The Dance of Death. si

Sed retrospectans post terga, papse audio quidnam ?Me tuba terrificans mortis vocat. Heu moriendum est

PERORATIO.

Mortales igitur memores modo vivite lsetiInstar venturi furis, discrimine nulloCunctos rapturi passim ditesque inopesque.Stultus 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 cceli.Quo nos a fatis ducat rex Juppiter, Amen.

Plaudite nunc, animum cuncti retinete faventes.

FINIS.

Antwerpias apud Michaelem Hillenium M. D. xxxiiii. Mense Maio.

A very early allusion to the Dance of Death occurs in aLatin poem, that seems to have been composed in thetwelfth century by our celebrated countryman Walter deMapes, as it is found among other pieces that carry withthem strong marks of his authorship. It is entitled" Lamentacio et deploracio pro Morte et consilium devivente Deo." 1 In its construction there is a strikingresemblance to the common metrical stanzas that accom-pany the Macaber Dance. Many characters, commencingwith that of the Pope, are introduced, all of whom bewailthe uncontrollable influence of Death. This is a specimenof the work, extracted from two manuscripts :

Cum mortem meditor nescit mihi causa doloris,Nam cunctis horis mors venit ecce cito.Pauperis et regis communis lex moriendi,Dat causam flendi si bene scripta leges.Gustato porno missus transit sine morteHeu missa sorte labitur omnis homo.

Vado mori Papa qui jussu regna

subegiMors mihi regna tulit eccine vado

mori.

Vado mori, Rex sum, quod honor,

quod gloria regum,Est via mors hominis regia vado

mori.

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

In Sanchez's collection of Spanish poetry before theyear 1400, 2 mention is made of a Rabbi Santo as a good1 Bibl. Reg. 8 B. vi. Lansd. MS. 397. 2 Madrid, 1779, 8vo. p. 179.