DANCE
617
DANCE
don in 451, and subscribed the letter of the bishops of The invitation is not regarded with favour and vari-
the province to Emperor Leo I in 458, and Eulogius, ous reasons are given for declining it, but these are
presentat the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 found insufficient and finally death leads away his
(Lequien, Or. Christ., Ill, 847). To-day Danaba is victim. A second messenger then seizes the hand of a
probably represented by Hafer, a village five miles new victim, a prince or a cardinal, who is followed by
south-east of Sadad, in the vilayet of Damascus, others representing the various classes of society, the
About 300 Jacobite Syrians live there, most of whom usual number being twenty-four. The play was fol-
have recently been
converted to Cath-
olicism (Jullien,
Sinai et Syrie,
Lille, 1893, 199).
S. Petrides.
Dance of
Death (Fn-nch,
Dance Manilirc,
Gcrm.Todtcntiinz).
— The "Dance of
Death" Wiis origi-
nally a species of
spectacular play
akintothcEngli.sh
moralities. It ha.s
been traced hack
to the middle of
the fourteenth
century. The
epidemics so fre-
quent and so de-
structive at the
Death and th
Death and the Married Couple
lowed by a second
sermon reinforc-
ing the lesson of
tli(> representa-
tion.
The o 1 d e st traces of these plays are found in (icrmany, but we have the Spanish text fur ;i similar dramatic perform- ance dating back to the year KiGO, " La Danza Gen- ital de la Muerte". We read of similar 'Iramatic repre- sentations else- wlicre: in Bruges Ixfim'DukePhiHp the Good of Bur- gundy in 1449; in 1453 at Besangon,
time, such as the Black Death, brought before pop- and in France in the Cimetiere des Innocents near
ular imagination the subject of death and its imi- Paris in 1424. That similar spectacles were known
vcrsal sway. The dramatic movement then develop- in England we infer from John Lydgate's " Dance of
ing led to its treatment in the dramatic form. In Death" written in the first half of the fifteenth
these plays Death appeared not as the destroyer, century. In Italy besides the traditional dance
but as the messenger of God summoning men to the of death we find spectacular representations of death
world beyond the grave, a conception familiar both as the all-conqueror in the so-called "Trionfo del-
to Holy Writ and to the ancient poets. The danc- la Morte". The earliest traces of this conception
ing movement of the characters was a somewhat la- may be found in Dante and Petrarch. In Florence
ter development, _______________^__^^^ (1559) the "tri-
imph of death
as at first Death
and his victims
moved at a slow
and dignifieil gait.
But Death, acting
the part of a mes-
senger, naturally
took the attitude
and movement of
the traditional
messengers of the
day, namely the
fiddlers and other
musicians, and the
dance of death
wa.s the result.
The purpose of these plays was to teach the truth that all men must die and should therefore prepare themselves to ap- pear before their Judge. The scene
Death and the Knight Death and the Plouguma.n
Dance of Death — Hans Holbein (From the woodcut series, the Dance of Death)
fiirmed a part of
the carnival cele-
bration. We may
describe it as fol-
■;: .\f ter dark a
li tige wagon ,
draped in black
and white and
drawn by oxen,
drove through tht-
streets of the city.
At the end of the
•sliaft was seen the
,\iigel of Death
blowing the
trumpet. On the
top of the wagon
stood a great figure
of Death carrj'ing
a scythe and sur-
rotinded bycoffins.
Around the wag-
ons were covered
graves which
opened whenever the procession halted. Men dressed
of the play was usually the cemetery or churchyard
though soinetimes it may have been the church itself, in black garments on which were painted skulls
The spectacle was opened by a sermon on the cer- and bones came forth and, seated on the edge of
tainty of death delivered by a monk. At the close of
the sermon there came forth from the charnel-house,
usually found in the churchyard, a series of figures
decked out in the traditional mask of death, a clo.se-
fitting, yellowish linen suit painted .so as to resemble a
skeleton. One of them addresses the intentled victim,
who is invited to accompany him beyond the grave.
The first victim was usually the pope or the emperor.
the graves, sang dirges on the shortness of human
life. Before and behind the wagon ai)peared men
in black and white bearing torches and death nia.sks,
followed by banners displaying skulls ,ind bones and
skeletons riding on scrawny nags, ^\■hile they marched
the entire company sang the Miserere with trem-
bling voices.
Specimens of the dramatic dance of death have been
