An Old Man, a Stripling, and an Ass (Emblem 54)

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An Old Man, a Stripling, and an Ass (Emblem 54)

Poem 119

Original Source

Hester Pulter, Poems breathed forth by the nobel Hadassas, University of Leeds Library, Brotherton Collection, MS Lt q 32

Versions

  • Facsimile of manuscript: Photographs provided by University of Leeds, Brotherton Collection

  • Transcription of manuscript: By Leah Knight and Wendy Wall.
  • Elemental edition: By Leah Knight and Wendy Wall.

How to cite these versions

Conventions for these editions

The Pulter Project: Poet in the Making

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X (Close panel)Notes: Transcription

 Editorial note

In these transcriptions we preserve as many details of the original material, textual, and graphic properties of Hester Pulter’s manuscript verse as we have found practical. Whenever possible, for instance, original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, insertions, deletions, alterations, spacing between words and lines, and indentation are all maintained; abbreviations and brevigraphs are not expanded; and superscript and subscript representations are retained. See full conventions for the transcriptions here.
Line number 1

 Physical note

Unlike surrounding poems in the “Emblems” section, no number precedes this poem.
Line number 36

 Physical note

poem followed by blank page
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Transcription
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[Emblem 54]
An Old Man, a Stripling, and an Ass
(Emblem 54)
An Old Man, a Stripling, and an Ass
In these transcriptions we preserve as many details of the original material, textual, and graphic properties of Hester Pulter’s manuscript verse as we have found practical. Whenever possible, for instance, original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, insertions, deletions, alterations, spacing between words and lines, and indentation are all maintained; abbreviations and brevigraphs are not expanded; and superscript and subscript representations are retained. See full conventions for the transcriptions here.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
The aim of the elemental edition is to make the poems accessible to the largest variety of readers, which involves modernizing spelling and punctuation as well as adding basic glosses. Spelling and punctuation reflect current standard American usage; punctuation highlights syntax which might otherwise be obscure. Outmoded but still familiar word forms (“thou,” “‘tis,” “hold’st”) are not modernized, and we do not modernize grammar when the sense remains legible. After a brief headnote aimed at offering a “way in” to the poem’s unique qualities and connections with other verse by Pulter or her contemporaries, the edition features a minimum of notes and interpretative framing to allow more immediate engagement with the poem. Glosses clarify synonyms or showcase various possible meanings in Pulter’s time. Other notes identify named people and places or clarify obscure material. We rely (without citation) primarily on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the Oxford Reference database, and the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. When we rely on Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work, we cite her text generally (“Eardley”); other sources are cited in full. The result is an edition we consider a springboard for further work on Pulter’s poetry. See full conventions for this edition here.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
We offer here a modernized edition of this emblem in order to facilitate engagement with the text. Reflecting the manuscript’s origins, we use contemporary British spelling. Capitalization has been regularized; we have expanded thorns and ampersands; we have included possessive apostrophes where necessary. With punctuation we have tried to capture the way the poem creates momentum through its relative absence of punctuation by restricting our interventions to commas and full stops.
Due to a scribal error, there is no Emblem 18 in Pulter’s manuscript: Emblem 17 is followed by Emblem 19. Therefore, as The Pulter Project retains the numbering used in the manuscript (and in Alice Eardley’s edition), Emblem 54 is in fact the fifty-third and final emblem.


— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
You can’t please all of the people all of the time: Pulter transforms that truism into both political history and prophecy in a poem which begins as a light-hearted fable before taking a darkly murderous turn. The villain here is the instability and inconstancy of public opinion, figured commonly as a multi-headed Hydra. Pulter uses the Aesopian tale of how people mercilessly mock any choice made by a man riding through town to threaten Oliver Cromwell and those who came to power with him in the aftermath of the civil war: Cromwell will undoubtedly be hoisted on his own petard and suffer the violent fates of others in history who relied on popular acclamation to overthrow sovereignty.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
In this emblem, an old man, a young boy, and an ass perform various configurations of walking, riding and carrying each other as an observing crowd mocks their progress. The crowd enacts judgment and attempts to influence the travelers’ behavior by deploying laughter to publicly shame them. In so doing, this laughing community, to use the term mobilized by Werner Röcke and Hans Rudolf Velten (2005), operates as a paradigm of inclusion and exclusion: a means by which to solidify the laughing group’s boundaries and norms by drawing attention to those deemed to have transgressed. At the same time, the poem also highlights how the notion of inclusivity itself is fickle, its boundary constantly redefined by the whims of the crowd, Pulter’s “Hydrian monstrosity” (25) (see Victoria Burke’s curation The Many-Headed Hydra). (In Greek mythology, the Hydra was a many-headed monster whose heads reproduced each time one was cut off; Herakles had to kill it as one of his labors.)
The old man is at pains to avoid public censure. He risks being perceived as too proud or merciless towards the child for making him walk beside the ass while he rides; too easily manipulated by the same child for letting the child ride the ass in his place; or too cruel towards his ass for forcing the animal to bear their dual weight. Even when neither ride the ass or when they both carry the animal, they still fail to appease the onlookers. The old man and his companions are caught in a net of shifting demands that reinforces the “giddy” (28) behavior of the crowd.
As such, while the crowd’s uproarious mirth at the sight of the travelers dramatizes Pulter’s critique of the old man and his companions (by contorting yourself to please others you end up pleasing no one) she also finds fault with the crowd itself. This roaring “Hydrian monstrosity” (25), as noted above, embodies the fickle instability of public opinion. In the face of relentless pressure, the old man abandons all hope of pleasing the onlooking crowd and sadly flings his ass into the sea. Following his spectacular failure to assert self-sovereignty, the old man’s killing of his ass offers an expedient if disappointing way out of his predicament.
It is at this point that Pulter shifts to a prophetic mode, making a series of allusions to deposed rulers from antiquity and the Middle Ages to suggest that Oliver Cromwell’s reliance on populist support will lead to his downfall. Ultimately, this emblem suggests that those who rely on “Hydra’s love” (33)—popular opinion—to determine their actions will suffer an ignominious end.
While the precise source of Pulter’s emblem remains unclear, it is evident that the story of the old man, the boy, and the ass circulated across early modern Europe. Blague’s Schole of Wise Conceytes (London, 1572) includes a translation of Poggio Bracciolini’s (also known as Poggio Fiorentino) fable of this triumvirate (Christian 2012); a sixteenth-century, hand-colored, Dutch woodcut print by Cornelis Anthonisz (1509–1553) exists with this fable inscribed beneath associated images; and William Warner’s Albions England, first published in 1586, offers a verse form in rhyming couplets. It is this text’s 1612 edition that Alice Eardley (2014) points to as an alternative version of the emblem and which to us seems the likeliest candidate as Pulter’s source. Additionally, this fable has been mischaracterized as “Aesopian” or “pseudo-Aesopian” (Knight and Wall, Elemental Edition Headnote; Christian 385): this tale is not only absent from Aesop’s fables, but in those tales the animals are the main protagonists, and it is through their interaction with others (human or animal) that they teach a lesson to the reader. Here, the ass has no agency, it doesn’t speak and it possesses no character.
Citations
Christian, Stefan Graham. “The Poems of Lady Hester Pulter (1605?–1678): An Annotated Edition.” PhD diss., University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2012. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing (3545910).
Eardley, Alice. Poems, Emblems, and The Unfortunate Florinda. By Hester Pulter. Toronto: Iter and Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2014.
Knight, Leah and Wendy Wall, eds. “An Old Man, a Stripling, and an Ass,” by Hester Pulter. (Poem 119, Elemental Edition). In The Pulter Project: Poet in the Making, edited by Leah Knight and Wendy Wall, 2018.
Röcke, Werner and Hans Rudolf Velten. Lachgemeinschaften: Kulturelle Inszenierungen und soziale Wirkungen von Gelächter im Mittelalter und in der Frühen Neuzeit. De Gruyter, 2005.


— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
1
Physical Note
Unlike surrounding poems in the “Emblems” section, no number precedes this poem.
An old Man through a Town did often paſs
An old man through a town did often pass;
An old man through a town did often pass,
2
With him a pretty Stripling and an Aſs
With him, a pretty
Gloss Note
a youth
stripling and an ass.
With him a pretty
Gloss Note
stripling: a youth, with connotations of coming of age. The OED suggests that the word derives from “a strip,” meaning “one whose figure is not yet filled out.”

