Emblems of Mortality; representing, in upwards of fifty cuts, death seizing all ranks and degrees of people
Author: Unknown
Date: 2021-05-03T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Dance of death -- Early works to 1800

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Title: Emblems of Mortality; representing, in upwards of fifty cuts, death seizing all ranks and degrees of people

Editor: John Sidney Hawkins

Engraver: John Bewick

Illustrator: Hans Holbein

Release date: May 3, 2021 [eBook #65245]
Most recently updated: October 18, 2024

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65245

Credits: deaurider and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMBLEMS OF MORTALITY; REPRESENTING, IN UPWARDS OF FIFTY CUTS, DEATH SEIZING ALL RANKS AND DEGREES OF PEOPLE ***

Transcriber’s Note: Larger versions of illustrations are provided as linked images, for the detail of the engravings.

EMBLEMS
OF
MORTALITY;

REPRESENTING,
IN UPWARDS OF FIFTY CUTS,
DEATH
SEIZING ALL RANKS AND DEGREES
OF PEOPLE;

Imitated from a Painting in the Cemetery of the Dominican Church at Basil, in Switzerland:

With an Apostrophe to each, translated from the Latin and French.

Intended as well for the Information of the Curious, as the Instruction and Entertainment of Youth.

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED

A copious Preface, containing an historical Account of the above, and other Paintings on this Subject, now or lately existing in divers Parts of Europe.

LONDON:
Printed for T. Hodgson, in George’s-Court,
St. John’s-Lane, Clerkenwell.
M DCC LXXXIX.

PREFACE.

The Work here presented to the Reader is a Copy, with a small Variation noticed hereafter, as to the Cuts, and a Translation, as to the Letter Press, of one well known to the Curious by the Title of Imagines Mortis, or The Images of Death; which is reported to be in reality indebted for its Existence to an Event that Boccace did but feign as the Occasion of writing his Decameron; I mean the Calamity of a Plague: And its History is as follows.

Pope Eugenius IV. having summoned a Council to meet at the City of Basle, or, as it is more usually called, Basil, in Switzerland; it accordingly met there in the Year 1431, and continued to sit for Seventeen Years, Nine Months, and Twenty-Seven Days, or, according to Mr. Walpole[1], but Fifteen Years in the whole; and at this Council the Pope himself, and after his Death his Successor Felix V. Sigismond Emperor of Germany, Albert II. then King of the Romans, and many other Princes and Persons of distinguished Rank were present. During the Sitting of this Council, viz. in the Year 1439, the City of Basil was visited with a Plague, which raged for some Time with extreme Violence, and carried off many of the Nobility, and several Cardinals and Prelates who attended that Council, some of whom were interred in the very Cemetery where the Painting, of which we are about to speak, now is; and, on the Cessation of the Distemper, the surviving Members of the Council, with a View to perpetuate the Memory of this Event, and of their providential Deliverance from its Effects, caused to be painted in Oil on the Walls of the Cemetery, near the Convent of the Dominicans, a Dance of Death, representing all Ranks of Persons, from the Pope to the Peasant, as individually seized by Death; adding also to each Figure eight Lines in German, four of them containing an Address from Death to them severally, the other four their Reply. The Name of the Painter employed on this Occasion has not been transmitted down to us with Certainty; but some Persons have imagined that this Painting was the Work of Hans Holbein: Whether it were done by him or another, shall be hereafter considered; but, in the mean Time, we shall here proceed to relate the subsequent History of the Painting itself.

It is, however, to be observed, that Matthew Merian, who, in 1649, published in German, at Franckfort, in small Quarto, a Book entitled Todten Tanz, or Death’s Dance, containing Engravings from the above-mentioned Painting[2], and from the Preface to whose Work, as translated into French, in an Edition printed at Basil in 1744, most of the foregoing Facts are extracted, does not speak in positive Terms as to the precise Time when the original Figures were painted, but only says, that they are believed, and with great Probability, to be of that Time in which he had placed them; in further Confirmation of which he has noticed, that Sigismond was himself a Lover and extraordinary Patron of the Arts, and had always about him a Number of Artists; and that John ab Eyck, the Inventor of Oil Painting, flourished in his Reign; but Mr. Warton[3] has related (though it does not appear on what Authority) not only that Holbein was the Painter, but that the Subject in Question was painted in 1543; in which I conceive him misinformed: For Merian was, as he himself tells us, a Native of Basil, and possibly might have had his Account by Tradition; and, had the Painting been of no earlier a Date than 1543, it is hardly probable (considering too that it is in Oil) that it should have been so much injured by Time as to stand in Need, as we find it did, of an almost total Repair in 1568: To all which I add, that Merian seems so well satisfied of the Truth of his Account, that he tells us further that the Figures were drawn from Nature, and are dressed each in the Habit of the Time; and that those of the Pope, Emperor, and King, are respectively Portraits of Felix V. who succeeded Eugenius IV., Sigismond Emperor of Germany, and Albert II., King of the Romans; all of whom, as we have before remarked, were present at the Council.

Mr. Walpole[4] mentions that this Painting was repaired in 1529; but in this he seems to have been misled (accidentally taking one Date instead of another) by a Passage in the Preface to Merian’s Book before cited. Merian informs us, that the Painting in Question having been much injured by Time, John Hugh Klauber, a Painter, and Citizen of Basil, was, in 1568, employed to repair it; and that, finding a Vacancy on the Wall sufficient for his Purpose, he added at the Head of the Painting a Portrait of Johannes Oecolompadius, in Memory of the Reformation in 1529, to which his preaching the Gospel to all Ranks, as he did, might be supposed in some small Degree to contribute; and, at the End of the Painting, on another Part of the Wall, he added the Portraits of himself, his Wife, and his Children: And this Repair by Klauber, Merian tells us further, was commemorated in a Latin Tablet, which in his Time hung near the Painting. Some Time after, it was again repaired, and so, without any further Repair, it continued till Merian’s Time; but Keysler, who visited it in 1729, in his Travels, Vol. I. P. 171, Edit. 8vo. 1760, relates, that the original Colours were then totally effaced, that only the Outlines of the Figures were left, and that it had then been lately repaired.

The Thought of this allegorical Representation of Death, though in the present Instance immediately suggested by the Event above related, was not in itself original, but borrowed in some Measure from a Kind of Masquerade, which Mr. Warton[5] observes was anciently celebrated in the Churches abroad, particularly those of France (and, among others, it seems to have been performed in St. Innocent’s Church at Paris) and in which all Ranks and Degrees of Persons were personated by the Ecclesiastics of those Churches, who all danced together, and then disappeared; and it is certain that before the Calamity above-mentioned happened at Basil, and consequently before this Painting there was begun, Allusions to a Dance of Death occurred in the Writings of the Authors of the Time, in Reference, no Doubt, to that Kind of Masquerade. It were needless to introduce a Number of Quotations to support this Assertion; but as some Proof may, perhaps, be expected, I here insert from The Vision of Piers Plowman, written about 1350, the following Passage, with which Mr. Warton’s Hist. of Poetry, Vol. II. P. 54, has furnished me:

“Death came driving after, and all to Dust pash’d

Kings and Cæsars, Knights and Popes.”

