Noel Stevens

The Swordsman Noel Stevens

In the 1600s, the outer world, religion and physical needs almost totally filled, shaped and absorbed man's inner awareness - a conformist in his thoughts, feelings and beliefs. That world had little room for the individualist - and the individualist was not even fully aware of his being one.

We must remember that English people in the 1600s had an unbelievable tolerance of pain, and few scruples about inflicting it.

Talking to an elderly Spanish doctor, who had graduated in 1949 and directly entered a big Barcelona hospital, he told me that Spanish peasants and factory workers who could not read or write had a phenomenal indifference to pain, even atrocious pain, as against the sensibilities of 1985, when we talked. Thousands of these patients passed through the hospital...

He said those with primary education who ALSO read newspapers or cheap novels were ever more sensitive. He told me patients with secondary education suffered more, while University graduates had an even poorer tolerance.

Women complained much less than men.