Jacob Cats, Spiegel (The Hague, 1632)

Emblem 10

A girl is pulling at her mother's purse, while she points at a doll, put on display by the market stall's saleswoman; in the background a man approaches a woman

A girl is pulling at her mother's purse, while she points at a doll, put on display by the market stall's saleswoman; in the background a man approaches a woman
Engraving · click to enlarge

Schoon voor-doen is half verkochtDutch

A fine display is half the sale.AI-generated

Description of the imageAI-generated

Within a large oval ribbon-frame set in a square plate with hatched corner spandrels, a street scene: a covered market stall or booth under a slanting awning, its poles hung with small drums, tambourines, hoops and other toys. On the counter stand rows of dressed dolls and puppets, with more dolls, hobby-horses, sticks and whips in a tub at the left; a woman stallholder stands behind the counter with further figures and onlookers in the shadowed booth behind her. In the foreground at the right a richly dressed woman in a large ruff and hooped gown stands holding the hand of a small girl, also in ruff and full skirt, who stretches up her arm towards the toys on the stall. A spaniel-like dog sits on the ground at the lower centre looking up at the child. To the right, beyond the stall, a street recedes with house fronts, a woman standing and a man walking away. A scroll/banderole at the bottom of the plate carries an engraved handwritten inscription.

Subscriptio

Facsimile page
Facsimile, page 1 of 3; click a thumbnail to change page; click the page to enlarge
page 1page 2page 3

TranscriptionAI-generated

Wilder yemant leeren minnen Nae den regel, nae de kunst; Wilder yemant herten winnen, En oock aller herten gunst: Niemant hoefter groote boecken, Oude Schrijvers, vreemde tael Wt te lesen, op te soecken; Siet hier staetet al-te-mael. Gaet maer slechts u eygen selven Met een onvermoeyde vlijt Ondersoecken, onderdelven, En beproeven wat ghy zijt; Vint ghy feylen, leertse duycken, Leertse dooden, viertse niet; Maer u deugden wilt gebruycken, Datmen die als lichten siet. Maeckt dat ghy in alle saecken Desen regel onderhout, Dat sal u lief-talligh maken Of ghy vrijt, of zijt getrout. Die sijn kraem weet op te proncken Nae den eysch, en nae den tijt, Doet den koper daer op loncken En hy wort sijn waren quijt.

TranslationAI-generated

Would anyone learn to love according to the rule, according to the art; would anyone win hearts, and also the favour of all hearts: no one needs to read through or search out great books, old writers, foreign tongues; look, here it all stands. Only go and examine, dig into and test your own self with untiring diligence, to see what you are; if you find faults, teach them to duck away, teach them to die, do not cherish them; but make use of your virtues, so that people see them like lights. Make sure that in all matters you keep this rule, and that will make you beloved, whether you are courting or are married. He who knows how to deck out his stall as is required and as suits the time, makes the buyer cast an eye on it, and he gets rid of his wares.

CommentaryAI-generated

18 passages · original left, translation right (click to fold)

Dit is eygentlijck dat de Francoisen noemen: mettre en evidence & faire valoir ses bonnes parties, in welcke kunste Scipio, en andere voortreffelijcke mannen groote lof wert toegeschreven. Dit is dat Ovidius de jonge lieden voor een gront-regel heeft willen in-scherpen: Lat. Et quâcunque potes dote placere, place. Nederd. Brengt alles by, ô frisse jeught, Daer ghy u lief door maken meught Dit is dat yder ambachts-man / elck in het sijne / soo behendelijck weet te betrachten / het schoonste over al aen het ooge gevende / ende al wat misstaet in tegendeel bedeckende: plagh niet een Metser de schoonste stenen in den gevel / de Gout-smit de suyverste peerle int voorste van 't kleynoot / de Kleer-maker de cierlijckste stoffe in 't aensienlickste van 't kleedt te voeghen? 'Tis den Been-houder leet datter een ooghje vets aen 't vleys is dat niet ghesien en wert. Van dit alles moet niet uyt hooghmoet ofte door pronckerye gheschieden / maer veel eer uyt een goet oprecht gemoet / tot verbeteringhe yder van sijn ghebreken / ende om sijn licht voor de menschen so te laten schijnen / dat God daer uyt gepresen werde / oock om andere tot navolginge te verwecken / op dat alsoo de gene die sulcx doet by ghevolge lief-tallich magh werden by de gene daer hy mede omme gaet.

