Jacob Cats, Spiegel (The Hague, 1632)
Emblem 119
Quien estropieça, si non cae el camino adelantaSpanish
He who stumbles, if he does not fall, advances along the road.AI-generated
Description of the imageAI-generated
Within an oval cartouche frame (with blank scroll-banderole beneath and hatched corner spandrels) a travelling man strides to the right along a rough stony path. He wears a broad feathered hat, doublet with buttons, short cape, wide breeches and shoes, and carries a long staff over his right shoulder from which hangs a round gourd or flask; he grips the staff low with his right hand while his left arm is flung up and out for balance. His leading foot has caught on the exposed roots of a large dead, leafless tree that rises at the right, and his body is pitched forward as if stumbling. At the left are rocky outcrops, a drooping pine or willow, a fence and a bridge; in the middle distance two tiny figures walk on the road, and a village with buildings appears on the horizon at the right under a sky with clouds and radiating light.
Subscriptio
TranscriptionAI-generated
Als yemant over wegh in haesten koomt getreden, En struyckelt metté voet, maer recht dá noch de ledé, Die maeckt dan snelder vaert als hy te voren plach, En siet oock beter toe als hy te voren sach. Siet daer een soeten troost voor alle vrome zielen, Sy worden op-gerecht, oock doense neder-vielen, Al slibbert menighmael, al glibbert hun de voet, Sy blijven efter staen, en maecken beter spoet. Op, op dan, treurich hert, geen moet en dient verloren; De prickels van het vlees die zijn u nutte sporen: Recht flucx de leden op, dat voegt een Christen man, Nadien hem oock het quaet ten goede dienen kan.
TranslationAI-generated
When someone comes walking hastily along the road, and stumbles with his foot, but then straightens his limbs again, he makes faster speed than he was used to before, and also looks out better than he looked before. See there a sweet comfort for all pious souls: they are raised up again, even when they fell down; though they often slip, though their foot slides, they still remain standing, and make better haste. Up, up then, sorrowful heart, no courage should be lost; the pricks of the flesh are useful spurs to you: straighten your limbs at once, that befits a Christian man, since even evil can serve him for good.
CommentaryAI-generated
33 passages · original left, translation right (click to fold)
Nederl. Die struyckelt en niet en valt / vordert wegh.
Dutch. He who stumbles and does not fall makes progress on his way.
Franç. Celuy qui bronche s'il ne tombe, il avance.
French. He who trips, if he does not fall, advances.
Franç. Qui trebusche & ne chet point s'avance de trois pieds.
French. He who stumbles and does not fall at all advances three feet.
Quæ nocent, docent. Lat.
Latin. The things that harm, teach.
Harde schocken leeren wel. Nederl.
Dutch. Hard knocks teach well.
Ital. Quien estropieça, si non cae el camino adelanta.
[labelled 'Italian']. He who stumbles, if he does not fall, advances along the road.
Die dwaelt / maer noch te halvē keert / Die wordter beter door geleert.
He who goes astray, but turns back half way, is the better taught by it.
Een vande Oude heeft wel geseyt op dese gelegentheyt, dat hy sachte rijdt en geen last en gevoelt die van den Almachtigen Godt gedragen, ende van den Alder-hooghsten gevoert wert.
One of the ancients said well on this occasion, that he rides softly and feels no burden who is carried by Almighty God and borne along by the Most High.
Huc facit illud, in D. Thomam Cranmerum Martyrem Anglum.
To this purpose belongs that epigram on Master Thomas Cranmer, the English martyr.
Te docuit lapsus magis ut vestigia firmes, Sic mala non rarò causa fuêre boni.
Your fall taught you rather to make your footsteps firm; thus evils have not seldom been the cause of good.
Lactant. lib. 5. cap. 13. Multo firmior est fides, quam reponit pœnitentia.
Lactantius, book 5, chapter 13. Much firmer is the faith which repentance restores.
Rom. 8. 27. Toutes choses aident ensemble en bien, à ceux qui aiment Dieu.
Romans 8:27. All things work together for good to those who love God.
Het beeldt kan zijn yemant die uyt een beeck op een hont water sprengt, de hont daer van in aller ijl wech loopende.
The picture may be someone who sprinkles water from a brook onto a dog, the dog running away from it in all haste.
Ital. Pare alli sorci scampati sempre, di mangiare il cascio nella trapola.
Italian. To mice that have escaped it always seems that they are eating the cheese in the trap.
Slagen maecken wijs. Nederl.
Dutch. Blows make one wise.
't Verbrant kint vreest het vyer.
The burnt child fears the fire.
d'Onbesochte / d'onbedochte.
The inexperienced man is the unthinking one.
Il can scottato dall' acqua calda ha pauca anco della fredda.
The dog scalded by hot water is afraid even of cold water.
Il can battuto dal bastone ha paura dell' ombra. Ital.
Italian. The dog beaten with the stick is afraid of its shadow.
Nederl. Harde smacken leeren wel.
Dutch. Hard knocks teach well.
Wat verseert / dat leert.
What hurts, teaches.
Niemant leert als met schade of schande.
No one learns except through loss or shame.
Watmen niet en besuert / en besoetmen niet.
What one does not suffer bitterly for, one does not enjoy sweetly.
Wat niet en kost / en deugt niet.
What costs nothing is worth nothing.
Een hont en rieckt niet aen de kant / Daer hy de neus eens heeft gebrant. Nederl.
Dutch. A dog does not sniff at the edge where it once burnt its nose.
Chi è stato morso delle serpi ha paura delle lacertole. Ital.
Italian. He who has been bitten by snakes is afraid of lizards.
