Guillaume de La Perrièrre, Le Theatre Des Bons Engins (Lyon, 1545)
Emblem 94
A naked corpse abandoned by fleas and liceAI-generated
L'homme indigent, amy n'a quel qu'il soit.
Emblem 94. The needy man has no friend, whoever he may be.AI-generated
Description of the woodcutAI-generated
A woodcut landscape framed by a black border. In the foreground a naked human corpse lies stretched out on its back on the ground, head turned to the right, limbs limp. Scattered over the ground around the body are numerous small insect-like marks (fleas and lice). Behind the body are hatched hills and rocky ground, a leafless windblown tree growing at the upper right with cloud forms and streaks of sky behind it, and several birds flying in the sky at the upper left.
Subscriptio
TranscriptionAI-generated
PVces & poulx, les corps mortz abãdonnét,Comme priuez de viure & de substance.Semblablement les Flatteurs ne s'addonnent,Fors qu'a ceulx là qui remplissent leur pance:Tandis qu'auras biens, honneur, ou cheuance,Mille Flatteurs auras en ta maison:Mais s'il aduient, que change la saison,Ou par malheur, poureté te tempeste,Ilz s'enfuyront de toy comme poyson,En te laissant tout seul comme vne beste.
TranslationAI-generated
Fleas and lice abandon dead bodies, as being deprived of life and of sustenance. In the same way flatterers give themselves only to those who fill their belly: so long as you have goods, honour, or wealth, you will have a thousand flatterers in your house; but if it happens that the season changes, or that by misfortune poverty storms upon you, they will flee from you as from poison, leaving you all alone like a beast.
Iconclass
86(L'HOMME INDIGENT, AMY N'A QUEL QU'IL SOIT)proverbs, sayings, etc. (L'HOMME INDIGENT, AMY N'A QUEL QU'IL SOIT)25H114low hill country31D14(+89)adult man (+ nude human being)31E3the corpse25F711(FLEA)insects: flea25F711(LOUSE)insects: louse57AA6122Sponging, Parasitizing32A45parasite, sponger
Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated
Additional codes proposed for this emblem, not (yet) part of the indexing.
25F711insectshighThe correlate text 'insects' directly covers the numerous small insect-like creatures (fleas and lice) scattered over the ground and the corpse.
Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated
Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.
- IV ii 51 Mendico ne parentes quidem amici sunt – direct mottohigh
The motto 'L'homme indigent, amy n'a quel qu'il soit' ('the needy man has no friend, whoever he may be') is effectively a French rendering of Πτωχοῦ φίλοι οὐδ᾽ οἱ γεννήτορες, and Erasmus's gloss ('Wealth attracts friends, poverty has no friends, not even those bound by Nature') is precisely the dizain's argument that flatterers desert the impoverished.
- I v 23 Ollae amicitiae – thematic inventiomedium
The subscriptio's flatterers who attach themselves only 'a ceulx là qui remplissent leur pance' and vanish when wealth fails are exactly Erasmus's 'cupboard love' friends, drawn by the stewpot rather than affection (Juvenal's kitchen-smell, the 'table-friends').
- IV vii 43 Muscae – thematic inventiolow
Erasmus explains parasites as 'flies' that swarm to another's food and cannot be driven off; the emblem builds the same insect-parasite metaphor (fleas and lice on a body) to depict flatterers who stay only while there is sustenance.
- IV iv 53 Αὐτολήκυθοι – thematic inventiolow
The adage defines those who cultivate friends 'not out of true feeling but for the sake of their bellies', matching the emblem's flatterers who follow only those who fill their belly and flee at the onset of poverty.
Sources
Record ID: embhab_162-3-eth-b_emblem094
This emblem on the Iconclass site: https://iconclass.org/view/embhab_162-3-eth-b_emblem094
Page in the digital copy of the Herzog August Bibliothek: http://diglib.hab.de/drucke/162-3-eth-b/start.htm?image=00107