H

THE DANCE OF DEATH.

Learned and lewde, he ne let no man stande ;That he hitte even, he never stood after."

This may refer to the Morality play, but that it is connectedwith the painted Dances (which may have followed a usual orderin the processional figures) may be considered fairly certain, ifonly from a consideration, say, of the Dance atLubeck, in which aKing, a Kaiser and the rest, are shewn to head the long line, andhave those names inscribed below each respectively. It is, perhaps,to be questioned whether the German verses,* known as theMachabre or Dance of Macaber, be not older than the allusion inthe Vision of Piers Plowman. These verses, by whomever com-posed, were translated into various languages, our English versionbeing by none less than John Lydgate, who, however, had themsecondhand from some French verses accompanying, as was com-monly the case, a Dance of Death, at St. Innocent's, Paris.

The earliest painting of the Dance of Death is said to be thatat Basil, though it is probable that many of which we haveinformation are as old. Doubtless nearly every church of import-ance in the fifteenth century, and many in the latter part of thefourteenth, had the Dance among their frescoes. The Germanand Swiss bridges, so often, too, the site of religious buildings,were decorated with the representation ; an example is upon thePont des Moulins leading into Lucerne, where is a fine Dance,restored within the last few years.

There are accounts of paintings of the Dance in numerouschurches. That at Basil, by an artist unknown, is said have beenpainted in 1431, during a plague; it was at the Dominican

• It is odd to find these verses attributed to a German poet of the name of Macaber! thoughwith the remark " of this person very little is known" Suggestions foi the derivation of theword are " hiacarius," an Egyptam Saint; "Magabir" Arabic for a churchyard; and the

German " Macht-haber," a lord, (possessor of might). The French call the Dance ChoreaMachabaeorum, Chorea Macrorum, or, " Danse de Maigres"; the wotd nay be read as asynonym for l)t ath.

'