The stage was filled with musicians, and in its centre, banked by violets, violets only, was the catafalque.
"Melomaniacs"
James Huneker
How could she put it in words, the ghastliness of this perpetual reminder of that which in her heart she longed to forget-this feeling that had been growing on her for so long, that she ought to feel more remorse for marrying Beverley Temple than grief at losing him-that all this solemn mourning for him was like those state funerals, where there is a great service, a catafalque, a coffin, mourners-everything except a corpse?
"Throckmorton"
Molly Elliot Seawell
At the funeral of General Grant, twice a President, and regarded as the saviour of his country, there was a gorgeous catafalque of purple velvet, but at the ordinary funeral there are none of these trappings.
"Manners and Social Usages"
Mrs. John M. E. W. Sherwood