The Death-Bed of Vice
Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712
Image Title: The Death-Bed of Vice
Scripture Reference:
- Psalms 37 (further images / scripture text)
Description: Four people with gestures of desperation surround the bed, on which a dying person is trying to hold on to the thread that connects him to the World, which is being taken away by Time; the thread is about to be cut by Death. A devil with wings hangs above the dying person. The Dutch artist and poet Jan Luiken (1649-1712), whose initials are at the lower right, was responsible for drawing and etching this emblem and for the poem that accompanies it (below). The attendant scripture text is Psalm 37:35-36.
Poem:
Disastrous End and sad passing,
When the same Thing, that should relieve you,
Provides your life with miserable burdens,
With grief, and pain! despair and mourning!
Wrong Treasure, wherein the heart is buried,
Now you depart, and leave your servant no pay,
For all the service, of the early and late slaving,
How your virtue stinks, how ugly is your beauty!
There he carts it away, that seller of all things:
No hand is strong enough to prevent his going,
Or can restrain his Companion,
When he arrives, to put his hand to work.
Not friend, nor relative, nor gold and silver coins,
Not Youth, nor State, nor Priest, nor Doctor,
Can keep this treasure, or make it stay,
Time and Death, they boldly abscond with it.
Oh earthly man! In thine healthy days,
Dost put thine hand to work, now it’s still thine time,
So that thou through wise deliberation,
Dost escape and avoid what others lament.
Thou hast seen the Vapor of all beautiful splendors,
However thick and heavy it had surrounded life,
Now frequently disappear from others,
Dost regard thyself, and dost choose another path.
(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)
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