This is precisely what the French call: mettre en evidence & faire valoir ses bonnes parties (to put forward and make the most of one's good qualities), an art for which Scipio and other excellent men are given great praise. This is what Ovid wished to impress upon young people as a ground-rule: Latin: 'And with whatever gift you can please, please.' Dutch: 'Bring everything forward, O fresh youth, by which you may make yourself beloved.' This is what every craftsman, each in his own trade, knows so skilfully to practise: putting the finest of everything before the eye, and on the contrary covering up all that is unsightly. Does not a mason usually set the handsomest stones in the façade, the goldsmith the purest pearl at the front of the jewel, the tailor the finest cloth in the most visible part of the garment? It grieves the butcher if there is a little eye of fat on the meat that is not seen. All this must not be done out of pride or for show, but rather out of a good sincere disposition, for the improvement of each one's shortcomings, and so to let one's light shine before men that God may be praised for it, and also to stir up others to imitation, so that he who does this may consequently become beloved by those with whom he associates.

C'est la raison pourquoy les gês d'Estat conseillent aux princes de dissimuler leur imperfections, & monstrer leur bonnes parties, imitants le bon architecte, qui loge (comme ils disent) ses plus beaux materiaux au frontispice de son bastiment.

This is the reason why statesmen advise princes to conceal their imperfections and to show their good qualities, imitating the good architect, who places (as they say) his finest materials on the front of his building.

---- occule mendas Quodque potes vitium corporis abde tui.

... hide your blemishes, and conceal whatever bodily defect you can.

Multa viros nescire decet. pars maxima rerum Offendet, si non interiora tegas. Cui gravis oris odor, nunquam jejuna loquatur, Et semper spacio distet ab ore viri. Si niger, aut ingens, aut non sit in ordine natus Dens tibi, ridendo maxima damna feres.

It is fitting that men should not know many things. The greatest part of matters will give offence, unless you cover up what is within. She whose breath is heavy should never speak fasting, and should always keep her distance from a man's face. If your tooth is black, or huge, or not grown in line, you will suffer the greatest loss by laughing.

Ante omnia tamen

Before all things, however

Prima sit in vobis morum tutela, puellæ Ingenio facilè conciliante placent.

Let the first care in you, girls, be the guarding of your morals; they please when an easy-going nature wins favour.

Voor reden van dit alles kan ghesept werden dat (primæ notiones) de eerste invallen die yemant van eenighe saecke krijgt / rijsende veel-tijts uyt het eerste gesichte / een groot voor-oordeel plegen te maken inde gedachten der menschen / en daer op sien veel oude spreucken / als te weten:

As the reason for all this it may be said that the first impressions (primae notiones) which anyone gets of some matter, arising most often from the first sight, tend to create a great prejudgement in people's minds; and many old proverbs look to this, namely:

Aensien doet begeren.

Seeing makes one desire.

Ex aspectu nascitur amor.

From sight love is born.

A feyta un cepo Parecera mancebo.

Dress up a stump and it will look like a young man.

Accoustre un tronq il semblera un jeune adolescent.

Deck out a tree-trunk and it will look like a young lad.

Oculi sunt in amore duces.

In love the eyes are the leaders.

Ce que plaist Est à demy faict.

What pleases is half done.

Was das aug nit siht / Beschwert das herts nit.

What the eye does not see does not grieve the heart.

Ἐκ τοῦ εἰσορᾶν γὰρ γίνεται ἀνθρώποις ἐρᾶν.

For it is from seeing that loving comes to men.

Vt vidi, ut perÿ

As soon as I saw, I was lost.

Illud tamen hîc monendum, sanè hæc intelligenda, & virtute, non fuco ornamentorum gratiam tam virginibus quam adolescentibus quærendam esse: ut rectè viri probi inculcant.

This, however, must be noted here: that these things are certainly to be understood soundly, and that favour is to be sought, by maidens as well as by young men, by virtue and not by the paint of ornaments, as upright men rightly inculcate.

Nazianz. Car. 3. de præcept. Virg. Ornentur gemmis aliæ, decorentur & auro, Quod fulgore suo collustrat corporis artus, His, inquam, placeant quorum depicta colore Multiplici est facies, mortalique arte manuque Condita, cœlestique ab imagine turpis imago Dissita, calcatum prodens sine voce pudorem. Tu Virtute place, &c.

Gregory of Nazianzus, Poem 3, On the precepts for virgins. Let other women be adorned with gems and decked with gold, which lights up the limbs of the body with its gleam; let them, I say, please those whose faces are painted with manifold colour, made up by mortal art and hand — a foul image far removed from the heavenly likeness, betraying without a word a modesty trampled under foot. Do you please by Virtue, etc.

Iconclass

Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated

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

Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated

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

Sources

Record ID: embstma_1288_emblem010
This emblem on the Iconclass site: https://iconclass.org/view/embstma_1288_emblem010
Copy: University Library, Glasgow, Stirling Maxwell 1288