Plate 12

"The Cuckold"

 

Moriae Encomium

Illustrated by Hans Holbein the Younger

 

 

 

Single Greeting Card (with matching Envelope)

Code: H ME12 SGC
Price: US$5.00

Reproduction on 8x12" sheet

Code: H ME12 8x12
Price: US$30.00

Reproduction on 12x18" sheet

Code: H ME12 12x18
Price: US$60.00

 

Holbein's illustration shown in Plate 12 from Moriae Encomium is associated with the following text drawn from

John Wilson's 1668 translation:

 

And what has been said of friendship may more reasonably be presumed of matrimony, which

in truth is no other than an inseparable conjunction of life. Good God! What divorces, or what

not worse than that, would daily happen were not the converse between a man and his wife

supported and cherished by flattery, apishness, gentleness, ignorance, dissembling, certain retainers

of mine also! Whoop holiday! how few marriages should we have, if the husband should but

thoroughly examine how many tricks his pretty little mop of modesty has played before she was

married! And how fewer of them would hold together, did not most of the wife's actions escape

the husband's knowledge through his neglect or sottishness! And for this also you are beholden to

me, by whose means it is that the husband is pleasant to his wife, the wife to her husband, and

the house kept in quiet. A man is laughed at, when seeing his wife weeping he licks up her tears.

But how much happier is it to be thus deceived than by being troubled with jealousy not only to

torment himself but set all things in a hubbub!

 

In fine, I am so necessary to the making of all society and manner of life both delightful and

lasting, that neither would the people long endure their governors, nor the servant his master,

nor the master his footman, nor the scholar his tutor, nor one friend another, nor the wife her

husband, nor the usurer the borrower, nor a soldier his commander, nor one companion

another, unless all of them had their interchangeable failings, one while flattering, other while

prudently conniving, and generally sweetening one another with some small relish of folly.

 

 

The associated French text from L'Eloge de la Folie (1728) follows:

 

Ce que nous venon de dire de l'Amitié, pensons-le, disons-le à plus forte raison du Mariage.

C'est, comme vous ne savez peut-être que trop, un engagement qui ne doit se rompre que

par la mort. Dieux immortels! Combien arriveroit-il dans cette condition-là de séparations,

& pis encore, si l'union de l'homme avec la femme n'étoit soutenue, n'étoit fomentée par les

flaterie, par le divertissement, par la complaisance, par les détours, par la dissimulation, tous

gens de mon escorte, & de ma suite? Ah! qu'il se feroit peu de mariages, si l'Amant avoit la

prudence de bien s'informer du jeu que sa petit Maitresse, qui paroit si délicate, si honteuse,

si neuve, a joué avant les nôces! Pour les mariages déja contractez, ce seroit bien pis encore.

Que de séparations, si la négligence ou la bêtise des Maris ne les aveugloit sur la vie secrete

de leurs Epouses. On traite cela de folie, & on a raison; mais c'est pourtant cette même folie,

par le pouvoir de laquelle la Femme plait au Mari, le Mari plait à la Femme, la maison est

tranquille, l'alliance se maintient. On fait les cornes à un Mari; on le nomme cocu, commode,

& je ne sai quel sobriquet on ne lui donne pas hors de chez lui; pendant que le bon-homme

console sa chere moitié, & avale, par ses tendres baisers, les larmes de sa Femme adultere.

Cels ne vaut-il pas beaucoup mieux, que de se consumer de chagrin, que de causer du

vacarme & du tintamarre en s'abandonnant à la jalousie? Conclusion: sans moi vulle societé,

nulle union ne sauroit être ni agréable, ni ferm, dans la vie; si bien que le People ne

supporteroit pas longterms son Prince; le Maitre, son Valet, la Dame; la Suivant; le Précepteur,

son Eleve; l'Ami, son Ami; le Mari, sa Femme, & c., si tour à tour ils ne se trompoient, ils ne

se flatoient, ils ne se cedoient, enfin, si let tout n'étoit assaisonné de quelque grain de folie.

Je ne doute point, que tout ce que je vous ai dit jusqu'à présent ne vous ait paru de la

derniere importance; car la Folie dout-t-elle de rien? Mais vous allez entendre bien autre

chose; redoublez votre attention.