Guillaume de La Perrièrre, Le Theatre Des Bons Engins (Lyon, 1545)
Emblem 47
An ape crushing its young by embracing it too tightlyAI-generated
Chastier fault les Enfans eu ieune aage.
Emblem 47. Children must be chastised at a young age.AI-generated
Description of the woodcutAI-generated
A woodcut in a rectangular frame showing a wooded landscape with trees and bushes. In the foreground a large monkey (ape) sits on the ground, clasping and pressing a small young ape to its chest with both arms; the little ape's head is turned upward toward the adult's face, its limbs dangling. Scattered small stones or nuts lie on the ground around them.
Subscriptio
TranscriptionAI-generated
SI fort le Singe embrasse ses petitz,Qu'en embrassant il leur liure la mort.Maintz peres ont si tressotz appetitzA leurs enfants, que grand malheur en sort:Par les cherir de fole amour trop fort,Dissimulant souffrent leur insolence,Et quand ilz sont sortiz d'aage d'enfance,Et venuz grandz, ilz sont incorrigibles:Lors n'est pas temps que lon leur crye & tence,Quand ilz sont cheutz en accidentz terribles.
TranslationAI-generated
The ape embraces its young so tightly that in embracing them it delivers them death. Many fathers have such foolish fondness for their children that great misfortune comes of it: by cherishing them with too strong a mad love, dissembling, they tolerate their insolence; and when the children have passed out of the age of infancy and grown big, they are incorrigible. Then it is no longer the time to shout at them and scold them, when they have fallen into terrible misadventures.
Iconclass
86(CHASTIER FAULT LES ENFANS EU IEUNE AAGE)proverbs, sayings, etc. (CHASTIER FAULT LES ENFANS EU IEUNE AAGE)25G3trees25G31shrubs25F22(+429)monkeys, apes (+ animal killing its own breed)42B1parental love
Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated
Additional codes proposed for this emblem, not (yet) part of the indexing.
25F22monkeys, apeshighThe correlate 'monkeys, apes' directly matches the central subject: an adult ape clutching its young in a wooded landscape.
33A14embracing each other, kissinglow'Embracing each other, kissing' captures the clasping gesture of the ape pressing its offspring to its chest, though the correlate properly concerns human figures rather than animals.
Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated
Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.
- I ii 40 Satius est initiis mederi quam fini – thematic inventiohigh
Erasmus's essay states explicitly that 'children must be sheltered from vices when they are at a tender and tractable age' and that remedies come too late 'when evils have grown strong through long delay' — precisely the emblem's motto ('Children must be chastised at a young age') and its closing point that scolding is useless once they are grown and ruined.
- III iv 20 Senem erigere – thematic inventiomedium
The adage ('It is hard to raise up an old man who fell as a youth') glosses exactly the emblem's moral that vices tolerated in childhood become ingrained and incorrigible in later life.
- II iv 20 Quo semel est imbuta – thematic inventiomedium
Horace's crock that keeps its first odour, with Quintilian and Aristotle on habits formed in tender years, underwrites the emblem's argument that upbringing in infancy determines lifelong character, hence the need for early chastisement.
- II x 42 Lignum tortum haud unquam rectum – thematic inventiomedium
The twisted branch that can never be straightened matches the subscriptio's 'quand ilz sont ... venuz grandz, ilz sont incorrigibles' — characters warped early are beyond correction once grown.
- III vi 17 Post bellum auxilium – thematic inventiolow
The proverb for a remedy applied too late corresponds to the final lines: it is no time to shout and scold once the grown children have already fallen into disaster.
- II vii 14 Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurrit – thematic inventiolow
Erasmus's discussion of those who refrain from wrongdoing only 'from fear of the big stick' and relapse as soon as the stick is removed touches the emblem's theme of discipline versus indulgent parents, though the emblem's image comes from the ape, not the fork.
- I ii 15 Suum cuique pulchrum – thematic inventiolow
Erasmus's adage on everyone finding his own beautiful uses the proverbial ape doting on her ugly offspring; the emblem similarly makes the ape's blind, smothering maternal love the figure of parents' 'fole amour' for their children.
Sources
Record ID: embhab_162-3-eth-b_emblem047
This emblem on the Iconclass site: https://iconclass.org/view/embhab_162-3-eth-b_emblem047
Page in the digital copy of the Herzog August Bibliothek: http://diglib.hab.de/drucke/162-3-eth-b/start.htm?image=00060