Chapter 13

DEVISESSic spectanda fides.Paradin, 1562.

DEVISESSic spectanda fides.

DEVISES

Sic spectanda fides.

Paradin, 1562.

But the “device” and “the word” of the fifth knight,—

“An hand environed with clouds,Holding out gold that’s by the touchstone tried;The motto thus,Sic spectanda fides,”(Act ii. sc. 2, lines 36–38,)

“An hand environed with clouds,

Holding out gold that’s by the touchstone tried;

The motto thus,Sic spectanda fides,”

(Act ii. sc. 2, lines 36–38,)

“So is fidelity to be proved,”—occur most exactly in Paradin’s“Devises Heroiques,”edition 1562, leaf 100,reverse; they are here figured.

Paradin often presents an account of the origin and appropriation of his emblems, but, in this instance, he offers only an application. “If, in order to prove fine gold, or other metals, we bring them to thetouch, without trusting to their glitter or their sound;—so, to recognise good people and persons of virtue, it is needful to observe the splendour of their deeds, without dwelling upon their mere talk.”[100]

The narrative which Paradin neglects to give may be supplied from other sources. This Emblem or Symbol is, in fact, that which was appropriated to Francis I. and Francis II., kings of France from 1515 to 1560, and also to one of the Henries—probably Henry IV. The inscription on the coin, according to Paradin and Whitney’s woodcut, is“Franciscvs Dei Gratia Fran. Rex;”this is for Francis I.; but in theHierographia Regvm Francorvm[101](vol. i. pp. 87 and 88), the emblem is inscribed,“Franciscus II. Valesius Rex Francorum XXV. Christianissimus.”A device similar to Paradin’s then follows, and the comment,Coronatum aureum nummum, ad Lydium lapidem dextra hæc explicat & sic, id est, duris in rebus fidem explorandam docet,—“This right hand extends to the Lydian stone a coin of gold which is wreathed around, and so teaches that fidelity in times of difficulty is put to the proof.” The coin applied to the touchstone bears the inscription,“Franciscvs II. Francorv. Rex.”An original drawing,[102]by Crispin de Passe, in the possession of Sir William Stirling Maxwell, Bart., of Keir, presents the inscription in another form,“Henricvs, D. G. Francorv. Rex.”The first work of Crispin de Passe is dated 1589, and Henry IV. was recognised king of France in 1593. His portrait, and that of his queen, Mary of Medicis, werepainted by De Passe; and so the Henry on the coin in the drawing above alluded to was Henry of Navarre.

The whole number of original drawings at Keir, by Crispin de Passe, is thirty-five, of the size of the following plate,—No 27 of the series.

Crispin de Passe, about 1595.[103]

The mottoes inEmblemata Selectioraare,—

“Pecunia sanguis et anima mortalium.Quidquid habet mundus, regina Pecunia vincit,Fulmineoque ictu fortius una ferit.”“’t Geld vermag alles.’t Geld houd den krygsknecht in zyn plichten,Kan meer dan’t dondertuig uit richten.”

“Pecunia sanguis et anima mortalium.Quidquid habet mundus, regina Pecunia vincit,Fulmineoque ictu fortius una ferit.”

“Pecunia sanguis et anima mortalium.

Quidquid habet mundus, regina Pecunia vincit,

Fulmineoque ictu fortius una ferit.”

“’t Geld vermag alles.’t Geld houd den krygsknecht in zyn plichten,Kan meer dan’t dondertuig uit richten.”

“’t Geld vermag alles.

’t Geld houd den krygsknecht in zyn plichten,

Kan meer dan’t dondertuig uit richten.”

“Money the blood and life of men.Whatever the world possesses, money rules as queen,And more strongly than by lightning’s force smites together.”“Money can do everything.To his duty the warrior, ’tis money can hold,—Than the thunderbolt greater the influence of gold.”

“Money the blood and life of men.Whatever the world possesses, money rules as queen,And more strongly than by lightning’s force smites together.”

“Money the blood and life of men.

Whatever the world possesses, money rules as queen,

And more strongly than by lightning’s force smites together.”

“Money can do everything.To his duty the warrior, ’tis money can hold,—Than the thunderbolt greater the influence of gold.”

