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ABBREVIATIONS: A version: Lydgate, Dance of Death (Selden); B version: Lydgate, Dance of Death (Lansdowne); CT: Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, ed. Benson; D: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 322 (SC 21896); DMF: Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500); DOST: Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue; FP: Lydgate, Fall of Princes, ed. Bergen; Gray: “Two Songs of Death,” ed. Gray; Hassell: Hassell, Middle French Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases; MED: Middle English Dictionary; ODNB: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; OED: Oxford English Dictionary; Whiting: Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases.

CHOICE OF BASE MANUSCRIPT

The French Danse macabre is extant in fifteen manuscripts, the earliest dating from 1426–27 (see Headnote in Textual Notes) and the rest falling between the mid-late fifteenth century, nineteen incunabula printed from 1485 to 1500 alone, and one sixteenth-century manuscript that is a copy of an incunabulum (Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, MS 3896, copying Marchant’s edition of 1490). Authorship of the Danse remains uncertain, but several scholars have pointed to the fact that in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France lat. 14904, dated to c. 1440 by Gilbert Ouy (Les manuscrits de l’Abbaye de Saint-Victor, 2.327–28), the Danse is specified in the contemporary table of contents as being the text as copied from the Cemetery of the Holy Innocents and is collocated with texts by Jean Gerson (1363–1429) and Nicolas de Clemanges (1360–1437). Meanwhile, a Catalàn translation of the Danse, made at the end of the fifteenth century by Pedro Miguel de Carbonell, ends with a verba translatoris (words of the translator) alleging his source to have been penned by “un sant home doctor e Canceller de Paris en lengua francesa apellat Joannes Climachus sive Climages” (a devout man, a doctor and clerk of Paris in French named Joannes Climachus or Climages) (Saugnieux, Les danses macabres de France et d’Espagne, p. 25). This coincidence has suggested to Maya Dujakovic (“The Dance of Death, the Dance of Life,” pp. 222–27) that the work was or was believed to come from the circles of Jean Gerson (who was a chancellor at the University of Paris) and Nicolas de Clemanges. However, Jöel Saugnieux (Les danses macabres de France et d’Espagne, pp. 54–55) and Sophie Oosterwijk (“Of Dead Kings,” pp. 153–54) advance objections to this argument, citing the circumstantial quality of the evidence.

The Danse macabre is clearly Lydgate’s direct source for the Dance of Death, as he alleges in his opening verba translatoris in the A version, in which he describes seeing “Machabres Daunce” (A version, line 24) at “Seint Innocentis” (A version, line 35). In most manuscripts of the Danse, the opening and closing stanzas of the work are spoken by an authority figure variously named “docteur,” “l’acteur,” or “maistre.” In Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 14989, a manuscript belonging to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, however, this speaker is explicitly identified as “Machabre Docteur.” (According to Kurtz [Dance of Death and the Macabre Spirit, p. 23], the same speaker marker occurs at the end of the text in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, naf. 10032; we have not, unfortunately, been able to verify this through consultation of the original manuscript.) Lydgate calls the same character “Machabre the Doctour” (A version, before line 641). Hanno Wijsman dates the French manuscript of the Danse containing the “Machabre docteur” speaker marker to 1426 or 1427 on the basis of its watermark; he further shows that it was once bound with the Division des Orleanois contre les Anglois, which treats the death of Thomas Montacute, Duke of Salisbury, who died in 1428. These details place BNF MS fr. 14989 in Paris right after the Danse macabre mural was finished and during or just after Lydgate’s visit in 1426. Wijsman goes on to argue that the unique level of visual detail in this manuscript version’s speaker markers suggests that it may have been copied directly from the mural, which the scribe aimed to verbally describe in his otherwise unillustrated copy (see “Un manuscrit de Philippe Le Bon”). In addition, the order of speakers in the A version of Lydgate’s Dance matches the order of speakers in this and other manuscripts of the Danse; Marchant’s 1485 and subsequent editions follow a slightly altered order, suggesting he was working from a different recension. This manuscript, BNF MS fr. 14989, thus seems closest to Lydgate’s source for his Dance of Death, and we have therefore chosen to edit and translate its contents to accompany Lydgate’s text.