“stripling, n.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/191697. Accessed 5 April 2023.

stripling and an ass.
3
The Man did Ride, the Boy was Pedester
The man did ride; the boy was
Gloss Note
on foot
pedester,
Physical Note
The: Throughout the manuscript, the scribe has added a superscript e to the end of many words ending in “e” in the text.
The man did ride, the boy was
Gloss Note
pedester: walking; on foot; pedestrian.
pedester ,
4
As fit it was, he wait upon his Master
Gloss Note
since it was suitable for him to serve his master
As fit it was, he wait upon his master.
Gloss Note
As fit it was: as was fitting. Importantly here, the speaker notes that the initial arrangement mirrors conventional ideas about hierarchy and respect for old age over youth.
As fit as it was ,he wait upon his master.
5
At this the people Laughed out alowd
At this, the people laughéd out aloud,
At this the people
Gloss Note
laughéd: The accent in the word “laughéd” continues the pentameter that is established in the poem.
laughéd
Critical Note
The people laughed out aloud: This is the first of four times across the poem where Pulter notes that the crowd is explicitly laughing. By including laughter Pulter chooses to depict the crowd as both mocking the trio and treating them as entertainment.
out loud
6
Saying the Man was mercieles or proud
Saying the man was merciless or proud
Critical Note
Merciless or proud: The description of the man as merciless or proud suggests a tyrannical individual; the people seek to shame the man by suggesting explicitly that he is sinful. The critique of pride is a common theme in Pulter’s emblems (see for example, “The Porcupine” (Emblem 13) [Poem 79]or “The Ostrich” (Emblem 41). [Poem 106]
Saying the man was merciless or proud
7
To let the pretty Child goe Swetting by
To let the pretty child go sweating by,
To let the pretty child go sweating by
8
Whils’t hee Rode Ambling in his Majestie
Whilst he rode, ambling in his majesty.
Whilst he rode
Gloss Note
ambling: smooth, easy or leisurely. The OED indicates that this verb particularly relates to the pace of a quadruped (e.g., a horse).

“amble, v.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/6181. Accessed 5 April 2023.

ambling
Critical Note
Majesty: Given the poem’s political valences, this is a significant noun. Considering that majesty is associated with monarchy, the tone may be understood as sarcastic or ironic; the use of the word “majesty” seems to be the speaker ventriloquizing the crowd, taking on the crowd’s judgment of the old man. When married with the “merciless and proud” description, this again implies a tyrannical strain in this old man. “Majesty” arriving on an ass also possesses latent imagery of Jesus’s arrival in Jerusalem on a donkey, an act similarly disruptive but which was much more positively received by the public. Both situations invite a questioning of hierarchy and power.
in his majesty.
9
The boy Rode next the Man did trudg a foot
Gloss Note
That is, the man dismounted and the boy mounted the horse.
The boy rode next; the man did trudge afoot:
Gloss Note
Trudge: This evocative contrast with “ambling” (line 8) emphasizes the sluggish, weary movement of the man on foot. Interestingly, this moment also suggests some sympathy on the speaker’s part for the old man.
The boy rode next, the man did trudgeafoot.
10
But then the people did Soe laugh and Shout
But then, the people did so laugh and shout
But then the people did so laugh and shout
11
Becauſe the Man did favour Soe the Lad
Because the man did favor so the lad
Critical Note
Favour: Notably, unlike with the child, the people are not concerned about the welfare of the man, but that there is a hierarchical boundary crossed: that the child should be so “favour[ed]” and thus implicitly spoiled.
Because the man did favourso the lad
12
To goe a foot whilst hee Rode on his Pad
To go afoot whilst he rode on his
Gloss Note
usually, a riding horse; here, the ass; alternatively, a saddle or saddle pad
pad.
Gloss Note
Pad: Pulter characterizes the ass as a saddle horse.
To go afoot whilst he rode on his pad.
13
Next time this poor Man through ye Town did Paſs
Next time this poor man through the town did pass,
Gloss Note
poor: The speaker’s sympathy, suggested at line 9, is made explicit here and continues with the repetition of “poor” at line 24.
Next time this poorman through the town did pass,
14
The Man and Boy got both upon the Aſs
The man and boy got both upon the ass;
The man and boy got both up on the ass.
15
But then the People bad him lite for Shame
But then the people bade him
Gloss Note
“light” as in alight or dismount; “for shame” ventriloquizes the people’s admonition, as does the next line.
light, for shame;
Gloss Note
bade him light: alight, i.e., the people instructed the man to dismount.
But then the people bade him light
Gloss Note
for shame: Again, the speaker ventriloquizes the crowd, which shames the old man.
for shame,
16
Hee’d Spoyl the Aſs or make him Sick or Lame
He’d
Gloss Note
injure
spoil the ass, or make him sick, or lame.
Gloss Note
spoil: injure, thus rendering the ass less useful.
He’d spoilthe ass or make him sick or lame.
17
Next time beſide the Aſs they both did walk
Next time, beside the ass they both did walk;
Next time beside the ass they both did walk,
18
But then they were the Town and Countreys talk
But then they were the town and county’s talk.
Critical Note
town and country’s: The most recent configuration of the travelers is so radical that the people’s censure spreads beyond the town to the countryside. “Country” could also signal the nation.
But then they were the town and country’stalk.
19
The people laughd and made the Welken Ring
The people laughed and
Gloss Note
an expression indicative of a loud noise (with “welkin” meaning the sky)
made the welkin ring;
Gloss Note
laughed and made the welkin ring: That this laughter is described as reaching the sky (i.e., “the welkin”) develops the idea that censure is growing exponentially.
The people laughed and made the welkin ring,
20
Children their ffolly up and down did Sing
Children their folly up and down did sing.
Critical Note
sing: Within the interior world of the emblem, the story of the foolish traveling companions is related through children’s songs. Again, the emblem repeats the description of ridicule spreading through space and becoming even something of lore, perhaps, immortalized in song. Notably, the emblem genre itself was, in seventeenth-century England, evolving into a form particularly aimed at children.
Children their folly up and down did sing.
21
Once more the Man Reſolvd the Road to paſs
Once more the man resolved the road to pass,
Once more the man resolved the load to pass
22
And then the Youth and hee did bear the Aſs
And then the youth and he did
Gloss Note
carry
bear the ass,
Gloss Note
bear: To carry, with the implication that the load is particularly heavy and cumbersome.
And then the youth and he did bearthe ass,
at
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23
At which the people did Soe laugh & Rore
At which the people did so laugh and roar
Critical Note
laugh and roar: This bestial depiction of laughter not only aligns the crowd with animal behavior but foreshadows Pulter’s scathing description of it as a Hydrian monstrosity.
At which the people did so laugh and roar
24
That the poor Man would never more explore
That the poor man would ne’er more
Gloss Note
attempt
explore
That the poor man would never more explore
25
The Hidrian monſtossity to pleaſe
The
Gloss Note
The Hydra was the many-headed serpent in classical mythology that could grow additional heads when one was cut off; the adjective can be used to refer to anything similarly destructive, multi-headed, or hard to kill.
Hydrian monstrosity to please,
Critical Note
Hydrian monstrosity: The crowd is like the Hydra not because they are unruly per se (as Eardley suggests), but because each attempt to appease an opinion only spurs more opinions (just as cutting off a hydra’s heads only causes more to grow in their place), making satisfaction impossible.
The Hydrian monstrosity to please,
26
But Sadly ^flung his Aſs into the Seas
But sadly flung his ass into the seas.
Critical Note
sadly: Once more, Pulter’s speaker offers a pitying note that contrasts with the violent mockery of the crowd; she offers a sympathetic description of the old man’s state of mind, the bearing this has on his decision to drown his ass, and the manner in which this action is performed.
But sadly
Physical Note
flung: “Flung” is inserted above the line. This may be Pulter’s own correction.
flunghis ass into the seas.
27
By this you See they doe themſelvs delude
By this you see they do themselves delude
By this you see they do themselves delude
28
That think to pleas the giddy multitude
That think to please the
Gloss Note
flighty, inconstant; whirling with bewildering speed
giddy multitude.
Critical Note
giddy multitude: Once again Pulter emphasizes both the inconstancy and the enormity of the crowd and suggests the inability to control it.
That think to please the giddy multitude.
29
Andronicus did make this Story good
Gloss Note
Andronicus had his joint emperor of Greece, Alexius, killed; the people then revolted against and tortured Andronicus.
Andronicus did make this story good;
Gloss Note
Andronicus: In 1182, during the Byzantine Empire’s Comnenus dynasty, Andronicus (c.1118-1185) seized power and subsequently murdered the young Emperor Alexius II (1169-1183) and his regent mother, Maria of Antioch (c. 1140s-1182/3). Andronicus was a cousin of Alexius II’s father, Emperor Manuel I (1118-80). Widely regarded as a tyrant who inaugurated a reign of terror, the populace ultimately turned against Andronicus. He was tortured to death by a mob in Constantinople in 1185.
Andronicusdid make this story good,
30
Even hee y:t Shed his Royall Soverraigns blood
Even he that shed his royal sovereign’s blood,
Critical Note
Even he that shed his royal sovereign’s blood: This is an ambiguous line in the manuscript. While other editors (Knight and Wall) have added punctuation to make the line modify “Sejanus”, historically Sejanus did not murder his emperor as Andronicus did. We read the line as an emphatic repetition of the previous line. Our choice also balances out the speaker’s attention to these two historical examples: two lines each are devoted to Andronicus and Sejanus.
Even he that shed his royal sovereign’s blood.
31
Sejanus Soe by popular breath up born
Gloss Note
an influential officer in ancient Rome who was arrested and executed (with his body was torn to pieces by the crowd) on suspicion of intent to kill the emperor Tiberius
Sejanus, so by pop’lar breath up borne,
Critical Note
Sejanus: While it is unlikely that Pulter would have known Ben Johnson’s Sejanus (1603/1605), she demonstrates her humanist education and familiarity with humanist literary practice in her reference to the historical personage Lucius Aelius Sejanus (20 BC - AD 31), a soldier from an eminent political family in ancient Rome. He was suspected of plotting to overthrow Emperor Tiberius (42 BC - AD 37) and consequently was torn to pieces by a bloodthirsty crowd loyal to the emperor. As Christian notes in his edition of the poems, Sejanus’ “story would have been familiar to Pulter from the accounts of Tacitus, Suetonius, and Juvenal; his fate was proverbial for the consequences of ambition and pride” (386).
Sejanus
Critical Note
by popular breath: Like the roaring crowd in this emblem, Sejanus’ fate is sealed by popular opinion which, as the image of “breath” suggests, is insubstantial. In early modern literature, the people’s breath was often interpreted as stinking and disgusting.
so by popular breathup born
32
By Barrierus was in peeces Torn
By
Gloss Note
The manuscript reads “Barrierus,” which Eardley interprets as Briareus, a monster in ancient Greek mythology with a hundred arms and fifty heads.
Briareus was in pieces torn.
Gloss Note
Barrierus: Previous editors concur that Barrierus is a reference to Briareaus, one of the Hekatoncheires found in ancient Greek mythology. With a hundred arms and fifty heads, this gargantuan monster, along with his two brothers, Cottes and Gyges, was often associated with the destructive power of natural elements.
By Barrierus
Critical Note
in pieces torn: Here Barrierus represents a monstrous crowd that tears Sejanus into pieces.
was in pieces torn.
33
Soe Some alive the Hidras love will Rue
So
Gloss Note
Oliver Cromwell and those who came to power in his regime, supported by popular opinion
some alive the Hydra’s love will rue
Critical Note
So some alive the Hydra’s love will rue: This is the beginning in a shift of the moral Pulter has been offering; first, the old man is likened to those who delude themselves hoping to please the multitude; then, those who have the love of the multitude (i.e., who are no longer just trying to obtain its love) will “rue” this situation as they will receive what is owed to them. Indeed, she suggests that possessing the people’s favor is itself worthy of censure.
So some alive the Hydra’s love will rue
34
When as to them they give to theſe their due
Gloss Note
When
Whenas
Gloss Note
When people rely on popular opinion (referred to in the line above as the “Hydra’s love”); to give someone their due is to pay respect to them.
to them they give to these their due.
Critical Note
give to these their due: To give someone their due is to give them what is owed to them for their actions. Here Pulter suggests that there is now something negative owed, “due” to those (“them” / “these”) who possess the Hydra’s/people’s love.
When as to them they give to these their due.
35
ffor certainly ’twill one day come to paſs
For certainly ’twill one day come to pass
Critical Note
For certainly ’twill one day come to pass: Pulter shifts into a prophetic mode, drawing on historical example and common wisdom.
For certainly ’twill one day come to pass
36
They’l have the death and Buriall of this
Physical Note
poem followed by blank page
Aſs
They’ll have the death and burial of
Gloss Note
Cromwell, whom the speaker hopes will be rejected and destroyed like the ass in the fable
this ass.
Critical Note
They’ll have the death and burial of this ass: Pulter’s shift at the end of the poem surprisingly turns Cromwell into the ass. Her derision of Cromwell repeats ideas present in e.g. Emblem 19 [Poem 84], where she laments the Royalists’ moral failings and Cromwell’s association with commoners: “had not lords in noble breeding failed, / Tinkers and cobblers never had prevailed” (ll.30–1). As Laura Longer Knoppers has shown, Royalist satire associated Cromwell with such “mechanicals” and popular opinion by depicting him as a brewer despite his status as a gentleman (2000). In transforming Cromwell into the ass, Pulter renders guilty what in the poem is in fact an innocent animal; the ass becomes the symbol of the negative, detrimental, irrational and violent ends of wanting to please everyone all the time.

