

This is where the text begins that Jacob von Melle wrote down in 1701. We'll probably never learn, what excuses the Carthusian had for not participating in the dance, but apparently they weren't good enough.
There's a big confusion concerning the order of the verses. The picture (which is a copy from 1701) shows the next 4 persons as Carthusian (monk), mayor, canon and nobleman - and this is the order, in which Jacob von Melle wrote them down.
Mantels points out a problem: The nobleman is the one who has lived most against the overall moral - having exploited his hardworking subjects in order to obtain money for idle pleasures, and yet Death answers: "Great wages shall you receive. For your work that you have done, God will reward you thousandfold".
Mantels has compared the text with the books based on the painting, and deduced that the order should rather be Carthusian, nobleman, canon and mayor. This solution is universally accepted and is being applied on these pages.
How could this happen? Mantels suggested that the original from 1463 might have been painted on wooden panels that might have been mixed up when the work was copied in 1701.
This theory was false - and unfortunately this false "fact" has been quoted in countless books. Today we know that the painting from 1463 was made on canvas - Mantels himself had an opportunity to feel the old fabric underneath the "new" painting.
So we see that the change was deliberately made when the painting was replaced in 1701. The new theory goes like this:
[THEORY ON]
In the old painting (from 1463) the nobleman came before the mayor, so that all
the lay people up to and including the nobleman were nobility. In 1701
the powerful plutocrats in the free city of Lübeck regarded
themselves as noblemen and their leader, the mayor,
would have to come before the nobleman on the new painting.
When Jacob von Melle published his notes, he was so influenced by the new painting
(which was now 12 years old) that he
rearranged his notes to follow the same new sequence.
[THEORY OFF]
This theory is debated further on the page about Jacob von Melle. To sum up: The painting, the High German text and von Melle's text has Carthusian, mayor, canon and nobleman. The text on these pages has Carthusian, nobleman, canon and mayor.

(1) Reward after deed: popular theme in the Bible. Compare with 1st Corinthians, chapter 3,8 : "[...] and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour."
External link: King James Bible: The first epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, Chapter 3
(2) Man, come here....: Normally Death uses a more specific title (king, pope etc.) instead of simply saying "man". It should be noted that Jacob von Melle very rarely indicates the absence of single letters or words. Most of the the time Jacob von Melle either writes a whole line or nothing. So we might guess that some of the letters were obliterated and that the text originally was "Nobleman, come here.....".
At any rate it's too bad that it had to happen here where the verses are in a wrong order.
(3) Respite....: The word gets a special sound when one remembers that the painting is from 1463 when the burghers of Lübeck where anticipating the plague epidemic that arrived in the town in the summer of 1464.
(4) You were paid your farm rent: Namely by the (hardworking) peasant.
(5) Canon...: a priest attached to a cathedral. The canons are so called because they lead a rule bound life, "vita canonicus".