And I further find that, several Years prior to the Breaking out of this Plague at Basil, the Idea had even been carried into Execution; for that in 1384, a Death’s Dance had been painted at Minden, in Westphalia[6]: But, no sooner had this Painting at Basil been finished, and become, as it very soon after did, universally celebrated all over Europe, but the Dance of Death became a very favourite Subject, and was frequently painted in public Buildings. The earliest Instance which has yet occurred, subsequent to the Painting at Basil, is one which Mr. Warton[7] mentions at Lubec, in the Portico of St. Mary’s Church, painted in 1463; and of which Dr. Nugent, in his Travels, Vol. I. P. 102, speaking of Lubec, gives the following Account:

“But the most noted Thing in St. Mary’s Church is the Painting called Death’s Dance, so much talked of in all Parts of Germany. It was originally drawn in 1463, but the Figures were repaired at different Times, as in 1588, 1642, and last of all in 1701. Here you see the Representation of Death leading an Emperor in his imperial Robes, who with his other Hand takes hold of such another Figure, which leads up a King; and so alternately a Figure of Death and a human Person through all Conditions and Stages of Life. The Intention of the Artist was to shew that Death pays no Regard to Age or Condition, which is more particularly expressed in the Verses underneath. They were composed at first in Plat Deutch, or Low Dutch; but at the last Repair, in 1701, it was thought proper to change them for German Verses, which were written by Nathaniel Schlott, of Dantzick.” Of these Verses Dr. Nugent has inserted a Translation from the original German, by a Lady of Dantzick, from which it appears that the Originals consist of, first, an Apostrophe of Death to all, and then an Address of Death to one Individual; then follows his Reply; after that, Death’s Address to another; next, his Reply; and so on. It further appears from the Translation, that the Characters delineated in the Painting are the following: The Pope, Emperor, Empress, Cardinal, King, Bishop, General, Abbé, Knight, Carthusian, Burgomaster, Prebendary, Nobleman, Physician, Usurer, Chaplain, Steward, Church-Warden, Tradesman, Recluse, Peasant, Young Man, Maiden, Infant, Dancing-Master, and Fencing-Master.

In Addition to this Instance we learn, that, in the Reign of Henry the Sixth, one Jenken Carpenter caused to be painted at his Expence on the Walls of the Cloister of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London[8], the Dance of Machabray, or Dance of Death[9]; and it is more than probable that the celebrated Painting of the same Kind in St. Innocent’s Church, in Paris, in like Manner owes its Original to the Painting at Basil.

Nor are these the only Instances in which this Subject has been chosen for the Decoration of Buildings; for in 1525 it was painted at Annaberg, and in 1534, in the Castle or Palace at Dresden; as it also was, though when is unknown, at Leipsic and other Places[10].

The same Inclination in Favour of this Subject began also, very soon after the Painting in Question was known, to discover itself in literary Publications, and in the Decorations and Ornaments of Books. One Macaber, a French or German Poet, but of what Æra is uncertain, wrote in German a Poem on the Subject of Death’s Dance, which, in Consequence of this Circumstance, is not seldom from him called The Dance of Macaber[11]. His Verses were translated into French, and written round the Cloister of St. Innocent’s, at Paris, under, as I conceive, the before-mentioned Painting; and from this French Translation, Lydgate, at the Request of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s[12], made a Version, which was afterwards inscribed on the Walls of their Church, under the Painting of the same Subject.

It would be an endless Task, and afford but little Entertainment to the Reader, to reckon up here a long List of Books in which the Subject has been reiterated: We shall therefore content ourselves with mentioning that it appeared in the Chronicle of Hartmannus Schedelius, printed at Nuremberg in 1493, Folio[13], usually called the Nuremberg Chronicle; in the Quotidian Offices of the Church, printed at Paris, 1515, in 8vo[14]; in several Horæ, Missals, &c. and even so late as in A Book of Christian Prayers, collected out of the ancient Writers and best learned of our Time, first printed in 4to. 1569, and afterwards in the same Size in 1608; and that, in Addition to all these and others which might be mentioned, the Painting at Basil was the Cause of the Publication of the Imagines Mortis, from which the present is copied and translated, and of which therefore it will be necessary here to give an Account; first observing, that the Excellence of the Cuts in the Original, which are here also copied with sufficient Fidelity, has induced an Opinion that they were the Work of Holbein, a Fact which we mean hereafter to inquire into.

Papillon, in his Traité historique et pratique de la Gravure en Bois, 8vo. 1766, Tom. I. P. 166, informs us, that Holbein, having arrived to a great Degree of Perfection in Painting, was employed by a Magistrate of Basil to paint a Dance of Death in the Fish-Market of that City, near a Cemetery (by which he undoubtedly means the Painting at Basil, of which we have so often had Occasion to speak); that this Work added much to his Reputation; after which he employed his Skill in reducing the original Figures into a small Size; and that he afterwards engraved them upon Wood, with a Delicacy and Beauty not to be equalled. But unfortunately Papillon here speaks without sufficient Attention; for the Painting at Basil, as may be learnt from Merian’s Engravings before mentioned, and on the Accuracy of which I am assured by an ingenious Friend, who lately examined them with the Originals, I may rely, consists of single Figures, each led by a Figure of Death, and following each other in order, so as to form a long Procession: The same may be remarked of the Painting at St. Paul’s; and, for aught that appears to the contrary, of that at Lubec, and of that at St. Innocent’s Church at Paris, and probably of all the others which we have noticed above: Whereas the present Cuts consist of separate Compartments, each containing Groupes of Figures, so that the present Work is by no means merely a Reduction in Size of the Painting at Basil, but is rather to be considered as founded on the same Idea, and suggested by the Original, than as a Copy from it.

The earliest Edition of the Imagines Mortis which I have as yet seen, is one printed, as appears from the Colophon at the End, by Melchior and Gaspar Trechsel, in small 4to. at Lyons, in 1538: It is in French, and its Title is as follows: “Les Simulachres & Historiees faces de la Mort, autant elegamment pourtraictes, que artificiellement imaginees: A Lyons, soulz l’Escu de Cologne.” But Papillon, in Loco supra cit, tells us, that the Cuts to the Imagines Mortis must have been done about the Year 1530, for that the four first of them occur among Holbein’s Cuts to the Old Testament, printed in 1539; and that it is apparent from those among the Scripture Cuts, that the Blocks had then already furnished many Thousands of Impressions. That the four first Cuts of the Imagines Mortis are among the Scripture Cuts of Holbein, is certainly true; but I think I once saw, in the Hands of a Friend, a Copy of the vulgate Latin Bible, in which those Scripture Cuts were inserted, and which, if my Memory does not greatly deceive me, was printed so early as in or about 1518 or 1520.

The same Author further relates, that the first Edition, which he thinks for the above Reasons should be placed in the Year 1530, was printed at Basil, or Zuric, with a Title to each Cut, and, as he believes, some Verses under each, all in the German Language (but, that there was an early Edition in Flemish); and adds, that the Book, having passed over into France, was much sought after by the Curious there; so that a Printer of Lyons was induced to purchase the Blocks, and that from them he printed several Editions in Latin, French, and Italian.

