** Introduction ** Overview ** Forerunners ** Spread of Emblem Books ** Parallel and Evolving Forms ** Emblematic Influences: Art and Architecture ** Emblematic Influences: Literature and Coins** List of Emblem and Related Books in Special Collections ** Bibliography of Secondary Literature **

The birdcage motif first appears when Rochester says to Jane: “I see at intervals the glance of a curious sort of bird through the close-set bars of a cage: a vivid, restless, resolute captive is there; were it but free, it would soar cloud-high.” Continuing, Ardholm points out how Rochester describes Jane, which evokes the image of a caged soul: “Consider that eye: consider the resolute, wild, free thing looking out of it, defying me, with more than courage--with a stern triumph. Whatever I do with its cage, I cannot get at it—the savage beautiful creature! Conqueror I might be of the house; but the inmate would escape to heaven before I could call myself possessor of its clay dwelling-place. And it is you, spirit—with will and energy, and virtue and purity—that I want: not alone your brittle frame. Of yourself you could come with soft flight and nestle against my heart, if you would...”(Both citations from Brontë in Ardholm, 97).

Many critics have found similarities in Shakespeare’s works and emblem books, suggesting that he too was aware of emblems, though they may have just been one of many indirect sources. In this instance, Falstaff, in Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor (1602), impersonates Actaeon, a hunter who is changed into a stag by Diana and is then killed by his own hounds, from classical mythology. The way Falstaff is portrayed—wearing the disguise of a stag’s head and hunter’s clothing—is almost identical to the pictures of Actaeon in several emblem books, including those in Alciati and Sambucus shown here.

In addition to mere replication of myth, a similarity of posture exists in an emblem by Sambucus and the description in Shakespeare—Falstaff decides to “winke, and couche.” In an emblem book by Whitney, the interpretation of the emblem is also very similar to Shakespeare’s presentation of Faltaff's character. John Daly paraphrases John Steadman’s observation that “the emblematic value of any scene or character depends upon its visual impact and the facility with which the audience can interpret the meaning of the visual experience” (Daly 156). Thus, the audience’s knowledge of both the myth and the emblem gives added depth to the scene and the character.

During the Renaissance, medals were frequently struck to commemorate and celebrate the deeds and accomplishments of great men. Though they only include two parts of the emblem similar to devices, they are incorporated in some emblem books: here by Hungarian Johannes Sambucus (left) and also in a compilation by the German Universität Altdorf (below).

Though Special Collections does not have any commerative medals from the Renaissance, there is a nice collection of French medals from the Revolution of 1848. Something as simple as the emblematic quality of today's quarter dollar derives from commerative medals and their linkage to emblematic ideas, which in turn demonstrates the long history of image as allegory and illustration. This exhibit is only a sampling of how emblem books and their discourse can be applied to many areas of study by using our mind’s eye for interpretation. Emblem books were only one of the many evolving forms combining image and text, but one that had an influential impact on many of the viewing and reading methods we take for granted today.