CHAPTER VII.MISCELLANEOUS EMBLEMS; RECAPITULATION, AND CONCLUSION.

Emblems Miscellaneous will include some which have been omitted, or which remain unclassified from not belonging to any of the foregoing divisions. They are placed here without any attempt to bring them into any special order.

Several words and forms of thought employed by the Emblem writers, and especially by Whitney, have counterparts, if not direct imitations, in Shakespeare’s dramas; he often treats of the same heroes in the same way.

Thus, in reference to Paris and Helen, Whitney utters his opinion respecting them (p. 79),—

“ThougheParis, had hisHelenat his will,Thinke howe his faite, wasIlionsfoule deface.”

“ThougheParis, had hisHelenat his will,

Thinke howe his faite, wasIlionsfoule deface.”

And Shakespeare sets forth Troilus (Troilus and Cressida, act ii. sc. 2, l. 81, vol. vi. p. 164) as saying of Helen,—

“Why, she is a pearl,Whose price hath launch’d above a thousand ships,And turn’d crown’d kings to merchants.”

“Why, she is a pearl,

Whose price hath launch’d above a thousand ships,

And turn’d crown’d kings to merchants.”

And then, as adding (l. 92),—

“O, theft most base,That we have stol’n what we do fear to keep!But thieves unworthy of a thing so stol’n.That in their country did them that disgrace,We fear to warrant in our native place!”

“O, theft most base,

That we have stol’n what we do fear to keep!

But thieves unworthy of a thing so stol’n.

That in their country did them that disgrace,

We fear to warrant in our native place!”

Whitney inscribes a frontispiece or dedication of his work with the letters, D. O. M.,—i.e.,Deo, Optimo, Maximo,—“To God, best, greatest,”—and writes,—

D. O. M.

Since man is fraile, and all his thoughtes are sinne,And of him ſelfe he can no good inuent,Then euerie one, before they oughte beginne,Should call onGod, from whome all grace is ſent:So, I beſeeche, that he the ſame will ſende,That, to his praiſe I maie beginne, and ende.

Since man is fraile, and all his thoughtes are sinne,

And of him ſelfe he can no good inuent,

Then euerie one, before they oughte beginne,

Should call onGod, from whome all grace is ſent:

So, I beſeeche, that he the ſame will ſende,

That, to his praiſe I maie beginne, and ende.

Very similar sentiments are enunciated in several of the dramas; as inTwelfth Night(act iii. sc. 4, l. 340, vol. iii. p. 285),—

“Taint of vice, whose strong corruptionInhabits our frail blood.”

“Taint of vice, whose strong corruption

Inhabits our frail blood.”

InHenry VIII.(act v. sc. 3, l. 10, vol. vi. p. 103), the Lord Chancellor says to Cranmer,—

“But we all are men,In our own nature frail and capableOf our flesh; few are angels.”

“But we all are men,

In our own nature frail and capable

Of our flesh; few are angels.”

Even Banquo (Macbeth, act ii. sc. 1, l. 7, vol. vii. P. 444) can utter the prayer,—

“Merciful powers,Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that natureGives way to in repose!”

“Merciful powers,

Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature

Gives way to in repose!”

And very graphically does Richard III. (act iv. sc. 2, l. 65, vol. v. p. 583) describe our sinfulness as prompting sin,—

“But I am inSo far in blood that sin will pluck on sin.”

“But I am in

So far in blood that sin will pluck on sin.”

Or as Romeo puts the case (Romeo and Juliet, act v. sc. 3, l. 61, vol. vii. p. 124),—

“I beseech thee, youth,Put not another sin upon my head,By urging me to fury.”

“I beseech thee, youth,

Put not another sin upon my head,

By urging me to fury.”

Coriolanus thus speaks of man’s “unstable lightness” (Coriolanus, act iii. sc. 1, l. 160, vol. vi. p. 344),—

“Not having the power to do the good it would,For the ill which doth control ’t.”

“Not having the power to do the good it would,

For the ill which doth control ’t.”

