Emblem 20

Emblem 20

Hunters are disappointed by a hare surrendering itself

Le bon veneur ne prend La beste qui se rendFrench

The good huntsman does not take the beast that surrenders itself.AI-generated

Description of the imageAI-generated

An oval medallion framed within a square border with dark corner spandrels. Inside, a wooded landscape with a river, a tall fir and leafy trees, and a clouded sky with birds. At the left a hunter in a broad-brimmed hat crouches on one knee, holding two spotted greyhounds on a leash. In the centre a second hunter in a plumed hat and cloak stands with both arms raised and hands open in a gesture of refusal or astonishment, striding away. At the right a bearded hunter in a cap with a feather stands with legs apart, holding a long pole or spear upright against a tree trunk. In the foreground grass, directly below, a hare crouches motionless on the ground. At the bottom of the medallion a scrolled banderole carries a handwritten-style inscription.

Subscriptio

Facsimile page — Facsimile, page 1 of 4; click a thumbnail to change page; click the page to enlarge

Facsimile, page 1 of 4; click a thumbnail to change page; click the page to enlarge

TranscriptionAI-generated

De Iager spreeckt AL heb ick tot het wilt een wonder groot verlangen, Noch sal ick geenen haes op sijnen leger vangen; Ick scheppe meerder lust wanneer hy vaerdich loopt, Want 'theeft doch beter geur al watmen diere koopt. Wel op dan, vluchtich dier, waerom hier stil geseten? Ghy dient niet sonder sweet, en sonder stof gegeten, Dat is u beste saus; u spier en smaeckt ons niet Als ghy u sonder loop dus aen den Iager biet. Ist niet een selsaem dingh? ick weet een jonge vrijster Die moy, die geestigh is, en singt gelijck een lijster, Die streelt my wonder sacht, en spreeckt geduerig schoó, En des al niet te min ick acht het niet een boon: 'Ken weet niet hoe het koomt, sy kan mijn wilde sinnen, Sy kan mijn grilligh hert met vleyen niet gewinnen, Ick sie het alle daegh, al heb ick ongelijck, Hoe sy my naerder komt, hoe dat ick verder wijck. Daer woont in tegendeel hier onder onse bueren Een ander weeligh dier vol alderhande kueren, Een trots een spijtigh ding dat my geduerigh quelt, Dat my gants selden spreeckt, en veel te leure stelt. Hoe moet ick menigmael ontrent haer deure dwalen, Oock als de koude snee komt uyt den hemel dalen! En des al niet te min, ick bender mee gepast, En voel dat my het vier oock in de koude wast. Wel vryers, naer ick sie, wy slachten hier den Iager, Die prijst den snellen haes, al is het wildt-braet mager; De moeyte wet de lust, soo datter niet en smaeckt Als dat hem draven doet, en moede leden maeckt: Al watmen heeft besuert, dat wort met vreucht gegeten Al wat ons moeyte kost dat wordt met lust beseten. Dus vrijster, wieje zijt, wilt noyt te veyligh zijn; Geen vreugt en heeft vermaeck als na voorgaende pijn.

TranslationAI-generated

The Hunter speaks: Although I have a wondrous great longing for game, still I shall catch no hare on its form; I take more pleasure when it runs briskly, for whatever one buys dearly has a better savour. Up then, fleeing creature, why sit here so still? You do not deserve to be eaten without sweat and without dust; that is your best sauce; your flesh does not taste to us if you thus offer yourself to the hunter without a chase. Is it not a strange thing? I know a young maiden, pretty and witty, who sings like a thrush, who caresses me wonderfully softly and constantly speaks fair — and nonetheless I do not value it a bean. I do not know how it comes about: she cannot win my wild senses, she cannot win my capricious heart with flattery; I see it every day, though I am in the wrong, that the nearer she comes to me, the further I withdraw. On the other hand there lives here among our neighbours another luxuriant creature full of all sorts of whims, a proud, a spiteful thing that continually torments me, that very seldom speaks to me and disappoints me much. How often must I wander about her door, even when the cold snow comes falling from heaven! And nonetheless I am content with it, and feel that the fire grows in me even in the cold. Well, suitors, as I see it, we are like the hunter here, who praises the swift hare although the game-meat is lean; the trouble whets the appetite, so that nothing tastes good but what makes him run and makes his limbs weary. Everything one has toiled for is eaten with joy; all that costs us trouble is possessed with delight. So, maiden, whoever you are, never be too easily won; no joy has pleasure except after preceding pain.

