218 REVIEWS — THE DANCE OF DEATH. 



The poem of Chaucer's immediate successor, Lydgate, referred 

 to by Stowe, entitled " The Dance of Death," is af&rmed by "Warton 

 to have been translated from the Prench at the request of the Chapter 

 of St. Paul's, for the purpose of being inscribed under the painting 

 in the cloister ; but it is stated by the poet himself to have been 

 rendered : " not word by word, but following in substance," and was 

 doubtless adapted to the details of the painting it was designed to 

 accompany, in so far as that differed from the celebrated depiction of 

 the ancient morality on the walls of St. Innocent's Cloister at Paris ; 

 with its French version of the older lines, derived as some suppose 

 from a still earlier German original. 



The Thief, or Fichpurse, the CooTc, the Waggoner, the Child in its 

 Cradel, and others of the series figured by Chaucer in the " Knight's 

 Tale," are all familiarly known to those who have had opportunities 

 of examining the ancient representations of the pictured pageant of 

 Death; or who have studied the learned dissertations of the antiquary 

 Douce — now reprinted in this more popular form, — on the origin and 

 characteristics of this obscure subject of Medieval Art. 



Instead of a critical review of a text already well known, at least 

 to the antiquary, we prefer availing ourselves, in this article, of the 

 opportunity it affords of drawing the reader's attention to some 

 curious or interesting passages, illustrating the subject of Douce's 

 elaborate investigation. 



In one of the most beautiful of Chaucer's minor poems, "The 

 Eomaunt of the Rose." The allegory is represented under the same 

 figure of a series of paintings on a wall : 



" "When I had a while ygone, 



I saw a garden right anon, 



Full long and broad, and everidele 



Enclosed was, and walled well, 



With high walls embatailed, 



iPourtrayed without, and well entayled 



With many riche portraitures ; 



And both the images and peintures 



Gan I behold busily, 



And I will tell you readily 



Of thilke images the semblance, 



As far as I have remembrance." 



The allegory is not in this, as in " The Knight's Tale" borrowed 

 from the medieval paintings and sculptures referred to ; but there are 



