The particular rebus in which we are interested here I have noted in four albums to date, those of Hans Renner (1607), Michael Van Meer (1613-48), Christoph Felber (1645) and Jakob von Zinnenburg (1620-33). In the von Zinnenburg painting — the first image below — we see a man and woman in the foreground, posed before an expanse of green sward in front of a house, with on the lawn an hour-glass, a goblet, a rodent, a large parrot and a cockerel. One might guess something emblematic was going on, but it would remain utterly mysterious without the key provided by a contemporary print — see below!

The other three examples do at least give us some initial letters to work with, together with the images — even so, the ‘clear’ text might well have remained mysterious, were it not for the verse accompanying a man in a print issued in Frankfurt in 1615 (see below).

The print exists in at least two later, mid-17C, versions with costume updated, and the rebus-verse survives into the 18^th & 19^th centuries engraved on glassware.

[If you’re interested in rebuses per se, then you might enjoy my Pinterest board https://uk.pinterest.com/malcm2557/late-medieval-early-modern-rebuses/]

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The solution

Here is our rebus verse written out in full!

Wan ich allzeit blib daheim zu hauss. If I stayed home all the time
Vnd trinck so wenig als ein maus and drank as little as a mouse
Vnd kabte so offt als ein han. and trod as often as a cock
Were ich meiner frauen ein lieber man my wife would love me more dearly

This is a detail from a print entitled, Der wunderbarliche Mangel des Manns… [Wonderful inadequacy of a man: the women’s heartfelt wish: and three lusty animals of cunning, proud and well-deserved reputation] (Frankfurt, 1615). There are some old favourites here! The cunning fox with his big upright tail [see my post https://albumamicorumear-e4qvahs764.live-website.com/foxtail-between-womans-legs/], the proud peacock, and the ever-popular cock treading the hen.

Here’s the whole composition:

A slight variation in the line-up was painted in the Walens album, with the dog replacing the fox here. The lady says:

Ach Gott bescherme ein sollichen Man Ah! God save any man

die disse drey tugenten haben kan. who has the virtues of these three!

A contemporary but much cruder version of this — without the lady — was sketched into the album of Walraven van Stepraedt (below)

Cock:

ick bin voerwaer een guden haen I am indeed a good cock
Hoe ouder ick wordt, hoe beter ick kan The older I get, the better I’m able to

Peacock:

So dunckt mij ock in mijnen zin It seems to me too that
Hoe ouder ick wordt, hoe schoender ick bijn the older I get, the lovelier I am

Dog:

So bin ick ock niet schabaf. And I’m not rubbish either!
Hoe older ick wordt, hoe groter ick haef. The older I get, the bigger it gets.

One cannot help but suspect some sexual innuendo here!

Applied use

A mid-18C Bohemian glass beaker in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, is engraved with the same rebus-rhyme, though as on other 18^th and 19^th century glasses, only the rhyming words at the end of each line appear in rebus form. Amusingly, the translator in his/her innocence — perhaps unaware of the cock’s reputation in folk culture, has rendered the relevant line — und konnt so oft wie ein [HAHN] as, “and knows as much as a hen” !