It may be necessary in the next place to make some further enquiry respecting the connection that Holbein is supposed to have had _at any time_ with the subject of the Dance of Death.

The numerous errors that have been fallen into in making Holbein a participator in any manner whatever with the old Basle Macaber Dance, have been already noticed, and are indeed not worth the trouble of refuting. It is wholly improbable that he would interfere with so rude a piece of art; nor has his name been recorded among the artists who are known to have retouched or repaired it. The Macaber Dance at Basle, or any where else, is, therefore, with respect to Holbein, to be altogether laid aside; and if the argument before deduced from the important dedication to the edition of the justly celebrated wood-cuts published at Lyons in 1538 be of any value, his claim to their invention, at least to those in the first edition, must also be rejected.[124] There is indeed but very slight evidence, and none contemporary, that he painted any Dance of Death at Basle. The indefinite statements of Bishop Burnet and M. Patin, together with those of the numerous and careless travellers who have followed blind leaders, and too often copied each other without the means or inclination of obtaining correct information, are deserving of very little attention. The circumstance of Holbein's having painted a Dance of Peasants somewhere in the above city, in conjunction with the usual mistake of ascribing to him the old Macaber Dance, seems to have occasioned the above erroneous statements as to a Dance of Death by his pencil. It is hardly possible that Zuinger, almost a contemporary, when describing the Dance of Peasants and other paintings by Holbein at Basle would have omitted the mention of any Dance of Death:[125] but even admitting the former existence of such a painting, it would not constitute him the inventor of the designs in the Lyons work. He might have imitated or copied those designs, or the wood-cuts themselves, or perhaps have painted subjects that were different from either.

We are now to take into consideration some very clear and important evidence that Holbein actually _did paint a Dance of Death_. This is to be found in the _Nugae_ of Borbonius in the following verses:

_De morte picta a Hanso pictore nobili._

Dum mortis Hansus pictor imaginum exprimit, Tanta arte mortem retulit, ut mors vivere Videatur ipsa: et ipse se immortalibus Parem Diis fecerit, operis hujus gloria.[126]

It has been already demonstrated that these lines could not refer to the old painting of the Macaber Dance at the Dominican convent, whilst, from the important dedication to the edition of the wood-cuts first published at Lyons in 1538, it is next to impossible that that work could then have been in Borbonius's contemplation. It appears from several places in his Nugae that he was in England in 1535, at which time Holbein drew his portrait in such a manner as to excite his gratitude and admiration in another copy of verses.[127] This was probably the chalk drawing still preserved in the fine collection of portraits of the eminent persons in the court of Henry VIII. formerly at Kensington, and thence removed to Buckingham House, and which has been copied in an elegant wood-cut, that first appeared in the edition of the Paidagogeion of Borbonius, Lyons, 1536, and afterward in two editions of his Nugae. It is inscribed NIC.

BORBONIVS VANDOP. ANNO aeTATIS XXXII. 1535. He returned to Lyons in 1536, and it is known that he was there in 1538, when he probably wrote the complimentary lines in Holbein's Biblical designs a short time before their publication, either out of friendship to the painter, or at the instance of the Lyons publisher with whom he was certainly connected.

Now if Borbonius, during his residence at Lyons, had been assured that the designs in the wood-cuts of the Dance of Death were the production of Holbein, would not his before-mentioned lines on that subject have been likewise introduced into the Lyons edition of it, or at least into some subsequent editions, in none of which is any mention whatever made of Holbein, although the work was continued even after the death of that artist? The application, therefore, of Borbonius's lines must be sought for elsewhere; but it is greatly to be regretted that he has not adverted to the place where the painting, as he seems to call it, was made.

Very soon after the calamitous fire at Whitehall in 1697, which consumed nearly the whole of that palace, a person calling himself T. Nieuhoff Piccard, probably belonging to the household of William the Third, and a man who appears to have been an amateur artist, made the etchings in the article IX. already described in p. 130. Copies of them were presented to some of his friends, with manuscript dedications to them. Three of these copies have been seen by the author of this Dissertation, and as the dedications differ from each other, and are of very considerable importance on the present occasion, the following extracts from them are here translated and transcribed:

"TO MYNHEER HEYMANS.

