Guillaume de La Perrièrre, Le Theatre Des Bons Engins (Lyon, 1545)
Emblem 27
Three men at a game of chessAI-generated
Nous serons veus tous esgaulx en la fin.
Emblem 27. We shall all be seen as equals in the end.AI-generated
Description of the woodcutAI-generated
An interior scene with a tiled floor and a paneled wall. At the left a man in a feathered cap and slashed doublet sits on a low stool, leaning forward with one hand over a large chessboard set on a heavy table. At the right two men stand or lean over the opposite side of the board: one in a flat cap bends forward, his hand on the board, while a second figure behind him looks on. A bundle of rods or staves leans against the wall at the far right; the table's turned leg and arched base are visible below.
Subscriptio
TranscriptionAI-generated
LE roy d'eschetz, pendant que le ieu dure,Sur ses subiectz ha grande preference:Si lon le matte, il conuient qu'il endureQue lon le mette au sac, sans difference.Cecy nous faict notable demonstrance,Qu'apres le ieu de vie transitoire,Quand mort nous ha mys en son repertoire,Les Roys ne sont plus grãdz que les vassaulx:Car dans le sac (comme à tous est notoire)Roys & Pyons en honneur son esgaulx.
TranslationAI-generated
The king of chess, while the game lasts, has great precedence over his subjects: if one checkmates him, he must endure being put into the bag, without distinction. This gives us a notable demonstration that, after the game of this transitory life, when death has put us in its register, kings are no greater than vassals: for in the bag (as is well known to all) kings and pawns are equal in honour.
Iconclass
86(NOUS SERONS VEUS TOUS ESGAULX EN LA FIN)proverbs, sayings, etc. (NOUS SERONS VEUS TOUS ESGAULX EN LA FIN)41A2interior of the house41A711table43C521chess43C5211chessmen43C(+4)(CHESSBOARD)41A777container of textile material: bag, sack, net41A7211stool31D14adult man51B3Parity, Equality31E5life versus death
Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated
Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.
- V i 57 Ut ex bulga matris – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus's essay on the 'mother's bag' argues that birth 'does not distinguish a Croesus from an Irus, a king from a commoner,' the exact levelling topos of the emblem; the emblem transfers the same 'bag' (sac) image to the end of life, where 'Roys & Pyons' are equal.
- V i 8 Salillum animae – thematic inventiomedium
The Plautine lines quoted by Erasmus state that once life's brief span is spent 'the beggar and the millionaire count the same in Hell, once dead' — precisely the moral of the chess emblem that after the game of transitory life kings are no greater than vassals.
- II ix 58 Omnia similia – thematic inventiolow
Erasmus glosses this adage as 'our mortal condition is the same for all... all grow old and die,' the general equality-in-death commonplace that the emblem dramatizes with chessmen swept into one bag.
Sources
Record ID: embhab_162-3-eth-b_emblem027
This emblem on the Iconclass site: https://iconclass.org/view/embhab_162-3-eth-b_emblem027
Page in the digital copy of the Herzog August Bibliothek: http://diglib.hab.de/drucke/162-3-eth-b/start.htm?image=00040