Jacob Cats, Spiegel (The Hague, 1632)
Emblem 80
Als 't diep verloopt versetmen de bakensDutch
When the deep channel shifts, the beacons are moved.AI-generated
Description of the imageAI-generated
Within an oval frame set into a square border with hatched corner spandrels, a coastal sea scene. At right a large three-masted merchant ship with billowing sails and pennants/flags on the mastheads lies close to shore beside a smaller vessel whose hull is turned toward the viewer; behind them at the far right are the towers and buildings of a town on a quay. In the middle distance a long row of wooden piles or beacons runs diagonally into the water along a sandbank, with two small figures standing on the shoal. At the left, shallow water and sandflats are marked by several tall stakes with barrel-shaped beacon tops, and beyond them a flat horizon with a city skyline of church towers and windmills. In the left foreground a rowing boat with four men, one rowing and one standing and pointing, carries a large barrel beacon on its bow. Above, a heavy cloud mass with sunbeams breaking through, and gulls flying. Below the oval, engraved signatures at lower left 'A.V. Venne inv.' and at lower right 'Wil. Schot. fec.'
Subscriptio
TranscriptionAI-generated
Siet waer ick heden stae, daer speelden eens de baren, Daer quamen alle daegh de schepen in-gevaren, Daer sachmen menigh Hulck, die met sijn vollen last, Quam stuyven uytter zee, de vlaggen opte mast: Nu is hier enckel sant, en niet als dorre platen, Van slibber over-groeyt, en van den vloet verlaten, Daer eertijts was de kolck, is maer een enge sloot, Men sieter niet een schip, men sieter niet een boot, Men sieter niet een mensch; alleen de schorre meeuwen Die scholen hier ontrent, om daer te sitten schreeuwen, Alleen een schippers gast koomt voor een buyte-kans Hier boomen inder haest, en haelt een schuyte sants. Wat stae ick dan en kijck aen dees verlaete kreken? De bakens al-te-mael die dienen hier versteken; Het is een schippers woort, het is een oude leer, Al waer geen vaert en is, en hoeft geen baken meer.
TranslationAI-generated
See where I stand today, there the waves once played, there every day the ships came sailing in; there one saw many a hulk which, with its full cargo, came rushing in from the sea, the flags upon the mast. Now there is here only sand, and nothing but barren shoals, overgrown with slime and abandoned by the tide. Where once was the deep pool is now only a narrow ditch; one sees there not a ship, one sees there not a boat, one sees there not a person; only the hoarse gulls flock about here to sit and scream. Only a skipper's boy comes, for an extra bit of gain, to pole quickly here and fetch a boatload of sand. Why then do I stand and gaze at these forsaken creeks? The beacons, every one of them, ought here to be moved away. It is a skipper's saying, it is an old lesson: where there is no shipping traffic, no beacon is needed any more.
CommentaryAI-generated
16 passages · original left, translation right (click to fold)
Dit spreeck-woort kan verscheyde gelegentheden toe werden gepast; (gelijck meest al de andere) het selve kan dienen als yemant ouder van jaren werdende sijn maniere van leven, sijn kleet, sijn spijse, sijn oeffeninge, en diergelijcke saecken dient te veranderen; wy stellent hier tot een inleydinghe van het derde deel, dewijle hier de baeckens mede (mits het verloop der jonckheyts) dienen verset te wesen.
This proverb can be applied to various occasions (like most of the others); it can serve when someone, growing older in years, ought to change his way of life, his clothing, his food, his exercise and such like things; we set it here as an introduction to the third part, since here too the beacons (because of the running-out of youth) ought to be moved.
A granaro vuoto formica non frequenta.
The ant does not frequent an empty granary.
Op ledige solders en komen geen calanders.
No weevils come to empty lofts.
Wer da ligt vber den laufft alle welt hin.
He who lies there (fallen), over him all the world runs.
Parente con parente, Guai à chi non ha niente.
Kinsman with kinsman: woe to him who has nothing.
Vrienden zijn vrienden / maer wee diese van doen heeft.
Friends are friends, but woe to him who has need of them.
Freunde inder noth 24 auff ein loth.
Friends in need: twenty-four to a lot (a tiny weight).
Vrienden in der noot Vier-en-twintich in een loot.
Friends in need, twenty-four to a lot (a tiny weight).
Felicium omnes consanguinei.
All men are kinsmen of the fortunate.
Τῶν εὐτυχούντων πάντες εἰσὶ συγγενεῖς.
All men are kinsmen of those who prosper.
Chi ha bella roba, ha di' parenti.
He who has fine goods has relatives.
Nulla fides unquam miseros elegit amicos.
No loyalty ever chose the wretched as friends.
