Freitag, 1579.
The same fable is given in Freitag’s “Mythologia Ethica,” Antwerp, 1579, p. 27. It is to a very similar motto,—
“Moderate force more powerful than impotent violence,”—to which are added, below the woodcut, two quotations from the Holy Scriptures,—
“Non quia dominamur fidei.”—2 Cor. i. 24.
“Factus sum infirmis infirmus; vt infirmos lucrifacerem.”—1 Cor. ix. 22.
“Not that we have dominion over your faith;”
“To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak;”
implying that not by the rigid exercise of authority, but by a sympathising spirit, the true faith will be carried onward unto victory.
Now, as the motto of the second knight existed in French, and, as we have seen, Emblem-books were translated into Spanish, the supposition is justifiable, though we have failed to trace out the very fact, that the author of the Pericles—Shakespeare, if you will—copied the words of the motto from some Spanish Emblem-book, or book of proverbs, that had come within his observation, and which applied the saying to woman’s gentleness subduing man’s harsher nature. Future inquirers will, perhaps, clear up this little mystery, and trace the very work in which the Spanish saying is original, Piu por dulzura que por fuerza.