A Century of Emblems Part 1

A Century of Emblems.

by G. S. Cautley.

PREFACE.

This small volume is the latest of above three thousand[1] of a similar kind, which, under the general t.i.tle of "Books of Emblems" have followed in the wake of the _Libellus Emblematum_,[2] a work, much resembling a child's primer in outward appearance, published at Augsburg in A.D.

1532, and composed by Andrea Alciati, a famous lawyer, antiquary, and litterateur of Milan.

This book consisted of nearly a hundred Latin Epigrams, some original, some translated or paraphrased from the Greek, and each accompanied by a rude woodcut ill.u.s.tration. Alciati was the first author who gave the name of Emblem to this form of expressing his ideas: and the notion for so doing was suggested by the original meaning of the word Emblem, which signifies anything inserted. The Greeks and Romans used to insert small pictures or bas-reliefs in the sides of vases, drinking-cups, and various other utensils: these little works of art were called Emblems: they were sometimes accompanied by mottoes or verses, and often made removable at pleasure, so that they formed no necessary part of the article which they adorned.

Alciati, therefore, considering that the ill.u.s.trations formed no necessary portion of his book, and that they were only inserted, as he says himself, to make his moral and philosophical teaching more attractive, gave to his collection of poems and pictures the name of "Book of Emblems."

This idea took greatly with the public of his day, and for upwards of two hundred years afterwards, and generated a cla.s.s of books now reckoned among the fossils of literature, which may be dug out of ancient libraries, or procured by chance here and there through the agency of those useful purveyors, the publishers of Catalogues of second-hand works.

Now Emblem books have had their day, and are no longer regarded as a means of instruction or delight. They have done their duty as ornamental wits and lively educators, and now make way for others more suited to the age. There will be found very few theological teachers of our day who would, like Sebastian Stockhamer,[3] not only advise a patron to have the Emblems of Alciati always at hand at home and abroad, but suggest that he should do as Alexander did with the works of Homer, sleep with them under his pillow.

He, therefore, who ventures to put forth his own conceits, clothed in this old-fashioned dress, before the present world of critical thinkers and impatient novel readers, must apologise for his intrusion and crave indulgence. Some, perhaps, who may look into these pages, will sympathise with the Author in the pleasure he has enjoyed in following the footsteps of the ingenious Emblematists of old, and will accept the subjoined Emblem as an ill.u.s.tration of their common feeling upon the subject:--

Though the new be gold, some love the old.

"They have wrecked the old farm with its chimneys so high, And white flashing gables--my childhood's delight, The old home is gone, and the sorrowing eye Shuns the blue-slated upstart that glares from its site;"

So flowed my fresh feeling, when loud at my side Rose the voice of a stranger arresting the tide:

"What an emblem is here of the glories of change, Which purges and pares the old world to its quick; Transforming that rat-hole and ricketty grange, With its plaster and laths to a mansion of brick."

The prose chilled like ice,--I sank into my skin, And felt my poor sentiment almost a sin.

The Author thinks it necessary to say, that circ.u.mstances over which he had no control prevented him from carrying out his original idea, which was that every set of verses should be accompanied by an ill.u.s.tration; and it is only by the a.s.sistance of many friends, to whom his best acknowledgments are due, that he has been able to provide the comparatively few accompanying woodcuts.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See p. 8 of Preface to "Andrea Alciati and his Book of Emblems,"

etc., by Henry Green, M.A.; London, Trubner and Co., 1872, in which the learned writer states he has "formed an index of Emblem Books of which the t.i.tles number upwards of 3000, and the authors above 1300.

[2] This little book was followed by another of the same description published at Venice 1546. These two were afterwards combined into one volume.

[3] See p. 5 of his edition of A. Alciati Emblemata, 1556.

A CENTURY OF EMBLEMS

PROEM.

I had not breathed such notes as these, Save to myself in field or wood, But for the venial hope to please Some spirits of the wise and good.

For honest mirth that sings the truth, And shakes a bell in Folly's ear, May serve a crumpled hour to smooth, And whisk away a peevish tear;

While haply to the heart may go Some tones amid the fall and rise, And stir the silent springs below Of deeper, holier sympathies.

So now into the streets of life I venture forth, but not alone, Too well aware its roar and strife Would drown my feeble undertone.

And mindful of the world's disdain, I mimic him of Rhodope,[A]

And start, escorted by a train Of beast, and bird, and flower, and tree;

For lack of these, his guardian brood, The poet in his lonely woe, By Thracian dames was torn and strewed Upon the Hyperborean snow.

Were these the critics of the day?

And does this ancient tale, forsooth, Symbol the perils of his way Who seeks to win by tuneful truth?

Thrice welcome, then, O sister art!

Divert the eye with pictured spell, a.s.sume your own attractive part, And share the wrath you may not quell.

FOOTNOTE: [A] Orpheus.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

EMBLEMS EVERYWHERE.

A simple faith, if fancy fed Is girt with holy signs, And common sights are seen and read As writ in holy lines.

A fish, a ship, the night and day, Some Christian truth declare, And e'en the winging crows display Black crosses in the air.

Nor blame thou this simplicity, For love is at the core, Which only sees what others see, But feels a little more.

THE SUN AN EMBLEM OF THE CREATOR.

'Mid the glow of the dawning and dew of the mist, The valley awakens in beauty and tears, For the life-bringing day-star the ridges hath kiss'd, And the presence is felt ere the splendour appears.

Now the cloud-curtain parts--from pavilion of gold The monarch goes forth with tiara of flame, And his banners abroad to the zenith unrolled, Reflect on our hearts the Ineffable Name.

O emblem of G.o.dhead! majestic, supreme, Life drinks at thy fountain, its wave is our breath, While in rapturous awe of the glory we dream Whose glance is creation, whose absence is death.