Jacob Cats, Spiegel (The Hague, 1632)

Emblem 89

Emblem 89
Engraving · click to enlarge

l' Araignée mange la mouche & le lizard l'araignée &c.French

The spider eats the fly, and the lizard the spider, etc.AI-generated

Description of the imageAI-generated

Within a thick circular band set in a rectangular frame with corner spandrels, a landscape scene is shown. At the right, a large spider sits in the middle of a broad web spun between the bare branches of a tree; below the web a lizard climbs up toward it. In the centre a stork (long-legged wading bird with long pointed beak) seizes the lizard by the neck with its beak, while a snake coiled around the stork's leg bites it and pulls it down into the grass. At the left a scaly winged dragon with a wolf-like head opens its jaws and devours the snake's body. Behind, on a rise at the upper left, three men in jerkins and caps advance with raised clubs, spears and a pike toward the dragon. A large gnarled, partly dead tree rises in the middle of the composition; in the right middle distance a small boat with several figures floats on water, with distant hills, birds and clouds beyond. Below the medallion is an empty ribbon-like banderole.

Subscriptio

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TranscriptionAI-generated

De spin kan niet alleen de kleyne muggen vangen, Men siet oock byen selfs in hare netten hangen; Maer in haer meeste jacht, siet daer, een hagedis Die valt haer op het lijf, terwijl sy besich is; En weder op een nieu, de spin is naeu gegeten, Het beest, dat haer verslont, wort in het lijf gebeten; Daer komt een oyevaer, die met een langen beck Het kleyne dier verrast, en grijptet by den neck; Doch eer de vogel rijst om inde lucht te stijgen, Soo koomter wel een slangh, en doet hem weder sijgen, En vat hem by het been, en velt hem in het gras, En maeckt hem tot een roof, die eerst de rover was; Maer in het eygen wout daer wort een draeck gevonden, En siet daer wort de slangh al wederom verslonden, En noch ist niet genoegh, want oock dit grousame beest Dat kent een hooger macht, die van hem wort gevreest. Siet daer een omme-loop van alle werelts dingen, Hoe groot dat yemant is, hy laet hem weder dwingen; Wel denckt dan, wie ghy zijt, wat ghy u minder doet, Dat ghy het wederom van grooter lijden moet.

TranslationAI-generated

The spider cannot catch only the little gnats; one also sees bees themselves hanging in her nets; but in the midst of her greatest hunting, look, a lizard falls upon her body while she is busy; and once again, the spider is scarcely eaten when the beast that devoured her is bitten in its body; there comes a stork which, with a long beak, surprises the little creature and seizes it by the neck; yet before the bird rises to climb into the air, a snake comes and makes it sink down again, and grips it by the leg and fells it in the grass, and makes a prey of him who was first the robber; but in that same wood a dragon is found, and see, the snake in its turn is devoured; and still it is not enough, for this gruesome beast too knows a higher power, which is feared by him. Look there at a cycle of all worldly things: however great anyone is, he lets himself be ruled in turn; consider well, then, who you are, and that whatever you do to your inferior, you must in turn suffer it from a greater.

CommentaryAI-generated

4 passages · original left, translation right (click to fold)

Eccl. 5. 8. Si en la province tu vois qu'on fait tort au pauvre, & que le droit soit violé, & la Iustice, ne t'esbahi point de telle maniere de faire; Car un plus haut eslevé, que ce haut eslevé, y prend garde, & il y en à de plus haut eslevez qu'eux.

Ecclesiastes 5:8. If in the province you see that wrong is done to the poor, and that right and justice are violated, do not be astonished at such a way of acting; for one higher than this high one takes note of it, and there are those who are higher than they.

Senec. Vos quibus rector maris atque terræ Ius dedit magnum, necis atque vitæ, Ponite inflatos tumidosque vultus, Quidquid à vobis minor extimescit Major hoc vobis dominus minatur.

Seneca. You to whom the ruler of sea and land has given great power of death and life, lay aside your puffed-up and swollen faces: whatever your inferior dreads from you, a greater lord threatens against you.

Horat. 3. Od. 1. Regum timendorum in proprios greges Reges in ipsos imperium est Iovis Clari giganteo triumpho Cuncta supercilio moventis.

Horace, Odes 3.1. Kings are to be feared over their own flocks; over the kings themselves is the rule of Jupiter, famed for his triumph over the giants, who moves all things with a nod of his brow.

Plerumque humiliter servit, quod superbè dominatur.

For the most part, that which proudly lords it over others serves humbly (in its turn).

Iconclass

Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated

Additional codes proposed for this emblem, not (yet) part of the indexing.

Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated

Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.

Sources

Record ID: embstma_1288_emblem089
This emblem on the Iconclass site: https://iconclass.org/view/embstma_1288_emblem089
Copy: University Library, Glasgow, Stirling Maxwell 1288