CommentaryAI-generated

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

Laboriosi amores jucundissimi. Quantò amatori minus est spei tantò magis uritur. Miles est amor, nec umbram ferre inertiæ potest. Nos magis adducto fructus decerpere ramo Quam de cælata sumere lance juvat. Merx ultronea putet. Militiæ species amor est decedite segnes: non sunt hæc &c. Quod venit ex facili faciles segnesque tenemus Quod spe quodque metu torsit habere juvat. Obsequium delatum plerumq; ingratum.

Loves that cost labour are the most delightful. The less hope a lover has, the more he burns. Love is a soldier, and cannot bear the shade of idleness. It pleases us more to pluck the fruit from the bough we pull down than to take it from an embossed dish. Wares offered unasked stink. Love is a kind of military service: depart, you sluggards; these things are not, etc. What comes easily we hold easily and sluggishly; what has tormented us with hope and with fear is a pleasure to possess. A service offered unasked is generally unwelcome.

Geboden dienst is onweert.

Service that is offered unasked is worthless.

Nil magis amorem incendit quam carendi metus.

Nothing kindles love more than the fear of losing.

Nolo quod cupio statim tenere Nec victoria mi placet parata.

I do not wish to hold at once what I desire, nor does a victory already prepared please me.

Qui n'aime la chasse qu'en la prise Il est veneur de basse mise.

He who loves the hunt only in the capture is a huntsman of low quality.

Dat met arbeydt verkreghen is wordt met minne beseten.

What is obtained with labour is possessed with love.

Neemt van liefde moeyt' en pijn / De liefde sal geen liefde zijn.

Take away from love its trouble and pain, and love will be no love.

Quel è dolce à ricordare Che fu duro à supportare.

That is sweet to remember which was hard to endure.

Τὰ καλὰ δύσκολα.

Fine things are difficult.

Amore non è senza amaro.

Love is not without bitterness.

Amor odit inertes. Militat omnis amans.

Love hates the slothful. Every lover is a soldier.

Nos magis adducto fructus decerpere ramo Quam de cælat â sumere lance juvat.

It pleases us more to pluck the fruit from the bough drawn down than to take it from an embossed dish.

Het beelt moeste zijn een Vrijster die een porceleyne schotel met freuyten een Vryer aenbiet, de vryer sich van de vrijster tot een freuyt-boom keerende om selfs te plucken.

The picture ought to be a maiden who offers a suitor a porcelain dish with fruit, the suitor turning away from the maiden towards a fruit tree in order to pick for himself.

Iconclass

25F26(HARE)(+535) rodents: hare (+ sitting animal)

25H15 forest, wood

31AA2511(+933) arm raised upward - AA - both arms or hands (+ holding something)

31AA25111 arms raised, with fingers closed - AA - both arms or hands

31D14 adult man

41D221(HAT) head-gear: hat

43C1142(+0) hunters hunting (+ variant)

43C1147 hunting dogs

45C14(POLE) helved weapons, polearms (for striking, hacking, thrusting) (POLE)

53CC12(+4) Servility (+ emblematical representation of concept)

53CC21(+4) Readiness to Comply (+ emblematical representation of concept)

56B3:54A11 Satisfaction, Contentment; 'Contento' (Ripa)❧Industriousness, Assiduity; 'Assiduità', 'Industria', 'Zelo' (Ripa)

56BB3:54AA11 Dissatisfaction❧Sluggishness, Inertia; 'Dapocaggine', 'Pigritia' (Ripa)

86(LE BON VENEUR NE PREND LA BESTE QUI SE REND) proverbs, sayings, etc. (LE BON VENEUR NE PREND LA BESTE QUI SE REND)

Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated

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

43C114 hunterhigh

The correlate 'hunter' directly matches the three hunters depicted in the wooded landscape.

