Heidelberger Totentanz
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Generally, a short dialogue is attached to each victim, in which Death is summoning him or her to dance and the summoned is moaning about the near-death. In the first printed Totentanz textbook (Anon.: Vierzeiliger oberdeutscher Totentanz, Heidelberger Blockbuch, approx. 1460), Death addresses, for example, the emperor:
- Her keyser euch hilft nicht das swert
- Czeptir vnd crone sint hy nicht wert
- Ich habe euch bey der hand genomen
- Ir must an meynen reyen komen
- Emperor, your sword won’t help you out
- Sceptre and crown are worthless here
- I’ve taken you by the hand
- For you must come to my dance
At the bottom end of the Totentanz, Death calls, for example, the peasant to dance, and he answers:
- Ich habe gehabt [vil arbeit gross]
- Der sweis mir du[rch die haut floss]
- Noch wolde ich ger[n dem tod empfliehen]
- Zo habe ich des glu[cks nit hie]
- I had to work very much and very hard
- The sweat was running down my skin
- I’d like to escape death nonetheless
- But here I won’t have any luck
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