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Todt zum Heydin: ICh kan, Heydin, fein artlich greiffen, Ein Todtenlied auff der Sackpfeiffen, Dem must nachtantzen wie dein Mann, Rüffest du schon all Götter an. |
Death to The Heathen Woman I can, heatheness, fine and artfully, grab a death-tune on the bagpipe, that you must dance after like your husband, even if you called all [your] gods. |
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Die Heydin: JUno, Venus und auch Pallas, Euch Göttin laßt erbarmen daß Ich sterben muß, helfft mir auß Noth, Kein Segen hilffet für den Todt. |
The Heathen Woman. Juno, Venus and also Pallas. You goddesses have mercy that I must die. Help me out of distress. No blessing helps against Death. |
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Klein-Basel, The heathen woman. Line drawing after Büchel |
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| Holbein, The fool |
In Klein-Basel (to the left), Death doesn't have a bagpipe, so this is presumably yet another later addition by Hans Kluber.
Where did Kluber get the idea from, with Death playing the bagpipes with one hand while grabbing his victim with the other? Probably from Holbein's dance of death (picture to the right)
The heathen woman prays to the three goddesses Juno, Venus and Pallas, just like her husband was praying to Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto. It may sound odd that there were people in Basel in the late Middle Ages, who prayed to the old Roman gods. If we look at the dance of death in Klein-Basel, we see that the heathens originally prayed to Mohammed. In Klein-Basel, The heathen woman implores Mohammed: »O Machmet los mich nit in noit« - (="Oh, Mohammed do not leave me in distress").
When Kluber in 1568 added a True Muslim™, i.e. the Turk, the heathen and his wife were transmogrified into "real heathens".
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| Büchel, Death and the heathen woman |
Dances of death
Basel
Heathen woman