The Dance of Death.

53

28. "La grande Danse Macabre des hommes et liesfemmes, renouvellee, &c. Troyes, chez la veuve Oudot, etJean Oudot fils, rue du Temple, 1729," 4to. cuts. Nearlythe same as No. 26.

These inferior editions continued, till very lately, to beoccasionally reprinted for the use of the common people,and at the trifling expense of a very few sous. They are,nevertheless, of some value to those who feel interested inthe subject, as containing tolerable copies of all the finecuts in the preceding edition, No. 11.

Dr. Dibdin saw in the public library at Munich a veryold series of a Macaber Dance, that had been inserted, byway of illustration, into a German manuscript of the Danceof Death. Of these he has given two subjects in his"Bibliographical Tour," vol. iii. p. 278.

But it was not only in the above volumes that the verypopular subject of the Macaber Dance was particularly exhi-bited. It found its way into many of the beautiful servicebooks, usually denominated Horae, or hours of the Virgin.These principally belong to France, and their margins arefrequently decorated with the above Dance, with occasionalvariety of design. In most of them Death is accompaniedwith a single figure only, characters from both sexes beingintroduced. It would be impossible to furnish a completelist of them; but it is presumed that the mention of several,and of the printers who introduced them, will not beunacceptable.

No. I. " Las Horas de nuestra Senora con muchos otrosoficios y oraciones." Printed in Paris by Nicolas Higmanfor Simon Vostre, 1495, 8vo. It has two Dances of Death,the first of which is the usual Macaber Dance, with thefollowing figures : Le Pape, l'Empereur, le Cardinal,l'Archevesque, le Chevalier, l'Evesque, l'Escuyer, l'Abe, lePrevost, le Roy, le Patriarche, le Connestable, 1'Astrolo.gien,le Bourgoys, le Chanoine, le Moyne, l'Usurier, le Medesin,l'Amoureux, l'Advocat, le Menestrier, le Marchant, le Char-treux, le Sergent, le Cure, le Laboureur, le Cordelier."Then the women : " La Royne, la Duchesse, la Regente,la Chevaliere, l'Abbesse, la Femme descine, la Prieure, laJOamoissele, la Bourgoise, la Cordeliere, la Femme daceul,la Nourice, la Theologienne, la nouvelle mariee, la Femme