Capitulum XII, de comparatione adulationis et veneni.
The Duty to Speak Against Flattery
The author, though inclined to modest silence, feels compelled to address the pervasive danger of flatterers who offer hidden poison to those of noble rank.
Silence would suit me, out of modesty, but because of the sheer number of flatterers, my discussion is held back for a little while — the subject matter overflows. For I am more in harmony with persons of noble rank, to whom these men offer poison and venom hidden under honey.
The Sweet Poison and Its Ancient Remedies
Flattery is likened to an insidious poison smeared with honey, illustrated through Cleopatra's asp, the psilli who draw out venom, and Ulysses resisting the Sirens — all showing that only sharp rebuke and virtue can counteract such hidden malice.
For as a certain wise man says: Poisons are never given unless they're smeared with honey, and no snares are more hidden than those concealed under the pretense of duty or some claim of relationship.1 That too is the most pernicious poison: the kind carried on the breath or in a gust of wind.2 In this way, flatterers of this sort know how to poison so sweetly that while men are perishing from their poison, they nevertheless seem to themselves to be dissolving into softness or falling asleep. This is the poison of asps, which Cleopatra, applying it to her breasts, met her death — as if she were dissolving into sleep — because, having been conquered by Caesar's chastity and seeing that her beauty availed nothing against him, she anticipated death, now despairing of it, lest she be kept as a spectacle while being led, wretched, in his triumph.3 This poison of asps is incurable, unless the tongues of the psilli draw it out.4 And so Augustus had psilli brought in for Cleopatra to overcome the malice of the poison, but they were applied too late and could offer no remedy. The tongues of the psilli are words of rebuke by which the perverse race of such people must be blunted, just as a nail is blunted by a nail. Hence it is written: The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails driven deep, which through the counsel of teachers are given by the one shepherd.✦5 This is why Ulysses escaped the dangers of the Sirens: because he set the remedies of virtue against the allurements of vanity.
The Fowler's Song and the Naked Graces
Just as a fowler's sweet pipe ensnares birds, flatterers deceive with outward appearances; true beauty, like the naked Graces or Esther's inner grace, needs no disguise, while false cosmetics seek only shadow and blindness.
For that most experienced man had known, since: The pipe sings sweetly while the fowler ensnares the bird. In the same way, the malice of such people deceives, offering poisons smeared over with honey. But any appearance that doesn't shine from within is suspect to me. This is why the images of the Graces were customarily fashioned naked in ancient times: truth can never be overshadowed by any pretense of disguise. Surely the rouge or white paint of shameless women, fearing exposure, seeks shadows—so that what is not truly in them may be seen by eyes deceived and tricked by illusion, and those who look upon them may be made blind. But in those qualities that, like our Esther, are endowed with true beauty from within, the matter stands otherwise—just as that excellent poet said:
Light and Darkness in the Moral Life
One woman loves darkness and hides; another welcomes the light and fears not the judge's scrutiny — a brief but vivid contrast between the deceptive and the sincere soul.
This woman loves darkness; that one wants to be seen in the light, and doesn't fear the judge's sharp scrutiny.
The Ruler's Greatest Fear: Spiritual Poison
Rulers above all must fear flattery's poison, as Aristotle warned Alexander through the tale of the serpent-steeped Indian girl — a spiritual venom that blinds the soul, just as Argus's hundred eyes are put out by a single flute's pleasure.
This poison of flattery is the thing rulers above all should fear. So Aristotle, warning Alexander to beware of women, said among other things: Beware of deadly poisons. For people don't start poisoning from scratch. And a little later: Alexander, recall what the queen of the Indians did, when for the sake of friendship she sent you many fine gifts and lovely presents, among which was sent that most beautiful girl, who from infancy had been steeped in and fed on the venom of serpents, and unless I had shrewdly examined her at that time and judged by skill — because she was fixing her gaze so boldly, so horribly, so relentlessly, so shamelessly on people's faces — I would indeed have perceived that she would kill people with her bite alone, which you later proved by experience, and unless I had made this most certainly clear, your death would have followed in the heat of intercourse. But between these two — that material poison, obviously, and this spiritual one — the difference is that the one harms the body, the other harms the soul, and takes away the sight of the spiritual eyes. Argus had his head ringed with a hundred eyes, all of which are lulled by the pleasure of a single flute — not so much put to sleep as put out.
Read the original Latin
Silentium indicent mihi verecundia, sed propter adulatorum multitudinem, aliquantisper sermonis retardatur excursus, exubérante materia. Compatior enim personis nobilium quibus isti sub melle propinant toxicum et venenum.
