This article transports the reader imaginatively into the early modern sickchamber, a space that has rarely attracted much historiographical attention. Focusing on England c.1600–1720, it reconstructs the patient’s sensory and emotional experiences of this environment. To do so, a material culture approach is adopted, which involves the analysis of six objects from the sickroom: a physic vessel, bedcurtains, clock, mattress, sheets, and blankets. The central argument is that sickness radically altered the way people related to the things around them. When seriously unwell, the sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and tactile sensations of the items which, during health, gave rise to feelings of comfort, became sources of distress. Through this research, the article showcases the mutual benefits that an object-driven approach can bring to the twin fields of medical and material history. For the former, it sheds fresh light on the very meaning of disease in this period, showing that it was conceived as a form of dis-possession. A focus on objects also reveals a number of hitherto overlooked forms of suffering, such as ‘swallowing a lothsome potion’, tinnitus, and sleeplessness. For material studies, the article demonstrates the vital role of the senses in the ‘emotive agency’ of objects, as well as offering an opportunity to tackle the notorious challenge of the silence of many historical records on ‘everyday objects’. Confined to the sickchamber for a stretch of time, the attention of the sick rested on the things around them, eliciting comments which would have rarely been voiced in health.

中文翻译：

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早期现代英格兰的病房内：通过六件物品的疾病体验

这篇文章以想象的方式将读者带入了早期的现代病房，这个空间很少引起史学关注。专注于英格兰 c.1600-1720，它重建了患者对该环境的感官和情感体验。为此，采用了物质文化方法，包括分析病房中的六种物品：药器、床罩、时钟、床垫、床单和毯子。中心论点是，疾病从根本上改变了人们与周围事物联系的方式。当严重不适时，物品的视觉、听觉、味觉、嗅觉和触觉，在健康过程中会产生舒适感，成为痛苦的来源。通过这项研究，这篇文章展示了对象驱动方法可以为医学和材料史这两个领域带来的互惠互利。对于前者，它为这一时期疾病的真正意义提供了新的启示，表明它被视为一种剥夺形式。对物体的关注还揭示了许多迄今为止被忽视的痛苦形式，例如“吞下一种恶心的药水”、耳鸣和失眠。对于物质研究，这篇文章展示了感官在物体的“情感代理”中的重要作用，并提供了一个机会来应对许多关于“日常物体”的历史记录的沉默这一臭名昭著的挑战。在病房里呆了一段时间，病人的注意力集中在他们周围的事物上，引起了在健康方面很少有人发表的评论。