Human dependence upon God’s blessing is well expressed by the conqueror at Agincourt (Henry V., act iv. sc. 7, l. 82, vol. iv. p. 582),—“Praised be God, and not our strength, for it;” and (act iv. sc. 8, l. 100),—

“O God, thy arm was here!And not to us, but to thy arm aloneAscribe we all.”

“O God, thy arm was here!

And not to us, but to thy arm alone

Ascribe we all.”

And simply yet truly does the Bishop of Carlisle point out that dependence to Richard II. (act iii. sc. 2, l. 29, vol. iv. p. 164),—

“The means that heaven yields must be embraced,And not neglected; else, if heaven would,And we will not, heaven’s offer we refuse,The proffer’d means of succour and redress.”

“The means that heaven yields must be embraced,

And not neglected; else, if heaven would,

And we will not, heaven’s offer we refuse,

The proffer’d means of succour and redress.”

The closing thought of Whitney’s whole passage is embodied in Wolsey’s earnest charge to Cromwell (Henry VIII., act iii. sc. 2, l. 446, vol. vi. p. 79),—

“Be just, and fear not:Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s,Thy God’s, and truth’s; then if thou fall’st, O Cromwell,Thou fall’st a blessed martyr!”

“Be just, and fear not:

Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s,

Thy God’s, and truth’s; then if thou fall’st, O Cromwell,

Thou fall’st a blessed martyr!”

The various methods of treating the very same subject by the professed Emblem writers will prove that, even with a full knowledge of their works, a later author may yet allow scarcely a hint to escape him, that he was acquainted, in some particular instance, with the sentiments and expressions of his predecessors;indeed, that knowledge itself may give birth to thoughts widely different in their general character. To establish this position we offer a certain proverb which both Sambucus and Whitney adopt, the almost paradoxical saying,We flee the things which we follow, and they flee us,—

Quæ ſequimur fugimus, nosq́ue fugiunt.Ad Philip. Apianum.Sambucus, 1564.Qvidſemper querimur deeſſe nobis?Cur nunquam ſatiat fames perennis?Haud res nos fugiunt, loco ſolemusIpſi cedere ſed fugaciore.Mors nos arripit antè quàm lucremurTantum quod cupimus, Deum & precamur,Vel ſi rem fateare confitendam,Res, & nos fugimus ſimul fugaces.Ne ſint diuitiæ tibi dolori:Ac veram ſtatuas beatitatemFirmis rebus, in aſperaq́ue vita.

Quæ ſequimur fugimus, nosq́ue fugiunt.Ad Philip. Apianum.

Quæ ſequimur fugimus, nosq́ue fugiunt.

Ad Philip. Apianum.

Sambucus, 1564.

Qvidſemper querimur deeſſe nobis?Cur nunquam ſatiat fames perennis?Haud res nos fugiunt, loco ſolemusIpſi cedere ſed fugaciore.Mors nos arripit antè quàm lucremurTantum quod cupimus, Deum & precamur,Vel ſi rem fateare confitendam,Res, & nos fugimus ſimul fugaces.Ne ſint diuitiæ tibi dolori:Ac veram ſtatuas beatitatemFirmis rebus, in aſperaq́ue vita.

Qvidſemper querimur deeſſe nobis?

Cur nunquam ſatiat fames perennis?

Haud res nos fugiunt, loco ſolemus

Ipſi cedere ſed fugaciore.

Mors nos arripit antè quàm lucremur

Tantum quod cupimus, Deum & precamur,

Vel ſi rem fateare confitendam,

Res, & nos fugimus ſimul fugaces.

Ne ſint diuitiæ tibi dolori:

Ac veram ſtatuas beatitatem

Firmis rebus, in aſperaq́ue vita.