Nam ut sapiens quidam ait : Venena non dantur nisi nielle circumlita, nullaeque sunt occultiores insidiae quam quae latent in simulatione officii aut aliquo necessitudinis nomine. Illud etiam perniciosissimum est l venenum quod emittitur per anhelitum vel per flatum. Sic autem suaviter norunt adulatores hujusmodi toxicare ut dum eorum veneno pereunt homines videantur tamen sibi quadam resolvi mollitie vel dormire. Hoc est venenum aspidum, quod Cleopatra mamillis adhibens sic morte functa est quasi resolveretur in sompnum, eo quod Caesaris victa pudicitia, videns in Caesarem nihil ejus valere pulcritudinem, mortem desperata praevenit, ne servaretur in spectaculum, dum duceretur misera ad triumphum. Venenum hoc aspidum insanabile, si non illud eduxerint psillorum linguae. Unde et Cleopatrae psillos Augustus adhiberi fecit qui veneni superarent malitiam, sed tarde nimis adhibiti non potuerunt ullam impendere medicinam. Linguae psillorum verba sunt increpationum quibus retundenda est istorum perversa natio, sicut retunditur clavus clavo, unde scriptum est : Verba sapientum quasi stimuli et quasi clavi in altum defixi, quae per magistrorum consilia data sunt a pastore uno. Inde est quod Ulixes Syrenum evasit pericula, quoniam illecebris vanitatis opposuit virtutis remédia.
Noverat enim vir ille expertissimus quoniam :
Fistula dulce canit volucrem dum decipit auceps.
Sic decipit horum malitia dum venena propinant melle circumlita. Omnis autem species quae ex seipsa non lucet mihi suspecta est. Unde solebant antiquitus Gratiarum simulacra nuda formari, eo quod veritas nullo simulationis " fuco valeat obumbrari. Certe impudicarum mulierum purpurissus aut cerusa, dum argui veretur a lumine, petit umbras, ut quod non est in eis quodam modo prestigiati et decepti oculi videant, et qui vident caeci fiant. Sed in illis quae cum Hesther nostra ex vera pulcritudine sortiuntur aliter invenitur, sicut ille egregius versificator dixit :
Haec amat obscurum ; volet haec sub luce videri, Judicis argutum quae non formidat acumen.
Hoc adulationis venenum maxime est principibus formidandum. Unde Aristoteles informans de cavendis mulieribus Alexandrum inter caetera ita dixit : Cave mortifera venena. Non enim de novo incipiunt homines venenare. Et post pauca : O Alexander, recole factum reginae Indorum, quando tibi mandavit causa amicitiae multa exhenia et dona venusta, inter quae missa est illa venustissima puella, quae ab infantia imbuta et nutrita fuit veneno serpentum, et nisi illa hora ego sagaciter inspexissem in ipsam, et arte judicavissem eo quod ita audactanter, horribiliter, incessabiliter, inverecundum suum figebat visum in faciem hominum, perpendi siquidem quod interficeret homines solo morsu; quod tu experimento postea probavisti, et nisi hoc certissime ostendissem, mors tua fuisset in ardore coitus consecuta. Sed inter haec, et illud toxicum materiale scilicet et spirituale, haec differentia est quod illud corpori, illud animae nocet, et oculorum spiritualium visum aufert. Centum luminibus cinctum caput Argus habebat, quae omnia unius fistulae voluptate non tam sopita sunt quam extincta.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Eccl.12.11 — The words of the wise are like goads, and their collected sayings are like firmly fixed nails, given by one Shepherd.
Notes
- 1 ↩The token 'nielle' in the source is uncertain and may be a scribal error or dialectal form; the translation follows the most plausible intended sense (honey/sweet coating) from context.
- 2 ↩The token 'l' in the source is uncertain — possibly a scribal error or abbreviation. It is omitted in translation as unintelligible.
- 3 ↩The passage draws on the legendary account of Cleopatra's death by asp bite, a classical anecdote repurposed here as an allegory of flattery's deadly sweetness.
- 4 ↩The psilli were an ancient people reputed to have the power to draw out snake venom by their breath or touch; 'tongues' here likely refers to their spoken or breath-based remedy.
- 5 ↩The quotation 'Verba sapientum quasi stimuli et quasi clavi in altum defixi' echoes Ecclesiastes 12:11 (Vulgate). Final scriptural resolution deferred to tx-08 Moses stage.
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