The Dance of Death

25. “La grande Danse Macabre des hommes et des femmes, &c. Troyes, Oudot,” 1641, 4to. cuts. One of the bibliothèque bleue books.

26. “La grande Danse Macabre des hommes et des femmes, renouvellée de vieux Gaulois en langage le plus poli de notre temps, &c. Troyes, Pierre Garnier 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 Machabées,” no doubt, the editor’s improvement.

27. “La grande Danse Macabre des hommes et des femmes, renouvellée, &c. Troyes, chez la veuve Oudot, et Jean Oudot fils, rue du Temple, 1729,” 4to. cuts. Nearly the same as No. 25.

These inferior editions continued, till very 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 public library at Munich a very old series of a Macaber Dance, that had been inserted, by way of illustration, into a German manuscript 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 popular subject of the Macaber Dance was particularly exhibited. It found its way into many of the beautiful service books, usually denominated Horæ, or hours of the Virgin. These principally belong to France, and their margins are frequently decorated with 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 unacceptable.

No. I. “Las Horas de nuestra Senora con muchos otros oficios y oraçiones.” Printed in Paris by Nicolas Higman 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, l’Empereur, le Cardinal, l’Archevesque, le Chevalier, l’Evesque, l’Escuyer, l’Abè, le Prevost, le Roy, le Patriarche, le Connestable, l’Astrologien, le Bourgoys, le Chanoine, le Moyne, l’Usurier, le Medesin, l’Amoureux, l’Advocat, le Menestrier, le Marchant, le Chartreux, le Sergent, le Cure, le Laboureur, le Cordelier.” Then the women: “La Royne, la Duchesse, la Regente, la Chevaliere, l’Abbesse, la Femme descine, la Prieure, la Damoissele, la Bourgoise, la Cordeliere, la Femme daceul, la Nourice, la Theologienne, la nouvelle mariee, la Femme grosse, la Veufve, la Marchande, la Ballive, la Chamberiere, la Recommanderese, la vielle Damoise, l’Espousée, la Mignote, la Fille pucelle, la Garde d’accouchée, la jeune fille, la Religieuse, la Vielle, la Revenderesse, l’Amoureuse, la Sorciere, la Bigote, la Sote, la Bergere, la Femme aux Potences, la Femme de Village; to which are added, l’Enfant, le Clerc, l’Ermite.”

The second Dance of Death is very different from the preceding, and consists of groupes 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 cuncti qui cernitis istam.”

2. Death with Adam and Eve in Paradise. He draws Adam towards him. “Quid tum 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 unarmed man, Death assisting. “Fortium virorum est magis mortem contemnere vitam odisse.”

8. Death with a rod in his hand, standing upon a groupe 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 equam.”

11. 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 velut aura levis te mors expectat ubique.”

13. A man strangling another, Death assisting. “Vita quid est hominis nisi res vallata 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 suos: 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 cradle, two other figures attending. “A, a, a, vado mori, nil valet ipsa juventus.”

20. A man on the ground in a fit, Death seizes him. Others attending. “Mors scita sed dubia nec fugienda venit.”

21. Death leads a man, followed by others. “Non sum securus hodie vel cras 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 Horæ 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 Maso Finiguerra at Florence, accurately copied in Mr. Ottley’s history of engraving. They are accompanied with this unappropriated mark

.

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,” 12mo. 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 librario 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 à l’usage de Soissons.” Printed by Simon Vostre, on vellum, 1502, 8vo. With the same Danse Macabre.

No. V. “Heures à l’usage de Rheims, nouvellement imprimées 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 à l’usage de Rome. Printed for Simon Vostre by Phil. Pigouchet,” 1502, large 8vo. on vellum. With the same Danse Macabre. This truly magnificent 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 of the Dance, but which apply to the figure at the top only. They are here given.

PopeVous qui vivez certainementQuoy qu’il tarde ainsi danserezMais quand Dieu le scet seulementAvisez comme vous ferezDam Pape vous commencerezComme le plus digne SeigneurEn ce point honorire serezAu grant maistre est deu l’honneur.KingMais maintenant toute haultesseLaisserez vous nestes pas seulPeu aurez de votre richesseLe plus riche n’a qung linseulVenez noble Roy couronneRenomme de force et prouesseJadis fustez environneDe grans pompes de grant noblesse.ArchbishopQue vous tirez la teste arriereArchevesque tirez vous près,

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1

Iliad, and after him Virgil, Æn. vi. 278.

2

Iliad IX. On an ancient gem likewise in Ficoroni’s Gemmæ Antiquæ Litteratæ, Tab. viii. No. 1, a human scull typifies mortality, and a butterfly immortality.

3

Lib. ii. 78.

4

Diarium, p. 212.

5

Lib. xiii. l. 474.

6

Epist. xxiv.

7

Apolog. p. 506, 507. edit. Delph. 4to.

8

Lib. iii.

9

Leg. Antiq. iii. 84.

10

Folio clxxxvii.

11

Folio ccxvii.

12

Bibl. Reg. 20 B. xiv. and Harl. MS. 4657.

13

Contest.

14

Q. Cowick in Yorkshire?

15

Leader.

16

Glee.

17

Called.

18

A name borrowed from Merwyn, Abbess of Ramsey, temp. Reg. Edgari.

19

Took.

20

Leafy.

21

Place.

22

Went.

23

Places.

24

A falsehood.

