The Dance of Death.

99

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sheets, one of which has at the bottom, "In Venetia-,mdlxviii. Fra. Valerio Faenzi Inquis. Apreso Luca Bertelli."So that they required a licence from the Inquisition.

II. In the absence of any other Italian editions of the" Simolachri," it is necessary to mention that twenty-four ofthe last-mentioned cuts were introduced in a work ofextreme rarity, and which has escaped the notice of biblio-graphers, entitled "Discorsi Morali dell' eccell. Sig. FabfoGlissenti contra il dispiacer del morire. Detto Athana-tophilia Venetia, 1609." 4to. These twenty-four wereprobably all that then remained; and five others ofsubjects belonging also to the "Simolachri," are insertedin this work, but very badly imitated, and two of themreversed. In the subject of the Pope there is in theoriginal a brace of grotesque devils, one of which iscompletely erased in Glissenti, and a plug inserted wherethe other had been scooped out. A similar rasure of adevil occurs in the subject of the two rich men in conver-sation, the demon blowing with a bellows into his ear,whilst a poor beggar in vain touches him to be heard.Besides these cuts, Glissenti's work is ornamented witha great number of others, connected in some way or otherwith the subject of Death, which the author discusses inalmost every possible variety of manner. He appears tohave been a physician, and an exceedingly pious man.His portrait is prefixed to every division of the work,which consists of five dialogues.

There is another work by Glissenti, entitled " La Morteinnamorata." Venet. 1608, 241210. with a dedication toSir Henry Wotton, the English ambassador at Venice, byElisabetta' Glissenti Serenella, the author's niece ; in which,after stating that Sir Henry had seen it represented, sheadds, that she had ventured to have it printed for thepurpose of offering it to him as a very humble donation,&c. It is a moral, dramatic, and allegorical fable of fiveacts, in which Man, to avoid Death, who has fallen in lovewith him, retires with his family to the country of Long Life,where he takes up his abode in the house of the World, bywhom and his wife Fraud, who is in strict friendship withFortune, he is apparently made much of, and calculateson being very happy. Death follows the Man, and being

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