In both instances there is exactly the same pictorial illustration, indeed the wood-block which was engraved for the Emblems of Sambucus, in 1564, with simply a change of border, did service for Whitney’s Emblems in 1586. The device contains Time, winged and flying and holding forward a scythe; a man and woman walking before him, the scythe being held over their heads threateningly,—the man as he advances turning half round and pointing to a treasure-box left behind. Sambucus thus moralizes,—

“What do we querulous always deem our want?Why never to hunger sense of fulness grant?Wealth flees us not,—but we accustomed areBy our own haste its benefits to mar.Death takes us off before we reach the gainGreat as our wish; and vows to God we feignFor wealth which fleeing at the time we flee,Even when wealth around we own to be.O let not riches prove thy spirit’s bane!Nor shall thou seek for happiness in vain,—Though rough thy paths of life on every hand,Firm on its base thy truest bliss shall stand.”

“What do we querulous always deem our want?

Why never to hunger sense of fulness grant?

Wealth flees us not,—but we accustomed are

By our own haste its benefits to mar.

Death takes us off before we reach the gain

Great as our wish; and vows to God we feign

For wealth which fleeing at the time we flee,

Even when wealth around we own to be.

O let not riches prove thy spirit’s bane!

Nor shall thou seek for happiness in vain,—

Though rough thy paths of life on every hand,

Firm on its base thy truest bliss shall stand.”

Now Whitney adopts, in part at least, a much more literal interpretation; he follows out what the figure of Time and the accessory figures suggest, and so improves his proverb-text as to found upon it what appears pretty plainly to have been the groundwork of the ancient song,—“The old English gentleman, one of the olden time.” The type of that truly venerable character was “Thomas WilbrahamEsquier,” an early patron of Lord Chancellor Egerton. Whitney’s lines are (p. 199),—

“Wee flee, from that wee seeke; & followe, that wee leaue:And, whilst wee thinke our webbe to skante, & larger still would weaue,Lo, Time dothe cut vs of, amid our carke: and care.Which warneth all, that haue enoughe, and not contented are.For to inioye their goodes, their howses, and their landes:Bicause the Lorde vnto that end, commits them to their handes.Yet, those whose greedie mindes: enoughe, doe thinke too small:Whilst that with care they seeke for more, oft times are reu’d of all,Wherefore all such (I wishe) that spare, where is no neede:To vse their goodes whilst that they may, for time apace doth speede.And since, by proofe I knowe, you hourde not vp your store;Whose gate, is open to your frende: and purce, vnto the pore:And spend vnto your praise, whatGoddothe largely lende:I chiefly made my choice of this, which I to you commende.In hope, all those that see your name, aboue the head:Will at your lampe, their owne come light, within your steppes to tread.Whose daily studie is, your countrie to adorne:And for to keepe a worthie house, in place where you weare borne.”

“Wee flee, from that wee seeke; & followe, that wee leaue:

And, whilst wee thinke our webbe to skante, & larger still would weaue,

Lo, Time dothe cut vs of, amid our carke: and care.

Which warneth all, that haue enoughe, and not contented are.

For to inioye their goodes, their howses, and their landes:

Bicause the Lorde vnto that end, commits them to their handes.

Yet, those whose greedie mindes: enoughe, doe thinke too small:

Whilst that with care they seeke for more, oft times are reu’d of all,

Wherefore all such (I wishe) that spare, where is no neede:

To vse their goodes whilst that they may, for time apace doth speede.

And since, by proofe I knowe, you hourde not vp your store;

Whose gate, is open to your frende: and purce, vnto the pore:

And spend vnto your praise, whatGoddothe largely lende:

I chiefly made my choice of this, which I to you commende.

In hope, all those that see your name, aboue the head:

Will at your lampe, their owne come light, within your steppes to tread.

Whose daily studie is, your countrie to adorne:

And for to keepe a worthie house, in place where you weare borne.”

In the spirit of one part of these stanzas is a question in Philemon Holland’sPlutarch(p. 5). “What meane you, my masters, and whither run you headlong, carking and caring all that ever you can to gather goods and rake riches together?”

Similar in its meaning to the two Emblems just considered is another by Whitney (p. 218),Mulier vmbra viri,—“Woman the shadow of man,”—

“Ovr shadowe flies, if wee the same pursue:But if wee flie, it followeth at the heele.So, he throughe loue that moste dothe serue, and sue,Is furthest off his mistresse harte is steele.But if hee flie, and turne awaie his face,Shee followeth straight, and grones to him for grace.”

