Picture of a Plague Physician in
the
William Shakespeare era!
Bubonic Plague and Shakespeare
HOW DID THE BUBONIC PLAGUE
(BLACK DEATH) EFFECT THE LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE?
William Shakespeare
was terrified of the Bubonic Plague - and who can blame him?
England had been
ravaged by outbreaks of the plague since the 1300's
He lost his
sisters Joan, Margaret ( just babies) and Anne (aged 7) to
the deadly plague
He also lost his
brother Edmund (aged 27)
But the greatest
loss to William Shakespeare was his only son, Hamnet, who
died when he was just eleven years old
So many people
from just one family (the number increased after
Shakespeare's death when his grandsons, Shakespeare Quiney
died in infancy, aged 6 months old, in May 1617 and his
brothers Richard and Thomas Quiney died of the plague aged
19 and 20 years of age)
No-one knows how
many friends, fellow actors and acquaintances of Shakespeare
died of the Black Death, but given the number of his close
relatives who died, it must have been a significant number
There were
constant outbreaks of the Bubonic Plague and every time this
occurred the Theatres were shut down. The closures occurred
in 1593 , 1603 and 1608
In 1563, in
London alone, over 20,000 people died of the disease - In
1665 the Great Plague of London again decimated the
population of the town which killed 16% of the inhabitants
(17,500 out of the population of 93,000)
The plague was
not just confined to the towns. Nowhere was safe the same
plague outbreak of 1563 claimed 80,000 people in England
From December
1592 until December 1593 Stow (the Elizabethan archivist)
reported 10,675 plague deaths in London, a city of
approximately 200,000 people
THE SPREAD OF THE BUBONIC
PLAGUE
The City of
London was filthy during Shakespeare's era
There was no
sewage system. The waste was just dumped into the River
Thames
The disease was
transmitted by the fleas that lived on rodents and animals,
especially rats
The Bubonic
plague (Black Death) was always caught or spread from an
infected animal or person
THE SYMPTOMS OF THE BUBONIC
PLAGUE
The symptoms are:
Painful swellings in the
armpits, legs, neck, or groin
Very high fever
Delirium and mental
disorientation
Vomiting
Muscular pains
Bleeding in the lungs
An intense desire to
sleep, which, if yielded to, quickly proved fatal
The victims
would often die within two to four days.
Some churches administered
to the Bubonic Plague victims
'Wise women' were called for
help
Barbers doubled as surgeons
The Apothecary would
dispense drugs
Only the wealthy would
receive the ministrations of an Elizabethan Physician (as pictured
above)
The Physicians outlandish
attire did in fact afford him some protection
The bizarre mask shielded
their heads and faces from bites from the plague carrying fleas
Their robes, boots and
gloves shielded their bodies
This cover-all clothing
would have protected the Physician from the fleas and therefore the
Bubonic Plague
The Plague Physician would
not have understood why the mask and clothing offered protection but
experience would have indicated that these were sensible precautions
to take!
THE CURES AND MEDICAL
TREATMENTS OF THE BUBONIC PLAGUE
The Elizabethans did not
know what caused the Plague so they were unable to act against it or
take any preventative measures
Each symptom was given a
separate treatment:
Head pains were treated
with with sweet-smelling herbs such as rose, lavender, sage, and bay
Stomach pains and sickness
were treated with wormwood, mint, and balm
Lung problems - liquorice
and comfrey
Vinegar was used as a
cleansing agent
Bleeding a patient as a
general cure for everything
Applying leeches to suck
the blood of the victim
SHAKESPEARE WAS LIVING WITH
DEATH
Very few victims of the
plague survived
Shakespeare really was
living with death
He must have been in
constant fear
The number of outbreaks must
have been terrifying
The whole of the life of
William Shakespeare lived under this terrible Cloud of Death
