A CENTURY OF EMBLEMS
Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh.
A
Century of Emblems
BY
G. S. CAUTLEY
VICAR OF NETTLEDEN,
AUTHOR OF 'THE AFTERGLOW,' AND 'THE THREE FOUNTAINS.'
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
By the Lady Marian Alford, Rear-Admiral Lord W. Compton,
Venble. Lord A. Compton, R. Barnes, J. D. Cooper,
and the Author
London
MACMILLAN AND COMPANY
1878
To the Memory
OF
CHARLES DOUGLAS,
MARQUIS OF NORTHAMPTON,
THIS LITTLE BOOK,
MAINLY DUE IN ITS PRESENT FORM TO
HIS GENEROSITY AND COUNSEL,
IS DEDICATED,
IN ALL GRATEFUL AND TENDER RECOLLECTION
BY
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
This small volume is the latest of above three thousand[1] of a similar kind, which, under the general title 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 illustration. 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 illustrations 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 class 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 illustration 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 circumstances 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 illustration; and it is only by the assistance 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, Trübner and Co., 1872, in which the learned writer
[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.
CONTENTS.
PAGE Proem 1 Emblems Everywhere 3 The Sun an Emblem of the Creator 4 Sunset on Campagna of Rome 5 Cupid Reformed 7 Colossal Hand in Museum at Rome 8 Puritans and Ritualists 9 The Beacon Crest 10 Rooks 11 Una 12 Lighthouse built like a Church 13 Church in the Valley 14 Church Bells and Sheep Bells 15 The Brook at Sunset 16 The Church Tower at Sunset 17 Summer Sunset 18 The Comet 19 The Rocket 20 The Girandola at Rome 21 The Moon 22 Heaven Lights and Home Lights 24 Cloud Emblem 25 Cottage Smoke Ascending 26 Smoke not Ascending 27 The Careless Shepherd 28 Child and Snakes 29 Innocence 31 Hilarion 32 The Foolish Colt
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE Emblems Everywhere R. Barnes 3 From Drawing by the Author. Cupid Reformed J. D. Cooper 7 From a slight Sketch by the late Marquis of Northampton. The Beacon Crest Rear-Admiral Lord W. Compton 10 Lighthouse like a Church The Author 13 The Brook at Sunset Do. 16 The Comet Do. and J. D. Cooper 19 The Moon Do. 22 Cottage Smoke Ascending Do. 26 Child and Snakes Lady Marian Alford 29 The Foolish Colt The Author 33 The Rape of Proserpine Do. 36 The Strange Choice Do. 39 The Doubtful Race Do. 42 The Ferry of Death R. BarnesA CENTURY OF EMBLEMS