independent castings or mouldings, to be put on or taken off, they would be veritable emblems in the strict literal sense of the word. Spenser's ideas of devices and ornaments correspond to this meaning. Mercilla, the allegorical representation of the sovereign Elizabeth, is described as "that gratious Queene: Who sate on high, that she might all men see And might of all men royally be seene, In Cymbeline, Shakespeare represents Iachimo, act i. sc. 6, 1. 188, 9, describing "a present for the emperor;" ""Tis plate, of rare device; and jewels Of rich and exquisite form; their values great." So Spenser, Faerie Queene, iv. 4. 15, sets forth, "a precious rebeke in an arke of gold," as "A gorgeous Girdle, curiously embost With pearle and precious stone, worth many a marke; Yet did the workmanship farre passe the cost." In the literal use of the word emblem Shakespeare is very exact. Parolles, All's Well, act ii. sc. 1, 1. 40, charges the young lords of the French court, as "Noble heroes, my sword and yours are kin ;" and adds, "Good sparks and lustrous, a word, good metals: you shall find in the regiment of the Spinii one Captain Spurio, with his cicatrice, an emblem of war, here on his sinister cheek; it was this very sword entrenched it." The Coronation Scene in Henry VIII., act iv. sc. 1, 1. 81-92, describes the solemnities, when Anne Bullen, "the goodliest woman that ever lay by man," "with modest paces Came to the altar; where she kneel'd, and saint-like Each sacred rite is then observed towards her ; She had all the royal makings of a queen ; As holy oil, Edward Confessor's crown, The rod, and bird of peace, and all such emblems And down to Milton's time the original meaning of the word Emblem was still retained, though widely departed from as used by some of the Emblem writers. Thus he pictures the "blissful bower" of Eden, bk. iv. 1. 697-703, Paradise Lost, "each beauteous flower, Iris all hues, roses, and jessamin, Rear'd high their flourish'd heads between, and wrought Mosaic underfoot the violet, Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich inlay Broider'd the ground, more colour'd than with stone Of costliest emblem." Thus, in their origin, Emblems were the figures or ornaments fashioned by the tools of the artists, in metal or wood, independent of the vase, or the column, or the furniture, they were intended to adorn; they might be affixed or detached at the C promptings of the owner's fancy. Then they were formed, as in mosaic, by placing side by side little blocks of coloured stone, or tiles, or small sections of variegated wood. Raised or carved figures, however produced, came next to be considered as Emblems; and afterwards any kind of figured ornament, or device, whether carved or engraved, or simply traced, on the walls and floors of houses or on vessels of wood, clay, stone, or metal. These ornaments were sometimes like the raised work on the Warwick and other vases, and formed a crust which made a part of the vessel which they embellished; but at other times they were devices, drawings and carvings on a framework which might be detached from the cup or goblet on which the owner had placed them, and be applied to other uses. * We may here remark, since embossed ornaments and sculptured figures on any plain surface are essentially Emblems, the sculptor, the engraver, the statuary and the architect, indeed all workers in wood, metal, or stone, who embellish with device or symbol the simplicity of nature's materials, are especially entitled to take rank in the fraternity of the Emblematists. They and their patrons, the whole world of the civilized and the intellectual, are not content with the beam out of the forest, or with the marble from the quarry, or with even the gold from the mine. In themselves cedar, marble and gold are only forms of brute and unintelligent nature,-and therefore we impose upon them signs of deep-seated thoughts of the heart and devices of wondrous meaning, and out of the rocks call forth sermons, and lessons and parables, and highly spiritual suggestions. On the very shrines of God we place our images of corruptible things, but then the soul that rightly reads the images lifts them out of their corruptibility and makes them the teachers of eternal truths. * See Smith's Dictionary of Gk. and Rom. Ant., p. 377 b, article EMBLEMA. The domains of the statuary and of the architect are however too vast to be entered upon by us, except with a passing glance; they are like Philosophy; it is all Natural,—and yet wisely men map it out into kingdoms and divisions, and pursue each his selected work. So we remember it is not the Universe of Emblematism we must attempt, even though Shakespeare should lend us. "The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, To glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown," should add the gift of "the poet's pen," so that we might "Turn them to shapes, and give to airy nothing A local habitation and a name." Midsummer Night's Dream, act v. sc. 1. l. 12—17. Our business is only with that comparatively small section of the Emblem-World, which, "like mummies in their cerements," is wrapped up within the covers of the so called Emblem-books. Whether, when they are unrolled, they are worth the search and the labour, some may doubt;-but perchance a scarabæus, or an emerald, with an ancient harp upon it, may reward our patience. By a very easy and natural step, figures and ornaments of many kinds, when placed on smooth surfaces, were named emblems; and as these figures and ornaments were very often symbolical, i. e., signs, or tokens of a thought, a sentiment, a saying, or an event, the term emblem was applied to any painting, drawing, or print that was representative of an action, of a quality of the mind, or of any peculiarity or attribute of character.* "Emblems in fact were, and are, a species of hiero See the Author's Introductory Dissertation, p. x, to the Fac-simile Reprint of Whitney's Emblems. glyphics, in which the figures or pictures, besides denoting the natural objects to which they bear resemblances, were employed to express properties of the mind, virtues and abstract ideas, and all the operations of the soul." Thus, the Tablet of Cebes, a work by one of the disciples of Socrates, about B.C. 390, is an explanation, in the form of a Dialogue, of a picture, said to have been set up in the temple Tabula Cebetis philosophi so= |