On the other side of the crucifix is a figure which may represent the Good Shepherd, as close beside him there are three sheep, and he holds a staff in his hand. Behind this figure stand three women, and the head of a man is seen at the back. It is difficult to conjecture what they are meant to typify, unless those "other saints which the sick man may most have loved and honoured in his life," for they all look compassionately on him. Below is another angel, half hidden by a cloth which he holds in his hands, apparently trying to shield the figures of a man and woman from the sick man's gaze. On a scroll encircling his head are the words: " Ne intende amicis. Do not concern thyself with thy friends." Mr Bullen suggests that both may possibly be "disappointed expectants of sharing the dying man's wealth; or else the female figure representing his wife, and the male figure that of his physician."[1]But the words of the scroll lead us to suppose they symbolise the relations of the sick man, whom he has been exhorted to forget at the hour of his death, that he may give his mind more intently to the things which are not seen. In the other illustrations of the block-book hideous demons are depicted howling round the bed, or fleeing under it, but here (and partly this is the reason for its choice) only one impotent and angry devil is seen, ejaculating in despair Quidfaclam?
In conclusion, I can only say how sadly I am conscious of the inadequacy of these notes; but the longer one works among manuscripts and old reprints the more there seems left to be discovered, and my hope is that I may at least have cleared the ground so as to help another on the same quest.
- ↑ Introduction to the " An Moriendi," p. 16.
