CHAPTER XVI
Paintings. – Drawings. – Miscellaneous
Rene of Anjou is said to have painted a sort of Death’s Dance at Avignon, which was destroyed in the French revolution.
In one of the wardrobe accounts of Henry VIII. a picture at Westminster is thus described: “Item, a table with the picture of a woman playing upon a lute, and an old manne holding a glasse in th’ one hande and a deadde mannes headde in th’ other hande.” MS. Harl. No. 1419.
A round painting in oil, by or from Hans Holbein. The subject, an old man making love to a young girl. Death pulling him back, hints at the consequences, whilst the absurdity is manifested by the presence of a fool, with cockscomb and bauble, on the other side. Diameter, 15 inches. From the striking resemblance in the features of the old lover to those of Erasmus, there is no doubt that Holbein intended by this group to retort upon his friend, who, on one of the drawings which Holbein had inserted in a copy of Erasmus’s Praise of Folly, now in the public library at Basle, and which represented a fat epicure at table embracing a wench, had written the name of Holbein, in allusion to his well-known intemperance. In the present writer’s possession.
The small painting by Isaac Oliver, from Holbein, formerly at Whitehall, of Death with a green garland, &c. already more particularly described at p. 145.
A small painting in oil, by Old Franks, of a gouty old miser startled at the unexpected appearance of Death, who approaches him playing on a violin, one of his feet resting on an hour-glass. In the distance, and in another room, Death is seen in conversation with a sitting gentleman. Upright, 7½ by 5½.
The same subject, painted in oil by Otho Vænius, in which a guitar is substituted for the violin. This picture was in the collection of Richard Cosway, Esquire. Upright, 12 by 6, and is now belonging to the present writer.
A Mr. Knowles, a modern artist, is said to have painted a miser counting his hoard, and Death putting an extinguisher over him.
At p. 460 of the memoirs of that most ingenious artist, Charles Alfred Stothard, by his widow, mention is made of an old picture, at Nettlecombe Hall, Somersetshire, belonging to its owner, a clergyman, of a Dance of Death.
Mr. Tyssen, a bookseller at Bristol, is said to possess a will of the 15th century, in which the testator bequeaths a painting of the Dance of Death.
DRAWINGS
In a beautifully illuminated Psalter, supposed to have been made for Richard II. and preserved among the Cotton MSS. Domit. xvii. is a very singular painting, representing part of the choir of a cathedral, with ten monks sitting in their stalls, and chaunting the service. At the top of these stalls, and behind it, are five grotesque Deaths looking down on the monks. One of the Deaths has a cardinal’s hat, two have baronial crowns on their heads, and those of the remaining two are decorated with a sort of imperial crowns, shaped like the papal tiara. A priest celebrates mass at the altar, before which another priest or monk prostrates himself. What the object of the painter was in the introduction of these singular figures of Death is difficult to comprehend.
In the manuscript and illuminated copies of the “Romance of the Rose,” the “Pelerin de la vie humaine” and the “Chevalier Deliberé,” representations of Death as Atropos, are introduced.
A very ancient and masterly drawing of Death and the beggar, the outlines black on a blue ground, tinted with white and red. The figures 
at bottom indicate its having been part of a Macaber Dance. Upright, 5¼ by 4. In the author’s possession.
Sir Thomas Lawrence had four very small drawings by Callot that seemed to be part of an intended series of a Dance of Death. 1. Death and the bishop. 2. Death and the soldier. 3. Death and the fool. 4. Death and the old woman.
An extremely fine drawing by Rembrandt of four Deaths, their hands joined in a dance, their faces outwards. One has a then fashionable female cap on his head, and another a cap and feather. Upright, 9½ by 6½. In the author’s possession.
A very singular drawing in pen and ink and bistre. In the middle, a sitting figure of a naked man holding a spindle, whilst an old woman, leaning over a tub on a bench, cuts the thread which he has drawn out. Near the old woman Death peeps in behind a wall. Close to the bench is a woman sitting on the ground mending a piece of linen, a child leaning on her shoulder. On the other side is a sitting female weaving, and another woman in an upright posture, and stretching one of her hands towards a shelf. Oblong, 11¼ by 8. In the author’s possession.
