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Presented to the

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY

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ONTARIO LEGISLATIVE LIBRARY

1980

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IHE DANGtGF DEATH'

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HOLBEIN^S BIBLE CT'T^

CONSISTING OF NINETY ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD WITH AN INTRODUCTION HY

THOMAS FROGNALL DI.

LONDON

GEORGE BELL & SONS

1902

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HOLBEIN'S BIBLE CUTS

CONSISTING OF NINETY ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN

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LONDON

GEORGE BELL & SONS

1902

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PREFACE,

HE very ample discussion which the extremely popular subject of the Dance of Death has already undergone might seem to preclude the necessity of at- tempting to bestow on it any further elucidation ; nor would the present Essay have ever made its appearance, but for certain reasons which are necessary to be stated.

The beautiful designs which have been, perhaps too implicitly, regarded as the invention of the justly celebrated painter, Hans Holbein, are chiefly known in this country by the inaccurate etchings of most of them by Wenceslaus Hollar, the copper-plates of which having fonnerly become the property of Mr. Edwards, of Pall Mall, were published by him, accompanied by a very hasty and imperfect dissertation ; which, with fewer faults, and considerable enlargement, is here again submitted to public attention. It is appended to a set of fac-similes of the above- mentioned elegant designs, and which, at a very liberal expense that has been incurred by the proprietor and publisher of this volume, have been executed with con- summate skill and fidelity by Messrs. Bonner and Byfield

a2

vi Preface.

two of our best artists in the line of wood engraving. They may very justly be regarded as scarcely distinguishable from their fine originals.

The remarks in the course of this Essay on a supposed German poet, under the name of Macaber, and the dis- cussion relating to Holbein's connexion with the Dance of Death, may perhaps be found interesting to the critical reader only ; but every admirer of ancient art will not fail to be gratified by an intimate acquaintance with one of its finest specimens in the copy which is here so faithfully exhibited.

In the latest and best edition of some new designs for a Dance of Death, by Salomon Van Rusting, published by John George Meintel at Nuremberg, 1736, 8vo. there is an elaborate preface by him, with a greater portion of ver- bosity than information. He has placed undue confidence in his predecessor, Paul Christian Hilscher, whose work, printed at Dresden in 1705, had probably misled the truly learned Fabricius in what he has said concerning Macaber in his valuable work, the " Bibliotheca mediae et infimae aetatis." Meintel confesses his inability to point out the origin or the inventor of the subject. The last and completest work on the Dance, or Dances of Death, is that of the ingenious M. Peignot, so well and deservedly known by his numerous and useful books on bibliography. To this gentleman the present Essay has been occasionally indebted. He will, probably, at some future opportunity, remove the whimsical misnomer in his engraving of Death and the Idiot.

The usual title, " The Dance of Death," which accon panics most of the printed works, is not altogethe appropriate. It may indeed belong to the old Macabe painting and other similar works where Death is reprf sented in a sort of dancing and grotesque attitude in th

Preface. vii

act of leading a single character ; but where the subject consists of several figures, yet still with occasional exception, they are rather to be regarded as elegant emblems of human mortality in the premature intrusion of an unwelcome and inexorable visitor.

It must not be supposed that the republication of this singular work is intended to excite the lugubrious sen- sations of sanctified devotees, or of terrified sinners ; for, awful and impressive as must ever be the contemplation of our mortality in the mind of the philosopher and practiser of true religion, the mere sight of a skeleton cannot, as to them, excite any alarming sensation whatever It is chiefly addressed to the ardent admirers of ancient art and pictorial invention ; but nevertheless with a hope that it may excite a portion of that general attention to the labours of past ages, which reflects so much credit on the times in which we live.

The widely scattered materials relating to the subject of the Dance of Death, and the difficulty of reconciling much discordant information, must apologize for a few repetitions in the course of this Essay, the regular progress of which has been too often interrupted by the manner in which matter of importance is so obscurely and defec- tively recorded ; instances of which are, the omission of the name of the painter in the otherwise important dedication to the first edition of the engravings on wood of the Dance of Death that was published at Lyons ; the uncertainty as to locality in some complimentary lines to Holbein by his friend Borbonius, and the want of more particulars in the account by Nieuhoff" of Holbein's painting at Whitehall

The designs for the Dance of Death, published at Lyons in 1538, and hitherto regarded as the invention of Holbein, are, in the course of this Dissertation, referred

viii Preface.

to under the appellation of the Lyons wood-cuts; and with respect to the term Macaber, which has been so mis- takenly used as the name of a real author, it has been nevertheless preserved on the same principle that the word Gothic has been so generally adopted for the purpose of designating the pointed style of architecture in the Middle Ages.

FxuiNcxs Douce.

CONTENTS

Chapter L

Personification of Death, and other modes of representing h among the Ancients, and during the Middle Ages. — ErroneoiiB notions respecting Death. — Monumental absur lities. — Allegorical pageant of the Dance of Death represented in early times in churches and cemeteries. — Introduction of the infernal, or Dance of Macaber i

Chapter IL

Places where the Dance of Death was sculptured or depicted. — Usually accompanied by verses describing the asveral characters. — Other Metrical Compositions on the Dance i£

Chapter IIL

Macaber not a German or any other poet, but a nonenity. — Corruption and confusion respecting this word. — Etymological errors concerning it — How connected with the Dance. — Trois mors et trois vifs. — Orgagna's painting in the Campo Santo at Pisa. — Its connexion with the trois mors et trois vifs, as well a« with the Macaber Dance. — Saint Macarius the real Macaber,— Paintings of this dance in various peaces. — At Minden; Church- yard of the Innocents at Paris; Dijon; Basle; Klingenthal; Lubeck ; Leipsic ; Anneberg ; Dresden ; Erfurt ; Nuremberg ; Berne; Lucerne; Amiens; Rouen; Fescamp; Blois; Strasburg; Berlin; Vienna; in Holland; Italy; Spain 24

Chapter IV.

P/facaber Dance in England. — St Paul's. — Salisbury. — Wortley Hall. — Hexham. — Croydon. — Tower of London. — Lines in Pierce Plowman's Vision supposed to refer to it ........ 44

Contents.

Chapter V.

Li«t of editions of the Macaber Dance. — Printed Horse that contain it. — Manuscript Horae. — Other Manuscripts in which it occurs. — Various articles with letter-press, not being single prints, but con- nected with it ... , 48

Chapter VI.

Hans Holbein's connexion with the Dance of Death. — A dance of peasants at Basle. — Lyons edition of the Dance of Death, 1538. — Doubts as to any prior edition. — Dedication. to the edition of 1538. — Mr. Ottley's opinion of it examined. — Artists supposed to have been connected with this work. — Holbein's name in none of the old editions. — Reperdius 69

Chapter VH.

Holbein's Bible cuts. — Examination of the claim of Hans Lutzen- berger as to the design or execution of the Lyons engravings of the Dance of Death. — Other works by him 83

Chapter VIII.

List of several editions of the Lyons work on the Dance of Death, with the mark of Lutzenberger. — Copies of them on wood. — Copies on copper by anonymous artists. — By Wenceslaus Hollar. — Other anonymous artists. — Nieuhoff Picard. — Rusting. — Mechel. — Crozat's drawings. — Deuchar. — Imitations of some of the subjects 91

Chapter IX.

Further examination of Holbein's title, — Borbonius. — Biographical notice of Holbein. — Painting of a Dance of Death at Whitehall by him \ii

Chapter X. Other Dances of Death .119

Chapter XI. Dances of Death, with such text only as describes the subjects, . I4I

Contents. XI

PtOl

Charier XII. Books in which the subject is occasionally introduced 150

Chapter XIII.

IJuoks of emblems and fables. — Frontispieces, and title-pages, in some degree connected with the Dance of Death t Jo

Chapter XIV. Single prints connected with the Dance of Death 168

Chapter XV. Initial or capital Letters with the Dance of Death 189

Chapter XVI. Paintings. — Drawings. — Miscellaneous ig6

Chapter XVII.

Trois vifs et trois morts. — Neg^o figure of Death. — Danj>e aux Aveugles 101

Chapter XVIII.

Errors of various writers who have introduced the •ahi«rt a(^ the Dance of Death f/16

THE DANCE OF DEATH.

-«aCRe-

CHAPTER I.

Perwuificatlon of Death, and other modes of representing it among the Ancients, and during the Middle Ages. — Er- roneous notions respecting Death. — Monumental absurdities. —Allegorical pageant of the Dance of Death represented in early times in churches and cemeteries. — Introduction of the infernal f or dance of Macaber.

r^fE^ZmSiSHE manner in which the poets and '^f^»&a ' rrSlii^ artists of antiquity have symbolized or personified Death, has excited consi- derable discussion ; and the various opinions of Lessing, Herder, Klotz, anil other controversialists, have only tended to demonstrate that the ancients adopted many different modes to ac- complish this purpose. Some writers have maintained that they exclusively represented Death as a mere skeleton ; whilst others have contended that this figure, so frequently to be found upon gems and sepulchral monuments, was never intended to personify the extinction of human life, but only as a simple and abstract representation. They r? B

2 The Dance of Death.

insist that the ancients adopted a more elegant and alle- gorical method for this purpose ; that they represented human mortality by various symbols of destruction, as birds devouring lizards and serpents, or pecking fruits and flowers j by goats browsing on vines ; cocks fighting, or even by a Medusa's or Gorgon's head. The Romans seem to have adopted Homer's^ definition of Death as the eldest brother of Sleep ; and, accordingly, on several of their monumental and other sculptures we find two winged genii as the representatives of the above personages, and some- times a genius bearing a sepulchral vase on his shoulder, and with a torch reversed in one of his hands. It is very well known that the ancients often symbolized the human soul by the figure of a butterfly, an idea that is extremely obvious and appropriate, as well as elegant. In a very in- teresting sepulchral monument, engraved in p. 7 of Spon's Miscellanea Eruditae Antiquitatis, a prostrate corpse is seen, and over it a butterfly that has just escaped from the mouth of the deceased, or as Homer expresses it, " from the teeth's enclosure."^ The above excellent anti- quary has added the following very curious sepulchral in- scription that was found in Spain, " h^redibvs meis mando

ETIAM CINERE VTMEO VOLITET EBRIVS PAPILIO OSSA IPSA

TEGANT MEA," &c. Rejecting this heathen symbol altogether, the painters and engravers of the middle ages have sub- stituted a small human figure escaping from the mouths of dying persons, as it were, breathing out their souls.

We have, however, the authority of Herodotus, that in the banquets of the Egyptians a person was introduced who carried round the table at which the guests were seated the figure of a dead body, placed on a coffin, exclaiming at the same time, " Behold this image of what your- selves will be ; eat and drink therefore, and be happy."' Montfau^on has referred to an ancient manuscript tO prove that this sentiment was conveyed in a Lacedaemonian proverb,^ and it occurs also in the beautiful poem of Coppa, ascribed to Virgil, in which he is supposed to invite ,

* Iliad, and after him Virgil, Mn, vi. 278.

" Iliad IX. On an ancient gem likewise in Ficoroni's Gemm?e An- tiquae Litteratae, Tab. viii. No. i, a human skull typifies mortality, and a butterfly immortality. ^ Lib. ii. 78. * Diarium, p. 212,

The Dance of Death. 3

Mc-ecenas to a rural banquet. It concludes with these lines : —

Pone merum et talos ; pereat qui crastina curat,

Mors aurem vellens, vivite ait, venio.

The phrase of pulling the ear is admonitory, that organ being regarded by the ancients as the seat of memory. It was customaiy also, and for the same reason, to take an oath by laying hold of the ear. It is impossible on this occasion to forget the passage in Isaiah xxii. 13, afterwards used by Saint Paul, on the beautiful parable in Luke xii. Plutarch also, in his banquet of the wise men, has remarked that the Egyptians exhibited a skeleton at their feasts to remind the parties of the brevity of human life ; the same custom, as adopted by the Romans, is exemplified in Petronius's description of the feast of Trimalchio, where a jointed puppet, as a skeleton, is brought in by a boy, and this practice is also noticed by Silius Jtalicus :

/Egjptia tellus

Claudit odorato post funua stantia Saxo

Corpora, et a mensis exsanguera baud separat umbram.'

Some have imagined that these skeletons were intended to represent the larvae and lemures, the good and evil shadows of the dead, that occasionally made their ap- pearance on earth. The larvae, or lares, were of a beneficent nature, friendly to man ; in other words, the good demon of Socrates. The lemures, spirits of mischief and wicked- ness. The larva in Petronius was designed to admonish only, not to terrify \ and this is proved from Seneca : " Nemo tam puer est ut Cerberum timeat et tenebras, et larvarum habitum nudis ossibus cohaerentium."^ There is, however, some confusion even among the ancients them- selves, as to the respective qualities of the larvae and lemures. Apuleius, in his noble and interesting defence against those who accused him of practising magic, tells them, " Tertium mendacium vestrum fuit, macilentam vel omninoevisceratamformam diri cadaverisfabricatam prorsus horribilem et larvalem ;" and afterwards, when producing the image of his peculiar Deity, which he usually carried • Lib. xiii. 1. 474. ^ Epist xjuv,

B 2

4 77ie Dance of Death,

about him, he exclaims, " En vobis quern scelestus ille sce- letum nominabat ! Hiccine est sceletus ? Haeccine est larva? Hoccine est quod appellitabatis Daemonium."' It is among Christian writers and artists that the personifi- cation of Death as a skeleton is intended to convey terrific ideas, conformably to the system that Death is the punish- ment for original sin.

The circumstances that lead to Death, and not oui actual dissolution, are alone of a terrific nature ; for Death is, in fact, the end and cure of all the previous sufferings and horrors with which it is so frequently accompanied. In the dark ages of monkish bigotry and superstition, the deluded people, seduced into a belief that the fear of Death was acceptable to the great and beneficent Author of their existence, appear to have derived one of their principal gratifications in contemplating this necessary termination of humanity, yet amidst ideas and impressions of the most horrible and disgusting nature : hence the frequent allusions to it, in all possible ways, among their preachers, and the personification of it in their books of religious offices, as well as in the paintings and sculptures of their ecclesiastical and other edifices. They seemed to have entirely banished from their recollec- tion the consolatory doctrines of the Gospel, which con- tribute so essentially to dissipate the terrors of Death, and which enable the more enlightened Christian to abide that event with the most perfect tranquillity of mind. There are, indeed, some exceptions to this remark, for we may still trace the imbecility of former ages on too many of our sepulchral monuments, which are occasionally tricked out with the silly appendages of Death's heads, bones, and other useless remains of mortality, equally repulsive to the imagination and to the elegance of art.

If It be necessary on any occasion to personify Death, this were surely better accomplished by means of some graceful and impressive figure of the Angel of Death, for 'vhom we have the authority of Scripture ; and such might become an established representative, I'he skulls and bones of modern, and the entire skeletons of former times, especially during the Middle Ages, had, probabJy, derived ^ Apolog. p. 506, ^07, edit. Delph. 410.

Hu Dance of Death. 5

their origin fron. the vast quantities of sanctified human relics that were continually before the eyes, or otherwise in the recollection of the early Christians. But the favourite and principal emblem of mortality among our ancestors appears to have been the moral and allegorical pageant familiarly known by the appellation of the Dance of Deaths which it has, in part, derived from the grotesque, and often ludicrous attitudes of the figures that composed it, and especially from the active and sarcastical mockery of the ruthless tyrant upon its victims, which may be, in a great measure, attributed to the whims and notions of the artists who were employed to represent the subject

It is very well known to have been the practice in very early times to profane the temples of the Deity with indecorous dancing and ludicrous processions, either within or near them, in imitation, probably, of similar proceedings in Pagan times. Strabo mentions a custom of this nature among the Celtiberians,* and it obtained also among several of the Northern nations before their conversion to Chris- tianity. A Roman council, under Pope Eugenius II. ih the ninth century, has thus noticed it : " Ut sacerdotes admoneant viros ac mulieres, qui festis diebus ad ecclesiam occurrunt, ne ballando et turpia verba decantando chores teneant, ac ducunt, similitudinem Paganorum peragendo." Canciani mentions an ancient bequest of money for a dance in honour of the Virgin.*

These riotous and irreverent tripudists and caperers appear to have possessed themselves of the churchyards to exhibit their dancing fooleries, till this profanation of consecrated ground was punished, as monkish histories inform us, with divine vengeance. The well-known Nuremberg Chronicle'" has recorded, that in the time of the Emperor Henry the Second, whilst a priest was saying mass on Christmas Eve, in the church of Saint Magnus, in the diocese of Magdeburg, a company of eighteen men and ten women amused themselves with dancing and singing in the churchyard, to the hindrance of the priest in his duty. Notwithstanding his admonition, they refused to desist, and even derided the words he addressed to them. The priest being greatly provoked at their conduct^ ' Lib. uL * Leg. Antiq. iil 84. ^ Folio cboxvu.

6 The Dance of Death.

prayed to God and Saint Magnus that they might remain dancing and singing for a whole year without intermission : and so it happened, neither dew nor rain falling upon them. Hunger and fatigue were set at defiance, nor were their shoes or garments in the least worn away. At the end of the year they were released from their situation by Herebert, the archbishop of the diocese in which the event took place, and obtained forgiveness before the altar of the church ; but not before the daughter of a priest and two others had perished ; the rest, after sleeping for the space of three whole nights, died soon afterwards. Ubert, one of the party, left this story behind him, which is elsewhere recorded, with some variation and additional matter. The dance is called St. Vitus's, and the girl is made the daughter of a churchwarden, who having taken her by the arm, it came off, but she continued dancing. By the continual motion of the dancers, they buried themselves in the earth to their waists. Many princes and others went to behold this strange spectacle, till the bishops of Cologne and Hildesheim, and some other devout priests, by their prayers, obtained the deliverance of the culprits ; four of the party, however, died immediately, some slept three days and three nights, some three years, and others had trembling in their limbs during the whole of their lives. The Nuremberg Chronicle, crowded as it is with wood-cut embellishments by the hand of Wohlgemuth, the master of Albert Diirer, has not omitted to exhibit the representations of the above unhappy persons, equally correct, no doubt, as the story itself, though the same warranty cannot be offered for a similar representation, in Gottfried's Chronicle, and that copious repertory of monstrosities, Boistuau and Belleforest's Histoires Prodigieuses. The Nuremberg Chro- nicle" has yet another relation on this subject of some persons who continued dancing and singing on a bridge whilst the eucharist was passing over it. The bridge gave way in the middle, and from one end of it 200 persons were precipitated into the river Moselle, the other end remaining so as to permit the priest and his host to pass uninjured.

In that extremely curious work, the Manuel de P^ch^, »» Folio ccxvii.

T)ie Dance of Death, f

usually ascribed to Bishop Grosthead, the pious author, after much declamation against the vices of the times, has this passage : —

Karoles ne lutes ne deit nul fere,

En seint eglise ki me voil crere ;

Kas en cimetere karoler,

Utrage est grant u lutter.''

He then relates the story in the Nuremberg Chronicle, for which he quotes the book of Saint Clement. Grosthead's work was translated about the year 1300 into English verse by Robert Mannyng, commonly called Robert de Brunne, a Gilbertine canorL His translation often differs from his original, with much amplification and occasional illustrations by himself As the account of the Nuremberg story varies so materially, and as the scene is laid in England, it has been thought worth inserting.

KaroUes wrastelynges or somour games,

Whosoever haunteth any swyche shames,

Yn cherche other yn cherche yerd.

Of sacrilage he may be aferd ;

Or entyrludes or syngynge,

Or tabure bete or other pypynge ;

All swyche thyng forboden es,

Whyle the prest stondeth at mease ;

But for to leve in cherche for to daunce,

Y shall you telle a fidl grete chaunce.

And y trow the most that fel,

Ys sothe as y you telle.

And fyl thys chaunce yn thys londe,

Yn Ingland as y undyrstonde,

Yn a kynges tyme that hyght Edward,

Fyl this chaunce that was so hard.

Hyt was upon crystemesse njTt

That twelve folys a karolle dyrt,

Yn Wodehed, as hyt were yn cuntek,^'

TTiey come to a toune men calle Cowek : ^*

The cherche of the toune that they to come,

Ys of Seynt Magne that suffrcd martyrdome,

Of Seynt Bukcestre hyt ys also,

Seynt Magnes suster, that they come to ;

Here names of all thus fonde y wryte.

And as y wote now shal ye wyte

Here lodesman'* that made hem glew,"

» BibL Reg. 10 B. xiv. and Harl. MS. 4657. " Contest.

»* Q. Cowick in Yorkshire I « Lej;der. »» G'ee.

The Dance of Death.

Thus ys wryte he hyzte^^ Gerlew ;

Twey maydens were yn here coveyne,

Mayden Merswynde *^ and Wybessyne ;

All these came thedyr for that enchesone, \ i_„t,*^

Of the prestes of the toune. / *^°?nty»

The prest hyzt Robert as y can ame,

Azone hyzt hys sone by name,

Hys doghter that there men wulde have.

Thus ys wryte that she hyzt Ave.

Echone consented to o wyl.

Who shuld go Ave out to tyl,

They graunted echone out to sende,

Bothe Wybessyne and Merswynde :

These women zede and tolled ^^ her oute,

Wyth hem to karoUe the cherche aboute,

Benne ordeyned here karoUyng,

Gerlew endyted what they shuld syng.

Thys ys the karolle that they sunge.

As telleth the Latyn tunge,

Equitabat Bevo per sylvam frondosam

Ducebat secum Merwyndam formosam

Quid stamus cur non imus.

By the levede^ wode rode Bevolyne,

Wyth hym he ledde feyre Merwyne,

A

Why stonde we, why go we noght Thys ys the karolle that Grysly wroght, Thys songe sung they yn chercheyerd. Of foly were they nothyng aferd.

The party continued dancing and carolling all the matins time, and till the mass began ; when the priest, hearing the noise, came out to the church porch, and desired them to leave off dancing, and come into the church to hear the service ; but they paid him no regard whatever, and con- tinued their dance. The priest, now extremely incensed, prayed to God in favour of St. Magnus, the patron of the church :

That swych a venjeaunce were on hem sent.

Are they out of that stede^^ were went.

That myz|; ever ryzt so wende.

Unto that tyme twelvemonth ende.

Yn the Latyne that y fonde thore.

He seyth not twelvemonth but evermore. i

The priest had no sooner finished his prayer, than the hands j of the dancers were so locked together that none could/

separate them for a twelvemonth

*' Called. ^^ A name borrowed from Merwyn, Abbess of Ramsey, temp. Reg. Edgari. i^ Took, 20 L^^fy, 21 ^\^^^

The Dance oj Death.

The preste yede'' yn whan thys was done. And comaunded hys sone Azone, That shuld go swythe'after Ave,

IOute of that karoUe algate to have ; But al to late that wurde was sayde, 'A\,"ibC ~"

For on hem alle was the venjeaunce leyd. aN '^'"Z .

Azonde wende weyl for to spede ''^*'^1b/' ^R^

Unto the karolle asswythe he yede ; ^** i-^^^

Hys syster by the arme he hente, And the arme fro the body wente ; Men wundred alle that there wore. And merveyle nowe ye here more ; y ". ,^'1'~'' '

P'or seythen he had the arme yn hand, '^ • • ♦ U i* { <")

The body yode furth karoland. And nother body ne the arme 13Ied never blode colde ne warme ; But was as drye with al the haunche, As of a stok were ryve a braunche.

