204 The Dance of Death.

In a manuscript collection of unpublished aid chieflypious poems of John Awdeley, a blind poet and canon ofthe monastery of Haghmon, in Shropshire, anno 1426,there is one on the " Trots vifs et trots morts" in alliterativeverses, and composed in a very grand and terrific style.

NEGRO FIGURE OF DEATH.

In some degree connected with the old painting of theMacaber Dance in the churchyard of the Innocents atParis, was that of a black man over a vaulted roof, con-structed by the celebrated N. Flamel, about the year 1390.This is supposed to have perished with the Danse Macabre;but a copy of the figure has been preserved in some of theprinted editions of the Dance. It exhibits a Negro blowinga trumpet, and was certainly intended as a personificationof Death. In one of the oldest of the above editions heis accompanied with these verses :—

Cry de Mort.

Tost, tost, tost, que chacun savanceMain a main venir a la danseDe Mort, danser la convient,Tous et a plusieurs nen souvient.Venez hommes femmes et enfans,Teunes et vieulx, petis et grans,Ung tout seul nen eschapperoit,Pour mille escuz si les donnoit, &c.

Before the females in the Dance the figure is repeated, witha second " Cry de Mort:"—

Tost, tost, venez femmes danserApres les hommes incontinents,Et gardez vous bien de verser,Car vous danserez vrayment;Mon cornet corne bien souventApres les petis et les grans.Despecte vous legierement,Apres la pluye vient le beau temps.

These lines are differently given in the various printedcopies of the Danse Macabre.

This figure is not to be confounded with an alabasterstatue of Death that remained in the churchyard of the