An anonymous drawing in pen and ink of a Death embracing a naked woman. His companion is mounted on the back of another naked female, and holds a dart in each hand. Oblong, 4 by 3¼. In the author’s possession.
A single sheet, containing four subjects, skilfully drawn with a pen and tinted in Indian ink. 1. An allegorical, but unknown figure sitting on a globe, with a sort of sceptre in his right hand. Death seizes him by his garment with great vigour, and endeavours to pull him from his seat. 2. Two men eating and drinking at a table. Death, unperceived, enters the room, and levels his dart at them. 3. Death seizes two naked persons very amorously situated. 4. Death seizes a miser counting his money. In the author’s possession.
Twenty-four very beautiful coloured drawings by a modern artist from those in the public library at Berne that were copied by Stettler from Kauw’s drawings of the original painting by Nicolas Manuel Deutch. In the author’s possession, together with lithographic copies of them that have been recently published at Berne.137
A modern Indian ink drawing of a drunken party of men and women. Death above in a cloud levels his dart at them. Upright, 5¼ by 3½. In the author’s possession.
A spirited drawing in Indian ink of two Deaths as pugilists with their bottle-holders. Oblong, 7 by 4½. In the author’s possession.
A pen and ink tinted drawing, intitled “The Last Drop.” A female seated before a table on which is a bottle of gin or brandy. She is drinking a glass of it, Death standing by and directing his dart at her. In the author’s possession.
Mr. Dagley, in the second edition of his “Death’s Doings,” p. 7, has noticed some very masterly designs chalked on a wall bordering the road from Turnham-Green towards Kew-Bridge. They exhibited figures of Death as a skeleton ludicrously occupied with gamblers, dancers, boxers, &c. all of the natural size. They were unfortunately swept away before any copies were made to perpetuate them, as they well deserved. It was stated in The Times newspaper that these sketches were made by a nephew of Mr. Baron Garrow, then living in retirement near the spot, but who afterwards obtained a situation in India. These drawings were made in 1819.
Four very clever coloured drawings by Rowlandson, being probably a portion of an unfinished series of a Death’s Dance. 1. The Suicide. A man seated near a table is in the act of discharging a pistol at his head. The sudden and terrific appearance of Death, who, starting from behind a curtain, significantly stares at him through an eye-glass. One of the candles is thrown down, and a wine-glass jerked out of the hand of the suicide, who, from a broken sword and a hat with a cockade, seems intended for some ruined soldier of fashion. A female servant, alarmed at the report of the pistol, rushes into the apartment. Below, these verses:
Death smiles, and seems his dart to hide,
When he beholds the suicide.
2. The Good Man, Death, and the Doctor. A young clergyman reads prayers to the dying man; the females of his family are shedding tears. Death unceremoniously shoves out the physician, who puts one hand behind him, as expecting a fee, whilst with the other he lifts his cane to his nostrils. Below, these lines:
No scene so blest in Virtue’s eyes,
As when the man of virtue dies.
3. The Honey-moon. A gouty old fellow seated on a sopha with his youthful bride, who puts her hand through a window for a military lover to kiss it. A table covered with a desert, wine, &c. Death, stretching over a screen, pours something from a bottle into the glass which the husband holds in his hand. Below, these verses:
When the old fool has drunk his wine,
And gone to rest, I will be thine.
4. The Fortune-teller. Some females enter the conjurer’s study to have their fortunes told. Death seizes the back of his chair and oversets him. Below, these verses:
All fates he vow’d to him were known,
And yet he could not tell his own.
These drawings are oblong, 9 by 5 inches. In the author’s possession.
MISCELLANEOUS
A circular carving on wood, with the mark of Hans Schaufelin 
, representing Death seizing a naked female, who turns her head from him with a very melancholy visage. It is executed in a masterly manner. Diameter, 4 inches. In the author’s possession.
