12(5

The Dance of Death.

as no other remains whatever have been left of that onceso famous court of King Henry VIII. built by Cardina,Wolsey, than your own dwelling."

He then repeats the story of Philip of Macedon, and theaccount of the subjects of his etchings.

At the end of this dedication there is a fragment ofanother, the beginning of which is lost. The followingpassages only in it are worthy of notice :—" The residenceof King William." "I flatter myself with a familiar ac-quaintance with Death, since I have already lived longenough to seem to be buried alive," &c. In other respects,the same, in substance, as the preceding.

It is almost needless to advert to M. Nieuhoff Piccard'smistake in asserting that Holbein made the engravingswhich he copied j but it would have been of someimportance if, instead of his pious ejaculations, he haddescribed all the subjects that Holbein painted on the wallsof the galleries at Whitehall. He must have used someedition of the wood-cuts posterior to that of 1545, whichdid not contain the subjects of the German Soldier, theFool, and the Blind Man, all of which he has introduced.It is possible, however, that he has given us all the subjectsthat were then remaining, the rest having become decayedor obliterated from dampness and neglect, and even thosewhich then existed would soon afterwards perish when theremains of the old palace were removed. His copies areby no means faithful, and seem to be rather the productionof an amateur than of a regular artist. For his greaterconvenience, he appears to have preferred using the woodengravings instead of the paintings; and it is greatly to beregretted that we have no better or further account of them,especially of the time at which they were executed. Thelives of Holbein that we possess are uniformly defective inchronological arrangement. There seems to be a doubtwhether the Earl of Arundel recommended him to visitEngland ; but certain it is that in the year 1526 he cameto London with a letter of that date addressed by Erasmusto Sir Thomas More, accompanied with his portrait, withwhich More was so well satisfied that he retained him athis house at Chelsea upwards of two years, until Henry