Azone carries his sister's arm to the priest his father, and tells him the consequences of his rash curse. The priest, after much lamentation, buries the arm. The next morning it rises out of the grave ; he buries it again, and again it rises. He buries it a third time, when it is cast out of the grave with considerable violence. He then carries it into the church that all might behold it. In the meantime the party continued dancing and singing, without taking any food or sleeping, " only a lepy wynke ; " nor were they in the least affected by the weather. Their hair and nails ceased to grow, and their garments were neither soiled nor discoloured ; but

Sunge that songge that the wo wrozt, " Why stond we, why go we nozt."

To see this curious and woful sight, the emperor travels from Rome, and orders his carpenters and other artificers to enclose them in a building ; but this could not be done, for what was set up one day fell down on the next, and no covering could be made to protect the sinners till the time of mercy that Christ had appointed had arrived ; when, at the expiration of the twelvemonth, and in the very same hour in which the priest had pronounced his curse upon them, they were separated, and " in the twynklyng of an eye " ran into the church and fell down in a swoon on the pavement, where they lay three da^s before they were « Went

16 Tlie Dance of Death.

restored. On their recovery they tell the priest that he will not long survive :

For to thy long home sone shalt thou wende. All they ryse that yche tyde. But Ave she lay dede besyde.

Her father dies soon afterwards. The emperor causes Ave's arm to be put into a vessel and suspended in the church as an example to the spectators. The rest of the party, although separated, travelled about, but always dancing ; and as they had been inseparable before, they were now not permitted to remain together. Four of them went hopping to Rome, their clothes undergoing no change, and their hair and nails not continuing to grow.

Bruning the Bysshope of Seynt Tolous, Wrote thys tale so merveylous ; Setthe was hys name of more renoun, Men called him the Pope Leon ; Thys at the courte of Rome they wyte. And yn the kronykeles hyt ys write ; Yn many stedys ^ beyounde the see. More than ys yn thys cuntre : Tharfor men seye an weyl ys trowed, The nere the cherche the further fro God, So fare men here by thys tale, Some holde it but a trotevale,^ Yn other stedys hyt ys ful dere, And for grete merveyle they wyl hyt here.

In the French copies the story is said to have been taken from the itinerary of St. Clement. The name of" the girl who lost her arm is Marcent, and her brother's John.*^

23 Places. « A falsehood.

25 Whoever may be desirous of inspecting other authorities for the story, may consult Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Historiale, lib. xxv. cap. lo ; Krantz, Saxonia, lib. iv. ; Trithemii Chron. Monast. Hii-saugi- ensis; Chronicon Engelhusii ap. Leibnitz. Script. Brunsvicens. IL 1083; Chronicon. S. ^gidii, ap. Leibnitz, iii. 582 ; Cantipranus de apibus ; & Caesarius Heisterbach. de Miraculis ; in whose works several veracious and amusing stories of other instances of divine vengeance against danc- ing in general may be found. The most entertaining of all the dancing stories is that of the friar and the boy, as it occurs among the popular penny histories, of which, in one edition at least, it is undoubtedly the very best.

The Dance of Death. 1 1

Previously to entering upon the immediate subject of this Essay, it may be permitted to observe, that a sort of Death's dance was not unknown to the ancients. It was the revelry of departed souls in Elysium, as may be collected from the end of the fourth ode of Anacreon. Among the Romans this practice is exemplified in the following lines of TibuUus : —

Sed me, quod facilis tenero sum semper Amori,

Ipsa Venus campos ducit in Elysios. Hie chorece cantusque vigent. . . ■'•

And Virgil has likewise alluded to it :

Pars pedibus plaudunt choreas et carmina dicunt*'

In the year 1810 several fragments of sculptured sar- cophagi were accidentally discovered near Cuma, on one of which were represented three dancing skeletons,** indicating, as it is ingeniously supposed, that the passage from death to another state of existence has nothing in it that is sorrowful, or capable of exciting fear. They seem to throw some light on the above lines from Virgil and TibuUus.

At a meeting of the Archaeological Society at Rome, in December, 1831, M. Kestner exhibited a Roman lamp on which were three dancing skeletons, and such are said to occur in one of the paintings at Pompeii.

In the Grand Duke of Tuscany's museum at Florence there is an ancient gem, that, from its singularity and connexion with the present subject, is well deserving of notice. It represents an old man, probably a shepherd, clothed in a hairy garment. He sits upon a stone, his right foot resting on a globe, and is piping on a double flute, whilst a skeleton dances grotesquely before him. It might be a matter of some difficulty to explain the recondite meaning of this singular subject.*"

Notwithstanding the interdiction in several councils against the practice of dancing in churches and church- yards, it was found impossible to abolish it altogether ; anJ it therefore became necessary that something of a similar

» Lib. i. Eleg. iii. '" ^En. lib. vi. 1. 44.

2* Millin, Magas. Encycl. 1813, torn. i. p. aoo. * Gori, Mus. FloreiUin. torn. i. pL ©i, No. 3.

12 The Dance of Death.

but more decorous, nature should be substituted, which, whilst it afforded recreation and amusement, might, at the same time, convey with it a moral and religious sensation. It is, therefore, extremely probable, that, in furtherance of this intention, the clergy contrived and introduced the Dance or Pageant of Death, or, as it was sometimes called, the Dance of Macaber, for reasons that will hereafter appear. Mr. Warton states, " that in many churches of France there was an ancient show, or mimickry, in which all ranks of life were personated by the ecclesiastics, who danced together, and disappeared one after another."** Again, speaking of Lydgate's poem on this subject, he says, " These verses, founded on a sort of spiritual masque- rade anciently celebrated in churches, &c."^^ M. Barante, in his History of the Dukes of Burgundy, adverting to the entertainments that took place at Paris when Philip le Bon visited that city in 1424, observes, "that these were not solely made for the nobility, the common people being likewise amused from the month of August to the following season of Lent with the Dance of Death in the church- yard of the Innocents, the English being particularly gratified with this exhibition, which included all ranks and conditions of men. Death being, morally, the principal character."^ Another French historian, M. de Villeneuve Bargemont, informs us that the Duke of Bedford celebrated his victory at Vemeuil by a festival in the centre of the French capital. The rest of what this writer has recorded on the subject before us will be best given in his own words : " Nous voulons parler de cette fameuse procession qu'on vit ddfiler dans les rues de Paris, sous le nom de danse Macabree ou infernale, epouvantable divertissement, auquel prdsidoit un squelette ceint du diademe royal, tenant un sceptre dans ses mains de'charnees et assis sur un trone resplendissant d'or et de pierreries. Ce spectacle repoussant, melange odieux de deuil et de joie, inconnu jusqu'alors, et qui nd s'est jamais renouveld, n'eut gubre pour temoins que dfr soldats e'trangers, ou quelques malheureux echappes k toi les fleaux reunis, et qui avoient vu descendre tous leurl

■• Hist. Engl. Poetry, vol, ii. p. 43, edit 8vo. and Carpentier, Suppi Sd Ducang. v. Macbabaeorum chorea. ^^ Id. ii. 364.

^ Hist, des Dues de Bourgogne, tora. v. p. i8ai.

•4

The Dance of Death, 13

parens, tous leurs amis, dans ces s^pulcres qu*on d^pouil- loit alors de leurs ossemens."" A third French writer has also treated the Dance of Death as a spectacle exhibited in like manner to the people of Paris."* M. Peignot, to whom the reader is obliged for these historical notices in his ingenious researches on the present subject, very plausibly conceives that their authors have entirely mistaken the sense of an old chronicle or journal under Charles VL and VII. which he quotes in the following words : — " Item. L'an 1424 fut faite la Danse Maratre (pour Macabre) aux Inno- cens, et fut comenctfe environ le moys d'Aoust et achev^e au karesme suivant. En l'an 1429 le cordelier Richard preschant aux Innocens estoit mont^ sur ung hault eschaf- faut qui estoit pr^s cie toise et demie de hault, le dos tournd vers les chamiers encontre la charounerie, \ I'endroit de la danse Macabre." He observes, that the Dance of Death at the Innocents, having been commenced in August and finished at the ensuing Lent, could not possibly be repre- sented by living persons, but was only a painting, the large dimensions of which required six months to complete it ; and that a single Death must, in the other case, have danced with every individual belonging to the scene." He might have added, that such a proceeding would have been totally at variance with the florid, but most inaccurate, description by M. Bargemont. The reader will, therefore, most probably feel inclined to adopt the opinion of M. Peignot, that the Dance of Death was not performed by living persons between 1424 and 1429.

But although M. Peignot may have triumphantly demon- strated that this subject was not exhibited by living persons at the above place and period, it by no means follows that it was not so represented at some other time, and on some other spot. Accordingly, in the archives of the cathedral of Besanqon, there is preserved an article respecting a delivery made to one of the officers of Saint John the ■ Evangelist of four measures of wine, to be given to those V'crsons who performed the Dance of Death after mass

f^

" Hist de Ren^ d'Anjou, torn. i. p. 54.

** Dulaure, Hist Physique, &c. de Paris, i8«i, torn. iL p. 55a.

"* Recherches sur les Danses des Morts. Dijon et Pars, i8a6, 8vo.

xxxiv. et seq.

14 Tfie Dance of Death.

was concluded. This is the article itself, "Sexcallus [seneschallus] solvat D. Joanni Caleti matriculario S. Joannis quatuor simasias vini per dictum matricularium exhibitas illis qui choream Machabeorum fecerunt lo Julii, 1453, nuper lapsa hora misse in ecclesia S. Joannis Evan- geliste propter capitulum provinciale fratrum Minorum."^ This document then will set the matter completely at rest. At what time the personified exhibition of this pageant commenced, or when it was discontinued, cannot now be correctly ascertained. If, from a moral spectacle, it became a licentious ceremony, as is by no means improbable, in imitation of electing a boy-bishop, of the feast of fools, or other similar absurdities, its termination may be looked for in the authority of some ecclesiastical council at present not easily to be traced.

^ Mercure de France, Sept. 1742. Machabaeorum chorea.

Carpentier, Suppl. ad Ducang. v.

CHAPTER II.

Places where the Dance of Death 7vas sculptured or depicted. — Usually accompanied by verses describing the several charac- ters.— Other Metrical Compositions on the Dance.

E find the Dance of Death often re- presented, not only on the walls, but in the windows of churches, in the cloisters of monasteries, and even on bridges, especially in Germany and Switzerland. It was sometimes painted on church screens, and occasionally sculptured on them, as well as upon the fronts of domestic dwellings. It occurs in many of the manuscript and illuminated service books of the Middle Ages, and frecjuent allusions to it are found in other manu- scripts, but very rarely in a perfect state, as to the number of subjects.

Most of these representations were accompanied by descriptive or moral verses in different languages. Those which were added to the paintings of this subject in Germany appear to have differed very materially, and it is not now possible to ascertain which among them is the oldest. Those in the Basle painting are inserted in the editions published and engraved by Mathew Merian, but they had already occurred in the Decennalia humanae peregrinationis of Gaspar I.andismann in 1584. Some Latin verses were published by Melchior Goldasti at the enc' of his edition of the Speculum omnium statuum, a eel brated moral work by Roderic, Bishop of Zamora,

1 6 The Dance of Death.

1 6 13, 4to. He most probably copied them from one ot the early editions of the Danse Macabre, but without any comment whatever, the above title-page professing that they are added on account of the similarity of the subject.

A Provencal poet, called Marcabres or Marcabrus, has been placed among the versifiers, but none of his works bear the least similitude to the subject ; and, moreover, the language itself is an objection. The English metrical translation will be noticed hereafter. Whether any of the paintings were accompanied by descriptive verses that might be considered as anterior to those ascribed to the supposed Macaber, cannot now be ascertained.

There are likewise some Latin verses in imitation of those above mentioned, which, as well as the author of them, do not seem to have been noticed by any biographical or poetical writer. They occur at the end of a Latin play, entitled Susanna, Antverp. apud Michaelem Hillenium, MDXXXiii. As the volume is extremely rare, and the versesJ intimately connected with the present subject, it has been thought worth while to reprint them. After an elegy on the vanity and shortness of human life, and a Sa]. phic ode on the remembrance of Death, they follow under this title, " Plausus luctificae mortis ad modum dialogi extemporaliter ab Eusebio Candido lusus. Ad quem quique mortales invitantur omnes, cujuscujus sint conditionis : quibusque singulis Mors ipsa respondet."

Luctificse mortis plausum bene cemite cuncti. Dum res Iseta, mori et viventes discite, namque Omnes ex aequo tandem hue properare necessum.

Hie inducitur adolescens quaerens, et mors vel philosophi.s respondens.

Vita quid est hominis ? Fumus super aream raissus- Vita quid est hominis ? Via mortis, dura laborum Colluvies, vita est hominis via longa doloris Perpetui. Vita quid est hominis ? cniciatus et error, Vita quid est hominis ? vestitus gramine multo, Floribus et variis campus, quem pai-va pruina ExpoUat, sic vitam hominum more impia tollit. Quamlibet ilia alacris, vegeta, aiit opulenta ne felix, Icta cadit modica crede aegritudine mortis. Et quamvis superes auro vel murice Crcesv m.

Tfu Dance of Death. 17

Longaevum aut annis vivendo Nestora vincas. Omnia mors sequat, viUe meta ultima mors est

IMPERATOR.

Quid fers ? Induperator ego, et moderamina rerum Gesto manu, domuit mors impia sceptra potentum.

REX RHOMANUS.

Quid fers ? en ego Rhomulidum rex. Mors manet

PAPA.

En ego Pontificum primus, signansque resignaiis. Et coelos oraque locos. Mors te manet ergo.

CARDINALIS.

Cardineo fulgens ego honore, et Episcopus ecce Mors manet ecce omnes, Phrygeus quos pileus omat.

EPISCOPUS.

Insula splendidior vestit mea, tempora latum Possideo imperium, multi mea jura tremiscunL Me dicant fraudis docti, producere lites Experti, aucupium docti numrnorum, et avemi Causidici, rixatores, rabulaeque forenses. Hos ego respicio, nihil attendens animarum, Ecclesiae mihi commissae populive salutem Sed satis est duros loculo infarcisse labores AgricolQm, et magnis placuisse heroibus orbis. Non tamen effugies mortis mala spicula durse.

ECCLESIi« PR^LATUS.

Ecclesise praelatus ego multis venerandus Muneribus sacris, proventibus officiorum. Comptior est vestis, popina frequentior oede Sacra, et psalmorum cantus mihi rarior ipso Talorum crepitu, Veneris quoque voce sonora. Morte cades, annos speras ubi vivere plures.

CANONICUS.

En ego melotam gesto. Mors saeva propinqtiat

PASTOR.

En parochus quoque pastor ego, mihi duke falemum Notius sede sacra : scortum mihi charius ipsa Est animae cura popxUL Mors te manet ergo.

ABBAS.

En abbas venio, Veneris quoque ventris amicus. Ccenobii rara est mihi cura, frequentior aula Magnorum heroum. Chorea saltabis eadem.

PRIOR.

En prior, omatus longa et splendente cuculla, Falce cades mortis. Mors aufcrt nomina honoris.

PATER VESTALIUM.

Nympharum pater ecce ego sum ventrosior, offis Pinguibus emacerans corpus. Mors te manet ipsa. C

s8 The. Dance of Death.

VESTALIS NYMPHA.

En monialis ego, Vestae servire parata. Non te Vesta potest mortis subducere castris,

LEGATUS.

Legatus venio culparum vincla resolvens Omnia pro auro, abiens coelum vendo, infera clatbdtf Et quicquid patres szmxerunt, munere solvo Juribus a mortis non te legatio solvet.

DOMINUS DOCTOR.

Quid fers ? Ecce sophus, divina humanaque jura Calleo, et a populo doctor Rabbique salulor, Te manet expectans mors ultima linea rerum.

MEDICUS.

En ego sum medicus, vitam producere gnans, Venis lustratis morborum nomina dico, Non poteris durse mortis vitare sagittas.

ASTRONOMUS.

En ego stellarum motus et sydera novi, Et fati genus omne scio prsedicere cceli. Non potis es mortis durae prsescire sagittas.

CURTISANUS.

En me Rhoma potens multis sufFarsit onustum Muneribus sacris, proventibus, officiisque Non potes his mortis fugiens evadere tela.

ADVOCATUS.

Causarum patronus ego, producere doctus

Lites, et loculos lingua vacuare loquaci

Non te lingua loquax mortis subducet ab ictu.

JUDEX.

Justitiae judex quia simi, sub plebe salutor. Vertice me nudo populus veneratur adorans. Auri sacra fames pervertere saepe coegit Justitiam. Mors te manet sequans omnia falce.

PRiETOR.

Praetor ego populi, me praetor nemo quid audet. Accensor causis, per me stant omnia, namque Et dono et adimo vitam, cum rebus honorem. Munere conspecto, quod iniquum est jure triumpLat Emitto corvos, censura damno columbas. Hinc metuendus ero superis ereboque profundo. Te manet expectans Erebus Plutoque cruentus.

CONSUL.

Polleo consiliis, Consul dicorque salutor. Munere conspecto, quid iniquum est consulo rectum Quod rectum est flecto, nihil est quod nesciat auri Sacra fames, hinc ditor et undique fio opulentua Sed eris aetemum miser et mors impia toilet

TJie Dance of Death. 19

CAUSIDICUS.

Causidicus ego sum, causas narrare peritus, Accior in causas, sed spes ubi fulserit auri Ad fraudes docta solers wtor l)ene lingua. Muto, commuto, jura inflecto atque reflecto. Et nihil est quod non astu pervinccre possim. Mors aequa expcctat properans te fulmine dire Nee poteris astu mortis praevertere tela.

SCABINUS.

Ecce Scabinus ego, scabo bursas, prorogo causas.

Senatorque vocor, vulgus me poplite curvo,

Muneribusque datis veneratur, fronte retecta.

Nil moitem mcditor loculos quando impleo nummis

Et dito hxredes nummis, vi, fmude receptis,

Justitiam nummis, pro sanguine, munere, vendo.

Quod rectum est curvo, quod cur\'um est munere rectiua

Efficio, per me prorsus stant omnia jura.

Non poteris durae mortis transire sagittas.

LU DIM AGISTER.

En ego pervigili cura extemoque'labore. Excolui juvenum ingenia, et praecepta Minerv3e Tradens consenui, cathedraeque piget sine fnictiL Quid dabitur fructus, tanti quae dona laboris ? Omnia mors aequans, vitx ultima meta laboris.

MILES AURATUS.

Miles ego auratus, fulgcnti murice et auro Splendidus in popalo. Mors te manet omnia perdeii&

MILES ARMATUS.

Miles ego armatus, qui bella ferocia gessi. Nullius occursum expavi, quam durus et audax. Ergo immunis ere. Mors te intrepida ipsa necabit

MERCATOR.

En ego mercator dives, maria omnia lustro Et terras, ut res crescant Mors te metet ipsa.

FUCKARDUS. En ego fuckardus, loculos gesto asris onustos, Omnia per mundum coSmens, vendo atque revendtfc Heroes me solicitant, atque aera requirunt Haud est me lato quisquam modo ditior orbe. Mortis ego jura et frameas nihil ergo tremisco Morte cades, mors te rebus ipK)liabit opimis.

QU^.STOR.

Quaestor ego, loculos suffersi arcasque "apaces Est mihi pnenitidis fundata pecunia villis. Hac dives redimam dune discrimina morti« Te mors praeripiet nullo exorabilis auro.

NAUCLERUS.

En ego nauclerus spaciosa per aequora vectug, C 3

90 'ITie Dance of Death.

Non timui maris aut venti discrimina mille. Cymba tamen mortis capiet te quaeque voiantiu

AGRICOLA.

Agricola en ego sum, prseduro ssepe labore;, Et vigili exhaustus cura, sudore perenni, Victum prsetenuem quserens, sine fraude doloqnc Omnia pertentans, miseram ut traducerc possini Vitam, nee mundo me est infelicior alter. Moi-s tamen eduri fiet tibi meta laboris.

ORATOR-

Heroum interpres venio, fraudisque peritxis, Bellorum strepitus compono, et bella reduce, Meque petunt reges, populus miratur adorana. Nulla abiget fraudi lingueve peritia mortem.

PRINCEPS BELLI.

Fulmen ego belli, reges et regna subegi, Victor ego ex omni prseduro quamlibet ecce Marte fui, vitae hinc timeo discrimina nuUa. Te mors confodiet cauda Trigonis aquosi, Atque eris exanimis moriens uno ictu homo bul]x

DIVES.

Sum rerum felix, foecunda est prolis et uxor. Plena domus, Isetum pecus, et cellaria plena. Nil igitur metuo. Quid ais ? Mors te impia tolled

PAUPER.

Iro ego pauperior, Codroque tenuior omni, Despicior cunctis, nemo est qui sublevet heu hen. Hinc parcet veniens mors : nam nihil auferet a roc, Non sic evades, ditem cum paupere toUit

FCEN ERATO R.

Ut loculi intument auro, vi, fraude, doloque, Foenore nunc quaestum facio, furtoque rapinaque, Ut proles ditem, passim dicarque beatus. Per fas perque nefas corradens omnia quaero. Mors veniens furtim praedabitur, omnia tollens.

ADOLESCENS.

Sum juvenis, forma spectabilis, indole gaudens Maturusque aevi, nuUus praestantior alter, Moribus egregiis populo laudatus ab omni, PaUida, difformis mors auferet omnia raptim,

PUELLA.

Ecce puellarum pulcherrima, mortis iniquae Spicula nil meditor, juvenilibus et fruor annis, Meque proci expectant compti, facieque venusti. Stulta, quid in vana ape jactas ? Mors metet omn«i Difformes, pulchroaque simul cum paupere dices.

NUNCIUS.

Nuncius ecce ego sum, qui nuncia perfero peraix

Tk€ Dancf of Death. %i

Sed retrospectans post ter^, papae audio quidnam f Me tuba terrificans mortis vocat Heu moriendum est

PERORATia

Mortales igitur memores modo vivite laeti Instar venturi furis, discrimine nullo Cunctos rapturi passim ditesque inopesquew Stullus et insipiens vita qui sperat in ista, Instar quae fumi perit et cito desinit esse. Fac igitur tota virtuti incumbito mente. Quae nescit mortem, sed scandit ad ardua coell Quo nos 4 fatis ducat rex Juppiter, Amen.

Plaudite nunc, animum cuncti retinete faventes.

FINIS.

Antwerpiae apud Michaelem Hillenium M.D.XXXIIII. Mense Maia

A very early allusion to the Dance of Death occurs in a Latin poem, that seems to have been composed in the twelfth century by our celebrated countryman Walter dc Mapes, as it is found among other pieces that carry with them strong marks of his authorship. It is entitle I *' Lamentacio et deploracio pro Morte et consilium de vivente Deo."^ In its construction there is a striking resemblance to the common metrical stanzas that accom- pany the Macaber Dance. Many characters, commencing with that of the Pope, are introduced, all of whom bewail the uncontrollable influence of Death. This is a specimen of the work, extracted from two manuscripts :

Cum mortem meditor nescit mihi causa dolori*, Nam cunctis horia mors venit ecce cita Pauperis et regis communis lex moriendi, Dat causam flendi si bene scripta leges. Gustato pomo missus transit sine morte Heu missa sorte labitur omnis homo.

