In Dugdale’s History of St. Paul’s, and also in the Monasticon, there is a single etching by Hollar of Death leading all ranks of people. It is only an improved copy of an old wood-cut in Lydgate’s works, already mentioned in p. [52], and which is altogether imaginary, not being taken from any real series of the Dance.
VI. “Varii e veri ritratte della morte disegnati in immagini, ed espressi in Essempii al peccatore duro di cuore, dal padre Gio. Battista Marmi della compagnia de Giesu.” Venetia, 1669, 8vo. It has several engravings, among which are the following, after the original designs. 1. Queen. 2. Nobleman. 3. Merchant. 4. Gamblers. 5. Physician. 6. Miser. The last five being close copies from the same subjects, in the Basle edit. 1769, No. V. of the copies in wood.
VII. “Theatrum mortis humanæ tripartitum. I. Pars. Saltum Mortis. II. Pars. Varia genera Mortis. III. Pars. Pænas Damnatorum continens, cum figuris æneis illustratum.” Then the same repeated in German, with the addition “Durch Joannem Weichardum Valvasor. Lib. Bar. cum facultate superiorum, et speciali privilegio Sac. Cæs. Majest. Gedrucht zu Laybach, und zu finden ben Johann Baptista Mayr, in Saltzburg. Anno 1682. 4to.” Prefixed is an engraved frontispiece representing a ruined arch, under which is a coffin, and before it the King of Terrors between two other figures of Death mounted respectively on an elephant and camel. In the foreground, Adam and Eve, tied to the forbidden tree of knowledge, between several other Deaths variously employed. Two men digging graves, &c. Underneath, “W. inven. W. excud. Jo. Koch del. And. Trost sculp. Wagenpurgi in Carniola.” It is the first part only with which we are concerned. The artist, with very little exception, has followed and reversed the spurious wood-cuts of 1555, by
. To the groups of boys he has added a Death leading them on.
VIII. “De Doodt vermaskert met des werelts ydelheyt afghedaen door Geeraerdt Van Wolschaten.” This is another edition of No. IX. of the original wood-cuts, here engraved on copper. The text is the same as that of 1654, with the addition of seven leaves, including a cut of Death leading all ranks of men. In that of the Pedler the artist has introduced some figures in the distance of the original soldier. Among other variations the costume of the time of William III. is sometimes very ludicrously adopted, especially in the frontispiece, where the author is represented writing at a desk, and near him two figures of a man in a full bottom wig, and a woman with a mask and a perpendicular cap in several stories, usually called a Fontange, both having skeleton faces. At bottom, the mark
. This edition was printed at Antwerp by Jan Baptist Jacobs, without date, but the privilege has that of 1698. 12mo.
IX. “Imagines Mortis, or the Dead Dance of Hans Holbeyn, painter of King Henry the VIII.” This title is on a copper-plate within a border, and accompanied with nineteen etchings on copper, by Nieuhoff Piccard, a person who will be more particularly adverted to hereafter. They consist of, 1. The emblem of Mortality. 2. The temptation. 3. The expulsion from Paradise. 4. Adam digging, Eve spinning. 5. Concert of Deaths. 6. The Infant. 7. The new married couple. 8. The Duke. 9. The Advocate. 10. The Abbot. 11. The Monk. 12. The Abbess. 13. The Soldier. 14. The Merchant. 15. The Pedler. 16. The Fool. 17. The Blind Man. 18. The Old Woman. 19. The Old Man. The designs, with some occasional variations, correspond with those in the original wood-cuts. The plates of these etchings must have passed into the hands of some English printsellers, as broken sets of them have not long since been seen, one only of which, namely, that of the Temptation, had these lines on it:
“All that e’er had breath
Must dance after Death.”