THE DANCE OF MACABER. 69 Again, the number of the characters in Lyd-gate is much less than in the French,, being only thirty-five,, whilst the other contains seventy-six, and he has not only... Show more
THE DANCE OF MACABER. 69 Again, the number of the characters in Lyd-gate is much less than in the French,, being only thirty-five,, whilst the other contains seventy-six, and he has not only omitted several, but supplied their places with others; so that if these lines were inscribed under the painting at Saint Paul's, it must have differed materially from that at Saint Innocent's at Paris. Stowe, upon whose sole authority all the information concerning this painting depends, says, that on the north side of Saint Paul's church was a great cloister, environing a plot of ground, of old time called Pardon Church-yard, whereof Thomas More, Dean of Saint Paul's, was either the first builder, or a great benefactor, and was buried there. About this cloister was artificially and richly painted the Dance of Machabray, a Dance of Death commonly called the Dance of Paul's; the like xvhereof was painted about St. Innocent's cloister at Paris. The metres or poetry of this Dance were translated out of the French into English, by John Lydgate, Monk of Bury. He adds, that this was done at the expence of Jenken Carpenter*, in the reign of Henry the Vlth, so that the poem and the painting appear to have been finished about the same time. printed. See De Bure Bibliog. Instruct. No. 3109, and War-ton's Correct, and Add. to Vol. II. of Hist, of Engl. Poetry. * This Jenken Carpenter was town-clerk of London, 1430, and executor of Richard Whittington. Weever's Funeral Monum. p. 379, fo edition.
Show less
70 THE DANCE OF MACABER. In the year 1549, on the tenth of April, the whole of this cloister, together with the Dance of Death, the tombs, and monuments, was begun to be pnlled dow... Show more
70 THE DANCE OF MACABER. In the year 1549, on the tenth of April, the whole of this cloister, together with the Dance of Death, the tombs, and monuments, was begun to be pnlled down by command of the Duke of Somerset, so that nothing thereof was left but the bare plot of ground, which was afterwards converted into a garden for the petty Canons *. All the ancient Dances of Death, though evidently to be deduced from one original, differed very materially in the number and design of the characters. They uniformly appear to have been accompanied with Macaber's verses, or more probably with imitations of them. * Stowe's Survey. FINIS. London: Printed by 15. M'Millan, 3 ttow Street, Covent Garden.
Show less