“Ovr shadowe flies, if wee the same pursue:

But if wee flie, it followeth at the heele.

So, he throughe loue that moste dothe serue, and sue,

Is furthest off his mistresse harte is steele.

But if hee flie, and turne awaie his face,

Shee followeth straight, and grones to him for grace.”

This Emblem is very closely followed in theMerry Wives of Windsor(act ii. sc. 2, l. 187, vol. i. p. 196), when Ford, in disguise as “Master Brook,” protests to Falstaff that he had followed Mrs. Ford “with a doting observance;” “briefly,” he says, “I have pursued her as love hath pursued me; which hath been on the wing of all occasions,”—

“Love like a shadow flies when substance love pursues;Pursuing that that flies, and flying what pursues.”

“Love like a shadow flies when substance love pursues;

Pursuing that that flies, and flying what pursues.”

Death in most of its aspects is described and spoken of by the great Dramatist, and possibly we might hunt out someexpressions of his which coincide with those of the Emblem writers on the same subject, but generally his mention of death is peculiarly his own,—as when Mortimer says (1 Henry VI., act ii. sc. 5, l. 28, vol. v. p. 40),—

“The arbitrator of despairs,Just death, kind umpire of men’s miseries,With sweet enlargement doth dismiss me hence.”

“The arbitrator of despairs,

Just death, kind umpire of men’s miseries,

With sweet enlargement doth dismiss me hence.”

Holbein’s Simulachres, 1538.

In his beautiful edition of Holbein’sDance of Death, Noel Humphreys (p. 81), in describing theCanoness, thus conjectures,—“May not Shakespeare have had this device in his mind when penning the passage in which Othello” (act v. sc. 2, l. 7, vol. viii. p. 574), “determining to kill Desdemona, exclaims, ‘Put out the light—and then—put out the light?’”

The way, however, in which Shakespeare sometimes speaks of Death and Sleep induces the supposition that he was acquainted with those passages in Holbein’sSimulachres de la Mort(Lyons, 1538) which treat of the same subjects by the same method. Thus,—

“Cicero disoit bien: Tu as le sommeil pour imaige de la Mort, & tous les iours tu ten reuestz. Et si doubtes, sil y à nul sentiment a la Mort, combien que tu voyes qu’ en son simulachre il n’y à nul sentimẽt.”Sign. Liijverso. And again, sign. Liiijverso,“La Mort est le veritable reffuge, la santé parfaicte, le port asseure, la victoire entiere, la chair sans os, le poisson sans espine, le grain sans paille.... La Mort est vng eternel sommeil, vne dissolution du Corps, vng espouuẽtement des riches, vng desir des pouures,vng cas ineuitable, vng pelerinaige incertain, vng larron des hõmes, vne Mere du dormir, vne vmbre de vie, vng separement des viuans, vne compaignie des Mortz.”

Thus the Prince Henry by his father’s couch, thinking him dead, says (2 Hen. IV., act iv. sc. 5, l. 35, vol. iv. p. 453),—

“This sleep is sound indeed; this is a sleep,That from this golden rigol hath divorcedSo many English kings.”

“This sleep is sound indeed; this is a sleep,

That from this golden rigol hath divorced

So many English kings.”

And still more pertinently speaks the Duke (Measure for Measure, act iii. sc. 1, l. 17, vol. i. p. 334),—

“Thy best of rest is sleep,And that thou oft provokest; yet grossly fear’stThy death, which is no more.”

“Thy best of rest is sleep,

And that thou oft provokest; yet grossly fear’st

Thy death, which is no more.”

Again, before Hermione, as a statue (Winter’s Tale, act v. sc. 3, l. 18, vol. iii. p. 423),—

“prepareTo see the life as lively mock’d as everStill sleep mock’d death.”

“prepare

To see the life as lively mock’d as ever

Still sleep mock’d death.”

