Jacob Cats, Spiegel (The Hague, 1632)
Emblem 101
El corcohado no vee su corcoba, y vee la de su compannonSpanish
The hunchback does not see his own hump, but he does see that of his companion.AI-generated
Description of the imageAI-generated
Within a broad oval band set in a square frame with shaded corner spandrels, two hunchbacked men in early seventeenth-century dress walk past one another in the open air. The man at the left, in a wide-brimmed plumed hat, slashed doublet, baggy breeches and beribboned shoes, with a sword at his side, laughs and stretches out his arm to point at the other man; a large hump rises on his own back and shoulder. The man at the right, seen in profile, wears a tall feathered cap, a ruff, a fur-trimmed cloak and spurred boots, and carries a cane; he too has a conspicuous hump on his back as he walks away. In the left background stand a small group of onlooking men in hats and cloaks, and two more figures walk in the middle distance. At the right lies a stone arched bridge with a figure on it, water, reeds and a distant town skyline with church towers. Clouds and small birds fill the sky. The plate is signed at the upper left and lower left corners with the designer's and engraver's names.
Subscriptio
TranscriptionAI-generated
Ghy siet in dese prent geschildert naer het leven, Hoe datter menigh mensch een ander weet te geven, Hoe dat schier yder mensch eens anders feylen siet, En weet (gelijck het blijckt) sijn eygen feylen niet; Ghy siet een bultich mensch een bultenaer begecken, Ghy siet hem sijnen mont in vreemde bochten trecken, En siet de spotter selfs en is niet als een dwergh, Hy torst op sijnen rugh een bult gelijck een bergh. Ey wat is van den mensch! wy konnen ondersoecken Eens anders huys-bedrijf, eens anders reken-boecken, Eens anders gants beleyt tot aen de minste streeck, En in ons eygen huys en sien wy niet een steeck; Wy weten alle man sijn lesse voor te spellen, Wy weten alle man sijn feylen op te tellen; Maer niemant keert het oogh ontrent sijn eygen schult, En siet! op onsen rugh daer hanght de meeste bult. Ey vrienden, niet alsoo, laet vreemde lieden blijven, En wilt geen schamper jock op ymant anders drijven, Maer daelt in u gemoet. Want 'tis een rechte geck Die veel een ander straft, en nimmer sijn gebreck.
TranslationAI-generated
You see in this print, painted from the life, how many a man knows how to lecture another; how nearly every man sees another's faults, and (as is plain) does not know his own. You see a humpbacked man mocking a hunchback; you see him twisting his mouth into strange grimaces — and look, the mocker himself is no better than a dwarf: he carries on his own back a hump like a mountain. Ah, what is man! We are able to investigate another's household affairs, another's account books, another's entire conduct down to the smallest stroke — and in our own house we do not see a stitch. We know how to spell out every man's lesson, we know how to count up every man's faults; but nobody turns his eye upon his own guilt — and look! on our own back there hangs the biggest hump. Ah friends, not so; let strangers be, and do not cast scornful jests upon anyone else, but descend into your own heart. For he is a right fool who often punishes another and never his own defect.
CommentaryAI-generated
22 passages · original left, translation right (click to fold)
Hoogd. Die tasch auff dem arß wil niemant sehen.
High German: Nobody wants to see the bag on his own backside.
Franç. Qui d'autrui parler voudra, Regarde soy & il taira.
French: He who would speak of others, let him look at himself and he will be silent.
Ital. Tal biasima altrui, che se stesso condanna.
Italian: Such a one blames others who condemns himself.
Sie dich selber bey der nasen. Hoogd.
High German: Take yourself by the nose (look to yourself).
Ni ay quien sus faltas entienda como las de su vezino. Ital.
Nor is there anyone who understands his own faults as well as those of his neighbour.
Il n'y à personne qui recognoisse ses fautes, comme celles de son voisin. Franç.
French: There is nobody who recognizes his own faults as he does those of his neighbour.