Having thus accounted for the Existence of the Book, and for its Arrival in France, it remains to speak of the several Impressions which it there underwent. We have already mentioned one, the earliest which we know of, printed in small Quarto, at Lyons, soulz l’Escu de Cologne, by Melchior and Gaspar Trechsel, in 1538: The Cuts in this Edition are forty-three in Number, and no more; and over each is, in Latin, a Passage from either the Old or New Testament or Apocrypha, which, in the present Publication, is given in English, from the Translation of the Bible now in use. Under the Cuts are four Lines in French Verse, the Substance of which has been preserved in all the Editions, whether they were in Latin, French, or Italian. This Edition, in order to make it of a tolerable Size (for the Cuts alone would have been too few to constitute a Volume) is accompanied with several Tracts in French, which, as not relating to, or connected with, our present Subject, we here forbear to enumerate; but it is necessary, before we close our Account of this Edition of 1538, to remark, that it is preceded by a Dedication in French, to the very Reverend Abbess of the Religious Convent of St. Peter of Lyons, Madam Jehanne de Touszele; and in this Dedication the Author of it notices, that the Name and Surname (or, as we term them, the Christian and Surname) of the Abbess and himself are precisely the same in sound, excepting only the Letter T, from which I conjecture (for his Name does not any where appear) that his Name was Jean, or, as it was anciently written, Jehan [i. e. John] de Ouszell, or Ozell, as it is now usually spelt. In this Dedication is also a Passage, a Translation of which will be given hereafter, from which it appears that the Person by whom the Cuts were designed, was then dead, leaving behind him several others of the same Kind, which, though drawn, were unfinished, and particularly one representing a Waggoner crushed under his overthrown Waggon; in which Cut, a Figure of Death is represented secretly sucking through a Reed, the Wine out of a Cask; and that to these unfinished Cuts no one had dared to put the last Hand.

The next Edition, in Point of Time, which I have seen, I conceive to have been the first that appeared in Latin, and it was printed in Duodecimo, at Lyons, sub scuto Coloniensi, by John and Francis Frellon, in 1542. It contains the same Number of Cuts (and no more) as that of 1538, and is entitled, “Imagines de Morte, et Epigrammata e Gallico idiomate a Georgio Æmylio in Latinum translata;” from whence it appears that it is, in Fact, a Translation of the French Edition of 1538. This also contains some additional Tracts, all differing from those in the Edition of 1538, but not in the least relating to the present Inquiry, and therefore not here particularized, though they have been continued through almost all the subsequent Impressions, and have been given respectively in French, Latin, and Italian, according as the Verses under the Cuts to the Imagines Mortis were in one or other of those Languages.

In 1547, another Edition was published of this Book, in French; it was entitled, “Les Images de la Mort,” and printed at Lyons, A l’Escu de Cologne, Chez Jehan Frellon; the Title-Page also informs us that twelve Cuts are added to it, and on Examination we find that the Cuts inserted in Page 40, and the seven subsequent Pages of this Work, and four Cuts of Boys, which, as not relating to this Subject, are in the present Edition omitted (none of which occur in either the French Edition of 1538, or the Latin one of 1542, the only two prior Editions that I know of) are to be found in this of 1547[15].

In the same Year, viz. 1547, but whether prior or subsequent to the last above mentioned, cannot be known, another Latin Edition appeared, printed at Lyons by the same John Frellon, and containing the same increased Number of Cuts as the French one of the same Year, that is to say, fifty-three in all; and the same John Frellon, in 1549, printed an Edition of this Work in Italian and Latin, the Passages from Scripture over the Cuts being in Latin, and the Verses under the Cuts in Italian; and this also contains the same Number of Cuts with the two last-mentioned Editions: But Papillon, P. 169, remarks that the Blocks, when this Edition of 1549 was printed, had already furnished more than an hundred-thousand Impressions, for that in some Places they appear to be worn.

In 1562, the same John Frellon published another French Edition, which appears, by the Printer’s Colophon at the End, to have been printed at Lyons by Symphorien Barbier, and which professes in the Title to be augmented with seventeen Plates. Papillon, P. 182, mentions both this Edition and Peculiarity, but denies the Truth of the Assertion, because he tells us, that in this French Edition he finds but five more Cuts than in the Italian One of 1549; notwithstanding which, it is certainly true, as will be presently proved. Papillon admits that the Edition of 1562 contains five Cuts more than that of 1549, and, if he had gone farther back in his Research, would have found that that of 1549 (and so do the French and Latin Editions of 1547) comprizes twelve more than that of 1538, and that those twelve were first added to the French and Latin Editions of 1547. The Edition of 1562 does not assert that that contains seventeen Cuts more than any preceding Edition, but, reckoning the five which it has more than the Impression of 1549, and the twelve which that has more than the Edition of 1538, and which are also inserted in that of 1562, they make together seventeen Cuts more than were in the Edition of 1538, and consequently justify the Assertion in the Title, that the Edition of 1562 contains seventeen additional Cuts.

The Success which such a Number of Editions seems to imply, induced a Bookseller of Cologne to counterfeit the Book; and, instead of making use of the original Cuts, which, in all Probability he could not procure, he got Copies, and not very exact ones, engraven from them for his intended Edition. When the first counterfeited Edition appeared, I am not informed; but am induced to think that this Person, whom I have above described as a Bookseller of Cologne, was Arnold Birckman, as I find an Edition, printed in 1555, at Cologne, Apud hœredes Arnoldi Birckmanni. In this Edition, and also in one printed by the same Persons in 1573, the Cuts are reversed, the Passages from Scripture over the Cuts, and also the Verses under the Cuts, are in Latin; and both these Editions contain the Number of Cuts in the Latin and French ones of 1547, and no more: In the Cut inserted P. 17, of the present Edition, is the following Mark (intended, no doubt, for that of the Engraver) and which was that of Silvius Antonianus, an Artist of considerable Merit.

Having thus given the History of this celebrated Work, we are now to inquire, in the first Place, whether the original Painting at Basil were, or not, painted by Holbein; and, in the second, whether the Imagines Mortis were either designed or engraven by him.

As to the first of these Questions it is to be observed, that Merian, whom we have above mentioned, has related that this Picture at Basil was painted during the sitting of the Council before mentioned, which met in 1431, and sat either fifteen, according to some, or something more than seventeen Years, according to other Authors; so that the Painting now under Consideration must have been done between the Years 1439, when the Plague broke out, and 1446, or 1448, when the Council broke up; now it is certain that Holbein was not born till 1498[16]: nor do we find that he was ever employed on the Painting at Basil, even so much as to retouch it. Hugh Klauber, who repaired it in 1568, is recorded, and it is not probable that, if it ever had been touched upon by Holbein, that Fact should, in his own native City, have been passed over in Silence: On the contrary, it is more likely that an Opportunity should have been rather sought to reveal it[17].

From these Considerations it appears pretty evidently, that Holbein has no Claim to the Painting at Basil: We now proceed, therefore, to the second Inquiry, viz. Whether he either designed or engraved the original Cuts to the Imagines Mortis, and here it may first be necessary to state what Reasons there may be for supposing them his.