Knoppers, Laura Longer. “‘Sing Old Noll the Brewer’: Royalist Satire and Social Inversion, 1648–64.” The Seventeenth Century, vol. 15, no. 1, 2000, pp. 32–52, https://doi.org/10.1080/0268117X.2000.10555466

They’ll have the death and burial of this ass.
X (Close panel)Notes: Elemental Edition

 Editorial note

The aim of the elemental edition is to make the poems accessible to the largest variety of readers, which involves modernizing spelling and punctuation as well as adding basic glosses. Spelling and punctuation reflect current standard American usage; punctuation highlights syntax which might otherwise be obscure. Outmoded but still familiar word forms (“thou,” “‘tis,” “hold’st”) are not modernized, and we do not modernize grammar when the sense remains legible. After a brief headnote aimed at offering a “way in” to the poem’s unique qualities and connections with other verse by Pulter or her contemporaries, the edition features a minimum of notes and interpretative framing to allow more immediate engagement with the poem. Glosses clarify synonyms or showcase various possible meanings in Pulter’s time. Other notes identify named people and places or clarify obscure material. We rely (without citation) primarily on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the Oxford Reference database, and the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. When we rely on Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work, we cite her text generally (“Eardley”); other sources are cited in full. The result is an edition we consider a springboard for further work on Pulter’s poetry. See full conventions for this edition here.

 Headnote

You can’t please all of the people all of the time: Pulter transforms that truism into both political history and prophecy in a poem which begins as a light-hearted fable before taking a darkly murderous turn. The villain here is the instability and inconstancy of public opinion, figured commonly as a multi-headed Hydra. Pulter uses the Aesopian tale of how people mercilessly mock any choice made by a man riding through town to threaten Oliver Cromwell and those who came to power with him in the aftermath of the civil war: Cromwell will undoubtedly be hoisted on his own petard and suffer the violent fates of others in history who relied on popular acclamation to overthrow sovereignty.
Line number 2

 Gloss note

a youth
Line number 3

 Gloss note

on foot
Line number 4

 Gloss note

since it was suitable for him to serve his master
Line number 9

 Gloss note

That is, the man dismounted and the boy mounted the horse.
Line number 12

 Gloss note

usually, a riding horse; here, the ass; alternatively, a saddle or saddle pad
Line number 15

 Gloss note

“light” as in alight or dismount; “for shame” ventriloquizes the people’s admonition, as does the next line.
Line number 16

 Gloss note

injure
Line number 19

 Gloss note

an expression indicative of a loud noise (with “welkin” meaning the sky)
Line number 22

