THE DANCE OF DEATH. land, in the church-yard formerly belonging to the convent of Dominicans, Svhich is said to have been painted at the instance of the fathers and prelates assisting at the grand council at Basil, in 1431, in memory of a plague which happened soon afterwards, and during its continuance. The name of the painter is unknown, and will probably ever remain so, for no dependence can be had upon vague conjectures of those who, without any authority, or even the smallest probability, have attempted to ascertain it. To refute, or even to mention the blunders which have been committed by most of the travellers who have described the town of Basil, when they discuss this subject, would fill a volume : it will be sufficient to notice an assertion of Keysler, that the painting was executed by Hans Bok, a celebrated painter of this place, who, however, from the testimony of Scheutzer, in his Itinerary, was not born till 1584. From some inscriptions on the spot it appears to have been retouched, or perhaps renewed, in 1566 and 1616; the first time probably by Hans Klauber, whose name occurs in the lines addressed by Death to the Painter. It has been frequently supposed that the Basil painting was the first qf the kind; but this is extremely doubtful, from the knowledge we have of many others of apparently equal antiquity.