Guillaume de La Perrièrre, Le Theatre Des Bons Engins (Lyon, 1545)
Emblem 49
A spider's web in the corner of a room, a chest belowAI-generated
Le Pouure on hayt, le Riche est soubstenu.
The poor man is hated, the rich man is upheld.AI-generated
Description of the woodcutAI-generated
A woodcut showing the interior of a room seen in perspective: a plank floor, a plain wall at left with a latticed window, and a panelled wall or door at right. In the upper right corner, spanning the angle of the ceiling and wall, hangs a large circular spider's web with a spider at its centre; smaller insects appear caught in the web. Below, standing against the right-hand wall, is a domed, banded travelling chest or strongbox.
Subscriptio
TranscriptionAI-generated
L'Araigne ha belle & propre inuention,Quãd sur sa toile elle attrape les mouches:Mais elle est foyble, & n'a protection,Pour resister aux grosses & farouches.Au tẽps qui court, gros ne craignẽt les touches,La Loy n'a lieu, que sur pouure indigence,Les Riches ont de mal faire licence,Pouureté n'a iamais le vent à voyle.Qu'ainsi ne soit: on void par euidence,Que grosse Mousche abbat legiere toyle.
TranslationAI-generated
The spider has a fine and fitting device, when with her web she catches flies: but she is weak, and has no defence to withstand the big and fierce ones. In these present times the great do not fear blows; the Law has force only upon poor neediness; the Rich have licence to do evil; Poverty never has the wind in her sails. That this is so, one sees plainly: a big Fly tears down a flimsy web.
Iconclass
86(LE POUURE ON HAYT, LE RICHE EST SOUBSTENU)proverbs, sayings, etc. (LE POUURE ON HAYT, LE RICHE EST SOUBSTENU)41A22communal rooms41A733chest, coffer25F713(+4712)spiders (+ animals nesting; making nests, lodges, webs, etc.)25F713(+452)spiders (+ animal with prey)25F711(FLY)(+63)insects: fly (+ dying animal; death of animal; dead animal)46A23contrast between important and unimportant people; the inferior before the superior, the weak before the mighty
Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated
Additional codes proposed for this emblem, not (yet) part of the indexing.
25F713spidershighThe correlate text 'spiders' directly matches the large spider shown at the centre of its web in the upper corner of the room.
Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated
Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.
- I vii 39 Felicibus sunt et trimestres liberi – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus explains this adage as pointing to the privilege of princes and the rich, 'who regard themselves as having a licence to do just as they please', so that what is condemned in a commoner is praised in them — precisely the emblem's claim that 'Les Riches ont de mal faire licence' while 'La Loy n'a lieu, que sur pouure indigence'.
- IV ii 51 Mendico ne parentes quidem amici sunt – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus' gloss — 'Wealth attracts friends, poverty has no friends' — states in commonplace form the emblem's motto 'Le Pouure on hayt, le Riche est soubstenu', the social partiality shown to riches and the abandonment of the needy.
- II ix 3 Tenuem nectis – thematic inventiolow
Erasmus' adage 'you weave a thin web', drawn from weaving and applied to the poor whose work is confined to flimsy, small things, matches the emblem's spider-web image of weak Poverty whose 'legiere toyle' is torn by the 'grosse Mousche'.
Sources
Record ID: embhab_162-3-eth-b_emblem049
This emblem on the Iconclass site: https://iconclass.org/view/embhab_162-3-eth-b_emblem049
Page in the digital copy of the Herzog August Bibliothek: http://diglib.hab.de/drucke/162-3-eth-b/start.htm?image=00062