LYDGATE’S TRANSLATION OF THE DANSE

In the A version’s final two stanzas, titled “Lenvoye de Translator” or “translator’s envoy,” Lydgate adopts the well-known pose of the humble translator, professing his lack of “suffisaunce” (fluency, line 671) in French due to being an English native. He also invites his readers to correct his translation where it is wanting and notes that he translates “[n]ot worde by worde but folwyng the substaunce” (not word by word but following the content, line 666). This is a familiar posture of proclaimed English deference before the cultural might of literary French that mirrors Lydgate’s fellow Francophile English predecessors: see the note to line 671 of the A version of Lydgate’s Dance. Lydgate’s professed difficulties with French are belied, however, by the translation itself. Lydgate’s close attention to the language of his original yet simultaneous impulse to adapt and rewrite to vivid effect are already visible from the opening stanzas of his work. The opening stanza of the original Danse, for example, is as follows:

O, creature raisonnable,                                                       O, creature endowed with reason,
Qui desires vie eternelle,                                                      You who long for eternal life,
Tu as cy doctrine notable                                                     You have before you an important precept
Pour bien finer vie mortelle.                                                For properly ending your mortal life.
La danse macabre s’appelle                                                It is called the Danse macabre,
Que chascun a danser apprant.                                          Which everyone learns to dance.
A homme et femme est mort naturelle;                            Death is natural to men and women;
Mort n’espargne petit ne grant.                                          Death spares neither the lowly nor the lofty.
(lines 7–14)

In Lydgate’s rendition, we find:

O creatures ye that ben resonable                                      who are reasonable
The liif desiring wiche is eternal,
Ye may se here doctrine ful notable,                                  see
Youre lif to lede wich that is mortal,
Therby to lerne in especial                                                   in particular
Howe ye shul trace the Daunce of Machabre,                  follow
To man and womman yliche natural,                                alike
For Deth ne spareth hy ne lowe degré.                              does not spare
(lines 41–48)

Here Lydgate’s heavy reliance on cognates has the double advantage of gesturing extensively to his French source while rendering the text into a flowing English idiom. But by adding “ye shul trace” in line 46 he subtly highlights the dynamic performative quality of the Danse macabre, whereas the French original just presents the phrase as the text’s title. These processes — of relying on cognates but also insisting on alterations that emphasize, in particular, the active participatory quality of Death’s dance — are characteristic of Lydgate’s whole text.

In our own translation, we have remained as faithful as possible to the original French Danse, and we note especially syntactically and linguistically challenging moments in our Explanatory Notes. Since the A version of Lydgate’s text is closer to the Danse than the later B revision, all references to Lydgate refer to this version unless otherwise noted. Furthermore, this translation was intentionally done without consulting Lydgate’s own in the process, lest his word choices unduly influence the modern English renderings and thus taint the modern English with Middle English usage and, more importantly, leave a distorted impression of the closeness of Lydgate’s translation. Yet the final results, we think, speak for themselves: for all the distance between Middle and modern English, our new translation helps show that Lydgate offers a remarkably precise rendering of his French original in his instances of close translation.

Within our own translation, one particularly difficult decision has revolved around naming the Danse’s representation of its deadly interlocutor. The French text renders this character as “le mort,” literally “the dead man,” a figure clearly intended to double the living persons, all male, to whom it speaks. That “le mort” is the terrifying double of the Danse’s all-male characters is also suggested by widespread danse macabre iconography, in which each living person is represented in conversation with his or her own emaciated and decomposing figure. In the later Danse macabre des femmes the figure is, fittingly, “la morte,” “the dead woman.” The French term for the abstract concept of death, meanwhile, is “la mort,” gendered female. We have nevertheless chosen to translate “le mort” as “Death” for several reasons: firstly, “the dead man” seemed aesthetically clunky; secondly, this is the term used throughout the Middle English death poetry that forms the subject of this collection, suggesting that contemporary English readers, like Lydgate, would have understood “le mort” as the abstract concept of death, despite the gendering of the term (see, for example, the illustration of Death in MS Douce 322, discussed in the Headnote to the Explanatory Notes for Lydgate’s “Death’s Warning to the World” [DIMEV 4905]). We have therefore chosen to render “le mort” by the more efficient and historically pertinent “Death,” while cognizant that there is no good method for underscoring the way in which “le mort,” in the spirit of late medieval death poetry as a whole, neatly combines the idea of death as universalized abstraction with that of death as a particularized humanoid figure that inversely mirrors the living bodies of its interlocutors.