"Sir,--The costly palace of Whitehall, erected by Cardinal Wolsey, and the residence of King Henry VIII. contains, among other performances of art, a _Dance of Death_, painted by Holbein in its galleries, which, through an unfortunate conflagration, has been reduced to ashes; and even the little work which he has engraved with his own hand, and which I have copied as near as possible, is so scarce, that it is known only to a few lovers of art. And since the court has thought proper, in consideration of your singular deserts, to cause a dwelling to be built for you at Whitehall, I imagined it would not be disagreeable to you to be made acquainted with the former decorations of that palace. It will not appear strange that the artist should have chosen the above subject for ornamenting the _royal_ walls, if we consider that the founder of the Greek monarchy directed that he should be daily reminded of the admonition, 'Remember, Philip, that thou art a man.' In like manner did Holbein with his pencil give tongues to these walls to impress not only the king and his court, but every one who viewed them with the same reflection."

He then proceeds to describe each of the subjects, and concludes with some moral observations.

In another copy of these etchings the dedication is to

"The high, noble, and wellborn Lord William Benting, Lord of Rhoon, Pendreght, &c."

"Sir,--In the course of my constant love and pursuit of works of art, it has been my good fortune to meet with that scarce little work of Hans Holbein neatly engraved on wood, and which he himself had painted as large as life in fresco on the walls of Whitehall. In the copy which I presume to lay before you, as being born in the same palace, I have followed the original as nearly as possible, and considering the partiality which every one has for the place of his birth, a description of what is remarkable and curious therein and now no longer existing on account of its destruction by a fatal fire, must needs prove acceptable, as no other remains whatever have been left of that once so famous court of King Henry VIII. built by Cardinal Wolsey, than your own dwelling."

He then repeats the story of Philip of Macedon, and the account of the subjects of his etchings.

At the end of this dedication there is a fragment of another, the beginning of which is lost. The following passages only in it are worthy of notice. "The residence of King William." "I flatter myself with a familiar acquaintance with Death, since I have already lived long enough to seem to be buried alive, &c." In other respects, the same, in substance, as the preceding.

It is almost needless to advert to M. Nieuhoff Piccard's mistake in asserting that Holbein made the engravings which he copied; but it would have been of some importance if, instead of his pious ejaculations, he had described all the subjects that Holbein painted on the walls of the galleries at Whitehall. He must have used some edition of the wood-cuts posterior to that of 1545, which did not contain the subjects of the German soldier, the fool, and the blind man, all of which he has introduced. It is possible, however, that he has given us all the subjects that were then remaining, the rest having become decayed or obliterated from dampness and neglect, and even those which then existed would soon afterwards perish when the remains of the old palace were removed. His copies are by no means faithful, and seem to be rather the production of an amateur than of a regular artist. For his greater convenience, he appears to have preferred using the wood engravings instead of the paintings; and it is greatly to be regretted that we have no better or further account of them, especially of the time at which they were executed. The lives of Holbein that we possess are uniformly defective in chronological arrangement. There seems to be a doubt whether the Earl of Arundel recommended him to visit England; but certain it is that in the year 1526 he came to London with a letter of that date addressed by Erasmus to Sir Thomas More, accompanied with his portrait, with which More was so well satisfied that he retained him at his house at Chelsea upwards of two years, until Henry VIII. from admiration of his works, appointed him his painter, with apartments at Whitehall. In 1529 he visited Basle, but returned to England in 1530. In 1535 he drew the portrait of his friend Nicholas Bourbon or Borbonius at London, probably the before-mentioned crayon drawing at Buckingham House, or some duplicate of it. In 1538 he painted the portrait of Sir Richard Southwell, a privy counsellor to Henry VIII. which was afterwards in the gallery of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.[128] About this time the magistrates of the city of Basle settled an annuity on him, but conditionally that he should return in two years to his native place and family, with which terms he certainly did not comply, preferring to remain in England. In the last-mentioned year he was sent by the king into Burgundy to paint the portrait of the Duchess of Milan, and in 1539 to Germany to paint that of Anne of Cleves. In some household accounts of Henry VIII. there are payments to him in 1538, 1539, 1540, and 1541, on account of his salary, which appears to have been thirty pounds per annum.[129] From this time little more is recorded of him till 1553, when he painted Queen Mary's portrait, and shortly afterwards died of the plague in London in 1554.

In the absence of positive evidence it may surely be allowed to substitute probable conjecture; and as it cannot be clearly proved that Holbein painted a Dance of Death at Basle, may not the before-mentioned verses of Borbonius refer to his painting at Whitehall, and which the poet must himself have seen? It is no objection that Borbonius remained a year only in England, when his portrait was painted by his friend Holbein in 1535, or that the verses did not make their appearance till 1538, for they seem rather to fix the date of the painting, if really belonging to it, between those years; and it is not unreasonable to suppose that Borbonius would hold some intercourse with the painter, even after leaving England, as is indeed apparent from other compliments bestowed on him in his Nugae, the contents of which are by no means chronologically arranged, and many of the poems known to have been written long before their publication. The lines in question might have been written any where, and at any time, and this may be very safely stated until the real time in which the Whitehall painting was made shall be ascertained.