In Boxgrove church, Sussex, there is a splendid and elaborately sculptured monument of the Lords Delawar; and on the side which has not been engraved in Mr. Dallaway’s history of the county, there are two figures of Death and a female, wholly unconnected with the other subjects on the tomb. These figures are 9½ inches in height, and of rude design. Many persons will probably remember to have seen among the ballads, &c. that were formerly, and are still exhibited on some walls in the metropolis, a poem, intitled “Death and the Lady.” This is usually accompanied with a wood-cut, resembling the above figures. It is proper to mention likewise on this occasion the old alliterative poem in Bishop Percy’s famous manuscript, intitled Death and Liffe, the subject of which is a vision wherein the poet sees a contest for superiority between “our Lady Dame Life,” and the “ugly fiend, Dame Death.” See “Percy’s Reliques of ancient English poetry,” in the Essay on the Metre of Pierce Plowman’s Vision. Whether there may have been any connexion between these respective subjects must be left to the decision of others. There is certainly some reason to suppose so.
The sculptures at Berlin and Fescamp have been already described.
Among the subjects of tapestry at the Tower of London, the most ancient residence of our kings, was “the Dance of Macabre.” See the inventory of King Henry VIII.’s Guardrobe, &c. in MS. Harl. 1419, fo. 5.
Two panes of glass with a portion of a Dance of Death. 1. Three Deaths, that appear to have been placed at the beginning of the Dance. Over them, in a character of the time of Henry VII. these lines:
… ev’ry man to be contented wt his chaunce,
And when it shall please God to folowe my daunce.
2. Death and the Pope. No verses. Size, upright, 8½ by 7 inches. In the author’s possession. They have probably belonged to a Macaber Dance in the windows of some church.
CHAPTER XVII
Trois vifs et trois morts. – Negro figure of Death. – Danse aux Avengles
The first of these subjects, as connected with the Macaber Dance, has been already introduced at p. 31-33; what is now added will not, it is presumed, be thought unworthy of notice.
It is needless to repeat the descriptions that have been given by M. Peignot of the manuscripts in the Duke de la Valliere’s catalogue. The following are some of the printed volumes in which representations of the trois vifs et trois morts occur.
They are to be found in all the editions of the Danse Macabre that have already been described, and in the following Horæ and other service books of the catholic church.
“Horæ ad usum Sarum,” 1495, no place, no printer. 4to. Three Deaths, three horsemen with hawks and hounds. The hermit, to whom the vision appeared, in his cell.
“Heures à l’usaige de Rome.” Paris. Nicolas Higman, for Guil. Eustace, 1506, 12mo.
“Horæ ad usum Traject.” 1513. 18mo.
“Breviarium seu horarium domesticum ad usum Sarum.” Paris, F. Byrckman, 1516. Large folio. Three Deaths and three young men.
“Horæ ad usum Romanum.” Paris. Thielman Kerver, 1522. 8vo. And again, 1535. 4to.
A Dutch “Horæ.” Paris. Thielman Kerver, 1522. 8vo.
“Heures à l’usage de Paris.” Thielman Kerver’s widow, 1525. 8vo.
“Missale ad usum Sarum.” Paris, 1527. Folio. Three horsemen as noblemen, but without hawks or hounds.
“Enchiridion preclare ecclesie Sarum.” Paris. Thielman Kerver, 1528. 32mo.
“Horæ ad usum fratrum predicatorum ordinis S. Dominici.” Paris. Thielman Kerver, 1529. 8vo.
“Horæ ad usum Romanum.” Paris. Yolande Bonhomme, widow of T. Kerver, 1531. 8vo.
“Missale ad usum Sarum.” Paris. F. Regnault, 1531. Three Deaths only; different from the others.
“Prayer of Salisbury.” Paris. Francois Regnault, 1531, 12mo.
“Horæ ad usum Sarum.” Paris. Widow of Thielman Kerver, 1532. 12mo.
“Heures à l’usage de Paris.” Francois Regnault, 1535. 12mo.
“Horæ ad usum Romanum.” Paris. Gilles Hardouyn, 1537. 18mo. The subject is different from all the others, and very curiously treated.
“Heures à l’usage de Paris.” Thielman Kerver, 1558. 12mo.
“Heures à l’usage de Rome.” Paris. Thielman Kerver, 1573. 12mo.
