The Dance of Death. 211

was not born till 1498 !); that this Dance resembled theDanse Macabre, all the characters of which are in Holbein'sstyle; that it is still more like the Dance in the "MonasticonAnglicanum" in a single print ; and that the English Dancebelongs to John Porey, an author who appears, however, to beunknown to all biographers. We should have been obligedto M. Figeac if he had mentioned where he met with thisJohn Porey, whom he again mentions, but in such a manneras to leave a doubt whether he means to consider himas a poet or a painter. Even M. Millin himself, fromwhom more accuracy might have been expected, speaksof Holbein's work as at the Dominican convent at Basle.

The "Nouveau Dictionnaire Historique," 1789, 8vo.gives the painting on the walls of the cemetery of St.Peter at Basle, to Holbein, confounding the two works assome other French biographical dictionaries have done,especially one that has cited an edition of the DanseMacabre in i486 as the first of Holbein's painting, thoughit immediately afterwards states that artist to have beenborn in 1498.

In that excellent work, the " Biographie Universelle," in42 vols. 8vo. 1811—1828, M. Ponce, under the article" Holbein," inaccurately refers to " the Dance of Deathpainted in 1543 on the walls of a cemetery at Basle;' atthe same time properly remarking that it was not Holbein's.He refers to the supposed original drawings of Holbein'swork at Petersburg that were engraved by De Mechel, andconcludes his brief note with a reference to a dissertationof M. Raymond in Millin's "Magasin encyclopedique,"1814, torn. v. which is nothing more than a simple noticeof two editions of the Danse Macabre, described in thepresent dissertation.

There is likewise in the u Biographie Universelle' anarticle entitled " Macaber, poete Allemand," by M. Weiss,and it is to be regretted that a writer whose learning andresearch are so eminently conspicuous in many of thebest lives in the work, should have permitted himself tobe misled in much that he has said, by the errors ofChampollion Figeac in the " Magasin encyclopedique."He certainly doubts the existence of Macaber as a writer,but inclines to M. Van Praet's Arabic Magbarah. He