THE ENGLISH DANCE OF DEATH.
SECOND VOLUME.
Plate 1. The Suicide.
Death smiles, and seems his dart to hide,
When he beholds the suicide.
Upon a rock-bound shore, whose jagged boulders come down to the deep, dashes a troubled sea, the waters of which are settling down after a tempest. Upon the foam floats the form of a drowned man; above is seen the figure of a female, forlorn and reckless, who has come to meet her future husband, and finds only his corpse—his life lost in a valiant effort to succour a sinking fellow-creature from a wreck.
The tidings to the bride were brought,
In frantic haste the spot she sought,
And viewing from the heights above
All that remain'd for her to love,
She darted headlong to the tide,
And on her Henry's bosom died.
Death is present at this moving scene, lolling at his ease on the rock from whence the maiden is plunging; his dart is affectedly put aside, and he is pretending to wipe away a sentimental tear.
Plate 2. Champagne, Sherry, and Water-Gruel.
Have patience, Death, nor be so cruel
To spoil the sick man's water-gruel.