Lessons in "hopping": the Dance of Death and the Chester mystery cycle

Comparative Drama, Fall-Wntr, 2002 by Sophie Oosterwijk

   For a sympull sclaghtur yt were to sloo,
   Or to wyrke soche a chyld woo
   Pat can noder speyke nor goo
   Nor neuer harme did. (11)

In depictions of the Ages of Man, the first age of infantia is often represented by an infant lying in a cradle, occasionally followed by the slightly later stage of the toddler who is still learning to walk. (12) However, the Chester soldier takes this image one step further: he offers to teach the infants a "play," viz. to "hopp" on his spear. As we shall see, this repeated line seems to contain an echo of the words of Death to the infant in English and Continental versions of the Dance of Death.

The danse macabre was a very popular theme throughout late-medieval Europe. It presents Death appearing unexpectedly to summon both the mighty and the low to take part in his dance; each victim in turn is forced to acknowledge that death is grim but inevitable. The infant was a regular participant in the danse macabre from the earliest known examples onward. Perhaps this is not surprising if one considers the infant's common appearance in depictions of the Ages of Man, the high rate of infant mortality, and the ubiquitous Massacre scenes in medieval art and drama that presented viewers with a horrifying spectacle of infant death. However, the infant is unusual among Death's dancers not only because he holds no social status of his own (unlike the other participants from all ranks of society) but also because he is characterized as one who cannot yet walk, let alone dance. His helplessness is emphasized in the earliest known French printed edition of the danse macabre, published in 1485 by Guyot Marchant, which was based on the famous mural of 1424-25 on the cemetery walls of the Franciscan convent Aux SS. Innocents in Paris. The woodcut illustration in Marchant's version shows the infant in a cradle, while the dialogue between Death and his victim runs as follows:

Le mort

   Petit enfant na gueres ne:
   Au monde auras peu de plaisance
   A la danse seras mene
   Comme autres, car mort a puissance
   Seur tous: du iour de la naissance
   Conuient chascun a mort offrir:
   Fol est qui nen a congnoissance.
   Qui plus vit plus a a souffrir

   (Little infant barely born,
   you will find little pleasure in this world.
   You will be led to the dance,
   like the others, for Death has power
   over all: from the day of one's birth

   Everyone is subject to Death.
   A fool is he who does not know this.
   He who lives longest will suffer the more.

Lenfant

   A. a. a. ie ne scay parler
   Enfant suis: iay la langue mue.
   Hier nasquis huy men fault aler
   Ie ne fais quentree et yssue
   Rien nay meffait, mais de peur sue
   Prendre en gre me fault cest le mieulx
   Lordonnance dieu ne se mue.
   Aussi tost meurt ieusne que vieux (13)

   A, a, a, I know not how to talk.
   I am an infant: my tongue is mute.
   Born yesterday, today I have to go.
   I only make my entrance and my exit.
   I have done no wrong, and yet I
   sweat for fear.
   I must comply willingly, that is best.
   God's decree does not change.
   The young die as soon as the old.)