“Money can do everything.

To his duty the warrior, ’tis money can hold,—

Than the thunderbolt greater the influence of gold.”

Very singular is the correspondence of the last two mottoes to a scene inTimon of Athens(act iv. sc. 3, lines 25, 377, vol. vii. pp. 269, 283). Timon digging in the wood finds gold, and asks,—

“What is here?Gold! yellow, glittering, precious gold!”

“What is here?

Gold! yellow, glittering, precious gold!”

and afterwards, when looking on the gold, he thus addresses it,—

“O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce’Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defilerOf Hymen’s purest bed! thou valiant Mars!Thou ever young, fresh, loved, and delicate wooer,Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snowThat lies on Dian’s lap! thou visible god,That solder’st close impossibilities,And makest them kiss! that speak’st with every tongue,To every purpose! O thou touch of hearts!Think, thy slave man rebels; and by thy virtueSet them into confounding odds, that beastsMay have the world in empire!”

“O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce

’Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler

Of Hymen’s purest bed! thou valiant Mars!

Thou ever young, fresh, loved, and delicate wooer,

Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow

That lies on Dian’s lap! thou visible god,

That solder’st close impossibilities,

And makest them kiss! that speak’st with every tongue,

To every purpose! O thou touch of hearts!

Think, thy slave man rebels; and by thy virtue

Set them into confounding odds, that beasts

May have the world in empire!”

The Emblem which Shakespeare attributes to the fifth knight is fully described by Whitney (p. 139), with the same device and the same motto,Sic spectanda fides,[104]—

“Thetouche doth trye, the fine, and purest goulde:And not the sound, or els the goodly showe.So, if mennes wayes, and vertues, wee behoulde,The worthy men, wee by their workes, shall knowe.But gallant lookes, and outward showes beguile,And ofte are clokes to cogitacions vile.”

“Thetouche doth trye, the fine, and purest goulde:

And not the sound, or els the goodly showe.

So, if mennes wayes, and vertues, wee behoulde,

The worthy men, wee by their workes, shall knowe.

But gallant lookes, and outward showes beguile,

And ofte are clokes to cogitacions vile.”

If, in the use of this device, and in their observations upon it, Paradin, either in the original or in the English version, and Whitney be compared with the lines on the subject inPericles, it will be seen “that Shakespeare did not derive his fifth knight’s device either from the French emblem or from its English translator, but from the English Whitney which had been lately published. Indeed, ifPericleswere written, as Knight conjectures, in Shakespeare’s early manhood, previous to the year 1591, it could not be the English translation of Paradin which furnished him with the three mottoes and devices of the Triumph Scene.”

To the motto,“Amor certvs in re incerta cernitvr,”—Certain love is seen in an uncertain matter,—Otho Vænius, in hisAmorum Emblemata, 4to, Antwerp, 1608, represents two Cupids at work, one trying gold in the furnace, the other on the touchstone. His stanzas, published with an English translation, as if intended for circulation in England, may, as we have conjectured, have been seen by Shakespeare before 1609, when thePericleswas revived. They are to the above motto,—

“Nummi vt adulterium exploras priùs indice, quam sitIllo opus: haud aliter ritè probandus Amor.Scilicet vt fuluium spectatur in ignibus aurum:Tempore sic duro est inspicienda fides.”“Loues triall.As gold is by the fyre, and by the fournace tryde,And thereby rightly known if it be bad or good,Hard fortune and distresse do make it vnderstood,Where true loue doth remayn, and fayned loue resyde.”“Come l’oro nel foco.Sû la pietra, e nel foco l’or si proua,E nel bisogno, come l’or nel foco,Si dee mostrar leale in ogni locol’Amante; e alhor si vee d’Amor la proua.”

“Nummi vt adulterium exploras priùs indice, quam sitIllo opus: haud aliter ritè probandus Amor.Scilicet vt fuluium spectatur in ignibus aurum:Tempore sic duro est inspicienda fides.”

“Nummi vt adulterium exploras priùs indice, quam sit

Illo opus: haud aliter ritè probandus Amor.

Scilicet vt fuluium spectatur in ignibus aurum:

Tempore sic duro est inspicienda fides.”

