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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