Jacob Cats, Spiegel (The Hague, 1632)
Emblem 82
'T is een stoute kraey die een levendich beest in 't lijf picktDutch
It is a bold crow that pecks into the body of a living beast.AI-generated
Description of the imageAI-generated
Within an oval frame set inside a rectangular border with hatched corner spandrels, a large horned cow stands in profile in an open meadow, head turned toward the viewer. A black crow perches on the cow's back and pecks at its shoulder. At the left in the background a man in a cap and cloak stands with a small boy and a dog; at the right three or four townsfolk — a man leaning on a staff, a well-dressed man in a hat and ruff, and two women in caps and aprons — stand watching the animal. A flat landscape with a distant church tower, tufts of reeds and water in the foreground, clouds and small flying birds in the sky. Beneath the frame at left is the inscription 'A. Venne Invent.' and at right 'T. Matham sculp. 1627.'
Subscriptio
TranscriptionAI-generated
De koeye spreeckt. VVat komt de snoode kraey my quellen tegens redé? My sitten op het lijf, my picken inde leden? Voorwaer het is te vroegh; want oock een felle gier En soeckt sijn voetsel niet ontrent een levend' dier. Hoe graegh een arent is, hy sal hem noyt bemoeyen Te vliegen om sijn aes, als by de doode koeyen; Van hier dan slim gebroet, en bijt dit lichaem niet Tot ghy eens op het velt mijn doode leden siet.
TranslationAI-generated
The cow speaks. Why does the wicked crow come to torment me against all reason? To sit upon my body, to peck into my limbs? Truly it is too early; for even a fierce vulture does not seek its food about a living animal. However eager an eagle is, it will never trouble itself to fly after its carrion except among the dead cows. Away from here then, evil brood, and do not bite this body until one day you see my dead limbs upon the field.
CommentaryAI-generated
5 passages · original left, translation right (click to fold)
Nederl. Wilje mijn erff? Wacht tot ick sterff.
Dutch. Do you want my inheritance? Wait until I die.
Lat. Filius ante diem patrios inquirit in annos.
Latin. The son enquires before the time into his father's years.
Lat. Imminet exitio vir conjugis illa mariti.
Latin. The husband hangs over the death of his wife, she over that of her husband.
Si vultur es cadaver exspecta. Eras. 232.
If you are a vulture, wait for the corpse. Erasmus 232.
De tali senectute vide querentem Ciceronem in libro de Senectute.
On such old age, see Cicero complaining in his book On Old Age.
Iconclass
86('T IS EEN STOUTE KRAEY DIE EEN LEVENDICH BEEST IN 'T LIJF PICKT)proverbs, sayings, etc. ('T IS EEN STOUTE KRAEY DIE EEN LEVENDICH BEEST IN 'T LIJF PICKT)
Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated
Additional codes proposed for this emblem, not (yet) part of the indexing.
47I2112cowhighThe correlate 'cow' directly matches the large horned cow that dominates the emblem's foreground.
25F32(CROW)song-birds: crowhighThe correlate for the bird 'crow' matches the black crow perched on and pecking at the cow's back.
25H17meadow, pasturemediumThe correlate 'meadow, pasture' matches the open meadow in which the cow stands and is watched by the bystanders.
Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated
Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.
- I vii 14 Si vultur est, cadaver exspecta – direct mottohigh
The emblem's Latin commentary quotes the adage verbatim as its Latin motto and names its source: 'Si vultur es cadaver exspecta. Eras. 232.' Erasmus' essay explains it of legacy-hunters (haeredipetae) hovering over the still-living rich, exactly the vice attacked in Cats's subscriptio about heirs who cannot wait for the owner to die.
- II vii 83 Vulturis umbra – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus explicitly glosses 'A vulture's shadow' as best suited to haeredipetae and rapacious men brooding over their prey, and himself cross-references it to 'Si vultur es, cadaver exspecta' — the very adage cited in the emblem; the subscriptio's 'fierce vulture' that will not feed on a living animal draws on the same complex.
- I vii 15 Corvum delusit hiantem – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus' adage concerns the legacy-hunter as a 'gaping crow' that, like the vulture, hovers over carrion ('Nam haec quoque avis cadaveribus imminet'), which matches the emblem's picture of a crow already pecking a still-living cow and its moral about impatient heirs.
- III viii 99 Eidem inhiantes testamento – thematic inventiolow
This adage applies the Homeric image of combatants hauling at a corpse to inheritance-hunters vying over the same old man as if he were already dead — precisely Cats's point about children and rivals quarrelling over the estate before death.
Sources
Record ID: embstma_1288_emblem082
This emblem on the Iconclass site: https://iconclass.org/view/embstma_1288_emblem082
Copy: University Library, Glasgow, Stirling Maxwell 1288