“Loues triall.

As gold is by the fyre, and by the fournace tryde,And thereby rightly known if it be bad or good,Hard fortune and distresse do make it vnderstood,Where true loue doth remayn, and fayned loue resyde.”

As gold is by the fyre, and by the fournace tryde,

And thereby rightly known if it be bad or good,

Hard fortune and distresse do make it vnderstood,

Where true loue doth remayn, and fayned loue resyde.”

“Come l’oro nel foco.

Sû la pietra, e nel foco l’or si proua,E nel bisogno, come l’or nel foco,Si dee mostrar leale in ogni locol’Amante; e alhor si vee d’Amor la proua.”

Sû la pietra, e nel foco l’or si proua,

E nel bisogno, come l’or nel foco,

Si dee mostrar leale in ogni loco

l’Amante; e alhor si vee d’Amor la proua.”

The same metaphor of attesting characters, as gold is proved by the touchstone or by the furnace, is of frequent occurrence in Shakespeare’s undoubted plays; and sometimes the turn of the thought is so like Whitney’s as to give good warrant for the supposition, either of a common original, or that Shakespeare had read the Emblems of our Cheshire poet and made use of them.

King Richard III. says to Buckingham (act iv. sc. 2, l. 8, vol. v. p. 580),—

“O Buckingham, now do I play the touch,To try if thou be current gold indeed.”

“O Buckingham, now do I play the touch,

To try if thou be current gold indeed.”

And inTimon of Athens(act iii. sc. 3, l. 1, vol. vii. p. 245), when Sempronius observes to a servant of Timon’s,—

“Must he needs trouble me in’t,—hum!—’bove all others?He might have tried Lord Lucius and Lucullus;And now Ventidius is wealthy too,Whom he redeem’d from prison: all theseOwe their estates unto him.”

“Must he needs trouble me in’t,—hum!—’bove all others?

He might have tried Lord Lucius and Lucullus;

And now Ventidius is wealthy too,

Whom he redeem’d from prison: all these

Owe their estates unto him.”

The servant immediately replies,—

“My lord,They have all been touch’d and found base metal, forThey have all denied him.”

“My lord,

They have all been touch’d and found base metal, for

They have all denied him.”

Isabella, too, inMeasure for Measure(act ii. sc. 2, l. 149, vol. i. p. 324), most movingly declares her purpose to bribe Angelo, the lord-deputy,—

“Not with fond shekels of the tested gold,Or stones whose rates are either rich or poorAs fancy values them; but with true prayersThat shall be up at heaven and enter thereEre sun-rise, prayers from preserved souls,From fasting maids whose minds are dedicateTo nothing temporal.”

“Not with fond shekels of the tested gold,

Or stones whose rates are either rich or poor

As fancy values them; but with true prayers

That shall be up at heaven and enter there

Ere sun-rise, prayers from preserved souls,

From fasting maids whose minds are dedicate

To nothing temporal.”

In the dialogue fromKing John(act iii. sc. 1, l. 96, vol. iv. p. 37) between Philip of France and Constance, the same testing is alluded to. King Philip says,—

“By heaven, lady, you shall have no causeTo curse the fair proceedings of this day:Have I not pawn’d to you my majesty?”

“By heaven, lady, you shall have no cause

To curse the fair proceedings of this day:

Have I not pawn’d to you my majesty?”

But Constance answers with great severity,—

“You have beguiled me with a counterfeitResembling majesty, which being touch’d and tried,Proves valueless: you are forsworn, forsworn.”

“You have beguiled me with a counterfeit

Resembling majesty, which being touch’d and tried,

Proves valueless: you are forsworn, forsworn.”

One instance more shall close the subject;—it is from theCoriolanus(act iv. sc. 1, l. 44, vol. vi. p. 369), and contains a very fine allusion to the testing of true metal; the noble traitor is addressing his mother Volumnia, his wife Virgilia, and others of his kindred,—

“Fare ye well:Thou hast years upon thee; and thou art too fullOf the wars’ surfeits, to go rove with oneThat’s yet unbruised: bring me but out at gate.Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, andMy friends of noble touch, when I am forth,Bid me farewell, and smile.”

