Jean le Fèvre: Respit de la Mort

Manuscript Français 19137: Respit de la Mort

The oldest known allusion to the word "danse macabre" is in the poem "Respit de la Mort" (respite from Death) also known as "L'Orologe de la mort" (Death's clock).

The poem is known from six manuscripts, three of which are available online (see links below). The oldest one of these (Français 994) is from the 14^th century.

Fr. 19137: "macrabe la dance"

In many modern books the text from the manuscripts is rendered as »Macabré la dance«. As the above table shows, none of the manuscripts use accents, and none of them use capital letters except at the beginning of each line. Français 19137 spells the word "macrabe" (picture to the right), and all three disagree as to what to put between "a" and "tresche": "la", "sa" or nothing.

In the introduction the author tells, on which day he went out to ask Death for respite:

Le Respit de la Mort

The year is, »mil.ccc.soixante seize«, 1.000 + 300 + 60 + 16 = 1376, which — as the author says — was the 13^th year of the French king Charles' rule. Français 19137 is specially helpful and tells us that the abovementioned Charles is Charles the fifth, »charles le quint«.

The date was 8 days after Saint Rémi's day although we are left in the dark concerning which one of the 4 Saint Rémis is meant. Français 19137 lacks this line, which is an error, since "remy" should have rhymed with "emy" in the line above.

After Le Févre has "done the dance macabre" he tells that he doesn't want to end up with all the other bones at the cemetery of St. Innocents: »avec ceulx de saint innocent«. This means that we have the words "dance macabre" and "Saint Innocents" written on the same page half a century before the mural was created.

Towards the end, all three manuscripts tell us that the author was born in Ressons:

Manuscript Français 19137: Respit de la Mort

In the third manuscript the author even shares his name, "I'm called Jehan le Fèvre, many a drink has touched my lip".

One may wonder why this information was only included in one of the manuscripts,(1) and why it's not in the oldest of the three. One could get the thought that it's a spillover from another book by le Fèvre, namely "Le livre de Leesce". Here too he tells where he was born and about the many drinks that have touched his lip: »Mais je, qui suy de Resson nés / Petitement araisonnés / Et appelés Jehan le Fevre / No pourroye dire de levre«.

Ce sont li iij mors + li iij vis que baudouins de conde fist.

The big question is what Le Fèvre meant by "doing the dance macabre".

One explanation could be that Le Fèvre had performed a danse macabre. Maybe the dances of death were originally live(!) performances at the cemeteries — long before somebody got the idea of painting them on the wall?

There is a poem, Ballade d'un Prisonnier, which ends, »Je danseray la macabrée danse«, but this poem is more recent.

Chi commenche li iij mors + li iij vis ke maistres nicholes de marginal fist.

Another explanation is that "to do the dance macabre" means to die. Against this one might argue that evidently Le Fèvre didn't die on this occasion, but maybe he just means that he almost died, but was lucky enough to get respite?

A third explanation could be that Le Févre boasts of having composed the poem la danse macabre. Kurtz points out that in contemporary books, "faire" could mean compose. As examples Kurtz mention: »Chi commenche li iij mors + li iij vis ke maistres nicholes de marginal fist« (picture to the right) and »Ce sont li iij mors & li iij vis que baudouins de conde fist« (picture to the left).(2)

The fourth possibility comes from the somewhat misplaced "de". Maybe the sentence should be translated to "I took the dance from Macabre"? This would support the thought that Macabre was the name of the original author. Maybe Le Fèvre has translated the text from Latin to French?(3)

External links

• Français 994. The year 1376 is on page 1 bottom and top, "macabre la dance" is on page 37, St. Innocents on page 38, Resson (but not Le Févre) is on page 46.
• Français 1543. The year 1376 is on page 240^r, "macabre la dance" is on page 261^r, St. Innocents also on page 261^r, Resson (but not Le Févre) is on page 265^v (Respit de la Mort is the last text in this book).
• Français 19137. The year 1376 is on page 46^v, "macabre la dance" (or rather "macrabe") is on page 64^r, St. Innocents also on page 64^r, Resson and Le Févre are on page 67^v.

Further information

• The cemetery of St. Innocents
• Dating the dance
• Are the printed books reliable witnesses?
• Burials
• Ossuaries

Footnotes: (1) (2) (3)

Dances of death Danse macabre Respit de la Mort