Continuities in Plague Writing

Abstract

On the page, a woodcut of a winding sheet and a rough image of a coffin flank the broadside’s title, Londons Lord Have Mercy Upon Us. A border runs down either side of the sheet; the skulls, crossed bones, grimacing full skeletons with empty black eye sockets and shovels fit to accompany the coffin at the top create a visual dialogue about death. The macabre statement made by the collection is direct and unequivocal. The stark nature of the images adds to the haunting page, as skeletons, bones and skulls crowd the perimeter. A framed image draws the reader’s eye to the centre of the morbid squall vomited on this broadside. A hunched man presses forward; women kneel, though it is unclear whether in mourning or prayer, and a cart makes its way through the street. These signs of life appear on a London landscape blighted by winding sheets and coffins.