Death Becomes Her

Death Becomes Her
The Death Culture of 1300-1500 using Ms. fr. 995

THL Gwenllian Bengrych ferch Rhys
Pennsic University, 2015

The Danse Macabre des Femmes, Ms. fr. 995 is housed in the Biblioteque Nationale in Paris, France.  It is a French poem about life and death and is the only Danse Macabre devoted to women. In this version, the poem describes 36 women called by death in the middle of their busy lives.  It was written and illuminated in the 15th century, but we do not know the exact date. There were seven versions of the des Femmes – 5 manuscipts and 2 printed versions. Ms. fr. 995 is a definite copy of the printed versions which were dated to 1491 and 1492, so we can at least date it to mid to late 1490’s.

The Danse Macabre and other death motifs were very popular throughout the middle ages, especially mid 1300 through late 1500.  When we look at daily life during this time period, it is easy to see why a cultural obsession with death becomes so pervasive.  While infant and child mortality rates were very high, if a person made it to adulthood, the life spans were fairly long.  Between 1200-1300, the life expectancy was 64 years, 1500 – 1600 it was 70 years.  Contrary to these numbers, between 1300-1500 the average age drops to 45 years old.  Not coincidentally, this is the same time frame that death motifs become so popular in Europe.

Throughout the middle ages period, as with any time, birth and death were inevitable, and society was well aware of their mortality.  During the “normal” years, as many as 30% of women died while pregnant or during childbirth. Children between birth and 18 years of age were most susceptible to dying. An average of 45% of children died before reaching adulthood due to illness, birth defects, accidents, and house fires.  For children and adults, workplace and farm accidents were common. Drowning, falls, and horse or cart accidents were all popular ways to die.  There were criminals who murdered and domestic disputes between family members that escalated to someone’s death. The Hundred Years War also called many men to the afterlife.

Medieval society also had their recreational mishaps including jousting accidents, life threatening injuries during rough or physical games, hunting accidents, and drunk and disorderly behavior. Illnesses and epidemics took many lives seasonally. Diseases like the flu, TB, pneumonia and fever were common as were childhood illnesses such as measles, pox, or strep.

However, things took a drastic change starting in the late 1290’s due to new factors including famine and new epidemics of disease.  By 1300, we begin to see a century long population decrease with a 15% population loss across Europe.

By the late 1290’s, many areas became over populated and the farmland was overworked to accommodate all of the new mouths that needed fed. The ground lost its nutrients which then led to lower crop yields.

In 1306, the coldest winter in 300 years of record keeping hit England and surrounding areas of Europe.  The winter started early and ended late which shortened the growing and farming season.  Native perennial plants died through the hard, long winter due the lowered temperatures and length of time it stayed cold.  This cold cycle continued and is the start of “The Little Ice Age” that did not end until the mid-1800’s.

In 1315, heavy, flooding rain began in March and did not stop until August. Many period writings attest to it raining every single day during the spring and summer of 1315.  Between the heavy, constant raining and the cool temperatures that kept any water from evaporating, many fields were unworkable and they lay fallow.  Other fields that were planted did not germinate as the seeds were washed away or drowned out, and those that did germinate succumbed to root rot.  This began the Great Famine of 1315-1317.

Once the food stores were used up during the Great Famine, people resorted to eating the seeds that would have been used for planting subsequent years’ crops.  When those were gone and the trees were barren of fruits, all but a few numbers of livestock were butchered. Wild animals such as deer, rabbit, and boar were hunted, but with no plant life to forage, the wild populations dwindled through starvation and over hunting. Dogs and cats came next, and then rats and other rodents.  Some became so desperate that they turned to cannabalism. Recorded accounts show parents eating their children.  Criminals lured children from their homes and killed them for their next meal. Those who were executed were cut down from the gallows and used for food.  Some stories claim the newly dead and buried would be dug up in the night and their corpse stolen for food.

The weather causing the Great Famine lasted 2 years, but the famine itself lasted seven years. A very slow recovery didn’t begin until 1325. It took another nine years for Europe to fully recover, and just as that happened, war was declared in 1337, and armies from both the French and English side decimated the farmland including pastures and crop fields during their marches, camps, and fighting. Millions of people died from malnutrition, disease, and starvation during the Famine and its aftermath.

