ABSTRACT
The practice of nursing in plague-time is one that gave writers considerable imaginative material for the creation of horror and spectacle. A mother might spread disease to her infant, bringing death rather than life. She might die and be unable to feed her child, who would perish at her side. Her children, once old enough, might abandon the very woman who gave them life, fleeing to save themselves and forgetting her. These scenarios were part of the narrative repertoire in plague literature, revealing the pathos of plague-time suffering and the degree to which the death of the mother or her abandonment figures for the death of charity and even of civilization. The Madonna Lactans in particular functioned for centuries as a figure of comfort for those suffering from plague or from fear of its visiting yet again.