“Heures à l’usage de Paris.” Jacques Kerver, 1573. 12mo. And again, 1575. 12mo.
In “The Contemplation of Sinners,” printed by Wynkyn de Worde. 4to.
All the above articles are in the collections of the author of this dissertation.
In an elegant MS. “Horæ,” in the Harl. Coll. No. 2917, 12mo. three Deaths appear to a pope, an emperor, and a king coming out of a church. All the parties are crowned.
At the end of Desrey’s “Macabri speculum choreæ mortuorum,” a hermit sees a vision of a king, a legislator, and a vain female. They are all lectured by skeletons in their own likenesses.
In a manuscript collection of unpublished and chiefly pious poems of John Awdeley, a blind poet and canon of the monastery of Haghmon, in Shropshire, anno 1426, there is one on the “trois vifs et trois morts,” in alliterative verses, and composed in a very grand and terrific style.
NEGRO FIGURE OF DEATH
In some degree connected with the old painting of the Macaber Dance in the church-yard of the Innocents at Paris, was that of a black man over a vaulted roof, constructed by the celebrated N. Flamel, about the year 1390. This is supposed to have perished with the Danse Macabre; but a copy of the figure has been preserved in some of the printed editions of the dance. It exhibits a Negro blowing a trumpet, and was certainly intended as a personification of Death. In one of the oldest of the above editions he is accompanied with these verses:
Cry de Mort
Tost, tost, tost, que chacun savance
Main à main venir a la danse
De Mort, danser la convient,
Tous et a plusieurs nen souvient.
Venez hommes femmes et enfans,
Jeunes et vieulx, petis et grans,
Ung tout seul nen eschapperoit,
Pour mille escuz si les donnoit, &c.
Before the females in the dance the figure is repeated with a second “Cry de Mort.”
Tost, tost, venez femmes danser
Apres les hommes incontinent,
Et gardez vous bien de verser,
Car vous danserez vrayment;
Mon cornet corne bien souvent
Apres les petis et les grans.
Despecte vous legierement,
Apres la pluye vient le beau temps.
These lines are differently given in the various printed copies of the Danse Macabre.
This figure is not to be confounded with an alabaster statue of Death that remained in the church-yard of the Innocents, when it was entirely destroyed in 1786. It had been usually regarded as the work of Germain Pilon, but with greater probability belonged to Francois Gentil, a sculptor at Troyes, about 1540. It was transported to Notre Dame, after being bronzed and repaired, by M. Deseine, a distinguished artist. It was saved from the fury of the iconoclast revolutionists by M. Le Noir, and deposited in the Museum which he so patriotically established in the Rue des petits Augustins, but it has since disappeared. It was an upright skeleton figure, holding in one hand a lance which pointed to a shield with this inscription:
Il n’est vivant, tant soit plein d’art,
Ne de force pour resistance,
Que je ne frappe de mon dart,
Pour bailler aux vers leur pitance.
Priez Dieu pour les trespassés.
It is engraved in the second volume of M. Le Noir’s “Musée des monumens Francais,” and also in his “Histoire des arts en France,” No. 91.
DANSE AUX AVEUGLES
There is a poetical work, in some degree connected with the subject of this dissertation, that ought not to be overlooked. It was composed by one Pierre Michault, of whom little more seems to be known than that he was in the service of Charles, Count of Charolois, son of Philip le Bon, Duke of Burgundy. It is intitled “La Danse aux Aveugles,” and the object of it is to show that all men are subject to the influence of three blind guides, Love, Fortune, and Death, before whom several persons are whimsically made to dance. It is a dialogue in a dream between the Author and Understanding, and the respective blind guides describe themselves, their nature, and power over mankind, in ten-line stanzas, of which the following is the first of those which are pronounced by Death:
Je suis la Mort de nature ennemie,
Qui tous vivans finablement consomme,
Anichillant à tous humains la vie,
Reduis en terre et en cendre tout homme.
Je suis la mort qui dure me surnomme,
Pour ce qu’il fault que maine tout affin;
Je nay parent, amy, frere ou affin
Que ne face tout rediger en pouldre,
Et suis de Dieu ad ce commise affin,
Que l’on me doubte autant que tonnant fouldre.
