CHAPTER III.

Macaber not a German or any other poet\ but a nonenity. —Corruption and confusion respecting this word. — Etymolo-gical errors concerning it. — How connected with the Dance.— Trois mors et trots vifs. — Orgagnds painting i?i theCampo Santo at Pisa. — Its connexion with the trois morset trois vifs, as well as with the Macaber dance. — SaintMacarius the real Macaber. — Paintings of this dance invarious places. — At Minden; Churchyard of the Innocentsat Paris; Dijon; Basle; Klingenthal; Lubeck; Leipsic;Anneberg; Dresden; Erfurt; Nuremberg; Berne; lu-cerne; Amiens; Rouen; Eescamp; Bio is; Strasburg;Berlin; Vien?ia; in Holland; Italy; Spain.

E will now proceed to consider theorigin of the name of Macaber, as con-nected with the Dance of Death, eitheras respects the verses that have usuallyaccompanied it, or the paintings andrepresentations of the Dance itself; andfirst of the verses.

It may, without much hazard, bemaintained that, notwithstanding these have been ascribedto a German poet called Macaber, there never was a Ger-man, or any poet whatever bearing such a name. The firstmention of him appears to have been in a French editionof the Danse Macabre, with the following title, " Choreaab eximio Macabro versibus Alemannicis edito, et a, PetroDesrey emendata. Parisiis per Magistrum GuidonemMercatorem pro Godefrido de Marnef. 1490, folio."