Laudator Temporis Acti

Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), Don Quixote, part II, chapter XX (tr. John Ormsby):

"In good faith, señor," replied Sancho, "there's no trusting that fleshless one, I mean Death, who devours the lamb as soon as the sheep, and, as I have heard our curate say, treads with equal foot upon the lofty towers of kings and the lowly huts of the poor. That lady is more mighty than dainty, she is no way squeamish, she devours all and is ready for all, and fills her alforjas with people of all sorts, ages, and ranks. She is no reaper that sleeps out the noontide; at all times she is reaping and cutting down, as well the dry grass as the green; she never seems to chew, but bolts and swallows all that is put before her, for she has a canine appetite that is never satisfied; and though she has no belly, she shows she has a dropsy and is athirst to drink the lives of all that live, as one would drink a jug of cold water."

A buena fe, señor, respondió Sancho, que no hay que fiar en la descarnada, digo en la muerte, la cual tan bien come cordero como carnero, y á nuestro cura he oído decir, que con igual pié pisaba las altas torres de los reyes, como las humildes chozas de los pobres. Tiene esta señora más de poder que de melindre; no es nada asquerosa, de todo come y á todo hace, y de toda suerte de gentes, edades y preeminencias hinche sus alforjas. No es segador que duerme las siestas, que á todas horas siega y corta así la seca como la verde yerba, y no parece que masca, sino que engulle y traga cuanto se le pone delante, porque tiene hambre canina, que nunca se harta; y aunque no tiene barriga, da á entender que esta hidrópica y sedienta de beber solas las vidas de cuantos viven, como quien se bebe un jarro de agua fría.

"treads with equal foot upon the lofty towers of kings and the lowly huts of the poor": an echo of Horace, Odes 1.4.13-14: "Pale Death knocks with indiscriminate foot at the hovels of the poor and the towers of kings." (pallida Mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas / regumque turris).