In one of Vanderdort's manuscript catalogues of the pictures and rarities transported from St. James's to Whitehall, and placed there in the newly erected cabinet room of Charles I. and in which several works by Holbein are mentioned, there is the following article: "A little piece where Death with a green garland about his head, stretching both his arms to apprehend a Pilate in the habit of one of the spiritual Prince Electors of Germany.

Copied by Isaac Oliver from Holbein."[130] There cannot be a doubt that this refers to the subject of the Elector, as painted by Holbein in the Dance of Death at Whitehall, proving at the same time the identity of the painting with the wood-cuts, whatever may be the inference.

Sandrart, after noticing a remarkable portrait of Henry VIII. at Whitehall, states, that "there yet remains in that palace _another work_ by Holbein that constitutes him the Apelles of the time."[131] This is certainly very like an allusion to a Dance of Death.

It is by no means improbable that Mathew Prior may have alluded to Holbein's painting at Whitehall, as it is not likely that he would be acquainted with any other.

Our term of life depends not on our deed, Before our birth our funeral 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.

_Ode to the Memory of George Villiers._

CHAPTER X.

_Other Dances of Death._

Having thus disposed of the two most ancient and important works on the subject in question, others of a similar nature, but with designs altogether different, and introduced into various books, remain to be noticed, and such are the following:

I. "Les loups ravissans fait et compose par maistre Robert Gobin prestre, maistre es ars licencie en decret, doyen de crestiente de Laigny sur Marne au dyocese de Paris, advocat en court d'eglise. Imprime pour Anthoine Verard a Paris, 4to." without date, but about 1500. This is a very bitter satire, in the form of a dream, against the clergy in general, but more particularly against Popes John XXII. and Boniface VIII. A wolf, in a lecture to his children, instructs them in every kind of vice and wickedness, but is opposed, and his doctrines refuted, by an allegorical personage called Holy Doctrine. In a second vision Death appears to the author, accompanied by Fate, War, Famine, and Mortality. All classes of society are formed into a Dance, as the author chooses to call it, and the work is accompanied with twenty-one very singular engravings on wood, executed in a style perhaps nowhere else to be met with. The designs are the same as those in the second Dance of the Horae, printed by Higman for Vostre, No. I. page 61.

II. "A booke of Christian prayers, collected out of the ancient writers, &c." Printed by J. Day, 1569. 4to. Afterwards in 1578, 1581, 1590, and 1609. It is more frequently mentioned under the title of "Queen Elizabeth's prayer-book," a most unsuitable title, when it is recollected how sharply this haughty dame rebuked the Dean of Christchurch for presenting a common prayer to her which had been purposely ornamented with cuts by him.[132] This book was most probably compiled by the celebrated John Fox, and is accompanied with elegant borders in the margins of every leaf cut in wood by an unknown artist whose mark is [monogram: CI], though they have been most unwarrantably ascribed to Holbein, and even to Agnes Frey, the wife of Albert Durer, who is not known with any certainty to have practised the art of engraving. At the end is a Dance of Death different from every other of the kind, and of singular interest, as exhibiting the costume of its time with respect to all ranks and conditions of life, male and female.

These are the characters. "The Emperor, the King, the Duke, the Marques, the Baron, the Vicount, the Archbishop, the Bishop, the Doctor, the Preacher, the Lord, the Knight, the Esquire, the Gentleman, the Judge, the Justice, the Serjeant at law, the Attorney, the Mayor, the Shirife, the Bailife, the Constable, the Physitian, the Astronomer, the Herauld, the Sergeant at arms, the Trumpetter, the Pursevant, the Dromme, the Fife, the Captaine, the Souldier, the Marchant, the Citizen, the Printers (in two compartments), the Rich Man, the Aged Man, the Artificer, the Husbandman, the Musicians (in two compartments), the Shepheard, the Foole, the Beggar, the Roge, of Youth, of Infancie." Then the females. "The Empresse, the Queene, the Princes, the Duchesse, the Countesse, the Vicountesse, the Baronnesse, the Lady, the Judge's Wife, the Lawyer's Wife, the Gentlewoman, the Alderman's Wife, the Marchantes Wife, the Citizen's Wife, the Rich Man's Wife, the Young Woman, the Mayde, the Damosell, the Farmar's Wife, the Husbandman's Wife, the Countriwoman, the Nurse, the Shepheard's Wife, the Aged Woman, the Creeple, the Poore Woman, the Infant, the (female) Foole." All these are designed in a masterly manner, and delicately engraved. The figures of the Deaths occasionally abound in much humour, and always with appropriate characters. The names of the unknown artists were worthy of being recorded.