43C1142 hunters huntinghigh

'Hunters hunting' fits the scene of huntsmen with leashed greyhounds and a spear in pursuit of game.

43C111261 hare-hunting, rabbit-huntinghigh

'Hare-hunting, rabbit-hunting' matches the hunters with hounds and the crouching hare in the foreground, the emblem's point about game not worth taking when too easy.

25F26(HARE) rodents: harehigh

'Rodents: hare' corresponds to the hare crouching motionless in the foreground grass.

56D Hope and Fearmedium

'Hope and Fear' matches the commentary's central idea that what has racked us with hope and with fear is the joy to possess.

54DD2 Idleness; 'Otio' (Ripa)low

'Idleness' echoes the commentary's claim that love cannot bear the shade of idleness, though no personification is depicted.

32A46 sluggardlow

'Sluggard' relates to the commentary's address 'depart, you sluggards', though the figures shown are hunters rather than sluggards.

Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated

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

I v 79 Citra pulverem – essay quotemedium

The Dutch subscriptio's key line — 'Ghy dient niet sonder sweet, en sonder stof gegeten' ('you do not deserve to be eaten without sweat and without dust') — reproduces exactly the proverbial pair discussed in this adage's essay, ἀκονιτί / ἀνιδρωτί, 'citra pulverem' and 'citra sudorem', including Horace's 'sine pulvere palmae' (a victory won without effort); Cats's hunter refuses precisely such an unearned prize, echoed also by his Petronius tag 'nec victoria mi placet parata'.

II i 12 Difficilia quae pulchra – essay quotemedium

The Latin/Greek commentary block cites 'Τὰ καλὰ δύσκολα' ('Fine things are difficult'), which is a variant of Erasmus's Platonic adage χαλεπὰ τὰ καλά / 'Difficilia quae pulchra'; it carries the emblem's whole point that what is worth having must cost labour.

I ix 53 Merx ultronea putet – essay quotemedium

The commentary quotes the proverb verbatim ('Merx ultronea putet') and glosses it in Dutch ('Geboden dienst is onweert'), making it one of the emblem's controlling sententiae: goods (or a mistress) offered unasked are worthless, just as the hunter scorns the hare that surrenders itself.

II vii 69 Optimum condimentum fames – thematic inventiomedium

Cats's hunter says the hare must be eaten 'sonder sweet... dat is u beste saus' — sweat and dust are 'your best sauce' — a direct transposition of the Socratic proverb that hunger (i.e. effort and appetite, not cookery) is the best seasoning; the lean game tastes good only because it cost a chase.

IV vii 37 Sub aliena arbore fructum – thematic inventiomedium

The paired plate described in the Dutch note (the maiden offering fruit in a porcelain dish, the suitor turning to pluck from the tree himself) turns on the refusal of 'vruchten... by yemant anders af-gedaen' — fruit picked by another — the very situation of Erasmus's adage on enjoying fruit from someone else's tree, i.e. reaping what one has not laboured for.

I v 82 Dormienti rete trahit – thematic inventiolow

The emblem's moral is the negative of this adage: the prey that falls into one's hands without effort ('Quod venit ex facili faciles segnesque tenemus') is precisely what the good huntsman and the lover disdain; Erasmus's sleeper whose net makes a catch is the type of the effortless gain Cats rejects.

II i 80 Lepus pro carnibus – thematic inventiolow

Erasmus's essay is built on the hunting of the hare 'because its meat is good eating' and cites Plutarch on hunters and the running hare; Cats inverts this, having his hunter declare the lean hare worth taking only when it runs ('hoe sy my naerder komt, hoe dat ick verder wijck').

I ix 33 Solus currens vicit – thematic inventiolow

The adage (with its companions 'victory without dust' and 'without sweat') mocks a triumph gained where nothing resisted, which is the hunter's complaint here and the sense of the quoted Petronius line 'nec victoria mi placet parata'.