Life — February 17, 1887 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Quod Libet" (St. Valentine's Day) This Life magazine cover uses the Latin phrase "Quod Libet" (meaning "whatever pleases") as its title for a St. Valentine's Day-themed illustration. The image depicts an elegantly dressed woman in late 19th-century attire holding what appears to be a decorative fan or mirror, positioned near an ornate screen or doorway. The satirical diagram within the illustration maps emotional concepts—labeled "Friendship," "Love," "Dale" (unclear), and "Indifference"—radiating outward like a compass. The joke appears to satirize the complex, contradictory nature of romantic feelings and Valentine's Day sentiments: women's (or people's) romantic emotions are presented as multidirectional and deliberately unclear, mocking the holiday's oversimplified expectations about love and courtship.