Elements in Black Death and their connection

with their current cultural representations

By Antonella Magagnini
Certain elements of the film Black Death (2010) encouraged me
to investigate their nature now and their nature in the past to see if
there was a cause-consequence relation. It is possible to trace back
those elements that have undergone a reformulation of their social
meaning to serve a different purpose for us today. In a society with an
old different mindset, these elements meant despair, hopelessness
and terror. Undoubtedly, they have left a sad footprint in history.
However, after suffering a curious turn of events; they have been
reinterpreted and incorporated even into festivities people celebrate
nowadays.
In the film I mentioned above, there is a scene where you can
watch the disastrous picture of bodies lying on the ground. Walking
around the dead victims of the disease, a plague doctor appears. You
can easily recognise him, since he uses it characteristic dreadful mask
with a long beak. The shape of his mask was due to sanitary
precautions; it was intended to keep a distance between the doctor
and the patient and avoid the transmission of the disease. Curious as
it may seem, nowadays you can see the same mask, although quite
ornamented, in the popular Venetian Carnival, held in San Marco
Square every year in Italy. My interest lies in the fact that this
macabre object which represents a memento mori was recycled to be
part

of a celebration

where joy and dancing are the main

protagonists.
The characteristic symptoms shown in the film are related to
another element considered a product of the Black Death outbreak:
the innocent nursery rhyme called Ring around the rosie. It is
believed to have been created after the second outburst of the plague
in 1603 as an artistic reaction to the devastating situation. The

website

www.rhymes.org.uk

provides

an

explanation

to

this

connection:
The symptoms of the plague included a rosy red rash in the
shape of a ring on the skin (Ring around the rosy). Pockets
and pouches were filled with sweet smelling herbs (or
posies) which were carried due to the belief that the disease
was transmitted by bad smells. The term "Ashes Ashes"
refers to the cremation of the dead bodies.

It is certainly perplexing that a nursery rhyme can have this

meanings behind. Still, people teach it and children sing it unaware of
its origin.
Another topic is that of superstition and witches. In a crucial
scene of the movie, we can see how Langiva, the leader of the
disease-free village, apparently raises Averill, Osmunds lover, from
the dead. Osmund instantly believes what he is seeing. To him, there
is no illusion, just plain heresy. The figure of a necromancer practicing
witchcraft leads me to reflect on the tradition of Halloween and the
witch costume. Once again, it is evident how much the figure of the
witch has changed throughout time. The film provides a vivid
depiction of the punishment for the women accused of practicing
magic, they were either burned at stake or sent to the iron maiden.
Today, girls are accustomed to dress as witches during Halloween
matching the aspect of the presumed medieval witches. According to
Malcolm Gaskill, writer of Crime and Mentalities of the Early Modern
England, the stereotypical image of the witch appeared in the
accounts recorded: In 1584 the Kentish gentleman Reginald Scot
described a typical witch as `a toothles, old, impotent, and unweldie
woman', `lame, bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of wrinkles' ;
[](p.37) Although the purpose of the costume is scaring, its
approach is undoubtedly more playful and lighthearted.
After considering these surprising transformations I cannot help
but conclude that human beings can be incredibly flexible in
managing culture and history. And certainly, it is the work for a
historian to disentangle these connections I presented and finally

understand what drives a person, or a whole community, to redefine

historical facts and objects. The feelings that each object arises now
are the opposite in comparison from those in the past. Having this last
idea

in

mind,

can

infer,

from

my

perspective,

that

the

transformations are nothing but the intention of the human being to

look forward to a brighter future by turning the negative into the
positive.

Reference

Smith, C. (Director). (2010). Black Death [Motion picture]. UK.

Carnival of Venice. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival_of_Venice#Medico_della_peste_.

28The_Plague_Doctor.29
Smart Art. (2016). Venetian Masks - SMART ART HISTORY #1.

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVnqBaZUXNM

NurseryRhymeHistory. (2012). Ring Around the Rosy - Meaning behind
the Nursery Rhyme ***. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaspFUkcPjo
Alchin, L.K. Nursery Rhymes Lyrics and Origins. Ring around the Rosy
rhyme. Retrieved May 30, 2016, from

http://www.rhymes.org.uk/ring_around_the_rosy.htm
Gaskill, M. (2000). The social meaning of witchcraft, 15601680. In
Crime and mentalities in early modern England. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press.