“Fare ye well:

Thou hast years upon thee; and thou art too full

Of the wars’ surfeits, to go rove with one

That’s yet unbruised: bring me but out at gate.

Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and

My friends of noble touch, when I am forth,

Bid me farewell, and smile.”

So beautifully and so variously does the great dramatist carry out that one thought of making trial of men’s hearts and characters to learn the metal of which they are made.

To finish our notices and illustrations of the Triumph Scene inPericles, there remain to be considered the device and the motto of the sixth—the stranger knight—who “with such a graceful courtesy delivered,”—

“A wither’d branch, that’s only green at top,[105]The motto,In hac spe vivo;”(Act ii. sc. 2, lines 43, 44;)

“A wither’d branch, that’s only green at top,[105]

The motto,In hac spe vivo;”

(Act ii. sc. 2, lines 43, 44;)

and on which the remark is made by Simonides,—

“A pretty moral:From the dejected state wherein he is,He hopes by you his fortune yet may flourish.”

“A pretty moral:

From the dejected state wherein he is,

He hopes by you his fortune yet may flourish.”

With these I have found nothing identical in any of the various books of Emblems which I have examined; indeed, I cannot say that I have met with anything similar. The sixth knight’s emblem is very simple, natural, and appropriate; and I am most of all disposed to regard it as invented by Shakespeare himself to complete a scene, the greater part of which had been accommodated from other writers.

Illicitum non ſperandum.Whitney, 1586.“Spesſimul & Nemeſis noſtris altaribus adſunt,Scilicet vt ſperes non niſi quod liceat.”The unlawful thing not to be hoped for.“Here Nemesis, and Hope: our deedes doe rightlie trie,Which warnes vs, not to hope for that, which justice doth denie.”

Illicitum non ſperandum.

Whitney, 1586.

“Spesſimul & Nemeſis noſtris altaribus adſunt,Scilicet vt ſperes non niſi quod liceat.”

“Spesſimul & Nemeſis noſtris altaribus adſunt,

Scilicet vt ſperes non niſi quod liceat.”

The unlawful thing not to be hoped for.

“Here Nemesis, and Hope: our deedes doe rightlie trie,Which warnes vs, not to hope for that, which justice doth denie.”

“Here Nemesis, and Hope: our deedes doe rightlie trie,

Which warnes vs, not to hope for that, which justice doth denie.”

Yet the sixth device and motto need not remain without illustration. Hope is a theme which Emblematists could not possibly omit. Alciatus gives a series of four Emblems on this virtue,—Emblems 43, 44, 45, and 46; Sambucus, three, with the mottoes“Spes certa,”“In spe fortitudo,”and“Spes aulica;”and Whitney, three from Alciatus (pp. 53, 137, and 139); but none of these can be accepted as a proper illustration of theIn hac spe vivo. Their inapplicability may be judged of from Alciat’s 46th Emblem, very closely followed by Whitney (p. 139).

In the spirit, however, if not in the words of the sixth knight’s device, the Emblem writers have fashioned their thoughts. From Paradin’s“Devises Heroiqves,”so often quoted, we select two devices (fol. 30 and 152) illustrative of our subject. The one, an arrow issuing from a tomb, on which is the sign of the cross,and having verdant shoots twined around it, was the emblem which Madame Diana of Poitiers adopted to express her strong hope of a resurrection from the dead;[106]and the same hope is also shadowed forth by ears of corn growing out of a collection of dry bones, and ripening and shedding their seed.

Paradin, 1562.

The first,Sola viuit in illo,—“Alone on that,”i.e., on the cross, “she lives,”—we now offer with Paradin’s explanation;“L’esperance que Madame Diane de Poitiers Illustre Duchesse de Valentinois, a de la resurrection, & que son noble esprit, contemplant les cieus en cette view, paruiendra en l’autre après la mort: est possible signifié par sa Deuise, qui est d’vn Sercueil, ou tombeau, duquel sort vn trait, acompagné de certains syons verdoyans.”i.e.,—“The hope which Madame Diana of Poitiers, the illustrious Duchess de Valentinois, has of the resurrection, and which her noble spirit, contemplating the heavens in this life, will arrive at in the other, after death: it is really signified by her Device, which is a Sepulchre or tomb, from which issues an arrow, accompanied by certain verdant shoots.”

