TIMOR MORTIS CONTURBAT ME



A number of late mediaeval English poems use the Latin words Timor mortis conturbat me as a refrain. This is excerpted from a responsory of the Office of the Dead, the third nocturn of Matins:

Peccantem me cotidie et non repenitentem timor mortis conturbat me. * Quia in inferno nulla est redempcio miserere mei domine et salva me.

As I have been sinning daily and repenting not, the fear of death disturbs me. * Have mercy on me Lord, and save me, for none is redeemed in hell.

A ballad by an unknown poet of the 15th century:

In what estate so ever I be
Timor mortis conturbat me.

As I went on a merry morning,
I heard a bird both weep and sing.
This was the tenor of her talking:
Timor mortis conturbat me.

I asked that bird what she meant.
I am a musket both fair and gent;
For dread of death I am all shent:
Timor mortis conturbat me.

When I shall die, I know no day;
What country or place I cannot say;
Wherefore this song sing I may:
Timor mortis conturbat me.

Jesu Christ, when He sould die,
To His Father He gan say,
Father, He said, in Trinity,
Timor mortis conturbat me. 

All Christian people, behold and see:
This world is but a vanity
And replete with necessity.
Timor mortis conturbat me.

Wake I or sleep, eate or drink,
When I on my last end do think,
For greate fear my soul do shrink:
Timor mortis conturbat me.

God grant us grace Him for to serve,
And be at our end when we sterve,
And from the fiend He us preserve.
Timor mortis conturbat me.

TRIUMPH of DEATH and DANCE of DEATH ~ CLUSONE



Fresco on the Disciplinarian Oratory in Clusone, depicting the Triumph of Death and the Dance of Death.



More images can be seen here.



At the bottom right of the first image above (beneath the door) a fragment of a lost fresco is visible, showing penitents.

DANCE of DEATH ~ CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS



Click on the image above to hear the Danse Macabre composed by Camille Saint-Saëns. Loosely based on a poem by Henri Cazalis:

Zig et zig et zag, la mort en cadence
Frappant une tombe avec son talon,
La mort à minuit joue un air de danse,
Zig et zig et zag, sur son violon.

Le vent d'hiver souffle, et la nuit est sombre,
Des gémissements sortent des tilleuls;
Les squelettes blancs vont à travers l'ombre
Courant et sautant sous leurs grands linceuls,

Zig et zig et zag, chacun se trémousse,
On entend claquer les os des danseurs,
Un couple lascif s'assoit sur la mousse
Comme pour goûter d'anciennes douceurs.

Zig et zig et zag, la mort continue
De racler sans fin son aigre instrument.
Un voile est tombé ! La danseuse est nue!
Son danseur la serre amoureusement.

La dame est, dit-on, marquise ou baronne.
Et le vert galant un pauvre charron – Horreur!
Et voilà qu'elle s'abandonne
Comme si le rustre était un baron!

Zig et zig et zig, quelle sarabande!
Quels cercles de morts se donnant la main!
Zig et zig et zag, on voit dans la bande
Le roi gambader auprès du vilain!

Mais psit ! tout à coup on quitte la ronde,
On se pousse, on fuit, le coq a chanté
Oh ! La belle nuit pour le pauvre monde!
Et vive la mort et l'égalité!

REQUIEM VESTMENTS from CHIMAY









From the church of Ss. Peter and Paul in Chimay, 17th century.

DANCE of DEATH ~ BERN

The Dance of Death window in Matter Chapel of Bern Münster:

DANCE of DEATH ~ TAPESTRIES by ROBERT HUGH BENSON









Roman Miscellany:

Hidden in one of the rooms at Hare Street are a series of tapestries that Robert Hugh Benson made and, during his lifetime, hung around the house. Some of these depict the Legend of the Grail; others the Dance of Death, a popular subject with medieval and Renaissance artists. These were kept in the tapestry room, which was used for guests - especially, Benson one day remarked, Anglican clergymen. The usual figures appear, though with an Edwardian colouring: the Pope, the Cardinal, the soldier and so on. Finally - and this is a note of optimism and belief in the redemption - comes the funeral of death itself, with the creepy skull thuribles being swung by a skeleton.

DANCE of DEATH ~ DRESDEN



In the Dreikönigskirche in Dresden. Carved in sandstone relief by Christoph Walther I in 1535.

DANCE of DEATH ~ REQUIEM VESTMENTS from MONS

































From the Church of St. Nicolas in Mons, made late 16th century.

DANCE of DEATH ~ NORRE ALSLEV



Patrick Pollefeys:

A dance of death adorns the church of Nørre Alslev, on Falster Island. It was painted around 1480 and then whitewashed in the 17th century, as well as many other medieval frescoes, to be rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century. You must read the picture from left to right. The first figure, almost completely erased, is a dead who sits on the ground while playing a wind instrument. Only four people follow him: the king, the bishop, the nobleman and the peasant. Arabesques and stylized flowers decorate the picture. Since there is no text to the painting, it is difficult to determine who indeed are the partners of the living ones in this farandole. Some specialists believe they are devils and not dead; they point out that the bishop's partner has horns, while another creature sticks out her tongue in a devilish way. Nevertheless, a closer look at the picture reveals that these horns and tongue are in fact worms or snakes crawling out of the eyeholes and mouth of the corpses. This makes the dead even more loathsome and amplifies the feeling of fright in the spectator's soul.

TRIUMPH of DEATH ~ PIETER BRUEGEL and JAN BRUEGHEL


By Pieter Bruegel the Elder


By Jan Brueghel the Elder

HARTBERG CHARNEL

DANCE of DEATH ~ TALLINN



In the Church of St. Nicholas in Tallinn. Painted by Bernt Notke. More information here and here.

A similar Dance of Death by the same artist was painted on the organ casing at the church of St. Mary in Lübeck.

DANCE of DEATH ~ SPREUER BRIDGE in LUCERNE









All About Switzerland:

Under the roof of Spreuer Bridge, 67 paintings dating from 1626 to 1635 represent a Dance of Death. Death, represented as a skeleton or as the Great Reaper urges everybody to dance with him. Death makes no difference between old and young, churchmen and laymen, rich and poor. These kinds of paintings were often placed on cemetary walls. They expressed popular feeling in the face of death, especially during times of epidemic pestilence... Lucerne's Dance of Death was designed by chief painter Kaspar Meglinger.

More here and here.

FUNEREAL RITES in MEDIAEVAL MANUSCRIPTS

From the Digital Scriptorium:

DEATH of the REPROBATE ~ HIERONYMUS BOSCH

HALLSTATT OSSUARY

DANCE of DEATH ~ MICHEL WOLGEMUT

DEATH PLAYING CHESS



Painted by Albertus Pictor in Täby Kyrka, Uppland, near Stockholm.

DEATH of ST. MARTIN

DANCE of DEATH ~ HRASTOVLJE



In the Church of the Holy Trinity in Hrastovlje:



More information here and here.