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
Of Badius himself, born in 1462 and dying in 1535, it is to be said that
he was a man of very considerable learning, professor of “belles
lettres” at Lyons from 1491 to 1511, when he was tempted to settle in
Paris. There he established the famous Ascensian Printing Press,—and
like Plantin of Antwerp, gave his three daughters in marriage to three
very celebrated printers: Michel Vascosan, Robert Etienne, and Jean de
Poigny. He was the author of several works besides those that have been
mentioned. (_Biog. Univ._ vol. iii. p. 201.)
Symphorien Champier, Doctor in Theology and Medicine, a native of Lyons,
who was physician to Anthony Duke of Lorraine when he accompanied Louis
XII. to the Italian war, graduated at Pavia in 1515, and, after laying
the foundations of the Lyons College of Physicians, and enjoying the
highest honours of his native city, died about 1540. (Aikin’s _Biog._
ii. 579.) His medical and other works are of little repute, but among
them are two or three which may be regarded as imitations of
Emblem-books. We will just name,—Balsat’s work with Champier’s
additions, _La Nef des Princes et des Batailles de Noblesse, &c._
(Lyons, 4to goth. with woodcuts, A.D. 1502.); also, _La Nef des Dames
vertueuses cōposee par Maistre Simphoriē Champier, &c._ (Lyons, 4to
goth. with woodcuts, A.D. 1503.)
“Bible figures,” too, again have a claim to notice. A very fine copy of
“~Les figures du vieil Testament, & du nouuel~,” which belonged
to the Rev. T. Corser, Rector of Stand, near Manchester, supplies the
opportunity of noticing that it is decidedly an Emblem work. It is a
folio, of 100 leaves, containing forty-one plates, of which one is
introductory, and forty are on Scriptural subjects, unarranged in order
either of time or place. The work was published in Paris in 1503 by
Anthoine Verard, and is certainly, as Brunet declares, ii. c. 1254, “une
imitation de l’ouvrage connu sous le nom de _Biblia Pauperum_.” There
are forty sets of figures in triptychs, the wood engravings being very
bold and good. Each is preceded or followed by a French stanza of eight
lines, declaring the subject; and has appended two or three pages of
Exposition, also in French. The Device pages, each in three
compartments, are in Latin, and may thus be described. At the top to the
left hand, a quotation from the Vulgate appropriate to the pictorial
representation beneath it; in the centre two niches, of which David
always occupies one, and some writer of the Old Testament the other, a
scroll issuing from each niche. The middle compartment is filled by a
triptych, the centre subject from the New Testament, the right and left
from the Old. At the bottom are Latin verses to the right and left, with
two niches in the centre occupied by biblical writers. The Latin verses
are rhyming couplets, as on fol. a. iiij, beneath Moses at the burning
bush, “~Lucet et ignescit, sed non rubus igne calescit~,”—_It
shines and flames, but the bush is not heated by the fire_. In triptych,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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