III. "Icones mortis, sexaginta imaginibus totidemque inscriptionibus insignitae versibus quoque Latinis et novis Germanicis illustratae.

Norimbergae Christ. Lockner, 1648, 8vo."[133]

IV. "Rudolph Meyers S: Todten dantz ergantz et und heraus gegeben durch Conrad Meyern Maalern in Zurich, im jahr 1650." On an engraved title page, representing an angel blowing a trumpet, with a motto from the Apocalypse.

Death or Time holds a lettered label with the above inscription or title.

In the back ground groups of small figures allusive to the last judgment.

Then follows a printed title "Sterbenspiegel das ist sonnenklare vorstellung menschlicher nichtigkeit durch alle Stand und Geschlechter: vermitlest 60 dienstlicher kupferblatteren lehrreicher uberschrifften und beweglicher zu vier stimmen auszgesetzter Todtengesangen, vor disem angefangen durch Rudolffen Meyern S. von Zurich, &c. Jetzaber zu erwekung nohtwendiger Todsbetrachtung verachtung irdischer eytelkeit; und beliebung seliger ewigkeit zuend gebracht und verlegt durch Conrad Meyern Maalern in Zurich und daselbsten bey ihme zufinden. Getruckt zu Zurich bey Johann Jacob Bodmer, MDCL." 4to. that is: The Mirror of Death--that is--a brilliant representation of human nothingness in all ranks and conditions, by means of 60 appropriate Copperplates, spiritual superscriptions, and moving songs of Death, arranged for four voices, formerly commenced by Rudolph Meyer of Zurich, &c. but now brought to an end and completed, for the awaking of a necessary consideration of death, a contempt of earthly vanity, and a love of blissful eternity, by _Conrad_ Meyer of Zurich, of whom they are to be had. Printed at Zurich, by John Jacob Bodmer, MDCL.

The subjects are the following:--1. The Creation. 2. The Fall. 3.

Expulsion from Paradise. 4. Punishment of Man. 5. Triumph of Death. 6. An allegorical frontispiece relating to the class of the Clergy. 6. The Pope.

7. The Cardinal. 8. The Bishop. 9. The Abbot. 10. The Abbess. 11. The Priest. 12. The Monk. 13. The Hermit. 14. The Preacher. 15. An allegorical frontispiece to the class of Rulers and Governors. 15. The Emperor. 16.

The Empress. 17. The King. 18. The Queen. 19. The Prince Elector. 20. The Earl and Countess. 21. The Knight. 22. The Nobleman. 23. The Judge. 24.

The Steward, Widow, and Orphan. 25. The Captain. 26. An allegorical frontispiece to the Lower Classes. 26. The Physician. 27. The Astrologer.

28. The Merchant. 29. The Painter and his kindred: among these the old man is Dietrich Meyern; the painter resembles the portrait of Conrad Meyern in Sandrart, and the man at the table is probably Rudolph Meyern. 30. The Handcraftsman. 31. The Architect. 32. The Innkeeper. 33. The Cook. 34. The Ploughman. 35. The Man and Maid Servant. 36. The old Man. 37. The old Woman. 38. The Lovers. 39. The Child. 40. The Soldier. 41. The Pedler. 42.

The Highwayman. 43. The Quack Doctor. 44. The Blind Man. 45. The Beggar.

46. The Jew. 47. The Usurer. 48. The Gamesters. 49. The Drunkards. 50. The Gluttons. 51. The Fool. 52. The Certainty of Death. 53. The Uncertainty of Death. 54. The Last Judgment. 55. Christ's Victory. 56. Salvation. 57.

True and False Religion.

The text consists chiefly of Death's apostrophe to his victims, with their remonstrances, verses under each subject, and various other matters. At the end are pious songs and psalms set to music. This work was jointly executed by two excellent artists, Rodolph and Conrad Meyer or Meyern, natives of Zurich. The designs are chiefly by Rodolph, and the etchings by Conrad, consisting of sixty very masterly compositions. The grouping of the figures is admirable, and the versatile representations of Death most skilfully characterized. Many of the subjects are greatly indebted to the Lyons wood engravings.

