To avoid contracting plague, physicians recommended various tinctures and cordials, either to be taken on their own or added to ones breakfast. Contrary to popular belief it was not just the people who lived in the towns who were at risk of catching the Black Death or Bubonic Plague. If the workers refused to do so or demanded more wages they would be fined and even sent jails. Middle Ages hygiene was extremely basic in terms of the disposal of waste products and garbage. For nearly the first two hundred years of the plagues endemic stay in England, the response was handled by monasteries and religious hospitals. Realizing that the Italian merchants had brought the disastrous plague to them, the people of Sicily threw them out of the city. Quotes - Plays - Sonnets - Pictures - Timeline- Facts - Biography - Poems - Bubonic Plague - Globe Biography - Dictionary - Elizabethan Theater - Identity Problem - Biography - Black Death - Stratford. Animals and human beings contract dangerous disease from flea or rodent bites. The Black Plague was one of the worst diseases to be ever known to the people in the Elizabethan Era. A frightening and swift end to life. The country area and villages were not exempt from the disease either - there was no hiding place. At times, the royal court was closed to all but critical personnel to protect the whole government from dying in one stroke of contagion. Shakespeare in the Elizabethan Era. This may have contributed to the rise of capitalism. One of the weirdest symptoms is having black boils on their skin. Their jobs were clearly life-threatening and there was a high mortality rate. The rats then spread it to fleas that lived on their . The Plague came in three different ways: bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. The 13th century was a grim period in the history of the Middle Ages. The Elizabethan Black DeathIn the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries victims of the Bubonic plague (Black Death) would be sealed in their houses. These occurred in 1593 , 1603 and 1608. The Pope was not allowed to have power. Some of these Orders are fairly obvious, if strict, steps for containing disease on a case by case basis. He began his career as a playwright somewhere between 1585 and 1592. A really effective medical treatment and cure for the Bubonic plague (Black Death) was impossible during the Elizabethan and later periods of history. In the orders to pray and fast, the Elizabethan religious authorities included stipulations that indicate an awareness that although plague was undoubtedly the wrath of God, there was nevertheless a physical component to the disease. A contemporary historian reported twenty thousand dying in London in 1562. First arriving in Europe through sick merchants on Genoese trading ships that docked in Sicily, the plague caused boils, fever, diarrhea, horrible pain, and shortly, death. Shakespeare lived from 1567 to 1616. Inadequate hygiene standards added to the problem and spread of the disease. So begins this poem which Nashe wrote in 1593, when an outbreak of bubonic plague closed the London playhouses (Shakespeare would take advantage of the closure to write his narrative poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, and probably most of his sonnets . The penalties for this were varied and severe. Rate this book. There was no known cure at the time, and the bacteria spread very quickly and would kill an infected person within two days, which led to structural public policies, religious, and medical changes in Europe. No one was sure how the Death spread, and this combined with the fast course the disease took and the primitive medical practices of the time allowed for the disease to spread through the continent in devastating time. However, the air was not the problem. Physicians tried to treat the buboes and swelling by lancing and then applying a hot poultice made of butter, garlic, and onions. Even the animals could not escape its deathly hold. Elizabeth I's England consolidated its position with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, and firmly established the Church of England (begun by her father, Henry VIII, after a dispute with the Pope). The plague caused many to question their religious outlook, the lack of knowledge caused false cures to develop and affected the interactions throughout Europe. By the end of the fourteenth century, the Black Death killed nearly 60% of Europe's population. It started to spread from Eastern China, to Europe in the early 1300s, and it reoccurred multiple times during the years to come. Do you want to advertise on Facty.com?Lets talk aboutthis! People all over Europe believed that this black plague was airborne a disease and hence, were leaving their homes to take shelter in rural remote county sides. Some elements of quarantine were introduced but usually by the time that this was instigated the deadly disease had already struck. During the mid-fourteenth century, a plague hit Europe. In later years houses containing victims were sometimes indicated with a red cross painted on the door with the words "God have Mercy". Threats of imprisonment were made as encouragement to undertake these tasks and this consequence was suffered by anyone who refused the role. Black rats were the most common at this time, and carried the bacteria called Yersinia pestis, which caused the plague. Amidst the consequences suffered by those carrying the disease, came the ramifications that those who were not directly affected experienced. The killer disease also causes red and black spots on the human skin. Scholars and historians often refer to him being a part of the Elizabethan Era, the period of English history d uring the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, which lasted from 1558 - 1603, and was itself part of the larger Tudor Period. They also laid out a groundwork for an effective and coordinated response to the plague. The pair barricaded themselves inside to protect their 3-month-old son . The Arrival. The Black Death arrived in Europe on October 1348 when 12 Genoese trading ships arrived at the Sicilian port of Messina after a long journey through the Black Sea. 20 July 2012. The Black Death The Black Death was a devastating global epidemic of bubonic plague that struck Europe and Asia in the mid-1300s. healthcare professional. The River Thames is a tidal river and, as such, it would have acted like a natural sewer. Crime and Punishment in Elizabethan England A contemporary description of crime and punishment in Shakespeare's . Friar Laurence in "Romeo and Juliet" has asked a fellow friar to deliver a crucial message to the exiled. One of the most terrifying black plague facts is that it killed 30 to 50 percent of infected victims back in the Black Death outbreak. 