Vado mori Papa qui jussu regna Vado mori. Rex suni, quod honor,

subegi quod gloria regum,

Mors mihi regna tulit eccine vado Est via mors hominis regia vado

mori. mori.

Then follow similar stanzas, for presul, miles, monachus, legista, jurista, doctor, logicus, medicus, cantor, sapiens, dives, cultor, burgensis, nauta, pincema, pauper.

In Sanchez's collection of Spanish poetry before the year 1400,' mention is made of a Rabbi Santo as a good

* Bibl. Reg. 8 13. vi. Lansd. MS. 397. ' Madrid, 1779, 8vo. p. 179.

2.2 The Dance of Death.

poet, who lived about 1360. He was a Jew, and surgeon to Don Pedro. His real name seems to have been Mose, but he calls himself Don Santo Judio de Carrion. This j)erson is said to have written a moral poem, called " Danza General." It commences thus :

Disc la Muerte.

** Yo so la mnerte cierta a todas criaturas,

Que son y seran en el mundo durante :

Demando y digo O ame ! porque curas

De vida tan breve en punto passante ? &a

He then introduces a preacher, who announces Death to all persons, and advises them to be prepared by good works to enter his Dance, which is calculated for all degrees of mankind.

Primaramente llama a su danza a dos doncellas,

A esta mi danza trax de presente,

Estas dos donzellas que vades fermosas :

EJIas vinieron de muy malamente

A oir mes canciones que son dolorosas,

Mas non les valdran flores nin rosas,

Nin las composturas que poner salian :

De mi, si pudiesen parterra qnerrian,

Mas non proveda ser, que son mis esposas.

It may, however, be doubted whether the Jew Santo was the author of this Dance of Death, as it is by no means improbable that it may have been a subsequent work added to the manuscript referred to by Sanchez.

In 1675, Makre Jacques Jacques, a canon of the cathedral of Ambrun, published a singular work, entitled " Le faut mourir et les excuses inutiles que Ton apporte k cette necessitd Le tout en vers burlesques." Rouen, 1675, i2mo. It is written much in the style of Scarron and some other similar poets of the time. It commences with a humorous description given by Death of his proceedings with various persons in every part of the globe, which is followed by several dialogues between Death and the following characters : — i. The Pope. 2. A young lady betrothed. 3. A galley slave. 4. Guillot, who has lost his wife. 5. Don Diego Dalmazere, a Spanish hidalgo. 6. A king. 7. The young widow of a citizen. '6. A citizen. 9. A decrepit rich man. lo. A canoa.

JJie Dame of Death. 2j

f I. A blind man. 12. A poor peasant. 13. Tourmente, a poor soldier in the hospital. 14. A criminal in prison. 15. A nun. 16. A physician. 17. An apothecary. 18. A lame beggar. 19. A rich usurer. 20. A merchant. 21. A rich merchant As the book is unccmimon, the following specimen is given from the scene between Death and the young betrothed girl :

LA MORT. A vous la bolle demoiselle, Je vous apporte une nouvelle, Qui certes vous surprendra fort. Cest qu'il faut penser 4 la mort. Tout vistement pli^s bagage, Car il faut faire ce voyage.

LA DEMOISELLE.

Qu'entend»-je ? Tout mon sens se perd

Helas ! vous me prenez sans verd ;

Cest tout i fait hors de raison

Mourir dedans une saison

Que je nc dois songer qu'4 rire,

Je suis contrainte de vous dire,

Que tr^s injuste est vostre choix,

Parce que mourir je ne dois,

N'estant qu'en ma quinzieme annec

Voyez quelque vielle echinee,

Qui n'ait en bouche point de dent ;

Vous I'obligerez grandement

De I'envoyer k I'autre monde,

Puis qu'ici toujours elle gronde •

Vous la prendrez tout 4 propos

Et laissez moi dans le repos,

Moi qui suis toute poupinette,

Dans rembonpoint et joliettc,

Qai n'aime qu'a me rejoiiir,

Pc gr^ laiasez moi joozr, f aV

CHAPTER III.

Macaber not a German or any other poet^ but a nonenity — Corruption and confusion respecting this word. — Ety?nolo- gical errors concerning it. — How cojinected with the Dance. — Trois mors et irois vifs. — Orgagnd's painting in the Campo Santo at Pisa. — Its confiexion with the trois mors et trois vifs, as well as with the Macaber dance. — Saint Macarius the real Macaber. — Pamtings of this dance in various places. — At Minden; Churchyard of the Innocents at Paris; Dijoji; Basle; Klingenthal; Lubeck; leipsic ; Anneberg; Dresden; Erfurt; Nure?nberg; Berne; lu- cerne; A?niens; Rouen; Fescamp ; Bio is ; Strasburg; Berlin; Vienna; in Holland ; Italy ; Spain.

E will now proceed to consider the origin of the name of Macaber, as con- nected with the Dance of Death, either as respects theverses that have usually accompanied it, or the paintings and representations of the Dance itself ; and first of the verses.

It may^ without much hazard, be maintained that, notwithstanding these have been ascribed to a German poet called Macaber, there never was a Ger- man, or any poet whatever bearing such a name. The first mention of him appears to have been in a French edition of the Danse Macabre, with the following title, " Chorea ah eximio Macabro versibus Alemannicis edito, et k Petro Desrey emendata. Parisiis per Magistrum Guidorem Mercatorem pro Godefrido de Marnef. 1490, fol'o."

Tfie Dance of Death. 2.«;

This title, from its ambiguity, is deserving of little con- sideration as a matter of authority ; for if a comma be placed after the word Macabro, the title is equally ap- plicable to the author of the verses and to the painter or inventor of the Dance. As the subject had been represented in several places in Germany, and of course accomprnied with German descriptions, it is possible that Desrey might have translated and altered some or one of these, and, mistaking the real meaning of the word, have converted it into the name of an author. It may be asked in what German biography is such a person to be found I how it has happened that \}l\\% famous Macaber is so little known, or whether the name really has a Teutonic aspect? It was the above title in Desrey's work that misled the truly learned Fabricius inadvertently to introduce into his valuable work the article for Macaber as a German poet, and in a work to which it could not jiroperly belong.^

M. Peignot has very justly observed that the Danse Macabre had been very long known in France and else- where, not as a literar>' work, but as a painting ; and he further remarks that although the verses are German in the Basil painting, executed about 1440, similar verses in French were placed under the Dance at the Innocents at Paris in 1424.'

At the beginning of the text in the early French edition of the Danse Macabre, we have only the words " la danse Macabre s'appelle," but no specific mention is made of the author of the verses. John Lydgate, in his translation of them from the French, and which was most probably adopted in many places in England where the painting occurred, speaks of " the Frenche Machabrees daunce," and " the daunce of Machabree." At the end, " Machabree the Doctoure" is abruptly and unconnectedly introduced at the bottom of the page. It is not in the French printed copy, from the text of which Lydgate certamly varies in several respects. It remains, therefore, to ascertain whether these words belong to Lydgate, or to whom else ; not that it is a matter of much importance.

* Bibl. Med. et Inf. /Etat. torn. v. p. i. ' Recherches sur les Danses des Morts, pp. 79, 80.

86 The Dance of Death.

The earliest authority that has been traced for the name of " Danse Macabre," belongs to the painting at the Innocents, and occurs in the MS. diary of Charles VII. under the year 1424. It is also strangely called "Chorea Machabseorum," in 1453, ^s appears from the before cited document at St. John's church at Besan^on. Even the name of one Maccabrees, a Provencal poet of the four- teenth century, has been injudiciously connected with the subject, though his works are of a very different nature.

Previously to attempting to account for the origin of the obscure and much controverted word Macaber, as applicable to the Dance itself, it may be necessary to advert to the opinions on that subject that have already appeared. It has been disguised under the several names of Macabre,^ Maccabees,^ Maratre,® and even Macrobius.* Sometimes it has been regarded as an epithet. The learned and excellent M. Van Praet, the guardian of the royal library at Paris, has conjectured that Macabre is derived from the Arabic Magbarah, magbourah, or magabir, all signifying a churchyard. M. Peignot seems to think that M. Van Praet intended to apply the word to the Dance itself;^ but it is impossible that the intelligent librarian was not aware that personified sculpture, as well as the moral nature of the subject, cannot belong to the Mahometan religion. Another etymology extremely well calculated to disturb the gravity of the present subject, is that of M. Villaret, the French historian, when adverting to the spectacle of the Danse Macabre, supposed to have been given by the English in the churchyard of the Innocents at Paris. Relying on this circumstance, he unceremo- niously decides that the name of the dance was likewise English ; and that Macabrie is compounded of the words, to make and to break. The same silly etymology is referred to as in some historical dictionary concerning the city of Paris by Mons Compan in his Dictionnaire de Danse, article Macaber ; and another which is equally improbable has been hazarded by the accomplished Marquis de Paulmy, who, noticing some editions of the Danse Macabre in his

3 Passim. ^ Modern edition of the Danse Macabre. • Joumil

de Charles VII. ^ Lansd. MS. No. 397 — 20. ^ Peignot, Recher-

ches; \: 109.

Tlie Dance of Death. »7

fine library, now in the arsenal at Paris, very seriously states that Macaber is derived from two Greek words, which denote its meaning to be an infernal dance;* but if the Greek language were to be consulted on the occasion, the signification would turn out to be very different.

It must not be left unnoticed that M. de Bure, in his account of the edition of the Danse Macabre, printed by Marchant, i486, has stated that the verses have been attributed to Michel Marot ; but the book is dated before Marot was born."

Again, — As to the connexion between the word Macaber with the Dance itself.

In the course of the thirteenth century there appeared a French metrical work under the name of " Li trois Mors et li trois Vis," /. e. Les trois Morts et les trois Vifs. In the noble library of the Duke de la Valliere, there were three apparently coeval manuscripts of it, differing, however, from each other, .but furnishing the names of two authors, Baudouin de Condc^ and Nicolas de Marginal.**^ These poems relate that three noble youths when hunting in a forest were intercepted by the like number of hideous spectres or images of Death, from whom they received a terrific lecture on the vanity of human grandeur. A very early, and perhaps the earliest, allusion to this vision, seems to occur in a painting by Andrew Orgagna in the Campo Santo at Pisa ; and although it varies a little from the description in the above-mentioned poems, the story is evidently the same. The painter has introduced three young men on horseback with coronets on their caps, and who are attended by several domestics whilst pursuing the amusement of hawking. They arrive at the cell of Saint Macarius an Egyptian Anachorite, who with one hand presents to them a label with this inscription, as well as it can be made out, " Se nostra mente fia ben morta tenendo risa qui la vista aflitta la vana gloria ci sara sconfitta la superbia e sara da morte ;" and with the other points to three open coffins, in which are a skeleton and two dead bodies, one of them a king.

A similar vision, but not immediately connected with the

' Melanj^e dune Grande Biblioth^que, torn. vii. p. 1%. • BibL

Instruc. No. 3109. w Catal. La Valliere, 1736 — aa.

»8 The Dance of Death.

present subject, and hitherto unnoticed, occurs at the endl of the Latin verses ascribed to Macaber, in Goldasti'a edition of the Speculum omnium statuum a Roderico Zamorensi. Three persons appear to a hermit, whose name is not mentioned, in his sleep. The first is described as a man in a regal habit ; the second as a civilian, and the third as a beautiful female decorated with gold and jewels. Whilst these persons are vainly boasting of their respective conditions, they are encountered by three horrible spectres in the shape of dead human bodies covered with worms, who very' severely reprove them for their arrogance. This is evidently another version of the "Trois mors et trois vifs" in the text, but whether it be older or otherwise cannot easily be ascertained. It is composed in alternate rhymes, in the manner, and probably by the author of Philibert or Fulbert's vision of the dispute between the soul and the body, a work ascribed to S. Bernard, and sometimes to Walter de Mapes. There are translations of it both in French and English.

For the mention of S. Macarius as the hermit in this painting by Orgagna, we are indebted to Vasari in his life of that artist ; and he had, no doubt, possessed himself of some traditionary information on the subject of it. He further informs us, that the person on horseback who is stopping his nostrils, is intended for Andrea Uguzzione della Fagivola. Above is a black and hideous figure of Death mowing down with his scythe all ranks and conditions of men, Vasari adds that Orgagna had crowded his picture with a great many inscriptions, most of which were oblite- rated by time. From one of them which he has preserved in his work, as addressed to some aged cripples, it should appear that, as in the Macaber Dance, Death apostrophises the several characters." Baldinucci, in his account of Orgagna, mentions this painting and the story of the Three Kings and Saint Macarius.^^ Morona likewise, in his Pisa illustrata, adopts the name of Macarius when describing the same subject. The figures in the picture are all portraits, and their names may be seen, but with some variation as to description, both in Vasari and Morona. ^^

" Vasari, Vite de Pittori, torn. i. p. 183, edit. 1568, 4to. ^2 Baldi- aucci, DJsegno, iL 65. ^3 Morona, Pisa Illustrata, i. 359.

The Dance of Death. 29

Now the story of Les trots mors et les irois vifs, was prefixed to the painting of the Macaber Dance in the churchyard of the Innocents at Paris, and had also been sculptured over the portal of the church, by order of the Duke de Berry in 1408.** It is found in numerous manu- script copies of Horae and other service-books prefixed to the burial office. All the printed editions of the Macaber Dance contain it, but with some variation, the figure of Saint Macarius in his cell not being always introduced. It occurs in many of the printed service-books, and in some of our own for the use of Salisbury. The earliest wood engraving of it is in the black book of the " 15 signa Judicii," where two young men are running away to avoid the three Deaths, or skeletons, one of whom is rising from a grave. It is copied in Bibliotheca Spen- ceriana, vol. i. p. xxx.

From the preceding statement then there is every reason to infer that the name of Macaber, so frequently and without authority applied to an unknown German poet, really belongs to the Saint, and that his name has undergone a slight and obvious corruption. The woid Macabre is found only in French authorities ; and the Saint's name, which, in the modern orthography of that language, is Macaire^ would, in many ancient manuscripts, be written Macabre instead of Macaure, the letter b being substituted for that of u from the caprice, ignorance, or carelessness in the transcribers.

As no German copy of the verses describing the painting can, with any degree of certainty, be regarded as the original, we must substitute the Latin text, which may, perhaps, have an equal claim to originality. The author, at the beginning, has an address to the spectators, in which he tells them that the painting is called the Dance of Macaber. There is an end, therefore, of the name of Macaber, as the author of the verses, leaving it only as applicable to the painting, and almost if not altogether confirmatory of the preceding conjecture. The French version, from which Lydgate made his translation, nearly agrees with the Latin. Lydgate,

" Du Breul, Antiq. de Pang, i6n,4to. p. 834, where the verses that accompany the sculpture are given. See likewise Sandrart, Acad. Pictune, p. 101.

30 TJie Dance of Death.

however, in the above address, has thought fit to use the word translator instead of author; but this is of no moment, any more than the words Machabrie the Doctour, which, not being in the French text, are most likely an interpolation. He likewise calls the work the daunce; and it may, once for all, be remarked, that scarcely any two versions of it will be found to correspond in all respects, every new editor assuming fresh liberties, according to the usual practice in former times.

The ancient paintings of the Macaber Dance next demand our attention. Of these, the oldest on record was that of Minden in Westphalia, with the date 1383, and mentioned by Fabricius in his Biblioth. Med. et Infimae -<^tatis, tom. v. p. 2. It is to be wished that this statement had been accompanied with some authority; but the whole of the article is extremely careless and inaccurate.

The earliest, of which the date has been satisfactorily defined, was that in the churchyard of the Innocents at Paris, and which has been already mentioned as having been painted in 1434.

In the cloister of the church of the Sainte Chapelle at Dijon the Macaber Dance was painted by an artist whose name was Masongelle. It had disappeared and was for- gotten a long time ago, but its existence was discovered in the archives of the department by Mons. Boudot, an ardent investigator of the manners and customs of the Middle Ages. The date ascribed to this painting is 1436. The above church was destroyed in the revolution, previously to which another Macaber Dance existed in the church of Notre Dame in the above city. This was not a painting on the walls, but a piece of white embroidery on a black piece of stuff about two feet in height and very long. It was placed over the stalls in the choir on grand funeral ceremonies, and was also carried off with the other church movables, in the above-mentioned revolution.^^ Similar exhibitions, no doubt, prevailed in other pkces.

The next Macaber Dance, in point of date, was the

celebrated one at Basle, which has employed the pens and

multiplied the errors of many writers and travellers. It

was placed under cover in a sort of shed in the churchyard

15 Peignot, Recherches, xxxvii. — xxxix

The Dance of Death. 3t

of the Dominican convent. It has been remarked b) one very competent to know the fact, that nearly all the convents of the Dominicans had a Dance of Death."* As these friars were preachers by profession, the subject must have been exceedingly useful in supplying texts and matter for their sermons. The present Dance is said to have been painted at the instance of the prelates who assisted at the Grand Council of Basle, that lasted from 1431 to 1443 < and in allusion, as supposed, to a plague that happened during its continuance. Plagues have also been assigned as the causes of other Dances of Death ; but there is no foundation whatever for such an opinion, as is demonstrable from what has been already stated ; and it has been also successfully combated by M. Peignot, who is nevertheless a little at variance with himself, when he after^vards introduces a conjecture that the painter of the first Dance imitated the violent motions and contortions of those affected by the plague in the dancing attitudes of the fivures of Death." The name of the original painter of this Basle work is unknown, and will probably ever remain so, for no depen- dence can be had on some vague conjectures, that without the smallest appearance of accuracy have been hazarded concerning it. It is on record that the old painting having become greatly injured by the ravages of time, John Hugh Klauber, an eminent painter at Basle, was employed to repair it in the year 1568, as appears from a Latin inscription placed on it at the time. This painter is said to have covered the decayed fresco with oil, and to have succeeded so well that no difference between his work and the original could be perceived. He was instructed to add the portrait of the celebrated (Ecolampadius in the act of preaching, in commemoration of his interference in the Reformation, that had not very long before taken place. He likewise introduced at the end of the painting, portraits of himself, his wife Barbara Hallerin, and their little son Hans Birich Klauber. The following inscription, placed on the painting on this occasion, is preserved in Hentzner's Itinerary, and elsewhere.

*• Urtisii epitom. Hist Basiliensis, 15 «, 8vo. " Peignot, Recher- ches, xxvl — xxix.

32' The Dance of Death,

A. O. C. .

Sebastiano Doppenstenio, Casparo Clugio Coss. Ronaventura a Bnino, Jacobo Rudio Tribb. PI. *

Ilunc mortales chorum fabulse, temporis injuria vitiatum ^

Lucas Gebhart, lodoc. Pfister. Georgius Sporlinus fl.

Hujus loci v^diles. ;©

Integritati suae restituendum curavere ';^

Ut qui vocalis picturse divina monita securius audiunt Mutae saltern poeseos miserab. spectaculo '

Ad seriam philosophiam excitentur.

0PATEA02 MAKPOT BIOT APXHN OPAMAKAPIOT.

cio Id lxiix.

In the year 1616 a further reparation took place, and some alterations in the design are said to have been then made. The above inscription, with an addition only of the names of the then existing magistrates of the city, was continued. A short time before, Matthew Merian the elder, a celebrated topographical draughtsman, had fortunately copied the older painting, of which he is supposed to have first published engravings in 1621, with all the inscriptions under the respective characters that were then remaining, but these could not possibly be the same in many respects that existed before the Reformation, and which are entirely lost. A proof of this may be gathered from the lines of the Pope's answer to Death, whom he is thus made to apostrophise : " Shall it be said that I, a God upon earth, a successor of St. Peter, a powerful prince, and a learned doctor, shall enduie thy insolent summons, or that, in obedience to thy decree, I should be compelled to ascertain whether the keys which I now possess will open for me the gate"^ of Paradise ? " None of the inscriptions relating to the Pope in other ancient paintings before the Refor- mation approach in the least to language of this kind.

Merian speaks of a tradition that in the original painting the portrait of Pope Felix V. was introduced, as well as those of the Emperor Sigismund and Duke Albert 11. , all of whom were present at the council ; but admitting this to have been the fact, their respective features would scarcely remain after the subsequent alterations and repairs that took place.

That intelligent traveller, Mons. Blainville, saw this painting in January, 1707. He states that as it had been

The Dance of Death. 33

**^ ucK injured by the weather, and many of the figures

^^'^"aced, the Government caused it to be retouched by a

^. "nter whom they imagined to be capable of repairing

|y*^' ravages it had sustained, but that his execution was so

"^^serable that they had much better have let it alone than

^ . have had it so wretchedly bungled. He wholly rejects

P^'iy retouching by Holbein. He particularizes two of the

9!iost remarkable subjects ; namely, the fat jolly cook, whom

^ Death seizes by the hand, carrying on his shoulder a spit

with a capon ready larded, which he looks upon with a

wishful eye, as if he regretted being obliged to set out

before it was quite roasted. The other figure is that of the

blind beggar led by his dog, whom Death snaps up with

one hand, and with the other cuts the string by which the

dog was tied to his master's arm."

The very absurd ascription of the Basle painting to the pencil of Hans Holbein, who was bom near a century afterwards, has been adopted by several tourists, who have copied the errors of their predecessors, without taking the pains to make the necessary inquiries, or possessing the means of obtaining correct information. The name of Holbein, therefore, as combined with this painting, must be wholly laid aside, for there is no evidence that he was even employed to retouch it, as some have inadvertently stated ; it was altogether a work unworthy of his talents, nor does it, even in its latest state, exhibit the smallest indication of his style of painting. This matter will be resumed hereafter ; but, in the mean time, it may be necessary to correct the mistake of that truly learned and meritorious writer, John George Keysler, who, in his instructive and entertaining travels, has inadvertently stated that the Basle painting was executed by Hans Bock or Bok, a celebrated artist of that city ; ^" but it is well known that this person was not born till the year 1584.

The Basle painting is no longer in existence ; for on the 2d of August, 1806, and for reasons that have not been precisely ascertained, an infuriated mob, in which were several women, who carried lanterns to light the expedition, tumultuously burst the inclosure which con- tained the painting, tore it piecemeal from the walls, and ♦"Travels, L 376. "Travels. 138, edit. 410.

D

34 The Dance of Death.

in a very short space of time completely succeeded in its total demolition, a few fragments only being still pre- served in the collection of Counsellor Vischer at his castle of Wildensheim, near Basle. This account of its destruction is recorded in Millin's Magazin Encyclopedique among the nouvelles litteraires for that year; but the Etrenne Hel- vetique for the above year has given a different account of the matter : it states that the painting having been once more renovated in the year 1703, fell afterwards into great decay, being entirely peeled from the wall — that this cir- cumstance had, in some degree, arisen from the occupation of the cloister by a ropemaker — that the wall having been found to stand much in the way of some new buildings erected near the spot, the magistrates ventured, but not without much hesitation, to remove the cloister, with its painting, altogether in the year 1805 — and that this occa- sioned some disturbance in the city among the common people, but more particularly with those who had resided in its neighbourhood, and conceived a renewed attachment to the painting.