Or inMacbeth(act ii. sc. 3, l. 71, vol. vii. p. 454), when Macduff raises the alarm,—

“Malcolm! awake!Shake off this downy sleep, death’s counterfeit,And look on death itself! up, up, and seeThe great doom’s image.”[180]

“Malcolm! awake!

Shake off this downy sleep, death’s counterfeit,

And look on death itself! up, up, and see

The great doom’s image.”[180]

Finally, in that noble soliloquy of Hamlet (act iii. sc. 1, lines 60–69, vol. viii. p. 79),—

“To die: to sleep;No more; and by a sleep to say we endThe heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocksThat flesh is heir to; ’tis a consummationDevoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep:To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,Must give us pause: there’s the respectThat makes calamity of so long life.”

“To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to; ’tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep:

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there’s the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.”

So theEvils of Human Lifeand theEulogy on Death, ascribed in Holbein’sSimulachres de la Mortto Alcidamus, sign. Liijverso[181]may have been suggestive of the lines in continuation of the above soliloquy inHamlet, namely (lines 70–76),—

“For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,The insolence of office, and the spurnsThat patient merit of the unworthy takes,When he himself might his quietus makeWith a bare bodkin?”

“For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin?”

Holbein’s Imagines, Cologne, 1566.

To another of the devices of theImages of Death(Lyons, 1547), attributed to Holbein, we may also refer as the source of one of the Dramatist’s descriptions, in Douce’sDance of Death, (London, 1833, and Bonn’s, 1858); the device in question is numbered XLIII. and bears the title of theIdiot Fool. Woltmann’sHolbein and his Time(Leipzig, 1868, vol. ii. p. 121), names the figure “Narr des Todes,”—Death’s Fool,—and thus discourses respecting it. “Among the supplemental Figures,”—that is to say, in the edition of 1545, supplemental to theforty-oneFigures in the edition of 1538,—“is found that of the Fool, which formerly in the Spectacle-plays of theDance of Deathrepresented by living persons played an important part. Also as these were no longer wont to be exhibited, the Episode of the contest of Death with the Fool was kept separate, and for the diversion of the people became a pantomimic representation.From England expressly have we information that this usage maintained itself down to the former century. The Fool’s efforts and evasions in order to escape from Death, who in the end became his master, form the subject of the particular figures. On such representations Shakespeare thought in his verses inMeasure for Measure” (act iii. sc. 1, lines 6–13, vol. i. p. 334). Though Woltmann gives only three lines, we add the whole passage better to bring out the sense,—

“Reason thus with life:If I do lose thee, I do lose a thingThat none but fools would keep: a breath thou art,Servile to all the skyey influences,That dost this habitation, where thou keep’st,Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death’s fool;For him thou labour’st by thy flight to shun,And yet runn’st toward him still.”

“Reason thus with life:

If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing

That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art,

Servile to all the skyey influences,

That dost this habitation, where thou keep’st,

Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death’s fool;

For him thou labour’st by thy flight to shun,

And yet runn’st toward him still.”

The action described by Shakespeare is so conformable to Holbein’s Figures of Death and the Idiot Fool that, withoutdoing violence to the probability, we may conclude that the two portraits had been in the Poet’s eye as well as in his mind.

Woltmann’s remarks in continuation uphold this idea. He says (vol. ii. p. 122),—

“Also in the Holbein picture the Fool is foolish enough to think that he can slip away from Death. He springs aside, seeks through his movements to delude him, and brandishes the leather-club, in order unseen to plant a blow on his adversary; and this adversary seems in sport to give in, skips near him, playing on the bag-pipe, but unobserved has him fast by the garment, in order not again to let him loose.”

Old Time is a character introduced by way of Chorus into theWinter’s Tale(act iv. sc. 1, l. 7, vol. III. p. 371), and he takes upon himself “to use his wings,” as he says,—

“It is in my powerTo o’erthrow law and in one self-born hourTo plant and o’erwhelm custom. Let me passThe same I am, ere ancient’st order wasOr what is now received: I witness toThe times that brought them in; so shall I doTo the freshest things now reigning, and make staleThe glistering of this present.”

