Jacob Cats, Spiegel (The Hague, 1632)
Emblem 35
A well-dressed young woman is brushing off the mud from her skirt
On ne peut decrotter sa robbe sans emporter le poilFrench
One cannot brush the mud off one's gown without taking away the nap.AI-generated
Description of the imageAI-generated
Within a thick oval frame set in a rectangular border with hatched corner spandrels, a young woman stands alone on a wet, muddy road in an open landscape. She wears fashionable dress: a tall pleated lace ruff and lace-edged collar, puffed slashed sleeves, embroidered cuffs, and a cap over her hair. She looks downward and holds up the skirt of her long gown with both hands, lifting and turning the folds to inspect the mud splashed on the cloth; a small dark object (a purse or clapper/brush) is in her right hand. Behind her at the left is a gabled brick manor house or small castle with a tower and outbuildings among trees, with a tiny figure on the road before it; at the right are low bushes and a bare branching tree. Three birds fly in the clouded sky. Below, a scroll-shaped banderole carries the French motto.
Subscriptio
TranscriptionAI-generated
De fransche vrijster spreeckt Och! hoe ben ick nu bekladt Van te drillen door de stadt; Och! hoe ben ick nu begaet Van te loopen achter straet; Och! hoe ben ick nu gestelt Van te spelen in het velt; Komt nu, vrijsters, die ick ken, Soo ick u gespele ben, Seght wat my te doene staet, Want ick ben hier buyten raet, Mits dat ick soo schroom en schrick Van dit aengebacken slick; Snijd' ick't uyt, soo ist een gat; Wasch ick't kleet, soo wortet nat, Droogh ick't dan, soo wortet vael, Wrijf ick't hart, soo wortet kael; Worter oock niet toe-gedaen Ach! soo blijft de plecke staen, En dat vougt geen vrijster wel, Maer een vuyle morse-bel: Voor besluyt, ick stae bekaeyt Hoement went, of hoement draeyt; Leert dan, maeght, uyt dit geval, Dat u dienstigh wesen sal. Loopt niet dickwils over straet, Wenst ghy niet te zijn begaet; Loopt niet dickwils door de Stadt, Wenst ghy niet te zijn bekladt; Loopt niet dickwils oost en west, 'tHuys, ô vrijsters, is u best. Dan noch sooder yemant gaet Over wegh, of over straet, Over zee, of over lant, Over kley, of over sant, Over hil, of over klip, Met een wagen, of een schip, Siet! dit stel ick voor een wet, Kinders houdt u zieltjens net.
TranslationAI-generated
The French girl speaks Alas! how I am now bespattered from traipsing through the town; alas! how I am now muddied from running about the streets; alas! what a state I am in from playing in the field; Come now, girls whom I know, since I am your playmate, tell me what I ought to do, for here I am at my wits' end, since I so dread and shrink from this caked-on mud; If I cut it out, there is a hole; if I wash the dress, it gets wet; if I then dry it, it turns faded; if I rub it hard, it goes threadbare; and if nothing at all is done to it, alas! the stain remains, and that does not suit any maiden, but only a filthy slattern. In conclusion, I am caught out however one turns or twists it; learn then, maiden, from this case what will be of use to you. Do not run often through the street, if you do not wish to be muddied; do not run often through the town, if you do not wish to be bespattered; do not run often east and west — home, O maidens, is best for you. And further, if anyone goes along a road or along a street, over sea or over land, over clay or over sand, over hill or over cliff, with a wagon or a ship, see! this I lay down as a law: children, keep your little souls clean.
CommentaryAI-generated
1 passages · original left, translation right (click to fold)
Seneca. Redire nescit cum perijt pudor. Plaut. Ego illum perijsse puto cui perijt pudor. Hoogd. Ehre/ glaube/ vnd auge leiden keinen schertz. Lat. Quo tibi forma puer si non revocabilis unquam, Cessit ab ore pudor? Omnia si perdas famam servare memento, Quâ semel amissâ posteà nullus eris. Nederl. Wie sijn pap stort en kanse niet al oprapen. Lat. Etiam sanato vulnere cicatrix manet. Nederl. Die in een quaet gheruchte koomt is half gehangen. Eer is teer. Lat. Honoris splendorem res tenuis decolorat. Symmach. Scio virtuti cognatum pudorem. Lat. Deprehensus ut pudor est, ferè amittitur. Vel falsâ opinione gravabitur pudor; Pudica non est, fama pudicam quam negat. Syr. 9. 7. Gaept niet alomme inder stadt/ ende en loopt niet door alle hoecken. Lat. Rarò vaga virgo pudica est. Senec. Her. fur. Sic statue, quidquid statuis, ut causam tuam Famamque in arcto stare & ancipiti scias. Prov. 22. Melius est nomen bonum, quam divitiæ multæ: Item super argentum & aurum gratia bona. Eccl. 41. Curam habe de bono nomine, hoc enim magis permanebit tibi, quam mille thesauri pretiosi & magni.