 Gloss note

carry
Line number 24

 Gloss note

attempt
Line number 25

 Gloss note

The Hydra was the many-headed serpent in classical mythology that could grow additional heads when one was cut off; the adjective can be used to refer to anything similarly destructive, multi-headed, or hard to kill.
Line number 28

 Gloss note

flighty, inconstant; whirling with bewildering speed
Line number 29

 Gloss note

Andronicus had his joint emperor of Greece, Alexius, killed; the people then revolted against and tortured Andronicus.
Line number 31

 Gloss note

an influential officer in ancient Rome who was arrested and executed (with his body was torn to pieces by the crowd) on suspicion of intent to kill the emperor Tiberius
Line number 32

 Gloss note

The manuscript reads “Barrierus,” which Eardley interprets as Briareus, a monster in ancient Greek mythology with a hundred arms and fifty heads.
Line number 33

 Gloss note

Oliver Cromwell and those who came to power in his regime, supported by popular opinion
Line number 34

 Gloss note

When
Line number 34

 Gloss note

When people rely on popular opinion (referred to in the line above as the “Hydra’s love”); to give someone their due is to pay respect to them.
Line number 36

 Gloss note

Cromwell, whom the speaker hopes will be rejected and destroyed like the ass in the fable
Sorry, but there are no notes associated with any currently displayed witness.
X (Close panel)Elemental Edition
Elemental Edition
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[Emblem 54]
An Old Man, a Stripling, and an Ass
(Emblem 54)
An Old Man, a Stripling, and an Ass
In these transcriptions we preserve as many details of the original material, textual, and graphic properties of Hester Pulter’s manuscript verse as we have found practical. Whenever possible, for instance, original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, insertions, deletions, alterations, spacing between words and lines, and indentation are all maintained; abbreviations and brevigraphs are not expanded; and superscript and subscript representations are retained. See full conventions for the transcriptions here.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
The aim of the elemental edition is to make the poems accessible to the largest variety of readers, which involves modernizing spelling and punctuation as well as adding basic glosses. Spelling and punctuation reflect current standard American usage; punctuation highlights syntax which might otherwise be obscure. Outmoded but still familiar word forms (“thou,” “‘tis,” “hold’st”) are not modernized, and we do not modernize grammar when the sense remains legible. After a brief headnote aimed at offering a “way in” to the poem’s unique qualities and connections with other verse by Pulter or her contemporaries, the edition features a minimum of notes and interpretative framing to allow more immediate engagement with the poem. Glosses clarify synonyms or showcase various possible meanings in Pulter’s time. Other notes identify named people and places or clarify obscure material. We rely (without citation) primarily on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the Oxford Reference database, and the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. When we rely on Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work, we cite her text generally (“Eardley”); other sources are cited in full. The result is an edition we consider a springboard for further work on Pulter’s poetry. See full conventions for this edition here.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
We offer here a modernized edition of this emblem in order to facilitate engagement with the text. Reflecting the manuscript’s origins, we use contemporary British spelling. Capitalization has been regularized; we have expanded thorns and ampersands; we have included possessive apostrophes where necessary. With punctuation we have tried to capture the way the poem creates momentum through its relative absence of punctuation by restricting our interventions to commas and full stops.
Due to a scribal error, there is no Emblem 18 in Pulter’s manuscript: Emblem 17 is followed by Emblem 19. Therefore, as The Pulter Project retains the numbering used in the manuscript (and in Alice Eardley’s edition), Emblem 54 is in fact the fifty-third and final emblem.


— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
You can’t please all of the people all of the time: Pulter transforms that truism into both political history and prophecy in a poem which begins as a light-hearted fable before taking a darkly murderous turn. The villain here is the instability and inconstancy of public opinion, figured commonly as a multi-headed Hydra. Pulter uses the Aesopian tale of how people mercilessly mock any choice made by a man riding through town to threaten Oliver Cromwell and those who came to power with him in the aftermath of the civil war: Cromwell will undoubtedly be hoisted on his own petard and suffer the violent fates of others in history who relied on popular acclamation to overthrow sovereignty.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
In this emblem, an old man, a young boy, and an ass perform various configurations of walking, riding and carrying each other as an observing crowd mocks their progress. The crowd enacts judgment and attempts to influence the travelers’ behavior by deploying laughter to publicly shame them. In so doing, this laughing community, to use the term mobilized by Werner Röcke and Hans Rudolf Velten (2005), operates as a paradigm of inclusion and exclusion: a means by which to solidify the laughing group’s boundaries and norms by drawing attention to those deemed to have transgressed. At the same time, the poem also highlights how the notion of inclusivity itself is fickle, its boundary constantly redefined by the whims of the crowd, Pulter’s “Hydrian monstrosity” (25) (see Victoria Burke’s curation The Many-Headed Hydra). (In Greek mythology, the Hydra was a many-headed monster whose heads reproduced each time one was cut off; Herakles had to kill it as one of his labors.)
The old man is at pains to avoid public censure. He risks being perceived as too proud or merciless towards the child for making him walk beside the ass while he rides; too easily manipulated by the same child for letting the child ride the ass in his place; or too cruel towards his ass for forcing the animal to bear their dual weight. Even when neither ride the ass or when they both carry the animal, they still fail to appease the onlookers. The old man and his companions are caught in a net of shifting demands that reinforces the “giddy” (28) behavior of the crowd.
As such, while the crowd’s uproarious mirth at the sight of the travelers dramatizes Pulter’s critique of the old man and his companions (by contorting yourself to please others you end up pleasing no one) she also finds fault with the crowd itself. This roaring “Hydrian monstrosity” (25), as noted above, embodies the fickle instability of public opinion. In the face of relentless pressure, the old man abandons all hope of pleasing the onlooking crowd and sadly flings his ass into the sea. Following his spectacular failure to assert self-sovereignty, the old man’s killing of his ass offers an expedient if disappointing way out of his predicament.
It is at this point that Pulter shifts to a prophetic mode, making a series of allusions to deposed rulers from antiquity and the Middle Ages to suggest that Oliver Cromwell’s reliance on populist support will lead to his downfall. Ultimately, this emblem suggests that those who rely on “Hydra’s love” (33)—popular opinion—to determine their actions will suffer an ignominious end.
While the precise source of Pulter’s emblem remains unclear, it is evident that the story of the old man, the boy, and the ass circulated across early modern Europe. Blague’s Schole of Wise Conceytes (London, 1572) includes a translation of Poggio Bracciolini’s (also known as Poggio Fiorentino) fable of this triumvirate (Christian 2012); a sixteenth-century, hand-colored, Dutch woodcut print by Cornelis Anthonisz (1509–1553) exists with this fable inscribed beneath associated images; and William Warner’s Albions England, first published in 1586, offers a verse form in rhyming couplets. It is this text’s 1612 edition that Alice Eardley (2014) points to as an alternative version of the emblem and which to us seems the likeliest candidate as Pulter’s source. Additionally, this fable has been mischaracterized as “Aesopian” or “pseudo-Aesopian” (Knight and Wall, Elemental Edition Headnote; Christian 385): this tale is not only absent from Aesop’s fables, but in those tales the animals are the main protagonists, and it is through their interaction with others (human or animal) that they teach a lesson to the reader. Here, the ass has no agency, it doesn’t speak and it possesses no character.
Citations
Christian, Stefan Graham. “The Poems of Lady Hester Pulter (1605?–1678): An Annotated Edition.” PhD diss., University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2012. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing (3545910).
Eardley, Alice. Poems, Emblems, and The Unfortunate Florinda. By Hester Pulter. Toronto: Iter and Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2014.
Knight, Leah and Wendy Wall, eds. “An Old Man, a Stripling, and an Ass,” by Hester Pulter. (Poem 119, Elemental Edition). In The Pulter Project: Poet in the Making, edited by Leah Knight and Wendy Wall, 2018.
Röcke, Werner and Hans Rudolf Velten. Lachgemeinschaften: Kulturelle Inszenierungen und soziale Wirkungen von Gelächter im Mittelalter und in der Frühen Neuzeit. De Gruyter, 2005.


— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
1
Physical Note
Unlike surrounding poems in the “Emblems” section, no number precedes this poem.
An old Man through a Town did often paſs
An old man through a town did often pass;
An old man through a town did often pass,
2
With him a pretty Stripling and an Aſs
With him, a pretty
Gloss Note
a youth
stripling and an ass.
With him a pretty
Gloss Note
stripling: a youth, with connotations of coming of age. The OED suggests that the word derives from “a strip,” meaning “one whose figure is not yet filled out.”