25

Whoever may be desirous of inspecting other authorities for the story, may consult Vincent of Beauvais Speculum Historiale, lib. xxv. cap. 10; Krantz Saxonia, lib. iv.; Trithemii Chron. Monast. Hirsaugensis; Chronicon Engelhusii ap. Leibnitz. Script. Brunsvicens. II. 1082; Chronicon. S. Ægidii, ap. Leibnitz. iii. 582; Cantipranus de apibus; & Cæsarius Heisterbach. de Miraculis; in whose works several veracious and amusing stories of other instances of divine vengeance against dancing 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.

26

Lib. i. Eleg. iii.

27

Æn. lib. vi. l. 44.

28

Millin. Magaz. Encycl. 1813, tom. i. p. 200.

29

Gori Mus. Florentin. tom. i. pl. 91, No. 3.

30

Hist. Engl. Poetry, vol. ii. p. 43, edit. 8vo. and Carpentier. Suppl. ad Ducang. v. Machabæorum chorea.

31

Id. ii. 364.

32

Hist. des Ducs des Bourgogne, tom. v. p. 1821.

33

Hist. de René d’Anjou, tom. i. p. 54.

34

Dulaure. Hist. Physique, &c. de Paris, 1821, tom. ii. p. 552.

35

Recherches sur les Danses des Morts. Dijon et Paris, 1826, 8vo. p. xxxiv. et seq.

36

Mercure de France, Sept. 1742. Carpentier. Suppl. ad Ducang. v. Machabæorum chorea.

37

Bibl. Reg. 8 B. vi. Lansd. MS. 397.

38

Madrid. 1779, 8vo. p. 179.

39

Bibl. Med. et Inf. Ætat. tom. v. p. 1.

40

Recherches sur les Danses de Mort, pp. 79 80.

41

Passim.

42

Modern edition of the Danse Macabre.

43

Journal de Charles VII.

44

Lansd. MS. No. 397 – 20.

45

Peignot Recherches, p. 109.

46

Mélange d’une Grande Bibliothèque, tom. vii. p. 22.

47

Bibl. Instruc. No. 3109.

48

Catal. La Valliere No. 2736 – 22.

49

Vasari vite de Pittori, tom. i. p. 183, edit. 1568, 4to.

50

Baldinucci Disegno, ii. 65.

51

Morona Pisa Illustrata, i. 359.

52

Du Breul Antiq. de Paris, 1612, 4to. p. 834, where the verses that accompany the sculpture are given. See likewise Sandrart Acad. Picturæ, p. 101.

53

Peignot Recherches, xxxvii-xxxix.

54

Urtisii epitom. Hist. Basiliensis, 1522, 8vo.

55

Peignot Recherches, xxvi-xxix.

56

Travels, i. 376.

57

Travels, i. 138, edit. 4to.

58

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

59

Peintre graveur, ix. 398.

60

Essai sur l’Orig. de la Gravure, i. 120.

61

Heinecken Dictionn. des Artistes, i. 222.

62

Recherches, &c. p. 71.

63

Heller Geschiche der holtzchein kunst. Bamberg, 1823, 12mo. p. 126.

64

Basle Guide Book.

65

Recherches, 11 et seq.

66

More on the subject of the Lubeck Dance of Death may be found in 1. An anonymous work, which has on the last leaf, “Dodendantz, anno domini MCCCCXCVI. Lubeck.” 2. “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 krit. Bearb. alter handschr. p. 321 et seq. 5. Jacob à Mellen Grundliche Nachbricht von Lubeck, 1713, 8vo. p. 84. 6. Schlott Lubikischers Todtentantz. 1701. 8vo. 7. Berkenmeyer, le curieux antiquaire, 8vo. p. 530; and, 8. Nugent’s Travels, i. 102. 8vo.

67

Biblioth. Med. et inf. ætat. v. 2.

68

Travels, i. 195.

69

Recherches, xlii.

70

Pilkington’s Dict. of Painters, p. 307, edit. Fuseli, who probably follows Fuesli’s work on the Painters. Merian, Topogr. Helvetiæ.

71

Peignot Recherches, xlv. xlvi.

72

Rivoire descr. de l’église cathédrale d’Amiens. Amiens, 1806. 8vo.

73

Recherches, xlvii.

74

Recherches, xlviii.

75

Recherches sur les antiquités de Vienne. 1659. 12mo, p. 15.

76

Dr. Cogan’s Tour to the Rhine, ii. 127.

77

Travels, iii. 328, edit. 4to.

78

Survay of London, p. 615, edit. 1618, 4to.

79

In Tottel’s edition these verses are accompanied with a single wood-cut of Death leading up all ranks of mortals. This was afterwards copied by Hollar, as to general design, in Dugdale’s St. Paul’s, and in the Monasticon.

80

Annales, p. 596, edit. 1631. 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 imaginacion thereof, we shall parceive therby that we wer never so gretly moved by the beholding of the Daunce of Death pictured in Poules, as we shal fele ourself stered and altered by the feling of that imaginacion in our hertes. And no marvell. For those pictures expresse only ye lothely figure of our dead bony bodies, biten away ye flesh,” &c. – Works, p. 77, edit. 1557, folio.

81

Heylin’s Hist. of the Reformation, p. 73.

82

Cotton MS. Vesp. A. xxv. fo. 181.

83

Leland’s Itin. vol. iv. part i. p. 69. – Meas. for Meas. Act iii. sc. 1.

84

Hutchinson’s Northumberland, i. 98.

85

Warton’s H. E. Poetry, ii. 43, edit. 8vo.

86

And see a portion of Orgagna’s painting at the Campo Santo at Pisa, mentioned before in p. 33.

87

From the Author’s own inspection.