livres des Hiéroglyphiques. 4to Paris 1614 v.

De Bry Pourtraict de la Cosmographie morale. 4to Francfort 1614 v.

Robert Boissart, a French engraver (Bryan, p. 90) flourished about 1590, and is said to have resided some time in England. Of Vænius, so well known, there is no occasion to speak here. Jacques de Vasseur was archdeacon of Noyon, celebrated as the birth-place of Calvin, and in 1608 also published another work in French verse, Antithises, ov Contrepointes du Ciel & de la Terre. Desprez and Valence are unknown save by their books of Emblems. Pierre Dinet is very briefly named in Biog. Univ. vol. ii. p. 371; and Rollenhagen and De Bry will be mentioned presently.

Latin.

Callia Emblemata sacra, e libris Mosis excerpta. 32mo Heidelbergæ 1591 k.

Borcht P. Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoses. obl. 16mo Antverpiæ 1591 t.

Stimmer Icones Affabræ ... Strasburg 1591 v.

Mercerius Emblemata 4to Bourges 1592 t.

De Bry Emblemata nobilitate et vulgo scitu digna. obl. 4to Francof 1592 v.

” Emblemata secularia 4to ” 1593 v.

Freitag Viridiarium Moralis Phil. per fabulas, &c. 4to Coloniæ 1594 k.

Taurellius Emblema physico-ethica, &c. 8vo Norimbergæ 1595 k.

Boissard Theatrum vitæ Humanæ 4to Metz 1596 t.

Franceschino Hori Apollinis selecta hieroglyphica. 16mo Romæ 1597 v.

Le Bey de Batilly. Emb. a J. Boissard delineata, &c. 4to Francof 1596 t. k.

Altorfinæ Emb. anniversaria Academiæ Altorfinæ. 4to Norimbergæ 1597 k.c.t.

David Virtutis spectaculum 4to Francof 1597 v.

” Veridicus christianus 4to Antverpiæ 1601 t. k.

David Occasio arrepta, neglecta, &c. 4to Antverpiæ 1605 c. t.

” Pancarpium Marianum 8vo ” 1607 t.

” Messis myrrhæ et aromatum, &c. 8vo ” 1607 v.

” Paradisus sponsi et sponsæ, &c. 8vo ” 1607 k.

” Dvodecim Specvla, &c. 8vo ” 1610 t. k.

Sadeler, Æg. Symbola Divina et Humana Pontif. Imper., &c. fol. Prague 1600 k.

” Symb. Div. et. Hum., &c.;Isagoge Jac. Typotii. fol. Francof 1601, 2, 3 k.

Passæus Metamorphoseωn Ouidianarum typi, &c. obl.4to ... 1602 t.

Epidigma Emblematum Philomilæ Thiloniæ Epidigma. 4to ... 1603 v.

Vænius Horatii Emblemata, imaginibus (ciii.) in æs incisis. 4to Antuerp 1607 k.

” Amorvm Emblemata, Figvris æneis incisa. 4to Antuerpiæ 1608 t. k.

” Amoris Divini Emblemata 4to Antuerpiæ 1615 t.

Pignorius Vetustissimæ tabulæ æneæ sacris Ægyptiorum simulacris cœlatæ explicatio. 4to Venetia 1605 v.

” Characteres Ægyptii ... per Jo. Th. et Jo. Isr. de Bry. 4to Francofurti 1608 v.

Sadeler, Æg. Theatrum morum. Artliche gespräch der Thier met wahren Historien, &c. 4to Pragæ 1608

Broecmer Emblemata moralia et œconomica. 4to Arnhemi 1609 t.

Aleander Explicatio antiquæ Fabulæ marmoreæ Solis effigie, symbolisque exsculptæ, &c. 4to Romæ 1611 k.

Rollenhagen Nvclevs Emblematum selectissimorum. 4to Coloniæ 1611–13 c. t.

” ” ” ” 4to Arnhemi 1615 k.

Hillaire Specvlvm Heroicvm—Homeri—Iliados. 4to Traject. Bat. 1613 c.

À Bruck Emblemata moralia et bellica 4to Argentinæ 1615 v.