Nicolas Borbonius, a Poet contemporary with Holbein, has addressed to him an Epigram “De Morte picta, a Hanso Pictore nobili[18],” from which it is inferred that he painted a Dance of Death; and Sandrart relates that in the Year 1627, in a Conversation with Rubens, at which he was present, the Imagines Mortis was stiled Holbein’s, as will appear from the following Passage, translated by Mr. Warton from Joach. Sandrart, Academ. Pict. Part II. Lib. iii. Cap. 7. P. 241, “I also well remember that in the Year 1627, when Paul Rubens came to Utrecht to visit Handorst, being escorted both coming from, and returning to Amsterdam, by several Artists; as we were in the Boat, the Conversation fell upon Holbein’s Book of Cuts representing the Dance of Death, that Rubens gave them the highest Encomiums, advising me, who was then a young Man, to set the highest Value upon them; informing me, at the same Time, that he, in his Youth, had copied them.” Warton’s Observations on Spenser, first Edit. P. 231, in a Note, where is also inserted a Translation from the same Work, P. 238, in the following Words, “But, in the Fish-Market there” [at Basil] “may be seen his” [Holbein’s] “admirable Dance of Peasants, where also, in the same public Manner, is shewn his Dance of Death; where, by a Variety of Figures, it is demonstrated that Death spares neither Popes, Emperors, Princes, &c. as may be seen in his most elegant wooden Cuts of the same Work.”

In Bullart’s Academie des Sciences, Tom. II. P. 412, is a Passage, of which the following is a Translation: “Nevertheless, he” [Holbein] “has not sent any Thing into the World which is not painted with the last Degree of Perfection. The Inhabitants of Basil have an excellent Witness of this in their Town-House: It is his Piece of the Dance of Death, which he has reduced into Colours, after having engraven them very neatly on Wood; and which appeared so excellent to the learned Erasmus, that, after having published his Praises, he invited Holbein to draw his Picture, in order that he might have the Happiness of being represented by so skilful a Hand.”

Mons. Patin, in the Catalogue of Holbein’s Works, prefixed to his Edition of Erasmus’s Praise of Folly, in Latin, closes his List with Words to the following Effect, “He also engraved several Things upon Wood, among which are his Scripture Cuts, and Dance of Death, vulgarly called Toden Tans; from which that Picture is not very different, which was painted from the Life by the Hand, as some think, of Holbein himself, and is enclosed by wooden Pallisadoes from Strangers in the Cemetery of the Predicants, in the Suburbs of St. John, at Basil:” And Prior takes it for so acknowledged a Fact that Holbein painted the well-known Dance of Death, that, in his Ode to the Memory of Colonel George Villiers, he thus alludes to it:

“In vain we think that free-will’d Man has Pow’r

To hasten or protract th’ appointed Hour.
Our Term of Life depends not on our Deed;
Before our Birth, our Fun’ral was decreed.
Nor aw’d by Foresight, nor misled by Chance,
Imperious Death directs the Ebon Lance,

Peoples great Henry’s Tombs, and leads up Holbein’s Dance.”

By “great Henry’s Tombs,” Henry the Seventh’s Chapel in Westminster-Abbey is meant.

To refute by minute Examination the several Errors in the above Citations, would be an almost endless Task; it is sufficient here to remark, that the Passage from Borbonius is too general to ascertain, whether he means a Dance of Death, or a single Figure; that Sandrart or Rubens’s Declaration is too far distant from the Time, to be of any great Weight; as is also Patin’s Assertion, that Holbein actually engraved the Imagines Mortis: And surely, if it had been either designed or engraven by him, Frellon, for whom so many Editions were printed, would not have failed to have mentioned it in some of them, when we find, that in the Editions of the Scripture Cuts, which he printed, he has inserted a Latin Poem of some Length, and also a Greek Epigram, both by Borbonius, with a Translation of this latter into Latin, all to prove, that the Cuts were the Work of Holbein. It is further to be observed (as one Reason for ascribing these Cuts to Holbein) that a Cut of the Imagines Mortis, which occurs P. 36 of this Edition, but the Mark is there purposely omitted, has to it in the original the Letters H L thus conjoined which Papillon asserts, is one of the Marks of Holbein; and Christian de Mechel, Engraver to the Elector Palatine, seems so well convinced of their being really at least designed by Holbein, that he has inserted the Dance of Death, as represented in the Imagines Mortis, among the rest of his Works, which he is now publishing; but the Number of Cuts there given, is no more than Forty-Six.

It were much to be wished that Mechel had informed us, from what he had copied the Dance of Death; whether, as he probably did, from Drawings; and, if so, where those Drawings were to be found, and on what further Evidence he had ventured to ascribe them to Holbein; for, as will presently appear, there is very great Reason, at least, for doubting the Fact, notwithstanding that the four first Cuts of the Imagines Mortis occur among the Cuts to the Old Testament, printed in 1539, and which we are told expressly in a Poem, and also in an Epigram, of Borbonius, prefixed to them, are of the Hand of Holbein; but whether by this we are to understand, that he designed or engraved them, or both, we are left to seek. After having thus ventured to question in general Terms, Holbein’s Title to the Merit of this Work, it is incumbent on me to shew on what my Doubts are founded, and this I am prepared to do; for, in the Dedication to the Edition of the Imagines Mortis, in 1538, is a Passage, of which I here insert a faithful Translation:

“To return then to our Cuts of Death, we now very justly regret the Death of him who has here designed such elegant Figures, exceeding as much all the Examples hitherto, as the Paintings of Apelles, or of Zeuxis, exceed the Moderns. For his sorrowful Histories, with their Descriptions severely verified, excite such Admiration in the Beholders, that they think the Figures of Death appear as if quite alive, and the Living as if dead. Which makes me think that Death, fearing that this excellent Painter would paint him so much alive, that he should no longer be feared as Death, and that, for this Reason, he himself would become immortal; for this very Cause hastened so much his Days, that he could not finish several other Cuts already by him traced, and among others that of the Waggoner overthrown and bruised under his overturned Waggon; the Wheels and Horses of which are there represented so frightfully, that as much Horror is occasioned to view their Downfall, as Delight to contemplate the Liquorishness of one Figure of Death, who is secretly sucking through a Reed the Wine from the emptied Cask: To which imperfect Histories, as well as to the inimitable Rainbow, no one has dared to put the last Hand.”

This Dedication is prefixed to the Edition of 1538, and speaks of the Designer (by which, I conceive, we must understand both Painter and Engraver, for it speaks of the Drawings of the unfinished ones as having been then already traced or drawn; and, if so, they might surely have been finished by the Engraver of the former ones) as then lately dead; now it is well known that Holbein did not die till 1554[19], and therefore it could not be he: And I would further observe, that the Mark is not peculiar to Holbein. Strutt, in his Biographical Dictionary of Engravers, Vol. II. P. 86, attributes it to one Hans Lederer, of whom he gives no Particulars; and the Catalogue of Marks and Cyphers of Engravers, P. 21. Edit. 1730, mentions one Lambrecht Hopfer, a German, but the Age in which he lived is not noticed, who used, as his Mark, sometimes a Vase of Flowers in the Midst of the Letters L H, and sometimes the perpendicular Stroke of the L in the second Stroke of the H, which is exactly as it appears in the Cut before referred to.

I have only to add, that the Cuts in the present Edition, excepting only the first (which, representing in the Original the Deity in the Habit of the Pope, to avoid giving Offence, it was thought proper to omit, and to substitute in its Room one designed for the Purpose) are engraven, and the Verses under them translated, from the Latin Edition of 1547; and that the additional Cuts, which appeared in the French Edition of 1562 (with the Omission only of four of Boys, as being foreign to this Subject) are here also inserted, and the Verses under them translated from the French.

