Emily Owen
Emblem 141, entitled Eternitas, is an allegorical representation of Eternity that, like many of Peacham’s emblems, was directly influenced by a similar emblem in Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia (1779, 2nd English edition). Although Peacham and Ripa incorporate similar aspects into the emblematic representation of Eternity, differences arise in the illustrations and the symbolism described in the verses, especially in relation to Eternity herself.
Peacham’s simple but beautiful illustration of Eternity depicts a woman whose body, from her midsection down, is serpent-like and arches over her head, encircling her human portion and rejoining her body. Stars speckle her body, both the upper and lower sections, and she holds golden orbs in each of her hands. The image closely parallels the common representation of the passage of time: a snake biting its own tail, forming a circle with its body. The serpent-like portion of Eternity mirrors this illustration, drawing the reader’s attention to the continuity symbolized through her body. Peacham writes, “ETERNITY is young, and never old:/The circle wantes beginning and the end,” (141, ln. 7-8). The starry pattern covering her skin is reminiscent of Heaven’s skies, which Peacham indicates that she illuminates with the golden balls in lines 9 and 10, “And uncorrupt for ever lies the gold:/The heaven her lightes for evermore did lend” (141).
Unlike Peacham’s representation of Eternity, Ripa chooses to depict Eternity as wholly woman. She is sitting on a rock, framed by a sky with the sun and moon on either side. In one hand she holds aloft a snake that is biting its tail, forming a circle, and in the other hand she holds a golden ball. In Ripa’s image she is clothed, while she is wearing nothing in Minerva Britanna. According to Ripa’s description of Eternity, the veil covering her eyes shows that she is “impenetrable and inscrutable” to humans and that her golden robes represent “duration and perpetuity” and the green in her robes, “pleasing hopes of eternal happiness” (98). The sun and the moon hovering in the sky may have inspired the two orbs found in Peacham’s emblem, for there is only one ball in Ripa’s image. Peacham describes in lines 9 and 10 that the orbs give light to the heavens, which is just the function of the sun and moon.
While Ripa focuses on the objects drawn in the image, Peacham uses the figure of Eternity herself in order to express his ideas. In Ripa, the woman is holding the snake in her hand, but in Peacham she actually becomes the serpent, embodying the symbol. The authors’ writing styles also reflect either unity or lack thereof between the woman and the idea of eternity. Peacham describes the woman herself and connects his words to the image through direct references to the picture, as demonstrated in the first six lines:
A Virgin faire, purtraicted as you see,With haire dispred, in comlie wise behind:
Within whose handes, two golden balls there be:
But from the brest, the nether partes are twin’d
Within a starrie circle, do expresse,
Eternitie, or Everlastingness (141).
In contrast, Ripa’s verses are more general and need not necessarily be connected to the illustration, for they never refer directly to the image.
Eternity no parent does admit,But on itself did first itself beget;
A gulph, whose large extent no bounds engage,
A still-beginning, never ending age (Ripa 98).
This difference in style changes the tone of the writing, giving Peacham’s verses personal overtones and Ripa’s a more analytical feeling. The gap between image and verses in Ripa could be due to the fact that the first edition of Iconologia (1593) did not contain illustrations, and the verses could therefore not refer to any picture.
Along with differences, similar themes like religious significance can be found in both versions of Eternity. With the idea of everlasting life as a main element of the Christian tradition, Ripa’s reference to “pleasing hopes of eternal happiness” can be interpreted as life in Heaven after death (98). Likewise, the stars adorning Eternity’s body in Minerva Britanna can allude to Heaven and the eternal life found within. Even through pictorial and written differences, Peacham and Ripa represent Eternity with similar topi.
-Emily Owen
Works Cited
Peacham, Henry. Minerva Britanna. London: Walter Dight, 1612.
Ripa, Cesare. Iconology; Or, a Collection of Emblematical Figures. London: G. Scott,
1779.
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