Of this Dance of Death very few specific copies have been made. M. Heinecken^ has stated that it was engraved in 1544, by Jobst Denneker of Augsburg; but he has confounded it with a work by this artist on the other Dance of Death ascribed to Holbein, and which will be duly noticed hereafter. The work which contained the earliest engravings of the Basle painting, can on this occa- sion be noticed only from a modern reprint of it under the following title : " Der Todten-Tantz wie derselbe in *der weitberuhmten Stadt Basel als ein Spiegel menslicher beschaffenheit gantz kuntlich mit lebendigen farben gemah- let, nicht ohne nutzliche vernunderung zu schen ist. Basel, bey Joh. Conrad und Joh. Jacob von Mechel, 1769, i2mo." That is, " The Dance of Death, painted most skilfully, and in lively colours, in the very famous town of Basel, as a mirror of human life, and not to be looked on without useful admiration."

The first page has some pious verses on the painting in the church-yard of the Predicants, of which the present

^ Heinecken, Dictionn. des Artistes, iii. 67, et iv. 595. He follows Keysler's error respecting Hans Bock.

Tfu Dance of Death. 35

:xrork contains only ten subjects ; namely, the carc/inal, the abbess, the young woman, the piper, the je\\, the heathen man, the heathen woman, the cook, the painter, and the painter's wife. On the abbess there is the mark D. R., probably that of the engraver, two cuts by whom are mentioned in Bartsch's work." On the cut of the young woman there is the mark G S with the graving knife. They are coarsely executed, and with occasional variations of the figures in Merian's plates. The rest of the cuts, thirty-two in number, chiefly belong to the set usually called Holbein's. All the cuts in this miscellaneous volume have German verses at the top and bottom of each page with the subjects. If Jansen, who usually pillages some one else, can be trusted or understood, there was a prior edition of this book in 1606, with cuts having the last- mentioned mark, but which edition he calls the Dance of Death at Berne ;" a title, considering the mixture of sub- jects, as faulty as that of the present book, of which, or of some part of it, there must have been a still earlier edition than the above-mentioned one of 1606, as on the last cut but one of this volume there is the date 1576, and the letters G S with the knife. It is most probable that this artist completed the series of the Basle Dance, and that some of the blocks having fallen into the hands of the above printers, they made up and published the present mixed copy. Jost Amman is said to have engraved 49 plates of the Dance of Death in 1587. These are probably from the Basle painting."

The completest copies of this painting that are now perhaps extant, are to be found in a well-known set o" engravings in copper, by Matthew Merian, the elder, the master of Hollar. There are great doubts as to their firs' appearance in 1621, as mentioned by Fuessli and Hei- necken, but editions are known to exist with the respective dates of 1649, 1696, 1698, 1725, 1744, 1756, and 17891 Some of these are in German, and the rest are accompanied with a French translation by P. Viene. They are all parti- cularly described by Peignot." Merian states in his preface that he had copied the paintings several years before, and

-' Peintre graveur, ix. 398. ** Essai sur TOrig. de la Gravure, :. lao. ■ Hstnecken, Dictionn. des Artistes, i. aaa. ** Rechcrchr^, &c p. 71. D 2

3 5 The Dance of Death,

given his f lates to other persons to be published, adding that he had since redeemed and retouched them. He says this Dance was repaired in 1568 by Hans Hugo Klauber, a citizen of Basle, a fact also recorded on the cut of the painter himself, his wife, Barbara Hallerin, and his son, Hans Birich, by the before-named artist, G. S., and that it contained the portraits of Pope Felix V., the Emperor Sigismund, and Albert, King of the Romans, all of whom assisted at the Council of Basle in the middle of the 15th century, when the painting was probably executed.

A greatly altered and modernised edition of Merian's work was published in 1778, 8vo., with the following title, " La Danse des Morts pour servir de miroir a la nature humaine, avec le costume dessin^ k la moderne, et des vers k chaques figures. Au Locle, chez S. Giradet, libraire." This is on an engraved frontispiece, copied from that in Merian. The letter-press is extracted from the French translation of Merian, and the plates, which are neatly etched, agree as to general design with his ; but the dresses of many of the characters are rather ludicrously modern- ised. Some moral pieces are added to this edition, and particularly an old and popular treatise, composed in 1593, entitled " L'Art de bien vivre et de bien mourir."

A Dance of Death is recorded with the following title^ " Todtentantz durch alle Stande der Menschen," Leipsig, durch David de Necker, formschneider, 1572, 4to.^^ Whether this be a copy of the Basle or the Berne painting must be decided on inspection, or it may possibly be a later edition of the copy of the wood-cuts of Lyons, that will be men- tioned hereafter.

In the little Basle, on the opposite side of the Rhine, Ihere was a nunnery called Klingenthal, erected towards the end of the 13th century. In an old cloister belonging to it, there are the remains of a Dance of Death painted on its walls, and said to have been much ruder in execution than that in the Dominican cemetery at Basle. On this painting there was the date 131 2. In the year 1766, one Emmanuel Ruchel, a baker by trade, but an enthusiastic admirer of the fine arts, made a copy in water colours of

"^ Heller Gescliicl;e der holtzchein kunst, ISamberg, 1823, i2ma p. 126,

TTie I?anj£ of Death, 37

all that remained of this ancient painting, and which is preserved in the public library at Basle."

The numerous mistakes that have been made by those writers who have mentioned the Basle painting have been already adverted to by M. Peignot, and are not, in this place, worthy of repetition.*' 'J'hat which requires most particular notice, and has been so frequently repeated, is the making Hans Holbein the painter of it, who was not born till a considerable time after its execution, and even for whose supposed retouching of a work, almost beneath his notice in point of art, there is not the slightest authority.

In the small organ chapel, or, according to some, in the porch, of the church of St. Mary at Lubeck in Lower Alsace, there is, or was, a very ancient Dance of Death, said to have been painted in 1463. Dr. Nugent, who has given some account of it, says that it is much talked of in all parts of Germany ; that the figures were repaired at different times, as in 1588, 1642, and last of all in 1701. The verses that originally accompanied it were in Low Dutch, but at the last repair it was thought proper to change them for German verses which were written by Nathaniel Schlott of Dantzic. The Doctor has given an English translation of them, made for him by a young lady of Lubeck.^ This painting has been engraved, and will be again mentioned. Leipsic had also a Dance of Death, but no particulars of it seem to have been recorded.

In 1525 a similar Dance was painted at Anneberg in Saxony, which Fabricius seems alone to have noticed. He also mentions another in 1534, at the palace of Duke George

^ Basle Guide Book. ^ Recherchea, 1 1 et seq.

* More on the subject of the Lubeck Dance of Death may be found in — I. An Anonymous work, which has on the last leaf, " Dodendantz, anno domini Mccccxcvi. Lubeck." a. "De Dodendantz fan Kaspar Scheit, na der utgave fan, 1558, unde de Lubecker fan, 1463." This is a poem of four sheets in small 8vo. without mention of the place where printed. 3. Some account of this painting by Ludwig Suhl. Lubeck, 1783, 4to. 4. A poem, in rhyme, with wood-cuts, on 34 leaves, in 8vo. It is fully described from the Helms, library in Brun's Beitrage zu kriL Bearb. alter handschr. p. 321 et seq. 5. Jacob 4 Mellen Grundliche Nachbricht von Lubeck, 17 13, 8vo. p. 48. 6. Schlott Lubikischerg TodtenUntz. 1701. 8vo. 7. Berkenmeyer, le curi<ux antiquaire, 8vo, p. 530; and, 8. Nugent's Travels, i. 103. 8va

38 The Dance of Death.

at Dresden.® This is described in a German work written on the subject generally, by Paul Christian Hilscher, and published at Dresden, 1705, 8vo., and again at Bautzen, 17 2 1, 8vo. It consisted of a long frieze sculptured in stone on the front of the building, containing twenty- seven figures. A view of this very curious structure, with the Dance itself, and also on a separate print, on a larger scale, varying considerably from the usual mode of representing the Macaber Dance, is given in Anthony "Wecken's Chronicle of Dresden, printed in German at Dresden, 1680, folio. It is said to have been removed in 17 2 1 to the churchyard of Old Dresden.

Nicolai Karamsin has given a very brief but ludicrous account of a Dance of Death in the cross aisle of the Orphan House at Erfurth;*' but Peignot places it in the convent of the Augustins, and seems to say that it was painted on the panels between the windows of the cell inhabited by Luther.^^ In all probability the same place is intended by both these writers.

There is some reason to suppose that there was a Dance of Death at Nuremberg. Misson, describing a wedding in that city, states that the bridegroom and his company sat down on one side of the church and the bride on the other. Over each of their heads was a figure of Death upon the wall. This would seem very like a Dance of Death, if the circumstance of the figure being on both sides of the church did not excite a doubt on the subject.

Whether there ever was a Macaber Dance at Berne of equal antiquity with that of Basle has not been ascertained : but Sandrart, in his article for Nicholas Manuel Deutch, a celebrated painter at Berne, in the beginning of the i6tb century, has recorded a Dance of Death painted by him in oil, and regrets that a work materially contributing to the celebrity of that city had been so extremely neglected that he had only been able to lay before the readers the follow- ing German rhymes which had been inscribed on it :

Manuel aller welt figur,

Hastu gemahlt uf diese mur

Nu must sterben da, hilft kun fund :

Bist nit sicher minut noch stund

» Biblioth. Med. et inf. setat. v. a. * Travels, 1, 195. » Rech. xlfii

The Dance of Death. 39

Which he thus translates :

Cunctorum in muris pictis ex arte figuris.

Tu quoque decedes ; etsi hoc vix tempore credeib

Then Manuel's answer :

Kilf eineger Heiland ! dru ich dich bitt :

Dann hie ist gar kein Bleibens nit So mir der Tod mein red wird stellen So bhut euch Gott. mein liebe Gscllea

That is, in Latin :

En tibi me credo, Deus, hoc dum sorte recedo Mors rapiat me, te, reliquos sociosque, valete !

To which account M. Fuseli adds, that this painting, equally remarkable for invention and character, was re- touched in 1553 ; and in 1560, to render the street in which it was placed more spacious, entirely demolished. There were, however, two copies of it preserved at Berne, both in water colours, one by Albrech Kauw, the other a copy from that by Wilhelm Stettler, a painter of Berne, and pupil of Conrad Meyer of Zurich. The painting is here said to have been va fresco on the wall of the Domi- nican cemetery.'^

The verses that accompanied this painting have been mentioned as containing sarcastical freedoms against the clergy ; and as Manuel had himself undergone some persecutions on the score of religion at the time of ihe Reformation, this is by no means improbable. There is even a tradition that he introduced portraits of some of his friends, who assisted in bringing about that event.

In 1832, lithographic copies of the Berne painting, after the drawings of Stettler, were published at Berne, with a portrait of Manuel ; and a set of very beautiful drawings in colours, made by some artist at 13erne, either after those by Stettler or Kauw, in the public library, are in the possession of the writer of this essay. They, as well as the lithographic prints, exhibit Manuel's likeness in the subject of the painter.

C)ne of the bridges at Lucerne was covered with a

" Pilkington's Diet of Painters, p. 307, edit FuseH, who probably follows Fuseli's work on the Painters. Merian, Topogr. Helvetia;.

40 The Dance of Death,

Macaber Dance, executed by a painter named Meglinger, but at what time we are not informed. It is said to have been very well painted, but injured greatly by injudicious retouchings ; yet there seems to be a difference of opinion as to the merit of the paintings, which are or were thirty-six in number, and supposed to have been copied from the Basle dance. Lucerne has also another of the same kind in the burial-ground of the parish church of Im-hof. One of the subjects placed over the tomb of some canon, the founder of a musical society, is Death playing on the violin, and summoning the canon to follow him, who, not in the least terrified, marks the place in the book he was reading, and appears quite disposed to obey. This Dance is probably more modem than the other.^ The subject of Death performing on the above instrument to some person or other is by no means uncommon among the old painters,

M. Maurice Rivoire, in his very excellent description of the cathedral of Amiens, mentions the cloister of the Machabees, originally called, says he, the cloister of Macabre, and, as he supposes, from the name of the author of the verses. He gives some lines that were on one of the walls, in which the Almighty commands Death to bring all mortals before him.** I'his cloister was destroyed about the year 1817, but not before the present writer had seen some vestiges of the painting that remained on one of the sides of the building.

M. Peignot has a very probable conjecture that the churchyard of Saint Maclou, at Rouen, had a Macaber Dance, from a border or frieze that contains several emblematical subjects of mortality. The place had more than once been destroyed.^ On the pillars of the church at Fescamp, in Normandy, the Dance of Death was sculptured in stone, and it is in evidence that the castle of Blois had formerly this subject represented in some part of it.

In the course of some recent alterations in the new church of the Protestants at Strasburg, formerly a Domi- nican convent, the workmen accidentally unco\ered a

83 Peignot, Recherches, xlv. xlvi. ^ Rivoire, Descr. de I'Eglise Cathedrale d' Amiens. Amiens, 1806. 8vo. * Recherches, xlvil

The Dance of Death. 4 1

Dance of Death that had been whitewashed, either for the purpose of obliteration or concealment. This painting seems to differ from the usual Macaber Dance, not always confined like that to two figures only, but having occa- sionally several grouped together. M. Peignot has given some more curious particulars relating to it, extracted from a literary journal by M. Schweighaiuser, of Strasburg.'* It is to be hoped that engravings of it will be given.

Chorier has mentioned the mills of Macabrey, and also a piece of land with the same appellation, which he saya was given to the chapter of St. Maurice at Vienne in Dauphin^, by one Marc Apvril, a citizen of that place He adds, that he is well aware of the Dance of Macabre. Is it not, therefore, probable, that the latter might have existed at Vienne, and have led to the corruption of the above citizen's name by the common people ? "

Misson has noticed a Dance of Death in St. Mary's church at Berlin, and obscurely referred to another in some church at Nuremberg.

Bruckmann, in his Epistolae Itinerariae, vol. v. epist. xxxii. describes several churches and other religious buildings at Vienna, and among them the monastery of the Augustinians, where, he says, there is a painting of a house with Death entering one of the windows by a ladder.

In the same letter be describes a chapel of Death in the above monastery, which had been decorated with moral paintings by Father Abraham k St. Clara, one of the monks. Among these were, i. Death demolishing a student. 2. Death attacking a hunter who had just killed a stag. 3. Death in an apothecary's shop, break- ing the phials and medicine boxes. 4. Death playing at draughts with a nobleman. 5. Harlequin making grimaces at Death. A description of this chapel and its painting was published after the good father's decease. Nuremberg, 17 10, 8vo.

The only specimen of it in Holland that has occurred on the present occasion is in the celebrated Orange-SalU^ which constitutes th2 grand apartment of the coun:r>

^ Rechcrches, xlviii ^ Recberches sur les antiquiles de ViMme.

1659. :3mo. p. 15.

42 The Dance of Death.

seat belonging to the Prince of Orange in the wood adjacent to the Hague. In three of its compartments. Death is represented by skeletons darting their arrows against a host of opponents.^

Nor has Italy furnished any materials for the present essay. Blainville has, indeed, described a singular and whimsical representation of Death in the church of St. Peter the Martyr, at Naples, in the following words: — At the entrance on the left is a marble with a repre- sentation of Death in a grotesque form. He has two crowns on his head, with a hawk on his fist, as ready for hunting. Under his feet are extended a great number of persons of both sexes and of every age. He addresses them in these lines :

Eo s6 la morte che caccio Sopera voi jente mondana. La malata e la sana, Di, e notte la percaccio ; Non fugge, vessuna intana Per scampare dal mio laczio Che tutto il mondo abbraczio, E tutta la jente humana Perche nessuno se conforta, Ma prenda spavento Ch'eo per comandamento Di prender a chi viene la sorte. Sia vi per gastigamento Questa figura di morte, E pensa vie di fare forte Tu via di salvamento.

Opposite to the figure of Death is that of a man dressed like a tradesman or merchant, who throws a bag of money on a table, and speaks thus :

Tutti ti volio dare Se mi lasci scampare.

To wiiich Death answers :

Se mi potesti dare Quanto si pote dimandare * Non te pote scampare la morte

Se te viene la sorte. ^

I>;. Cogan's Tour to the Rhine, ii. 127. ^9 Travels, iii. 318, edit 4to

Tlie Dance of Death. 43

It can hardly be supposed that this subject was not known in Spain, though nothing relating to it seems to have been recorded, if we except the poem that has been mentioned in p. 25, but no Spanish painting has been specified that can be called a regular Macaber Dance. There are grounds, however, for believing that there was such a painting in the cathedral of Burgos, as a gentleman known to the author saw there the remains of a skeleton figure on a whitewaslied wall.

CHAPTER IV.

Macaber Dance in England. — St. PauVs. — Salisbury. — Worthy Hall. — Hexham. — Croydon. — Tozver of London. — Lines in Pierce Plo7V7naiis Vision supposed to rejer to it.

E are next to examine this subject in relation to its existence in our own country. On the authority of the work ascribed to Walter de Mapes, already noticed in p. 21, it is not unreasonable to infer that paintings of the Macaber Dance were coeval with that writer, though no specimens of it that now remain will warrant the conclusion. We know that it existed at Old Saint Paul's. Stowe informs us that there was a .great cloister on the north side of the church, environing a plot of ground, of old time called Pardon churchyard. He then states, that " about this cloyster was artificially and richly painted the Dance of Machabray, or Dance of Death, commonly called the Dance of Paul's : the like whereof was painted about St. Innocent's cloyster at Paris : the meters or poesie of this Dance were trans- lated out of French into English, by John Lidgate, Monke of Bury, the picture of Death leadmg all estates ; at the

T^g Dance of Death. 45

dispence of Jenken Carpenter in the reigne of Henry the Sixt."' Lydgate's verses were first printed at the end of TottcH's edition o: the translation of his P'ail of Princes, from Boccaccio, 1554, folio, and afterwards in Sir W. Dugdale's History of St. Paul's cathedral.' In another place Stowe records that "on the loth April, 1549, the cloister of St. Paul's church, called Pardon churchyard, with the Dance of Death, commonly called the Dance of Paul's, about the same cloyster, costly and cunningly wrought, and the chappel in the midst of the same church- yard, were all begun to be pulled down." ' This spoliation was made by the Protector Somerset, in order to obtain materials for building his palace in the Strand.*

The single figure that remained in the Hungerford chapel at Salisbury cathedral, previously to its demolition, was formerly known by the title of " Death and the Young Man," and was, undoubtedly, a portion of the Macaber Dance, as there was close to it another compartment belonging to the same subject. In 1748, a print of these figures was published, accompanied with the following inscription, which differs from that in Lydgate. The young man says :

Alasse Dcthe alasse a blesful thyng thou were Yf thou woldyst snare us yn ouwre lustynesse. And cum to wretches that bethe of hevy clicre Whene thay ye clepe to slake their dystresse But owte alasse thyne own sely selfwyldnesse Crewelly wemeth me that seygh wayle and wepe To close there then that after ye doth clepe.

• Sur\ay of London, p. 615, edit. 16 18, 4to.

^ In Tottell's edition these verses are accompanied with a single wood- cut of Death leading up all ranks of mortals. This was afterwards Ci>pied by Hollar, as to general design, in Dugdale's St Pauls, and in tJie Monasticon.

3 Annales, p. 596, edit. 163 1, folio. Sir Thomas More, treating of the remembrance of Death, has these words : " But if we not only here this word Death, but also let sink into our heartes, the very fantasye and depe ima^inacion thereof, we shall parceive therby that, we wer never so gretly moved by the beholding of the Daunce of Death pictured in Pottles, as we shal fele ourself stered and alte.-ed by the feling of that imaginacion in our hertes. And no marvell. For those pictures expresse only y« lothely figure of our dead bony botlies. biten away y* flesh," &c — Works, p. 77, edlL 1557, folio.

* Heylin'a Hist of the Reformation, p. 73.

46 The Dance of Death.

Death answers :

Grosless galante in all thy luste and pryde Remembyr that thou schalle onys dye Deth schall fro thy body thy sowle devyde Thou mayst him not escape certaynly To the dede bodyes cast down thyne ye Beholde thayme well consydere and see For such as thay ar such shalt thou be.

This painting was made about the year 1460, and fiom the remaining specimen its destruction is extren ely to be regretted, as, judging from that of the young gallant, the dresses of the time would be correctly exhibited.

In the chapel at Wortley Hall, in Gloucestershire, there was inscribed, and most likely painted, "an history and Daunce of Deathe of all estatts and degrees." This inscribed history was the same as Lydgate's, with some additional characters.' From a manuscript note by John Stowe, in his copy of Leland's Itinerary, it appears that there was a Dance of Death in the chui*ch of Stratford upon Avon : and the conjecture that Shakespeare, in a passage in Measure for Measure, might have remembered it, will not, perhaps, be deemed very extravagant. He there alludes to Death and the fool, a subject always introduced into the paintings in question.®

On the upper part of the great screen which closes the entrance to the choir of the church at Hexham, in Northumberland, are the painted remains of a Dance of Death.^ These consist of the figures of a pope, a cardinal, and a king, which were copied by the ingenious John Carter, of well-deserved antiquarian memory.

Vestiges of a Macaber Dance were not long since to be traced on the walls of the hall of the Archiepiscopal palace at Croydon, but so much obscured by time and neglect that no particular compa:rt;ment could be ascer- tained.

The tapestries that decorated the walls of pakces, and other dwelling-places, were sometirr.es applied in extension of this moral subject. In the Tower of London, the original

5 Cotton MS. Vesp. A. xxv. fo. 181. • Leland's Itin. vol. iv.

part i. p. 69. — Meas. for Meas. Act iiu sc. i. ' Hutchinson's

Northumberland, i. 98.

The Dance of Deain 47

and most ancient seat of our monarchs, there was some tapestry with the Macaber Dance *

The following lines in that admirable satire, the Vision of Pierce Plowman, written about the year 1350, have evidently an illusion to the Dance, unless they might be thought to apply rather to the celebrated triumph of Death by Petrarch, of which some very early paintings, and many engravings, still exist : or they may even refer to some of the ancient representations of the infernal regions that follow Death on the Pale Horse of the Revelations, and in which is seen a grotesque intermixture of all classes of people.'

Death came driving after, and all to dust pashed Kynges and Kaysers, Knightes and Popes, Learned and lewde : he ne let no man stande That he hitte even, he never stode after. Many a lovelv ladie and lemmans of knightes Swouned and swelted for sorrowe of Deathes dyntes.

It is probable that many cathedrals and other edifices, civil as well as ecclesiastical, in France, Germany, England, and probably other European countries, were ornamented with paintings and sculpture of this extremely popular subject.

8 Warton's H. E. Poetry, iu 43, ed. 8vo.

' And see a portion of Orgagna's painting at the Campo Santo •! Pisa, meniioued before in p. </.

CHAPTER V.

List of editions of the Macaber Dance. — Pri?ited HorcB that contain it. — Manuscript Horce. — Other Ma?iuscripts in which it occurs. — Various articles with letter-press^ not being single prints ^ but connected with it.