Peter Vander Borcht, born at Brussels about A.D. 1540, engraved numerous works, and among them 178 prints for this edition of Ovid. The Stimmers have been mentioned before, p. 90. Jean Mercier, born at Uzès in Languedoc, wrote the Latin version of the Hieroglyphics of Horapollo, Paris, 1548,—but probably it was his son Josias whose Emblems are mentioned under the year 1592, and who dates them from Bruges. Theodore De Bry, born at Liege in 1528 (Bryan, p. 119), carried on the business of an engraver and bookseller in Francfort, where he died in 1598. He was greatly assisted by his sons John Theodore and John Israel. The Procession of the Knights of the Garter in 1566, and that at the Funeral of Sir Philip Sidney, are his workmanship. Nicolas Taurellius was a student, and afterwards professor of Physic and Medicine in the University of Altorf in Franconia. An oration of his appears in the Emblemata Anniversaria of that institution. He was named “the German Philosopher.” Denis le Bey de Batilly appears to have been royal president of the Consistory of Metz. John David, born at Courtray in Flanders, in 1546, entered the Society of the Jesuits, and was rector of the colleges of Courtray, Brussels, and Ghent; he died in 1613. Ægidius Sadeler, known as the Phœnix of engravers, was a native of Antwerp, born in 1570, the nephew and disciple of the two eminent engravers John and Raphael Sadeler. He enjoyed a pension from three successive emperors, Rodolphus II., Matthias, and Ferdinand II. Of Crispin de Passe, born at Utrecht about 1560, Bryan (p. 548) says, “He was a man of letters, and not only industrious to perfect himself in his art, but fond of promoting it.” His works were numerous, and have examples in the Emblem-books of his day. Otho van Veen, of a distinguished family, was born at Leyden in 1556. After a residence of seven years in Italy, he established himself at Antwerp, and had the rare claim to celebrity that Rubens became his disciple. In his Emblem-works the designs were by himself, but the engravings by his brother Gilbert van Veen. (Bryan, p. 853, 4.) Lawrence Pignorius, born at Padua, 1571, and educated at the Jesuits’ school and the university of that city, gained a high reputation by several learned works, and especially by those on Egyptian antiquities. He died of the plague in 1631. The work of Richard Lubbæus Broecmer, is little more than a reprint of one by Bernard Furmer, in 1575, On the Use and Abuse of Wealth. Jerome Aleander, nephew of one of Luther’s stoutest opponents, the Cardinal Aleander, was of considerable literary reputation at Rome, being a member of the society of Humourists, established in that city,—his death was in 1631. According to Oetlinger’s brief notice, Bibliog. Biograph. Univ., Gabriel Rollenhagen, of Magdeburg, was a German schoolmaster, born in 1542, and dying in 1609; his Kernel of Emblems is well illustrated by Crispin de Passe. The same “excellent engraver” adorned The Mirror of Heroes, founded on Homer’s Iliad by “le sieur de la Rivière, Isaac Hillaire.” Both Latin and French verses are appended to the Emblems, and at their end are curious “Epitaphs on the Heroes who fell in the Trojan war,” too late, it is to be feared, to afford any gratification to their immediate friends. To Jacobus à Bruck, surnamed of Angermunde, a town of Brandenberg, there belongs another Emblem-book, Emblemata Politica, Cologne, 1618. In it are briefly demonstrated the duties which belong to princes; it is dedicated “to his most merciful Prince and Lord, the Emperor Matthias I., ‘semper Augusto.’”

German.

De Bry Emblemata Secvlaria—rhythmis Germanicis, &c. 4to Francofurti 1596 v.

” ” ” ” 4to Oppenhemii 1611 t.

Boissard Shawspiel Menschliches Lebens 4to Franckf. 1597 v.

Sadeler Theatrum morum. Artliche gespräch der Thier, &c. 4to Praga 1608 v.

Dutch or Flemish.

David Christelücke 4to Antuerp 1603 k.

Vænius Zinnebeelden der Wereldtsche Liefde. 4to Amstel. 1603 v.

À Ganda Spiegel van de doorluchtige,&c., Vrouwen. obl. 4to Amsterod. 1606 t.

” Emblemata Amatoria Nova obl. 4to Lugd. Bat. 1613 k.

Moerman De Cleyn Werelt ... metover schoone Const-platen. 4to Amstelred. 1608 k.

Ieucht Den nieuwen Ieucht spieghel ... C. de Passe. obl. 4to ... 1610 t.

Embl. Amat. Afbeeldinghen, &c. obl. 4to Amsterd. 1611 k.

Gulden Den Gulden Winckel der Konstliev ende Nederlanders Gestoffeert. 4to Amsterdam 1613 k.

Bellerophon Bellerophon, of Lust tot Wysheyd. 4to Amsterdam 1614 k.

Visscher Sinnepoppen (or Emblem Play) van Roemer Visscher. 12mo Amsterdam 1614 k.