Some of the editions are ornamented with cuts, in which Death is occasionally introduced, and that portion of the work which exclusively relates to him seems to have been separately published, M. Goujet138 having mentioned that he had seen a copy in vellum, containing twelve leaves, with an engraving to every one of the stanzas, twenty-three in number. More is unnecessary to be added, as M. Peignot has elaborately and very completely handled the subject in his interesting “Recherches sur les Danses des Morts.” Dijon, 1826. octavo.
CHAPTER XVIII
Errors of various writers who have introduced the subject of the Dance of Death
To enumerate even a moiety of these mistakes would almost occupy a separate volume, but it may be as well to notice some of them which are to be found in works of common occurrence.
Travellers. – The erroneous remarks of Bishop Burnet and Mr. Coxe have been already adverted to. See pp. 79, 134, and 138.
Misson seems to regard the old Danse Macabre as the work of Holbein.
The Rev. Robert Gray, in “Letters during the course of a tour through Germany and Switzerland in the year 1791 and 1792,” has stated that Mechel has engraved Rubens’s designs from the Dance of Death, now perishing on the walls of the church-yard of the Predicant convent, where it was sketched in 1431.
Mr. Wood, in his “View of the History of Switzerland,” as quoted in the Monthly Review, Nov. 1799, p. 290, states, that “the Dance of Death in the church-yard of the Predicants has been falsely ascribed to Holbein, as it is proved that it was painted long after the death of that artist, and not before he was born, as the honourable Horace Walpole supposes.” Here the corrector stands in need himself of correction, unless it be possible that he is not fairly quoted by the reviewer.
Miss Williams, in her Swiss tour, 1798, when speaking of the Basle Dance of Death, says it was painted by Kleber, a pupil of Holbein.
Those intelligent and amusing travellers, Breval, Keysler, and Blainville have carefully avoided the above strange mistakes.
Writers on painting and engraving. – Meyssens, in his article for Holbein in “the effigies of the Painters,” mentions his “Death’s Dance, in the town-hall of Basle, the design whereof he first neatly cut in wood and afterwards painted, which appeared so fine to the learned Erasmus, &c.” English edition, 1694, p. 15.
Felibien, in his “Entretiens sur les vies des Peintres,” follows Meyssens as to the painting in the town-hall.
Le Comte places the supposed painting by Holbein in the fish-market, and in other respects copies Meyssens. “Cabinet des Singularités, &c.” tom. iii. p. 323, edit. 1702, 12mo.
Bullart not only places the painting in the town-hall of Basle, but adds, that he afterwards engraved it in wood. “Acad. des Sciences et des Arts,” tom. ii. p. 412.
Mr. Evelyn, in his “Sculptura,” the only one of his works that does him no credit, and which is a meagre and extremely inaccurate compilation, when speaking of Holbein, actually runs riot in error and misconception. He calls him a Dane. He makes what he terms “the licentiousness of the friars and nuns,” meaning probably Hollar’s sixteen etchings after Holbein’s satire on monks and friars and other members of the Romish church as the persecutors of Christ, and also the “Dance Machabre and Mortis imago,” to have been cut in wood, and one or both of the latter to have been painted in the church of Basle. Mr. Evelyn’s own copy of this work, with several additions in manuscript, is in the possession of Mr. Taylor, a retired and ingenious artist, of Cirencester-place. He probably intended to reprint it, and opposite the above-mentioned word “Dane,” has inserted a query.
Sandrart places the Dance of Death in the fish-market at Basle, and makes Holbein the painter as well as the engraver. “Acad. artis pictoriæ,” p. 238, edit. 1683, folio.
Baldinucci speaks of twenty prints of the Dance of Death painted by Holbein in the Senate-house of Basle. “Notizie dè professori del disegno, &c.” tom. iii. 313 and 319.
M. Descamps inadvertently ascribes the old Dance of Death on the walls of the church-yard of Saint Peter to the pencil of Holbein. “Vie des Peintres Flamandi,” &c. 1753. 8vo. Tom. i. p. 75.
