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The Dance of Death.

given his flates to other persons to be published, addingthat he had since redeemed and retouched them. He saysthis Dance was repaired in 1568 by Hans Hugo Klauber, acitizen of Basle, a fact also recorded on the cut of thepainter himself, his wife, Barbara Hallerin, and his son,Hans Birich, by the before-named artist, G. S., and that itcontained the portraits of Pope Felix V., the EmperorSigismund, and Albert, King of the Romans, all of whomassisted at the Council of Basle in the middle of the 15thcentury, when the painting was probably executed.

A greatly altered and modernised edition of Merian'swork was published in 1778, 8vo., with the following title," La Danse des Morts pour servir de miroir a la naturehumaine, avec le costume dessine a la moderne, et des versa chaques figures. Au Locle, chez S. Giradet, libraire."This is on an engraved frontispiece, copied from that inMerian. The letter-press is extracted from the Frenchtranslation of Merian, and the plates, which are neatlyetched, agree as to general design with his ; but the dressesof many of the characters are rather ludicrously modern-ised. Some moral pieces are added to this edition, andparticularly an old and popular treatise, composed in 1593,entitled " L'Art de bien vivre et de bien mourir."

A Dance of Death is recorded with the following title," Todtentantz durch alle Stande der Menschen," Leipsig,durch David de Necker, formschneider, 1572,4to. 25 Whether*his be a copy of the Basle or the Berne painting must bedecided on inspection, or it may possibly be a later editionof the copy of the wood-cuts of Lyons, that will be men-tioned hereafter.

In the little Basle, on the opposite side of the Rhine,there was a nunnery called Klingenthal, erected towards theend of the 13th century. In an old cloister belonging toit, there are the remains of a Dance of Death painted onits walls, and said to have been much ruder in executionthan that in the Dominican cemetery at Basle. On thispainting there was the date 1312. In the year 1766, oneEmmanuel Ruchel, a baker by trade, but an enthusiasticadmirer of the fine arts, made a copy in water colours of

25 Heller Geschiche der holtzchein kunst. Bamberg, 1823, ismo.p. ii6<