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On the previous pages we saw how Nicolas Oudot ca. 1600 published the original woodcuts, and how Noël Moreau and Nicolas II Oudot published copies of the Parisian Danse Macabre in the 17th century.
The book that we see here was also printed by an Oudot. This time it is Jacques Oudot, and the book is from ca. 1700 (between 1679 and 1711). The woodcut on the front page is one of those copies that Noël Moreau dit le Coq udsed in 1610, and Nicolas II Oudot used in 1641.
The woodcuts with abbess and noblewoman and spinster maid and Franciscan nun are still missing as they have been at least since 1531. Jacques Oudot has selected to illustrate the abbess and noblewoman with the woodcut of nun and witch with the rather odd result that the "noblewoman" stands with a broom in her hand.
The image of spinster maid and Franciscan nun is still a reuse of citizen woman and widow, and the prioress and young woman have still traded places with the shepherdess and the woman with crutches.
Over time the contents have become more and more mutated. The scene with spinster maid and Franciscan nun (illustrated with the image of city woman and widow) has for inscrutable reasons been moved one step ahead before the chambermaid and housekeeper. For equally inscrutable reasons the images of regent and knight's wife and merchant's wife and bailiff's wife are interchanged.
The same thing is true for the rest of the images. The authority at the beginning has been replaced by the month of April, while the final authority looks like a man asleep at his writing desk.
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This edition was published by Oudot's widow: »Chez le veuve de Jacques Oudot«. It is very similar to the 1700 edition, with a few differences:
Evidently the woodcut with (the copy of) astrologer and citizen has disappeared. As the picture to the right shows, the publisher has instead used (the copy of) lawyer and minstrel.
The section »Mort menace l'humain l'ignage« (which is a mutated version of La dance aux aveugles) is no longer illustrated with the picture of Death on a pale horse, but by the four musicians from the cover. The woodcut has not disappeared, as it is still used for the poem »Pecheur regarde ta figure«.
The last, short, section »Dictions & proverbes de la mort«, is deleted to make room for the royal permission. The permit includes, among other things, "la Grande Danse des Maccabees", which is almost the title of the following edition six years later:
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This book was printed in 1729 by the next generation, viz. Jacques Oudot's widow and son. Unfortunately the books in the so-called "bibliothèque bleue" were printed on cheap paper where the ink bleeds through.
The woodcut with (the copy of) astrologer and citizen is still missing, so lawyer and minstrel is still used twice.
The authority is no longer illustrated with a picture of April (as he was in 1700). Instead he is illustrated as a revenant with a coffin (picture to the right).
The book ends with the same royal permission that was printed at the back of the 1723 edition, but the permission has been discreetly corrected so that the permitted title corresponds to what this edition came to be called: "la grande Danse Maccabée".
It is not just the images and the sequence that has been changed. Along the road, the text has become as mutated as the images. The front pages of these various editions boast that the old Gaul language has been, »renouvellée de vieux Gaulois, en langage le plus poli de notre temps«, but the truth is that the language hasn't just been "renovated and polished". The text has been extensively re-written.
Here are the first two verses as an example (the text is from this image):
| 1486 | 1729 |
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| O creature roysonnable Qui desires vie eternelle. Tu as cy doctrine notable: Pour bien finer vie mortelle. La dance macabre sapelle: Que chascun a danser apprant. A homme et femme est naturelle. Mort nespargne petit ne grant |
O Créature raisonnable, Qui desirez le Firmament, Voici ton portrait veritable Afin de mourir saintement, C'est la Danse des Macabées, Où chacun à danser apprend, Car la Parque cette obstinée N'épargne ny petit ny Grand |
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En ce miroer chascun peut lire |
Dans ce miroir chacun peut lire, |
As you can see, almost half of the lines have been rewritten, and this is only at the beginning, where the inciting: "O creature roysonnable" may have been too familiar to tamper with. In the rest of the dance, almost 90% has been "renovated and polished".
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But the changes don't stop here. They continued after 1766
Fodnoter: (1)
mie . . .: It looks like an obvious misspelling for "mire", but it says "mie" in both the 1700-, 1723- and 1729 editions.
