"ON N goulden fleece, did Phryxus passe the waue, Are borne by them like Phryxus through the floodds." In a similar emblem, Beza, edition Geneva, 1580, Emb. 3, alludes to the daring deed of Phrixus, "Aurea mendaci vates non vnicus ore Vellera phrixeæ commemorauit ouis. Nos, te, Christe, agnum canimus. Nam diuite gestas Thus rendered in the French version, "Maint poete discourt de sa bouche menteuse Te chantons, Christ, agneau, dont la riche toison The Merchant of Venice (act. i. sc. 1, 1. 161, vol. ii. p. 284) presents Shakespeare's counterpart to the Emblematists; it is in Bassanio's laudatory description of Portia, as herself the golden fleece, "In Belmont is a lady richly left ; And she is fair, and, fairer than that word, Of wondrous virtues: sometimes from her eyes I did receive fair speechless messages: To Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia : Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth ; For the four winds blow in from every coast Renowned suitors: and her sunny locks Hang on her temples like a golden fleece: Which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos strand, And many Jasons come in quest of her." To this may be added a line or two by Gratiano, l. 241, p. 332,— "How doth that royal merchant, good Antonio? I know he will be glad of our success; We are the Jasons, we have won the fleece." The heraldry of Imaginative Devices in its very nature offers a wide field where the fancy may disport itself. Here things the most incongruous may meet, and the very contrariety only justify their being placed side by side. Let us begin with the device, as given in the "TETRASTICHI MORALI," p. 56, edition Lyons, 1561, by Giovio and Symeoni, used between 1498 and 1515; it is the device Cominus & eminus. Di lontano & da preffo il Re Luigi, A Porcupine is the badge, and the stanza declares, "From far and from near the King Louis, Smites the enemy and so reduces him, That from the Indian to the Western shore, Of his valour the traces are seen." Camerarius with the same motto and the like device testifies that this was the badge of Louis XI., king of France, to whose praise he also devotes a stanza,— i.e. "Cominus ut pugnat jaculis, atq. eminus histrix, Rex bonus esto armis consiliisque potens." "As close at hand and far off the porcupine fights with its spines, Let a good king be powerful in arms and in counsels." It was this Louis who laid claim to Milan, and carried Ludovic Sforza prisoner to France. He defeated the Genoese after their revolt, and by great personal bravery gained the victory of Agnadel over the Venetians in 1509. At the same time he made war on Spain, England, Rome, and Switzerland, and was in very deed the porcupine darting quills on every side. The well known application in Hamlet (act. i. sc. 5, l. 13, vol. viii. p. 35) of the chief characteristic of this vexing creature is part of the declaration which the Ghost makes to the Prince of Denmark, "But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison-house, I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, Thy knotted and combined locks to part And each particular hair to stand an end, Like quills upon the fretful porpentine." And of "John Cade of Ashford,” in 2 Henry VI. (act. iii. sc. 1, 1. 360, vol. v. p. 162), the Duke of York avers,— "In Ireland I have seen this stubborn Cade Oppose himself against a troop of kernes ; And fought so long, 'till that his thighs with darts From the same source, Giovio's and Symeoni's "SENTENTIOSE IMPRESE," Lyons, 1561, p. 115, we also derive the cogni To this Ostrich, with a large iron nail in its mouth, and with a scroll inscribed, "Courage digests the hardest things," the stanza is devoted which means,— "Devour does the ostrich with eager greediness The iron, and then very easily digests it, So (as the good Romano represents) H H Camerarius, to the same motto, Ex Volatilibus (ed. 1595, p. 19), treats us to a similar couplet, i.e. "Magno animo fortis perferre pericula suevit, Vllo nec facile frangitur ille metu." "With mighty mind the brave grows accustomed to bear dangers, Shakespeare's description of the ostrich, as given by Jack Cade, 2 Henry VI. (act iv. sc. 10, 1. 23, vol. v. p. 206), is in close agreement with the ostrich device, "Here's the lord of the soil," he says, come to seize me for a stray, for entering his fee-simple without leave. Ah, villain, thou wilt betray me, and get a thousand crowns of the king for carrying my head to him; but I'll make thee eat iron like an ostrich, and swallow my sword like a great pin, ere thou and I part." Note the iron pin in the ostrich's mouth. Sola facta folum Deum fequor. Paradin, 1562. "My Lady Bona of Savoy," as Paradin (ed. 1562, fol. 165) names her, "the mother of Ian Galeaz, Duke of Milan, finding herself a widow, made a device on her small coins of a Phoenix in the midst of a fire, with these words, 'Being made lonely, I follow God alone.' Wishing to signify that, as there is in the world but one Phoenix, even so being left by herself, she wished only to love "* conformably to the only God, in order to live eternally." * Paradin's text :-"Ma Dame Bone de Sauoye mere de Ian Galeaz, Duc de Milan, se trouuant veufe feit faire vne Deuise en ses Testons d'vne Fenix au milieu d'vn feu auec ces paroles: Sola facta, solum Deum sequor. Voulant signifier que comme il n'y a au monde qu'vne Fenix, tout ainsi estant demeuree sculette, ne vouloit aymer selon le seul Dieu, pour viure eternellement." |