Death:

Maiden, I am beginning to dance with you.

Maiden:

I would rather be without this chaindance

I young beautiful girl.

I feel the temptations of the world.

I did not know of your arrival.

Now you’re coming quickly and terrify me.

I didn’t know, you were here.

Had I become a nun

then I would gladly step into your order.

–Bernd Notke (d. 1509)

THE DANCE OF DEATH

AND OTHER ARTISTIC RESPONSES TO THE TRAUMA

Click the thumbnail to hear medieval composer Guillaume de Machaut’s (1300-1377) ’Puis qu’en oubli’ — a polyphonic chanson that captures the lost and brooding mood of the plague era

The ‘Danse macabre’ becomes a popular theme in art in the aftermath of the Black Death