Given the similarity in content between this text and Lydgate’s adaptation thereof, the reader is referred to the Explanatory Notes accompanying Lydgate’s Dance of Death (both A and B versions) for any overlapping material. The Explanatory Notes that follow here concern details specific to this text and to this translation. The Latin here and at the end of the poem has been translated by C. J. Lambert (Columbia University), whose accompanying notes are reproduced and marked accordingly. We also thank Lucas Wood for his invaluable assistance in helping us work through some of the thornier sections of the text.


1–2 Nec pictura decus . . . . ducere festa monet. This and several other manuscripts open with this line in Latin that draws attention to the idea of a painting representing dancing, which speaks to the “image-text” quality of the Danse painted at the Holy Innocents; compare lines 519–20.

2 In que is being taken with festa here, according to Lambert.

14 Mort n’espargne petit ne grant. Proverbial. See Hassell M200.

17 Cilz est eureux qui bien s’i mire. Pursuant to the complex semantic field of “mirouer” (see Explanatory Note to Lydgate, A version, line 49 above), “bien s’i mire” evokes both the literal sense of seeing one’s reflection as well as the more figurative notions of contemplating and meditating on that reflection and the curative sense of taking care of oneself.

22 Tout est forgié d’une matiere. Proverbial. See Hassell M98.

70 Toute joye fine en tristesse. Proverbial. See Hassell J23.

78 Le plus riche n’a q’un linseul. Proverbial. See Hassell L59.

80 sauvage. The poet’s choice of this term in the context of a terrifying dance, as spoken by the character of the king, would surely have reminded contemporary readers of the devastating “Bal des ardents” (The Dance of the Burning Men), also known as the “Bal des sauvages” (The Dance of the Wild Men) of 1393. At the dance, King Charles VI, who had suffered his first attack of madness the year before, disguised himself and several other courtiers as shaggy wildmen, or creatures of the forest, for the purposes of a masque. Although attendees were warned to keep candles away from the highly flammable costumes, fire broke out, and multiple courtiers died, while the king himself barely escaped a similar fate. Some contemporary chroniclers suspected an assassination attempt by Louis of Orléans, the king’s brother. These suspicions fueled political opposition to Louis that resulted eventually in his assassination in 1407 and the outbreak of the Armagnac-Burgundian Civil War. See further Veenstra, Magic and Divination, pp. 89–95. Lydgate reproduces the term “savage” in his translation at line 114 of the A version, though it is not clear if he is picking up on this reference or simply using a cognate.

86 A la fin fault devenir cendre. Proverbial. See Hassell C19.

94 Fole esperance deçoit l’omme. Proverbial. See Hassell E76.

118 Contre la mort n’a nul respit. Proverbial. See Hassell M193. See also lines 366, 375–76, and 393.

142 Ce que l’un fait, l’autre despiece. Proverbial. See Hassell F6.

150 Dessoubz le ciel n’a riens estable. Proverbial. See Hassell R39.

151–53 pic . . . . pic. The author is punning here on two meanings for the word “pic”: pick-axe as well as an idiomatic expression derived from jeu de piquet, a type of card game, in which “pic” refers to a situation where one player dominates the game so thoroughly that his opponent cannot even score a single point. This expression also occurs as a metaphor for death contemporaneously in the lyric Mourir me voy by Reginaldus Libert (fl. c. 1425–35) and in an untitled lyric found in the Bayeux manuscript (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 9346), a collection dating to c. 1500. See further, Oxford Music Online, “Libert, Reginaldus” and Gérold, Manuscrit de Bayeux, p. 44 (Chanson XXXIX).

155 Vostre fait gist en aventure. Aventure is a semantically laden word in French, similar to the association of the Middle English aventure with the ideas of chance and risk as well as ‘adventurous journey’ (compare “Aventures” in “The Three Messengers of Death” [DIMEV 5387], lines 13, 44, 47, 61, and 99). We have selected a looser translation to get at this sense of the exciting, unexpected, and potentially dangerous.