As if the Great Famine and the Hundred Years War wasn’t enough, ten years after the beginning of The Hundred Years War, in 1347, a merchant ship from the Far East brought plague into the port city of Alexandria.  Plague, known as The Great Pestilence, Great Mortality, and Great Plague during that time, spread through port cities across Europe between 1347 and 1352.

Plague was known previous to its 1347 outbreak, as it had hit other areas of the world at earlier times. What made Plague so horrific this time around was the quickness of spread and the virility of the strain.  In 1347, there were more people living closer to one another in larger cities than at other times when Plague or other epidemics had hit.  The Plague also came in three forms this time, instead of the usual one form of Bubonic. People were coming down with Bubonic, Septicemic, and Pneumonic Plague.

Bubonic Plague is the common form of plague that settles into the lymphatic system with black, swelled sores – known as buboes – forming in the neck, under the arms, or at the groin.  It is highly contagious, and the mortality rate was 50% with death occurring between 5 and 8 days after contraction.  If a person survived to the bursting of the buboes, their chances of living went up substantially.  However, if the buboes burst and the infection in the sores entered the blood system, then septicemia could occur.

Septicemic Plague was (and still is) the rarest of the plague forms.  It could not be contracted from one person to another like Bubonic Plague, and could only happen if the victim contracted Bubonic Plague and the buboes infected the blood stream.  Septicemic Plague was 100% lethal and death occurred within 24-36 hours. Even today, if Bubonic Plague is not treated before turning into Septicemic, the outcome for the modern patient is not favorable.

Lastly, Pneumonic Plague was the second most common version of Plague with a 95-100% mortality rate, and death came in less than 24 hours. It happened when plague settled into a patient’s lungs instead of the lymphatic system. When a Bubonic patient coughed into the air and the particles of sputum and/or blood were inhaled by others, Bubonic Plague became Pneumonic.  The Pneumonic Plague patient could then spread it through coughing to others.   Modernly, without treatment, Pneumonic Plague is still nearly 100% fatal.

These three forms of plague effected Europe differently, depending on regions.  Russian and northern climates were not hit as hard with a 10% – 20% death rate.  In Paris, 50% of all inhabitants died, with eighty thousand dying within a one year time frame (1348-1349). London suffered a loss of 50% between 1348 and 1350. Some towns in Ireland, Wales, and Scotland were completely decimated with 100% mortality. Over the five year epidemic approximately twenty million people (33% of the population)died just from the Plague.

The sheer number of dead coupled with the quick acting effects of the disease caused a great shift in survivors’ perspectives.  Society had followed the Church blindly in faith until the 1300s.  After the Great Famine, the horrible weather, and then The Plague, society began to question and distrust the church. The Church was unable to explain the calamities of the 14th century; society had been taught to be good, and to do bad would cause punishment. At this point, society as a whole didn’t believe they could possible be that bad as to cause 12 years of famine, several years of bad weather, and  five years of plague.  The church suffered the loss of 40% of the clergy, which society questioned; “How come the Bishop and priests and monks are being punished? Aren’t they of God?” Because of the loss of the clergy, the church hastily made new priests to fill in the gaps.  Many of these new clergymen and the older clergy members refused to go into plague ridden homes and perform last rites, which the church had insisted was necessary for a soul to get to Heaven.  Those that did continue to serve last rites were ill trained and families were unhappy with their services as well as being fearful that their loved ones would really get into Heaven with such botched last rites ceremonies.

After the epidemic and life began to return to some sort of normalcy, Europe was in upheaval. Society began to question many things about their lives. The church continued to be questioned, but Royalty and nobility were also questioned. “Divine Right of Kings” wasn’t an easy sell once commoners understood that kings, queens, princes,and princesses all died in the Plague. Serfs who worked the land for nothing were now in great demand as there were so few laborers left alive.  Serf’s labor became paid labor, especially in areas hardest hit with Plague. The end of serfdom, the perspective changes in class structure and fair treatment, and the distrust of the church planted the seeds for the Reformation, the Peasant Revolts, and eventually the fall of the Feudal System.

As all of these changes were occurring in society, artists took up their pens and their paints and as the cliche goes, “Art imitated life”. There were many forms of death motifs that came about including the Danse Macabre, Ars Moriendi, Vado Mori, Memento Mori, Triumph of Death, Three Living and the Three Dead, and Death and the Lady.