De Bry, Sadeler, David, and Vænius have been mentioned in page 96. Theocritus à Ganda is known for this work, The Mirror of virtuous Women, for which Jost de Hondt executed the fine copper-plates that accompany it; and also for Emblemata Amatoria Nova, published at Amsterdam in 1608, and at Leyden in 1613. The Little World, by Jan Moerman, is of the same class with Le Microcosme, Lyons, 1562, by Maurice de Sceve; or with “ΜΙΚΡΟΚΟΣΜΟΣ,” Antwerp, 1584 and 1594, and which Sir Wm. Stirling-Maxwell attributes to Henricus Costerius of Antwerp. The New Mirror of Youth, 1610; The Delineations, 1611; The golden Ship of the Art-loving Netherlander finished, 1613; and Bellerophon, or Pleasure of Wisdom, 1614; are all anonymous. Roemer van Visscher, born at Amsterdam in 1547 (Biog. Univ. vol. xlix. p. 276), is of high celebrity as a Dutch poet,—with Spiegel and Coörnhert, he was one of the chief restorers of the Dutch language, and an immediate predecessor of the two illustrious poets of Holland, Cornelius van Hooft and Josse du Vondel.

Spanish.

De Soto Emblemas Moralizadas 8vo Madrid 1599 t. k.

Vænius Amorum emblemata. (Latin and Spanish verses). 4to Antuerpiæ 1608 v.

” Amoris divini Emb....hispanicè, &c. 4to ” 1615 t.

Orozco Emblemas Morales 4to Madrid 1610 t. k.

Villava Empresas Espirituales y Morales 4to Baeça 1613 k.

Hernando de Soto was auditor and comptroller for the King of Spain in his house of Castile. At the end are stanzas of three verses each, in Latin and Spanish on alternate pages, “to our Lady the Virgin.” Don Sebastian de Couarrubias Orozco was chaplain to the King of Spain, schoolmaster and canon of Cuenca, and adviser of the Holy Office. Both Soto and Orozco dedicate their works to Don Francisco Gomez de Sandoual, Duke of Lerma. Juan Francisco de Villava dedicates his first Emblem “to the Holy and General Inquisition of Spain.” Neither of the three names occurs in the Biographies to which I have access.

English.

P. S. The Heroicall Devises of M. Clavdivs Paradin. 8vo London 1591 c.

Wyrley The true use of Armorie, shewed by historic, and plainly proved by example. 4to London 1592 v.

Willet Sacrorvm Emblematvm Centvria vna, &c. A Century of Sacred Emblems. 4to Cambridge 1598 v.

Crosse Crose his Covert, or a Prosopopœicall Treatise. MS. About 1600 c.

Vænius Amorum Emblemata (Latin, English, and Italian). 4to Antverpiæ 1608 k. t.

Guillim A Display of Heraldry fol. London 1611 k.

Peacham Minerva Britanna, or a Garden of Heroical Deuises, &c. 4to London 1612 c. t. k.

Yates, MS. The Emblems of Alciatus in English verse. MS. About 1610 t.

William Wyrley’s True use of Arms, was reprinted in 1853. In Censura Lit., i. p. 313, Samuel Egerton Brydges gives a pleasing account of the character of Andrew Willet, whom Fuller ranks among England’s worthies (vol. i. p. 238). Of John Crosse himself, nothing is known, but his MS. is certainly not later than Elizabeth’s reign, for the royal arms, at p. 33, are of earlier date than the accession of the Stuarts; and the allusion to the Belgian dames, pp. 2–6, agrees with her times. The work contains 120 shields and devices, and was lent me by my very steadfast friend in Emblem lore, Mr. Corser of Stand. At pp. 10 and 37, it is said,—

“In Troynovant a famous schoole was founde

By famous Citizens; whilome the grounde

Of noble Boone;”—

and

“To traine vp youth in tongues fewe might compare

With Mulcaster, whose fame shall never fade.”

Now it was in 1561 Richard Mulcaster, of King’s College, Cambridge, and of Christchurch, Oxford, was appointed head master of Merchant-Taylor’s School in London, then just founded. (Warton, iii. 282.) Thus it is shown to be very probable that Crosse his Covert may take date not later than A.D. 1600. It may be added that at the end of the MS. the figure of Fortune, or Occasion, on a wheel, is almost a fac-simile from Whitney’s Device, p. 181, which was itself struck from the block (Emb. 121. p. 438) of Plantin’s edition of Alciatus, MDLXXXI. John Guillim’s work on Heraldry passed through five editions previous to that of Capt. John Logan, in 1724; the original folio is one of the book-treasures at Keir. Henry Peacham, M^r. of Artes, as he terms himself, was a native of Leverton in Holland, in the county of Lincoln, and a student under “the right worshipfull Mr. D. Laifeild,” in Trinity College, Cambridge. He has dedicated his work “to the Right High and Mightie Henrie, Eldest Sonne of our Soveraigne Lord the King.”

Singular it is, that except the MS. which belonged to the late Joseph B. Yates, of Liverpool, there is not known to exist any translation into English of the once famous Emblems of Alciatus. That MS. (see Transact. Liverpool L. and P. Society, Nov. 5, 1849) “appears to be of the time of James the First.” The Devices are drawn and coloured, and have considerable resemblance to those in Rapheleng’s edition of Alciatus, 1608. As a specimen we add the translation of Emblem XXXIII. p. 39, “Signa fortium.”