Oevenus. lib. 3. ep. 79. Crimina qui cernunt aliorum, nec sua cernunt, Hi sapiunt alijs, desipiuntque sibi.
Owen, book 3, epigram 79: Those who see the faults of others, and do not see their own, are wise for others and foolish for themselves.
Chrysost. Quod si cupiditate judicandi judex esse velis sedem ego tibi ostendam quæ magnum quæstum tibi conferet & nulla animi labe maculabit. Sedeat mens & cogitatio judex in animam atque conscientiam tuam, adducas omnia delicta tua in medium. Et dicas tecum quare hoc vel illud ausus es?
Chrysostom: But if, out of a desire to judge, you wish to be a judge, I will show you a judgement-seat that will bring you great profit and stain you with no blot upon the soul. Let your mind and thought sit as judge over your own soul and conscience; bring all your own offences into the middle, and say to yourself: why did you dare this or that?
Matth. 7. 3. Wat siet ghy den splinter in uws broeders ooge? ende en wert den balck in u oogh niet gewaer?
Matthew 7:3. Why do you see the splinter in your brother's eye, and do not perceive the beam in your own eye?
Hippocrat. Suam stultitiam videt nemo sed alterum decidet.
Hippocrates: No one sees his own folly, but he cuts down another.
Terent. Ita comparata est omnium hominum natura, aliena Melius ut videant & judicent quam sua.
Terence: The nature of all men is so constituted that they see and judge other people's affairs better than their own.
Cicer. Fit nescio quo pacto, ut magis in alijs cernamus si quid delinquitur quam nobismet ipsis.
Cicero: It happens, I know not how, that we notice any fault committed more in others than in ourselves.
Idem. Est proprium stultitiæ aliorum vitra cernere, oblivisci suorum.
The same: It is characteristic of folly to see the faults of others and to forget one's own.
Plutarch. Nihil turpius est conuitio quod in autorem recidit.
Plutarch: Nothing is more shameful than an insult which falls back upon its author.
Horat. Qui me tuberibus proprijs offendet, amicum Postulet ignoscat vernicis illius æquum.
Horace: He who offends me with his own swellings, let him ask that a friend fairly overlook his warts.
Le bossu ne voit pas sa bosse, mais bien celle de son compagnon.
The hunchback does not see his own hump, but he does see that of his companion.
Vid. omnino Richter. ax. hist. 276.
See by all means Richter, Axiomata historica 276.
Franç. Nul si sage Qui par fois ne rage.
French: None is so wise that he does not sometimes rave.
Il n'est jammais si grand esprit Qui n'ait de follie un petit.
There is never so great a mind that has not a little folly.
Il n'y à si miserable qui ne porte un flatteur dedans soy mesme. Franç.
French: There is none so wretched that he does not carry a flatterer within himself.
Chacun necio sua porrada. Ital.
Every fool has his own blunder (club-blow).
Seneca. Nullum ingenium magnum sine mixtura dementiæ.
Seneca: No great genius without an admixture of madness.
Iconclass
86(EL CORCOHADO NO VEE SU CORCOBA, Y VEE LA DE SU COMPANNON)proverbs, sayings, etc. (EL CORCOHADO NO VEE SU CORCOBA, Y VEE LA DE SU COMPANNON)
Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated
Additional codes proposed for this emblem, not (yet) part of the indexing.
31A417hunchbackhighThe correlate 'hunchback' matches exactly the two humped men who are the central figures of the plate.
52AA53Lack of Self-knowledgehigh'Lack of Self-knowledge' is precisely the moral of the hunchback who sees his companion's hump but not his own, as the mottoes about not recognizing one's own faults state.
73C74511the mote and the beam in the eye ~ doctrine of Christ on love, etc. (Matthew 7:4; Luke 6:42)highThe commentary explicitly quotes Matthew 7:3 on the splinter in the brother's eye and the beam in one's own, i.e. 'the mote and the beam in the eye'.