“It is in my power

To o’erthrow law and in one self-born hour

To plant and o’erwhelm custom. Let me pass

The same I am, ere ancient’st order was

Or what is now received: I witness to

The times that brought them in; so shall I do

To the freshest things now reigning, and make stale

The glistering of this present.”

Something of the same paradox which appears in the Emblematist’s motto, “What we follow we flee,” also distinguishes the quibbling dialogue about time between Dromio of Syracuse and Adriana (Comedy of Errors, act iv. sc. 2, l. 53, vol. i. p. 437),—

“Dro. S.’Tis time that I were gone:It was two ere I left him, and now the clock strikes one.Adr.The hours come back! that did I never hear.Dro. S.O, yes; if any hour meet a sergeant, a’turns back for very fear.Adr.As if Time were in debt! how fondly dost thou reason!Dro. S.Time is a very bankrupt, and owes more than he’s worth to season.Nay, he’s a thief too: have you not heard men say,That Time comes stealing on by night and day?If Time be in debt and theft, and a sergeant in the way,Hath he not reason to turn back an hour in a day?”

“Dro. S.’Tis time that I were gone:

It was two ere I left him, and now the clock strikes one.

Adr.The hours come back! that did I never hear.

Dro. S.O, yes; if any hour meet a sergeant, a’turns back for very fear.

Adr.As if Time were in debt! how fondly dost thou reason!

Dro. S.Time is a very bankrupt, and owes more than he’s worth to season.

Nay, he’s a thief too: have you not heard men say,

That Time comes stealing on by night and day?

If Time be in debt and theft, and a sergeant in the way,

Hath he not reason to turn back an hour in a day?”

Almost of the same complexion are some of the other strong contrasts of epithets which Shakespeare applies. Iachimo, inCymbeline(act i. sc. 6, l. 46, vol. ix. p. 185), uses the expressions,—

“The cloyed will,That satiate yet unsatisfied desire, that tubBoth fill’d and running, ravening first the lamb,Longs after for the garbage.”

“The cloyed will,

That satiate yet unsatisfied desire, that tub

Both fill’d and running, ravening first the lamb,

Longs after for the garbage.”

But “old fond paradoxes, to make fools laugh i’ the ale-house,” are also given forth from the storehouse of his conceits. Desdemona and Emilia and Iago play at these follies (Othello, act ii. sc. 1, l. 129, vol. viii. p. 477), and thus some of them are uttered,—

“Iago.If she be fair and wise, fairness and wit,The one’s for use, the other useth it.Des.Well praised! How if she be black and witty?Iago.If she be black, and thereto have a wit,She’ll find a white that shall her blackness fit.. . . . . .Des.But what praise couldst thou bestow on a deserving woman indeed?one that, on the authority of her merit, did justly put on the vouch of verymalice itself?Iago.She that was ever fair, and never proud,Had tongue at will, and yet was never loud.Never lack’d gold, and yet went never gay,Fled from her wish, and yet said, now I may;. . . . . .She was a wight, if ever such wight were,—Des.To do what?Iago.To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer.”

“Iago.If she be fair and wise, fairness and wit,

The one’s for use, the other useth it.

Des.Well praised! How if she be black and witty?

Iago.If she be black, and thereto have a wit,

She’ll find a white that shall her blackness fit.

. . . . . .

Des.But what praise couldst thou bestow on a deserving woman indeed?

one that, on the authority of her merit, did justly put on the vouch of very

malice itself?

Iago.She that was ever fair, and never proud,

Had tongue at will, and yet was never loud.

Never lack’d gold, and yet went never gay,

Fled from her wish, and yet said, now I may;

. . . . . .

She was a wight, if ever such wight were,—

Des.To do what?

Iago.To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer.”

We thus return, by a wandering path indeed, to the paradoxical saying with which we set out,—concerning “fleeing what we follow;” for Iago’s paragon of a woman,—

“Fled from her wish, and yet said, now I may.”