Des plaits on devient sage.
From wounds (lawsuits?) one becomes wise.
Ovid. Trist. 1. Eleg. Terretur minimo pennæ stridore columba Vnguibus accipiter saucia facta tuis. Non procul à stabulis audet decedere, si qua Excussa est avidi dentibus agna lupi.
Ovid, Tristia, first Elegy. The dove, wounded by your talons, hawk, is terrified by the slightest whirring of a wing. The lamb that has been snatched from the teeth of the greedy wolf does not dare to stray far from the folds.
Idem de Ponto lib. 2. Eleg. 7. Da veniam quæso, nimioque ignosce timori Tranquillas etiam naufragus horret aquas. Qui semel est læsus fallaci piscis ab hamo Omnibus unca cibis æra subesse putat. Sæpe canem visum longè fugit agna, lupumque Credit, & ipsa suam nescia vitat opem. Membra reformidant mollem quoque saucia tactum, Vanaque sollicitis incitat umbra metum.
The same, Ex Ponto, book 2, Elegy 7. Grant pardon, I pray, and forgive my excessive fear: the shipwrecked man shudders even at calm waters. The fish once hurt by the treacherous hook thinks that barbed bronze lies hidden beneath every bait. Often the lamb flees far from a dog it has seen, believing it a wolf, and in its ignorance avoids its own help. Wounded limbs shrink even from a gentle touch, and an empty shadow stirs fear in the anxious.
Het beeldt soude hier konnen wesen een hovenier, snoeyende eenen wilt-gewassen wijngaert.
The picture here could be a gardener pruning a wildly grown vineyard.
Falx attenuat lascivientia.
The pruning-hook thins out the rank growth.
Weynigh houts / veel vruchten.
Little wood, much fruit.
Job 3. 17. Salich is de mensch dien Godt straft / daerom en weyghert u de kastijdinge des Almachtigens niet / want hy verwondt ende verbindt / hy slaet en sijne handt heelt.
Job 3:17 [i.e. 5:17]. Blessed is the man whom God chastises; therefore do not refuse the correction of the Almighty, for he wounds and binds up, he strikes and his hand heals.
Iconclass
86(QUIEN ESTROPIEÇA, SI NON CAE EL CAMINO ADELANTA)proverbs, sayings, etc. (QUIEN ESTROPIEÇA, SI NON CAE EL CAMINO ADELANTA)
Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated
Additional codes proposed for this emblem, not (yet) part of the indexing.
54A31Experience, Mastery; 'Esperienza' (Ripa)mediumThe emblem's whole argument ('What hurts, teaches', 'Blows make one wise', 'The inexperienced man is the unthinking one') is an expression of Experience as teacher, matching the personified concept 'Esperienza'.
11Q12penitence, repentance; 'Penitenza', 'Pentimento', 'Pentimento de'peccati', 'Purgatione de peccati' (Ripa)lowThe commentary's moral that 'he who goes astray, but turns back half way, is the better taught' and the Lactantius quote 'much firmer is the faith which repentance restores' invoke penitence/repentance, though no personification of it is depicted.
Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated
Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.
- I i 29 Piscator ictus sapiet – thematic inventiohigh
The second motto ('A burnt dog fears even cold water') and its commentary chain ('Quae nocent, docent'; 'Wat verseert / dat leert'; 'Slagen maecken wijs') restate exactly Erasmus's adage of the fisherman who, once stung, becomes wise — the locus classicus for learning caution through painful experience.
- I i 30 Factum stultus cognoscit – thematic inventiohigh
The emblem's Latin gloss 'Quae nocent, docent' and the Dutch 'Niemant leert als met schade of schande' / 'dat kan oock gecken selfs tot wijse lieden maecken' are vernacular equivalents of Erasmus's adage (Homer's ῥεχθὲν δέ τε νήπιος ἔγνω) that the fool grows wise only once he has suffered harm.
- IV i 93 Cautus enim metuit, etc. – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus's catalogue — the wolf fearing the pit, the hawk the suspected net, the pike the hidden hook — is the same inventory of once-burnt, now-wary creatures that fills the subscriptio (fox and snare, fish and hook, dove and falcon, dog and scalding water).
- II ix 78 Nunc bene navigavi, cum naufragium feci – thematic inventiomedium
The first emblem's point — 'Sic mala non rarò causa fuêre boni' and 'All things work together for good' — is precisely Erasmus's locus 'Malum vertens bono', where shipwreck becomes the best voyage; the subscriptio even uses the shipwreck image.
- IV ii 31 Laqueus auxiliari videtur – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus explains this adage as used 'whenever some misfortune turned out to someone's advantage', illustrated by the rich man made sober and pious by ruin — the same consolation as the emblem's stumble that makes the traveller swifter and more watchful, and the pruning that makes the vine fruitful.
- I x 17 Annosa vulpes haud capitur laqueo – thematic inventiomedium
The subscriptio's 'Een vos die aen het lijf den strick eens voelde prangen, / Is naemaels wonder schouw, en qualijck om te vangen' is the same figure as Erasmus's old vixen whom long experience has made too wary to be taken in a snare.
- IV iv 62 E post malam segetem serendum est – thematic inventiolow
Erasmus's accompanying Senecan tag 'post naufragium maria tentantur' answers the emblem's shipwrecked man who 'fears even a quiet roadstead', and matches the exhortation not to lose courage after a fall ('Op, op dan, treurich hert').
Sources
Record ID: embstma_1288_emblem119
This emblem on the Iconclass site: https://iconclass.org/view/embstma_1288_emblem119
Copy: University Library, Glasgow, Stirling Maxwell 1288