“stripling, n.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/191697. Accessed 5 April 2023.

stripling and an ass.
3
The Man did Ride, the Boy was Pedester
The man did ride; the boy was
Gloss Note
on foot
pedester,
Physical Note
The: Throughout the manuscript, the scribe has added a superscript e to the end of many words ending in “e” in the text.
The man did ride, the boy was
Gloss Note
pedester: walking; on foot; pedestrian.
pedester ,
4
As fit it was, he wait upon his Master
Gloss Note
since it was suitable for him to serve his master
As fit it was, he wait upon his master.
Gloss Note
As fit it was: as was fitting. Importantly here, the speaker notes that the initial arrangement mirrors conventional ideas about hierarchy and respect for old age over youth.
As fit as it was ,he wait upon his master.
5
At this the people Laughed out alowd
At this, the people laughéd out aloud,
At this the people
Gloss Note
laughéd: The accent in the word “laughéd” continues the pentameter that is established in the poem.
laughéd
Critical Note
The people laughed out aloud: This is the first of four times across the poem where Pulter notes that the crowd is explicitly laughing. By including laughter Pulter chooses to depict the crowd as both mocking the trio and treating them as entertainment.
out loud
6
Saying the Man was mercieles or proud
Saying the man was merciless or proud
Critical Note
Merciless or proud: The description of the man as merciless or proud suggests a tyrannical individual; the people seek to shame the man by suggesting explicitly that he is sinful. The critique of pride is a common theme in Pulter’s emblems (see for example, “The Porcupine” (Emblem 13) [Poem 79]or “The Ostrich” (Emblem 41). [Poem 106]
Saying the man was merciless or proud
7
To let the pretty Child goe Swetting by
To let the pretty child go sweating by,
To let the pretty child go sweating by
8
Whils’t hee Rode Ambling in his Majestie
Whilst he rode, ambling in his majesty.
Whilst he rode
Gloss Note
ambling: smooth, easy or leisurely. The OED indicates that this verb particularly relates to the pace of a quadruped (e.g., a horse).

“amble, v.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/6181. Accessed 5 April 2023.

ambling
Critical Note
Majesty: Given the poem’s political valences, this is a significant noun. Considering that majesty is associated with monarchy, the tone may be understood as sarcastic or ironic; the use of the word “majesty” seems to be the speaker ventriloquizing the crowd, taking on the crowd’s judgment of the old man. When married with the “merciless and proud” description, this again implies a tyrannical strain in this old man. “Majesty” arriving on an ass also possesses latent imagery of Jesus’s arrival in Jerusalem on a donkey, an act similarly disruptive but which was much more positively received by the public. Both situations invite a questioning of hierarchy and power.
in his majesty.
9
The boy Rode next the Man did trudg a foot
Gloss Note
That is, the man dismounted and the boy mounted the horse.
The boy rode next; the man did trudge afoot:
Gloss Note
Trudge: This evocative contrast with “ambling” (line 8) emphasizes the sluggish, weary movement of the man on foot. Interestingly, this moment also suggests some sympathy on the speaker’s part for the old man.
The boy rode next, the man did trudgeafoot.
10
But then the people did Soe laugh and Shout
But then, the people did so laugh and shout
But then the people did so laugh and shout
11
Becauſe the Man did favour Soe the Lad
Because the man did favor so the lad
Critical Note
Favour: Notably, unlike with the child, the people are not concerned about the welfare of the man, but that there is a hierarchical boundary crossed: that the child should be so “favour[ed]” and thus implicitly spoiled.
Because the man did favourso the lad
12
To goe a foot whilst hee Rode on his Pad
To go afoot whilst he rode on his
Gloss Note
usually, a riding horse; here, the ass; alternatively, a saddle or saddle pad
pad.
Gloss Note
Pad: Pulter characterizes the ass as a saddle horse.
To go afoot whilst he rode on his pad.
13
Next time this poor Man through ye Town did Paſs
Next time this poor man through the town did pass,
Gloss Note
poor: The speaker’s sympathy, suggested at line 9, is made explicit here and continues with the repetition of “poor” at line 24.
Next time this poorman through the town did pass,
14
The Man and Boy got both upon the Aſs
The man and boy got both upon the ass;
The man and boy got both up on the ass.
15
But then the People bad him lite for Shame
But then the people bade him
Gloss Note
“light” as in alight or dismount; “for shame” ventriloquizes the people’s admonition, as does the next line.
light, for shame;
Gloss Note
bade him light: alight, i.e., the people instructed the man to dismount.
But then the people bade him light
Gloss Note
for shame: Again, the speaker ventriloquizes the crowd, which shames the old man.
for shame,
16
Hee’d Spoyl the Aſs or make him Sick or Lame
He’d
Gloss Note
injure
spoil the ass, or make him sick, or lame.
Gloss Note
spoil: injure, thus rendering the ass less useful.
He’d spoilthe ass or make him sick or lame.
17
Next time beſide the Aſs they both did walk
Next time, beside the ass they both did walk;
Next time beside the ass they both did walk,
18
But then they were the Town and Countreys talk
But then they were the town and county’s talk.
Critical Note
town and country’s: The most recent configuration of the travelers is so radical that the people’s censure spreads beyond the town to the countryside. “Country” could also signal the nation.
But then they were the town and country’stalk.
19
The people laughd and made the Welken Ring
The people laughed and
Gloss Note
an expression indicative of a loud noise (with “welkin” meaning the sky)
made the welkin ring;
Gloss Note
laughed and made the welkin ring: That this laughter is described as reaching the sky (i.e., “the welkin”) develops the idea that censure is growing exponentially.
The people laughed and made the welkin ring,
20
Children their ffolly up and down did Sing
Children their folly up and down did sing.
Critical Note
sing: Within the interior world of the emblem, the story of the foolish traveling companions is related through children’s songs. Again, the emblem repeats the description of ridicule spreading through space and becoming even something of lore, perhaps, immortalized in song. Notably, the emblem genre itself was, in seventeenth-century England, evolving into a form particularly aimed at children.
Children their folly up and down did sing.
21
Once more the Man Reſolvd the Road to paſs
Once more the man resolved the road to pass,
Once more the man resolved the load to pass
22
And then the Youth and hee did bear the Aſs
And then the youth and he did
Gloss Note
carry
bear the ass,
Gloss Note
bear: To carry, with the implication that the load is particularly heavy and cumbersome.
And then the youth and he did bearthe ass,
at
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
23
At which the people did Soe laugh & Rore
At which the people did so laugh and roar
Critical Note
laugh and roar: This bestial depiction of laughter not only aligns the crowd with animal behavior but foreshadows Pulter’s scathing description of it as a Hydrian monstrosity.
At which the people did so laugh and roar
24
That the poor Man would never more explore
That the poor man would ne’er more
Gloss Note
attempt
explore
That the poor man would never more explore
25
The Hidrian monſtossity to pleaſe
The
Gloss Note
The Hydra was the many-headed serpent in classical mythology that could grow additional heads when one was cut off; the adjective can be used to refer to anything similarly destructive, multi-headed, or hard to kill.
Hydrian monstrosity to please,
Critical Note
Hydrian monstrosity: The crowd is like the Hydra not because they are unruly per se (as Eardley suggests), but because each attempt to appease an opinion only spurs more opinions (just as cutting off a hydra’s heads only causes more to grow in their place), making satisfaction impossible.
The Hydrian monstrosity to please,
26
But Sadly ^flung his Aſs into the Seas
But sadly flung his ass into the seas.
Critical Note
sadly: Once more, Pulter’s speaker offers a pitying note that contrasts with the violent mockery of the crowd; she offers a sympathetic description of the old man’s state of mind, the bearing this has on his decision to drown his ass, and the manner in which this action is performed.
But sadly
Physical Note
flung: “Flung” is inserted above the line. This may be Pulter’s own correction.
flunghis ass into the seas.
27
By this you See they doe themſelvs delude
By this you see they do themselves delude
By this you see they do themselves delude
28
That think to pleas the giddy multitude
That think to please the
Gloss Note
flighty, inconstant; whirling with bewildering speed
giddy multitude.
Critical Note
giddy multitude: Once again Pulter emphasizes both the inconstancy and the enormity of the crowd and suggests the inability to control it.
That think to please the giddy multitude.
29
Andronicus did make this Story good
Gloss Note
Andronicus had his joint emperor of Greece, Alexius, killed; the people then revolted against and tortured Andronicus.
Andronicus did make this story good;
Gloss Note
Andronicus: In 1182, during the Byzantine Empire’s Comnenus dynasty, Andronicus (c.1118-1185) seized power and subsequently murdered the young Emperor Alexius II (1169-1183) and his regent mother, Maria of Antioch (c. 1140s-1182/3). Andronicus was a cousin of Alexius II’s father, Emperor Manuel I (1118-80). Widely regarded as a tyrant who inaugurated a reign of terror, the populace ultimately turned against Andronicus. He was tortured to death by a mob in Constantinople in 1185.
Andronicusdid make this story good,
30
Even hee y:t Shed his Royall Soverraigns blood
Even he that shed his royal sovereign’s blood,
Critical Note
Even he that shed his royal sovereign’s blood: This is an ambiguous line in the manuscript. While other editors (Knight and Wall) have added punctuation to make the line modify “Sejanus”, historically Sejanus did not murder his emperor as Andronicus did. We read the line as an emphatic repetition of the previous line. Our choice also balances out the speaker’s attention to these two historical examples: two lines each are devoted to Andronicus and Sejanus.
Even he that shed his royal sovereign’s blood.
31
Sejanus Soe by popular breath up born
Gloss Note
an influential officer in ancient Rome who was arrested and executed (with his body was torn to pieces by the crowd) on suspicion of intent to kill the emperor Tiberius
Sejanus, so by pop’lar breath up borne,
Critical Note
Sejanus: While it is unlikely that Pulter would have known Ben Johnson’s Sejanus (1603/1605), she demonstrates her humanist education and familiarity with humanist literary practice in her reference to the historical personage Lucius Aelius Sejanus (20 BC - AD 31), a soldier from an eminent political family in ancient Rome. He was suspected of plotting to overthrow Emperor Tiberius (42 BC - AD 37) and consequently was torn to pieces by a bloodthirsty crowd loyal to the emperor. As Christian notes in his edition of the poems, Sejanus’ “story would have been familiar to Pulter from the accounts of Tacitus, Suetonius, and Juvenal; his fate was proverbial for the consequences of ambition and pride” (386).
Sejanus
Critical Note
by popular breath: Like the roaring crowd in this emblem, Sejanus’ fate is sealed by popular opinion which, as the image of “breath” suggests, is insubstantial. In early modern literature, the people’s breath was often interpreted as stinking and disgusting.
so by popular breathup born
32
By Barrierus was in peeces Torn
By
Gloss Note
The manuscript reads “Barrierus,” which Eardley interprets as Briareus, a monster in ancient Greek mythology with a hundred arms and fifty heads.
Briareus was in pieces torn.
Gloss Note
Barrierus: Previous editors concur that Barrierus is a reference to Briareaus, one of the Hekatoncheires found in ancient Greek mythology. With a hundred arms and fifty heads, this gargantuan monster, along with his two brothers, Cottes and Gyges, was often associated with the destructive power of natural elements.
By Barrierus
Critical Note
in pieces torn: Here Barrierus represents a monstrous crowd that tears Sejanus into pieces.
was in pieces torn.
33
Soe Some alive the Hidras love will Rue
So
Gloss Note
Oliver Cromwell and those who came to power in his regime, supported by popular opinion
some alive the Hydra’s love will rue
Critical Note
So some alive the Hydra’s love will rue: This is the beginning in a shift of the moral Pulter has been offering; first, the old man is likened to those who delude themselves hoping to please the multitude; then, those who have the love of the multitude (i.e., who are no longer just trying to obtain its love) will “rue” this situation as they will receive what is owed to them. Indeed, she suggests that possessing the people’s favor is itself worthy of censure.
So some alive the Hydra’s love will rue
34
When as to them they give to theſe their due
Gloss Note
When
Whenas
Gloss Note
When people rely on popular opinion (referred to in the line above as the “Hydra’s love”); to give someone their due is to pay respect to them.
to them they give to these their due.
Critical Note
give to these their due: To give someone their due is to give them what is owed to them for their actions. Here Pulter suggests that there is now something negative owed, “due” to those (“them” / “these”) who possess the Hydra’s/people’s love.
When as to them they give to these their due.
35
ffor certainly ’twill one day come to paſs
For certainly ’twill one day come to pass
Critical Note
For certainly ’twill one day come to pass: Pulter shifts into a prophetic mode, drawing on historical example and common wisdom.
For certainly ’twill one day come to pass
36
They’l have the death and Buriall of this
Physical Note
poem followed by blank page
Aſs
They’ll have the death and burial of
Gloss Note
Cromwell, whom the speaker hopes will be rejected and destroyed like the ass in the fable
this ass.
Critical Note
They’ll have the death and burial of this ass: Pulter’s shift at the end of the poem surprisingly turns Cromwell into the ass. Her derision of Cromwell repeats ideas present in e.g. Emblem 19 [Poem 84], where she laments the Royalists’ moral failings and Cromwell’s association with commoners: “had not lords in noble breeding failed, / Tinkers and cobblers never had prevailed” (ll.30–1). As Laura Longer Knoppers has shown, Royalist satire associated Cromwell with such “mechanicals” and popular opinion by depicting him as a brewer despite his status as a gentleman (2000). In transforming Cromwell into the ass, Pulter renders guilty what in the poem is in fact an innocent animal; the ass becomes the symbol of the negative, detrimental, irrational and violent ends of wanting to please everyone all the time.

