THE DANCE OF DEATH.

31

; engravedhave beenthese opi-lar's printshe cuts asree excep-eady men-555, withlave eitherm cuts, or11; for his]y suffereditever theyre not cor-

in 1651kiepenbeke,i this latter^veryprint,t/' as ap-

ame variationsthe edition ofchings; a cir->t were all co-been the work>e attributed,the Dance ofhumanse," byrders of fruit,an uncommon

pears from some other of Hollar's prints, whichhave upon them these words at length. No pane-gyric is here wanting upon the works of this ad-mirable artist; they are sufficiently known andesteemed by every collector of taste, and particu-larly his Dance of Death. The plates, which ap-pear to have been but little used, have been tilllately preserved in a noble family, and impressionsfrom them are once more presented to the public,without the least alteration*.

Vertue, in his description of Hollar's works,mentions that he engraved a reverse of the firstprint, an additional one without a border, repre*senting the rich man disregarding the prayers of thepoor; and three others from the set after Holbein,with four Latin verses at bottom. He also en-graved the six first letters of the alphabet,adorned with small figures of a Death's Dance,and one large plate of the same subject for Dug-dale's St. Paul's, and the Monasticon ; but thislast plate is only a copy from an old wooden cutprefixed to Lydgate's Dance of Macaber, at theend of his Fall of Princes, printed by Tottell in1554, and was not intended to represent the Danceof Death at St. Paul's, as Mr. Warton has sup-posedf, but only as an emblematical frontispieceto the verses.

* In the present edition, however, it was found requisite thatthe plates should be retouched, and it has been done with theutmost attention to the preservation of their original spirit andcharacter.

t Observ. on Spencer, vol. ii. 117.