Jacob Cats, Spiegel (The Hague, 1632)
Emblem 77
Amys sont comme le melon, De dix souvent pas un est bonFrench
Friends are like the melon: of ten, often not one is good.AI-generated
Description of the imageAI-generated
Within an oval frame set in a rectangular border with hatched corner spandrels, a market scene in a city street. At the left, before tall houses and a tower, baskets and tubs of produce are piled up. A woman seen from behind, wearing a headcloth, a cape and a wide skirt, kneels or sits beside a market stall table covered with melons, cabbages, grapes and other fruit; she holds up a round melon with one hand and reaches across the table with the other. On the right stands a well-dressed man in a broad-brimmed hat, cloak and lace collar, holding a melon up to his face with both hands as if sniffing or examining it. Behind him on the right a river with an arched bridge and further town buildings and a tower recede into the distance; birds fly in the sky. Below the oval is an empty banderole/cartouche.
Subscriptio
TranscriptionAI-generated
Gelijck men handelt den Meloen Soo moet men oock de vrienden doen, Want noyt en kooptmen dese vrucht Of inder haest, of metter vlucht, Maer dit is hier een vaste les, Men proefter dickmael vijf of ses, Iae somtijts wel een gantschen hoop Eer datmen eens is in den koop, Eer datter eene wel behaeght, Eer datmer eene mede draeght. Niet dat soo naeu gewogen dient Als keur te maken van een vrient, Want die hier kiest, en niet en proeft, Die staet niet selden gansch bedroeft, Om dat hy dickmael niet en vint Daerom men rechte vrienden mint. Ghy, daerom kiest u geenen vrient Of proeft voor eerst of hy u dient.
TranslationAI-generated
As one deals with the melon, so one must also do with friends, for never does one buy this fruit either in haste or on the fly; but this is a fixed lesson here: one often tastes five or six of them, yes, sometimes a whole heap, before one has agreed on the purchase, before one of them pleases well, before one carries one away. Nothing needs to be weighed so carefully as making a choice of a friend, for he who chooses here and does not test often stands wholly grieved, because he frequently does not find that for which one loves true friends. You, therefore choose yourself no friend unless you first test whether he is of use to you.
CommentaryAI-generated
6 passages · original left, translation right (click to fold)
Roert het burgerlick leven.
It concerns civic life. (running headline)
Nederl. Beproeft u vrient/ Beproeft u sweert/ Dat is u groote schatten weert.
Dutch: Test your friend, test your sword; that is worth great treasures to you.
Franç. Les amys sont comme le melon Il faut essayer plusieurs pour rancontrer un bon.
French: Friends are like the melon; one must try several in order to come upon a good one.
Syr. 27. 2. Le compagnon ou l'amy qui se tourne à inimitié, n'est il pas une tristesse qui demeure jusques à la mort ?
Sirach 27:2. The companion or the friend who turns to enmity, is he not a sorrow that remains until death?
Syr. 9. 21. Esprouve ton amy selon ton pouvoir.
Sirach 9:21. Test your friend according to your means.
Syr. 6. 7. Si tu acquiers un amy acquiers le en l'esprouvant, & ne te fie point en luy legerement.
Sirach 6:7. If you acquire a friend, acquire him by testing him, and do not trust in him lightly.
Iconclass
86(AMYS SONT COMME LE MELON, DE DIX SOUVENT PAS UN EST BON)proverbs, sayings, etc. (AMYS SONT COMME LE MELON, DE DIX SOUVENT PAS UN EST BON)
Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated
Additional codes proposed for this emblem, not (yet) part of the indexing.
25G21(MELON)fruits: melonhighThe correlate 'fruits: melon' directly matches the melons piled on the market table and held up by both the vendor and the examining buyer.
56F23Friendship; 'Amicitia' (Ripa)highThe correlate 'Friendship; Amicitia' matches the emblem's explicit theme that friends are like melons and must be tested before being chosen.
71Y4the book of Ecclesiasticus, the wisdom of Jesus SirachmediumThe correlate 'the book of Ecclesiasticus, the wisdom of Jesus Sirach' matches the commentary's three cited Sirach passages (27:2, 9:21, 6:7) on testing friends.
86proverbs, sayings, etc.mediumThe correlate 'proverbs, sayings, etc.' fits the Dutch and French proverbial mottoes ('Test your friend, test your sword'; 'Friends are like the melon').
33Baggressive relationships, enmity, animositylowThe correlate 'aggressive relationships, enmity, animosity' touches on the Sirach quotation about the friend who turns to enmity, though no hostility is depicted.
Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated
Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.
- II viii 81 Viri infortunati procul amici – thematic inventiolow
The emblem's lesson — that a friend must be tried before he is chosen, since many prove worthless — matches this adage's discussion of false, fair-weather friends and especially the maxim quoted in its essay, 'Κρίνει φίλους ὁ καιρὸς, ὡς χρυσὸν τὸ πῦρ' (as fire tries gold, so circumstance tries a friend).
Sources
Record ID: embstma_1288_emblem077
This emblem on the Iconclass site: https://iconclass.org/view/embstma_1288_emblem077
Copy: University Library, Glasgow, Stirling Maxwell 1288