The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-09-24
TCornhlll Magazine.

1T IS an open Y teStloH WHoehel 'aihei"S
or poetry can claim priority in treating
it, and may be traced to Il very early
date in both the sister arts. The trouba-
dour Thibaut de Montmorency. Seig-
neur of Marty, who took the cross in
1850 and afterward became monk,
wrote some powerful stanzas containing
many of the ideas of the popular allegory,
and similar poem was written by a Ger
man named Regenbogen in the following
century. These compositions, however,
have not all the characteristic features OF
the 'Danse Macabre," and it is in Spain
that we find the earliest complete liter
ary treatment of the subject. The "Dansa
General de la Muerte," composed by Rabi
Don Santa in the fourteenth century, is
dialogue in which Death, according to
the prescribed formula, invites partner
in due order from each of the grades in
social hierarchy, and receives answers
varying according to the characters so
addressed. Exactly similar in construc-
ton is an anonymous Italian poem,
'El Ballo della Morte," ascribed to the
fifteenth century, found in the Riccar-
diana Library of Florence, and recently,
published, for the first time, by Signor
Pietro Vigo, in his exhaustive little mon
ouraph, lie Dame Macabre in Italia"
In a tone of mocking irony Death ad-
dresses a stanza to each OF the person
ages, who reply with remonstrances and
lamentations, or with cheerful acquies-
cence, according as they have been in a
position to enjoy more or less the good
things of this world. The opening moral
is spoken in the Italian poem in the per-
son of Philosophy, in the Spanish in that
of a preacher, and both compositions
probably formed the text Of dramatic
representations, recited in character on
the stage. There was, however, fresco
of the "Dance of Death more venerable
than either of these quaint ballads, as the
subject was depicted on the wall OF a
nunnery, built in 1874, at Klingen lhal
opposite Basle, follower of Rodolph OF
Hapsburg. One of the groups bore the
date of 1912, and the engravings made Of
of the series in 1855 are still preserved
in the library of Basle. They suggested
no doubt, the original idea OF the famous
frescoes which adorned the Dominican
cemetery in the latter place, and which
are supposed to have been painted il
1440, by order of the Council then sit
ting in commemoration of the ravages o1
the plague in the preceding year. This
the most celebrated of all similar
works, exists no longer in its origina
form, as it was deliberately destroyed b,
the mob during an emeute in 1905. L
contained ninety-two figures in forty-twc
groups, and the Pope, Emperor an(
King introduced in it were portraits re
spectively of Felix V, Sigismund, ant
Albert II, King of the Romans. Man,
engravings of it are extant, and Hol
beiE's well-known series is a modiiica
ton of the theme suggested by it. He
however, gave it a greater variety, b.
treating it from purely artistic point O
view, and abandoning the rigid uniform
, ity of design that tradition had previousl
imposed. The most striking of his group
are those in one of which mounted an
: mail clad knight is doing battle with
, skeleton, and in the other, known 6
death and the Countess" lovely lad
is having her toilet completed by he
= maid, while the spectral anatomy croucl
t ing behind her throws necklace of bon'
. over her fair neck. La Mart de Ba
d passed into a sort of popular proverb,
;, much so as to be invoked as deus e
e machina to carry off troublesome or oI
/ noxious relatives, like the accidente, {
r death by apoplexy, of the Italians.