Emblem 96

Emblem 96

A man trying to hold a dolphin on the shoreAI-generated

Difficile est de dompter vne femme.

Emblem 96. It is difficult to tame a woman.AI-generated

Description of the woodcutAI-generated

A woodcut in a rectangular frame: at the right a man, bare-legged and in a short tunic, stands astride and grips a large scaly sea-creature (a dolphin-like fish with spiny dorsal fin and open mouth) that lies half out of the water on a rocky shore; with his raised right hand he holds up a plume-like tuft or branch. The sea fills the foreground and middle ground; in the background at the left are a shoreline with small buildings/a town and hills, and above, birds fly in a sky rendered with horizontal hatching.

Subscriptio

Facsimile page of emblem 96 — Facsimile of the page (Herzog August Bibliothek); click to enlarge.

TranscriptionAI-generated

PLus tost pourras arrester le Daulphin,Que refrener Femme de cueur volage.Combien que soit l'homme subtil & fin,Esprit de femme est rusé d'aduantage.Femme ne veult estre tenue en cage,Tousiours pretend à vsurper franchise:Quand le mary la cuyde auoir submiseA son vouloir, pensant en estre maistre,En luy donnant du vent de la chemise,L'aura soubdain bridé de son cheuestre.

TranslationAI-generated

Sooner will you be able to stop the dolphin than to restrain a woman of fickle heart. However subtle and clever a man may be, a woman's wit is craftier still. A woman does not wish to be kept in a cage; she always aims to usurp her freedom. When the husband thinks he has subjected her to his will, believing himself to be her master, by giving him a puff of wind from her shift she will suddenly have bridled him with her halter.

Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated

Additional codes proposed for this emblem, not (yet) part of the indexing.

25F27(DOLPHIN) swimming mammals: dolphinhigh

The correlate 'swimming mammals: dolphin' directly matches the large dolphin-like sea-creature lying half out of the water that the man grips.

25FF27(DOLPHIN) swimming mammals: dolphin - FF - fabulous animalslow

The correlate for a fabulous/non-naturalistic dolphin could apply since the creature is rendered as a scaly fish with spiny dorsal fin rather than an anatomically correct dolphin.

Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated

Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.

I iv 93 Delphinum cauda ligas – thematic inventiohigh

The woodcut shows a man vainly gripping a dolphin on the shore, and the subscriptio says one could sooner stop the dolphin than restrain a fickle woman — exactly Erasmus' point that the dolphin is slippery and strong and cannot be held, used of those who attempt something impossible or attack by means that cannot prevail.

II ii 48 Ignis mare mulier, tria mala – thematic inventiomedium

The emblem couples the untameable sea-creature with the untameable woman, echoing the proverb that fire, the sea and woman are three unconquerable evils ('the sea's unconquered waves' likened to womankind).

IV iv 89 Nec mulieri, nec gremio credendum – thematic inventiolow

The subscriptio's 'Femme de cueur volage' (woman of fickle heart) matches Festus' explanation in this adage that a woman has 'an uncertain and fickle mind' (incerti ac levis animi).

I iii 15 Sursum versus sacrorum fluminum feruntur fontes – thematic inventiolow

The closing image of the wife bridling the husband who thought himself master illustrates the Medean inversion of the natural order described in this adage, where women dare manly deeds and men are undone by women's wiles.

III x 21 Foemina nihil pestilentius – thematic inventiolow

The emblem's misogynist moral — woman's wit craftier than man's, never to be subdued — belongs to the same proverbial topos that nothing is more shameless or worse than a woman.

Description of the woodcutAI-generated

Subscriptio

TranscriptionAI-generated

TranslationAI-generated

Iconclass

Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated

Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated

Sources