Knoppers, Laura Longer. “‘Sing Old Noll the Brewer’: Royalist Satire and Social Inversion, 1648–64.” The Seventeenth Century, vol. 15, no. 1, 2000, pp. 32–52, https://doi.org/10.1080/0268117X.2000.10555466

They’ll have the death and burial of this ass.
X (Close panel) All Notes
Transcription

 Editorial note

In these transcriptions we preserve as many details of the original material, textual, and graphic properties of Hester Pulter’s manuscript verse as we have found practical. Whenever possible, for instance, original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, insertions, deletions, alterations, spacing between words and lines, and indentation are all maintained; abbreviations and brevigraphs are not expanded; and superscript and subscript representations are retained. See full conventions for the transcriptions here.
Elemental Edition

 Editorial note

The aim of the elemental edition is to make the poems accessible to the largest variety of readers, which involves modernizing spelling and punctuation as well as adding basic glosses. Spelling and punctuation reflect current standard American usage; punctuation highlights syntax which might otherwise be obscure. Outmoded but still familiar word forms (“thou,” “‘tis,” “hold’st”) are not modernized, and we do not modernize grammar when the sense remains legible. After a brief headnote aimed at offering a “way in” to the poem’s unique qualities and connections with other verse by Pulter or her contemporaries, the edition features a minimum of notes and interpretative framing to allow more immediate engagement with the poem. Glosses clarify synonyms or showcase various possible meanings in Pulter’s time. Other notes identify named people and places or clarify obscure material. We rely (without citation) primarily on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the Oxford Reference database, and the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. When we rely on Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work, we cite her text generally (“Eardley”); other sources are cited in full. The result is an edition we consider a springboard for further work on Pulter’s poetry. See full conventions for this edition here.
Amplified Edition

 Editorial note

We offer here a modernized edition of this emblem in order to facilitate engagement with the text. Reflecting the manuscript’s origins, we use contemporary British spelling. Capitalization has been regularized; we have expanded thorns and ampersands; we have included possessive apostrophes where necessary. With punctuation we have tried to capture the way the poem creates momentum through its relative absence of punctuation by restricting our interventions to commas and full stops.
Due to a scribal error, there is no Emblem 18 in Pulter’s manuscript: Emblem 17 is followed by Emblem 19. Therefore, as The Pulter Project retains the numbering used in the manuscript (and in Alice Eardley’s edition), Emblem 54 is in fact the fifty-third and final emblem.
Elemental Edition

