Medicine4

===**WHAT WERE PLAGUES AND DISEASES IN SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND? WHERE WERE SUCH DISEASES MOST COMMON, AND WHO WERE AFFECTED BY SUCH DISEASES?- Answer Prepared by Jason Carlson **===

Diseases In Shakespearean Times In London, during Shakespeare's life, sanitation was revolting which lead to many different diseases. Even before Shakespeare was born there was a lack of sanitation. Several diseases during and around Shakespeare's time include the Black Death, Small Pox, and the Great plague. The Black Death is a disgusting disease that turns part of the victims body black. There wasn't a certain age that it affected more but it was most likely more fatal in smaller children. During 1347-1351, about a quarter of Europe's population died from this plague. It became an epidemic in London, especially in crowded areas. According to Liza Picard in her book // Elizabeth's London ////, // she believes that the people who survived this awful break out of the plague became immune to the bacillus. During Shakespeare's lifetime there were several fatal plague breakouts. About when he was born until he was 18, 1563-1582, every 4 years, a plague broke out from the //Yersinia Pestis// bacillus. Then it stopped until 1597 and recurred in 1603, the date of Queen Elizabeth's death. In St. Botolph's Parish Church, nearly a quarter of the deaths notified between 1583 and 1600 were because of this plague, an amazing amount for the time back then. All according to // Elizabeth's London. //

Small pox wasn't a plague, but this disease also was an epidemic, peaking and troughing from time to time. In 1562, Queen Elizabeth came down with Small Pox. At first she refused to believe what the German physician Burcot, correctly diagnosed. After a while Elizabeth recovered with no true scars that were easily seen. Sadly her friend who helped nurse her, Lady Sidney, caught the disease and was left scared so she never showed up in public court again.

A couple decades after Shakespeare's life, the Great Plague of 1665 broke out and according to the bill or mortality about 68,500 people died from it. 1665 was the last and the most infamous outbreaks of the plague. Again it happened in crowded areas of London.

As you can see there were many different types of diseases that broke out during and around Shakespeare's life. Most proved to leave a physical mark. This was a very dirty, fatal, and disgusting time in London's history

Great Plague Statistics: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/london_plague_1665.htm

**Bibliography** Sigman, Jeffery. //Daily Life In Elizabethian England//. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1995. Print Picard, Liza. //Elizabeth's London//. Great Britan: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2004. Print Shakespeare, William. //A Midsummers Night's Dream//. Washington: Washington Press "The Black Death" From the Toggenburg Bible