52AA51Folly, Foolishness; 'Pazzia', 'Sciocchezza', 'Stoltitia' (Ripa)mediumThe texts repeatedly characterize the mocker as foolish ('wise for others and foolish for themselves', 'it is characteristic of folly to see the faults of others'), matching the personification of Folly/Foolishness.
52A53Self-knowledgelowThe exhortation 'take yourself by the nose', 'let him look at himself', and Chrysostom's inner tribunal invoke the positive ideal of Self-knowledge that the emblem urges.
57AA611Dissimulation, Hypocrisy; 'Hippocresia', 'Simulatione' (Ripa)low'Hypocrisy' loosely fits the laughing hunchback who condemns in another the very defect he himself bears, though the emblem stresses blindness rather than deliberate dissimulation.
Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated
Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.
- I vi 90 Non videmus manticae quod in tergo est – thematic inventiohigh
The emblem's whole conceit — the hump each man carries on his own back and cannot see, while seeing his companion's — is Aesop's two wallets as transmitted by this adage; the German gloss 'Die tasch auff dem arß wil niemant sehen' (nobody wants to see the bag on his own backside) is a vernacular form of the mantica proverb, and the Horace of Sat. I.3 cited in the commentary belongs to the same passage Erasmus quotes.
- I vi 91 Festucam ex alterius oculo ejicere – essay quotehigh
The emblem's commentary quotes Matthew 7:3 ('Why do you see the splinter in your brother's eye and not the beam in your own'), which is the very Gospel text Erasmus quotes and expounds in this adage's essay on blind philautia; the beam/mote pair is the exact analogue of the two humps.
- IV iii 27 Teipsum inspice – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus' point — 'it is foolish to insult someone with anything that can be hurled back at you' — is precisely the emblem's scene of a hunchback jeering at a hunchback, echoed in the Italian gloss 'Tal biasima altrui, che se stesso condanna' and Plutarch's 'Nihil turpius est convitio quod in autorem recidit'.
- II v 38 Aliorum medicus, ipse ulceribus scates – thematic inventiomedium
The adage targets those who 'criticize other men's faults while steeped in faults themselves beneath the skin' — exactly the mocking hunchback and the subscriptio's 'he is a right fool who often punishes another and never his own defect'.
- I vi 68 Facile, cum valemus, recta consilia aegrotius damus – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus' essay cites Thales ('hardest is to know yourself, easiest to advise another') and the proverbial line 'In admonendo sapimus omnes, verum ubi peccamus ipsi, non videmus propria', which is in substance the Owen epigram quoted in the emblem ('sapiunt aliis, desipiuntque sibi').
- I iii 92 Φίλαυτοι – thematic inventiomedium
The emblem's moral is the classic self-love that makes one blind to one's own faults ('caecus amor sui'), the vice Erasmus treats here as the root of our approving everything of our own while condemning others'.
- IV iv 32 Aliorum medicus – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus glosses it as fitting 'those who are wise in other persons' affairs but not in their own' — the same sentiment as the emblem's Terence and Cicero citations and the Owen distich on being wise for others and foolish for oneself.
- I vi 85 Aedibus in nostris quae prava aut recta geruntur – thematic inventiolow
The subscriptio's complaint that we scrutinize another's household and account books 'and in our own house we do not see a stitch' matches this Homeric-Socratic adage urging attention to what is done in one's own halls.
- III iv 2 Suus cuique crepitus bene olet – thematic inventiolow
Erasmus concludes that 'men shrink from other men's excrement and farts more violently than from their own' — the same asymmetry of perception between one's own and another's deformity that the two humps embody.
- II iv 29 Nemo mortualium omnibus horis sapit – thematic inventiomedium
The emblem's second motto, 'Chacun à un fol en sa manche' with its subscriptio ('each has his own folly... none so wise he does not sometimes rave'), restates this Plinian adage collected by Erasmus that no mortal is wise at all hours.
Sources
Record ID: embstma_1288_emblem101
This emblem on the Iconclass site: https://iconclass.org/view/embstma_1288_emblem101
Copy: University Library, Glasgow, Stirling Maxwell 1288