Non vitium tantùm, sed quæ vitiosa videntur Hæc quoque, si sapias, hæc quoque, virgo, fuge. Nec satis esse puta, si mens tibi conscia recti, Tunc quoque cum mens est integra, fama perit. Saucia nux aliquâ si parte putamina perdat, Postea, quidquid agas, semper hiatus erit; Si pereat miseris semel integra fama puellis, Lædaturve sacer virginitatis honos, Tu licet inde velis famæ sarcire ruinam, Non iterum veniet, qui fuit ante, decor. Obducas licet usque cutem, manet usque cicatrix, Vtque tegas, semper vulnera vulnus habent.
Seneca: Modesty, once lost, does not know how to return. — Plautus: I consider that man ruined whose sense of shame has perished. — High German: Honour, faith, and the eye suffer no joking. — Latin: What good is beauty to you, boy, if modesty, never recoverable, has departed from your face? — If you lose everything, remember to preserve your good name, for once that is lost you will thereafter be nobody. — Dutch: He who spills his porridge cannot scoop it all up again. — Latin: Even when the wound is healed the scar remains. — Dutch: He who falls into ill repute is half hanged. Honour is a tender thing. — Latin: Slender means tarnish the splendour of honour. — Symmachus: I know that modesty is akin to virtue. — Latin: As modesty is caught out, so it is all but lost. — Even by a false opinion modesty will be burdened; she is not chaste whom report denies to be chaste. — Sirach 9:7: Do not gape about everywhere in the city, and do not run through all its corners. — Latin: A wandering maiden is seldom chaste. — Seneca, Hercules Furens: Resolve whatever you resolve in the knowledge that your cause and your good name stand on a narrow and uncertain footing. — Proverbs 22: A good name is better than great riches; likewise, good favour is above silver and gold. — Ecclesiasticus 41: Have a care for your good name, for this will remain with you longer than a thousand precious and great treasures.
Not only vice, but also those things that seem vicious — these too, if you are wise, these too, maiden, flee. And do not think it enough if your mind is conscious of right: even then, when the mind is whole, the good name perishes. If a wounded nut loses its shell in any part, afterwards, whatever you do, there will always be a gap; if once the whole good name of poor girls perishes, or the sacred honour of virginity is injured, though you may wish thereafter to repair the ruin of your reputation, the beauty that was there before will not come again. Though you draw the skin over it, the scar still remains, and however you cover them, wounds always keep their wound.
Iconclass
86(ON NE PEUT DECROTTER SA ROBBE SANS EMPORTER LE POIL)proverbs, sayings, etc. (ON NE PEUT DECROTTER SA ROBBE SANS EMPORTER LE POIL)
Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated
Additional codes proposed for this emblem, not (yet) part of the indexing.
59B3Repute, Renown; 'Splendore del nome' (Ripa)mediumThe emblem's central theme is the 'good name' ('Repute, Renown'), repeatedly praised as better than riches and impossible to restore once lost.
59BB32Ill-fame; 'Fama cattiva' (Ripa)medium'Ill-fame' matches the warnings that she is not chaste whom report denies to be chaste and that he who comes into ill repute is half hanged.
59BB31Disgrace; 'Infamia', 'Scorno' (Ripa)low'Disgrace/Infamia' corresponds to the ruined reputation symbolized by the irremovable mud-stains on the maiden's gown.
57A641Discretion, Modesty; 'Discretione', 'Modestia' (Ripa)medium'Modesty' (Modestia) is the explicitly named virtue — 'modesty, once lost, does not know how to return' — that the emblem urges the maiden to preserve.
57A4Shamelow'Shame' fits the Plautus quotation about the man whose sense of shame has perished, a key motif of the commentary.
33C812chastitymediumChastity is the quality at stake: 'a wandering maiden is seldom chaste' and the sacred honour of virginity must not be injured.
31A7211virginitylowThe commentary explicitly invokes 'the sacred honour of virginity' which, once harmed, cannot be repaired.
Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated
Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.
- III x 79 Tinctura Cyzicena – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus explains Cyzicene dye as a 'dedecus non eluendum', a disgrace that cannot be washed out, and adds that reputation following a person's life is like a dye; the emblem's muddied gown that can never be cleaned without ruin is exactly this image of indelible staining of a good name.
- I x 90 Podex lotionem vincit – thematic inventiomedium
The adage concerns something that defeats all attempts at washing clean and so makes cleansing futile; the Dutch subscriptio enumerates every futile remedy for the stain (cutting, washing, drying, rubbing) and concludes that the spot remains whatever one does.
- II viii 21 Chironium vulnus – thematic inventiolow
The commentary's 'Etiam sanato vulnere cicatrix manet' and the closing verses 'manet usque cicatrix ... semper vulnera vulnus habent' present lost honour as an incurable wound, the sense of Erasmus' adage for an immedicabile malum.
- II vi 59 Acesias medicatus est – thematic inventiolow
Erasmus applies this to a thing that grows worse the more it is treated; the maiden's every attempt to repair her gown (and her reputation) only causes a hole, fading or threadbare cloth.
Sources
Record ID: embstma_1288_emblem035
This emblem on the Iconclass site: https://iconclass.org/view/embstma_1288_emblem035
Copy: University Library, Glasgow, Stirling Maxwell 1288