The Dance of Death.
201
visage. It is executed in a masterly manner. Diameter,4 inches. In the author's possession.
In Boxgrove Church, Sussex, there is a splendid andelaborately sculptured monument of the Lords Delawarr;and on the side which has not been engraved in Mr.Dallaway's history of the county, there are two figures ofDeath and a female, wholly unconnected with the othersubjects on the tomb. These figures are 9^ inches in height,and of rude design. Many persons will probably re-member to have seen among the ballads, &c. that wereformerly, and are still exhibited on some walls in themetropolis, a poem, entitled " Death and the Lady." Thisis usually accompanied with a wood-cut, resembling theabove figures. It is proper to mention likewise on thisoccasion the old alliterative poem in Bishop Percy's famousmanuscript, entitled Death and Liffe, the subject ofwhich is a vision wherein the poet sees a contest forsuperiority between " our Lady Dame Life," and the " uglyfiend, Dame Death.'" See Percy's "Reliques of AncientEnglish Poetry," in the " Essay on the Metre of Piers Plow-man's Vision." Whether there may have been any con-nexion between these respective subjects must be left tothe decision of others. There is certainly some reason tosuppose so.
The sculptures at Berlin and Fescamp have been alreadydescribed.
Among the subjects of tapestry at the Tower of London,the most ancient residence of our kings, was " The Danceof Macabre." See the inventory of King Henry VIII.'sGuardrobe, &c. in MS. Harl. 1419, fol. 5.
Two panes of glass with a portion of a Dance of Death.
1. Three Deaths, that appear to have been placed at' thebeginning of the Dance. Over them, in a character of thetime of Henry VII. these lines :—
------ev'ry man to be contented w* his chaunce,
And when it shall please God to folowe my daunce.
2. Death and the Pope. No verses. Size, upright, 8| by7 inches. In the author's possession. They have probablybelonged to a Macaber Dance in the windows of somechurch.
\ I