i88

TJie Dance of Death.

leaning on a table, on which little imps are dancing. Atbottom, " Marks fecit." Oblong, 4 by 3.

An anonymous modern wood-cut of Death seizing ausurer, over whom another Death is throwing a counterpane.Square, 4 by 4.

An etching, entitled " The Last Drop." A fa.t citizendraining a punch-bowl. Death behind is about to strikehim with his dart. Upright, 8-±- by 6\.

In an elegant series of prints, illustrative of the poeticalworks of Gothe, there is a poem of seven stanzas, entitled" Der Todtentanz,*' where the embellishment representsa churchyard, in which several groups of skeletons areintroduced, some of them rising, or just raised, from theirgraves ; others in the attitude of dancing together or pre-paring for a dance. These prints are beautifully etched inoutline in the manner of the drawings in the margins ofAlbert Diirer's Prayer-book in the library of Munich.

Prefixed to a poem by Edward Quillinan, in a volume ofwood-cuts used at the press of Lee Priory, the seat of SirEgerton Brydges, entitled " Death to Doctor Quackery,"there is an elegant wood-cut, representing Death hob-and-nobbing with the Doctor at a table.

In the same volume is another wood-cut on the subjectof a dance given by the Lord of Death in Clifton Halls.A motley group of various characters are dancing in a circlewhilst Death plays the fiddle.

In 1832 was published at Paris " La Danse des Morts,ballade de'diee a Madame la Comtesse de Tryon Mont-alembert. Paroles et Musique de P. Merruau." Thesubject is as follows :—A girl named Lise is admonished byher mother not to dance on a Saturday, the day on whichSatan calls the dead to the infernal Sabbat. She promisesobedience, but whilst her mother is napping, escapes to theball. She forgets the midnight hour, when a company ofdamned souls, led by Satan, enter the ball-room hand-in-hand, exclaiming, " Make way for Death. 1 ' All the partyescape, except Lise, who suddenly finds herself encircled byskeletons, who continue dancing round her. From thattime, on every Saturday at midnight, there is heard under-ground, in the churchyard, the lamentation of a soul forciblydetained, and exclaiming, " G^rls, beware of dancing Satan i"