Gambler, the Drunkard, and many others are depicted as having with them an unseen visitor.
"The stately Queen his bidding must obey;
No keen-eyed Cardinal shall him affray;
And to the Dame that wantoneth, he saith—
'Let be, Sweetheart, to junket and to play.'
There is no king more terrible than Death."
Down the centuries come the sturdy lines of the old woodcut enjoining the Fool to lay by his folly, "This night thy soul shall be required of thee." It is this solemn message engraven into unenduring wood and impressed on perishable paper that has stirred the lover of old prints and bidden him take heed of the fate that over-*taketh us all. It is the one thing Immutable.
"He spares not Lazarus lying at the gate,
Nay, nor the Blind that stumbleth as he may;
Nay, the tired Ploughman—at the sinking ray—
In the last furrow,—feels an icy breath,
And knows a hand hath turned the team astray.—
There is no king more terrible than Death."
Italian wood engraving exhibits more gracefulness, if less power, and the woodcuts in early books of Italy have occupied very special study. Fisher's work on "Italian Engravings," Dr. Lippmann in his "Italian Wood Engraving in the Fifteenth Century," and Mr. Pollard's "Early Illustrated Books" deal with great learning with this period of the art
