The Dance of Death

X. “Emblems of Mortality, representing, in upwards of fifty cuts, Death seizing all ranks and degrees of people, &c. Printed for T. Hodgson, in George’s Court, St. John’s Lane, Clerkenwell, 1789. 12mo.” With an historical essay on the subject, and translations of the Latin verses in the Imagines Mortis, by John Sidney Hawkins, esq. The cuts were engraved by the brother of the celebrated Bewick, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and a pupil of Hodgson, who was an engraver on wood of some merit at that time. They are but indifferently executed, but would have been better had the artist been more liberally encouraged by the master, who was the publisher on his own account, Mr. Hawkins very kindly furnishing the letter-press. They are faithful copies of all the originals, except the first, which, containing a figure of the Deity habited as a Pope, was scrupulously exchanged for another design. A frontispiece is added, representing Death leading up all classes of men and women.

XI. “The Dance of Death of the celebrated Hans Holbein, in a series of fifty-two engravings on wood by Mr. Bewick, with letter-press illustrations.

What’s yet in thisThat bears the name of life? Yet in this lifeLie hid more thousand Deaths: yet Death we fear,That makes these odds all even.Shakspeare.

London. William Charlton Wright.” 12mo. With a frontispiece, partly copied from that in the preceding article, a common-place life of Holbein, and an introduction pillaged verbatim from an edition with Hollar’s cuts, published by Mr. Edwards. The cuts, with two or three exceptions, are imitated from the originals, but all the human figures are ridiculously modernised. The text to the subjects is partly descriptions in prose, and partly Mr. Hawkins’s verses, and the cuts, if Bewick’s, very inferior to those in his other works.

XII. “Emblems of Mortality, representing Death seizing all ranks and degrees of people. Imitated in a series of wood cuts from a painting in the cemetery of the Dominican church at Basil in Switzerland, with appropriate texts of scripture, and a poetical apostrophe to each, freely translated from the Latin and French. London. Printed for Whittingham and Arliss, juvenile library, Paternoster-row.” 12mo. The frontispiece and the rest of the cuts, with two exceptions, from the same blocks as those used for the last-mentioned edition. The preface, with very slight variation, is abridged from that by Mr. Hawkins in No. VIII. and the descriptive verses altogether the same as those in that edition. Both the last articles seem intended for popular and juvenile use. It will be immediately perceived that the title page is erroneous in confounding the Basle Dance of Death with that in the volume itself.

XIII. The last in this list is “Hans Holbein’s Todtentanz in 53 getreu nach den holtz schnitten lithographirten Blattern. Herausgegeben von J. Schlotthauer, K. Professor. Mit erklärendem Texte. Munschen, 1832. Auf kosten des Herausgebers,” 12mo. or, “Hans Holbein’s Dance of Death in fifty-three lithographic leaves, faithfully taken from wood engravings. Published by J. Schlotthauer, royal professor, with explanatory text. Munich, 1832. At the cost of the editors.” This work is executed in so beautiful and accurate a manner that it might easily be mistaken for the wood originals.

The professor has substituted German verses, communicated by a friend, instead of the former Latin ones. He states that the subject will be taken up by Professor Massman, of Munich, whose work will satisfy all enquiries relating to it. Massman, however, has added to this volume a sort of explanatory appendix, in which some of the editions are mentioned. He thinks it possible that the cholera may excite the same attention to this work as the plague had formerly excited to the old Macaber Dance at Basle, and concludes with a promise to treat the subject more at large at some future time.

COPIES OF THE SAME DESIGNS, ENGRAVED IN COPPER

I. “Todten Dantz durch alle stande und Beschlecht der Menschen, &c.” i. e. “Death’s Dance through all ranks and conditions of men.” This title is on a frontispiece representing a gate of rustic architecture, at the top of which are two boy angels with emblems of mortality between them, and underneath are the three Fates. At the bottom, Adam and Eve with the tree of knowledge, each holding the apple presented by the serpent. Between them is a circular table, on which are eight sculls of a Pope, Emperor, Cardinal, &c. with appropriate mottoes in Latin. On the outer edge of the table STATVTVM EST OMNIBVS HOMINIBVS SEMEL MORI POST HOC AVTEM IVDICIVM. In the centre the letters MVS, the terminating syllable of each motto. Before the gate are two pedestals, inscribed MEMENTO MORI and MEMORARE NOVISSIMA, on which stand figures of Death supporting two pyramids or obelisks surmounted with sculls and a cross, and inscribed ITER AD VITAM. Below, “Eberh. Kieser excudit.” This frontispiece is a copy of a large print engraved on wood long before. Without date, in quarto.

