“Guilleville, Pelerin de la vie humaine.” The pilgrim is conducted by Abstinence into a refectory, where he sees many figures of Death in the act of feeding several persons sitting at table. These are good people long deceased, who during their lives have been bountiful to their fellow-creatures. At the end, the pilgrim is struck by Death with two darts whilst on his bed.
Death kicking at a man, his wife, and child. From some book printed at Strasburg in the 16th century.
Death, as an ecclesiastic, sitting on the ground and writing in a book. Another Death holding an inscribed paper in one hand, seizes with the other a man pointing to a similar paper. The Deity in a cloud looking on. From the same book.
“Mors,” a Latin comedy, by William Drury, a professor of poetry and rhetoric in the English college at Douay. It was acted in the refectory of the college and elsewhere, and with considerable applause, which it very well deserved. There is as much, and sometimes more, wit and humour in it than are found in many English farces. It was printed at Douay, 1628, 12mo. with two other Latin plays, but not of equal interest.
A moral and poetical Drama, in eleven scenes, intitled, “Youth’s Tragedy, by T. S.” 1671 and 1707, 4to. in which the interlocutors are, Youth, the Devil, Wisdom, Time, Death, and the Soul. It is miserable stuff.
“La Historia della Morte,” Trevigi, 1674, 4to. four leaves only. It is a poem in octave stanzas. The author, wandering in a wood, is overwhelmed with tears in reflecting on the approach of Death and his omnipotent dominion over mankind. He is suddenly accosted by the king of terrors, who is thus described:
Un ombra mi coperse prestamente
Che mi fece tremar in cotal sorte
Ell’era magra, e longa in sua figura,
Che chi la vede perde gioco, e festa,
Dente d’acciaio haveva in bocca oscura,
Corna di ferro due sopra la testa
Ella mi fe tremar dalla paura, &c.
The work consists of a long dialogue between the parties. The author enquires of Death if he was born of father and mother. Death answers that he was created, by Jesus Christ, “che e signor giocondo,” with the other angels; that after Adam’s sin he was called Death. The author tells him that he seems rather to be a malignant spirit, and presses for some further information. He is referred to the Bible, and the account of David’s destroying angel:
Quando Roma per me fu tribulata
Gregorio videmi con suo occhio honesto
Con una spada ch’era insanguinata
Al castel de Sant Angelo chiamato
Da l’hora in qua cosi fu appellato.
This corresponds with the usual story, that during a plague Gregory saw an angel hovering over the castle, who, on the Pope’s looking up to him, immediately sheathed his flaming sword. More questions are then propounded by Death, particularly as to the use of his horns and teeth, and the curiosity of the author is most condescendingly gratified.