I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon,
Than such a Roman.”
The expression is the perfect counterpart of Alciat’s 164th Emblem (p. 571, edition Antwerp, 1581); the motto, copied by Whitney (p. 213), is, Inanis impetus,—“A vain attack.”
“By night, as at a mirror, the dog looks at the lunar orb:
And seeing himself, believes another dog to be on high,
And barks: but in vain is his angry voice driven by winds,
The silent Diana ever onward goes in her course.”[[132]]
The device engraved on Alciat’s and Whitney’s pages depicts the full moon surrounded by stars, and a large dog baying. Whitney’s stanzas give the meaning of Alciat's, and also of Beza's, which follow below,—
“By shininge lighte, of wannishe Cynthias raies,
The dogge behouldes his shaddowe to appeare: