REVIEWS — THE DANCE OF DEATH. 219 



sufficient elements of comparison traceable between tbem, to render 

 it most probable tbat the mode of treatment and even some of the 

 details were suggested by the contemporary pictured " Moralities," 

 familiar alike to the poet and his readers. *' Hate," " Felony," 

 " Villany," " Covetiee," " Avarice," " Envy" and " Sorrow" are all 

 successively described, after which comes " Elde," the same that is 

 introduced in Pier's Plowman as the Standard-bearer of Death. 

 After the description of Elde's portraiture, the following beautiful 

 passage on the fleeting nature of time occurs : 



" The time that passeth night and day, 

 And restlesse travayleth aye, 

 And stealeth from us so privily, 

 That to us seemeth siiierly 

 That it in one point dwelleth ever, 

 And certes it ne resteth never, 

 But goeth so fast and passeth aye, 

 That there n'is man that thinke may 

 "What time that now present is, 

 Asketh at these clerkia this, 

 For men think it readily 

 Three times been passed by 

 The time that may not sojourn 

 But goeth and may never return, 

 As water that down runneth aye 

 But never drop returne may. 

 There may nothing as time endure, 

 Metal, nor earthly creature, 

 For all thing it fret and shall, 

 The time eke that changeth all ; 

 And all doth wax, and fostered be, 

 And all things destroyeth he. 



The time that eldeth our ancestors 

 And eldeth Kings and Elmperors, 

 And that us all shall overcommen 

 Ere that death us shall have nomen ; 

 The time that hath all in welde 

 To elden folk, had made her elde 

 So inly, that to my witing 

 She might help herself nothing. 

 But turned ayen unto childhede ; 

 Ne wit, ne pithe in her hold 

 More than a child of two year old." 



