Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers: an exposition of their similarities of throught and expression, preceded by a view of emblem-literature down to A.D. 1616Green, Henry
History
Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers: an exposition of their similarities of throught and expression, preceded by a view of emblem-literature down to A.D. 1616
Green, Henry
Emblem books, English -- History; Emblems -- England -- History; Emblems in literature; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Sources
Falstaff, in the _Merry Wives of Windsor_ (act ii. sc. 2, l. 5, vol. i.
p. 190), vaunts of the good services which he had rendered to his
companions: “I have grated upon my good friends for three reprieves for
you and your coach-fellow Nym: or else you had looked through the grate,
like a geminy of baboons.”
In telling of the folly of waiting on Achilles (_Troilus and Cressida_,
act ii. sc. 3, l. 189, vol. vi. p. 175), Ulysses declares,—
“That were to enlard his fat-already pride,
And add more coals to Cancer when he burns
With entertaining great Hyperion.”
The figure of the ninth of the zodiacal constellations, Sagittarius, is
named in _Troilus and Cressida_ (act v. sc. 5, l. 11, vol. vi. p. 253),—
“Polixenes is slain,
Amphimachus and Thaos deadly hurt;
Patroclus ta’en or slain; and Palamedes
Sore hurt and bruised: the dreadful sagittary
Appals our number.”
If it be demanded why we do not give a fuller account of these
constellations, we may almost remark as the fool does in _King Lear_
(act i. sc. 5, l. 33, vol. viii. p. 295)—“The reason why the seven stars
are no more than seven, is a pretty reason.
_Lear._ Because they are not eight?
_Fool._ Yes, indeed: thou wouldst make a good fool.”
How soon the American bird, which we name a Turkey, was known in
England, is in some degree a subject of conjecture. It has been supposed
that its introduction into this country is to be ascribed to Sebastian
Cabot, who died in 1557, and that the year 1528 is the exact time; but
if so, it is strange that the bird in question should not have been
called by some other name than that which indicates a European or an
Asiatic origin. Coq d’Inde, or Poule d’Inde, Gallo d’India, or Gallina
d’India, the French and Italian names, point out the direct American
origin, as far as France and Italy are concerned; for we must remember
that the term India, at the early period of Spanish discovery, was
applied to the western world. But most probably the Turkey fleet brought
the bird into England, by way of Cadiz and Lisbon, and hence the name;
and hence also the reasonableness of supposing that its permanent
introduction into this country was not so early as the time of Cabot. A
general knowledge of the bird was at any rate spread abroad in Europe
soon after the middle of the sixteenth century, for we find it figured
in the Emblem-books; one of which, Freitag’s _Mythologia Ethica_, in
1579, p. 237, furnishes a most lively and exact representation to
illustrate “the violated right of hospitality.”[155]
Ius hoſpitalitatis violatum.
[Illustration: _Freitag, 1579._]
_Si habitauerit aduena in terra veſtra, & moratus fuerit inter vos, non
exprobretis ei._
_Lev. 19. 33._
[Sidenote: _i.e._]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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