“O Saturn’s birde! what cause doth thee incyte

Upon Aristom’s tombe so highe to sitt?

‘As I all other birds excell in mighte—

So doth Aristom, Lords, in strength and witt.

Let fearful Doves on cowards’ tombs take rest—

We Eagles stoute to stoute men give a crest.’”

How pleasant to feel that this Sketch of Emblem-books and their authors, previous to and during the times of Shakespeare, has been brought to an end. “Vina coronant,” fill a bumper, “let the sparkling glass go round.”

The difficulty really has been to compress. The materials collected were most abundant. From curiously or artistically arranged title pages,—from various dedications,—from devices admirably designed or of wondrous oddity,—and from the countless collateral subjects among which the Emblem writers and their commentators disported themselves, the temptations were so rich to wander off here and there, that it was necessary continually to remember that it was a veritable sketch I was engaged on and not a universal history. I lashed myself therefore to the mast and sailed through a whole sea of syrens, deaf, though they charmed ever so sweetly to make me sing with them of emperors and kings, of popes and cardinals, of the learned and the gay, who appeared to believe that everyone’s literary salvation depended on the contrivance of a device and the interpretation of an emblem.

Had I known where to refer my readers for a general view of my subject, either brief or prolix, I should have spared myself the labour of compiling one. The results are, that, previous to the year 1616, the Emblem Literature of Europe could claim for its own at least 200 authors, not including translators, and that above 770 editions of original texts and of versions had issued from the press.^[63]

If Shakespeare knew nothing of so wide-spread a literature it is very wonderful; and more wondrous far, if knowing, he did not inweave some of the threads into the very texture of his thoughts.

In this Sketch of Emblem writers, it will be perceived, though their names are seldom heard of except among the antiquaries of letters, that, as a class, they were men of deep erudition, of considerable natural power, and of large attainments. To the literature of their age they were as much ornaments as to the literature of our modern times are the works, illustrated or otherwise, with which our hours of leisure are wont to be both amused and instructed. No one who is ignorant of them can possess a full idea of the intellectual treasures of the more cultivated nations of Europe about the period of which the works of Alciatus and of Giovio are the types. We may be learned in its controversies, well read in its ecclesiastical and political history, intimate even with the characters and pursuits of its great statesmen and sovereigns, and strong as well as enlightened in our admiration of its painters, statuaries, poets, and other artistic celebrities, but we are not baptized into its perfect spirit unless we know what entertainment and refreshing there were for men’s minds when serious studies were intermitted and the weighty cares and business of life for a while laid aside.

Take up these Emblem writers as great statesmen and victorious commanders did; read them as did the recluse in his study and the man of the world at his recreation; search into them as some did for good morals suitable to the guidance of their lives, and as others did for snatches of wit and learning fitted to call forth their merriment; and see, amid divers conceits and many quaintnesses, and not a few inanities and vanities, how richly the fancy was indulged, and how freely the play of genius was allowed; and then will you be better prepared to estimate the whole literature of the nations of that busy, stirring time, when authorities were questioned that had reigned unchallenged for centuries, and men’s minds were awakened to all the advantages of learning, and their tastes formed for admiring the continually varying charms of the poet’s song and the artist’s skill.

True; those strange turns of thought, those playings upon mere words, those fanciful dreamings, those huntings up and down of some unfortunate idea through all possible and impossible doublings and windings, are not approved either by a purer taste, or by a better-trained judgment. We have outgrown the customs of those logo-maniacs, or word-worshippers, whom old Ralph Cudworth, in his True Intellectual System of the Universe, p. 67, seems to have had in view, when he affirms, “that they could not make a Rational Discourse of anything, though never so small, but they must stuff it with their Quiddities, Entities, Essences, Hæcceities, and the like.”

But at the revival of literature, when the ancient learning was devoured without being digested, and the modern investigations were not always controlled by sound discretion,—when the child was as a giant, and the giant disported himself in fantastic gambols,—we must not wonder that compositions, both prose and poetic, were perpetrated which receive unhesitatingly from the higher criticism the sentence of condemnation. But in condemning let not the folly be committed of despising and undervaluing. We may devotedly love our more advanced civilization, our finer sensibilities, and our juster estimate of what true taste for the beautiful demands, and yet we may accord to our leaders and fathers in learning and refinement the no unworthy commendation, that, with their means and in their day, they gave a mighty onward movement to those literary pursuits and pleasures in which the powers of the fancy heighten the glow of our joy, and the resources of accurate knowledge bestow an abiding worth upon our intellectual labours.

Sambucus, 1564.