The work consists of sixty prints within borders of flowers, &c. in the execution of which two different and anonymous artists have been employed. At the top of each print is the name of the subject, accompanied with a passage from scripture, and at the bottom three couplets of German verses. Most of the subjects are copied from the completest editions of the Lyons cuts, with occasional slight variations. They are not placed in the same order, and all are reversed, except Nos. 57 and 60. No. 12 is not reversed, but very much altered, a sort of duplicate of the Miser. No. 50, the Jew, and No. 51, the Jewess, are entirely new. The latter is sitting at a table, on which is a heap of money, and Death appears to be giving effective directions to a demon to strangle her. No. 52 is also new. A castle within a hedge. Death enters one of the windows by a ladder, whilst a woman looks out of another.121 The subject is from Jeremiah, ch. ix. v. 21. “Death is come up into our windows, &c.” In the subject of the Pope, the two Devils are omitted. Two military groups of boys, newly designed, are added. The following are copies from Aldegrever, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 11, and 12. At the beginning and end of the book there are moral poems in the German language.

II. Another edition of the same cuts. The title-page of the copy here described is unfortunately lost. It has a dedication in Latin to three patricians of Frankfort on the Maine by Daniel Meisner à Commenthaw, Boh. Poet. L. C. dated, according to the Roman capitals, in a passage from Psalm 46, in the year 1623. This is followed by the Latin epigram, or address to the reader, by Geo. Æmylius, whose translations of the original French couplets are also given, as well as the originals themselves. These are printed on pages opposite to the subjects, but they are often very carelessly transposed. At the end the date 1623 is twice repeated by means of the Roman capitals in two verses from Psalms 78 and 63, the one German, the other Latin. 12mo.

III. “Icones Mortis sexaginta imaginibus totidemque inscriptionibus insignitæ, versibus quoque Latinis et novis Germanicis illustratæ. Vorbildungen desz Todtes. In sechtzig figuren durch alle Stande und Geschlechte, derselbigen nichtige Sterblichkeit furzuweisen, aus gebruckt, und mit so viel ubors schriffren, auch Lateinischen und neuen Teutschen Verszlein erklaret. Durch Johann Vogel. Bey Paulus Fursten Kunsthandlern zu finden.” On the back of this printed title is an engraving of a hand issuing from the clouds and holding a pair of scales, in one of which is a scull, in the other a Papal tiara, sceptre, &c. weighing down the scull. On the beam of the scales an hour glass and an open book with Arabic numerals. In the distance, at bottom, is seen a traveller reposing in a shed. Above is a label, inscribed “Metas et tempora libro,” and below, “Ich Wage ziel und zeitten ab.” Then follows a neatly engraved and regular title-page. At top, a winged scull surmounted with an hour-glass, and crossed with a spade and scythe. At bottom, three figures of Death sitting on the ground; one of them plays on a hautboy, or trumpet, another on a bagpipe, and the third has a drum behind him. The middle exhibits a circular Dance of Death leading by the hand persons of all ranks from the Emperor downwards. In the centre of this circle “Toden Tantz zu finden bey Paulus Furst Kunst handlern,” and quite at the bottom of the page, “G. Stra. in. A. Khol fecit.” Next comes an exhortation on Death to the reader in Latin verse, followed by several poems in German and Latin, those in German signed G. P. H. Immediately afterwards, and before the first cut of the work is another elegantly engraved frontispiece representing an arched gate of stone surmounted with three sculls of a Pope, a Cardinal, and a King, between a vase of flowers on the right, and a pot of incense, a cock standing near it, on the left. On the keystone of the gate are two tilting lances in saltier, to which a shield and helmet are suspended. Through the arch is seen a chamber, in which there seems to be a bier, and near it a cross. On the left of the gate is a niche with a scull and bones in it. Below are two large figures of Death. That on the left has a wreath of flowers round its head, and is beating a bell with a bone. Under him is an owl, and on the side of his left knee a scythe. The other Death has a cap and feather, in his right hand an hour-glass, the left pointing to the opposite figure. On the ground between them, a bow, a quiver of arrows and a dart. On the left inner side of the gate a pot with holy water is suspended to a ring, the sprinkler being a bone. Further on, within the gate, is a flat stone, on which are several sculls and bones, a snake biting one of the sculls. On the right hand corner at bottom is the letter

, perhaps the mark of the unknown engraver. The explanations on the pages opposite to each print are in German and Latin verses, the latter by Æmylius, with occasional variations. This edition has the sixty prints in the two preceding Nos. some of them having been retouched; and the cut of the King at table, No. 9, is by a different engraver from the artist of the same No. in the preceding 4to. edition, No. I. The present edition has also an additional engraving at the end, representing a gate, within which are seen several sculls and bones, other sculls in a niche, and in the distance a cemetery with coffins and crosses. Over the gate a scull on each side, and on the outer edge of the arch is the inscription, “Quis Rex, quis subditus hic est?” At bottom,

The whole of the print in a border of sculls, bones, snakes, toads, and a lizard. Opposite to it the date 1647 is to be gathered from the Roman capitals in two scriptural quotations, the one in Latin, the other in German, ending with this colophon, “Gedrucht zu Nuremberg durch Christoff Lochner. In Verlegung Paul Fursten Kunsthandlern allda.” 12mo.

IV. A set of engravings, 8 inches by 8, of which the subject of the Pedlar, only has occurred on the present occasion. Instead of the trump-marine, which one of the Deaths plays on in the original cut, this artist has substituted a violin, and added a landscape in the back-ground. Below are these verses:

La MortSus? cesse ton traficq, car il fault à ceste heureQue tu sente l’effort de mon dard asseré.Tu as assez vescu, il est temps que tu meure,Mon coup inevitable est pour toy preparé.Le MarchantEt de grace pardon, arreste ta cholere.Je suis pauvre marchant appaise ta rigueur.Permete qu’encore un temps je vive en ceste terre:Et puis tu recevras l’offrande de mon cœur.

V. A set of thirty etchings by Wenceslaus Hollar, within elegant frames or borders designed by Diepenbecke, of which there are three varieties. The first of these has at the top a coffin with tapers, at bottom, Death lying prostrate. The sides have figures of time and eternity. At bottom, Ab. Diepenbecke inv. W. Hollar fecit. The second has at top a Death’s head crowned with the Papal tiara; at bottom, a Death’s head with cross-bones on a tablet, accompanied by a saw, a globe, armour, a gun, a drum, &c. On the sides are Hercules and Minerva. At bottom, Ab. Diepenbecke inv. W. Hollar fecit, 1651. The third has at top a Death’s head, an hour-glass winged between two boys; at bottom, a Death’s head and cross-bones on a tablet between two boys holding hour-glasses. On the sides, Democritus and Heraclitus with fools’ caps. This border has no inscription below. As these etchings are not numbered, the original arrangement of them cannot be ascertained. The names of Diepenbecke and Hollar are at the bottom of several of the borders, &c. On the subject of the Queen is the mark

and on three others that of

. This is the first and most desirable state of the work, the borders having afterwards fallen into the hands of Petau and Van Morle, two foreign printsellers, whose impressions are very inferior. It has not been ascertained what became of these elegant additions, but the work afterwards appeared without them, and with the additional mark

i. on every print, and intended for Holbein invenit. It is very certain that Hollar himself did not place this mark on the prints; he has never introduced it in any of his copies from Holbein, always expressing that painter’s name in these several ways:

,

inv.

pinxit, H. Holbein inv. H. Holbein inventor. On one of his portraits from the Arundel collection he has placed “

incidit in lignum.” No copy, however, of this portrait has occurred in wood, and, if this be only a conjecture on the part of the engraver, the distance of time between the respective artists is an objection to its validity, though it is possible that Holbein might have engraved on wood, because there are prints which have all the appearance of belonging to him, that have his usual mark, accompanied by an engraving tool. There is no text to these etchings, except the Latin scriptural passages under each, that occur in the original editions in that language. As a sort of frontispiece to the work, Hollar has transferred the last cut of the allegorical shield of arms, supported by a lady and gentleman, to the beginning, with the appropriate title of MORTALIVM NOBILITAS. The other subjects are, 1. Adam and Eve in Paradise. 2. Their expulsion from Paradise. 3. Adam digging, Eve spinning. 4. The Pope. 5. The Emperor. 6. The Empress. 7. The Queen. 8. The Cardinal. 9. The Duke. 10. The Bishop. 11. The Nobleman. 12. The Abbot. 13. The Abbess. 14. The Friar. 15. The Nun. 16. The Preacher. 17. The Physician. 18. The Soldier, or Warrior. 19. The Advocate. 20. The Married Couple. 21. The Duchess. 22. The Merchant. 23. The Pedlar. 24. The Miser. 25. The Waggoner with wine casks. 26. The Gamesters. 27. The Old Man. 28. The Old Woman. 29. The Infant. Of these, Nos. 1, 5, 6, 8, 9, 13, 14, 23, 27, and 28, correspond with the Lyons wood-cuts, except that in No. 1 a stag is omitted, and there are some variations; in No. 6, the windows of the palace are altered; in No. 13, a window is added to the house next to the nunnery; and in No. 9, a figure is introduced, and the ducal palace much altered; in No. 23, a sword is omitted. They are all reverses, except No. 5. The rest of the subjects are reversed, with one exception, from the copies by

in the spurious edition first printed at Cologne in 1555, with occasional very slight variations. Hollar’s copies from the original cuts are in a small degree less both in width and depth. In the subject of Death and the Soldier he has not shown his judgment in making use of the spurious edition rather than the far more elegant and interesting original,122 and it is remarkable that this is the only print belonging to the spurious ones that is not reversed.

It is very probable that Hollar executed this work at Antwerp, where, at the time of its date, he might have found Diepenbecke and engaged him to make designs for the borders which are etched on separate plates, thus supplying passe-par-touts that might be used at discretion. Many sets appear without the borders, which seem to have strayed, and perhaps to have been afterwards lost or destroyed. As Rubens is recorded to have admired the beauty of the original cuts, so it is to be supposed that Diepenbecke, his pupil, would entertain the same opinion of them, and that he might have suggested to Hollar the making etchings of them, undertaking himself to furnish appropriate borders. But how shall we account for the introduction of so many of the spurious and inferior designs, if he had the means of using the originals? Many books were formerly excessively rare, which, from peculiar circumstances, not necessary to be here detailed, but well known to bibliographers and collectors, have since become comparatively common. Hollar might not have had an opportunity of meeting with a perfect copy of the original cuts, or he might, in some way or other, have been impeded in the use of them, when executing his work, and thus have been driven to the necessity of pursuing it by means of the spurious edition. These, however, are but conjectures, and it remains for every one to adopt his own opinion.

The copper-plates of the above thirty etchings appear to have fallen into the hands of an English noble family, from which the late Mr. James Edwards, a bookseller of well merited celebrity, obtained them, and about the year 1794 caused many impressions to be taken off after they had been rebitten with great care, so as to prevent that injury, with respect to outline, which usually takes place where etchings or engravings upon copper are retouched. Previously to this event good impressions must have been extremely rare, at least on the continent, as they are not found in the very rich collections of Winckler or Brandes, nor are they mentioned by the foreign writers on engraving. To Mr. Edwards’s publication of Hollar’s prints there was prefixed a short dissertation on the Dance of Death, which is here again submitted to public attention in a considerably enlarged form, and corrected from the errors and imperfections into which its author had been misled by preceding writers on the subject, and by the paucity of the materials which he was then able to obtain. This edition was reprinted verbatim, and with the same etchings, in 1816, for J. Coxhead, in Holywell Street, Strand, but without any mention of the former, and accompanied with the addition of a brief memoir of Holbein.

It is most likely that Hollar, having discovered the error which he had committed in copying the spurious engravings before-mentioned, and subsequently procured a set of genuine impressions, resolved to make another set of etchings from the original work, four only of which he appears to have executed, his death probably taking place before they could be completed. These are, 1. The Pope crowning the Emperor, with “Moriatur sacerdos magnus.” 2. The rich man disregarding the beggar, with “Qui obturat aurem suam ad clamorem pauperis, &c.” and the four Latin lines, “Consulitis, dites, &c.” at bottom, as in the original. It is beautifully and most faithfully copied, with

inv. Hollar fecit. 3. The Ploughman, with “In sudore vultus, &c.” 4. The Robber, with “Domine vim patior.”

In Dugdale’s History of St. Paul’s, and also in the Monasticon, there is a single etching by Hollar of Death leading all ranks of people. It is only an improved copy of an old wood-cut in Lydgate’s works, already mentioned in p. 52, and which is altogether imaginary, not being taken from any real series of the Dance.

VI. “Varii e veri ritratte della morte disegnati in immagini, ed espressi in Essempii al peccatore duro di cuore, dal padre Gio. Battista Marmi della compagnia de Giesu.” Venetia, 1669, 8vo. It has several engravings, among which are the following, after the original designs. 1. Queen. 2. Nobleman. 3. Merchant. 4. Gamblers. 5. Physician. 6. Miser. The last five being close copies from the same subjects, in the Basle edit. 1769, No. V. of the copies in wood.

