210

l^he Dance of Death.

x. p. 436, has erroneously stated that the Lyons engravingson wood were by the celebrated artist Salomon Bernard,usually called " Le petit Bernard." The mistake is verypardonable, as it appears that Bernard chiefly worked inthe above city.

M. Compan, in his " Dictionnaire de Danse," 1787,i2mo. under the article Macabree, very gravely assertsthat the author took his work from the Maccabees, "qui,comme tout le monde scait, danserent, et en ont fait epoquepour les morts." He then quotes some lines from a modernedition of the Danse Macabre, where the word Machabeesis ignorantly substituted for " Machabre."

M. Fournier states that Holbein painted a Dance oiDeath in the fish-market at Basle, reduced it, and engravedit. "Dissertation sur rimprimerie," p. 70.

Mr. Warton has converted the imaginary Machabreeinto a French poet\ but corrects himself in his "History ofEnglish Poetry." He supposes the single cut in Lydgate torepresent all the figures that were in St. Paul's cloister.He atones for these errors in referring to Holbein's cuts inCranmer's Catechism, as entirely different in style fromthose published at Lyons, but which he thinks are probablythe work of Albert Durer, and also in his conjecture thatthe. painter Reperdius might have been concerned in thelatter. See "Observations on the Fairy Queen of Spenser,"vol. ii. p. 116, &c. In his most elegant and instructive" History of English Poetry" he relapses into error when hestates that Holbein painted a Dance of Death in theAugustine monastery at Basle in 1543, and that GeorgiusiEmylius published this Dance at Lyons, 1542, one yearbefore Holbein's painting at Basle appeared. " History ofEnglish Poetry," vol. ii. p. 364, edit. Price.

The Marquis de Paulmy ascribes the old Macaber Danceat Basle to Holbein, and adds, "le sujet et l'execution ensont aussi singuliers que ridicules." " Melanges tires d'unegrande bibliotheque," torn. Ff. 371.

M. Champollion Figeac in Millin's " Magasin encyclope-dique," 1811, torn. vi. has an article on an edition of the"Danse Macabre anterieure a celle de i486." In thisarticle he states that Holbein painted a fresco Dance ofDeath at Basle near the end of the 15th century (Holbein