T remains only, so far as regards the Macaber Dance, to present the reader with a list of the several printed edi- tions of that celebrated work, and which, with many corrections and ad- ditions, has been chiefly extracted from M. Peignot's " Recherches historiques et litteraires sur les Danses des Morts," Paris et Dijon, 1826, 8vo.

The article that should stand at the head of this list, if any reliance could be had on a supposed date, is the German edition, entitled, "Der Dotendantz mit figuren. Clage und Antwort Schon von alien staten der welt," small folio. This is mentioned in Braun Notitia de libris in Bibliotheca Monasterii ad SS. Udalricum et Afram Augustas, vol. ii. 62. The learned librarian expresses his doubts as to the date, which he supposes may be between 1480 and 1500. He rejects a marginal note by the illuminator of the letters, indicating the date of 1459. Every page of this volume is divided into two columns, and accompanied with German verses, which may be either the original text, or a translation from the French

The Dame of Death. 49

verses in some early edition of the Macaber Dance in that language. It consists of twenty-two leaves, with wood-cuts of the Pope, Cardinal, Bishop, Abbot, &c. &c. accompanied by figures of Death.

1. " La Danse Macabre imprim^e par ung nomm^ Guy Marchand, &c. Paris, 1485," small folio. Mons. Cham- pollion Figeac has given a very minute description of this extremely rare, and perhaps unique, volume, the only known copy of which is in the public library of Grenoble. This account is to be found in Millin's Magazin Encyclo- pt^dique, 181 1, vol. vi. p. 355, and thence by M. Peignot, in his Recherches, &c.

2. "Ce present livre est appelle Miroer salutaire pour toutes gens, et de tous estatz, et est de grant utility et recreation pour pleuseurs ensegnemens tant en Latin comrae en Francoys lesquels il contient ainsi compose pour ceulx qui desirent acquerir leur salut : et qui le voudront avoir. La Danse Macabre nouvelle." At the end, " Cy finit la Danse Macabre hystoriee augmentee de pleuseurs nouveaux parsonnages (six) et beaux dis. et les trois mors et trois vif ensemble. Nouvellement ainsi com- posee et imprimee par Guyot Marchant demorant a Paris au grant hostel du college de Navarre en champ Gaillart Ian de grace, i486, le septieme jour de juing." A small folio of fifteen leaves, or thirty pages, twenty-four of which belong to the Danse Macabre, and six to the Trois morts et les trois vifs.

On the authority of the above expression, " composee," and also on that of La Croix du Maine, Marchant has been made the author as well as the printer of the work ; but M. de la Monnoye is not of that opinion ; nor indeed is there any other metrical composition by this printer known to exist.

3. "La Danse Macabre des femmes, &c. Paris, par Guyot Marchant, i486, le septieme jour de Juillet,** small folio, of fifteen leaves only. This is the first edition of the Macaber Dance of females ; and though thirty-two of them are described, the Queen and Duchess only are engraved. See No. 6 for the rest This and the preceding edition are also particularly described by Messrs. Champollion Figeac and Peignot.

so The Dance of Death.

4. " Chorea ab eximio Macabro versibus Alernanicis edita, et a Petro Desrey emendata. Parisiis per magistrum Guidonem Mercatorem pro Godeffrido de Marnef. 1490," folio. Papiilon thought the cuts were in the manner of the French artist Jollat, but without foundation, for they are much superior to any work by that artist, and of considerable merit.

5. "La nouvelle Danse Macabre des hommes dicte miroer salutaire de toutes gens et de touts etats, &c. Paris, Guyot Marchant, 1490," folio.

6. "La Danse Macabre des femmes, toute hystorie'e et augmentde de nouveaulx personnages, &c. Paris, Guyot Marchant, le 2 Mai, 1491," folio. This edition, the second of the Dance of females, has all the cuts with other additions. The list of the figures is in Peignot, but with some doubts on the accuracy of his description.

7. An edition in the Low German dialect was printed at Lubeck, 1496, according to Vonder Hagen in his Deutschen Poesie, p. 459, who likewise mentions a Low German edition in prose, at the beginning of the 15th (he must mean i6th) century. He adds, that he has copied one page with cuts from Kindeling's Remains, but he does not say in what work.

8. " La grant Danse Macabre des hommes et des femmes hystorice et augmentee de beaulx dits en Latin, &c. &c. Le tout compose en ryme Francoise et accompagne de figures. Lyon, le xviii jour de Fevrier, Fan 1499," folio. This is supposed to be the first edition that contains both the men and the women.

9. There is a very singular work, entitled "Icy est le compost et kalendrier des Bergeres, &c. Imprime ^ Paris en lostel de beauregart en la rue Cloppin k lenseigne du roy Prestre Jhan. ou quel lieu sont k vendre, ou au lyon dargent en la rue Sainct Jaques." At the end, " Imprime k Paris par Guy Marchant maistre es ars ou lieu susdit. Le xvii iour daoust mil cccciiiixx'xix." This extremely rare volume is in the British Museum, and is mentioned by Dr. Dibdin, in vol. ii. p. 530 of his edition of Ames's typographical antiquities, and probably nowhere else. It is embellished with the same fine cuts that relate to the females in the edition of tlie Macaber Dance, Nos. 4 and II. The work begins with the words "Deux jeunes

The Datice of Death, 51

B,.rgeias seulelles," and appears to have been composed for females only, differing very materially from the well- known " Kalendricr dcs Bergcrs," though including matter common to both.

10. "Chorea ab exiraio Macabro versibus Alemanicis edita et i Petro Desrey Trecacio quodam oratore nuper eraendata. Parisiis per Magistrum Guidonem Mercatorem pro Godeffrido Marnef. 15 Octob, 1499," fol»o, with cuts.

1 1. " La Danse Macabre, &c. Ant. Verard." No date, but about 1500, small folio. A vellum copy of this rare edition is described by M, Van Praet in his catalogue of vellum books in the royal library at Paris. A copy is in the Archb. Cant, library at Lambeth.

12. '* La Danse Macabre, &c. Ant. Verard." No date, but about 1500, folio. Some variations from No. 9 are pointed out by M. Van Praet. This magnificent volume on vellum, and bound in velvet, came from the library at Blois. It is a very large and thin folio, consisting of three or four leaves only, printed on pasteboard, with four pages or compart- ments on each leaf The cuts are illuminated in the usual manner of Verard's books. In the beginning it is marked " Marolles, No. 1601." It is probably imperfect, the fool not being among the figures, and all the females are wanting, though, perha])s, not originally in this edition. It is in the royal library at Paris, where there is another copy of the work printed by Verard, with coloured prints, but differing materially from the other in the press-work. It is a common- sized folio, and was purchased at the sale of the Count Macarthy's books.*

13. " La grant Danse Macabre des hommes et des femmes, &c. Imprimee il Troyes par Nicolas Le Rouge demourant en la grant rue k I'enseigne de Venise aupr^s la belle croix." No date, folio. With very clever wood-cuts, probably the same as in the edition of 1490 ; and if so, they differ much from the manner of Jollat, and have not his well-known mark.

14. " La grant Danse Macabre des hommes et des fem- mes, &c. Rouen, Guillaume de a Mare." No date, 4to. with cuts, and in the Roman letter.

1 5. " La grande Danse Macabre des hommes et des femmes,

* From the Author's own inspection.

K 2

52 T^e Dance of Death.

ou est demonstre tous humains de tous estats estre du bransle de la Mort. Lyon, Olivier Arnoulet." No date, 4to.

1 6. "La grant Danse Macabre des hommes et des fem- mes, &c. Lyon, Nourry, 1501," 4to. cuts.

17. "La grant Danse Macabre des hommes et des fem- mes, &c. Imprimd k Genesve, 1503," 4to. cuts.

18. "La Danse Macabre. Paris, Nicole de la Barre, 1523," 4to, with very different cuts, and some characters omitted in former editions.

1 9. " La grant Danse Macabre, &c. Paris, Nicole de la Barre, 1523," 41 o. with very indifferent cuts, and the omis- sion of some of the characters in preceding editions. This has been privately reprinted, 1820, by Mr. Dobree, from a copy in the British Museum,

20. " La grant Danse Macabre des hommes et des fem- mes. Troyes, Le Rouge, 153 1," folio, cuts.

21. "La grand Danse Macabre des hommes et des fem- mes. Paris, Denys Janot, 1533," ^^^' ^^^s-

22. " La grand Danse Macabre des hommes et des fem- mes, tant en Latin qu'en Francoys. Paris, par Estienne Groulleau libraire jure en la rue neuve Nostre Dame ^ I'enseigne S. Jean Baptiste." No date, i6mo. cuts. The first edition of this size, and differing in some respects from the preceding.

23. "La Grand Danse Macabre des hommes et des femmes, &c. Paris, Estienne Groulleau, 1550," i6mo. cuts.

24. " La grande Danse des Morts, &c. Rouen, Morron." No date, 8vo. cuts.

25. "Les Ixviii huictains ci-devant appellds la Danse Machabrey, par lesquels les Chrestiens de tous estats tout stimules et invites de penser a la mort. Paris, Jacques Varangue, 1589," 8vo. In Roman letter, without cuts.

26. " La grande Danse Macabre des hommes et des fem- mes, &c. Troyes, Oudot," 1641, 4to. cuts. One of the bibliothbque bleue books.

27. " La grande Danse Macabre des hommes et des fem- mes, renouvellee do vieux Gaulois en langage le plus poll de notre temps, &c. Troyes, Pierre Gamier rue du Temple." No date, but the privilege is in 1728, 4to. cuts. The, polished language is, of course, for the worse, and Macaber is called " des Machabees ;" no dQubt, the editor's improvement.

Tlu Dance of Death, S3

28. "La grande Danse Macabre des hommes €t des feinmes, renouvellde, &c, Troyes, chez la veuve Oudot, ct Jean Oudot fils, rue du Temple, 1729," 410. cuts. Nearly the same as No. 26.

These inferior editions oontimied, tiU v«ry lately, to be occasionally reprinted for the use of the common people, and at the trifling expense of a very few sous. They are, nevertheless, of some value to those who feel interested in the subject, as containing tolerable copies of all the fine cuts in the preceding edition, No. 11.

Dr. Dibdin saw in the puWic library at Munich a very old scries of a Macaber Dance, that had been inserted, by way of illustration, into a Gemmn nmnuscript of the Dance of Death. Of these he has given two subjects in his " Bibliographical Tour," vol. iii. p. 278.

But it was not only in the above volumes that the very poi)ular subject of the Macaber Dance was particularly exhi- bited. It found its way into many of the beautiful service books, usually denominated Horae, or hours of the Virgin. These principally bdong to France, and their margins are frequently decorated nith the above Dance, with occasional variety of design. In most of them Death is accompanied with a single figure only, characters from both sexes being introduced. It would be impossible to furnish a complete list of them ; but it is presumed that the mention of several, and of the printers who introduced them, will not be tmacceptabk.

No. I- " I^s Horas de ntrestra Senora con mtK^ios otros oficios y ora9iones.*' Printed in Paris by Nicolas Higmas for Simon Vostre, 1495, 8vo. It has two Dances of Death, the first of which is the usual Macaber Dance, with the following figures ; Le Pape, I'Empereur, le Cardinal, IWrchevesque, ie Chevatier, I'Evesqoe, i'Escuyer, I'Abe, le Prevost, le Roy, le Patriarche, le Connestabie, I'Astrolqgien, le Bourgoys, le Chanoine, le Moyne, I'Usurier, le Medesin, r.\moureux, I'Advocat, le Menestrier, le Marchant, le Char- treux, le Seigent, le Cure, le Laboureur, le Cordelier.'* Then the women : " La Royne, la Duchessc, la Regente, la Chevaliere, I'Abbesse, la Femme descine, la Pricure, la £)amoissele, la Bourgoise, la Cordeliere, la Femme daceul, la Nourice, la Theologienne, la nouvelle marice, la Femme

54 ^<? Dance of Death.

gross 3, la Veufve, la Marchande, la Ballive, la Chamberiere, la Recommanderese, la vielle Damoise, I'Espousee, la Mig- note, la Fille pucelle, la Garde d'accouchee, la jeune fille, la Religieuse, la Vielle, la Revenderesse, TAmoureuse, la Sorciere, la Bigote, la Sote, la Bergere, la Femnie aux Potences, la Femme de Village ; to which are added, I'Enfant, le Clerc, rErmite."

The second Dance of Death is very different from the preceding, and consists of groups of figures. The subjects, which have never yet been described, are the following :

1. Death sitting on a coffin in a church-yard. " Discite vos choream euncti qui cernitis istam."

2. Death with Adam and Eve in Paradise. He draws Adam towards him. " Quid turn prosit honor glorie divitie."

3. Death helping Cain to slay Abel. " Esto meorum qui pulvis eris et vermibus esca."

4. Death holding by the garment a cardinal, followed by several persons. " In gelida putrens quando jacebis humo,"

5. Death mounted on a bull strikes three persons with his dart. " Vado mori dives auro vel copia rerum."

6. Death seizing a man sitting at a table with a purse in his hand, and accompanied by two other persons. " Nullum respectum dat michi, vado mori."

7. An armed knight killing an tinarmed man, Death assisting. " Fortium virorum est magis mortem contemnere vitam odisse."

8. Death with a rod in his hand, standing upon a group of dead persons. " Stultum est timere quod vitari non potest."

9. Death with a scythe, having mowed down several persons lying on the ground. " Est commune mori mors nulli parcit honori"

10. A soldier introducing a woman to another man, who holds a scythe in his hand. Death stands behind. " Mors fera mors nequam mors nulli parcit et equara."

1 1. Death strikes with his dart a prostrate female, who is attended by two others. " Hec tua vita brevis : que te delectat ubique."

12. A man falling from a tower into the water. Death strikes him at the same time with his dart "Est vein* aura levis te mors expectat ubique."

7^£ Dance of Death. 55

13. A man strangling another, Death assisting. "Vita quid est hominis nisi res valiata ruinis."

14. A man at the gallows, Death standing by " Est caro nostra cinis modo principium modo finis."

15. A man about to be beheaded, Death assisting. " Quid sublime genus quid opes quid gloria prestant.**

16. A king attended by several persons is struck by Death with his dart " Quid mihi nunc aderant hec mihi nunc abeunt."

17. Two soldiers armed with battle-axes. Death pierces one of them with his dart " Ortus cuncta sues : repetunt matremque requirunt."

18. Death strikes with his dart a woman lying in bed " Et redit in nihilum quod fuit ante nihil."

19. Death aims his dart at a sleeping child in a cradie, two other figures attending. "A, a, a, vado raori, nil valet ipsa juventus."

20. A man on the ground in a fit Death seizes him. Others attending. " Mors scita sed dubia nee fugienda venit"

21. Death leads a man, followed by others. "Non sum securus hodie vel eras moriturus."

22. Death interrupts a man and woman at their meal. " Intus sive foris est plurima causa timoris.**

23. Death demolishes a group of minstrels, from one of whom he has taken a lute. " Viximus gaudentes, nunc morimur tristes et flentes."

24. Death leads a hermit, followed by other persons. " Forte dies hec est ultima, vado mori."

This Dance is also found in the Hone printed by Godar, Vostre, and Gilles Hardouyn, but with occasional variations, as to size and other matters, in the different blocks which they respectively used. The same designs have also been adopted, and in a very singular style of engraving, in a work printed by Antony Verard, that will be noticed elsewhere.

Some of the cuts, for they are not all by the same artist, in this very rare and beautiful volume, and not found in others printed by or for Simon Vostre, may be very justly compared, in point of the delicacy of design and engraving, though on wood, with the celebrated pax of

5<5 The Dance of Death.

Maso Finiguerra at Florence, accurately copied in Mi Ottley's history of engraving. They are accompanied with

this unappropriated mark Q

No. II. "Ordinarium beate Marie "Virginis ad usum Cisterciensem impressum est caracteribus optimis una cum expensis honesti viri Symonis Vostre commorantis Parisiis in vico novo Dive Marie in intersignio Sancti Joannis Evangeliste, 1497," i2mo. This beautiful book is on vellum, with the same Danse Macabre as in the preceding, but the other cuts are different.

No. III. " Hore presentes ad usum Sarum impresse fuerunt Parisiis per Philippum Pigouchet Anno Salutis Mccccxcviii die vero xvi Maii pro Symone Vostre libraric commorante, &c." 8vo. as above.

Another beautiful volume on vellum, with the same Danse Macabre. He printed a similar volume of the same date, for the use of Rome, also on vellum.

A volume of prayers, in 8vo. mentioned by M. Peignot, p. 145, after M. Raymond, but the title is not given. It is supposed to be anterior to 1500, and seems to contain the same personages in its Danse Macabre, as in the preceding volumes printed by Simon Vostre.

No. IV. "Heures k I'usage de Soissons." Printed by Simon Vostre, on vellum, 1502, 8vo. With the same Danse Macabre.

No. V. " Heures a Tusage de Rheims, nouvellement imprimees avec belles histoires, pour Simon Vostre," 1502, 8vo. This is mentioned by M. Peignot, on the authority of Papillon. It was reprinted 1513, 8vo. and has the same cuts as above.

No. VI. "Heures \ i'usage de Rome. Printed for Simon Vostre by Phil. Pigouchet,'* 1502, large 8vo. on vellum. With the same Danse Macabre. This truly mag- nificent volume, superior to all the preceding by the same printer in beauty of type and marginal decoration, differs from them in having stanzas at the bottom of each page ol the Dance, but which apply to the figure at tl: e top only. They are here giveu

7 he Dance of Death. 57

Vous qui vive/. certaiiiement Quoy qu'il tarde aiasi danserez Mais quand Dieu le scet seulement Avisez comme vous fcrez

Dam Pape vous commencerez Comme le plus digne Seigiieur En ce point honorire serez Au grant maistre est deu I'honneur.

KING.

Mais maintenant toute haultesse Laisserez vous nestes pas seul Peu aurez de votre richesse Le plus riche n'a qung linseul

Venez noble Roy couronne Renomme de force et prouesse Jadis fustez environne De grans pompes de grant noblesse.

ARCHBISHOP.

Que vous tirez la teste arriere Arche\'esque tirez vous pres, Avez vous peur qu'on ne vous fiere Ne doubtez vous viendres apr^

N'est pas tousjours la mort empres Tout homme suyvant coste a coste Rendre comment debtez et pres Une foys fault coustcra loste.

SQUIRE.

II n'est rien que ne preigne court Dansez et pensez de suyr Vous ne povez avoir secours II n'est qui mort puisse fuyr

Avencez vous gent escuyer Qui scavez de danser les tours Lance porties et escuz hyer Aujourdhuy finerez voz jours.

ASTROLOGER.

Maistre pour vostre regarder En hault ne pour vostre clergie Ne pouvez la mort retarder Ci ne vault rien astrologie

Toute la genealogie

D' Adam qui fust le premier homme

Mort prent se dit theologie

Tous faxilt mourir pour une pomina

58 ITie Dance of Death,

MERCHANT.

Vecy vostre dernier marche II convient que par cy passes De tout soing serez despechie Tel convoiste qui a assez

Marcliant regardes par deca Plusieurs pays avez cerchie A pied a cheval de pieca Vous n'en serez plus empeschie.

MONK.

Ha maistre par la passeres N'est ja besoing de vous defendr» Plus homme nespouvan teres Apres Moyne sans plus attendre

Ou pensez vous cy fault entendre Tantost aurez la bouche close Homme n'est fors que vent et cefKtPV Vie done est moult peu de chose.

LOVER.

Trop lavez ayme cest foleur Et a mourir peu regarde Tantost vous changerez couleur Beaulte n'est que ymage farde

Gentil amoureux gent et frique Qui vous cuidez de grant valeur Vous estez pris la mort vous piquc Ce monde lairez a douleur.

CtrRATE. Passez cure sans long songier Je sans questes habandonne Le vif le mort Soulier menger Mais vous serez aux vers domie

Vous fustes jadis ordonne Miroir dautruy et exemplaire De voz faitz serez guerdonne A toute peine est deu salaire,

CHILD.

Sur tout du jour de la naissance Convient chascun a mort offrir Fol est qui n'en a congnoissance Qui plus vit plus a assouffrir

Petit enfant naguerez ne

Au monde aures peu de plaisancc

A la danse sera mene

Comme autre car mort a puissance.

The Dance of Death. 59

QUEEN.

Noble Royne de beau corsage Gente et joyeuse a ladvenant

iay de par le grant maistre charge )e vous enmener maintenant

Et comme bien chose advenant Ceste danse coinmenseres Faictes devoir au remenant Vous qui viver ainsi feres.

LADY.

C'est bien chasse quand on pourchasac Chose a son ame meritoire Car au derrain mort tout enchasse Ceste vie est moult transitoire

Gentille femme de chevalier Que tant aymes deduit et chasse I^es engins vous fault habiller Et suyvre le train de ma trasse.

PRIORESS.

Se vous avez sans fiction Tout vostre temps servi ^ Dieu Du cueur en sa religion La quelle vous avez vestue

Celuy qui tous biens retribue Vous recompenserer loyalment A son vouloir en temps et lieu Bien fait requiert bon payment

FRANCISCAN NUN. Se vos prieres sont bien dignen Elles vous vauldront devant Dien Rien ne valient soupirs ne signes Bone operacion tient lieu

Femme de grande devocion Cloez voz heures et matines Et cessez contemplacion Car jamais nyres a matines.

CHAMBER-MAID.

Dictez jeune femme a la cruche Rcnommee bonne chambriere Respondez au moins quant on hndie Sans tenir si rude maniere

Vous nirez plus a la riviere Baver au four na la fenestre Cest cy vostre joumee demiere Ausy tost meurt servant que maistm

The Dance of Death,

WIDOW.

Cest belle chose de tenir Lestat ou on est appellee Et soy tousjours bien maintenif Vertus est tout par tout louee.

Femme vesve venez avant Et vous avancez de venir Vous veez les aultres davant II convient une fois finir.

LYING-IN NURSE.

Venez ca garde dacouchees

Dresse aves maintz bainz perdus

Et ses cortines attachees

Ou estoient beaux boucques p«i<hw

Biens y ont estez despendus

Tant de mots ditz que cest ung son^l

Qui seront cher vendus

En la fin tout mal vient en ron^e.

SHEPHERDESS.

Aux camps ni rez plus soir ne matin Veiller brebis ne garder bestes Rien ne sera de vous demain Apres les veilles sont les festes

Pas ne vous oublieray derriere Venez apres moy sa la main Entendez plaisante bergiere Ou marcande cy main a main.

OLD WOMAN.

Et vous madame la gourree Vendu avez maintz surplis Done de largent est fourree Et en sont voz coffres remplis

Apres tous souhaitz acomplis Convient tout laisser et ballier Selon la robe on fait le plis A tel potaige tel cuiller.

WITCH.

Est condannee comme meurtriero A mourir ne vivra plus gaire Je la maine en son cimitiere Cest belle chose de bien faire

Oyez oyez on vous fait scavoir Que ceste vielle sorciere A fait mourir et decepvoir Plusieurs gens en mainte manicKC*

The Dance of Death. 6i

In the cut of the adoration of the shepherds their names are introduced as follows : Gobin le gay : le beau Roger ; Aloris ; Ysauber ; Alison, and Mahault. The same cut is in two or three other Horse mentioned in this list.

