The Dance of Death 217

The identification of William Benting must be left tothe sagacity of others. He could not have been the Earlof Portland created in 1689, or he would have beenaddressed accordingly. He is, moreover, described as ayouth born at Whitehall, and then residing there, andwhose dwelling consisted of nearly the whole of the palacethat remained after the fire.

Again,—We have before us a person living in the palaceof Whitehall anterior to its destruction, testifying what hehad himself seen, and addressing one who could not beimposed upon, as residing also in the palace. There seemsto be no possible motive on the part of NieuhofT for statingan untruth, and his most clear and unimpeachable tes-timony is opposed by Hegner's wild and weak conjectures,and chiefly by the negative argument that a few strangerswho visited England in a hasty manner have not mentionedthe painting in question at Whitehall, amidst those inac-curate and superficial accounts of England which, withlittle exception, have been given by foreign travellers.Among these Hegner has selected Patin and Sandrart.Before adducing the former, he would have done well tohave looked at his very imperfect and erroneous account ofHolbein's works, in his edition of the MfiPIA^ ErKOMIONof Erasmus ; and, with respect to the latter, the stamp ofinaccuracy has been long affixed to most of the works hehas published. He has mentioned, that being in companywith Rubens in a Dutch passage-boat "the conversationfell upon Holbein's book of cuts, representing the Danceof Death ; that Rubens gave them the highest encomiums,advising him, who was then a young man, to set the highestvalue upon them, informing him, at the same time, that hein his youth had copied them." 1 On this passage Mr.Warton has well remarked that if Rubens styled these printsHolbein's, in familiar conversation, it was but calling themby the name which the world had given them, and by whichthey were generally known; and that Sandrart has, inanother place, confounded them with the Basle painting. 2

To conclude,—Juvenal's "hoc volo, sic jubeo, sit proratione voluntas," may be regarded as Herr Hegner's

1 Sandrart, Acad. Pict. p. 241. 2 Obs. on Spenser, II. 117, n3, irg.