Death and mortality

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

13. 

Death comes even to kings.
From the Roxburghe Ballads (1847). University of Victoria Library.

The many plagues which decimated England and Europe helped shape a culture in which death was an ever-present yet mysterious force in daily life. Images of corpses and skeletons abound in the art of the 14th and 15th centuries, often in connection with the medieval Death Dance*.

The prevalence of death imagery in medieval artwork may seem obsessive, but this cultural phenomenon was a vital part of medieval society's attempt to comprehend a very real danger. In an era with high mortality rates, mass deaths due to disease, and little knowledge of medicine and hygiene, death was an inescapable mystery. Whole villages and urban districts could be wiped out for no comprehensible reason. It is not surprising that the decimation caused by the plague was considered to be a sign of God's displeasure.

An interesting side-effect of the plague was the belief that death was the great leveler: your time would come whether you were a prince or a pauper -- a fact that Hamlet was particularly aware of*.

Death in Shakespeare's London

Public executions, mutilations, and corpses on display were common sights to the residents and playgoers of Shakespeare's London. London bridge, on the way from the city to the Globe theater, was a common place for the exhibition of traitors' heads. The Globe theater itself was located next to a bear-baiting ring, and many other theaters did double duty as places to see both drama and blood-sports.