Taken by itself, the coincidence of a few words in the dedications of works by different authors is of trifling importance;but when we notice how brief are the lines in which Shakespeare commends his “Venus and Adonis” to the patronage of the Earl of Southampton, it is remarkable that he has adopted an expression almost singular, which Whitney had beforehand employed in the long dedication of his Emblems to the Earl of Leycester. “Being abashed,” says Whitney, “that my habillitie can not affoorde them such, as are fit to be offred vp to so honorable a suruaighe” (p. xi); and Shakespeare, “I leave it to your honourable survey, and your Honour to your heart’s content.” Whitney then declares, “yet if it shall like your honour to allowe of anie of them, I shall thinke my pen set to the booke in happie hour; and it shall incourage mee, to assay some matter of more momente, as soon as leasure will further my desire in that behalfe;” and Shakespeare, adopting the same idea, also affirms, “only if your Honour seem but pleased, I account myself highly praised and vow to take advantage of all idle hours, till I have honoured you with some graver labour.” Comparing these passages together, the inference appears not unwarranted, that Whitney’s dedication had been read by Shakespeare, and that the tenor of it abided in his memory, and so was made use of by him.

From the well-known lines ofHorace(Ode ii. 10),—

“Sæpius ventis agitatur ingensPinus; et celsæ graviore casuDecidunt turres; feriuntque summosFulgura montes,”—

“Sæpius ventis agitatur ingens

Pinus; et celsæ graviore casu

Decidunt turres; feriuntque summos

Fulgura montes,”—

several of the Emblem writers, and Shakespeare after them, tell of the huge pine and of its contests with the tempests; and how lofty towers fall with a heavier crash, and how the lightnings smite the highest mountains. Sambucus (edition 1569, p. 279) and Whitney (p. 59) do this, as a comment for the injunction,Nimium rebus ne fide secundis,—“Be not too confident inprosperity.” In this instance the stanzas of Whitney serve well to express the verses of Sambucus,—

Nimium rebus ne fide secundis.Whitney. 1586.

Nimium rebus ne fide secundis.

Whitney. 1586.

“The loftie Pine, that on the mountaine growes,And spreades her armes, with braunches freshe, & greene,The raginge windes, on sodaine ouerthrowes,And makes her stoope, that longe a farre was seene:So they, that truste to muche in fortunes smiles,Thoughe worlde do laughe, and wealthe doe moste abounde,When leste they thinke, are often snar’de with wyles,And from alofte, doo hedlonge fall to grounde:Then put no truste, in anie worldlie thinges,For frowninge fate, throwes downe the mightie kinges.”

“The loftie Pine, that on the mountaine growes,

And spreades her armes, with braunches freshe, & greene,

The raginge windes, on sodaine ouerthrowes,

And makes her stoope, that longe a farre was seene:

So they, that truste to muche in fortunes smiles,

Thoughe worlde do laughe, and wealthe doe moste abounde,

When leste they thinke, are often snar’de with wyles,

And from alofte, doo hedlonge fall to grounde:

Then put no truste, in anie worldlie thinges,

For frowninge fate, throwes downe the mightie kinges.”

Antonio, in theMerchant of Venice(act iv. sc. 1, l. 75, vol. ii. p. 345), applies the thought to the fruitlessness of Bassanio’s endeavour to soften Shylock’s stern purpose of revenge,—

“You may as well forbid the mountain pinesTo wag their high tops, and to make no noiseWhen they are fretten with the gusts of heaven.”

“You may as well forbid the mountain pines

To wag their high tops, and to make no noise

When they are fretten with the gusts of heaven.”

And when “dame Eleanor Cobham, Gloster’s wife,” is banished, and her noble husband called on to give up the LordProtector’s staff of office (2 Henry VI., act ii. sc. 3, l. 45, vol. v. p. 145), Suffolk makes the comparison,—

“Thus droops this lofty pine, and hangs his sprays;Thus Eleanor’s pride dies in her youngest days.”

“Thus droops this lofty pine, and hangs his sprays;

Thus Eleanor’s pride dies in her youngest days.”

