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The physician in a dance of death always has a glass with urine in his hand, which he holds against the light in order to make a diagnosis (cf. the text: "dein Krankenglas" / "that polish'd glass"). Check out the other images of physicians in dances of death.
Ludewig Suhl | Translation |
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der Tod |
Death |
der Doctor |
The Physician |
The physician seems to break the over-all sequence with alternating clergy and laity. This is because the physician is considered a cleric — having studied at the university. The same thing holds true in Des Dodes Dantz for the physician and the student, and in Paris and London for the astronomer, the physician and the lawyer.
This distinction is even clearer in Berlin's dance of death. All the 14 clerics are placed to the left of Christ and here we find the doctor with the urine glass among priests and monks.
The opposite is true for the "lowly" barber-surgeon / bonesetter, who is regarded as a craftsman. In Des Dodes Dantz there is a long Gilbert-and-Sullivanesque list of craftsmen, and this is where we meet the barber (High German: "(Bart)scherer" i.e. beard-cutter) and the apothecary / surgeon (High German: "(Pflaster)schmierer") i.e. one who spreads a medicated substance on a plaster): »[…] Eyn weuer. eyn packer. eyn bruwer. eyn sacker. eyn scherer. eyn smerer. eyn vorsprake. efte eyn ander kreter […]«.
Thomas Nugent | |
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XXVIII. Death to the Physician. |
XXIX. The Physician's answer. |