The EDITOR.

March 24, 1789.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Anecdotes of Painting, 8vo. Vol. I. P. 123.

[2] As it may afford the Reader some Satisfaction to be informed particularly what Characters are represented in this Painting, we here give a List of them from Merian’s Engravings mentioned in the Text: At the Beginning is a Cut of Oecolompadius preaching; next follows one of a Charnel-House, and two Figures of Death piping; after which, in distinct Cuts, are given the Pope, Emperor, Empress, King, Queen, Cardinal, Bishop, Duke, Duchess, Count, Abbot, Knight, Lawyer, Magistrate, Canon, Physician, Gentleman, Lady, Merchant, Abbess, Cripple, Hermit, Young Man, Usurer, Maiden, Musician, Herald, Mayor, Grand Provost, Buffoon, Pedlar, Blind Man, Jew, Pagan, Female Pagan, Cook, Peasant, Painter, Painter’s Wife.

[3] History of Poetry, Vol. II. P. 54, in a Note.

[4] Anecdotes of Painting, 8vo. Vol. I. P. 123.

[5] History of Poetry, Vol. I. P. 210.

[6] Warton’s Hist. of Poetry, Vol. II. P. 54.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Formerly called Pardon Church-Yard, about which, says Weever, Ancient Funeral Monuments, 4to Edition, 1767, P. 168, “was artificially and richly painted, the Dance of Death commonly called the Dance of Paul’s; the Picture of Death leading all Estates.”

The above Jenken Carpenter was Executor to Sir Richard Whittington, and had a Licence granted him, Anno 1430, 8 Hen. VI. to establish upon the Charnel-House of St. Paul’s a Chaplain, to have eight Marks a Year.

Weever, ubi supra.

[9] Stow’s Survey of London, Edit. 4to. 1618, P. 616. An Engraving of it is inserted in Dugdale’s Hist. of St. Paul’s, Edit. 1658, P. 290, and under it are given Lydgate’s Verses, which he observes at the End he had translated,

“Not Word by Word, but following in Substance.”

The Characters, as may be collected from the Titles to the Verses, are the Pope, Emperor, Cardinal, King, Patriarch, Constable, Archbishop, Baron, Princess, Bishop, Squire, Abbot, Abbess, Bailiff, Astronomer, Burgess, Canon Secular, Merchant, Chartreux, Serjeant, Monk, Usurer, Physician, Amorous Squire, Gentlewoman, Man of Law, Mr. John Rekill Tregetour, [i. e. Jugler. See the Glossary to Urry’s Chaucer, Art. Treget] Parson, Juror, Minstrel, Labourer, Friar Minor, Child, Young Clerk, Hermit, the King eaten of Worms, Machabree the Doctor.—Dugdale, P. 132, says that Carpenter was a Citizen of London, and that the Painting at St. Paul’s was in Imitation of that in the Cloister adjoining to St. Innocent’s Church-Yard, in Paris.

[10] Warton’s History of Poetry, Vol. II. P. 54.

[11] Mr. Warton, in his Observations on Spenser, first Edit. P. 230, in a Note, says, that Macaber wrote a Description in Verse of a Procession, painted on the Walls of St. Innocent’s Cloister, at Paris, called the Dance of Death; so that in this Passage Mr. Warton must be supposed to understand that Macaber’s Verses were written posterior to that Painting. He further informs us, in the Additions and Corrections to the second Volume of his History of Poetry, that the earliest complete French Translation of these Verses was printed in 1499, but that a less perfect Edition had been before published in 1486, and that the French Rhymes in this last are said to be by Michel Marot. A Copy in French of La grande Danse de Macabre des Hommes et des Femmes, printed in 4to. at Troyes, for John Garnier, but without a Date, I have seen; and find from the Verses under each Cut, that the Characters are the Pope, Emperor, Cardinal, King, Legate, Duke, Patriarch, Constable, Archbishop, Knight, Bishop, Squire, Abbot, Bailiff, Astrologer, Burgess, Canon, Merchant, School-Master, Man of Arms, Chartreux, Serjeant, Monk, Usurer, Physician, Lover, Advocate, Minstrel, Curate, Labourer, Proctor, Gaoler, Pilgrim, Shepherd, Cordelier, Child, Clerk, Hermit, Adventurer, Fool. The Women are the Queen, Duchess, Regent’s Wife, Knight’s Wife, Abbess, Squire’s Wife, Shepherdess, Cripple, Burgess’s Wife, Widow, Merchant’s Wife, Bailiff’s Wife, Young Wife, Dainty Dame, Female Philosopher, New-married Wife, Woman with Child, Old Maid, Female Cordelier, Chambermaid, Intelligence-Woman, Hostess, Nurse, Prioress, Damsel, Country Girl, Old Chambermaid, Huckstress, Strumpet, Nurse for Lying-in Women, Young Girl, Religious, Sorceress, Bigot, Fool.

[12] Warton’s Hist. of Poetry, Vol. II. P. 53.

[13] Warton’s History of Poetry, Vol. II. P. 54.

[14] Ibid.

[15] It cannot be doubted that these additional Cuts are those mentioned in the Dedication to the Edition of 1538, as being then left unfinished, for, among them, is the Cut of the Waggoner there particularly described.

[16] Walpole’s Anecdotes of Painting, Vol. I. P. 123.

[17] Keysler, in his Travels before referred to, Vol. I. P. 171, speaking of the Dance of Death, at Basil, says, it is generally reputed to have been painted by Holbein, who had also drawn and painted a Death’s Dance, and had likewise painted, as it were, a Duplicate of this Piece on another House, but which Time has entirely obliterated. “However,” adds he, “for several Reasons the Death’s Dance near the French Church may be presumed not to be Holbein’s, but the Work of another Artist whose Name was Bock.”

[18] Warton’s Observations on Spenser, Vol. II. P. 117, in the Note.

[19] Walpole’s Anecdotes of Painting, Vol. I. P. 115.

The CREATION of the WORLD.

So God created Man in his own Image, in the Image of God created he him: Male and Female created he them.

Genesis i. 27.

In the Beginning, Heav’n and Earth,
And the resounding Sea,
God, by his Voice omnipotent,
From Nothing caus’d to be.

The human Race, the Image true
Of his divinest Mind,
Both Male and Female he did form
From lightest Earth we find.

SIN.

Because thou hast hearkened unto the Voice of thy Wife, and hast eaten of the Tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, &c.

Genesis iii. 17.

Against God’s Will the direful Fruit
Of the forbidden Tree
The Husband by his foolish Wife
To taste induc’d we see.

A grievous Death they both deserv’d
For this Offence so great,
And we, their Children, subject are
To the same Laws of Fate.

DEATH.

The Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the Ground, from whence he was taken.

Genesis iii. 23.

Th’ Almighty Father did expel
Man from his blessed Seat;
And to sustain his Life decreed
By his own proper Sweat:

Then, first, into the empty World,
Pale Death an Entrance gain’d;
And the same Pow’r o’er mortal Men,
Has ever since maintain’d.

The CURSE.

