Volume 1

Death's doings : consisting of numerous original compositions in verse and prose, the friendly contributions of various writers : principally intended as illustrations of thirty copper-plates / designed and etched by R. Dagley.

  • Dagley, Richard, -1841.
Date:
1827
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Death's doings : consisting of numerous original compositions in verse and prose, the friendly contributions of various writers : principally intended as illustrations of thirty copper-plates / designed and etched by R. Dagley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    power; for, as soon as the first impression of alarm made by the ghastly phantom, as exhibited in their churches, was over, and the object became familiar, —ridicule took place of fear; and farcical represen- tations of Death on the stage and by the pencil suc- ceeded, in numbers and extent, perhaps, beyond those of any other subject. One of these farcical moralities is hinted at by our immortal bard, in his play of “ Measure for Measure— “ Merely thou art Death’s fool: For him thou labourest, by thy flight, to shun, And yet runn’st toward him still.” This passage is explained in a note, thus :—“ In the simplicity of the ancient shows upon our stage, it was common to bring in two figures, one repre- senting a fool, and the other. Death or Fate; the turn and contrivance of the piece was, to make the fool lay many stratagems to avoid Death, which yet brought him more immediately into the jaws of it.” It is more than probable that Shakspeare had seen and considered many of the paintings and de- signs on the subject of Death, and with his powerful