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars. The symptoms for this plague were extremely painful and death was the most likely outcome in most cases. The victim's skin turned black in patches and inflamed glands or 'buboes' in the groin, combined with compulsive vomiting, swollen tongue and splitting headaches made it a horrible, agonizing killer. The third plague pandemic occurred later, in the middle of the 19th century and originated in Eastern Asia. Every week, each parish had to report its numbers of infected and dead to the justices of its hundred (the English administrative jurisdiction between parish and county), and said justices were required to meet every week to go over these numbers and assess the situation in their territory. Initially spreading through rats and subsequently fleas, it killed at least one-third of the population of Europe and continued intermittently until the 18th century. Sicily was then overcome by the disease and it spread through the trade routes all over Europe. During the Renaissance period a disease was brought to Europe that is known as the Black Plague. Fleas living on rats that came from Asia on a trade ship spread the bubonic plague, the septicaemic plague is created by the entrance of bacteria from their multiplying place into the blood vessels. The Elizabethan Era Facts: Mary, Queen of Scots In 1560, the Scottish Parliament mainly became Protestant. The Black Death was the second pandemic of bubonic plague and the most devastating pandemic in world history. Plague is an ancient disease that was described during Classical times as occurring in North Africa and the Middle East. This time was a period of unprecedented prosperity and advances in poetry, music, theater and literature. Sweating sickness kills tens of thousands of people on its first appearance in 1485 and periodically thereafter. Alas, the disease had gripped the city and a large number of people were already infected. The black plague, also called the Black Death, began in East Asia then traveled to Europe . It is sometimes presumed to be the disease behind several historic epidemics, such as the pestilence described as striking the Philistines in the biblical book of 1 Samuel. Some also suffered "great dolor of head with heaviness,. It's population was growing continuously with poor people moving from the country to London in search of work. There would have been no money coming into Theater companies and therefore no money for the Elizabethan actors. It made its way to Europe on trade and cargo ships, traveling on the backs of rats stowed away on the ships. The death cart labourers generally undertook their gruesome work at night and the bodies were hurried out of the house wrapped in any kind of improvised shroud. However, personal hygiene was better than the perception of Middle Ages Hygiene. The Flagellants Attempt to Repel the Black Death, 1349 "Each had in his right hand a scourge with three tails." Religious zealots of the Middle Ages resort to extreme measures in an attempt to thwart the onslaught of the Plague. The black Death originated in Italy and rapidly spread throughout Europe due to poor city sanitization and overcrowding in major cities. Workers were in high demand and the peasants knew it. For headaches, doctors used lavender, rose, and sage, Vomiting or nausea was relieved with balm, mint or wormwood. Inadequate hygiene standards added to the problem and spread of the disease. This greatly changed the traditional feudal system, which served to confine peasants to a certain piece of land. Theatre was extremely popular and only was stopped due to the Black Plague in the 1590s. Amidst the consequences suffered by those carrying the disease, came the ramifications that those who were not directly affected experienced. The age of Shakespeare was a great time in English history. Finally in the 1600's people believed it had disappeared for good. Also spurting wage demands created an abysmal situation in Europe then. 1562 Elizabethan Witchcraft Act was passed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The London streets were dark, narrow and dangerous and slow to travel through. It only took about twenty-three days from the point of infection for the plague to be fatal (Benedictow). A supplemental set of directions for worship in the Church of England was released in 1563, mandating that Wednesdays be dedicated to fasting and prayer in times of plague. The blood that exuded was black, thick and vile smelling with a greenish scum mixed in it. It was no wonder that the Black Death or Bubonic Plague was so feared by the people of the Elizabethan era. In addition to this, lords advised peasants to leave their homelands during the epidemic to come work for them, but also refused to let them return to their original village. Information about the Elizabethan Cure for the Black Death or the Bubonic PlagueIn the Elizabethan era various concoctions of herbs were given and used for the medical treatment of different parts of the body and the varying symptoms of the disease. These rodents spread the Bubonic plague from China to Europe and lastly, it hit Britain in 1348. He also developed swollen limbs which became very painful. Initially spreading through rats and subsequently fleas, it killed at least one-third of the population of Europe and continued intermittently until the 18th century. In the medieval year 1347, Italian merchant ships carried plague inflicted people when it entered Sicily Port after travelling to China. The plague as an actual event figures prominently in only one of Shakespeare's plays. Rodents, fleas and plague-infected people showed up in the major harbour cities of Europe to spread the killer disease across the continent.Masks during the plague. In the Elizabethan era the people didnt have the right medicines to be able to cure their illnesses. Plague and Public Health in Elizabethan England The Black Death famously devastated England, as it did much of Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa, in the mid-fourteenth century. The Black Death & Bubonic Plague in the Elizabethan Era, Symptoms, effects, consequences, cure and medical treatment. 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