This article sets out to explore the perception of pain during outbreaks of the plague in the early modern period. On the basis of the recent doubts about the mind/body dualism, it holds that both kinds of pain should be investigated and be seen as a whole. In the majority of the autobiographical sources the article relies on, there is no description of pain itself. Instead visual signs and its quantitative dimensions are given: the number of buboes and the length of the illness. This can partly be explained by the perspective of the sources but also points to a more general attitude prevailing at that time. However, that there is no description of pain is a statement which has to be qualified, particularly for those sources which describe the treatment of the buboes by the surgeons. Christian religion was the force that strongly influenced the perception of pain. It gave a meaning to suffering and it made quite a number of the sick concentrate on their duty as Christians and on the death and afterlife, thus partly disregarding pain, in particular when they had done penance and taken Holy Communion before. However, it sometimes also caused doubts about sinful behaviour before the plague. Pain however was aggravated by the way society and the authorities acted or were perceived to act. The pain of separation, and a feeling of loneliness and discrimination were connected with being infected. The article closes with some remarks on plague and gender. The fear of the plague and the plague itself cannot have meant the same to men and women, it argues.
本文旨在探讨近代早期鼠疫爆发期间人们对疼痛的认知。基于近期对身心二元论的质疑，本文认为两种疼痛都应得到研究并被视为一个整体。在本文所依据的大多数自传资料中，并没有对疼痛本身的描述。相反，给出的是视觉体征及其量化维度：腹股沟淋巴结炎的数量和患病时长。这部分可以从资料的视角来解释，但也指向了当时普遍存在的一种更普遍的态度。然而，没有对疼痛的描述这一说法需要加以限定，特别是对于那些描述外科医生治疗腹股沟淋巴结炎的资料而言。基督教是强烈影响疼痛认知的一股力量。它赋予了苦难一种意义，使相当多的病人专注于他们作为基督徒的职责以及死亡和来世，从而在一定程度上忽视了疼痛，尤其是当他们之前已经忏悔并领受圣餐时。然而，它有时也会引发人们对鼠疫之前罪恶行为的怀疑。然而，社会和当局的行为方式或被认为的行为方式加剧了疼痛。与感染相关的是分离之痛、孤独感和被歧视感。本文最后对鼠疫和性别作了一些评论。它认为，对鼠疫的恐惧以及鼠疫本身对男性和女性的意义不可能相同。
