3e folke that loken / vpon this purtrature
Beholdyng here / alle the estates daunce
Seeth what 3e ben / & what is 3owre nature
Mete vnto wormes / not elles yn substaunce
And haue this myrroure / euer yn remembraunce
[H]ow I lye here / som-tyme crowned kynge
To al estates / a trewe resemblaunce
That wormes fode / is fyne of owre lyuynge.
Man is nowght elles / platli for to thenke
But as a wynde / whiche is transitorie
Passyng ay forthe / whether he wake or wynke
Towarde this daunce / haue this yn memorie
Remembr[ing]e ay / ther is [no] bette victory
In this life here / than fle synne atte leste
Than shul 3e reigne / yn Paradyse with glorie
Happi is he / that maketh yn heuene his feste.
platli: plainly
3itte ther be folke / mo than sixe or seuene
Reckeles of life / yn many maner wyse
Like as ther were / helle noon ne heuene
Suche fals errowre / lete eueri man despice
For holi seyntes / & olde Clerkes wise
Writen contrarie / her falsnes to deface
To lyue welle / take this for beste Emprise
Is moche worthe / when men shul hennes pace.
3itte: yet
(1)Machabre...: Evidently Lydgate thinks that "Machabre" was the name
of the author (he makes the same statement in the introduction).
Lydgate was probably wrong in thinking so - although
old Parisian documents mention a "Jean Macabray"
in 1381 and a "Jean Macabray de Tavannes" in 1446.
Medieval dances of death
St. Paul's, London