During the early 15th century especially, we see the Danse Macabre which was a form of Memento Mori. Memento Mori was Latin for “Remember you will die”.  It was an artistic symbolism of a person’s mortality, and depending on the artist and/or the person receiving the art, it could have been a spiritual reminder to be a good person, live piously, and have their affairs in order. For the less spiritual or the hedonist, it was a reminder to live life to its fullest.  Memento Mori was found in many aspects of art including jewelry (rings, watches, brooches), manuscripts (Ms. fr. 995), murals, paintings, and sculptures.

Memento Mori in all forms tended to be more symbolic in simple ways. For instance, a brooch with a skeleton inside a coffin, or a ring with a skull were obvious reminders of death. Paintings showed Death as a skeleton with an individual. Some Books of Hours had Death in the form of a skeleton in the iluminated margins. In the back of a Book of Hours was a section called “The Office of the Dead” where there were many paintings and wood cuts of Death calling victims in the motif of “Triumph of Death”. In none of these cases, even in printed manuscripts, is there dialogue.

In the Danse Macabre, while it is part of the Memento Mori motif because the reader is reminded of dying,  there is always a dialogue between Death and the Victim which makes it part of Memento Mori but its own motif, as well. It began as a religious play performed by religious actors after church services.  The actors played the roles of Death and Death’s victims. Death would speak with the victim and the victim would reply before being led away to dance with Death. The moral of the play was always to live piously.

In 1424, the Danse Macabre became a wall mural with the painted forms of Death and the victims plus the dialogue between Death and the victims. The first mural was found on the walls of the Cemetery of Innocents in Paris. Death took the shape of a rotting corpse, almost skeletal in form with bloated stomach, rotting flesh, and worms crawling across him.  Death then engages the victims in a Farandole as he carries them off to the afterlife.  Death is not picky, either.  Death chooses men, women, children, and babies from all stations of life – from the King, to the Pope, to the merchant, to the beggar. Death is the Great Equalizer.

The Innocents mural fell into disrepair in the mid 1500s and was leveled in 1669 to make a road.  Luckily for history in the mid 1400s artist Guyot Marchant visited the Innocents mural and felt moved to draw what he saw. These drawings by all contemporary accounts were very well made, and later John Lydgate turned the drawings and paintings into a woodcut for publication in a book, so we have not completely lost the original Danse Macabre.  Many more popped up around Europe through the 1400s all the way to the 1600s.  They are found in London, parts of France, Switzerland, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Italy and many other areas across Europe. Again, all Danse Macabre motifs are complete with the dialogue.

In the late 1400s, around 1485 ot 1486, Danse Macabre was portrayed in manuscripts and published books. The Danse Macabre des Femmes was written for a woman although we do not know who she was.  The manuscript, like all other Danse Macabres, implored the reader to learn from the words of Death and the victim. However, in des Femmes, Death’s musicians – four skeletons playing musical instruments – and Death herself mock most of the thirty six women in the dance.  Women are portrayed as weak, greedy, and vane which gives us an idea of the social feeling towards women late in the 1400s.

Des Femmes also gives us a glimpse into each woman’s life and station, as well as giving us a period source of day to day activities and mindsets.  The Prostitute teases approaching Death while Death calls her worthless and admonishes her for doing bad things.  She admits to sinning.  Interestingly, her clothing is of a high bred lady. She wears a sumptuous gown lined in fur with large fur sleeves and an under dress.  Reading between the lines, we can only guess who her clients may have been for her to be dressed in such expensive clothing.

The Knight’s Lady is dressed in like manner to the Prostitute with fur lined dress, large fur sleeves, and trimmed under dress.  Death urges her to change from her hunting gear.  Perhaps the Knight’s Lady has died on her hunting trip?

The Shepherdess is led from her fields by Death. She is told to walk in hand with Death and that she won’t be able to visit the fields or her animals again.  She says goodbye to her animals, her fields, and her friends. She wears simple clothing fitting her job and status – a short sleeved overdress, with shorter hem, a white apron, and a long sleeve under dress with fitted sleeves and short hem.

The Village Woman is poor with a shorter hemmed dress that is closer fitting with very little additional fabric in the skirts. Her sleeves of the outer dress are folded back and lined in linen. Her under dress is also shorter hemmed and the sleeves are close fitting instead of being wasteful of fabric in the large bag-style of the upper class ladies in the manuscript.  The author depicts the destruction of the armies during The Hundred Years War;  Death tells her to follow without delay. She has endured enough poverty and loss that dying is a favor.  She responds that she is ready to die as archers have taken everything she has from her land to her animals and left her with nothing.

