No. XIX. "Hore beate Marie Virginis ad usum insignis ac preclare ecclesie Sarum cum figuris passionis mysterium representantibus recenter additis.

Impresse Parisiis per Johannem Bignon pro honesto viro Richardo Fakes, London, librario, et ibidem commorante cymeterie Sancti Pauli sub signo A.

B. C." 1521. A ledger-like 12mo. This Macaber Dance is unfortunately imperfect in the only copy of the book that has occurred. The figures that remain are those of the Pope, King, Cardinal, Patriarch, Judge, Archbishop, Knight, Mayor, and Earl.

Under each subject are Lydgate's verses, with some slight variation; and it is therefore very probable that we have here a copy, as to many of the figures, of the Dance that was painted at St. Paul's in compartments like the other Macaber Dance, and not as the group in Dugdale, which has been copied from a wood-cut at the end of Lydgate's "Fall of Prynces." As all the before-mentioned Horae were printed at Paris, with one exception only, and many of them at a very early period, it is equally probable that they may be copies of the Dance at the Innocents, unless a preference in that respect should be given to the figures in the French editions of the Danse Macabre.

Manuscript Horae, or books of prayers, which contain the Macaber Dance are in the next place deserving of our attention. These are extremely rare, and two only have occurred on the present occasion.

1. A manuscript prayer book of the fifteenth century is very briefly described by M. Peignot,[88] which he states to be the only one that has come to his knowledge.

2. An exquisitely beautiful volume, in large 8vo. bound in brass and velvet. It is a Latin Horae, elegantly written in Roman type at the beginning of the 16th century. It has a profusion of paintings, every page being decorated with a variety of subjects. These consist of stories from scripture, sports, games, trades, grotesques, &c. &c. the several employments of the months, which have also the signs of the zodiac, are worth describing, there being two sets for each month.

January. 1. A man sitting at table, a servant bringing in a dish of viands. The white tablecloth is beautifully diapered. 2. Boys playing at the game called Hockey.

February. 1. A man warming himself by a fire, a domestic bringing in faggots. 2. Men and women at table, two women cooking additional food in the same apartment.

March. 1. A man pruning trees. 2. A priest confirming a group of people.

April. 1. A man hawking. 2. A procession of pilgrims.

May. 1. A gentleman and lady on the same horse.

2. Two pairs of lovers: one of the men plays on a flute, the other holds a hawk on his fist.

June. 1. A woman shearing sheep. 2. A bridal procession.

July. 1. A man with a scythe about to reap. He drinks from his leathern bottle. 2. Boys and girls at the sport called Threading the needle.

August. 1. A man reaping with a sickle. 2. Blind man's buff.

September. 1. A man sowing. 2. The games of hot cockles and ...

October. 1. Making wine. 2. Several men repairing casks, the master of the vineyard directing.

November. 1. A man threshing acorns to feed his hogs.

2. Tennis.

December. 1. Singeing a hog. 2. Boys pelting each other with snow balls.

The side margins have the following Danse Macabre, consisting as usual of two figures only. Papa, Imperator, Cardinalis, Rex, Archiepiscopus, Comestabilis, Patriarcha, Eques auratus, Episcopus, Scutarius, Abbas, Prepositus, Astrologus, Mercator, Cordiger, Satelles, Usurarius, Advocatus, Mimus, Infans, Heremita.

The margins at bottom contain a great variety of emblems of mortality.

Among these are the following:

1. A man presents a mirror to a lady, in which her face is reflected as a death's head.

2. Death shoots an arrow at a man and woman.

3. A man endeavouring to escape from Death is caught by him.

4. Death transfixes a prostrate warrior with a spear.

5. Two very grotesque Deaths, the one with a scythe, the other with a spade.

6. A group of five Deaths, four dancing a round, the other drumming.

7. Death on a bull, holding a dart in his hand.

8. Death in a cemetery running away with a coffin and pick-axe.

9. Death digging a grave for two shrouded bodies on the ground.

10. Death seizing a fool.

11. Death seizing the master of a family.

12. Death seizing Caillette, a celebrated fool mentioned by Rabelais, Des Periers, &c. He is represented in the French translation of the Ship of Fools.

13. Death seizing a beggar.

14. Death seizing a man playing at tennis.

15. Death striking the miller going to his mill.

16. Death seizing Ragot, a famous beggar in the reign of Louis XII. He is mentioned by Rabelais.

This precious volume is in the present writer's possession.

Other manuscripts connected with the Macaber Dance are the following:

1. No. 1849, a Colbert MS. in the King of France's library, appears to have been written towards the end of the fifteenth century, and is splendidly illuminated on vellum with figures of men and women led by Death, the designs not much differing from those in Verard's printed copy.

2. Another manuscript in the same library, formerly No. 543 in that of Saint Victor, is at the end of a small volume of miscellanies written on paper about the year 1520; the text resembles that of the immediately preceding article, and occasionally varies from the printed editions. It has no illuminations. These are the only manuscript Macaber Dances in the royal library at Paris.

3. A manuscript of the Dance of Death, in German, is in the library of Munich. See Dr. Dibdin's bibliographical Tour, vol. iii. 278; and Vonder Hagen's history of German poetry. Berlin, 1812, 8vo. p. 459. The date of 1450 is given to this manuscript on the authority of Docen in his Miscellanies, vol. ii. p. 148, and new Literary Advertizer for 1806, No.

22, p. 348. Vonder Hagen also states that Docen has printed it in his Miscellanies, p. 349-52, and 412-16.

4. A manuscript in the Vatican, No. 314. See Vonder Hagen, ubi supra, who refers to Adelung, vol. ii. p. 317-18, where the beginning and other extracts are given.

5. In the Duke de la Valliere's catal. No. 2801, is "La Danse Macabre par personnages, in 4to. Sur papier du xv siecle, contenant 12 feuillets."

In the course of this enquiry no manuscript, decorated with a regular series of a Dance of Death, has been discovered.

The Abbe Rive left, in manuscript, a bibliography of all the editions of the Macaber Dance, which is at present, with other manuscripts by the Abbe, in the hands of M. Achard, a bookseller at Marseilles. See Peignot, Diction. de Bibliologie, iii. 284.

The following articles, accompanied by letter-press, and distinguishable from single prints, appear to relate to the Macaber Dance.

1. The Dance and song of Death is among books licensed to John Awdeley.[89]

2. "The roll of the Daunce of Death, with pictures and verses upon the same," was entered on the Stationers' books, 5th Jan. 1597, by Thomas Purfort, sen. and jun. The price was 6_d._ This, as well as that licensed to Awdeley, was in all probability the Dance at St. Paul's.