MUNDUS SYMBOLICUS— THE ROSE AND FISH 277 



in my chapter on Tackle. Nor, again, is the author far astray 

 with his lemma for the Monachus or Monk fish (a name derived 

 from the hood on its head)—" Habitum non virtutem " — which 

 recalls the mediaeval jeer, "The cowl makyth not the Monk," 

 and Oscar Wilde's description — half -echoing Browning — of the 

 pike as " some mitred old bishop in paHibus." Of the Monk 

 fish — also Bishop fish — a well intended representation can be 

 found in the pages of the learned Gesner, 



Under Salmo, when suffering from leeches or gill-maggots, 

 the author provides us not only with the lemma, " Hceret 

 nbique " and the appropriate, if not quite original, reflection 

 of St. Bernard that conscience is like the leech which ceaseth 

 not night nor day from making its presence felt, but also with 

 a vivid description of a kelt dying — " donee toto cor pore tabescat." 



Any connection between a salmon and a swallow [hirundo) 

 for a moment seemed a new ichthyic revelation ! The context, 

 however, and not least St. Bernard's pointing of the moral, led 

 to the discovery of the misprint of hirundibus for hirundinibus 

 (' leeches '). 



With one more passage I regretfully leave Picinelh, or rather 

 Erath. The collocation of the rose and fish held in the hand 

 of Cupid, which Alciatus " non sine mysterio instruxisset," occa- 

 sioned " the erudite " and anonymous epigram (p. 671) showing 

 that Love resembles the rose and the fish. This apparent 

 incongruity finds explanation thuswise : while each has 

 prickly points, the first fades in a day and the second is incapable 

 of being tamed — a comparison which, if unique, ignores the 

 Egyptian and Roman powers of domestication. ^ 



" Symbola adidantum cernis, Rosa, Piscis amortim,^ 

 Non sane imius Symbola certa mali. 

 Nam Rosa verna snis non est sine senlibus, idem 



Piscis habet spinas intus et ipse suas. 

 Pidchra Rosa est, verum ilia brevi fit marcida, piscis 

 Est ferns, esse aliqua nee cicur arte potest." 



^ The bronze statuette found at Hartsbourg showing the Germanic god 

 Chrodo, standing on a fish, while holding in his uplifted left hand a wheel, 

 and in his lowered right a basket of fruit and vegetables, is not at all on all 

 fours. Cf. Montfaucon, Antiquity Explained, trans. D. Humphreys (London, 

 iQ2i), II. 261, pi. 56, 3. 



- The construction of ' Rosa, Piscis ' is not discernible. Perhaps (' Rosa 

 Piscis ') would be less obscure. 



