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Centered in the cover is a woodcut image of dancing skeletons outlined in red. Below is a skeleton with a drum and two more dancing next to it. Above are three skeletons dancing while one is lying down. Worms are slithering through their skulls and arms. To the left of the image is a building housing many skeletons. Along the cover’s bottom is its title and editors. The METS logo in the bottom right corner is a rounded capital M surrounded by two leaves.

John Lydgate's Dance of Death and Related Works

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John Lydgate
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Unknown
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Megan L. Cook
Editor
Elizaveta Strakhov
Editor
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description

Late medieval England and France, marked by plague and the Hundred Years War, saw a surge in literature treating death as a dominant theme. From this milieu emerged the danse macabre, a tradition of death poetry defined by themes of social satire, death as the great equalizer, and confrontations between the living and the dead. This volume brings together new editions of both texts of John Lydgate’s fifteenth-century poem Dance of Death, with related Middle English works from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It also includes a new facing-page translation of Lydgate’s French source, La Danse macabre. These poems showcase the power and versatility of the danse macabre motif, offering a vivid window into life and death in late medieval Europe. In vivid, often grotesque, and darkly humorous terms, these poems ponder life’s fundamental paradox: while we know that we all must die, we cannot imagine our own death.

Elizaveta Strakhov is both Editor and Translator for La Danse macabre, contained within this edition.

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Poetry
additional information
Cover illustration: Heinrich Knoblocthzer, Heidelberger Totentanz, 1488. Fol. 2r. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2150#0003. Photo: copyright Universitatsbilbliothek Heidelberg. Cover design by Theresa Whitaker.
contents
  1. Acknowledgments
  2. Abbreviations List
  3. General Introduction
  5. Introduction to John Lydgate, Dance of Death: A Version (Selden)
  6. John Lydgate, Dance of Death: A Version (Selden)
    2. Introduction to John Lydgate, Dance of Death: B Version (Lansdowne)
    3. John Lydgate, Dance of Death: B Version (Lansdowne)
      2. Introduction to John Lydgate, "Death's Warning to the World" (DIMEV 4905)
      3. John Lydgate, "Death's Warning to the World" (DIMEV 4905)
        2. Introduction to "Three Messengers of Death" (DIMEV 5387)
        3. "Three Messengers of Death" (DIMEV 5387)
          2. Introduction to "A Warning Spoken by the Soul of a Dead Person" (DIMEV 3624)
          3. "A Warning Spoken by the Soul of a Dead Person" (DIMEV 3624)
            2. Introduction to "A Mirror for Young Ladies at their Toilet" (DIMEV 3454)
            3. "A Mirror for Young Ladies at their Toilet" (DIMEV 3454)
              2. Introduction to "The Ressoning betuix Deth and Man," Ascribed to Robert Henryson (DIMEV 4000)
              3. "The Ressoning betuix Deth and Man" (DIMEV 4000)
                2. Introduction to "The Dawnce of Makabre" (DIMEV 4104)
                3. "The Dawnce of Makabre" (DIMEV 4104)
                  2. Introduction to "Can Ye Dance the Shaking of the Sheets" (DIMEV 956)
                  3. "Can Ye Dance the Shaking of the Sheets" (DIMEV 956)
                    2. Introduction to La Danse macabre
                    3. La Danse macabre
                      2. Explanatory and Textual Notes
                        1. Notes to John Lydgate, Dance of Death: A Version (Selden)
                        2. Notes to John Lydgate, Dance of Death: B Version (Lansdowne)
                        3. Notes to John Lydgate, "Death's Warning to the World"
                        4. Notes to "Three Messengers of Death"
                        5. Notes to "A Warning Spoken by the Soul of a Dead Person"
                        6. Notes to "A Mirror for Young Ladies at their Toilet"
                        7. Notes to "The Ressoning betuix Deth and Man"
                        8. Notes to "The Dawnce of Makabre"
                        9. Notes to "Can Ye Dance the Shaking of the Sheets"
                        10. Notes to La Danse macabre
                      3. Bibliography