Cursed is the Ground for thy Sake; in Sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the Days of thy Life, &c.

Genesis iii. 17.

Curs’d be the Earth for thy Offence,
And barren be the Ground,
And full of Toil and Labour great,
Thy anxious Life be found;

Till Death thy lifeless Limbs replace
In Earth’s cold narrow Womb,
Then Dust, which at the first thou wert,
Thou quickly shalt become.

Woe, Woe, Woe to the Inhabiters of the Earth.

Revelations viii. 13.

All in whose Nostrils was the Breath of Life, of all that was in the dry Land, died.

Genesis vii. 22.

Woe, grievous Woe, to all who now
In this vile World abide;
For Times await you big with Grief,
And every Ill beside.

Though now to you a plenteous Share
Of Fortune’s Gifts may fall,
Pale Death will be, or soon or late,
A Visitant to all.

The POPE.

Until the Death of the High-Priest that shall be in those Days.

Joshua xx. 6.

And let another take his Office.

Psalm cix. 8.

Thou who, elated with Success,
Immortal claim’st to be,
From Men’s Affairs, in little Space,
Thyself remov’d shalt see.

Though now the great High-Priest thou art,
And in Rome’s See dost sit,
Soon shall thy Office, in thy Place,
A Successor admit.

The EMPEROR.

Set thine House in Order; for thou shalt die, and not live.

Isaiah xxxviii. 1.

There shalt thou die, and there the Chariots of thy Glory shall be the Shame of thy Lord’s House.

Isaiah xxii. 18.

Dispose thy Kingdom’s great Concerns
Intrusted to thy Care,
So that to pass to other Worlds
Thou quickly may’st prepare.

For when the Time shall come that thou
Shalt quit this mortal Throne,
Thy utmost Glory then shall be
A broken Car alone.

The KING.

He that is To-Day a King To-Morrow shall die.

Ecclesiasticus x. 10.

To him who this Day Sceptres sways,
In costly Pride a King,
To-Morrow’s Light, with baleful Speed,
A direful Fate will bring:

For, him who rules o’er Nations rich,
And pow’rful Kingdoms guides,
When Death his Office bids him quit,
No better Fate betides.

The CARDINAL.

Which justify the Wicked for Reward, and take away the Righteousness of the Righteous from him.

Isaiah v. 23.

Woe, grievous Woe, to you, who now
The impious Man caress;
Exalt the unjust to Height of Wealth,
The virtuous Man oppress.

Who seek the World’s fallacious Gifts
To gain without Delay,
And the true Path of Righteousness
Desire to take away.

The EMPRESS.

Those that walk in Pride he is able to abase.

Daniel iv. 37.

Ye, also, who in glitt’ring Pomp
Of haughty State are plac’d,
A Day shall see wherein yourselves
Of bitter Death shall taste:

For, as the Grass by Travellers
Is trodden on the Ground,
So Death shall tread you under Foot,
And all your Joys confound.

The QUEEN.

Rise up, ye Women that are at Ease; hear my Voice, ye careless Daughters; give Ear unto my Speech. Many Days and Years shall ye be troubled.

Isaiah xxxii. 9 & 10.

Hither, ye Ladies of Renown,
And Matrons rich, repair;
For Death to you now clearly tells,
A mortal Tribe ye are.

When the glad Years and empty Joys
Of this vain World are past,
The Pain of Death will sure disturb
Your Bodies frail at last.

The BISHOP.

I will smite the Shepherd, and the Sheep of the Flock shall be scattered abroad.

Matthew xxvi. 31. Mark xiv. 27.

The Pastor, void of all Defence,
My Pow’r, says Death, shall own;
By me, his Mitre and his Staff,
Shall to the Ground be thrown.

His Sheep, their Pastor thus remov’d,
By Death’s fell Pow’r, away,
Shall be dispersed ev’ry one,
To prowling Wolves a Prey.

The ELECTOR, or PRINCE of the Empire.

The Prince shall be clothed with Desolation, and the Hands of the People of the Land shall be troubled.

Ezekiel vii. 27.

Come, mighty Prince, now quick resign
Thy perishable Joys,
Thy fleeting Glory, and the rest
Of Earth’s delusive Toys.

Lo, I alone the Pride of Kings
Am able to repress;
The splendid Pomps of regal State
My Pow’r supreme confess.

The ABBOT.

He shall die without Instruction, and in the Greatness of his Folly he shall go astray.

Proverbs v. 23.

This Instant, Wretch, thou shalt depart,
Consign’d to mould’ring Dust;
Because thou knew’st not, only feign’dst,
The Wisdom of the Just.

The Abundance of thy Folly great,
Did blindly thee deceive,
And made thee seek the sinful Path,
Which thou could’st never leave.

The ABBESS.

Wherefore I praised the Dead which are already dead, more than the Living which are yet alive.

Ecclesiastes iv. 2.

Better it is to die than live,
I constantly have taught;
Since human Life with anxious Care,
And various Ills is fraught.

Ungrateful Death me now compels
The like sad Path to tread,
With those whom in the silent Grave
The Fates severe have laid.

The GENTLEMAN.

What Man is he that liveth, and shall not see Death? Shall he deliver his Soul from the Hand of the Grave?

Psalm lxxxix. 48.

What Man is he, however brave,
Of mightiest Pow’r possest,
Who in this mortal World shall live,
And Death shall never taste?

What Man is he who Death’s fell Dart,

Which conquers all, can brave?

Who his own Life, by Force or Skill,

From Death can hope to save?

The CANON.

Behold, the Hour is at Hand.

Matthew xxvi. 45.

By Crowds attended to the Choir
Thou now dost bend thy Way;
Come on, and, with suppliant Voice,
Thy humblest Homage pay:

For, thee the Fates do loud demand,
And instant Death does crave;
A Day, which no one can retard,
Shall force thee to the Grave.

The JUDGE.

I will cut off the Judge from the Midst thereof.

Amos ii. 3.

You who false Judgment do pronounce,
For filthy Lucre’s Sake,
From Midst of Crowds and Judgment-Seat,
I, Death, will quickly take.

To Fate’s just Laws ye must submit,
Nor ye, alone, contest
That pow’r which every Son of Man
Has hitherto confest.

The ADVOCATE.

A prudent Man foreseeth the Evil, and hideth himself: But the Simple pass on, and are punished.

Proverbs xxii. 3.

The crafty Man the Crime perceives,
The Guilty does protect;
The Cause of just but needy Men,
He ever does reject.

The Poor and Guiltless are oppress’d
By Justice’ vain Pretence,
And Gold, than Laws, is found to have
A greater Influence.

The COUNSELLOR, or MAGISTRATE.

Whoso stoppeth his Ears at the Cry of the Poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.

Proverbs xxi. 13.

The Rich and Wealthy readily
To Suiters rich give Ear,
And scorn the poor and needy Man,
His Pray’r refuse to hear:

But when themselves, in the last Hour,
To God shall earnest cry,
Their anxious Pray’rs he shall reject,
And their Request deny.

The CURATE, or PREACHER.

Woe unto them that call Evil Good, and Good Evil; that put Darkness for Light, and Light for Darkness; that put Bitter for Sweet, and Sweet for Bitter.

Isaiah v. 20.

