The well-bred artist Jacques de Gheyn treats the subject of milkmaids with more circumspection than is found in popular prints of the period. An archer with a bulging codpiece aims his crossbow right at the viewer, like Cupid hitting us between the eyes. The archer and his helpful companion (who wears his hat) reappear as lovers in the left background, where a stallion (presumably) ogles a mare. De Gheyn refers to slang expressions such as "milking" and "shooting your bolt." The inscriptions were probably added by the publisher. The Latin verse lamely alludes to male anatomy while the Dutch text warns maidens of men with crossbows cocked.
The slang word melken (to milk), meaning to attract or lure. The term's origin is more or less explained in an anonymous Dutch book of 1624, Nova poemata (subtitled "New Low German poems and riddles"), in which a woman in the act of milking a cow ("A sinewy thing she has seized with joy," and so on) is compared with grabbing a man's . . . attention.
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