Lübeck's Dance of Death

Dødedantz (1634), Part 2

In this book is contained/
First a Prologue to the Reader about
Four kinds of Death.
Thereupon Death speaks to the Persons/
and answers them all finally.

Death speaks to

The Congregation.	The Pope.
The Emperor.	The Empress.
The King.	The Duke.
The Cardinal.	The Bishop.
The Abbot.	Master of German Order
The physician of medical art.
The Canon.	The Parish Priest.
The Monk.	The Knight.
The Official.	The Hermit.
The Mayor.	The Nun.
The Merchant.	The Nobleman.
The Maiden.	The Beguine.
The Citizen.	The Craftsman.
The Fool.	The Peasant.
The Student.	The Nurse.
The Rider.	The Journeyman.

Thereupon a final Summary
and Admonition.

Herald.

The Prologue.

My dear friends, I'm learning/
Which I'm about to tell you/
That the world is totally infested with sin/
This has now been forgotten for a long time.

Dødedantz, Part 2, click to see the page

Dødedantz, Part 2, click to see the original page.

Dødedantz starts with a table of contents -the order of appearance, however, isn't quite right. Click the small picture to see the original page. To read the original medieval Danish, click the red and white flag in the top right corner.

It was typical for medieval plays to begin with herald or a "prologus" who would introduce the play and request the audience to remain quiet and listen. Notice his coat of arms: A skull and an hourglass.

Then follows the text (without illustrations) from Copenhagen's Dance of Death with a few variations due to the almost 100 years separating the two publications. The text from Copenhagen's Dance of Death is placed here.

Sometimes the world is surprisingly small. One of the few books to mention Copenhagen's Dance of Death is "Ældre Dansk Teater" (Elder Danish Theatre). This book was published 1940 - when Dødedantz was totally unknown - but still the picture of the herald is placed on the cover of the book. How could this be possible? The explanation is that the woodcuts of the time were used in many different books - including the act "Kong Salomons Hyldning" (King Solomon's praise) from 1585.