 Headnote

You can’t please all of the people all of the time: Pulter transforms that truism into both political history and prophecy in a poem which begins as a light-hearted fable before taking a darkly murderous turn. The villain here is the instability and inconstancy of public opinion, figured commonly as a multi-headed Hydra. Pulter uses the Aesopian tale of how people mercilessly mock any choice made by a man riding through town to threaten Oliver Cromwell and those who came to power with him in the aftermath of the civil war: Cromwell will undoubtedly be hoisted on his own petard and suffer the violent fates of others in history who relied on popular acclamation to overthrow sovereignty.
Amplified Edition

 Headnote

In this emblem, an old man, a young boy, and an ass perform various configurations of walking, riding and carrying each other as an observing crowd mocks their progress. The crowd enacts judgment and attempts to influence the travelers’ behavior by deploying laughter to publicly shame them. In so doing, this laughing community, to use the term mobilized by Werner Röcke and Hans Rudolf Velten (2005), operates as a paradigm of inclusion and exclusion: a means by which to solidify the laughing group’s boundaries and norms by drawing attention to those deemed to have transgressed. At the same time, the poem also highlights how the notion of inclusivity itself is fickle, its boundary constantly redefined by the whims of the crowd, Pulter’s “Hydrian monstrosity” (25) (see Victoria Burke’s curation The Many-Headed Hydra). (In Greek mythology, the Hydra was a many-headed monster whose heads reproduced each time one was cut off; Herakles had to kill it as one of his labors.)
The old man is at pains to avoid public censure. He risks being perceived as too proud or merciless towards the child for making him walk beside the ass while he rides; too easily manipulated by the same child for letting the child ride the ass in his place; or too cruel towards his ass for forcing the animal to bear their dual weight. Even when neither ride the ass or when they both carry the animal, they still fail to appease the onlookers. The old man and his companions are caught in a net of shifting demands that reinforces the “giddy” (28) behavior of the crowd.
As such, while the crowd’s uproarious mirth at the sight of the travelers dramatizes Pulter’s critique of the old man and his companions (by contorting yourself to please others you end up pleasing no one) she also finds fault with the crowd itself. This roaring “Hydrian monstrosity” (25), as noted above, embodies the fickle instability of public opinion. In the face of relentless pressure, the old man abandons all hope of pleasing the onlooking crowd and sadly flings his ass into the sea. Following his spectacular failure to assert self-sovereignty, the old man’s killing of his ass offers an expedient if disappointing way out of his predicament.
It is at this point that Pulter shifts to a prophetic mode, making a series of allusions to deposed rulers from antiquity and the Middle Ages to suggest that Oliver Cromwell’s reliance on populist support will lead to his downfall. Ultimately, this emblem suggests that those who rely on “Hydra’s love” (33)—popular opinion—to determine their actions will suffer an ignominious end.
While the precise source of Pulter’s emblem remains unclear, it is evident that the story of the old man, the boy, and the ass circulated across early modern Europe. Blague’s Schole of Wise Conceytes (London, 1572) includes a translation of Poggio Bracciolini’s (also known as Poggio Fiorentino) fable of this triumvirate (Christian 2012); a sixteenth-century, hand-colored, Dutch woodcut print by Cornelis Anthonisz (1509–1553) exists with this fable inscribed beneath associated images; and William Warner’s Albions England, first published in 1586, offers a verse form in rhyming couplets. It is this text’s 1612 edition that Alice Eardley (2014) points to as an alternative version of the emblem and which to us seems the likeliest candidate as Pulter’s source. Additionally, this fable has been mischaracterized as “Aesopian” or “pseudo-Aesopian” (Knight and Wall, Elemental Edition Headnote; Christian 385): this tale is not only absent from Aesop’s fables, but in those tales the animals are the main protagonists, and it is through their interaction with others (human or animal) that they teach a lesson to the reader. Here, the ass has no agency, it doesn’t speak and it possesses no character.
Citations
Christian, Stefan Graham. “The Poems of Lady Hester Pulter (1605?–1678): An Annotated Edition.” PhD diss., University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2012. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing (3545910).
Eardley, Alice. Poems, Emblems, and The Unfortunate Florinda. By Hester Pulter. Toronto: Iter and Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2014.
Knight, Leah and Wendy Wall, eds. “An Old Man, a Stripling, and an Ass,” by Hester Pulter. (Poem 119, Elemental Edition). In The Pulter Project: Poet in the Making, edited by Leah Knight and Wendy Wall, 2018.
Röcke, Werner and Hans Rudolf Velten. Lachgemeinschaften: Kulturelle Inszenierungen und soziale Wirkungen von Gelächter im Mittelalter und in der Frühen Neuzeit. De Gruyter, 2005.
Transcription
Line number 1

 Physical note

Unlike surrounding poems in the “Emblems” section, no number precedes this poem.
Elemental Edition
Line number 2

 Gloss note

a youth
Amplified Edition
Line number 2

 Gloss note

stripling: a youth, with connotations of coming of age. The OED suggests that the word derives from “a strip,” meaning “one whose figure is not yet filled out.”

“stripling, n.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/191697. Accessed 5 April 2023.

Elemental Edition
Line number 3

 Gloss note

on foot
Amplified Edition
Line number 3

 Physical note

The: Throughout the manuscript, the scribe has added a superscript e to the end of many words ending in “e” in the text.
Amplified Edition
Line number 3

 Gloss note

pedester: walking; on foot; pedestrian.
Elemental Edition
Line number 4

 Gloss note

since it was suitable for him to serve his master
Amplified Edition
Line number 4

 Gloss note

As fit it was: as was fitting. Importantly here, the speaker notes that the initial arrangement mirrors conventional ideas about hierarchy and respect for old age over youth.
Amplified Edition
Line number 5

 Gloss note

laughéd: The accent in the word “laughéd” continues the pentameter that is established in the poem.
Amplified Edition
Line number 5

 Critical note

The people laughed out aloud: This is the first of four times across the poem where Pulter notes that the crowd is explicitly laughing. By including laughter Pulter chooses to depict the crowd as both mocking the trio and treating them as entertainment.
Amplified Edition
Line number 6

 Critical note

Merciless or proud: The description of the man as merciless or proud suggests a tyrannical individual; the people seek to shame the man by suggesting explicitly that he is sinful. The critique of pride is a common theme in Pulter’s emblems (see for example, “The Porcupine” (Emblem 13) [Poem 79]or “The Ostrich” (Emblem 41). [Poem 106]
Amplified Edition
Line number 8

 Gloss note

ambling: smooth, easy or leisurely. The OED indicates that this verb particularly relates to the pace of a quadruped (e.g., a horse).

“amble, v.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/6181. Accessed 5 April 2023.

Amplified Edition
Line number 8

 Critical note

Majesty: Given the poem’s political valences, this is a significant noun. Considering that majesty is associated with monarchy, the tone may be understood as sarcastic or ironic; the use of the word “majesty” seems to be the speaker ventriloquizing the crowd, taking on the crowd’s judgment of the old man. When married with the “merciless and proud” description, this again implies a tyrannical strain in this old man. “Majesty” arriving on an ass also possesses latent imagery of Jesus’s arrival in Jerusalem on a donkey, an act similarly disruptive but which was much more positively received by the public. Both situations invite a questioning of hierarchy and power.
Elemental Edition
Line number 9

 Gloss note

That is, the man dismounted and the boy mounted the horse.
Amplified Edition
Line number 9

 Gloss note

Trudge: This evocative contrast with “ambling” (line 8) emphasizes the sluggish, weary movement of the man on foot. Interestingly, this moment also suggests some sympathy on the speaker’s part for the old man.
Amplified Edition
Line number 11

 Critical note

Favour: Notably, unlike with the child, the people are not concerned about the welfare of the man, but that there is a hierarchical boundary crossed: that the child should be so “favour[ed]” and thus implicitly spoiled.
Elemental Edition
Line number 12

 Gloss note

usually, a riding horse; here, the ass; alternatively, a saddle or saddle pad
Amplified Edition
Line number 12

 Gloss note

Pad: Pulter characterizes the ass as a saddle horse.
Amplified Edition
Line number 13

 Gloss note

poor: The speaker’s sympathy, suggested at line 9, is made explicit here and continues with the repetition of “poor” at line 24.
Elemental Edition
Line number 15

 Gloss note

“light” as in alight or dismount; “for shame” ventriloquizes the people’s admonition, as does the next line.
Amplified Edition
Line number 15

