Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 3, Issue 17, March, 1859 | Page 5

is not their germ, has been discovered;
ancient customs which must have aided in their development are
familiar to all investigators of ancient manners, and especially of
ancient amusements; and the motives which inform them all, and the
moral condition of Christendom of which they were the result, are plain
enough.
We have seen before, that this Dance consisted of several groups of two
or more figures, one of which was always Death in the act of claiming a
victim; and for the clear comprehension of what follows, it is necessary
to anticipate a little, and remark, that there is no doubt that the Dance
was first represented by living performers. Strange as this seems to us,
it was but in keeping with the spirit of the time, which we call, perhaps
with some presumption, the Dark Ages.
The story which is probably the germ of this Dance was called _Les
Trois Morts et les Trois Vifs_,--"The Three Dead and the Three
Living." It is of indefinable antiquity and uncertain origin. It is said,
that three noble youths, as they returned from hunting, were met in the
gloom of the forest by three hideous spectres, in the form of decaying
human corpses; and that, as they stood rooted to the ground by this
appalling sight, the figures addressed them solemnly upon the vanity of
worldly grandeur and pleasure, and admonished them, that, although in
the heyday of youth, they must soon become as they (the spectres) were.
This story, or _dit_, "saying," as it was called in French, was
exceedingly popular through-out Europe five or six hundred years ago.
It is found in the language of every Christian nation of the period, and,
extended by means of accessory incidents and much moralizing, is
made to cover several pages in more than one old illuminated
manuscript. In the Arundel MSS., in England, there is one of the many
versions of the legend written in French so old that it is quite as
difficult for Frenchmen as for Englishmen to read it. But over an
illuminated picture of the incident, in which three kings are shown
meeting the three skeletons, are these lines in English, as old, but less
obsolete:--
Over the Kings.
"Ich am afert Lo whet ich see Methinketh hit be develes thre."

Over the Skeletons.
"Ich wes wel fair Such schel tou be For Godes love be wer by me."
In these rude lines is the whole moral of the legend, and of the Dance
of Death which grew out of it. That growth was simple, gradual, and
natural. In the versions and in the pictorial representations of the legend
there soon began to be much variety in the persons who met the
spectres. At first three noble youths, they became three kings, three
noble ladies, a king, a queen, and their son or daughter, and so on,--the
rank of the persons, however, being always high. For, as we shall have
occasion to notice hereafter more particularly, the mystery of the Dance
had a democratic as well as a religious significance; and it served to
bring to mind, not only the irresistible nature of Death's summons, but
the real equality of all men; and this it did in a manner to which those
of high condition could not object.
The legend was made the subject of a fresco, painted about 1350, by
the eminent Italian painter and architect, Orcagna, upon the walls of the
Campo Santo at Pisa,--which some readers may be glad to be reminded
was a cemetery, so called because it was covered with earth brought
from the Holy Land. It is remarkable, however, that in this work the
artist embodied Death not in the form commonly used in his day, but in
the old Etruscan figure before mentioned. Orcagna's Death is a female,
winged like a bat, and with terrible claws. Armed with a scythe, she
swoops down upon the earth and reaps a promiscuous harvest of popes,
emperors, kings, queens, churchmen, and noblemen. In the rude
manner of the time, Orcagna has divided his picture into compartments.
In one of these we see St. Macarius, one of the first Christian hermits,
an Egyptian, sitting at the foot of a mountain; before him are three
kings, who have returned from the chase accompanied by a gay train of
attendants. The Saint calls the attention of the kings to three sepulchres
in which lie the bodies of three other kings, one of which is much
decomposed. The three living kings are struck with horror; but the
painter has much diminished the moral effect of his work, for this
century, at least, by making one of them hold his nose;--which is
regarded by Mr. Ruskin as an evidence of Orcagna's devotion to the

truth; but in this case that brilliant