William John Thoms

“ And well they may be. For I think there are few of my readers, who have made the Dance of Death the subject of their attention, however cursorily, who will not remember how frequently the pick-purse, the cook, "the carter over ridden with his cart," &c. figure in that remarkable pageant-like work of art; who will not see that in describing the paintings which decorated the temple of Mars, Chaucer drew not merely from Statins, or Boccaccio, but also from his memory of some Dance of Death which he well knew would be recognised by his readers. ”

“ IN EXPLANATION OF A PASSAGE IN "THE KNIGHT'S TALE" OF CHAUCER.
There is no subject in the whole range of mediæval art of greater interest, nor one, the origin of which is involved in greater obscurity, notwithstanding the vast amount of antiquarian learning which has been expended on its investigation, than the so called Dance of Death. ”

“ They are intended in the first place to clear up a passage in Chaucer, which defied the ingenuity of Tyrwhitt, and thereby, in the second place, to shew that the Dance of Death was a subject perfectly familiar to the English at the time when the Canterbury Tales were written. ”