Ffor deth wyl come; dovtles he wyl not long tarry.
Of what estate ȝe be, ȝovng or wold,
That redyth vppon þis dredful storrye,
As in a myrrovr her ȝe may be-holde
The ferful ende of al your joy & glorie;
Therfor þis mater redvs vs to yovr memory:—
Ȝe þat syttyþ nowe hye vppon þe whele,
Thynke vppon yovr end, & alle schal be we[le].
The MS. is in Lord Harlech’s library at Brogyntyn (formerly Porkington) near Oswestry, Salop.
[Page 28.] MS. Balliol 354. l. 48. Go to seynt Poulis, & see þer the portratowre. Cf. Stow, Survey of London, 1598: ‘There was also one great cloister on the north side of this church (St. Paul’s), environing a plot of ground, of old time called Pardon churchyard . . . About this cloister was artificially and richly painted the Dance of Machabray, or Dance of Death, commonly called the Dance of Paul’s; the like whereof was painted about St. Innocent’s cloister at Paris, in France. The metres or poesy of this dance were translated out of French into English by John Lidgate, monk of Bury, and with the picture of death leading all estates, painted about the cloister, at the special request and in the dispence of Jenken Carpenter, in the reign of Henry V.’