 Gloss note

bade him light: alight, i.e., the people instructed the man to dismount.
Amplified Edition
Line number 15

 Gloss note

for shame: Again, the speaker ventriloquizes the crowd, which shames the old man.
Elemental Edition
Line number 16

 Gloss note

injure
Amplified Edition
Line number 16

 Gloss note

spoil: injure, thus rendering the ass less useful.
Amplified Edition
Line number 18

 Critical note

town and country’s: The most recent configuration of the travelers is so radical that the people’s censure spreads beyond the town to the countryside. “Country” could also signal the nation.
Elemental Edition
Line number 19

 Gloss note

an expression indicative of a loud noise (with “welkin” meaning the sky)
Amplified Edition
Line number 19

 Gloss note

laughed and made the welkin ring: That this laughter is described as reaching the sky (i.e., “the welkin”) develops the idea that censure is growing exponentially.
Amplified Edition
Line number 20

 Critical note

sing: Within the interior world of the emblem, the story of the foolish traveling companions is related through children’s songs. Again, the emblem repeats the description of ridicule spreading through space and becoming even something of lore, perhaps, immortalized in song. Notably, the emblem genre itself was, in seventeenth-century England, evolving into a form particularly aimed at children.
Elemental Edition
Line number 22

 Gloss note

carry
Amplified Edition
Line number 22

 Gloss note

bear: To carry, with the implication that the load is particularly heavy and cumbersome.
Amplified Edition
Line number 23

 Critical note

laugh and roar: This bestial depiction of laughter not only aligns the crowd with animal behavior but foreshadows Pulter’s scathing description of it as a Hydrian monstrosity.
Elemental Edition
Line number 24

 Gloss note

attempt
Elemental Edition
Line number 25

 Gloss note

The Hydra was the many-headed serpent in classical mythology that could grow additional heads when one was cut off; the adjective can be used to refer to anything similarly destructive, multi-headed, or hard to kill.
Amplified Edition
Line number 25

 Critical note

Hydrian monstrosity: The crowd is like the Hydra not because they are unruly per se (as Eardley suggests), but because each attempt to appease an opinion only spurs more opinions (just as cutting off a hydra’s heads only causes more to grow in their place), making satisfaction impossible.
Amplified Edition
Line number 26

 Critical note

sadly: Once more, Pulter’s speaker offers a pitying note that contrasts with the violent mockery of the crowd; she offers a sympathetic description of the old man’s state of mind, the bearing this has on his decision to drown his ass, and the manner in which this action is performed.
Amplified Edition
Line number 26

 Physical note

flung: “Flung” is inserted above the line. This may be Pulter’s own correction.
Elemental Edition
Line number 28

 Gloss note

flighty, inconstant; whirling with bewildering speed
Amplified Edition
Line number 28

 Critical note

giddy multitude: Once again Pulter emphasizes both the inconstancy and the enormity of the crowd and suggests the inability to control it.
Elemental Edition
Line number 29

 Gloss note

Andronicus had his joint emperor of Greece, Alexius, killed; the people then revolted against and tortured Andronicus.
Amplified Edition
Line number 29

 Gloss note

Andronicus: In 1182, during the Byzantine Empire’s Comnenus dynasty, Andronicus (c.1118-1185) seized power and subsequently murdered the young Emperor Alexius II (1169-1183) and his regent mother, Maria of Antioch (c. 1140s-1182/3). Andronicus was a cousin of Alexius II’s father, Emperor Manuel I (1118-80). Widely regarded as a tyrant who inaugurated a reign of terror, the populace ultimately turned against Andronicus. He was tortured to death by a mob in Constantinople in 1185.
Amplified Edition
Line number 30

 Critical note

Even he that shed his royal sovereign’s blood: This is an ambiguous line in the manuscript. While other editors (Knight and Wall) have added punctuation to make the line modify “Sejanus”, historically Sejanus did not murder his emperor as Andronicus did. We read the line as an emphatic repetition of the previous line. Our choice also balances out the speaker’s attention to these two historical examples: two lines each are devoted to Andronicus and Sejanus.
Elemental Edition
Line number 31

 Gloss note

an influential officer in ancient Rome who was arrested and executed (with his body was torn to pieces by the crowd) on suspicion of intent to kill the emperor Tiberius
Amplified Edition
Line number 31

 Critical note

Sejanus: While it is unlikely that Pulter would have known Ben Johnson’s Sejanus (1603/1605), she demonstrates her humanist education and familiarity with humanist literary practice in her reference to the historical personage Lucius Aelius Sejanus (20 BC - AD 31), a soldier from an eminent political family in ancient Rome. He was suspected of plotting to overthrow Emperor Tiberius (42 BC - AD 37) and consequently was torn to pieces by a bloodthirsty crowd loyal to the emperor. As Christian notes in his edition of the poems, Sejanus’ “story would have been familiar to Pulter from the accounts of Tacitus, Suetonius, and Juvenal; his fate was proverbial for the consequences of ambition and pride” (386).
Amplified Edition
Line number 31

 Critical note

by popular breath: Like the roaring crowd in this emblem, Sejanus’ fate is sealed by popular opinion which, as the image of “breath” suggests, is insubstantial. In early modern literature, the people’s breath was often interpreted as stinking and disgusting.
Elemental Edition
Line number 32

 Gloss note

The manuscript reads “Barrierus,” which Eardley interprets as Briareus, a monster in ancient Greek mythology with a hundred arms and fifty heads.
Amplified Edition
Line number 32

 Gloss note

Barrierus: Previous editors concur that Barrierus is a reference to Briareaus, one of the Hekatoncheires found in ancient Greek mythology. With a hundred arms and fifty heads, this gargantuan monster, along with his two brothers, Cottes and Gyges, was often associated with the destructive power of natural elements.
Amplified Edition
Line number 32

 Critical note

in pieces torn: Here Barrierus represents a monstrous crowd that tears Sejanus into pieces.
Elemental Edition
Line number 33

 Gloss note

Oliver Cromwell and those who came to power in his regime, supported by popular opinion
Amplified Edition
Line number 33

 Critical note

So some alive the Hydra’s love will rue: This is the beginning in a shift of the moral Pulter has been offering; first, the old man is likened to those who delude themselves hoping to please the multitude; then, those who have the love of the multitude (i.e., who are no longer just trying to obtain its love) will “rue” this situation as they will receive what is owed to them. Indeed, she suggests that possessing the people’s favor is itself worthy of censure.
Elemental Edition
Line number 34

 Gloss note

When
Elemental Edition
Line number 34

 Gloss note

When people rely on popular opinion (referred to in the line above as the “Hydra’s love”); to give someone their due is to pay respect to them.
Amplified Edition
Line number 34

 Critical note

give to these their due: To give someone their due is to give them what is owed to them for their actions. Here Pulter suggests that there is now something negative owed, “due” to those (“them” / “these”) who possess the Hydra’s/people’s love.
Amplified Edition
Line number 35

 Critical note

For certainly ’twill one day come to pass: Pulter shifts into a prophetic mode, drawing on historical example and common wisdom.
Transcription
Line number 36

 Physical note

poem followed by blank page
Elemental Edition
Line number 36

 Gloss note

Cromwell, whom the speaker hopes will be rejected and destroyed like the ass in the fable
Amplified Edition
Line number 36

 Critical note

They’ll have the death and burial of this ass: Pulter’s shift at the end of the poem surprisingly turns Cromwell into the ass. Her derision of Cromwell repeats ideas present in e.g. Emblem 19 [Poem 84], where she laments the Royalists’ moral failings and Cromwell’s association with commoners: “had not lords in noble breeding failed, / Tinkers and cobblers never had prevailed” (ll.30–1). As Laura Longer Knoppers has shown, Royalist satire associated Cromwell with such “mechanicals” and popular opinion by depicting him as a brewer despite his status as a gentleman (2000). In transforming Cromwell into the ass, Pulter renders guilty what in the poem is in fact an innocent animal; the ass becomes the symbol of the negative, detrimental, irrational and violent ends of wanting to please everyone all the time.

Knoppers, Laura Longer. “‘Sing Old Noll the Brewer’: Royalist Satire and Social Inversion, 1648–64.” The Seventeenth Century, vol. 15, no. 1, 2000, pp. 32–52, https://doi.org/10.1080/0268117X.2000.10555466

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