174 Il n’est qui puisse mort fuir. Proverbial. See Hassell M195.

190 Le plus gras est premier pourry. Proverbial. See Hassell G52.

214 Contre la mort n’a point d’appel. Proverbial. See Hassell M191.

230 Qui vouldra bien morir bien vive. Proverbial. See Hassell M231.

238 On ne scet pour qui on amasse. Proverbial. See Hassell A86.

247 chanoine prebendez. See note to Lydgate’s Dance of Death A version, line 313.

254 La mort vient qu’on ne garde l’eure. Proverbial. See Hassell M201.

262 A bien morir doit chascun tendre. Proverbial. See Hassell M224.

270 Tel convoite qui a assez. Proverbial. See Hassell C291.

278 Qui trop embrasse peu estraint. Proverbial. See Hassell E23.

298 appellez. From appeller, to shout and, figuratively, to lodge an appeal; both would be fitting actions for an officer of the law who was in the process of being violently attacked.

310 Envis meurt qui aprins ne l’a. Literally, “he is loath to die who has not learned it,” wherein the referent to “it” is not fully clear. We have taken this as referring to the whole idea of the ars moriendi, or learning to die.

318 Vie d’omme est peu de chose. Proverbial. See Hassell V97.

327 sens desreuglé. This phrase has a dual sense of both a troubled mind (as in, troubled by fear) but also in the sense of mental breakdown or disorder. In this way, the poet seems to be suggesting that usury is such an unnatural way of making a living that it will literally drive its practitioner mad.

334 A tout perdre est cop perilleux. This elliptic phrase appears to be a French proverb derived from gambling. An eighteenth-century proverb dictionary explains as follows: “A tout perdre il n’y a qu’un coup perilleux: se dit, lorsque’en risquant tout, on se resout à tout ce qui peut arriver” (It takes but one dangerous play to lose everything: this is said when, in risking everything, one resigns oneself to anything that may happen); see Dictionnaire des proverbes françois, ed. Backer, perdre. The general sense seems to concern the precariousness of one’s fortunes in games of chance; we have therefore chosen a slightly looser translation to get at the full dimensions of the proverb. Lydgate, it should be noted, opts for a more literal rendition: “O perillous strook shal make thee lese al” in line 400 of the A version.

342 Tel a beaux eulx qui n’y voit goute. Proverbial. See Hassell Y4.

350 N’est pas quitte qui doit de reste. Proverbial. See Hassell Q12.

358 Bon mire est qui se scet guerir. Proverbial. See Hassell M154.

374 Beauté n’est qu’ymage fardé. Proverbial. See Hassell B35.

382 Petite pluye abat grant vent. According to the DMF, pluie (n.), this phrase is proverbial: “Idée de changement rapide (en partic. entre joie et tristesse, entre vantardise et abattement . . .). ‘Il faut peu de chose pour que tout change, pour que l’effet soit important.’” (The notion of swift change (esp. between joy and grief, between boastfulness and comeuppance . . .). ‘It takes just a little bit to change everything, to have an enormous effect.’) See also Hassell P201. Lydgate opts for a similar rendition, writing, “And windes grete gon doun with litil reyn” in line 448 of the A version.

383 sans long proces. This is an expression literally meaning with no delay but clearly playing on “proces” in the sense of trial or juridical proceeding, which befits Death’s addressee in this stanza. We have chosen to translate this as “deliberation” to evoke the idea of delay within a legal context. Lydgate also picks up on this pun, rendering the phrase with a neat “short processe for to make” in line 465 of the A version.

390 Bon fait justice prevenir. Proverbial. See Hassell J53.

398 Dieu rendra tout a juste pris. Proverbial. See Hassell D82.

406 Maistre doit monstrer sa science. Proverbial. See Hassell M28.

410 J’ay mis soubz le banc ma vielle. An idiomatic expression that literally means, “I have placed my viol under the bench” this phrase figuratively denotes the idea of fully and with finality abandoning a project or activity. Hence, we have translated the phrase a bit loosely, to get at both senses implied.

