PLATE XLVI.—THE FOOL.
Death is leading him away gaily, making him dance to the sound of a bagpipe. The Fool, ignorant without doubt of the catastrophe that awaits him, seems to be meditating some piece of mischief, which will probably be his last.
This dancing couple finish the procession, wherein Holbein has had the skill to unite a salutary moral with the gayest and liveliest sallies that form a singular contrast with the sadness of the subject.
Quasi agnus lasciviens, & ignorans quod ad vincula stultus trahatur. Prov. vii. 22.