Jacob Cats, Spiegel (The Hague, 1632)

Snijtmen sijn neus af men schent sijn aengesichtLatin
If one cuts off one's nose, one disfigures one's face.AI-generated
Within a large oval frame set in a square border (the corners filled with hatched triangles, a blank ribbon banderole across the bottom), a bearded man in fashionable dress — ruff collar, buttoned doublet, puffed breeches, stockings and shoes — sits on a low chair in an interior. He leans back, holding a knife in his raised right hand with its blade pressed against his own nose, while his left hand is lifted with the index finger extended, grasping a hat. Behind him at the left stands a tilted framed picture or mirror on a stand; a curtain hangs across the back wall, and at the right a cloth-covered table bears a small cup or standing bowl. A shoe or boot lies on the tiled floor. Engraver's inscriptions appear at lower left ('A. van de Venne inv.') and lower right ('D. Breen sc.').

Koomt hier, al die my kent, en wilt ten besten raden, Ick heb, eylaes! een neus met puysten over-laden, Een neus, in als gelijck een kalikoutsen haen, Daer hangen (soo het schijnt) veel jonge neusen aen; Een neus, een vreemde snuyt daer op de kinders wijsen, Een neus, 'ken weet niet hoe, daer van de vrouwen ysen, Een neus gelijck een ey, en root gelijck een bloet, Die my oock even selfs by wijlen schricken doet, Een neus; maer 'tis genoegh. Wie kan het monster lijden? Ick meyn het leelick dingh noch heden af te snijden, 'tSa 'tsa ick valler aen, en waerom noch gebeyt? Het dient toch eens gedaen wat dickmael is geseyt. Maer, hola, mijn vernuft, heeft dit oock goede reden? Is oock u neus een lit om af te zijn gesneden? O! soo ghy dit begint, denckt wat een selsaem dal, Denckt wat een grousaem vack u aensicht wesen sal! Ey lieve wilt het mes van uwe leden wenden, Wie in sijn neuse snijt die moet sijn aensicht schenden; Gaet hier in met gedult, en geensins met gewelt, En heelt noch soo ghy kondt, al watter is ontstelt. En of ghy metter haest misschien de roode plecken Niet af en weet te doen, niet uyt en weet te trecken, Soo gaet al weder aen, oock tot de derde reys, En, noch hoe dat het gae, verschoont u eygen vleys. Soo ghy nu, Leser, vraeght, wat hier is uyt te trecken, En hoe u dit verhael ten goede mochte strecken, Soo weet als dat het wijst hoe datmen vieren moet De feylen van een vrient, of van u eygen bloet: Hebt ghy een man, of wijf, uyt haren plicht geweecken, Een broeder sonder eer, een moeder vol gebreecken, Een Vader die misschien sijn echte plicht vergeet, Een nicht die buyten spoor in quade wegen treet, Ghy moet noch evenwel de vrienden niet verlaten, Ghy moet wel haer gebreck, maer niet de lieden haten, Ghy moet haer ongemack niet halen aen den dach, Maer decken watter schort, gelijck de liefde plach: Ghy moet, indien ghy kondt, het quade seer genesen, En soo ghy niet en kondt in als geduldich wesen; Men set geen leden af, al lijdtmen groote pijn, Men set geen leden af, als die verkanckert zijn.
Come here, all who know me, and advise me for the best: I have, alas! a nose loaded with pimples, a nose altogether like a turkey-cock, on which (so it seems) many young noses hang; a nose, a strange snout that the children point at, a nose, I know not how, at which the women shudder, a nose like an egg, and red like blood, which even sometimes frightens me myself, a nose; but that is enough. Who can endure the monster? I intend to cut the ugly thing off this very day. Come, come, let me set upon it, and why wait any longer? What has often been said should once be done. But, hold on, my wit, has this good reason too? Is your nose also a limb to be cut off? Oh! if you begin this, think what a strange hollow, think what a gruesome pit your face will be! Ah dear, turn the knife away from your limbs; whoever cuts into his nose must disfigure his face; go about this with patience, and by no means with violence, and heal still, as far as you can, whatever is amiss. And if perhaps in haste you cannot get the red spots off, cannot draw them out, then set to work again, even a third time, and, however it goes, spare your own flesh. If now, Reader, you ask what is to be drawn from this, and how this tale might serve you for good, then know that it shows how one must spare the faults of a friend, or of your own blood: have you a husband, or a wife, who has strayed from their duty, a brother without honour, a mother full of failings, a father who perhaps forgets his marital duty, a niece who treads off the track in evil ways, you must nevertheless not abandon your kin, you must indeed hate their fault, but not the people, you must not bring their trouble to light, but cover what is wrong, as love is wont to do: you must, if you can, thoroughly cure the evil, and if you cannot, be patient in all things; one does not cut off limbs, even though one suffers great pain, one does not cut off limbs, unless they are cankered.
De man die het mes op-ten neus heeft spreeckt
The man who holds the knife to his nose speaks
Ne te glorifie point du deshonneur de ton pere: car le deshonneur de ton pere ne te sçauroit tourner à honneur. Syr. 3. 11.
Do not glory in the dishonour of your father: for your father's dishonour cannot turn to your honour. Sirach 3:11.
86(SNIJTMEN SIJN NEUS AF MEN SCHENT SIJN AENGESICHT) proverbs, sayings, etc. (SNIJTMEN SIJN NEUS AF MEN SCHENT SIJN AENGESICHT)Additional codes proposed for this emblem, not (yet) part of the indexing.
31A2535 hand(s) towards the nosehighThe correlate 'hand(s) towards the nose' exactly matches the man's raised right hand bringing a knife blade against his own nose.
31A22111(NOSE) parts of the face: nosemediumThe nose is the focal body part of the gesture and of the motto's point, matching 'parts of the face: nose'.
31A511 mirrorlowThe tilted framed object on a stand behind the man may be a mirror, corresponding to the generic 'mirror' correlate.
41C311 table-knifelowThe implement held is an ordinary knife in a domestic interior with a covered table, best covered by the household 'table-knife' correlate.
Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.
The subscriptio's explicit moral — that one must tolerate the faults of a friend or kinsman ('ghy moet wel haer gebreck, maer niet de lieden haten'), covering rather than exposing them, lest by excising the fault you destroy the relationship — is precisely Erasmus's teaching here that a friend's vices should be known and endured but not hated, since excessive sharp-sightedness about them 'undermines the friendship.'
The emblem's central conceit — cutting off a blemished nose and thereby making the whole face a 'grousaem vack' — is the classic case of escaping a lesser evil by incurring a far greater one, the locus communis 'malum male vitatum' that this adage heads (cf. Horace, 'in vain one fault you may avoid, if by the other you are warped').
Same proverbial family as the preceding: the pimpled nose (the ashes) is fled in such a way that the disfigured face (the coals) results; the emblem warns against a remedy worse than the complaint.
Erasmus's adage concerns precisely the white/red pustules on the nose (and he recalls a man whose whole face was covered with them), the very physical detail from which Cats builds his picture of a 'neus met puysten over-laden' at which children point and women shudder.
Record ID: embstma_1288_emblem062
This emblem on the Iconclass site: https://iconclass.org/view/embstma_1288_emblem062
Copy: University Library, Glasgow, Stirling Maxwell 1288