411 sauterelle. The sauterelle is an animated dance characterized by high leaps and skips. See Taylor, “Que signifiait ‘danse,’” pp. 265–67 on the particular association in medieval iconography of the danse macabre with fast dancing, featuring high leaps, characteristic of contemporary representations of folk dancing. Compare also the king’s laments concerning the “savage” nature of the dance in the Danse macabre, line 80, as well as in Lydgate’s Dance (A version, line 114, and B version, line 106).

430 Qui dieu quitte bien est eureux. Proverbial. See Hassell D94.

438 Fol est qui cuide tousjours vivre. Proverbial. See Hassell C352.

446 Au monde n’a point de reppos. Proverbial. See Hassell R29.

454 A toute heure la mort est preste. Proverbial. See Hassell M186.

461 En petite heure dieu labeure. Proverbial. See Hassell D87.

478 meurt joune que vieulx. Proverbial. See Hassell M226.

486 Dieu punist tout quant bon luy semble. Proverbial. See Hassell D81.

494 Moult remaint de ce que fol pense. Literally, “much remains of what a fool thinks,” which we have chosen to clarify with the addition of “unrealized.” Lydgate seems to have understood the phrase similarly in his translation: “For moche faileth of thing that foles thinke” in line 608 of the A version.

502 Vie n’est pas seur heritaige. Proverbial. See Hassell V98.

517 livre. I.e., the Bible.

519–20 Vous qui . . . danser estas divers. The text’s injunction to look upon the accompanying “pourtraitture” reminds us that the Danse was apprehended by many contemporaries, Lydgate included, as a visual image as well as text; compare Danse macabre, line 1. Lydgate also has his king speak to readers “that lokyn upon this portrature” in line 633 of the A version. In the B version, however, he replaces the word with “scripture” (line 561), a curious change given that it is the B version that seems to have been painted at St Paul’s Cathedral (see Introduction, pp. 16–17).

522 est . . . viande a vers. Proverbial. See Hassell V86.

535–37 Mais aucuns sont . . . . ilz auront chault. The French text is punning here on “n’en chault” (do not care) in line 535 and “auront chault” (will be warm, i.e., in the fires of hell) in line 537. Since English does not allow for the same pun, we have chosen instead to use the phrase “warm welcome” to lend the passage a similarly satirical tone.

542 Bien fait vault moult aux trespassez. Proverbial. See Hassell B97.

548 plangere. Stronger than merely lamenting or bewailing, this word can refer to beating or striking the body or chest, according to Lambert.

552 herebi. According to Lambert, this refers to classical Erebus and the realm of the Erinnyes (the Furies), from Greek ‘??gß??’ the lower world or god of darkness.
pagina sacra. This refers to the text of Scripture, i.e., Christian teaching/doctrine, according to Lambert.

 

Our edition of the Danse macabre intentionally uses an early manuscript, Paris, BNF fonds francaise MS 14989, containing the name “Machabre Docteur,” as its base-text (see Headnote to Explanatory Notes for the Danse macabre on p. 142), whereas other modern editions of the Danse all take Guyot Marchant’s 1485 and 1486 editions as their base-text. Warren also opts for a manuscript as her base-text: British Library, Additional MS 38858. Emendations of our base-text have been made simply for grammatical clarity, but we adduce the other modern editions as parallels to our editorial choices; in a few cases obviously corrupt readings have been emended in accordance with the other editions.

MANUSCRIPTS:
1. Chantilly, Bibliothèque et Archives du Château, MS 502 (olim 1920), fols. 1r–20v.
2. Lille, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 139 (olim 364), fols. 233v–39v.
3. London, British Library, Additional, MS 38858, fols. 2r–12r.
4. Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, 3896, fols. 237r–64v.
5. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fonds latin MS 14904, fols. 64r–72r.
6. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fonds français MS 995, fols. 1r–17r.
7. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fonds français MS 1055, fols. 68r–75r.
8. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fonds français MS 1181, fols. 137v–40v (fragment).
9. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fonds français MS 1186, fols. 89r–98v.
10. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fonds français MS 14989, fols. 1r–12v (base text for this edition).
11. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fonds français MS 25434, fols. 18r–35v.
12. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fonds français MS 25550, fols. 235r–49v.
13. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, nouvelles acquisitions françaises MS 10032, fols. 209r–23v.
14. Saint-Omer, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 127, fols. 201r–06r.
15. Tours, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 907, fols. 99v–114v.