Woe to you impious Hypocrites,
Who Evil Goodness term;
And Evil to be truly Good,
With equal Fraud affirm:

Who Dark for Light, with Falsehood great,
And Light for Dark embrace;
Bitter for Sweet who substitute,
And Sweet for Bitter place.

The PRIEST.

I myself also am a mortal Man, like to all.

Wisdom vii. 1.

The holy Sacrament, behold,
Celestial Gift, I bear,
The sick Man, at the Hour of Death,
With certain Hope to cheer.

Ev’n I myself am mortal too,
And the same Laws obey,
And shall like him, when Time shall come,
To Death be made a Prey.

The FRIAR MENDICANT.

Such as sit in Darkness, and in the Shadow of Death, being bound in Affliction and Iron.

Psalm cvii. 10.

Some Men, the World to circumvent
By Fraud and Falsehood try,
By feign’d Religion, Sin to hide
From ev’ry mortal Eye:

Of Piety an ardent love
They outwardly profess;
But inwardly they are the Sink
Of all Voluptuousness:

But when the End shall be at Hand,
They like Reward shall have,
And Death, by Myriads, shall mow down
The Wicked to the Grave.

The CANONESS.

There is a Way which seemeth Right unto a Man; but the End thereof are the Ways of Death.

Proverbs xiv. 12.

An Apostrophe to Death.

Why dost thou, pale and envious Death,

A sacred Maid affright?

Small Glory to thee can arise

From Victories so slight.

Go hence, let sick or aged Men
Thy fatal Dart employ;
But let this Virgin, innocent,
Life’s Pleasures long enjoy.

Pleasure and Joy her jocund Youth
Should ardently pursue;
The Pleasures of the Marriage-Bed
To her gay Youth are due.

The OLD WOMAN.

Death is better than a bitter Life or continual Sickness.

Ecclesiasticus xxx. 17.

Long has my Life most irksome been,
Oppress’d with Care and Pain;
No anxious Wish my Bosom fires
Here longer to remain.

My certain Judgment does pronounce,
Better to die than live;
For Death to Minds worn out with Care
Glad Peace and Rest will give.

The PHYSICIAN.

Physician, heal thyself.

Luke iv. 23.

Diseases well thou understand’st,
And cures canst well apply,
Which to the Sick, in Time of Need,
Will welcome Health supply.

But while, O dull and stupid Wretch,
Thou others Fates dost stay,
Thou’rt ignorant what fell Disease
Shall hurry thee away.

The ASTROLOGER.

Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or because the Number of thy Days is great?

Job xxxviii. 21.

Thou, by contemplating a Sphere
Which Heav’n’s bright Face does show,
Events which shall to others chance,
Pretendest to foreknow.

Tell me, if thou of Fates to come
A skilful Prophet art,
When to the Tomb the Hand of Death
Shall urge thee to depart?

Behold the Sphere, which to thy View
My Right-Hand now does hold,
By that the Fate which thou shalt find
May better be foretold.

The MISER.

Thou Fool, this Night thy Soul shall be required of thee: Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?

Luke xii. 20.

This Night shall Death, with Iron Hand,
Thee, griping Wretch, subdue;
And in the narrow Grave entomb’d,
To-Morrow thee shall view.

Therefore, when thou, of Life depriv’d,
Shalt far from hence be gone,
What Successor shall thy vast Heaps
Of endless Riches own?

The MERCHANT.

The getting of Treasures by a lying Tongue, is a Vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek Death.

Proverbs xxi. 6.

A foolish Part he sure pursues,
Who Wealth by Fraud and Lies
T’ accumulate, and num’rous Goods
To gain unjustly tries.

For Death entangled in the Snare,
To seize him shall not fail;
And these his Actions most unjust
Shall cause him to bewail.

The SHIPWRECK.

But they that will be rich, fall into Temptation, and a Snare, and into many foolish and hurtful Lusts, which drown Men in Destruction and Perdition.

1 Timothy vi. 9.

That worldly Goods they may procure,
And Wealth immense obtain,
Their Breasts Men hourly will expose,
Temptations to sustain.

But Men whom Dangers thus surround,
Fortune compels to bend
Their Footsteps to those beaten Paths
Which to Destruction tend.

The KNIGHT, or SOLDIER.

In a Moment shall they die, and the People shall be troubled at Midnight, and pass away: And the Mighty shall be taken away without Hand.

Job xxxiv. 20.

Against the Man who Wars excites,
And does mild Peace despise,
(Peace, that to all great Blessings brings)
The People shall arise:

To Courage only they shall trust,
This Tyrant fierce to tame;
And fall he shall, but by a Stroke
No human Hand shall aim;

For him who, to oppress Mankind,
Shall mighty Arms employ,
Resistless Death shall suddenly
By an ill Fate destroy.

The COUNT.

For when he dieth, he shall carry nothing away: His Glory shall not descend after him.

Psalm xlix. 17.

None of those Honours which the Great
And Mighty now attend,
When Death shall cast them from their Seat,
Shall to the Grave descend.

No Ensigns of a glorious Race
They thither shall convey,
Nor Titles high; for in the Grave
They nought but Dust shall be.

The OLD MAN.

My Breath is corrupt, my Days are extinct, the Graves are ready for me.

Job xvii. 1.

Exhausted Strength my feeble Nerves
No longer now does brace,
And, like a River’s rapid Stream,
My Life flows out apace.

The Time, which no One can recall,

How swift a Flight has ta’en!

And nothing but the silent Tomb

For me does now remain.

Tir’d of the Ills of a long Life,
And sick of all its Cares,
For speedy Death I now address
To Heav’n my anxious Pray’rs.

The COUNTESS.

They spend their Days in Wealth, and in a Moment go down to the Grave.

Job xxi. 13.

In num’rous Joys their rapid Life
The thoughtless Virgins waste,
And ev’ry Kind of Pleasure seek
With Eagerness to taste.

From Cares and Sorrow they are free,
No Thought their Minds to tire,
A vacant Life, full fraught with Bliss,
They earnestly desire.

But in the Grave they shall be laid,
By Death’s all-piercing Dart,
Where he their Pleasures exquisite
Shall into Grief convert.

The NEW-MARRIED COUPLE.

The Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but Death part thee and me.

Ruth i. 17.

This is true Love, and this alone,
Which Two in One conjoins,
And in Affection’s strongest Bands
And mutual Friendship binds.

This Union shall, alas! endure
By much too short a Time;
One Death severe can two divide
Whom Bands of Wedlock join.

The DUTCHESS.

Thou shalt not come down off that Bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.

2 Kings i. 16.

From the soft Bed, O youthful Maid,
Whereon thy Limbs now lie,
Permission ever to arise,
The cruel Fates deny:

For first shall Death thy lifeless Limbs
Subdue without Remorse,
And his fell Scythe shall to the Grave
Consign thy breathless Corse.

The PORTER.

Come unto me all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you Rest.

Matthew xi. 28.

Hither advance, ye weary Throng,
And quick my Steps attend,
Who under Loads of so great Weight,
With weary Shoulders bend.

Traffic and Gain your anxious Thoughts
Did long enough possess,
Your Breasts the Cares which these produce
No longer shall distress.

The PEASANT.

In the Sweat of thy Face shalt thou eat Bread.

Genesis iii. 19.