VII. “Theatrum mortis humanæ tripartitum. I. Pars. Saltum Mortis. II. Pars. Varia genera Mortis. III. Pars. Pænas Damnatorum continens, cum figuris æneis illustratum.” Then the same repeated in German, with the addition “Durch Joannem Weichardum Valvasor. Lib. Bar. cum facultate superiorum, et speciali privilegio Sac. Cæs. Majest. Gedrucht zu Laybach, und zu finden ben Johann Baptista Mayr, in Saltzburg. Anno 1682. 4to.” Prefixed is an engraved frontispiece representing a ruined arch, under which is a coffin, and before it the King of Terrors between two other figures of Death mounted respectively on an elephant and camel. In the foreground, Adam and Eve, tied to the forbidden tree of knowledge, between several other Deaths variously employed. Two men digging graves, &c. Underneath, “W. inven. W. excud. Jo. Koch del. And. Trost sculp. Wagenpurgi in Carniola.” It is the first part only with which we are concerned. The artist, with very little exception, has followed and reversed the spurious wood-cuts of 1555, by

. To the groups of boys he has added a Death leading them on.

VIII. “De Doodt vermaskert met des werelts ydelheyt afghedaen door Geeraerdt Van Wolschaten.” This is another edition of No. IX. of the original wood-cuts, here engraved on copper. The text is the same as that of 1654, with the addition of seven leaves, including a cut of Death leading all ranks of men. In that of the Pedler the artist has introduced some figures in the distance of the original soldier. Among other variations the costume of the time of William III. is sometimes very ludicrously adopted, especially in the frontispiece, where the author is represented writing at a desk, and near him two figures of a man in a full bottom wig, and a woman with a mask and a perpendicular cap in several stories, usually called a Fontange, both having skeleton faces. At bottom, the mark

. This edition was printed at Antwerp by Jan Baptist Jacobs, without date, but the privilege has that of 1698. 12mo.

IX. “Imagines Mortis, or the Dead Dance of Hans Holbeyn, painter of King Henry the VIII.” This title is on a copper-plate within a border, and accompanied with nineteen etchings on copper, by Nieuhoff Piccard, a person who will be more particularly adverted to hereafter. They consist of, 1. The emblem of Mortality. 2. The temptation. 3. The expulsion from Paradise. 4. Adam digging, Eve spinning. 5. Concert of Deaths. 6. The Infant. 7. The new married couple. 8. The Duke. 9. The Advocate. 10. The Abbot. 11. The Monk. 12. The Abbess. 13. The Soldier. 14. The Merchant. 15. The Pedler. 16. The Fool. 17. The Blind Man. 18. The Old Woman. 19. The Old Man. The designs, with some occasional variations, correspond with those in the original wood-cuts. The plates of these etchings must have passed into the hands of some English printsellers, as broken sets of them have not long since been seen, one only of which, namely, that of the Temptation, had these lines on it:

“All that e’er had breathMust dance after Death.”

with the date 1720. Several were then numbered at bottom with Arabic numerals.

X. “Schau-platz des Todes, oder Todten Tanz, von Sal. Van Rusting Med. Doct. in Nieder-Teutscher-Spracke nun aber in Hoch Teutscher mit nothigen Anmerchungen heraus gegeben von Johann Georg. Meintel Hochfurstl Brandenburg-Onoltzbachischen pfarrer zu Petersaurach.” Nurnberg, 1736. 8vo. Or, “The Theatre of Death, or Dance of Death, by Sol. Van Rusting, doctor of medicine, in Low German language, but now in High German, with necessary notes by John George Meintel in the service of his Serene Highness of Brandenburg, and parson of Petersaurach.” It is said to have been originally published in 1707, which is very probable, as Rusting, of whom very little is recorded, was born about 1650. In the early part of his life he practised as an army surgeon. He was a great admirer and follower of the doctrines of Balthasar Bekker in his “Monde enchanté.” There are editions in Dutch only, 1735 and 1741. 12mo. the plates being copies. In the above-mentioned edition by Meintel there is an elaborate preface, with some account of the Dance of Death, and its editions, but replete with the grossest errors, into which he has been misled by Hilscher, and some other writers. His text is accompanied with a profusion of notes altogether of a pious and moral nature.