Lübeck's Dance of Death

Lübeck's dance of death, Carthusian and mayor
Carthusian and mayor.
Back to the Bishop, the Duke, the Abbot and the Knight Forward to the Canon, the Mayor and the Physician The red area shows the location in the chapel

Death answers the Carthusian and turns to the nobleman

Nu tret vort, di helpet nen klagen,
Du most din Part sulven dragen,
It sal di wesen swar,
Di mach nicht volghen nar,
Wen dine Werke gut ofte quat,
Din Lon is na diner Dat,
Nemant mach di des vorbringen,
Men, kum an, ik wil di singhen.
Now step forward, no lament will help you,
you must bear your fate yourself.
It will be difficult for you.
Nothing can follow you
except your works [be they] good or bad.
Your reward is after your deed.(1)
No one can take this from you.
Man(2), come here, I will sing for you.

The nobleman

Dot, ik bidde di umme Respijt;
Late mi vorhalen, mine Tijt,
Ik hebbe ovel overbracht,
Sterven hadde ik klene geacht.
Mine Gedancken weren, to vullenbringen,
To Lust in idelen Dingen,
Minen Undersaten was ik swar,
Nu mot ik reisen, unde wet nicht, war.
Death, I beg you for respite.(3)
Let me tell: My time
I have used badly.
I paid [too] little heed to dying.
My thoughts were to satisfy -
to lust for idle things.
I was hard on my peasants.
Now I must travel and know not where.

Death answers the nobleman and turns to the canon

Haddestu gedelt van dinem Gode
Den Armen, so were di wol to Mode,
De klegeliken klagen er Gebreken,
Nuwerle mochtestu se horen spreken.
Dines Pachtes werstu gewert,
Na mi haddestu ninen Begert,
Dat ik ens ummekame to Hants,
Kannonik, tret her an den Dans.
Had you shared your goods
with the poor then you would be at ease now.
The complainers complained their need,
never would you hear them speak.
You were paid your farm rent(4).
You did not desire me,
that I once suddenly came here.
Canon,(5) come here to the dance.

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".

Back to the Bishop, the Duke, the Abbot and the Knight Forward to the Canon, the Mayor and the Physician Up to Text and Photos

Dansk Select language Lübeck's dance of death Text and photos Part 4