Emblem 4

Emblem 4

A man chasing away flies from a dish of milk; they keep returning even while drowning

Fol, en plaisir s'esgare trop auant..

A fool, in pleasure, strays too far forward.AI-generated

Description of the woodcutAI-generated

A woodcut interior scene. At the right a man in a cap and short tunic bends forward over a table, holding up a jug or pitcher from which a stream of liquid (milk) pours down into a wide, shallow round basin set on the table top. Numerous flies swarm in the air above and around the basin and float in the liquid inside it. Behind, at the left, an open window frames an outdoor landscape with clouds and birds (or more flies) in the sky; at the upper right is a latticed window. A tiled or planked floor runs along the bottom of the scene.

Subscriptio

Facsimile page of emblem 4 — Facsimile of the page (Herzog August Bibliothek); click to enlarge.

TranscriptionAI-generated

LA mouche au laict retourne si souuentQu'à la parfin elle y laisse la vie.Fol en plaisir s'esgare si auantQu'à la parfin de son chemin desuie:Car Volupté qui les humains conuieA son festin, pour leur liurer malheur,Pour tout guerdon, ilz n'en ont que douleur,Larmes & pleurs sont la fin de la dance;Qui se vouldra garder de sa chaleur,Euitera mortelle decadance.

TranslationAI-generated

The fly returns to the milk so often that in the end it leaves its life there. The fool strays so far forward in pleasure that at last he wanders off his road: for Voluptuousness, who invites men to her feast in order to deliver misfortune to them, gives them for all reward nothing but sorrow; tears and weeping are the end of the dance. Whoever will keep himself from her heat will avoid deadly ruin.

Iconclass

86(FOL, EN PLAISIR S'ESGARE TROP AVANT.) proverbs, sayings, etc. (FOL, EN PLAISIR S'ESGARE TROP AVANT.)

41A2 interior of the house

31D14 adult man

34D311 fly swatter

41C341 dish, plate, saucer

25F711(FLY) insects: fly

41A711 table

55CC11 Greed, Covetousness, Cupidity; 'Cupidità' (Ripa)

57BB131 Punishing Badness

56BB1 Pain, Sorrow, Sadness; 'Dolore', 'Dolore di Zeusi' (Ripa)

Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated

Additional codes proposed for this emblem, not (yet) part of the indexing.

41C345 bowlmedium

The correlate 'bowl' matches the wide shallow round basin set on the table into which the milk is poured.

41A773 container of ceramics: jar, jug, pot, vasemedium

The correlate 'container of ceramics: jar, jug, pot, vase' matches the jug/pitcher the man holds up and pours from.

41A2415 jug and basin; wash-basinlow

The correlate 'jug and basin' literally describes the depicted pairing of pitcher and basin, though here they serve milk rather than washing.

Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated

Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.

III viii 95 Improbitas muscae – thematic inventiomedium

The emblem's core image — the fly that keeps coming back to the milk however often it is driven off, until it dies there — matches Erasmus's Homeric fly that, though repeatedly repelled from a man's skin, 'still returns to attack and bite', applied to the incorrigible who returns to his vice.

III iii 8 Pyraustae gaudes gaudium – thematic inventiomedium

Erasmus's fire-worm that flies into the lamp for a momentary joy and burns to death is the standard adage image for 'brief pleasure bought with death'; the emblem transfers it to the fly drowning in milk — pleasure whose reward is only sorrow and 'mortelle decadance' (cf. the companion adage Pyraustae fatum).

II iv 22 Periculosum est canem intestina gustasse – thematic inventiolow

The adage's lesson — once a creature has tasted a forbidden delight it cannot stop, to its own ruin — is precisely the moral of the fly returning to the milk and of the fool who 'strays too far' in Volupté's banquet; both are classed by Erasmus under Illecebra mali.

II vii 62 Lotum gustavit – thematic inventiolow

Erasmus explicitly applies the lotus-eaters to 'men who, having once tasted dishonourable pleasures, cannot be recalled' and forget the road home — matching the subscriptio's fool who strays so far in pleasure that 'de son chemin desuie'.

II iii 2 Siculus mare – thematic inventiolow

The Sicilian lured back to the sea that once wrecked him parallels the fly that 'retourne si souvent' to the milk that will kill it; both figure the seductive invitation to repeat a fatal risk.