INCUNABULA: For a comprehensive list of incunabula printing the Danse macabre, see the Universal Short Title Catalogue (https://ustc.ac.uk/index.php/search), using the keyword “Danse macabre” to search.

EDITIONS:
La grande danse macabre des hommes et des femmes precédée du dict des trois mors et des trois vifz, du debat du corps et de l’âme, et la complaincte de l’âme dampnée. Paris: Bailleu, 1862.
de Lincy, Le Roux, and L. M. Tisserand, eds. “La danse macabre reproduite textuellement d’apres l’unique exemplaire connu de l’édition princeps de Guyot Marchant (Paris, 1485) et completée avec l’édition de 1486.” In Paris et ses historiens aux XIVe et XVe Siècles. Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1867. Pp. 291–317.
Dufour, Valentin, ed. La dance macabre peinte sous les charniers des Saints Innocents de Paris (1425): reproduction de l’édition princeps donnée par Guyot Marchant, texte et gravures sur bois (1485). Paris: Féchoz, 1874. Rpt. 1875. Rpt. 1891.
Champion, Pierre, ed. La danse macabre, reproduction en fac-similé de l’édition de Guy Marchant, Paris, 1486. Paris: Éditions des Quatre Chemins, 1925.
Warren, Florence, and Beatrice White, eds. “The French Text.” In The Dance of Death, Edited from MSS. Ellesmere 26/A.13 and B.M. Lansdowne 699, Collated with the Other Extant MSS. EETS o.s. 181. London: Oxford University Press, 1931; Rpt. New York: Klaus Reprint Co., 1971. Pp. 79–96.
Chaney, Edward F., ed. La danse macabré des charniers des Saints Innocents à Paris. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1945.
Saugnieux, Joël, ed. “La danse macabre française de Guyot Marchant (1486).” In Les danses macabres de France et d’Espagne et leurs prolongements littéraires. Lyon: Emmanuel Vitte, 1972. Pp. 143–64.
Kaiser, Gert, ed. and trans. “La danse macabre” in Der tanzende Tod: Mittelalterliche Totentänze. Frankfurt am Main: Insel-Verlag, 1982. Pp. 72–107.
Fein, David A., ed. and trans. The Danse Macabre Printed by Guyot Marchant, 1485. Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2013.

ABBREVIATIONS: A1: London, British Library Additional 37049 fols. 31v–32r (basis for “Dawnce of Makabre”); A2: London, British Library Additional 15225, fols. 15r–16r (basis for “Shaking of the Sheets”); BD: Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates’ 1.1.6 (Bannatyne MS Draft), pp. 43r–44r; BM: Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates’ 1.1.6 (Bannatyne MS Main), fols. 56r–57r (basis for “Resoning betuix Death and Man”); Brown: Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century, ed. Brown, p. 241; Brunner: “Mittelenglische Todesgedichte,” ed. Brunner, pp. 27–28, 30; C: Cambridge, Cambridge University Library Ff.5.45, fols. 13r–14r; Cov: Coventry, Coventry Archives Acc. 325/1, fols. 70rb–74vb; Cutler: Cutler, John L. “A Middle English Acrostic,” p. 88; D: Oxford, Bodleian Library Douce 322 (SC 21896), fols. 19vb–20ra (basis for “Death’s Warning to the World”); Doty: “An Edition of British Museum MS Additional 37049: a Religious Miscellany,” ed. Doty, pp. 206–11; Dufour: La dance macabre peinte sous les charniers des Saints Innocents de Paris, ed. Dufour; F: Bibliothèque nationale de France fonds français 14989, fols. 1r–12v (basis for French Danse macabre); Fein: The Danse Macabre Printed by Guyot Marchant, ed. Fein; Furnivall: “Of Þre Messagers of Deeth,” ed. Furnivall, 2:443–48; H1: London, British Library Harley 1706, fols. 19v–20r; H2: London, British Library, Harley 116, fols. 128r–v (basis for “A Mirror for Young Ladies at their Toilet”); Horstmann: “Nachträge zu den Legenden 5: The Messengers of Death,” ed. Horstmann, pp. on 432–34; L: British Library MS Lansdowne 669, fols. 41v–50v (basis for Lydgate, Dance of Death, B version), fols. 41v–50v; Lincy: “La danse macabre reproduite textuellement d’apres l’unique exemplaire connu de l’édition princeps de Guyot Marchant,” ed. Le Roux de Lincy, pp. 291–317; N: New Haven, Beinecke Library MS 493, fols. 51v–60v; P: Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys Library, Pepys Ballads 2.62; R: Oxford, Bodleian Library 4o Rawl. 566 (203); RV: Rome, Venerable English College (AVCAU) MS 1405, fols. 111r–21r; S: Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Selden Supra 53, fols. 148r–58v (basis for Lydgate, Dance of Death, A version); Saugnieux: “La danse macabre française de Guyot Marchant (1486),” ed. Saugnieux, pp. 143–64; Silverstein: “Cest le Myrroure pur les Iofenes Dames,” ed. Silverstein, pp. 121–22; Sim: London, British Library Addit. 22283 [Simeon MS], fols. 88vb–89ra; V: Oxford, Bodleian Library Eng. poet. a.1 (SC 3938) [Vernon MS], fols. 297vc–98rb (basis for “Three Messengers of Death”); Warren: The Dance of Death, ed. Warren and White; W1: Oxford, Bodleian Library Wood 401 (60) (Wing H2013A); W2: Oxford, Bodleian Library Wood 402 (48) (Wing H2013B).