No. VII. " H cures k I'usaige de Rouan. Simon Vostre, 1508, 8vo." With the same Danse Macabre.

No. VIII. " Horae ad usum Romanum. Thielman Kerver," 1508, 8vo. Vellum. With the same Danse Macabre.

No. IX. "Hore christofere virginis Marie secundum usum Romanum ad longum absque aliquo recursu, &c." Parisiis. Simon Vostre, 1508, 8vo. M. Peignot has given a very minute description of this volume, with a list of the different persons in the Danse Macabre.

No. X. " Heures k I'usage de . . . . Ant Verard," 1509, 8vo. with the same Danse Macabre.

No. XL " Heures \ I'usaige d' Angers. Simon Vostre," 1 5 10, 8vo. With the same Danse Macabre. Particularly described by M. Peignot.

No. XII. "Heures k I'usaige de Rome. Guil. Godar," 1510, large 8vo. vellum illuminated. A magnificent book. It contains the Danse Macabre as in No. I. But it is remarkable for a third Dance of Death on the margins at bottom, consisting of small compartments with a single figure, but unaccompanied in the usual manner by Death, who, in various shapes and attitudes, is occasionally introduced. The characters are the following, without the arrangement commonly observed, and here given in the order in which they occur, i. l.a Prieuse. 2. La Garde dacouche. 3. L'Abesse. 4. Le Promoteur. 5. Le Cone- stable. 6. Le Moine, without a label. 7. La Vielle Demoiselle. 8. La Baillive. 9. La Duchesse. 10. Le Sergent. 11. La Nourrice. 12. La femme du Chevallier. 13. La Damoiselle. 14. Le Maistre descole. 15. La Femme du village. 16. La Rescomanderese. 17. La Revenderese. 18. Le Laboureur. 19. La Bourgoise. 20. L'Usurier. 21. Le Pelerin. 22. Le Berger. 23. La Religieuse. 24. L'Home d'armes. 25. La Sorciere. 26. Le Petit enfant 27. Le Clerc 28. Le Patriarche. 29. Le Cardinal. 30. L'Empereur. 31. Le Roy. 32. La Marchande. 33. Le C\»rd 34. La Theologienne. 35. La

62 Uie Dance of Death.

Jeiine fille. 36. Le Sot 37. Le Hallebardier. 38. La Pucelle vierge. 39. L'Hermite. 40. L'Escuier. 41. La Chamberiere. 42. La Fenime de lescuier. 43. La Corde- liere. 44. La Femme veuve. 45. Le Chartreux. 46. La Royne. 47. La Regente. 48. La Bergere. 49. L'Advocat. 50. L'Espousee. 51. La Femme amoureuse. 52. LaNou- velle Mariee. 53. Le Medecin. Wherever the figure of Death is introduced, he is accompanied with the motto " Amort, amort."

No. XIIL " Hore ad usum Romanum. Thielman Kerver," 151 1, 8vo. Vellum, with the Danse Macabre.

No. XIV. " Heures \ I'usage de Langres. Simon Vostre," 151 2, 8vo. In the possession of Mons. G. M. Raymond, who has described it in Millin's " Magazin Encyclopedique," 18 14, tom. iii. p. 13. Mentioned also by M. Peignot.

No. XV. " Heures k I'usage de Paris. Simon Vostre," 1515? 8vo. With the Danse Macabre, and the other mentioned in No. I.

No. XVI. "Heures de Nostre Dame k I'usage de Troyes. Th. Englard, pour G. Goderet, vers 1520." Vellum. Described by M. Peignot.

No. XVII. "Hore ad usum Romanum. Thielman Kerver," 1526, 8vo. Vellum. A beautiful volume. Pre- fixed to the Danse Macabre are two prints of the Trois morts et trois vifs.

In all the above Horae the Macaber Dance is represented nearly alike in design, the variations being chiefly in the attitudes of the figures, which are cut on different blocks, except in a few instances where the printers have borrowed the latter from each other. Thus Vostre uses Verard's, and Pigouchet Godar's. The number of the subjects also varies, Vostre and Kerver having more than Verard, Godar, and Pigouchet.

Exceptions to the above manner of representing the Macaber Dance, occur in two Horse of singular rarity, and which are therefore worthy of particular notice.

No. XVIII. " Officium beatae Mariae Virginis ad usum Romane ecclesie. Impressum Lugduni expensis Bonini de Boninis Dalmatini, die xx martij, 1499." i2mo. On vellum. Here the designs are very different, and three of the subject^ are placed at the bottom of the page. I'hey consist of the

1

The Dance of Death. 63

following personages, there being no females among them. It was reprinted by the same printer in 1521.

Paj)a Artrologus

Imperator Gives

Cardiiiales. Canonicus.

Archiepiscopus Scutifer

Eques Abbas

Episcopus. Pretor.

Rex Monachus

Patriarche Usurarius

Capitanus. Medicus.

Plebanus Mercator

^^borator Certosinus

Frater Minor. Nuncius.

A mans Puer

Advocatus Sacristanus

Joculator. Ileremita.

No. XIX. " Hore beate Marie Virginis ad usum insignis ac preclare ecclesie Sarum cum figuris passionis mysterium representatibus recenter additis. Impresse Parisiis per Johannem Bignon pro honesto viro Richardo Fakes, London, librario, et ibidem commorante cymeterie Sancti Pauli sub signo A. B. C." 152 1. A ledger-like T2mo. This Macaber Dance is unfortunately imperfect in the only copy of the book that has occurred. The figures that remain are those of the Pope, King, Cardinal, Patriarch, Judge, Arch- bishop, Knight, Mayor, and Earl.

Under each subject are Lydgate's verses, with some slight variation ; and it is therefore very probable that we have here a copy, as to many of the figures, of the Dance that was painted at St. Paul's in compartments like the other Macaber Dance, and not as the group in Dugdale, which has been copied from a wood-cut at the end of Lydgate's " Fall of Prynces." As all the before-mentioned Hone were printed at Paris, with one exception only, and many of them at a very early period, it is equally probable that they may be copies of the Dance at the Innocents, unless a preference in that respect should be given to the figures in the French editions of the Danse Macabre.

Manuscript Hor?e, or books of prayers, which contain the Macaber Dance, are in the next place deserving of our

64 The Dance of Death.

attention. These are extremely rare, and two only have» occurred on the present occasion.

r. A manuscript Prayer-book of the fifteenth century is very briefly described by M. Peignot,^ which he states to be the only one that has come to his knowledge.

2. An exquisitely beautiful volume, in large 8vo. bound in brass and velvet. It is a Latin Horse, elegantly written in Roman type at the beginning of the i6th century. It has a profusion of paintings, every page being decorated with a variety of subjects. These consist of stories from scripture, sports, games, trades, grotesques, &c. &c. the several employments of the months, which have also the signs of the zodiac, are worth describing, there being two sets for each month.

January . — i. A man sitting at table, a servant bringing in a dish of viands. The white table-cloth is beauti- fully diapered. 2. Boys playing at the game called Hockey.

February. — i. A man warming himself by a fire, a domestic bringing in faggots. 2. Men and women at table, two women cooking additional food in the same apartment.

March. — i. A man pruning trees. 2. A priest confirming a group of people.

April. — I. A man hawking. 2. A procession of pilgrims.

May. — I. A gentleman and lady on the same horse. 2. Two pairs of lovers : one of the men plays on a flute, the other holds a hawk on his fist.

June. — I. A woman shearing sheep. 2. A bridal procession.

July. — I. A man with a scythe about to reap. He drinks from his leathern bottle. 2. Boys and girls at the sport called Threading the needle.

August. — I. A man reapii g with a sickle. 2. Blind man's buff.

September. — i. A man sowing. 2. The games of hot cockles and

October. — i. Making wine. 2. Several men repairing casks, the master of the vineyard directing.

* Recbei'lies, p. 144. and see Catal. La Valliere, No. 295.

The Dance of Death. 65

November. — i. A man threshing acorns to feed liis hogs.

2. Tennis. December. — i. Singeing a hog. 2. Boys pelting each other

with snow-balls.

The side margins have the following Danse Macabre, consisting as usual of two figtiies only : — Papa, Imperator, Cardinalis, Rex, Archiepiscopus, Comestabilis, Patriarcha, Eques auratus, Episcopus, Scutarius, Abbas, Prepositus, Astrologus, Mercator, Cordiger, Satelles, Usurarius, Advo- catus, Mimus, Infans, Heremita.

The margins at bottom contain a great variety of emblems of mortality. Among these are the following : —

1. A man presents a mirror to a lady, in which her face is reflected as a death's head.

2. Death shoots an arrow at a man and woman.

3. A man endeavouring to escape from Death is caught by him.

4. Death transfixes a prostrate warrior with a spear.

5. Two very grotesque Deaths, the one with a scythe, the other with a spade.

6. A group of five Deaths, four dancing a round, the other drumming.

7. Death on a bull, holding a dart in his hand.

8. Death in a cemetery running away with a coffin and )ick-axe.

9. Death digging a grave for two shrouded bodies on the ground.

10. Death seizing a fool.

11. Death seizing the master of a family.

1 2. Death seizing Caillette, a celebrated fool mentioned by Rabelais, Des Periers, &c He is represented in the French translation of the Ship of Fools.

13. Death seizing a beggar.

14. Death seizing a man playing at tennis.

15. Death striking the miller going to his mill.

16. Death seizing Ragot, a famous beggar in the reign of Louis XII. He is mentioned by Rabelais.

This precious volume is in the present writer's possession Other manuscripts connected with the Macaber Dance are the following :

f

66 Hie Dance of Death.

1. No. 1849, a Colbert MS. in the King of France's library, appears to have been written towards the end of th': fifteenth century, and is splendidly illuminated on vellum, with figures of men and women led by Death, the designs not much differing from those in Verard's printed copy.

2. Another manuscript in the same library, formerly No. 543 in that of Saint Victor, is at the end of a small

V ume of miscellanies written on paper about the year 1520 ; the text resembles that of the immediately preceding article, and occasionally varies from the printed editions. It has no illuminations. These are the only manuscript Macaber Dances in the royal library at Paris.

3. A manuscript of the Dance of Death, in German, is in the library of Munich. See Dr. Dibdin's Bibliographical Tour, vol. iii. 278 ; and Vonder Hagen's History of German Poetry. Berlin, 18 12, 8vo. p. 459. The date of 1450 is given to this manuscript on the authority of Docen, in his Miscellanies, vol. ii. p. 148, and new Literary Advertiser for 1806, No. 22, p. 348. Vonder Hager also states that Docen has printed it in his Miscellanies, pp. 349—352, and 412 — 416.

4. A manuscript in the Vatican, No. 314. See Von- der Hagen, ubi supra, who refers to Adelung, vol. ii. pp. 317, 318, where the beginning and other extracts are given.

5. In the Duke de la Valliere's catal. No. 2801, is " La Danse Macabre par personnages, in 4to. Sur papier du XV siecle, contenant 12 feuillets."

In the course of this inquiry no manuscript, decorated with a regular series of a Dance of Death, has been discovered.

The Abbe Rive left, in manuscript, a bibliography of all the editions of the Macaber Dance, which is at present, with other manuscripts by the Abbe, in the hands of M. Achard, a bookseller at Marseilles. See Peignot, Diction, de Bibliologie, iii. 384.

The following articles, accompanied by letter-press, and distinguishable from single prints, appear to relate to the Macaber Dance.

I. The Dance and song of Death is among books licensed to John Awdeley.^

' Herbert's typogr. antiq. p. 888,

I

Thf Dana of Death. 67

a. ** The roll of the Daunce of Death, with pictures ana verses upon the same," was entered on the Stationers' books, 5th Jan. 1597, by Thomas Purfort, sen. and jun. The price was dd. This, as well as that licensed to Awdeley, was in all probability the Dance at St. Paul's.

3. " Der Todten Tantz au Hertzog Georgens zu Sachsea schloss zu Dresden befindlich." /'. e, " Here is found the Dance of Death on the 'Saxon palace of Duke George at Dresden." It consists of twenty-seven characters, as follow : I. Death leading the way \ in his right hand he holds a drinking glass or cup, and in his left a trumpet which he is blowing. 2. Pope. 3. Cardinal. 4. Abbot. 5. Bishop. 6. Canon. 7. Priest. 8. Monk. 9. Death beating a drum with bones. 10. Emperor. 11. King. 12. Duke. 13. Nobleman. 14. Knight. 15. Gentleman. 16. Judge, 17. Notary. 18. Soldier. 19. Peasant. 20. Beggar. 21. Abbess. 22. Duchess, 23. Old woman. 24. Old man. 25. Child. 26. Old beggar. 27. Death with a scythe. This is a single print in the Chronicle of Dresden, by Antony Wecken, Dresden, 1680, folio, already mentioned in p. 38.

4. In the catalogue of the library of R. Smith, which was sold by auction in 1682, is this article, "Dance of Death, in the cloyster of Paul's, with figures, very old." It was sold for six shillings to Mr. Mearne.

5. A sort of Macaber Dance, in a Swiss almanac, consisting of eight subjects, and entitled " Ein Stuck aus dem Todten tantz," or, " a piece of a Dance of Death : " engraved on wood by Zimmerman with great spirit, after some very excellent designs. They are accompanied with dialogues between Death and the respective characters. I. The Postilion on horseback. Death, in a huge pair of jack-boots, seizes him by the arm with a view to unhorse him. 2. The Tinker. Death, with a skillet on his head, plunders the tinker's basket. 3. The Hussar on horseback, accompanied by Death, also mounted, and, like his comrade, wearing an enormous hat with a feather. 4. The Physician. Death habited as a modern beau, with chapeau-bras, brings his urinal to the Doctor for inspection. 5. The fraudulent Innkeeper, in the act of adulterating a cask of liquor, is seized and throttled by a very grotesque Death in the habit

^\

6^ The Dance of Death,

of an alewife, with a vessel at her back. 6. The Ploughman, holding his implements of husbandry, is seized by Death, who sits on a plough and carries a scythe in his left hand. 7. The Grave-digger, is pulled by Death into the grave which he has just completed. 8. The lame Messenger, led by Death. The size of the print 1 1 by 64 inches.

6.- Papillon states that Le Blond, an artist, then living at Orleans, engraved the Macaber Dance on wood for the Dominotiers, or vendors of coloured prints for the common people, and that the sheets, when put together, form a square of three feet, and have verses underneath each figure.*

There is a German work entitled " The process or law- suit of Death," printed, and perhaps written, by Conrad Fyner in 1477 ; t)ut as it is not noticed in Panzer's list of German books, no further account of it can be given than that it is briefly mentioned by Joseph Heller, in a German work on the subject of engraving on wood, in which one cut from it is introduced, that exhibits Death conversing with a husbandman who holds a flail in one of his hands. It is probable that the book would be found to contain Other figures relating to a Macaber Dance.

* Traits kut de U gra^'ur? en bois, i itt, %^

CHAPTER VI.

Hans Holbein s connexion with the Dance of Death. — A dance of peasants at Basle. — Lyons edition of the Dance of Death, 1538. — Doubts as to any prior edition. — Dedication to the edition of 1538. — Mr. Ottlefs opinion of it examined. — Artists supposed to have been connected with this work. — Holbein's name in none of the old editions. — Reperdius.

HE name of Holbein has been so strongly intenvoven with the Dance of Death, that the latter is seldom mentioned without bringing to recol- lection that extraordinary artist.

It would be a great waste of time and words to dwell specifically on the numerous errors of such writers as Papillon, Fournier, and several others, who have inad- vertently connected Holbein with the Macaber Dance, or to correct those of travellers who have spoken of the subject as it appeared in any shaj)e in the city of Basle. The opinions of those who have either supposed or stated that Holbein even retouched or repaired the old painting at Basle, are entitled to no credit whatever, unaccompanied as they are by necessary proofs. The names of the artists who were employed on that painting have been already adverted to, and are sufficiently detailed in the volumes of Merian and Peignot; and it is therefore unnecessar)- to repeat them.

70 The Dance of Death.

Evidence, but of a very slight and unsatisfactory nature, has been adduced that Holbein painted some kind of a Death's Dance on the walls of a house at Basle. Whether this was only a copy of the old Macaber subject, or some other of his own invention, cannot now be ascertained. Bishop Burnet, in his Letters from Switzerland,^ states that " there is a Dance which he painted on the walls of a house where he used to drink ; yet so worn out that very little is now to be seen, except shapes and postures, but these show the exquisiteness of the hand." It is much to be regretted that this painting was not in a state to have enabled the bishop to have been more particular in his description. He then mentions the older Dance, which he places " along the side of the convent of the Augustinians (meaning the Dominicans), now the French church, so worn out some time ago that they ordered the best painter they had to lay new colour on it, but this is so ill done, that one had rather see the dark shadow of Holbein's pencil than this coarse work." Here he speaks obscurely, and adopts the error that Holbein had some hand in it.

Keysler, a man of considerable learning and ingenuity, and the author of a very excellent book of Travels, mentions the old painting at Basle, and adds, that " Holbein had also drawn and painted a Death's Dance, and had likewise painted, as it were, a duplicate of this piece on another house, but which time has entirely obliterated."^ We are here again left entirely in the dark as to the first mentioned painting, and its difference from the other. Charles Patin, an earlier authority than the two preceding travellers, and who was at Basle in 1 671, informs us that strangers behold, with a considerable degree of pleasure, the walls of a house at the corner of a little street in the above town, which are covered from top to bottom with paintings by Holbein, that would have done honour to the commands of a great prince, whilst they are, in fact, nothing more than the painter's reward to the master of a tavern for some meals that he had obtained.^ In the list of HcJbein's works, in

* Letters containing an account of what seemed most remarkable in Switzerland, Italy, &c. By G. Burnet, D.D. Rotterdam, 1686, 8vo.

f. 265. 2 Travels through Germany, &c. i. 138, edit 4to,

Relations historiques et curieuses de voyages en AUemagne, &a Axnst i6o{< i2mo. p. 124.

'"^-m

The Dance of Death 7 1

his edition of Erasmus's Moriae encomion, he .ikewise mentions the painting on a house in the Eisengassen, or Iron-street, near the Rhine bridge, and for which he is said to have received forty florins,* perhaps the same as that mentioned in his Travels

This painting was still remaining in the year 1730, when Mr. Breval saw it, and described it as a dance 0/ boors, but in his opinion unworthy, as well as the Dance of Death in that city, of Holbein's hand.' These accounts of the paintings on houses are very obscure and contradictor}^, and the only way to reconcile them is by concluding that Holbein might have decorated the walls of some houses with a Dance of Death, and of others with a dance of peasants.* The latter subject would indeed be very much to the taste of an innkeeper, and the nature of his occupa- tion. Some of the writers on engraving have manifested their usual inaccuracy on the subject of Holbein's Dance of Peasants. Joubert says it has been engraved, but that it is " a peu pres introuvable."' Huber likewise makes them extremely rare, and adds, without the slightest authority, that Holbein engraved them.* There is, how- ever, no doubt that his beautiful pencil was employed on this subject in various ways, of which the following specimens are worthy of being recorded, i. In a set of initial letters frequently used in books printed at Basle and elsewhere. 2. In an edition of Plutarch's works, printed by Cratander at Basle, 1530, folio, and afterwards introduced into Polydore Vergil's " Anglicre historiae libri viginti sex," printed at Basle, 1540, in folio, where, on p. 3 at bottom, the subject is very elegantly treated. It occurs, also, in other books printed iu the same city. 3. In an edition of the " Nugae " of Nicolas Borbonius, Basle, 1540, i2mo. at p. 17, there is a dance of peasants replete with humour : and, 4. A vignette in the 'irst page of an edition of Apicius, printed at Basle, 1541^ 4to. without the printer's name.

After all, there seems to be a fatality of ambiguity in the

* See likewise Zuinger, Methodus Academica, Basle, 1577, 4to. p. 199.

Remarks on several parts of Eurojje, 1738, vol. ii. p. 72. ' Peignot places the dance of peasants in the fish-market of Basle, as other writers nad the Dance of Death. Recherche*, p. 15. ^ Mannel de rAmateuf d'estampes, ii. 131. ^ Manuel des curieux, &c. i. ij6.

A

/j4-'' The Dance of Death.

account of the Basle paintings ascribed to Holbein ; and that of the Dance of Death has not only been placed by several writers on the walls, inside and outside, of houses, but likewise in the fish-market ; on the walls of the church- yard of St. Peter ; and even in the cathedral itself of Basle ; and, therefore, amidst this chaos of description, it is abso- lutely impossible to arrive at any conclusion that can be deemed in any degree satisfactory.

We are now to enter upon the investigation of a work which has been somewhat erroneously denominated a "Dance of Death," by most of the writers who have mentioned it. Such a title, however, is not to be found in any of its numerous editions. It is certainly not a dance, but rather, with slight exception, a series of admirable groups of persons of various characters, among whom Death is appropriately introduced as an emblem of man's mortality. It is of equal celebrity with the Macaber Dance, but in design and execution of considerable superiority, and with which the name of Hans Holbein has been so intimately connected, and that great painter so generally considered as its inventor, that even to doubt his claim to it will seem quite heretical to those who may have founded their opinion on internal evidence with respect to his style of composition.

In the year 1538 there appeared a work with the fol- lowing title, " Les simulachres et historiees faces de la mort, autant elegamment pourtraictes, que artificiellement imagi- ndes." A Lyon Soubz lescu de Coloigne, 4to. and at the end, " Excudebant Lugduni Melchior et Caspar Trechsel fratres, 1538." It has forty-one cuts, most exquisitely de- signed and engraved on wood, in a manner which several modern artists only of England and Germany have been competent to rival. As to the designs of these truly elegant prints, no one who is at all skilled in the knowledge of Holbein's style and manner of grouping his figures, would hesitate immediately to ascribe them to that artist. Some persons have imagined that they had actually discovered the portrait of Holbein in the subject of the nun and her lover ; but the painter, whoever he may have been, is more likely to be represented in the last cut as one of the sup- porters of the escutcheon of Death. In these designs^

The Dance of Death.

which are wholly different from the dull and oftefjt^mbi disgusting Macaber Dance, which is confined, with little exception, to two figures only, we have the most interesting assemblage of characters, among whom the skeletonized Death, with all the animation of a living person, forms the most important personage ; sometimes amusingly ludicrous, occasionally mischievous, but always busy and characteristi- cally occupied.