In 1657 and 1759 there appeared other editions of the latter, with this title, "Die menschliche Sterblichkeit under dem titel Todten Tanz in LXI original-kupfern, von Rudolf und Conrad Meyern beruhmten kunstmahlern in Zurich abermal herausgegeben, nebst neven, dazu dienenden, moralischen versen und veber schriften." That is, "Human mortality, under the title of the Dance of Death, in 61 original copper prints of Rudolf and Conrad Meyern, renowned painters at Zurich, to which are added appropriate moral verses and inscriptions." Hamburg and Leipsig, 1759, 4to. The prolegomena are entirely different from those in the other edition, and an elaborate preface is added, giving an account of several editions of the Dance of Death. Instead of the Captain, No. 25, the Ensign is substituted, and the Cook is newly designed. Some of the numbers of the subjects are misplaced.

The etchings have been retouched, and on many the date of 1637 is seen, which had no where occurred in the first edition here described.

In 1704 copies of 52 of these etchings were published at Augsburg, under the title of "Tripudium mortis per victoriam super carnem universae orbis terrae erectum. Ab A. C. Redelio S. C. M. T. P." on a label held by Death as before. Then the German title "Erbaulicher Sterb-Spiegel dast ist sonnen-klahre vorstellung menschlicher nichtigkeit durch alle stande und geschlechter: vermittelst schoner kupffern, lehr-reicher bey-schrifften und hertz-beweglich angehangter Todten-lieder ehmahls herauss gegeben durch Rudolph und Conrad Meyern mahlern in Zurch Anjetzo aber mit Lateinischen unterschrifften der kupffer vermehret und aussgezieret von dem Welt-beruhmten Poeten Augustino Casimiro Redelio, Belg. Mech. Sac.

Caes. Majest. L. P. Augsburg zu finden bey Johann Philipp Steudner.

Druckts, Abraham Gugger. 1704." 4to. That is, "An edifying mirror of mortality, representing the nullity of man through all stations and generations, by means of beautiful engravings in copper, instructive inscriptions, and heart-moving lays of Death, as an appendix to the work formerly edited by Rudolph and Conrad Meyern of Zurich, but now published with Latin inscriptions, and engravings augmented and renewed by the worldly renowned poet Augustin Casimir Redel, &c."

In this edition the Pope and all the other religious characters are omitted, probably by design. The etchings are very inferior to the fine originals, and without the name of the artist. The dresses are frequently modernised in the fashion of the time, and other variations are occasionally introduced.

V. "Den Algemeynen dooden Spiegel van Pater Abraham a Sancta Clara,"

_i. e._ The universal mirror of Death of Father Abraham a Sancta Clara. On a frontispiece engraved on copper, with a medallion of the author, and various allegorical figures. Then the printed title, "Den Algemeynen Dooden spiegel ofte de capelle der Dooden waer in alle Menschen sich al lacchende oft al weenende op recht konnen beschouwen verciert mer aerdige historien, Siu-rycke gedichten ende sedenleer-ende Beeldt-schetsen op gestelt door den eerweerdigen Pater Abraham a Sancta Clara Difinitor der Provincie van het order der ongeschoende Augustynen ende Predickant van syne Keyserlycke Majesteyt Leopoldus. Getrouwelyck overgeset vyt het hoogh-duyts in onse Nederduytsche Taele. Tot Brussel, by de Wed. G. Jacobs tegen de Baert-brugge in de Druckerye, 1730." 12mo. _i. e._ "The universal mirror of Death taken from the chapel of the dead; in which all men may see themselves properly, whether laughing or weeping, ornamented with pretty stories, spirited poems, and instructive prints, arranged by Father Abraham a Sancta Clara, of the Augustinian order, and preacher to his Imperial Majesty Leopold, and faithfully translated out of High Dutch into our Netherlandish language."

The work consists of sixty-seven engravings on wood within borders, and of very indifferent execution in all respects; the text a mixture of prose and poetry of a religious nature, allusive to the subjects, which are not uniformly a dance of Death. The best among them are the Painter, p. 45; the Drunkard, p. 75; the dancing Couple, Death playing the Flageolet, p.

103; the Fowler, p. 113; the hen-pecked Husband, p. 139; the Courtezan, p.

147; the Musician, p. 193; the Gamester, p. 221; and the blind Beggar, p.