‘Seiknes Incurabill’: The Evolution of Literary Representations of Leprosy in Medieval and Early Modern English Narratives

This paper examines the use of leprosy as a literary motif in poetry, narrative literature, and homilies from England and Scotland between the 1200s and 1500s, the time period during which a shift in leprosy’s literary connotations is visible. It tracks the changes in leprosy’s meaning, as it moves from a disease signifying holy suffering and nearness to God to a physical representation of a diseased and sinful soul. Examining predominantly narrative works, rather than focusing on medical or encyclopaedic documents, this paper attempts to pinpoint the perception English society had of leprosy and the times at which this perception changed. The advent of the plague cycles in the early 1300s, and their corresponding changes in medical theory and legislative precautionary tactics to keep populations healthy, is suggested as a major factor in the change n societal and thus literary perceptions of leprosy between the late 1200s and early 1400s.