Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices From a Medieval Village

Thomas is the son of the lord’s physician. He thinks about all the skills he has gained by working with his father, like knowing “five kinds of fever” (18), having the ability to “sniff out dysentery” (18), and administering remedies like bloodletting.

He notes that he is working on soothing patients and on collecting their payment. He says that when first meeting a patient, the doctor should emphasize the severity of the illness and admonish the family for failing to call him in earlier. As his father has taught him, Thomas notes, “This sort of talk protects you if he dies. / If he recovers, it was all your skill” (19).

A pilgrim named Constance is traveling to Saint Winifred’s well in hopes of being miraculously healed of a physical condition that she has had since birth. She expresses optimism and certainty, often repeating, “I will be cured at Saint Winifred’s well” (20). Constance then relates the story of Winifred and the origins of the well. 

Winifred was a beautiful maid whom an evil man desired. When she refused him, “[h]e took up his sword, and smote off her head” (20). However, because she loved God, her blood ran clear.