There’s a song by Robyn Hitchcock called “Lady Waters and the Hooded One” (lyrics here). It’s essentially a “cheating Death” story. In the midst of a plague, Death approaches Lady Waters on her estate and asks to dance. Lady Waters demurs, then tricks Death into threatening to take “everything she has,” at which point Lady Waters reveals she has the plague…and Death is forced to take not only her whole estate, but also the plague itself, leaving Lady Waters with nothing but her life.
This just sounds so much like a folk tale that I wonder if Hitchcock adapted it from an earlier tale. Does anyone know?
