38

The Dance of Death,

at Dresden. 29 This is described in a German work writtenon the subject generally, by Paul Christian Hilscher, andpublished at Dresden, 1705, 8vo., and again at Bautzen,17 21, 8vo. It consisted of a long frieze sculptured instone on the front of the building, containing twenty-seven figures. A view of this very curious structure,with the Dance itself, and also on a separate print, ona larger scale, varying considerably from the usual modeof representing the Macaber Dance, is given in AnthonyWecken's Chronicle of Dresden, printed in German atDresden. 1680, folio. It is said to have been removed in17 21 to the churchyard of Old Dresden.

Nicolai Karamsin has given a very brief but ludicrousaccount of a Dance of Death in the cross aisle of theOrphan House at Erfurth ; 30 but Peignot places it in theconvent of the Augustins, and seems to say that it waspainted on the panels between the windows of the cellinhabited by Luther. 31 In all probability the same place isintended by both these writers.

There is some reason to suppose that there was a Danceof Death at Nuremberg. Misson, describing a wedding inthat city, states that the bridegroom and his company satdown on one side of the church and the bride on the other.Over each of their heads was a figure of Death upon thewall. This would seem very like a Dance of Death, if thecircumstance of the figure being on both sides of thechurch did not excite a doubt on the subject.

Whether there ever was a Macaber Dance at Berne ofequal antiquity with that of Basle has not been ascertained :but Sandrart, in his article for Nicholas Manuel Deutch, acelebrated painter at Berne, in the beginning of the 16thcentury, has recorded a Dance of Death painted by him inoil, and regrets that a work materially contributing to thecelebrity of that city had been so extremely neglected thathe had only been able to lay before the readers the follow-ing German rhymes which had been inscribed on it:

Manuel aller welt figur,

Hastu gemahlt uf diese mur

Nu must sterben da, hilft kun fund:

Bist nit sicher minut noch stund

M Biblioth. Med. et inf. setat. v. 2. *° Travels, i.195. 31 Rech, xlii.

That: