Guillaume de La Perrièrre, Le Theatre Des Bons Engins (Lyon, 1545)
Emblem 61
A hare crouching in the grass, pursued by two houndsAI-generated
Le mal viuant n'est iamais asseuré.
Emblem 61. The evil-living man is never secure.AI-generated
Description of the woodcutAI-generated
A small rectangular woodcut showing a wooded landscape. In the foreground a large hare crouches on the ground, its eyes open, lying low among tufts of grass. Behind it to the right two hunting dogs run across a sloping field toward the hare. Leafy trees and bushes fill the background on both sides, with an open sky above.
Subscriptio
TranscriptionAI-generated
L'Hôme coulpable, ou bien noté de crime,Se void pareil au Lieure en tous propos:Car il aura le cueur pusillanime,Et ne pourra dormir de bon repos,Tousiours craindra, que viennent les suppostz,Pour le liurer aux mains de la Iustice.L'homme innocent, pur, & net de tout vice,Ne crainct l'assault des malings & peruers.Le Lieure monstre à gens de malefice,Qu'il leur conuient dormir les yeulx ouuertz.
TranslationAI-generated
The guilty man, or one well marked by crime, finds himself like the hare in every respect: for he will have a faint-hearted spirit, and will not be able to sleep in good rest; he will always fear that the officers are coming to deliver him into the hands of Justice. The innocent man, pure and clean of all vice, does not fear the assault of the wicked and perverse. The hare shows to men of evil-doing that it behoves them to sleep with their eyes open.
Iconclass
86(LE MAL VIUANT N'EST IAMAIS ASSEURÉ)proverbs, sayings, etc. (LE MAL VIUANT N'EST IAMAIS ASSEURÉ)25H114low hill country25G3trees25F26(HARE)(+46)rodents: hare (+ sleeping animal(s))34B11(+9452)dog (+ animal with prey)57A42Compunction, Remorse; 'Compuntione' (Ripa)57A43Sense of Guilt
Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated
Additional codes proposed for this emblem, not (yet) part of the indexing.
25F26(HARE)rodents: harehighThe correlate 'rodents: hare' directly matches the large hare crouching in the foreground.
43C1147hunting dogshigh'Hunting dogs' matches the two hounds running across the field toward the hare.
43C111261hare-hunting, rabbit-huntinghigh'Hare-hunting, rabbit-hunting' matches the scene of hounds pursuing a hare in open country.
52A23Alertness, Vigilance; 'Guardia', 'Vigilanza', 'Vigilanza per difendersi & oppugnare altri' (Ripa)medium'Alertness, Vigilance' fits the emblematic motif of the hare lying low with its eyes open, the traditional symbol of sleepless watchfulness.
57A643Timidity, Diffidencelow'Timidity, Diffidence' is the other standard emblematic reading of the fearful hare crouching before the approaching hounds.
Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated
Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.
- IV iii 78 Leporis vita – thematic inventiohigh
Erasmus explains 'to live the life of a hare' as living always anxious and trembling, adding that the hare, prey to all, sleeps only with open eyes — exactly the emblem's point that the guilty man is 'never secure,' faint-hearted, unable to rest, and must 'sleep with his eyes open.'
- I x 57 Lepus dormiens – thematic inventiohigh
The adage records, on Pliny's authority, that the hare sleeps with its eyes open and notes it may also be applied to timid persons; the subscriptio's closing line, that evildoers 'must sleep with their eyes open' like the hare, matches this directly.
- I ii 66 Fures clamorem – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus applies it to those conscious of guilt who fear being caught and flee in terror ('the wicked flee when no man pursueth'); the emblem's guilty man perpetually dreads the officers of Justice coming for him.
- I x 91 Conscientia mille testes – thematic inventiomedium
The adage's theme — guilty conscience as the most effective tormentor and betrayer of crime — is the moral of the emblem, in which the criminal's own conscience robs him of sleep and security.
- II vii 79 Lupus ante clamorum festinat – thematic inventiomedium
Classed under 'Metus ex conscientia,' it describes the man aware of his wrongdoing who is afraid before he is even accused — precisely the emblem's guilty man who always fears the arrival of the officers.
- II i 80 Lepus pro carnibus – thematic inventiolow
Erasmus describes the hare as timorous, unarmed, and running for its life when it sees it is hunted to death; the woodcut's hounds coursing the crouching hare supplies this image of the fearful, hunted creature standing for the endangered wrongdoer.
Sources
Record ID: embhab_162-3-eth-b_emblem061
This emblem on the Iconclass site: https://iconclass.org/view/embhab_162-3-eth-b_emblem061
Page in the digital copy of the Herzog August Bibliothek: http://diglib.hab.de/drucke/162-3-eth-b/start.htm?image=00074