Much can be seen in the artwork and the dialogue relating to socioeconomic classes and the distrust of the clergy. Death tells the Nun to account for her deeds and that Paradise is reached by the steps of charity. She replies that she hopes God will forgive any failures.  She is dressed plainly, but her dress and over dress are made with yards upon yards of fabric.

The Abbess wears a long flowing habit with long bagged sleeves with turned back cuffs and long flowing skirts. She holds an ornate staff. Death mocks her, telling her that her cross of silver and gold will become some other nun’s, and her position will be given to another.  The Abbess responds that as Abbess she was in charge, she wore her cross and regrets that someone else will get those things.

The Duchess, Merchant, and Old Woman are depicted as vane and greedy.  Notice that these unacceptable traits are portrayed in all social classes.  The Duchess is told to quit thinking about riches and gaining more goods and jewels. She complains that she was just beginning to know what a good time was when Death comes to take it away from her.  She is dressed in a coteharde with flowing skirts with a train with ermine cuffs on the wide bagged sleeves. Her sideless surcote is of a beautiful brocade fabric, probably silk, ermine fur lining and an ermine fur torso.

The Merchant is wearing a fine dress and under dress with long flowing skirts. Where her over dress is tucked into her belt her jeweled money pouch can be seen. The neckline is trimmed, and the sleeves are wide with fur trim. Death tells the Merchant to forget about weighing merchandise or taking money from customers.  The Merchant asks who will watch her shop and she worries that her employees will goof off after she is gone.  She says goodbye to her scale and her chair instead of to any of her workers.

The Old Woman dresses modestly to fit her age. Death chastises her for having too much that belonged to others. She admits that she clothed herself from her master “as a theif”, and drank from his wines in the cellar.

Ms. fr. 995 also shares details of illnesses.  The Old Woman on Crutches welcomes death. She says that her eyesight has gone from old age, she is troubled by illness, and she has suffered gout for year.  The Wetnurse is led away with an infant in her arms. Death takes both.  The Wetnurse admits to feeling sick when she breathes and that the child she cares for is dying of Plague.

The very last woman in the manuscript is Margot the Fool. Margot was another name for magpie, and was commonly used for Fools.  Of note, Margot is one of the few that Death does not ridicule or tease in some way.  Margot, who should be the foolish woman because of her occupation, is actually the one above reproach having done nothing wrong in her life and she asks forgiveness for all of the others.  Those that should have been smart, such as the Queen or the Abbess, are frivoulous and foolish while Margot is level headed.

The Queen then reappears in the next pages as The Dead Queen. She is lying on the ground, worm covered, with only her crown near her to tell us who she was in life.  She tells the reader that she was once feared and dreaded, a force to be reckoned with, but now like all others, she is worm food.

The reader is then reminded to live well by a male scholarly figure named Authority. Authority cynically states that the dead hold no interest to their living friends and family unless silver or plate are to be passed on to them through inheritance. It is best to live well and die well and forget about all other things.

Death Becomes Her

This link will take you to the pdf of the handout for my class, “Death Becomes Her”

Sources:

Ziegler, Philip. The Black Death. New York: John Day, 1969. Print.

Aberth, John. The Black Death: The Great Mortality of 1348-1350 : A Brief History with Documents. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005. Print.

Aberth, John. The Black Death: The Great Mortality of 1348-1350 : A Brief History with Documents. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005. Print.

Harrison, Ann Tukey. The Danse Macabre of Women: Ms. Fr. 995 of the Bibliothèque Nationale. Kent, Ohio: Kent State UP, 1994. Print.

Cantor, Norman F. In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made. New York: Free, 2001. Print.

Binski, Paul. Medieval Death: Ritual and Representation. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell UP, 1996. Print.

Gies, Frances, and Joseph Gies. Daily Life in Medieval Times: A Vivid, Detailed Account of Birth, Marriage, and Death ; Food, Clothing, and Housing ; Love and Labor, in the Middle Ages. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 1999. Print.

Daniell, Christopher. Death and Burial in Medieval England, 1066-1550. London: Routledge, 1998. Print.

Tuchman, Barbara W. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century. New York: Knopf, 1978. Print.