The motto of the second is more directly to the purpose,Spes altera vitæ,—“Another hope of life,” or “The hope of anotherlife,”—and its application is thus explained by Paradin (leaf 151reverso),—“Les grains des Bleds, & autres herbages, semées & mortifiées en terre, se reuerdoyent, & prennent nouuel accroissement: aussi les corps humains tombãs par Mort, seront relevés en gloire, par generale resurrection.”—i.e., “The seeds of wheat, and other herbs, sown and dying in the ground, become green again, and take new growth: so human bodies cast down by Death will be raised again in glory, by the general resurrection.”

We omit the woodcut which Paradin gives, and substitute for it the 100th Emblem, part i. p. 102, from Joachim Camerarius, edition, 1595, which bears the very same motto and device.

SPES ALTERA VITÆ.Camerarius, 1595.“Securus moritur, qui scit se morte renasci:Non ea mors dici, sed noua vita potest.”“Fearless doth that man die, who knowsFrom death he again shall be born;We never can name it as death,—’Tis new life on eternity’s morn.”

SPES ALTERA VITÆ.

Camerarius, 1595.

“Securus moritur, qui scit se morte renasci:Non ea mors dici, sed noua vita potest.”“Fearless doth that man die, who knowsFrom death he again shall be born;We never can name it as death,—’Tis new life on eternity’s morn.”

“Securus moritur, qui scit se morte renasci:Non ea mors dici, sed noua vita potest.”

“Securus moritur, qui scit se morte renasci:

Non ea mors dici, sed noua vita potest.”

“Fearless doth that man die, who knowsFrom death he again shall be born;We never can name it as death,—’Tis new life on eternity’s morn.”

“Fearless doth that man die, who knows

From death he again shall be born;

We never can name it as death,—

’Tis new life on eternity’s morn.”

A sentence or two from the comment may serve for explanation; “The seeds and grains of fruits and herbs are thrown upon the earth, and as it were entrusted to it; after a certain time they spring up again and produce manifold. So also our bodies, although already dead, and destined to burial in the earth, yet at the last day shall arise, the good to life, the wicked to judgment.”... “Elsewhere it is said,One Hope survives, doubtless beyond the grave.”[107]

“Mort vivifiante,”of Messin,In Morte Vita, of Boissard, edition 1588, pp. 38, 39, also receive their emblematical representation, from wheat growing among the signs of death.

“En vain nous attendons la moisson, si le grainNe se pourrit au creux de la terre beschée.Sans la corruption, la nature empeschéeRetient toute semence au ventre soubterrain.”

“En vain nous attendons la moisson, si le grain

Ne se pourrit au creux de la terre beschée.

Sans la corruption, la nature empeschée

Retient toute semence au ventre soubterrain.”

At present we must be content to say that the source of the motto and device of the sixth knight has not been discovered. It remains for us to conjecture, what is very far from being an improbability, that Shakespeare had read Spenser’sShepherd’s Calendar, published in 1579, and from the line, on page 364 of Moxon’s edition, for January (l. 54),—

“Ah, God! that love should breed both ioy and paine!”—

and from the Emblem, as Spenser names it,Anchora speme,—“Hope is my anchor,”—did invent for himself the sixth knight’s device, and its motto,In hac spe vivo,—“In this hope I live.” The step from applying so suitably the Emblems of other writers to the construction of new ones would not be great; andfrom what he has actually done in the invention of Emblems in theMerchant of Venicehe would experience very little trouble in contriving any Emblem that he needed for the completion of his dramatic plans.

TheCasketScene and theTriumphScene then justify our conclusion that the correspondencies between Shakespeare and the Emblem writers which preceded him are very direct and complete. It is to be accepted as a fact that he was acquainted with their works, and profited so much from them, as to be able, whenever the occasion demanded, to invent and most fittingly illustrate devices of his own. The spirit of Alciat was upon him, and in the power of that spirit he pictured forth the ideas to which his fancy had given birth.

Horapollo, ed. 1551.

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