Papillon, in his account of the Dance of Death, abounds with inaccuracies. He says, that a magistrate of Basle employed him to paint a Dance of Death in the fish-market, near a church-yard; that the work greatly increased his reputation, and made much noise in the world, although it has many anatomical defects; that he engraved this painting on small blocks of wood with unparalleled beauty and delicacy. He supposes that they first appeared in 1530 at Basle or Zuric, and as he thinks with a title and German verses on each print. Now he had never seen any edition so early as 1530, nor any of the cuts with German verses, and having probably been misled on this occasion, he has been the cause of misleading many subsequent writers, as Fournier, Huber, Strutt, &c. He adopts the error as to the mark 
on the thirty-sixth subject belonging to Holbein. He is entirely ignorant of the nature and character of the fool or idiot in No. xliii. whom he terms “un homme lascif qui a levé le devant de sa robbe:” and, to crown the whole, he makes the old Macaber Dance an imitation of that ascribed to Holbein.
De Murr, in tom. ii. p. 535 of his “Bibliothéque de Peinture, &c.” servilely copies Papillon in all that he has said on the subject, with some additional errors of his own.
The Abbé Fontenai, in the article for Holbein in his “Dictionnaire des Artistes,” Paris, 1776, 8vo. not only makes him the painter of the old Macaber Dance, but places it in the town-house at Basle.
Mr. Walpole, or rather Vertue, in the “Anecdotes of Painting in England,” corrects the error of those who give the old Macaber Dance to Holbein, but inadvertently makes that which is usually ascribed to him to have been borrowed from the other.
Messrs. Huber and Rost make Holbein the engraver of the Lyons wood-cuts, and suppose the original drawings to be preserved in the public library at Basle. They probably allude to the problematical drawings that were used by M. de Mechel, and which are now in Russia. “Manuel des curieux et des amateurs de l’art.” Tom. i. p. 155.
In the “Notices sur les graveurs,” Besancon, 1807, 8vo. a work that has, by some writers, been given to M. Malpé, and by others to the Abbé Baverel, Papillon is followed with respect to the supposed edition of 1530, and its German verses.
Mr. Janssen is more inaccurate than any of his predecessors, some of whom have occasionally misled him. He makes Albert Durer the inventor of the designs, the greater part of which, he says, are from the Dance of Death at Berne. He adopts the edition of 1530, and the German verses. He condemns the title-page of the edition of 1562 for stating an addition of seventeen plates, whereas, says he, there are but five; but the editor meant only that there were seventeen more cuts than in the original, which had only forty-one.
Miscellaneous writers. – Charles Patin, a libeller of the English nation, has made Holbein the engraver on wood of a Dance of Death, which, he says, is “not much unlike that in the church-yard of the Predicants at Basle, painted, as some say, from the life, by Holbein.” He ought to have known that this work was executed near a century before Holbein was born. “Erasmi stultitiæ laus.” Basileæ, 1676, 8vo. at the end of the list of Holbein’s works.
Martiniere, in his Geographical Dictionary, makes Holbein the inventor of the Macaber Dance at Basle.
Goujet, in his very useful “Bibliothéque Francoise,” tom. x. p. 436, has erroneously stated that the Lyons engravings on wood were by the celebrated artist Salomon Bernard, usually called “Le petit Bernard.” The mistake is very pardonable, as it appears that Bernard chiefly worked in the above city.
M. Compan, in his “Dictionnaire de Danse,” 1787, 12mo. under the article Macabrée, very gravely asserts that the author took his work from the Maccabees, “qui, comme tout le monde scait danserent, et en ont fait epoque pour les morts.” He then quotes some lines from a modern edition of the “Danse Macabre,” where the word Machabées is ignorantly substituted for “Machabre.”
M. Fournier states that Holbein painted a Dance of Death in the fish-market at Basle, reduced it, and engraved it. “Dissertation sur l’imprimerie,” p. 70.
