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THE DEVIL'S POOL
THE AUTHOR TO THE READER
A la sueur de ton visaige,
Tu gagnerois ta pauvre vie.
Après long travail et usaige,
Voicy la mort qui te convie.[1]
THIS quaint old French verse, written under one of Holbein's pictures, is profoundly melancholy. The engraving represents a laborer driving his plow through the middle of a field. Beyond him stretches a vast horizon, dotted with wretched huts; the sun is sinking behind the hill. It is the end of a hard day's work. The peasant is old, bent, and clothed in rags. He is urging onward a team of four thin
- ↑ In toil and sorrow thou shalt eat
The bitter bread of poverty.
After the burden and the heat,
Lo! it is Death who calls for thee.
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