THE DANCE OF DEATH.

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some inl-and in

at Antwerp, where this artist worked, entitled," Doodt vermaskert, or Death masked/' accom-panied with eighteen cuts of the Dance of Death,which in the title page are ascribed to Holbein.They are all, except three, impressions from theidentical blocks of the beautiful and original cutsof this subject; but the above-mentioned artist hashad the effrontery to put his mark, together withthe figure of a graving tool or knife, upon severalof them. It is, however, possible that he mighthave repaired them, as some of the smaller lines,which in former impressions seem to have beeninjured, are here much stronger.

It might be tedious to describe all the imita-tions of the Dance of Death which have appearedat different times, as they are exceedingly nume-rous; but it would be unpardonable not to noticean alphabet of initial letters with this subject,which for humour, and excellence of design, areeven superior to the celebrated one; and with re-spect to execution, especially when their minute-ness is considered, being less than an inch square,absolutely wonderful. Their composition is en-tirely different from that of any of the others, andone of them is extremely indecent. They appearto have been done at Basil; for in the publiclibrary there is preserved a sheet, whereon areprinted three alphabets, viz. the one above-men-tioned, another of boys at play, and the third, adance of peasants, &c. The designs of some ofthe last are the same as those in a similar Dance