In a landscape near a walled town a grey wolf stands over the body of a King who lies stretched out dead upon the ground. To the right a fire blazes, in which the wolf is to be burnt so that the King may be returned to life. The scene shows both the devouring and the fiery restoration named in the motto.

Epigramma

Multi uorum captare lupum tibi cura fit, illi Proiicies Regis corpus, ut inglusuiem Hoc domet, hunc difponme rogo, Vulcanus ubi ignem Exicit, in cineres belua quo redet. Illud agas iterum atque iterum, fic morte refurget Resque Leonino corde fuperbus erit.

Translation

Let it be your care to catch a ravenous wolf, and throw to him the body of the King, so that he may devour it as fodder. Then tame him, lay him out on a pyre where Vulcan kindles fire, until the beast goes back into ashes. Do this again and again, and so the King will rise from death, and the matter, proud with a lion's heart, will be supreme.

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Discourse 24.

It is a thing coḿonlycommonly knowneknown, how great the hunger and voracity of a wolfewolf is: *

*neither the ℞ of ♁, nor
♂ are so extreme hungry

for when heehe wants food, in extreme hunger heehe feeds upon the earth: which
allsoalso heehe is saydsaid to disgorge, if heehe come amongst great heardsherds of beasts, that
being made more heavy with that packepack as it were, heehe cannot be soeso easily
Shak'dShaked off, but resists more strongly and furiously. Having entredentered into the
folds, heehe not onelyonly kills what is sufficient for his belly, but allsoalso through
greedinessegreediness destroyesdestroys the whole flockeflock on every side. HeeHe is consecrated to
Apollo and Latona, because heehe stood by her when sheeshe was in labourlabor: for
neither could Latona have been delivered without the præsencepresence of the
wolfewolf: and therefore the wolfewolf is not without reason reported to be accep=
table to Apollo, whose birth=-daybirthday heehe celebrated; as allsoalso because his eyes -
doedo shine and cast forth light by night. The breathlessebreathless body of the -
King is cast to him being extreme hungry, not to the end that heehe should
wholywholly consume and annihilate it, but to restore life and strength to it
by his owneown death: For there is I know not what amatory virtue in the -
wolfe'swolf's tayletail, which is infused into the King being halfehalf dead, which makes
him very desireabledesirable to all men, heehe restoring pristine health and beauty: -
The Hyrcanians brought up doggsdogs for noeno other use, than to devouredevour the
bodyesbodies of dead men cast to them, as Cicero relates: SoeSo allsoalso the Massage=
tæMassagetae doedo give men that dyedie of diseases as prey to doggsdogs: But the Phi=
losophers expose their King to a wolfewolf nor indeed did the customecustom of the
SabæansSabeans please them, in carrying out the corpscorpses of the deceased after the
same manner as dung, who allsoalso threw their Kings amongst dung hills, -
nor of the Troglodytes, who ty'dtied the neckeneck of a dead man to their feet, -
and hurrydhurried him along with jests and laughter, and without any consi=
deration of the place burydburied him: But they had rather herein follow the
customecustom of the Magi, who did not bury their bodyesbodies, before they were -
tornetorn to peicespieces by wild beasts: Or of the Indians, who caused themselves
to be burydburied alive, with Crowns on Singing, the praysespraises of the Gods, lest old
age should præventprevent. but this customecustom was fatally imposdimposed upon them all without
any hope of resurrection, or renovation of life: the Philosophers determine -
farrefar otherwise: for they have most certainecertain knowledge, that their dead King -
devoured by the wolfewolf will appear with life, strength, and youth, and the -
wolfewolf must be burned in his stead: For the wolfewolf may easily be put to death,
if heehe hathhas soeso gorged his belly, but the King, though dead, hathhas notwith=
standing a MartiallMartial or Swan=-likeSwan-like virtue soeso as not to be wounded nor con=
sumed: But where must this wolfewolf be sought for, and from whence must
the King be had? The Philosophers answer,

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Discourse 24.

that the wolfewolf wanders every
where in mountains and vallyesvalleys, to take his prey, who must be drawnedrawn out
of his harbours, and præservdpreserved for use: The King allsoalso coming from the -
East wearyedwearied with a long and tædioustedious journey at length falls downedown, whose
death allsoalso greifegrief accelerates, seeing himselfehimself in noeno honourhonor, and soeso -
little esteemdesteemed amongst strangers and forreignersforeigners, as to be sold into servi=
tude for a little monymoney: But the wolfewolf must be had out of a colder region, for
those that are bred in a cold climate are more fierce, than in Africa or ÆgyptEgypt,
by reason of greater hunger procedingproceeding from externallexternal cold: the devoured King -
dothdoes afterwards revive with a LyonsLions courage, who is then able to subdue all -
wild beasts; and though heehe be in aspect the meanest amongst his six bre=
thren, that is, the youngest of all, yet will heehe after many tribulations and
miseryesmiseries at length attaineattain to a most powerfullpowerful kingdomekingdom: Thereupon SaythSays -
Gratian in the Rosary: In AlchymyAlchemy there is a certainecertain noble body, which
is moved from master to master, in whose beginingbeginning will be misery and -
sharpnessesharpness, but in the end joy and gladnessegladness: and Alanus in the same: -
One thing is to be chosen and præferrdpreferred before all, which is of a livid colourcolor,
having a clear and liquid metallickemetallic Species, and is a thing hotthot and moist
watrywatery and adustive, and is a living oyleoil and a living tincture, a Mine=
rallMineral stone and aqua vitævitae of wonderfullwonderful efficacy. It is not allwayesalways Safe for
Kings to travayletravel out of the confines of their kingdomeskingdoms, for if they abscond
and be discovered, they are by their adversaryesadversaries taken for SpyesSpies and im=
prisoned; if allsoalso being detected they proceed without an army they are -
after the same manner in danger: soeso allsoalso hathhas it happened, or would have
happened to this Indian King, death not being præventedprevented. This is the first
sublimation, lotion, and nobilitation, which the Philosophers use, -
that the second and third may be performdperformed with the greater successesuccess:
for those without this are not of any efficacy, the King being as yet
pusillanimous, somnolent, and sickesick. For heehe must of necessity first
require subsidyessubsidies and tribute from his subjects, whereby heehe may pur*

*N.B.

=
chase himselfehimself garments and other necessaryesnecessaries, and afterwards heehe -
will be rich enough, soeso as to be able to bestow new garments upon all
his subjects, soeso often as heehe please: for great things for the most part
procedingproceeding from small beginingsbeginnings may then advance small things, or -
allsoalso suppressesuppress great things, if they will: as for example, Small CityesCities
at the beginingbeginning, which have afterwards governed great Kings, and -
of villages have made spatiousspacious and populous towns . . . . . . .

English discourse from Furnace and Fugue, edited by Tara Nummedal and Donna Bilak (University of Virginia Press, 2020). Transcription and encoding: Elli Mylonas, Scott DiGiulio, and George Elliott. © Brown University; CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Anonymous seventeenth-century English translation, Yale, Beinecke Library, Mellon MS 48. Complete discourse reproduced unchanged; the publisher’s normalized reading is displayed. This separate contribution is not covered by ARMISTICE’s CC0 grant. Source discourse.

Michael Maier — Atalanta Fugiens