[81]. In some of the more elaborate of Plantin’s devices, the action of “the omnific word” seems pictured, though in very humble degree,—
“In his hand
He took the golden compasses, prepared
In God’s eternal store, to circumscribe
This universe, and all created things:
One foot he centred, and the other turn’d
Round through the vast profundity obscure.”—Par. Lost, bk. vii.
[82]. Derived from Joachim du Bellay (who died in 1560 at the age of thirty-seven), the excellence of whose poetry entitled him to be named the Ovid of France. There is good evidence to show that Du Bellay was well acquainted with the Emblematists, who in his time were rising into fame.
[83]. Dibdin, in his Bibliomania, p. 331, adduces an instance; he says, “In the Prayer-Book which goes by the name of Queen Elizabeth’s, there is a portrait of her Majesty kneeling, upon a superb cushion, with elevated hands, in prayer. This book was first printed in 1575, and is decorated with woodcut borders of considerable spirit and beauty, representing, among other things, some of the subjects of Holbein’s Dance of Death.”
[84]. Amplified by Whitney, p. 108, Respice, et prospice, “Look back, and look forward.”