The English Dance of Death from the designs of Thomas Rowlandson, with metrical illustrations, by the author of "Doctor Syntax" [i.e. William Combe] |
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 | The English Dance of Death |  |
THE various ways which Death contrives,
To put an end to human Lives,
Would, were they told in prose or song,
Make out a tale so very long,
That few, aye very few, would lend
A kind attention to the end:
But e're they reach'd the fiftieth line,
Would the dull, tedious work resign.
'Tis how men live, not how they die,
That stirs up Curiosity.
Our thoughts, our spirits we convene
To look upon the living scene.
The Actor comes, he plays his part,
With Comic or with Tragic art;
But if 'tis order'd that he dies,
We leave him to his obsequies.
And the impatient eye expects
The hero that shall enter next.
But still my subject bids me state,
The whims and phantasies of Fate.
To put an end to human Lives,
Would, were they told in prose or song,
Make out a tale so very long,
That few, aye very few, would lend
A kind attention to the end:
But e're they reach'd the fiftieth line,
Would the dull, tedious work resign.
'Tis how men live, not how they die,
That stirs up Curiosity.
Our thoughts, our spirits we convene
To look upon the living scene.
The Actor comes, he plays his part,
With Comic or with Tragic art;
But if 'tis order'd that he dies,
We leave him to his obsequies.
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The hero that shall enter next.
But still my subject bids me state,
The whims and phantasies of Fate.
| The English Dance of Death | |