The Beggar

Death to The Beggar

Hynke her an myt deyner krucken Deyn ding das wil sich gelucken Dich haben die lebenden nicht vor gut Der tot dir besundern gnade tut	Hobble over here with your crutches; Your things will succeed now. The living [people] don't like you; Death will show you special mercy.

Eyn armer geiler hie ym leben Czu eynem frunde yst nymande eben Abir der tot wil seyn frund seyn Her nympt den armen mit dem reichen hyn	A poor beggar here in life is not likely to be anybody's friend, but Death will be his friend. He takes the poor away along with the rich.

Saint Jacob with pilgrim's scallop. Book of hours from 1500.

This book moves the cripple behind the cook and the peasant. However, the woodcut is marked "20" and should have been placed before the cook (21) and the peasant (22).

The picture of the cripple is a bit ambiguous. On the one hand, he is missing part of one leg. On the other hand, he has a "pilgrim's scallop" in his hat.

This species of scallops is named "Pecten jacobaeus", because pilgrims in the Middle Ages would receive such a shell as proof that they had walked along the Camino de Santiago ("the Way of St. James") to the tomb of James in Santiago de Compostela (Santiago = St. Jacob = St. James).

The cripple has presumably not gone all the way to northwestern Spain on his crutches.