abounds in Emblems; gems and colours, genuflexions and other bodily postures supply them; they are gathered from the mineral, animal, and vegetable kingdoms, and besides are enriched from the whole domain of imaginary devices and creatures. Does the emerald flash in its mild lustre ?-it is of "victory and hope, of immortality, of faith, and of reciprocal love," that it gives forth light. Is blue, the colour of heaven, worn in some religious ceremony?-it betokens "piety, sincerity, godliness, contemplation, expectation, love of heavenly things." Do Christian men bare the head in worship?-it is out of reverence for the living God, whose earthly temples they have entered. The badge of St. John the Baptist, is a lamb on a book,-that of St. John the Evangelist is a cup of gold with a serpent issuing from it. The Pomegranate, "showing its fulness of seed and now bursting," typifies the hope of immortality ;—and a Fleur-de-lys, or the Rose of Sharon, embroidered or painted on a robe,it marks the Blessed Virgin. With more intricate symbolism the Greek Church represents the Saviour's name IHCOYC XPICTOC,-IesuS CHristuS. The first finger of the hand extended is for I, the second bent for C or s, the thumb crossed upon the third finger for X or Ch, and the fourth finger curved for C or s. Thus are given the initial and final letters of that Holy Name, the Saviour, the Christ."

Of early Emblems examples enough have now been given to indicate their nature. Whether in closing this part of the subject we should name a work of more ancient date even than the Greek version of Horapollo would admit of doubt, were it not that every work partakes of an emblematical character, when the descriptions given or the instances taken pertain, as

For a further and very interesting account of the Emblems of Christian Art, reference may be made to a work full of information,-too brief it may be for all that is desirable, but to be relied on for its accuracy, and to be imitated for its candid and charitable spirit:-Sacred Archæology, by Mackenzie E. C. Walcott, B.D., 8vo, pp. 640 London, Reeve & Co. 1868.

:

Whitney says, "to vertue and instruction of life," or "doe tende vnto discipline, and morall preceptes of living."

Under this rule we hesitate not to admit into the wide category of Emblem writers, EPIPHANIUS, who was chosen bishop of Constantia in Cyprus, A.D. 367, and who died in 402. His Physiologist, published with his sermon on the Feast of Palms, is, like many writings of the Fathers, remarkable for highly allegorical interpretations. An edition, by Ponce de Leon, a Spaniard of Seville, was printed at Rome in 1587, and repeated at Antwerp in 1588. It relates to the real and imaginary qualities of animals, and to certain precepts and doctrines of which those qualities are supposed to be symbolical. As an example we give here an extract from chapter xxv. p. 106, Concerning the Stork."

*

The Stork is described as a bird of extreme purity; and as nourishing, with wonderful affection, father and mother in their old age. The "interpretation" or application of the fact is;"So also it behoves us to observe these two divine commands, that is to turn aside from evil and to do good, as the kingly prophet wrote; and likewise in the decalogue the Lord commands, thus saying;-Honour thy father and thy mother."

In a similar way the properties and habits of various animals,of the lion, the elephant, the stag, the eagle, the pelican, the partridge, the peacock, &c., are adduced to enforce or symbolize virtues of the heart and life, and to set forth the doctrines of the writer's creed.

To illustrate the Emblem side of Christian Art a great variety of information exists in Sketches of the History of Christian Art, by Lord Lindsay (3 vols. 8vo: Murray, London, 1847); and Northcote and Brownlow's Roma Sotterranea, compiled from De Rossi (8vo: Longmans, London, 1869) promises to supply many a symbol and type of a remote age fully to set forth the same subject.

CHAPTER II.

SKETCH OF EMBLEM-BOOK LITERATURE PREVIOUS TO A.D. 1616.

SECTION I.

EXTENT OF THE EMBLEM LITERATURE TO WHICH
SHAKESPEARE MIGHT HAVE HAD ACCESS.

N the use of the word Emblem there is seldom a strict adherence observed to an exact definition, so, when Emblem Literature is spoken of, considerable latitude is taken and allowed as to the kind of works which the terms shall embrace. In one sense every book which has a picture set in it, or on it, is an emblem-book,-the diagrams in a mathematical treatise or in an exposition of science, inasmuch as they may be, and often are, detached from the text, are emblems; and when to Tennyson's exquisite poem of " ELAINE," Gustave Doré conjoins those wonderful drawings which are themselves poetic, he gives us a book of emblems;-Tennyson is the one artist that out of the gold of his own soul fashioned a vase incorruptible, and Doré is that second artist who placed about it ornaments of beauty, fashioned also out of the riches of his mind.

Yet by universal consent, these and countless other works, scientific, historical, poetic, and religious, which artistic skill has embellished, are never regarded as emblematical in their character. The "picture and short posie, expressing some particular

conceit," seem almost essential for bringing any work within the province of the Emblem Literature;-but the practical application of the test is conceived in a very liberal spirit, so that while the small fish sail through, the shark and the sea-dog rend the meshes to tatters.

A proverb or witty saying, as, in Don Sebastian Orozco's "EMBLEMAS MORALES" (Madrid 1610), "Divesqve miserqve," both rich and wretched, may be pictured by king Midas at the table where everything is turned to gold, and may be set forth in an eight-lined stanza, to declare how the master of millions was famishing though surrounded by abundance; and these things constitute the Emblem. Some scene from Bible History shall be taken, as, in "Les figures du vieil Testament, & du nouuel" (at Paris, about 1503), Moses at the burning bush; where are printed, as if an Emblem text, the passage from Exodus iii. 2-4, and by its side the portraits of David and Esaias; across the page is a triplet woodcut, representing Moses at the bush, and Mary in the stable at Bethlehem with Christ in the manger-cradle; various scrolls with sentences from the Scriptures adorn the page:-such representations claim a place in the Emblem Literature. Boissard's Theatrum Vita Humana (Metz, 1596) shall mingle, in curious continuity, the Creation and Fall of Man, Ninus king of the Assyrians, Pandora and Prometheus, the Gods of Egypt, the Death of Seneca, Naboth and Jezabel, the Advent of Christ and the Last Judgment;- yet they are all Emblems,—because each has a "picture and a short posie" setting forth its "conceit." To be sure there are some pages of Latin prose serving to explain or confuse, as the case may be, each particular imagination; but the text constitutes the emblem, and however long and tedious the comment, it is from the text the composition derives its name.

"Stam und Wapenbuch hochs und niders Standts,"— A stem and armorial Bearings-book of high and of low Station,