Doubts have arisen whether the above can be regarded as the first edition of these justly celebrated engravings in the form of a volume accompanied with text. In the "Notices sur les graveurs," Besan^on, 1807, 8vo. a work ascribed to M. Malp^,' it is stated to have been originally published at Basle in 1530; and in M. Jansen's " Essai sur I'origine de la gravure," &c. Paris, 1808, 8vo. a work replete with plagiarisms, and the most glaring mistakes, the same assertion is repeated. This writer adds, but unsupported by any authority, that soon afterwards another edition appeared with Flemish verses. Both these authors, follow- ing their blind leader Papillon, have not ventured to state that they ever saw this supposed edition of 1530; and it may indeed be asked, who has ? Or in what catalogue of any library is it recorded ? Malpe' acknowledges that the earliest edition he had seen was that of 1538. M. Fuseli, in his edition of Pilkington's Dictionary of Painters, has appended a note to the article for Hans Holbein, where, alluding perhaps to the former edition of the present disser- tation, he remarks, that " Holbein's title to the Dance of Death would not have been called in question, had the ingenious author of the dissertation on that subject been acquainted with the German edition." This gentleman seems, however, to have inadvertently forgotten a former opinion which he had given in one of his lectures, where he says, "The scrupulous precision, the high finish, and the Titianesque colour of Hans Holbein would make the least part of his excellence, if his right to that series of emblem- atic groups known under the name of Holbein's Dance of Death had not, of late, been too successfully disputed." M. Fuseli would have rendered some service to this question by favouring us with an explicit account of the abovq • Some gi\'c it tc the At be BavcreL

74 The Dance of Death.

German edition, if he really intended by it a complete work; but it is most likely that he adverted to some separate impressions of the cuts with printed inscriptions on them, but which are only the titles of the respective characters or subjects. To such impressions M. Malpe has certainly referred, adding that they have, at top, passages from the Bible in German, and verses at bottom in the same language. Jansen follows him as to the verses at bottom only. Now, on forty-one of these separate impressions, in the collection of the accurate and laborious author of the best work on the origin and early history of engraving that has ever appeared, and on several others in the present writer's possession, neither texts of scripture, nor verses at bottom, are to be ifound, and nothing more than the above- mentioned German titles of the characters. M. Huber, in his " Manuel des curieux et des amateurs de I'art," vol. i. p. 155, after inaccurately stating that Holbein engraved these cuts, proceeds to observe, that in order to form a proper judgment of their merit, it is necessary to see the earliest impressions, printed on one side only of the paper ; and refers to twenty-one of them in the cabinet of M. Otto, of Leipsig, but without stating any letter-press as belonging to them, or regarding them as a part of any German edition of the work.

In the public library of Basle there are proof impressions, on four leaves, of all the cuts which had appeared in the edition of 1538, except that of the astrologer. Over each is the name of the subject printed in German, and without any verses or letter-press whatever at bottom,

It is here necessary to mention that the first known edition in which these cuts were used, namely, that of 1538, was accompanied with French verses, descriptive of the subjects. In an edition that soon afterwards appeared, these French verses were translated into Latin by George ^mylius, a German divine ; and in another edition, pub- lished at Basle, in 1554, the Latin verses were continued. In both these cases, had there been any former German verses, would they not have been retained in preference %

There is a passage, however, in Gesner's Pandectae, a supplemental volume of great rarity to his well-known Bibiiotheca, that slightly adverts to a German edition of

The Dance of Death. 75

this work, and at the same time connects Holbein's name with it. It is as follows : " Imagines mortis expressae ab optimo pictore Johanne Holbein cum epigrammatibus Geo. i^mylii, excusae Francofurti et Lugduni apud Frellonios, quorum editio plures habet picturas. Vidi etiam cum metris Gallicis et Germanicis si bene nieniini." '° But Gesner writes from imperfect recollection only, and specifies no edition in German. It is most probable that he refers to an early copy of the cuts on a larger scale with a good deal of text in German, and printed and perhaps engraved by Jobst Denecker, at Augsburg, 1544, small folio.

The forty-one separate impressions of the cuts in the collection of Mr. Ottley, as well as those in the present writer's possession, are printed on one side of the paper only, another argument that they were not intended to be used in any book ; and although they are extremely clear and distinct, many of them that were afterwards used in the various editions of the book are not less brilliant in ap- pearance. It is well known to those who are conversant with engravings on wood, that the earliest impressions are not always the best; a great deal depending on the care and skill with which they were taken from the blocks, and not a little on the quality of the paper. As they were most likely engraved at Basle by an excellent artist, of whom more will be said hereafter, and at the instance of the Lyons booksellers or publishers, it is very probable that a few impressions would be taken off with German titles only for the use of the people of Basle, or other persons using the German language. Proofs might also be wanted for the accommodation of amateurs or other curious persons, and therefore it would be only necessary to print the names or titles of the subjects. This conjecture derives additional support from the well-known literary intercourse between the cities of Lyons and Basle, and from their small distance from each other. On the whole, therefore, the Lyons edition of 1538 may be safely regarded as the earliest, until some other shall make its appearance with a well ascer- tained prior date, either in German or any other language.

In the edition of 1538 there is a dedication not in any of the others, and of very considerable importance. It is a

10 vh. uit, p. a<s.

76 The Dance of Death.

pious, quaint, and jingling address to Jeanne de Touszcle, Abbess of the convent of St. Peter, at Lyons, in which the author, whose name is obscurely stated to be Ouzele, com- pliments the good lady as the pattern of true religion, from her intimate acquaintance with the nature of Death, rushing, as it were, into his hands, by her entrance into the sepulchre of a cloister. He enlarges on the various modes of repre- senting the mortality of human nature, and contends that the image of Death has nothing terrific in the eyes of the Christian. He maintains that there is no better method of depicting mortality than by a dead person, especially by those images which so frequently occur on sepulchral mo- numents. Adverting then to the figures in the present work, he regrets the death of him who has here conceived [imaging] such elegant designs, greatly exceeding all other patterns of the kind, in like manner as the paintings of Apelles and Zeuxis have surpassed those of modern times. He ob- serves that these funereal histories, accompanied by their grave descriptions in rhyme, induce the admiring spectators to behold the dead as alive, and the living as dead ; which leads him to believe that Death, apprehensive lest this admirable painter should exhibit him so lively that he would no longer be feared as Death, and that he should thereby become immortal himself, had hastened his days to an end, and thus prevented him from completing many other figures which he had already designed, especially that of the carman crushed and wounded beneath his demolished wagon, the wheels and horses of which are so frightfully overthrown that as much horror is excited in beholding their downfall, as pleasure in contemplating the lickerishness of one of the Deaths, who is clandestinely sucking with a reed the wine in a bursting cask.^^ That in these imperfect subjects no one had dared to put the finishing hand, on

" The dedicator has apparently in this place been guilty of a strange misconception. The Death is not sucking the wine from the cask, but in the act of untwisting the fastening to one of the hoops. Nor is the carman crushed beneath the wheels : on the contrary, he is represented as standing upright and wringing his hands in despair at what he beholds. It is true that this cut was not then completed, and might have undergone some subsequent alteration. He likewise speaks of the rainbow in the cut of the Last Judgment, as being at that time unfinished, which, however, is introduced in this first edition.

Tlig Dance of Death. 77

account of the boldness of their outline, shadow, and perspective, delineated in so graceful a manner, that by its contemplation one might indulge either in a joyful sorrow, or a melancholy pleasure. " Let antiquaries then," says he, " and lovers of ancient imagery, discover anything com- parable to these figures of Death, in which we behold the Empress of all living souls from the creation, trampling over Caesars, Emperors, and Kings, and with her scythe mowing down the tyrannical heroes of the earth." He concludes with admonishing the Abbess to take in good part this his sad but salutary present, and to persuade her devout nuns not only to keep it in their cells and dormitories, but in the cabinet of their memory, therein pursuing the counsel of St. Jerome, &c.

The singularity of this curious and interesting dedication is deserving of the utmost attention. It seems ver}' strongly, if not decisively, to point out the edition to which it is prefixed, as the first ; and what is of still more importance, to deprive Holbein of any claim to the invention of the work. It most certainly uses such terms of art as can scarcely be mistaken as conveying any other sense than that of originality in design. There cannot be words of plainer import than those which describe the painter, as he is expressly called, delineating the subjects, and leaving several of them unfinished : and whoever the artist might have been, it clearly appears that he was not living in 1538. Now it is well known that Holbein's death did not take place before the year 1554, during the plague which ravaged London at that time. If, then, the expressions used in this dedication signify anything, it may surely be asked what becomes of any claim on the part of Holbein to the designs of the work in question, or does it not at least remain in a situation of doubt and difficulty ?

It is, however, with no small hesitation that the author of the present dissertation still ventures to dispute, and even to deny, the title of Holbein to the invention of this Dance of Death, in opposition to his excellent and valued friend Mr. Ottley, whose opinion in matters of taste, as well as on the styles of the different masters in the old schools of painting and engraving, may be justly pronounced to be almost oracular. This gentleman has thus expressed

78 The Dance of Dtath.

himself : " It cannot be denied that were there nothing to oppose to this passage, it would seem to constitute very strong rvidence that Holbein, who did not die until the year 1554, was not the author of the designs in question ; but I am firmly persuaded that it refers in reality, not to the designer, but to the artist who had been employed, under his direction, to engrave the designs in wood, and whose name, there appears reason to believe, was Hans Lutzen- berger.^ Holbein, I am of opinion, had, shortly before the year 1538, sold the forty-one blocks which had been some time previously executed, to the booksellers of Lyons, and had at the same time given him a promise of others which he had lately designed, as a continuation of the series, and were then in the hands of the wood-engraver. The wood- engraver, I suppose, died before he had completed his task, and the correspondent of the bookseller, who had probably deferred his publication in expectation of the new blocks, wrote from Basle to Lyons to inform his friend of the disappointment occasioned by the artist's death. It is probable that this information was not given very circum- stantially, as to the real cause of the delay, and that the person who wrote the dedication of the book might have believed the designer and engraver to be one and the same person : it is still more probable that he thought the distinction of little consequence to his reader, and willingly omitted to go into details which would have rendered his quaint moralizing in the above passage less admissible. Besides, the additional cuts there spoken of (eight cuts of the Dance of Death and four of boys) were afterwards finished (doubtless by another wood-engraver, who had been brought up under the eye of Holbein), and are not apparently inferior, whether in respect of design or execution, to the others. In short, these designs have always been ascribed to Holbein, and designedly ranked amongst his finest works." ^^

Mr. Ottley having admitted that the edition of the Dance of Death, printed in quarto, at Lyons, 1538, is the earliest with which we are at present acquainted, proceeds to state

^2 It would be of some importance if the date of Lutzenberger's death eovild be ascertained. ^^ An Inquiry into the Orgin and early History of Engraving, 1816, 4to. voL il p. 759.

The Dance of Death. 79

his belief th it the cuts had been previously and certainly used at Basle. He then alludes to the supposed Geiman edition, about the year 1530, but acknowledges that he had not been able to meet with or hear of any person who had seen it. He ne.\t introduces to his reader's notice, and afterwards describes at large, a set of forty-one impressions, being the complete series of the edition of 1538, except one, and taken off with the greatest clearness and brilliancy of effect, on one side of the paper only, each cut having over it its title printed in the German language, with movable type. He thinks it possible that they may originally have had German verses underneath, and texts of Scripture above, in addition to the titles ; a fact, he adds, not now to be ascertained, as the margins are clipped on the sides and at bottom. He says, it is greatly to be regretted that the blocks were never taken off with due diligence and good printing ink, after they got into the hands of the Lyons booksellers, and then introduces into his page two fac-similes of these cuts so admirably copied as to be almost undistinguishable from the originals.'* One may, indeed, regret with Mr. Ottley the general carelessness of the old printers in their mode of taking off impressions from blocks of wood when introducing them into their books, and which is so very unequally practised that, as already observed, the impressions are often clearer and more distinct in later than in preceding editions. The works of the old designers and engravers would, in many cases, have been much more highly appreciated, if they had had the same ju.stice done to them by the printers as the editorial taste and judgment of Mr. Ottley, combined with the skill of the workmen, have obtained in the decoration of his own book. With respect to the impressions of the cuts in question, when the blocks were in the hands of the Lyons booksellers, the fact is, that in some of their editions they are occasionally as fine as those separately printed off ; and at the moment of making this remark, an edition, published in 1547, at Lyons, is before the writer, in which many of the prints are uncommonly clear and even brilliant, a circumstance owing, in a great degree, to the nature of the paper on which thej are impressed.

^* An Inquiry, &c. ii. 762.

8o Tlie Dance of Death.

It were almost to be wished that this perplexing evidence against Holbein's title to the invention of the work before us had never existed, and that he had consequently been left in the quiet possession of what so well accords with his exquisite pencil and extraordinary talents. Thus it is, that the person to whom we owe this stubborn testimony, has manifested a much more intimate acquaintance with the mode of conveying his pious ejaculations to the Lady Abbess in the quaintest language that could possibly have been chosen, than with the art of giving an accurate account of the prints in question. Yet it seems scarcely possible that he should have used the word imagined^ which undoubtedly expresses originality of invention, and not the mere act of copying, if he had referred to an engraver on wood, whom he would not have dignified with the appellation of a painter on whom he was bestowing the highest possible eulogium. There would also have been much less occasion for the author's hyperbolical fears on the part of Death in the case of an engraver, than in that of a painter. He has stated that the rainbow subject, meaning probably that of the Last Judgment, was left unfinished ; but it appears among the engravings in his edition. He must, therefore, have referred to a painting, with which likewise the expression "bold shadows and perspective," seem better to accord than with a slight engraving on wood. He had also seen the subject of the wagon with the wine casks in its unfinished state, and in this case we may almost with certainty pronounce it to have been a painting, as the cut of it does not appear in the first edition, furnishing, at the same time, an argument against Holbein's claim; nor may it be unimportant to add that the dedicator, a religious person, and probably a man ot some eminence, was much more likely to have been acquainted with the painter than with the engraver. The dedicator also stamps the work as originating at Lyons ; and Frellon, its printer, in a complaint against a Venetian bookseller, who pirated his edition, emphatically describes it as exclusively belonging to France.

Again, it is improbable that the dedicator, whoever he was, should have preferred complimenting the engraver of the cuts, who, with all his consummate skill, must, in point

The Dance of Death, 81

of rank and genius, be placed below the painter or designer ; and it is at the same time remarkable that the name of Holbein is not adverted to in any of the early and genuine editions of the work, published at Lyons, or any other place, whilst his designs for the Bible have there been so pointedly noticed by his friend the poet Borbonius.

It would be of some importance, if it could be shown that the engraver was dead in or before the year 1538, for that circumstance would contribute to strengthen Mr. Ottley's opinion : but should it be found that he did. not die in or before 1538, it would follow, of course, that the painter was the person adverted to in the dedication, and who consequently could not be Holbein. It becomes necessary, therefore, to endeavour at least to discover some other artist competent to the invention of the beautiful designs in question ; and whether the attempt be successful or otherwise, it may, perhaps, be not alto- gether misplaced or unprofitable.

It must be recollected that Francis the First, on returning from his captivity at Pavia, imported with him a great many Italian and other artists, among whom were Leonardo da Vinci, Rosso, Primaticcio, &c. He is also known to have visited Lyons, a royal city at that time eminent in art of every kind, and especially in those of printing and engraving on wood ; as the many beautiful volumes published at that place, and embellished with the most elegant decorations in the graphic art, will at this moment sufficiently testify. In an edition of the "Nugae" of Nicolas Borbonius, the friend of Holbein, printed at Lyons, 1538, 8vo. are the following lines :

De Hanso Ulbio, et Georgia Reperdio, pictoribus,

Videre qui vult Parrhasium cum Zeuxide,

Accersat k Britannia Hansum Ulbium, et Georgium Reperdium.

Lugduno ab urbe Gallig.

In these verses Reperdius is opposed to Holbein for the excellence of his art, in like manner as Parrhasius had been considered as the rival of Zeuxis.

After such an eulogium it is greatly to be regretted that, notwithstanding a very diligent inquiry has been made

G

82 The Dance of Death.

concerning an artist who, by the poet's compaiative view of him, is placed on the same footing with Holbein, and probably of the same school of painting, no particulars of his life or works have been discovered. It is clear from Borbonius's lines that he was then living at Lyons, and it is extremely probable that he might have begun the work in question, and have died before he could complete it, and that the Lyons publishers might afterwards have employed Holbein to finish what was left undone, as well as to make designs for additional subjects which appeared in the subsequent editions. Thus would Holbein be so connected with the work as to obtain in future such notice as would constitute him by general report the real inventor of it. If then there be any validity in what is here stated concerning Reperdius, the difficulty and obscurity in the preface to the Lyons edition of the Dance of Death in 1538 will be removed, and Holbein remain in possession of a share at least in the composition of that inestimable

work. The mark or monogram Jf ^ on one of the cuts

cannot possibly belong to Holbein, but may possibly be that of the engraver, of whom more hereafter.

CHAPTER VII.

ffolbeiris Bible cuts. — Examination of the claim of Hans Lutzenberger as to the design or execution of the Lyons engravings of the Dance of Death. — Other 7uorks by him.

T this time the celebrated designs for the illustration of the Old Testament, usually denominated Holbein's Bible, made their appearance, with the fol- lowing title, " Historiarum veteris in- strument! icones ad vivum expressie. Una cum brevi, sed quoad fieri potuit, dilucida earundem expositione. Lug- duni, sub scuto Coloniensi mdxxxviii." 4to. They were several times republished, with varied titles, and two additional cuts. Prefixed are some highly complimentary Latin verses by Holbein's friend, Nicolas Bourbon, better known by his Latinized name of Borbonius, who again introduces Parrhasius and Zeuxis in Elysium, and in con- versation with ApelleSj who laments that they had all been excelled by Holbein.

These lines by Borbonius do not appear, among others addressed by him to Holbein, in the first edition of his "Nugae" in 1533, or indeed in any of the subsequent editions ; but it is certain that Borbonius was at Lyons in 1538, and might then have been called on by the

G 2

S4 The Dance of Death.

publishers of the designs, with whom he was intimately connected, for the commendatory verses.

The booksellers Frellon of Lyons, by some means with which we are not now acquainted, or indeed ever likely to be, became possessed of the copyright to these designs for the Old Testament. It is very clear that they had previously been in possession of those for the Dance of Death, and, finding the first four of them equally adapted to a Bible, they accordingly, and for the purpose of saving expense, made use of them in this Bible, though with diflferent descriptions, having, in all probability, employed the same engraver on wood as in the Dance of Death, a task to which he had already demonstrated himself to be fully competent. Now, if the Frellons had regarded Holbein as the designer of the " Simulachres et historiees faces de la Mort," would they not rather have introduced into that work the complimentary lines of Borbonius on some painting by Holbein of a Dance of Death, and A^hich will be hereafter more particularly adverted to, instead of inserting the very interesting and decisive dedication that has so emphatically referred to the then deceased painter of the above admirable composition ?

Nor is it by any means a matter of certainty that Holbein was the designer of all the wood engravings belonging to the Bible in question. Whoever may take the pains to examine these biblical subjects with a strict and critical eye, will not only discover a very great difference in the style and drawing of them, but likewise a striking resemblance, in that respect, of several of them to those in the Dance of Death, as well as in the manner of engraving. The rest are in a bolder and broader style, in a careless but effective manner, corresponding altogether with such designs as are well ascertained to be Holbein's, and of which it would be impossible to produce a single one, that in point of delicacy of outline, or composition, accords with those in the Pance;^ and the judgment of

• * The few engravings by or after Holbein tliat have liis nanie or its initials are to be found in his early frontispieces or vignettes to books printed at Basle. In 1548, two delicate wood-cuts, with his name, occur In Cr<inmer's Catechism. In the title-page to " a lytle treatise after

The Dance of Death, 85

those who are best acquainted with the works of Holbein is appealed to on this occasion. It is^ besides, extremely probable that the anonymous painter or designer of the Dance might have been employed also by the Frellons to execute a set of subjects for the Bible previously to his Death, and that Holbein was afterwards engaged to com- plete the work.

A comparison of the 8th subject in the " Simulachres, &c." with that in the Bible for Esther i. 11. where the canopy ornamented with fleurs-de-lis is the same in both, will contribute to strengthen the above conjecture, as will both the cuts to demonstrate their Gallic origin. It is most certain that the king sitting at table in the Simulachres is intended for Francis I. which, if any one should doubt, let him look upon the miniature of that king, copied at p. 214 in Clarke's " Repertorium bibliographicum," from a drawir^ in a French MS. belonging to M. Beckford, or at a wood-cut in fo. xcxix b. of " L'histoire de Primaleon de Grece," Paris, 1550, folio, where the art in the latter will be found to resemble very much that in the "Simulachres." The portraits also of Francis by Thomas De Leu, Boissevin, and particularly that in the portraits of illustrious men edited by Beza at Geneva, may be mentioned for the like purpose.

The admission in the course of the preceding remarks that Holbein might have been employed in some of the additional cuts that appeared in the editions of the Lyons Dance of Death which followed that of 1538, may seem at

the maner of an Epystle wryten by the famous clerk, Doctor Urbanus Regius, &C." printed by Gwalter Lynne, 1548, 24010, there is a cut in the same style of art of Christ attended by his disciples, and pointing to a fugitive monk, whose sheep are scattered, and some devoured by a wolf. Above and below are the words, "John x. Ezech. xxxiiiL Mich. v. I am the good shepehearde. A good shepehearde geveth his lyfe for the shype. The hyred servaunt flyeth, because he is an hered servaunt, and carethnot for the shepe." On the cut at bottom, hans holbein. There is a fourth cut of this kind in the British Museum collection with Christ brought before Pilate ; and perhaps Holbein might have intended i series of small engravings for the New Testament ; but all these are in a simple outline and very different fror> the cuts in the Dance of Death, or Lyons Bible. It might be difficuli to refer to any other engraving* belonging to Holbein after the above year.

86 The Dance of Death,

variance with what has been advanced with respect to thtf Bible cuts ascribed to him. It is, however, by no means a matter of necessity that an artist with Holbein's talents should have been resorted to for the purpose of designing the additional cuts to the Lyons work. There were, during the middle of the i6th century, several artists equally competent to the undertaking, both as to invention and execution, as is demonstrable, among numerous other instances, from the spurious but beautiful Italian copy of the original cuts ; from the scarcely distinguishable copies of the Lyons Bible cuts, in an edition put forth by John Stelsius at Antwerp, 1561, and from the works of several artists, both designers and wood-engravers, in the books published by the French, Flemish, and Italian booksellers at that period. An interesting catalogue raisonn^ might be constructed, though with some difficulty, of such articles as were decorated with most exquisite and interesting embellishments. The above century was much richer in this respect than any one that succeeded it, displaying specimens of art that have only been rivalled, perhaps never outdone, by the very skilful engravers on wood of modern times.

Our attention will, in the next place, be required to the excellent engraver of the Dance of Death, the thirty-sixth cut of which represents the Duchess sitting up in bed and accompanied with two figures of Death, one of which plays on a violin, whilst the other drags away the bed-clothes. On the base of one of the bed-posts is the mark or mono- gram fj^ , which has, among other artists, been incon- siderately ascribed to Holbein. That it was intended to express the name of the designer cannot be supported by evidence of any kind. We must then seek for its meaning as belonging to the engraver, and whose name was, in all probability, Hans Leuczellberger or Lutzenberger, some- times called Franck. M. de Mechel, the celebrated print- seller and engraver at Basle, addressed a letter to M. de Murr, in which he states that on a proof sheet of an alphabet in the library in that city, containing several small figures of a Dance of Death, he had found the above name. M. BruUiot remarks that he had seen some of the

u ....... .

