Danse macabre in literature

[Etienne]

Hello, I was wondering what were the representation of Danse Macabre in literature? All I found was Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain has a chapter called Danse Macabre, then Stephen has a book called Danse macabre, but I don't care about him, and then a few medieval poems. In music it is a rather common theme (with Saint-Saens' being the most famous) but in literature it seems rather scarce at first glance.

[stlukesguild]

I'm not certain that we can definie it as a Danse Macabre proper... but I would certainly think immediately of the Walpurgesnacht scene from Goethe's Faust.

[Etienne]

Just what I'm reading at the moment too! :P

[Kafka's Crow]

The famous Graveyard Scene in Hamlet (V, i)
There are quite a few Elizabethan poems on this subject. A line is troubling me 'Golden lads and girls all must/ Like chimney sweepers come to dust (or something like this). I must find where it came from ...
It is from Cymbeline. As I said, Elizabethan literature is littered with such descriptions of death. From our own time:

"That's what I like about death: it is democratic!"
From a lecture by Rick Roderick (http://larshjo.tihlde.org/roderick/)

[JBI]

Look up François Villon.

[Kafka's Crow]

Look up François Villon.

"Villon is their [the French] only substitute for Homer." Ezra Pound.
Will definitely read Villon now. Pound wrote an opera about him, Villon was one of the major influences on his own poetry. For the time being, this should suffice:

http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/comparative_critical_studies/v003/3.1villon.pdf