14 Mort n’espargne. F: Mort le nespargne.

42 timbre. So Lincy, Dufour, Saugnieux, Fein. F: timble. Warren: tymbre.

55 ce. So Warren, Lincy, Dufour, Saugnieux, Fein. F: se.

83 tout. So Warren, Lincy, Dufour, Saugnieux, Fein. F: teut.

102 le. So Warren, Lincy, Dufour, Saugnieux, Fein. F: les.

134 contrainte. So Warren, Lincy, Dufour, Saugnieux, Fein. F: centrainte.

149 cop suis. F: cop cop suis.

178 rire. So Warren, Lincy, Dufour, Saugnieux, Fein. F: vivre.

184 chiere. So Lincy, Dufour, Saugnieux, Fein. F: cheere. Warren: chere.

185 que. So Warren, Lincy, Dufour, Saugnieux, Fein. F: qui.

198 On s’advise tart en mourant. Added in space between stanzas by the scribe.

Before 199 ¶ Le mort added in the margin by the scribe.

317 Homme n’est fors que vent et cendre. Added in the outer margin by the scribe with a signe de renvoi (an insertion mark) in the form of a circle and cross.

318 est peu. F: est moule peu.

332 se. So Warren, Lincy, Dufour, Saugnieux, Fein. F: ce.

347 ma main. So Warren, Lincy, Dufour, Saugnieux, Fein. F: main.

380 Souviegnez. F: souviegne. Warren, Lincy, Dufour, Saugnieux, Fein all have forms of souvienne, but the verb form should be in the second person plural, as we have emended it.

403 Monstrer. So Warren, Lincy, Dufour, Saugnieux, Fein. F: monstres.

Before 423 ¶ Le cure. F: omitted.

440 la. So Lincy, Dufour, Saugnieux. F, Warren: le. Omitted in Fein.

456 n’y demeure. F: ny demeure demeure. The first demeure has been written over a word that has been scraped away. The second, crossed out demeure occurs in the right-hand margin next to the line, with traces of a third demeure written above it.

470 a a souffrir. So Warren, Lincy, Dufour, Saugnieux, Fein. F: a assouffrir.

472 la. So Warren, Lincy, Dufour, Saugnieux, Fein. F: le.

483 Qu’on. So Warren, Lincy, Dufour, Saugnieux, Fein. F: Quen.

511 A copy of lines 519–24 with the speaker marker are written out here but crossed out.

526 aux vers donnez. So Warren, Lincy, Dufour, Saugnieux, Fein. F: donnez aux vers.

552 amens. F: illegible, supplied by Fein.