So, following almost literally the words of Horace, the exiled Belarius, inCymbeline(act iv. sc. 2, l. 172, vol. ix. p. 253), declares of the “two princely boys,” that passed for his sons,—

“They are as gentleAs zephyrs blowing below the violet,Not wagging his sweet head; and yet as rough,Their royal blood enchafed, as the rudest windThat by the top doth take the mountain pineAnd make him stoop to the vale.”

“They are as gentle

As zephyrs blowing below the violet,

Not wagging his sweet head; and yet as rough,

Their royal blood enchafed, as the rudest wind

That by the top doth take the mountain pine

And make him stoop to the vale.”

Words, which, though now obsolete, were in current use in the days of Surrey, Sidney, Spenser, and Shakespeare, cannot of themselves be adduced in evidence of any interchange of ideas; but when the form of the sentence and the application of some peculiar term agree, we may reasonably presume that it has been more than the simple use of the same common tongue which has caused the agreement. When, indeed, one author writes in English, and the others in Latin, or Italian, or French, we cannot expect much more than similarity of idea in treating of the same subject, and a mutual intercommunion of thought; but, in the case of authors employing the same mother tongue, there are certain correspondencies in the use of the same terms and turns of expression which betoken imitation.

Such correspondencies exist between Whitney and Shakespeare, as may be seen from the following among many other instances. I adopt the old spelling of the folio edition of Shakespeare, 1632,—

So close are some of these correspondencies that they can scarcely be accounted for except on the theory that Shakespeare had been an observant reader of Whitney’s Emblems.

There are also various expressions, or epithets, which the Emblem-books may be employed to illustrate, and which receive their most natural explanation from this same theory that Shakespeare was one of the very numerous host of Emblem students or readers. Perriere’s account of a man attempting to swim with a load of iron on his back (Emb. 70), is applied by Whitney with direct reference to the lines in Horace, “O cursed lust of gold, to what dost thou not compel mortal bosoms?” He sets off the thought by the device of a man swimming with “a fardle,” or heavy burden (p. 179),—

Auri ſacra fames quid non?Whitney, 1586.

Auri ſacra fames quid non?

Whitney, 1586.

“Desire to haue, dothe make vs muche indure.In trauaile, toile, and labour voide of reste:The marchant man is caried with this lure,Throughe scorching heate, to regions of the Easte:Oh thirste of goulde, what not? but thou canst do:And make mens hartes for to consent thereto.

“Desire to haue, dothe make vs muche indure.

In trauaile, toile, and labour voide of reste:

The marchant man is caried with this lure,

Throughe scorching heate, to regions of the Easte:

Oh thirste of goulde, what not? but thou canst do:

And make mens hartes for to consent thereto.

The trauailer poore, when shippe doth suffer wracke,Who hopes to swimme vnto the wished lande,Dothe venture life, with fardle on his backe,That if he scape, the same in steede maye stande.Thus, hope of life, and loue vnto his goods,Houldes vp his chinne, with burthen in the floods.”

The trauailer poore, when shippe doth suffer wracke,

Who hopes to swimme vnto the wished lande,

Dothe venture life, with fardle on his backe,

That if he scape, the same in steede maye stande.

Thus, hope of life, and loue vnto his goods,

Houldes vp his chinne, with burthen in the floods.”

In theWinter’s Tale, the word “fardel” occurs several times; we will, however, take a familiar quotation fromHamlet(act iii. sc. 1, l. 76, vol. viii. p. 80),—

“Who would fardels bear,To grunt and sweat under a weary life,But that the dread of something after death,The undiscover’d country from whose bournNo traveller returns, puzzles the will,And makes us rather bear those ills we haveThan fly to others that we know not of?”

“Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscover’d country from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?”

The Bandogs, which Sir Thomas More and Spenser describe, appear to have been different from those of Sambucus and Whitney, or, rather, they were employed for a different purpose. “We must,” writes the worthy Chancellor (p. 586), “haue bande dogges to dryue them (the swine) out of the corne with byting, and leade them out by the ears;” and Spenser, inVirgil’s Gnat(l. 539), speaks of—

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