Bread for thyself, by Labour great,
Thou shalt thyself obtain;
And from the Ground, without great Toil,
No Sustenance shalt gain.

After long Use of Things below,
And num’rous Labours past,
Pale Death to all thy Cares and Toils
Shall put an End at last.

The CHILD.

Man that is born of a Woman, is of few Days, and full of Trouble. He cometh forth like a Flower, and is cut down: He fleeth also as a Shadow, and continueth not.

Job xiv. 1.

Man, who conceiv’d in the dark Womb,
Into the World is brought,
Is born to Times with Misery,
And various Evil fraught.

And as the Flow’r soon fades and dies,
However fair it be,
So sinks he also to the Grave,
And like a Shade does flee.

The SWISS SOLDIER.

When a strong Man armed keepeth his Palace, his Goods are in Peace. But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his Armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his Spoils.

Luke xi. 21, 22.

Undaunted and secure in Arms,
While Strength and Life remain,
The brave his Mansions, and his Wealth
In Safety shall maintain.

But Death with greater Force shall wage
Against him War ere long,
And, for the Grave, shall cause him quit
His Post, no longer strong.

The GAMESTERS.

For what is a Man profited, if he shall gain the whole World, and lose his own Soul?

Matthew xvi. 26.

If the destructive Art of Dice
Could Wealth immense insure,
Or Man the World by Dice could gain,
What Good would it procure?

His Soul this Practice will destroy,
Entangled in its Snare,
A Loss which no Art, Fraud, or Chance,
Is able to repair.

The DRUNKARDS.

And be not drunk with Wine, wherein is Excess.

Ephesians v. 18.

With Wine’s Excess your Souls to drench,
Ye mortal Throng, forbear;
For Luxury of every Kind,
And raging Lust is there.

Lest Death assail you unprepar’d,
Oppress’d with Sleep and Wine,
And, in a Vomit soul, your Souls
Compel you to resign.

The FOOL.

He goeth after her as an Ox goeth to the Slaughter, or as a Fool to the Correction of the Stocks.

Proverbs vii. 22.

No Life so sweet as to be mad,
And no one Thing to know;
But this is far remov’d from best,
As Mad-men’s Actions shew.

Secure of Fate the witless Fool
Like sportive Lambkins treads,
And knows not that his ev’ry Step
To Death’s sad Portals leads.

The THIEF.

O Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for me.

Isaiah xxxviii. 14.

Men to destroy with fell Intent,
The Thief by Night does rise;
But now to spoil an aged Dame
Of a full Basket tries.

I suffer Wrong, she cries, and God
Sends Death to her Relief,
Who, by the Hangman’s certain Gripe,
Strangles the greedy Thief.

The BLIND MAN.

If the Blind lead the Blind, both shall fall into the Ditch.

Matthew xv. 14.

The blind Man to a Guide as blind
Himself does here commit;
Both wanting Sight, they here descend
Into the fatal Pit.

For, while the Man does vainly hope
Success his Steps attends,
Into the Darkness of the Grave
He suddenly descends.

The CHARIOTEER.

And he sunk down in his Chariot.

2 Kings ix. 24.

The Charioteer, by Horses fierce,
Is rapid whirl’d along;
The Reins they scorn, while Fear of Death
Contends with Reason strong.

The rapid Wheel at length torn off,
The Axle overthrows;
While, from the Casks, the precious Wine
In copious Torrents flows.

The BEGGAR.

O wretched Man that I am, who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death?

Romans vii. 24.

He that from hence to be releas’d,
With Christ to live, desires,
Despises Death, and to the Stars
In Words like these aspires:

Who from this mortal Body will
Me wretched Man release;
And snatch me Wretch! from this vile World,
To Realms of purest Peace?

The HUSBAND.

What taketh away the Life? Even Death.

Ecclesiasticus xxxi. 27[20].

Remember that Death will not be long in coming.

Ecclesiasticus xiv. 12.

The Tyrant Death, O Husband fond,
The worst of all its Foes,
Is to our Life and its short Course,
With constant Steps pursues.

Reflect then in thy Prime of Life
(Life’s transitory Day)
That to thy End it thee conducts
By gradual Decay.

[20] The Original of this Passage has no corresponding Words in the Translation of the Bible now in Use, and the above is therefore inserted from the former Translation.

The WIFE.

Of the Woman came the Beginning of Sin, and through her we all die.

Ecclesiasticus xxv. 4.

From Eve, the Mother of Mankind,
Our Parent Adam’s Wife,
Sprang Sin, and thence fell Death arose,
The Enemy of Life.

Let not, howe’er, thy tender Mind
To Grief a Victim fall,
If Death should thee to quit this World,
Like other Mortals, call.

The LAST JUDGMENT.

We shall all stand before the Judgment-Seat of Christ.

Romans xiv. 10.

Watch therefore, for ye know not what Hour your Lord doth come.

Matthew xxiv. 42.

For all his Actions to account,
By God’s express Command,
Each Man before the Judgment-Seat
Of the just Judge shall stand.

Let us be therefore vigilant,
Lest, when that Time shall come,
God, for our Actions, should pronounce
A just but angry Doom.

And since when that Hour shall arrive,
No Mortal can declare;
For its Approach the pious Man
Will watch and well prepare.

Whatsoever thou takest in Hand, remember the End, and thou shalt never do amiss.

Ecclesiasticus vii. 36.

Spotless to live if thou desir’st,
And free from every Vice,
Let this Memorial constantly
Be placed before thine Eyes.

For it will often thee remind,
That Death will soon arrive,
And frequent Thought to all thy Acts
Will a due Caution give.

Vouchsafe, O Christ, with Heart sincere,
That we thy Paths may tread,
And that to all the heav’nly Path
May thus be open made.

As by one Man Sin entered into the World, and Death by Sin; and so Death passed upon all Men, for that all have sinned.

Romans v. 12.

FINIS.

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Table of Contents

- EMBLEMS OF MORTALITY;

- PREFACE.

- FOOTNOTES

- The CREATION of the WORLD.

- SIN.

- DEATH.

- The CURSE.

- The POPE.

- The EMPEROR.

- The KING.

- The CARDINAL.

- The EMPRESS.

- The QUEEN.

- The BISHOP.

- The ELECTOR, or PRINCE of the Empire.

- The ABBOT.

- The ABBESS.

- The GENTLEMAN.

- The CANON.

- The JUDGE.

- The ADVOCATE.

- The COUNSELLOR, or MAGISTRATE.

- The CURATE, or PREACHER.

- The PRIEST.

- The FRIAR MENDICANT.

- The CANONESS.

- The OLD WOMAN.

- The PHYSICIAN.

- The ASTROLOGER.

- The MISER.

- The MERCHANT.

- The SHIPWRECK.

- The KNIGHT, or SOLDIER.

- The COUNT.

- The OLD MAN.

- The COUNTESS.

- The NEW-MARRIED COUPLE.

- The DUTCHESS.

- The PORTER.

- The PEASANT.

- The CHILD.

- The SWISS SOLDIER.

- The GAMESTERS.

- The DRUNKARDS.

- The FOOL.

- The THIEF.

- The BLIND MAN.

- The CHARIOTEER.

- The BEGGAR.

- The HUSBAND.

- The WIFE.

- The LAST JUDGMENT.

- THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE