Imitation and Adaptation in Late Humanist Emblematic Poetry: Zsamboky (Sambucus) and Whitney GÄBOR TÜSKES Institute for Literary Studies ofthe Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest After 1550, late-humanist Latin poetry in Western Europe contin- ued to flourish only in the Low Countries and Germany. In France, Latin and vernacular literature coexisted during the second half of the sixteenth century. In England, many authors, such as William Gager, Walter Haddon, and Christopher Jonson, achieved renown as neo-Latin poets, and they wrote either wholly, or mainly, in the learned language. However, a look at the three most eminent neo- Latin poets of the period reveals that the works of the Scot, George Buchanan, were published mainly in France and in Portugal, while the poems ofthe Welshman, John Owen (a member of Philip Sidney’s circle) were published and presumably appreciated mainly in Ger- many and the Low Countries. Thomas Campion wrote in English as well as in Latin. He is valued today for his English poetry, but in his own day wasalso a Latin poet. In the Low Countries, scholarly Latin poetry flourished more than anywhere else in the second half ot the sixteenth century, and thus the few English poets who continued in the Latin humanist tradition had particularly close ties with the Netherlands. If we look at the scene some decades later, we find George Herbert and Andrew Marvell; John Milton is the greatest English poet to write Latin poetry, and his Latin works formed an im- portant part of his literary career. The situation was different in central Europe, where neo-Latin po- etry continued to be widely composed, particularly by Czechs, Poles and Hungarians, but also in the Scandinavian and Baltic countries. 261 262 EMBLEMATICA GABOR TUSKES 263 Both earlier local traditions and the influence of the German universi- phrastic and i m i t a t i v e character o f Whitney's adaptations: they were ties were mainly responsible for this (Tarnai 1987 and 1997). Not clearly n o t intended as literal t r a n s l a t i o n s , nor a s faithful r e n d i t i o n s many poets from these regions used the best Italian, French and Neth- o f content, b u t free variations and interpretations o f the ideas s u g - erlandish sources of humanist poetry with any frequency or discern- g e s t e d by Zsdmboky. ment. One of the few who did was the Hungarian, Joannes Zsamboky Because o f the peculiar h i s t o r y o f their origin and o f the way they (Sambucus), who distinguished himself equally in philology, literary were put together, Whitney's adaptations of Zsamboky’s emblems theory, and historiography. Zsamboky spent many years studying in a r e a revealing and essential part o f the little explored history o f t h e Italy, Germany, France and the Low Countries, before settling in Vi- European impact o f the H u n g a r i a n ’ s E m b l e m a t a . Acomparison of t h e enna in the 1560s; there he became a central figure in the local circle of two works also a l l o w s us to examine Whitney’s adaptation t e c h - humanists, as well as an influential link between European and Hun- niques. I n addition, it presents an opportunity to consider the inter- garian humanism. He enjoyed the friendship of Henri Estienne and a c t i o n s o f l i t e r a r y and visual traditions and to study the transforma- supported the young Justus Lipsius; he was an active member of the tion o f t h e l a t e humanist epigram and emblem in the l a t e r sixteenth newly-founded Poetic Academy of PreSburg, and a productive editor century. I t will highlight the different ways in which Zsamboky and who, in addition to several of the classics, edited the collected poems Whitney saw themselves a s authors, a s w e l l a s their different c o n - of Janus Pannonius, the first great humanist poet outside Italy. He c e p t s o f the emblem and their working methods. How certain mecha- also published his own early poetry in Padua in 1555. But Zsamboky's nisms o f t h i n k i n g with visual t o p o i worked, and how they changed, lasting fame asa poet rests on his Emblemata, which was published in will also become clearer. The analysis aims to contribute to t h e under- Antwerp in 1564. standing, both o f t h e complex process by which emblematic conven- It is well known that the emblemata were an important source for t i o n s became established, and of t h e ways in which individual em- Geffrey Whitney’s collection, A Choice of Emblemes, published at Lei- blems work, and to place the Emblemata and t h e Choice of Emblemes den in 1586. Literary historians in England formally noted this in more precisely within t h e history o f this medium o f expression. 