Men kent geen vriendt als inder noot. Den rijcken nae den doot.
One knows no friend except in need; the rich man (is known) after his death.
Die weil die henn aier legt / legt man ihr auch.
As long as the hen lays eggs, one also lays (food) out for her.
--- Fatis accede deisque Et cole felices, miseros fuge.
Side with the fates and the gods, and court the fortunate, flee the wretched.
In caducum parietem non inclinandum.
One must not lean against a tottering wall.
Iconclass
86(ALS 'T DIEP VERLOOPT VERSETMEN DE BAKENS)proverbs, sayings, etc. (ALS 'T DIEP VERLOOPT VERSETMEN DE BAKENS)
Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated
Additional codes proposed for this emblem, not (yet) part of the indexing.
46C283beaconhighThe scene is dominated by beacons - stakes with barrel-shaped tops marking the sandflats and a barrel beacon carried in the boat - and the commentary explicitly speaks of moving the beacons.
46C232rowing-boat, canoe, etc.highA rowing boat with four men, one at the oars, occupies the left foreground, matching 'rowing-boat, canoe, etc.'
46B4941merchant shipping, shipping trademediumThe large three-masted merchant ship lying off the town quay with smaller vessels represents merchant shipping/shipping trade.
86proverbs, sayings, etc.highThe commentary presents the image as the illustration of a proverb, followed by a string of further proverbs and sayings.
56F23Friendship; 'Amicitia' (Ripa)lowThe appended sayings all turn on friendship ('friends are friends, but woe to him who has need of them'), the personified theme of 'Amicitia'.
56F232Infidelity in Friendship; 'Amicitia senza giovamento' (Ripa)lowThe sayings about fair-weather friends who desert the poor correspond to the notion of unprofitable or faithless friendship ('Amicitia senza giovamento').
Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated
Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.
- I ix 50 Fuimus Troes – thematic inventiomedium
The subscriptio is a sustained lament that what once was a busy deep channel full of ships is now barren sand ('Siet waer ick heden stae, daer speelden eens de baren ... Nu is hier enckel sant'), exactly the 'they were, they are no more' topos that Erasmus collects under Fuimus Troes.
- I ix 49 Fuere qoundam strenui Milesii – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus explains this adage as applying to those fallen from former prosperity — 'the old, the poor who used to be rich, the obscure man who once flourished' — which is precisely the emblem's deserted harbour and its application to the man whose youth has run out.
- I i 92 Uti foro – thematic inventiomedium
The motto's lesson — when the channel shifts, shift the beacons — is Erasmus's 'make the best of the present state of affairs and turn your mind wherever fortune presents itself', the chief adage of the locus 'Servire tempori'.
- I i 91 Servire scenae – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus glosses this as 'servire tempori, to accommodate oneself to the present situation', and illustrates it with the mariner who must follow wind and tide — the same nautical image as Cats's skipper who must move his beacons with the changing channel.
- I vi 47 Gladiator in arena consilium capit – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus: 'we should sometimes change our plans to suit changing circumstances and take our cue from events' — exactly the commentary's application that an ageing man ought to change his manner of life, clothing, food and exercise.
- IV iii 86 Non semper erit aestas – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus applies it to the passing of youth and prosperity ('we shall not always be young and strong; prepare for your old age'), matching Cats's commentary on 'het verloop der jonckheyts'; the adage's ant-and-cicada material also echoes the emblem's Italian/Dutch proverbs about ants and weevils shunning the empty granary.
- I i 93 Polypi mentem obtine – thematic inventiolow
The polyp that changes colour with its rock is Erasmus's emblem for adapting oneself to changed conditions, the same practical moral as moving the beacons when the deep shifts.
- III i 88 Felicium multi cognati – thematic inventiolow
The commentary's Latin and Greek tags 'Felicium omnes consanguinei' / 'Τῶν εὐτυχούντων πάντες εἰσὶ συγγενεῖς' (with the Italian 'Chi ha bella roba, ha de' parenti') correspond to Erasmus's adage on the many kinsmen of the fortunate, the proverb cluster Cats attaches to the abandoned, no-longer-frequented channel.
- IV v 5 Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur – thematic inventiolow
Cats's attached proverbs 'Vrienden in der noot, vier-en-twintich in een loot' and 'Men kent geen vriendt als inder noot' restate Erasmus's adage (from Ennius via Cicero) that a true friend is proved in time of need, the moral drawn from the deserted harbour that nobody frequents.
Sources
Record ID: embstma_1288_emblem080
This emblem on the Iconclass site: https://iconclass.org/view/embstma_1288_emblem080
Copy: University Library, Glasgow, Stirling Maxwell 1288