Mr. Warton has converted the imaginary Machabree into a French poet, but corrects himself in his “Hist. of Engl. Poetry.” He supposes the single cut in Lydgate to represent all the figures that were in St. Paul’s cloister. He atones for these errors in referring to Holbein’s cuts in Cranmer’s Catechism, as entirely different in style from those published at Lyons, but which he thinks, are probably the work of Albert Durer, and also in his conjecture that the painter Reperdius might have been concerned in the latter. See “Observations on the Fairy Queen of Spenser,” vol. ii. 116, &c. In his most elegant and instructive History of English Poetry he relapses into error when he states that Holbein painted a Dance of Death in the Augustine monastery at Basle in 1543, and that Georgius Æmylius published this Dance at Lyons, 1542, one year before Holbein’s painting at Basle appeared. Hist. Engl. Poetry, vol. ii. p. 364, edit. Price.
The Marquis de Paulmy ascribes the old Macaber Dance at Basle to Holbein, and adds, “le sujet et l’execution en sont aussi singuliers que ridicules.” “Mélanges tirés d’une grande bibliothéque,” tom. Ff. 371.
M. Champollion Figeac in Millin’s “Magazin encyclopedique,” 1811, tom. vi. has an article on an edition of the “Danse Macabre anterieure à celle de 1486.” In this article he states that Holbein painted a fresco Dance of Death at Basle near the end of the 15th century (Holbein was not born till 1498!); that this Dance resembled the Danse Macabre, all the characters of which are in Holbein’s style; that it is still more like the Dance in the Monasticon Anglicanum in a single print; and that the English Dance belongs to John Porey, an author who appears, however, to be unknown to all biographers. We should have been obliged to M. Figeac if he had mentioned where he met with this John Porey, whom he again mentions, but in such a manner as to leave a doubt whether he means to consider him as a poet or a painter. Even M. Millin himself, from whom more accuracy might have been expected, speaks of 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 as some other French biographical dictionaries have done, especially one that has cited an edition of the Danse Macabre in 1486 as the first of Holbein’s painting, though it immediately afterwards states that artist to have been born in 1498.
In that excellent work, the “Biographie universelle,” in 42 vols. 8vo. 1811-1828, M. Ponce, under the article “Holbein,” inaccurately refers to “the Dance of Death painted in 1543 on the walls of a cemetery at Basle,” at the same time properly remarking that it was not Holbein’s. He refers to the supposed original drawings of Holbein’s work at Petersburg that were engraved by De Mechel, and concludes his brief note with a reference to a dissertation of M. Raymond in Millin’s “Magazin encyclopedique,” 1814, tom. v. which is nothing more than a simple notice of two editions of the Danse Macabre, described in the present dissertation.
And lastly – The Reviewer of the first edition of the present dissertation prefixed to Mr. Edwards’s engravings or etchings by Wenceslaus Hollar, has displayed considerable ingenuity in his attempt to correct supposed errors, by a lavish substitution of many of his own, some of which are the following:
That the Dance of Death is found in carvings in wood in the choirs of churches. Not a single instance can be produced.
That Hollar’s etchings are on wood.
“Black letter” is corrected to “Black letters.”
That the book would have been more complete if Lydgate’s stanzas had been quoted, in common with others in Piers Plowman. Now all the stanzas of Lydgate are given, and not a single one is to be found in Piers Plowman.
And they most ingeniously and scientifically denominate the skeleton figure of Death “the Gothic monster of Holbein!”
A short time after the completion of the present Dissertation, the author accidentally became possessed of a recently published German life of Holbein, in which not a single addition of importance to what has been gleaned from preceding writers can possibly be found. It contains a general, but extremely superficial account of the works of that artist, including the Dance of Death, which, as a matter of course, is ascribed to him. As the author, a Mr. Ulrich Hegner, who is said to be a Swiss gentleman and amateur, has not conducted himself with that urbanity and politeness which might have been looked for from such a character, and has thought proper, in adverting to the slight Essay by the present writer, prefixed, at the instance of the late Mr. Edwards, to his publication of Hollar’s etchings of the Dance of Death, to speak of it with a degree of contempt, which, even with all its imperfections, others may think it may not have deserved; the above gentleman will have but little reason to complain should he meet with a somewhat uncourteous retort in the course of the following remarks on his compilation.