The Dance of Death: Exhibited in Elegant Engravings on Wood with a Dissertation on the Several Representations of that Subject but More Particularly on Those Ascribed to Macaber and Hans HolbeinDouce, Francis
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The Dance of Death: Exhibited in Elegant Engravings on Wood with a Dissertation on the Several Representations of that Subject but More Particularly on Those Ascribed to Macaber and Hans Holbein
Douce, Francis
Bible. Old Testament -- Illustrations; Dance of death
XII. "The Dance of Death;" a single sheet, engraved on copper, with the
following figures. In the middle, Death leading the king; the beggar hand
in hand with the king; Death leading the old man, followed by a child; the
fool; the wise man, as an astrologer, led by Death. On the spectator's
left hand, Death bringing a man before a judge; with the motto, "The
greatest judge that sits in honour's seat, must come to grave, where't
boots not to intreate." A man and woman in a brothel, Death behind; with
the motto, "Leave, wanton youth, thou must no longer stay; if once I call
all mortals must obey." On the opposite side, the Miser and Death; the
motto, "Come, worldling, come, gold hath no power to save, leave it thou
shalt, and dance with me to grave." Death and the Prisoner; the motto,
"Prisoner arise, ile ease thy fetterd feet, and now betake thee to thy
winding sheet." In the middle of the print sits a minstrel on a stool
formed of bones placed on a coffin with a pick-axe and spade. He plays on
a tabor and pipe; with this motto, "Sickness, despaire, sword, famine,
sudden death, all these do serve as minstrells unto Death; the beggar,
king, fool, and profound, courtier and clown all dance this round." Under
the above figures is a poem of sixty-six lines on the power of Death,
beginning thus:
Yea, Adam's brood and earthly wights which breath now on the earth,
Come dance this dance, and mark the song of this most mighty Death.
Full well my power is known and seen in all the world about,
When I do strike of force do yeeld both noble, wise, and stout, &c.
Printed cullored and sould by R. Walton at the Globe and Compasses at the
West end of St. Paules church turning down towards Ludgate.
XIII. A large anonymous German engraving on copper, in folio. In the
middle is a circular Dance of Death, with nine females, from the Empress
to the Fool. In the four corners, two persons kneeling before a crucifix;
saints in heaven; the temptation; and the infernal regions. At top, a
frame with these verses:
Vulneris en nostri certam solamque medelam
En data divina præmia larga manu.
Der Todt Christi Zunicht hat gmacht
Den Todt und Sleben wider bracht.
At bottom in a similar frame:
Per unius peccatum Mors intravit in mundum.
Den Todt und ewig hellisch pein
Hat veruhr sagt die Sund allein.
This is within a broad frame, containing a Dance of Death, in twelve
ovals. The names of the characters are in German: 1. The Pope. 2. Emperor.
3. King. 4. Cardinal. 5. Bishop. 6. Duke. 7. Earl. 8. Gentleman. 9.
Citizen. 10. Peasant. 11. Soldier and Beggar. 12. Fool and Child. Under
each subject is an appropriate inscription in Latin and German. In the
middle at top, a Death's head and bones, an hour-glass and a dial. In the
middle at bottom, a lamp burning on a Death's head, and a pot of holy
water with an aspergillum. On the sides, in the middle, funereal
implements.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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