Henry Peacham's "Et minimi vindictam" and the interpretation by James I in Basilicon Doron on page 18 are both about Tyrants and noble kings. However, the two works are very different in their focuses and what the writers choose to emphasize in their language. Peacham's 144th emblem starts with general characteristics of the two types of leaders in the first stanza and then makes reference to specific Roman tyrants, while the Basilicon Doron passage describes the distinctive traits of lawful kings in great detail and also touches on the behavior of tyrants. Peacham's emblem thoroughly analyzes the nature of tyrannical leaders and touches on the "Princes good." (Peacham)
The casket that is displayed in the emblem's image is shown desolate with its only company being bees and flies hovering over the coffin. This image implies that although these tyrants had great power and success in their lifetimes, they had their "comeuppances" upon their deaths. The implication of the bees and flies around the casket is that everybody dies, no matter how infinitely powerful and virtually immortal a tyrant may seem, and that peace is restored upon the death of evil leaders, as represented by the presence of the bees. It is implied through the image that tyrants are given little homage in death, and no one mourns their loss.
Peacham's emblem starts with a first stanza that describes the common traits of "Princes good", meaning noble monarchs of the highest ranking, as well as the deplorable features of tyrants:
Peacham's depiction of tyrants is that of carnivorous beasts that delight in doing wrong and evil deeds to the people they are leading. They are people who suck the life and well-being out of the citizens under their rule, and care not of the welfare of "their People" other than to service themselves.
Also in the primary stanza, Peacham sheds light on the idea of tyrants not being chosen by God like "a lawfull good King" who is "ordained for his people, having received from God a burthen of government…." (Basilicon Doron p. 18) Peacham mentions that these tyrants will in the end have some sort of tragic downfall,
Because they are not God's chosen monarchs, it is implied that tyrants will receive some kind of negative punishment from "the Lord" Himself. Although their power seems limitless and their lives seem good at the moment of their reign, their time will come at some point.
The secondary stanza makes reference to two notoriously cruel and evil Roman emperors and how in the end they both died and were forgotten about upon the end of their heinous rule. Regardless of the pain and suffering that they succeeded in instilling within the hearts of their people, in the end they were the ones who lost.
(Peacham)Along with the bodies of the two evil doers also go the feare that their people held within them as a result of their mutual reign. All of the terror that they held their power with as well as the physical persons are buried and put out of sight and mind.
Unlike the passage from Basilicon Doron, Peacham's emblem has a moral that is implied at the end of the verses of the high, fall and low of a tyrant's supremacy. The suggestion within the final two lines of the emblem verses is that all achieve "vengeance through the smallest things."
It mentions how the bees and flies pictured in the image take pleasure in returning the suffering back to the deceased tyrant. James' work does not have a moral, but is more a comparison of the "good King" to the "usurping Tyrant." (Basilicon Doron)
James I wrote a book entitle Basilicon Doron, which has a passage that is very similar to Peacham's 144th emblem. However, there are also some distinct differences within his passage that make it unique from Peacham's emblem. As the work explains itself:
…contraria iuxta se posita magis elucescutn. (Basilicon Doron)
This Latin phrase translated means that "contrary things illuminate eachother when placed side by side." James I is saying that it is easier to understand both a "good King" and a "usurping Tyrant" when the two are looked at the same time.
Basilicon Doron describes a tyrant by stating that he "thinketh his people ordained for him, a prey to his passions and inordinate appetites," (Basilicon Doron) which is not dissimilar to Peacham's description of "the Monsters, that delight in blood," (Peacham) referring to the brutality of most tyrants. According to James, the result of his assumption that his people are only there to service him, he states that "their ends are directly contrarie, so are their whole actions, as meanes, whereby they presse to attaine to their endes." (Basilicon Doron) The contrast to the evil tyrant is the "good King", who is described by James as a self-sacrificing man whose biggest interest is "the well-fare and peace of his people." (Basilicon Doron)
Nero and Domitian were two evil Roman self-proclaimed emperors who reigned with iron fists and great suffering of the people they ruled. Rome was looked at as the greatest empire of all time, and having tyrants rule such a vast "kingdom" is dangerous in the eyes of Peacham and felt that it was necessary to make reference to the two notorious rulers. James I puts a greater emphasis on describing the greatness of "a lawfull good King" and how admirable their actions are, as opposed to showing the great disdain for tyrants that Peacham writes about.
-Whitney Sones
Works Cited
Peacham, Henry. Minerva Britanna.
London: Printed in shoe-lane at the signe of the Faulcon by Wa:Dight., 1612
Basilicon Doron - James I - pg 18
URL: http://www.stoics.com/basilikon_doron.html (Nov. 10 2001)
