Copenhagen's Dance of Death, Part 18

Crusader of the German order

Thi døden vil mig plat for øde
met stor siugdom oc megen møde

FlowerDøden Suarer

Du taler fast om din ære
Dog mot du her icke lenger være

FlowerDøden til Docteren i Lægekonst

Her Doctor, du beskuer fast dit vand
nu skalt du til ith andet land
Hør nu mig Doctor lampe
ieg vil nu holde met dig en kampe
Du skalt icke lenger i glassit kige
For min mact mott du nu vige

Docteren i Lægekonst Suarer

Hielp Gud ieg er saa ille till pass
det vand ieg haffuer i dette glas
Er bode grønt røt oc blacket
det betegner mit liff vil bliffue stacket
Alt det krud i Apotecken ær
hielper mig icke i denne fær
Met krud hialp ieg mangen mand
nu kand det icke gøre mig bistand
Døden kommer met sin snack
oc tager mig bort wden min tack
O Gud almectigste benaade mig
min trøst er nu al eniste til dig

Flower Døden Suarer

Kom kom, ieg siger end en gang kom
Dig hielper nu inggen legedom

… because Death will totally destroy me
with great disease and many hardships.

Death Answers

You talk a lot about your honour.
Yet you may not be here any longer.

Death to the Doctor of Medicine

Mr Doctor, you are eagerly observing your water.(1)
Now you shall to another land.
Listen to me now, Doctor Lampe
I will now have a fight with you.
You shall no longer look into the glass.
You must yield to my power.

The Doctor of Medicine answers

Help God, I feel so bad.
The water I have in this glass
is both green, red and blurred.
It signifies my life will be brief.
All the herbs that's in the pharmacy
won't help me in this journey.
With herbs I helped many a man;
now it cannot give assistance to me.
Death comes with his talk
and takes me away without my thanks(2)
Oh God almightiest, reprieve me.
My confidence is now only to you.

Death Answers

Come, Come, I say once more, come.
No healing powers help you now.

The master of the German Order Death to the Physician The German knight and Death-on-the-lion are the only woodcuts that don't have a double frame.

Click the little pictures to see the original pages.

Footnotes: (1) (2)

observing your water . . .: Maybe the physician with the urine flask is the same physician that the emperor wanted to observe his water?
without my thanks . . .: Whether I want to or not.