The Black Death

Most of the participants in the dance of death are healthy people in the prime of their life who apparently are about to die simultaneously. What was happening in the late Middle Ages was that the new trade routes had brought on a new disease from the East that within few days would kill even the most strong and healthy in the densely populated cities. This was the Plague - The Black Death.

The Triumph of Death

The plague is caused by a bacterium (Yersinia pestis(1)) that spreads through rat fleas. If the body's immune system fails to impede the bacteria, the victim will die from septicemic plague or pneumonic plague. In the latter case the symptoms are as for a severe pneumonia with bloody vomit. The patient coughs and sneezes a lot and the disease may spread through aerosol droplets.

If the immune system repels the first attack, the plague will result in painful boils or buboes in the lymph nodes. These may grow to the size of chicken eggs. The victims often die after a few days, the cause of death being exhaustion, heart attacks and circulatory disturbance. Subcutaneous bleedings and respiratory failing gives the patient the blue-black colour that has epitomised the disease: "The Black Death".

Let us quote the emperor from Des dodes dantz:

Berner Totentanz. Death breaks the physician's urine glass with a bone.

Between 1347 and 1352, 30% of Europe's population died. Compare this with the Second World War, which lasted just as long, where 5% of the population died from the war and the genocide(2). The physicians with their herbs and blood-letting were helpless - like the physician from Des dodes dantz who is studying his own urine glass:

The church had a bit of explaining to do: The priests who gave absolution to the dying, would themselves die shortly after. Thus the church couldn't claim that the plague, like AIDS, was God's punishment over people who led sinful lives.

Plague doctor. The strange "beak" is full of fragrant herbs to protect the physician from infection and the stick is for poking the patient. With doctors like that you didn't need diseases.

It didn't take the Vatican spin doctors long to arrive at a solution: It wasn't the first time God had inflicted "plagues" on sinners - think of the 10 plagues of Egypt - the 6^th plague being boils.

Now they looked at The Revelation - the chapter in the Bible that describes the end of the world: chap. 6,8: "And I saw, and behold, a pale horse, and its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him; and they were given power over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth. " and chap. 16, 2: "[...] and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image." and chap. 16,11: " And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, [...].".

So Death was simply a messenger of God and a sign that the apocalypse draweth nigh. If you had lived without sin (i.e. followed the orders of the church) you had nothing to fear. On the other hand, if you weren't totally spotless it might be a good idea to buy one or two letters of indulgence. After all, Death might come suddenly - as a thief in the night - so maybe you wouldn't get the time to redeem yourself.

In the painting in St. Mary's church we're never explained why the dancers are dying, but in the incunabula there's sometimes an explanation and in those cases it's never war, famine, old age, crime or accidents - but always a disease:

Physician with a urine glass from Lübeck's dance of death.

The king in Des dodes dantz is ill:

Other sick people are the abbot and the journeyman.

We don't get as many sick people in Dodendantz, but that might be because the text is much shorter with only 6 lines per verse. The physician is upset about a urine glass, but we are not told whether it's he's own specimen.

Copenhagen's Dance of Death is one long case record. The emperor needs a physician to examine his urine:

The physician with a urine glass from des Dodes Dantz

...but the physician is busy studying his own urine:

Death agrees:

Other sick people include the king, the duke, the abbot, the master of the Teutonic Order, the peasant and the journeyman.

After listening to all this misery, it's refreshing to meet the peasant from Dodendantz who is busy tilling the ground and have no time for disease and dying. There's not a bit wrong with him - well actually the coarse peasant doesn't exactly say "bit":

Famous last words . . . . .

Further information

• The physician in des Dodes Dantz.
• The physician in Holbein's dance of death alphabet.
• The physician in Holbein's great dance of death
• The physician in Heidelberg's block book
• Copenhagen's Dance of Death.
• Other dance of death scripts.
• Why we must die: The original sin
• Judgement Day and Death as a thief in the night

Footnotes: (1) (2)

The dance of death Essays The Black Death