^^Htettcrs o. this alphabet, but had not perceived on them

either the name of Lutzenberger, or the mark J£^ ;' but

M. de Mechel has not said that the mark was on the proof sheet, or on the letters themselves, but only the name of

Lutzenberger, adding that the y\ ^ on the cut of the

Duchess will throw some light on the matter, and that Holbein, although this monogram has been usually ascribed to him, never expressed his name by it, but

used for that purpose an W joined to a g ; in which

latter assertion M. de Mechel was by no means correct

On another alphabet of a Dance of Peasants, in the possession of the writer of these pages, and undoubtedly by the same artists, M. de Mechel, to whom it was shown when in England, has written in pencil the following

memorandum : "_£L S^^^ P^^ Hans (John) Lutzenberger,

grav^ur en patrons \ Basle, vivant Ik au commencement du i6me siecle ;" but he has inadvertently transferred the remark to the wrong alphabet, though both were un- doubtedly the work of the same artist, as well as a third alphabet, equally beautiful, of groups of children.

The late Pietro Zani, whose intimate experience in whatever relates to the art of engraving, together with the vast number of prints that had passed under his observation, must entitle his opinions to the highest con- sideration, has stated, in more places than one in his " Enciclopedia Metodica," that Holbein had no concern with the cuts of the Lyons Dance of Death, the engraving of which he decidedly ascribes to Hans Lutzenberger ; and, without any reference to the inscription on the proof of one of the alphabets in the library at Basle before- mentioned, which he had probably neither seen nor heard of, mentions the copy of one of the alphabets which he had seen at Dresden, and at once consigns it to Lutzen- berger. He promises to resume the subject at large in

• Bnilliot, Diet de monogrammes, &c. Munich, 1817, 4I0. p. 418, where the letter from De Mechel is given.

88 The Dance of Death,

some future part of his immense work, which, if existing, h s not yet made its appearance.

As the prints by this fine engraver are very few in number, and extremely rare, the following list of them may not be unacceptable.

1. An oblong wood engraving, in length ii inches by 3|-. It represents, on one side, Christ requiring the attention of a group of eight persons, consisting of a monk, a peasant with a flail, a female, &c. to a lighted taper on a candela- brum placed in the middle of the print ; on the other side, a group of thirteen or fourteen persons, preceded by one who is looking into a pit in which is the word plato. Over his head is inscribed aristoteles ; he is followed by a pope, a bishop, monks, &c. &c.

2. Another oblong wood engraving, 6^ inches by 2^, in two compartments, divided by a pillar. In one, the Judgment of Solomon ; in the other, Christ and the woman taken in adultery ; he writes something on the ground with his finger. It has the date 1539.

3. Another, size as No. 2. An emperor is sitting in a court of justice with several spectators, attending some trial. This is doubtful.

4. Another oblong print, \o\ inches by 3, and in two compartments, i. David prostrate before the Deity in the clouds, accompanied by Manasses and a youth, over whom is inscribed offen svnder. 2. A pope on a throne delivering some book, perhaps letters of indulgence, to a kneeling monk. This very beautiful print has been called " The Traffic of Indulgences," and is minutely and correctly described by Jansen.^

5. A print, 12 inches by 6, representing a combat in a wood between several naked persons and a troop of peasants armed with instruments of husbandry. Below on

the left, the letters fj H . Annexed are two tablets, one

of which is inscribed hans levczellbvrger fvrmschnider; on the other is an alphabet. Jansen has also mentioned this print.'* Brulliot describes a copy of it in the cabinet

• Essai 3ur I'origine de la gravure, &c., torn. i. p. 260. * Id. p. 261.

The Dance of Death. 89

of prints belonging to the King of Bavaria, in which, besides the name, is the date mdxxii.*

6. A print of a dagger or knife case, in length 9 inches. At top, a figure inscribed venvs has a lighted torch in one hand and a horn in the other ; she is accompanied by Cupid. In the middle two boys are playing, and at bottom three others standing, one with a helmet.

7. A copy of Albert Diirer's decollation of John the Baptist, with the mark W L reversed, is mentioned by

Zani as certainly belonging to this artist." In the index of names, he says, he finds his name thus written, hanns

LVTZELBVRGER FORMSCHNIDER GENANT (chiamato) FRANCK,

and calls him the true prince of engravers on wood.

8. An alphabet with a Dance of Death, the subjects of which, with a few exceptions, are the same as those in the other Dance ; the designs, however, occasionally vary. In delicacy of drawing, in strength of character and in skill as to engraving, they may be justly pronounced superior to everything of the kind, and their excellence will probably remain a long time unrivalled. The figures are so small as almost to require the aid of lenses, the size of each letter being only an inch square. Zani had seen and admired this alphabet at Dresden.^

9. Another alphabet by the same artists. It is a Dance of Peasants, intermixed with other subjects, some of which are not of the most delicate nature. They are smaller than the letters in the preceding article, and are probably connected in point of design with the Dance of Peasants that Holbein is said to have painted at Basle.

10. Another alphabet, also by the same artists. This is in all respects equal in beauty and merit to the others, and exhibits groups of boys in the most amusing and playful attitudes and employments. The size of the letters is little more than half an inch square. These children much resemble those which Holbein probably added to the later editions of the Lyons engravings.'

' Diet de monogrammes, &c, torn. i. pp. 418, 499. « Enciclop. metod. par ii. vol. vii. p. 16. ' This beautiful series is given, io

exact fac-simile, as Initial-letters to the Chapters of the present Volume;

* All the above prints are in the author's possession, except No. 7, aud his copy of No. 5 has not the tablets with the name, &c

go ' The Dance of Death.

The proofs of the above alphabets may have been deposited by Lutzenberger in the public library of his native city. Whether they were cut on wood or on metal may admit of a doubt ; but there is reason to believe that the old printers and type-cutters occasionally used blocks of metal instead of wood for their figured initial letters, and the term Formschneider equally applies to those who engraved in relief on either of those materials. Nothing can exceed the beauty and spirit of the design in these alphabets, nor the extreme delicacy and accurate minute- ness of the engraving.

The letters in these respective alphabets were intended for the use of printers, and especially those of Basle, as Cratander, Bebelius, and Isingrin. Copies and imitations of them ate to be found in many books printed at Zurich, Strasburg, Vienna, Augsburg, Frankfort, &c. and a few even in books printed at London by Waley, Purslowe, Marsh, and Nicholson, particularly in a quarto edition of Cover- dale's Bible, if printed in the latter city ; and one of them, a capital A, is in an edition of Stowe's Survey of London, 1618, 4to.

There is an unfortunate ambiguity connected with the marks that are found on ancient engravings in wood, and it has been a very great error on the part of all the writers who treat on such engravings, in referring the marks that accompanv them to the block-cutters, or as the Germans properly denominate them, the Formschneider s, whilst, perhaps, the greatest part of them really belong to the designers, as is undoubtedly the case with respect to Albert Diirer, Hans Schaufelin, Jost Amman, Tobias Stimmer, &c. It may be laid down as a rule that there is no certainty as to the marks of engravers, except where they are accom- panied with some implement of their art, especially a graving tool. Where the designer of the subject put his mark on the drawing which he made on, or for, the block, the engraver would, of course, copy it. Sometimes the marks of both designer and engraver are found on prints, and in these cases the ambiguity is consequently removed.

CHAPTER VIII.

List of several editions of the Lyons work on the Dance of Death, with the mark of Lutzenberger. — Copies of them on wood. — Copies on copper by anonymous artists. — By IVen- ceslaus Hollar. — Other anonymous artists. — Nieuhoff Pica rd. — Rusting, — Mechel. — Crozafs dra wings, — Deu- char, — Imitations of some of the subjects.

I.

wings, on

2:eayton.

ES Simulachres et histori^es faces de la Mort, autant elegamment pourtraictes, que artificiellement imagin^es. A Lyon, Soubz I'escu de Coloigne, mdxxxviii." At the end, "Excudebant Lugduni Melchior et Caspar Trechsel fratres, 1538," 4to. On this title-page is a cut of a triple-headed figure crowned with a pedestal, over which a book with TNliOI Below, two serpents and two globes, with " usus This has, i. A dedication to Madame Jehanne

me genuit.

de Touszele. 2. Diverses tables de mort, non painctes, mais extraictes de Tescripture saincte, colore'es par Docteurs Ecclesiastiques, et umbrag^es par philosophes. 3. Over each print, passages from Scripture, allusive to the subject, in Latin, and at bottom the substance of them in four French verses. 4. Figures de la mort moralement descriptes et depeinctes selon Tauthorit^ de I'escripture, et des Sainctz Peres. 5. Les diverses mors des bons, et des niaulvais du viel, et nouveau testament. 6. Des sepultures des justes.

ga The Dance tff JDeath,

7. Memorables authoritez, et sentences des philosophes, et orateurs Payens pour confermer les vivans k non craindre la mort. 8. De la necessite de la mort qui ne laisse riens estre par durable." With forty-one cuts. This may be safely regarded as the first edition of the work. There is nothing in the title-page that indicates any preceding one.

II. "Les Simulachres et histori^es faces de la mort, contenant la Medecine de I'ame, utile et necessaire non seulement aux malades mais k tous qui sont en bonne disposition corporelle. D'avantage, la forme et maniere de consoler les malades. Sermon de sainct Cecile Cyprian, intituld de Mortalite. Sermon de S. Jan Chrysostome, pour nous exhorter k patience : traictant aussi de la con- sommation de ce siecle, et du second advenement de Jesus Christ, de la joye eternelle des justes, de la peine et dam- nation des mauvais, et autres choses necessaires k un chascun chrestien, pour bien vivre et bien mourir. A Lyon, k I'escu de Coloigne, chez Jan et Frangois Frellon freres," 1542, i2mo. With forty-one cuts. Then a moral epistle to the reader, in French. The descriptions of the cuts in Latin and French as before, and the pieces expressed in the title-page.

III. " Imagines Mortis. His accesserunt, Epigrammata, ^ Gallico idiomate k Georgio ^mylio in Latinum translata. Ad haec, Medicina animse, tarn iis qui firma, qukm qui adversa corporis valetudine praediti sunt, maximb necessaria. Ratio consolandi ob morbi gravitatem periculosb decum- bentes. Quae his addita sunt, sequens pagina common- strabit. Lugduni, sub scuto Coloniensi, 1545." With the device of the crab and the butterfly. At the end, " Lugduni Excudebant Joannes et Franciscus Frellonii fratres," 1545, i2mo. The whole of the text is in Latin, and translated, except the scriptural passages, from the French, by George .^mylius, as he also states in some verses at the beginning ; but several of the mottoes at bottom are different and enlarged. It has forty-two cuts, the additional one, probably not by the former artist, being that of the beggar sitting on the ground before an arched gate : extremely fine, particularly the beggar's head. This subject has no connexion with the Dance of Death, and is placed in another part of the volume, though in subsequent editions

The Dance of Death. 93

incorporated with the other prints. The "Medicina animje" is very different from the French one. There is some reason for supposing that the Frellons had already printed an edition with ^mylius's text in 1542. This person was an eminent German divine of Mansfelt, and the author of many pious works. In the present edition the first cut of the creation exhibits a crack in the block from the top to the bottom, but it had been in that state in 1543, as appears from an impression of it in Holbein's Bible of that date. It is found so in all the subsequent editions of the present work, with the exception of those in Italian of 1549 and in the Bible of 1549, in which the crack appears to have been closed, probably by cramping ; but the block again separated aftenvards.

This edition is of some importance with respect to the question as to the priority of the publication of the work in France or Germany, or, in other words, whether at Lyons or Basle. It is accompanied by some lines addressed to the reader, which begin in the following manner :

Accipe jncundo prxsentia carmina vultu,

Seu Germane legis, sive ea Galle legis ; In quibus extremoe qualis sit mortis imago

Reddidit imparibus Musa Latina modis Gallia qua dederat Upidis epigrammata verbis

Tcutona convertens est imitata manus. Da veniam nobis doctissime Galle, videbis

Versibus appositis reddit* si qua parum.

Now, had the work been originally published in the German language, -^mylius, himself a German, would, as already observed, scarcely have preferred a French text for his Latin version. This circumstance furnishes likewise an argument against the supposed existence of German verses at the bottom of the early impressions of the cuts already mentioned.

A copy of this edition, now in the library of the British Museum, was presented to Prince Edward by Dr. William Bill, accompanied with a Latin dedication, dated from Cambridge, 19th July, 1546, wherein he recommends the prince's attention to the figures in the book, in order to remind him that all must die to obtain immortality ; and enlarges on the necessity of living well. He concludes with

94 Th^ Dance of Death.

a wish that the Lord will long and happily pieserve his li^e, and that he may finally reign to all eternity with his most Christian father. Bill was appointed one of the King's chaplains in ordinary, 1551, and was made the first Dean of Westminster in the reign of Elizabeth.

IV. "Imagines Mortis. Duodecim imaginibus praeter priores, totidemque inscriptionibus praeter epigrammata ^ Gallicis k Georgio ^mylio in Latinum versa, cumulatae. Quae his addita sunt, sequens pagina commonstrabit. Lugduni sub scuto Coloniensi, 1547." With the device of the crab and butterfly. At the end, "Excudebat Joannes Frellonius, 1547," i2mo. This edition has twelve more cuts than those of 1538 and 1542, and eleven more than that of 1545, being, the soldier, the gamblers, the drunkards, the fool, the robber, the blind man, the wine carrier, and four of boys. In all, fifty-three. Five of the additional cuts have a single line only in the frames, whilst the others have a double one. All are nearly equal in merit to those which first appeared in 1538.

V. " Icones Mortis, Duodecim imaginibus praeter priores, totidemque inscriptionibus, praeter epigrammata h Gallicis k Georgio -^mylio in Latinum versa, cumulatae. Quae his addita sunt, sequens pagina commonstrabit, Lugduni sub scuto Coloniensi, 1547." i2mo. At the end, "Excudebat Johannes Frellonius, 1547." This edition contains fifty- three cuts, jind is precisely similar to the one described immediately before, except that it is entitled Icoms, instead of Imagines Mortis.

VI. "Les Images de la Mort. Auxquelles sont ad- joustdes douze figures. Davantage, la medecine de I'ame, la consolation des malades, un sermon de mortality, par Sainct Cyprian, un sermon de patience, par Sainct Jehan Chrysostome. A Lyon. A I'escu de Cologne chez Jehan Frellon, 1547." With the device of the crab and butter- fly. At the end, " Imprime a Lyon k I'escu de Coloigne, par Jehan Frellon, 1547. i2mo." The verses at bottom of the cuts the same as in the edition of 1538, with similar ones for the additional. In all, fifty-three cuts.

VII. " Simolachri historie, e figure de la morte. La medicina de I'anima. II modo, e la via di consolar gl'infenni, Un sermone di San Cipriano, de la mortality

Tfu Dance of Death. 95

Due orationi, I'un k Dio, e I'altra \ Christo. Un semione di S. Giovan. Chrisostomo, che ci essorta \ patienza. Aiuntovi di nuovo molte figure mai piu stampate. In Lyone appresso Giovan Frellone mdxlix." i2mo. With the device of the crab and butterfly. At the end, the same device on a larger scale in a circle. Fifty-three cuts. The scriptural passages are in latin. To this edition Frellon has prefixed a preface, in which he complains of a pirated copy of the work in Italian by a printer at Venice, which will be more particularly noticed hereafter. He maintains that the cuts in this spurious edition are far less beautiful than the French ones, and this passage goes very far in aid of the argument that they are not of German origin. Frellon, by way of revenge, and to save the trouble of making a new translation of the articles that compose the volume, makes use of that of his Italian competitor.

VIII. " Icones Mortis. Duodecim Imaginibus prgeter priores, totidemque inscriptionibus, praeter epigrammata fe Gallicis \ Georgio ^mylio in Latinum versa, cumulatae. Quae his addita sunt, sequens pagina commonstrabit. Basileae, 1554. i2mo." With fifty-three cuts. It would not be very easy to account for the absence of the name of the Basle printer.

IX. " Les Images de la Mort, auxquelles sont adjoustees dix sept figures. Davantage, la medecine de Tame. La consolation des malades. Un sermon de mortalite, par Saint Cyprian. Un sermon de patience, par Saint Jehan Chrysostome. A Lyon, par Jehan Frellon, 1562." With the device of the crab and butterfly. At the end, " A Lyon, par Symphorien Barbier." i2mo. This edition has five additional cuts, viz. i. A group of boys, as a triumphal procession, with military trophies. 2. The bride ; the husband plays on a lute, whilst Death leads the wife in tears. 3. The bridegroom led by Death blowing a trumpet. Both these subjects are appropriately described in the verses below. 4. A group of boy warriors, one on horseback with a standard. 5. Another group of boys, with drums, horns, and trumpets. These additional cuts are designed and engraved in the same masterly style as the others, but it is now impossible to ascertain the artists who have executed them. From the decorations to several

9<5 The Dance of Death.

books published at Lyons, it is very clear that there were persons in that city capable of the task. Holbein had been dead eight years, after a long residence in London.

Du Verdier, in his Bibliothbque Fran^oise, mentions this edition, and adds that it was translated from the French into Latin, Italian, Spanish, German, and English;^ a statement that stands greatly in need of confirmation as to the last three languages, but this writer, on too many occasions, deserves but small compliment for his accuracy.

X. " Imagines Mortis : item epigrammata b Gall, k G. -^milio in Latinum versa. Lugdun. Frellonius, 1574.** i2mo.^

XI. In 1654 a Dutch work appeared with the following title, "De Doodt vermaskert met swerelts ydelheyt afghedaen door G. V. Wolsschaten, verciert met de constighe Belden vanden maerden Schilder Hans Holbein." i.e. "Death masked, with the world's vanity, by G. V. AVolsschaten, ornamented with the ingenious images of the famous painter Hans Holbein. T'Antwerpen, by Petrus Bellerus." This is on an engraved frontispiece of a tablet, over which are spread a man's head and the skin of two arms supported by two Deaths blowing trumpets. Below, a spade, a pil- grim's staff, a sceptre, and a crosier, with a label, on which is " sceptra ligonibus aequat." Then follows another title- page, with the same words, and the addition of Geeraerdt Van Wolsschaten's designation, "Prevost van sijne coninck- lijcke Majesteyts Munten des Heertoogdoms van Brabant, &c. MDCLiv." i2mo. The author of the text, which is mixed up with poetry and historical matter, was prefect of the mint in the Duchy of Brabant.' This edition contains eighteen cuts, among which the following subjects are from the original blocks : i. Three boys. 2. The married couple. 3. The pedlar. 4. The shipwreck. 5. The^ beggar. 6. The corrupt judge. 7. The astrologer. 8. The old man. 9. The physician. 10. The priest with the) eucharist. 11. The monk. 12. The abbess. 13. The

* Edit Javigny, iv. 559. ' This edition is given on the authority] of Peignot, p. 62, but has not been seen by the author of this work. In the year 1547, there were three editions, and it is not improbablei that, by the transposition of the last two figures, one of these might have been intended. ^ Foppen's Biblioth. Belgica, i. 363.

The Dance cf Death. 97

•Dbot. 14. The duke. Four others, viz. the child, the emperor, the countess, and the pope, are copies, and very badly engraved. The blocks of the originals a[.pear to have fallen into the hands of an artist, who probably resided at Antwerp, and several of them have his mark,

^^yf^ i concerning which more will be said under one of

the ensuing articles. As many engravings on wood by this person appeared in the middle of the sixteenth century, it is probable that he had already used these original blocks in some edition of the Dance of Death that does not seem to have been recorded. There are evident marks of re- touching in these cuts, but when they first appeared cannot now be ascertained. The mark might have been placed on them, either to denote ownership, according to the usual practice at that time, or to indicate that they had been repaired by that particular artist.

All these editions, except that of 1574, have been seen and carefully examined on the present occasion : the supposed one of 1530 has not been included in this list, and remains to be seen and accurately described, if existing, by competent witnesses.

Papillon, in his " Traitd sur la gravure en bois," has given in elaborate, but, as usual with him, a very faulty description jf these engravings. He enlarges on the beauty of the last cut with the allegorical coat of arms, and particularly on that of the gentleman whose right hand he states to be placed on its side, whilst it certainly is extended, and touches with the back of it the mantle on which the helmet and shield of arms are placed. He errs likewise in making the female look towards a sort of dog's head, according to him, under the mantle and right hand of her husband, which, he adds, might be taken for the pummel of his sword, and that she fondles this head with her right hand, &c. ; not one word of which is correct He says that a good impression of this print would be well worth a louis d'or to an amateur. He appears to have been in possession of the block belonging to the subject of the lovers preceded by Death with a drum ; but it had been spoiled by the strode of a plane.

5^ The Dance of Death.

COPILS OF THE ABOVE DESIGNS, AND ENGRAVED ALSO ON WOOD.

I. At the head of these, in point of merit, must be placed the Italian spurious edition mentioned in No. VII. of the preceding list. It is entitled " Simolachri historic, e figure de la morte, ove si contiene la medicina de I'anima utile e necessaria, non solo k gli ammalati, ma tutte i sani. Et appresso, il modo, e la via di consolar gl'infermi. Un sermone di S. Cipriano, de la mortality. Due orationi. Tuna k Dio, e I'altra k Christo da dire appresso I'ammalato oppresso da grave infermitd. Un sermone di S. Giovan Chrisostomo, che ci essorta k patienza ; e che tratta de la consumatione del secolo presente, e del secondo avenimento di Jesu Christo, de la eterna felicita de giusti, de la pena e dannatione de rei ; et altre cose necessarie k ciascun Christiano, per ben vivere, e ben morire. Con gratia e privilegio de I'illustriss. Senato Vinitiano, per anni dieci. Appresso Vincenzo Vaugris al segno d'Erasmo, mdxlv." i2mo. With a device of the brazen serpent, repeated at the end. It has all the cuts in the genuine edition of the same date, except that of the beggar at the gate. It contains a very moral dedication to Signor Antonio Calergi by the publisher Vaugris or Valgrisi ; in which, with unjus- tifiable confidc^'ce, he enlarges on the great beauty of the work, the cuts in which are, in his estimation, not merely equal, but far superior to those in the French edition in design and engraving. They certainly approach the nearest to the fine originals of all the imitations, but will be found

on comparison to be inferior. The mark ^L ^n the cut

of the Duchess sitting up in bed, with the two Deaths, one of whom is fiddling,, whilst the other pulls at the clothes, is retained, but this could not be with a view to pass these engravings as originals, after what is stated in the dedication. An artist's eye will easily perceive the difference in spirit and decision of drawing. In the ensuing year 1546, Valgrisi republished this book in Latin, but without the dedication, and there are impressions of them on single

The Dance of Death. 99

sheets, one of which has at the bottom, "In Venetia-, MDLXViii. Fra. Valerio Faenzi Inquis. Apreso Luca Bertelli.'* So that they required a licence from the Inquisition.

II. In the absence of any other Italian editions of the " Simolachri," it is necessary to mention that twenty-four of the last-mentioned cuts were introduced in a work of extreme rarity, and which has escaped the notice of biblio- graphers, entitled " Discorsi Morali dell' eccell. Sig. Fablo Glissenti contra il dispiacer del morire. Detto Athana- tophilia Venetia, 1609." 4to. These twenty-four were probably all that then remained ; and five others ot subjects belonging also to the "Simolachri," are inserted in this work, but very badly imitated, and two of them reversed. In the subject of