1866, when Henry Green published the first of several facsimile edi- tions of Whitney’s work.° In his accompanying essay, Green pointed The Emblemata out that 48 of Whitney’s emblems are adaptations from Zsamboky. He included them ina table and pointed to parallel occurrences of some Zsamboky’s collection o f emblems has been regarded a s t h e first of the themes in Shakespeare’s plays.* Green also indicated the para- important example o f t h e moralizing and philosophizing branch o f mannerist emblematic p o e t r y based on t h e imitatio o f classical p a t - 1. This essay is based on research conducted within two two-month fellowships terns. The book’s k e y characteristics are a pronounced stoicism, a under the terms of the Exchange Agreement between the British and the Hungar- Christian-humanist orientation, and s t r o n g didacticism. It c l e a r l y ian Academies in 1996 and 1998 at the Warburg Institute, London. I wish to thank r e p r e s e n t s the author’s concept o f t h e emblem, a s w e l l a s his personal the staff of the Warburg Institute and the Librarian of the Stirling Maxwell Col- v i e w s and a t t i t u d e s . ” Zsamboky’s concept of the emblem is part of lection, Glasgow, for their help at all times. | am grateful to U. Sdunnus, J. B. h i s wider poetic Trapp and P.M. Daly for their help in improving the translation, made by Zsuzsa theory which focusses on allegorical imitation. Boronkay. The translations of Latin quotations from Whitney's book derive from Zsamboky’s foreword, with i t s emphasis o n how t h e emblem c o n - Index Emblematicus; otherwise, the translations are my own. veys hidden meanings, r e v e a l s a profound knowledge o f the i d e a s o f On Latin Poetry and vernacular traditions, see Binns, ix, 58; Laurens and Alciato, Bocchi, Giovio, and Ramus: t h e esoteric nature o f t h e em- Balavoine; Kuhlmann; Wiegand; and Jones. blem i s meant to challenge t h e r e a d e r to reflect about its meaning 2. See Varga 1963, 1964 and 1965; and Téglasy, 185. 4. Cf. Daly 1993, 1984; Daly a n d Silcox. O n Shakespeare and Whitney, s e e Klein; Richards; Horden; Rusche; Wilson; a n d Fabiny. 3. See Whitney's Choice of Emblemes. A Fac-simile reprint., 248f. | used the Index Emblematicus facsimile edition: G. Whitney, “A Choice of Emblemes and Other 5. S e e Homann, and t h e review by T . Klaniczay, Irodalomtérténeti Kézlemények, Devises” (hereafter W with page number). See also Green, and Dézsi. 1975, 246f. 264 EMBLEMATICA GABOR TUSKES 265 and, as a result of such understanding, to strive for the improvement back to the first edition.” With the exception of the 1599 Lyons edi- of his behaviour and his life.° tion, all editions including the translations were published by Chris- The emblem pictures were commissioned in part by Zsamboky topher Plantin of Antwerp. himself and in part by his publisher, Plantin, after the epigrams had Readers’ notes® and carefully coloured woodcuts’ in many surviv- been written. As a result, the images have a largely supporting or il- ing copies testify that the work was widely disseminated and inten- lustrative role in relation to the written word. Pictures and texts stand sively used. The Emblemata were often bound with the emblem col- in a figurative and analogical relationship to each other. Zsamboky’s lections of Alciato!” and Hadrianus Junius." Recognition of Zs4m- epigrams are written in numerous individual variations of different boky and his book by fellow authors is illustrated in a number of con- ancient metrical forms, thus showing his wide knowledge of classical temporary works. Mignault, for instance, included an appreciative authors. Most of his topics also have ancient literary origins. They are reference in his commentary on Alciato,!? and Hadrianus Junius taken from the human world, usually from everyday life, and from na- dedicated a heraldic emblem to Zsdmboky.