Plague Doctor
Make your rounds in a beaked mask full of lavender and examine patients from the end of a long cane. The herbs are there to keep out the bad air. Bad air was not the problem.
c. 1619 – 1722About the role
When plague came to a town, many doctors left first. Towns hired plague doctors to stay: to visit the sick, record the dead and, when asked, witness wills. In the seventeenth century, some wore a waxed coat, gloves and a mask with a beak packed with herbs and spices, to protect them from what was believed to be poisoned air. It was the wrong theory. It remains the right outfit.
In the Replica Quarter of Venice, under a strictly fictional quarantine, you'll do the morning rounds in full costume. Members will play patients with dramatic, entirely imaginary symptoms. You'll examine them from a respectful distance, prescribe a posy and record each visit in the town register. Children will follow you down the street. Adults will cross it.
What you'll do
- Refill your beak each morning with lavender, mint, camphor and cloves.
- Visit every marked house on your round, and knock with the cane.
- Examine patients without touching them, using only the cane and your judgment.
- Record each visit, and each recovery, in the town register.
- Witness wills when asked, in your best handwriting.
What we're looking for
- A strong stomach and a stronger sense of drama.
- Comfort in a waxed leather coat, in August.
- A good bedside manner, from a cane's length away.
- Some Latin, for the prescriptions.
Perks
- The maskLeather, glass eyes and a beak you fill yourself. One of the most recognizable uniforms in history.
- A fresh posy dailyLavender and rosemary from the town herb garden. It smells lovely. That's all it does.
- Hazard payHistorically generous, because everyone else had left town.
