How did the bubonic plague affect everyman play in the middle ages?

Answer 1

The Black Death, the most severe epidemic in human history, ravaged Europe from 1347-1351. Although sources are a bit sketchy, it is thought that as many as 25 million people (one third of Europe's population at the time) were killed during this short period,. Thousands of people died each week. This plague killed entire families at a time and destroyed at least 1,000 villages. Once a family member had contracted the disease, the entire household was doomed to die. Parents abandoned their children, and parent-less children roamed the streets in search for food. Boccaccio said it best"... brother was forsaken by brother, nephew by uncle, brother by sister and often husband by wife: nay fathers and mothers were found to abandon their own children..." If the people weren't dead they ran away in vain attempts to save themselves. Victims, delirious with pain, often lost their sanity. Life was in total chaos. The Black Death struck the European people with very little warning. Physicians and philosophers harmed rather than helped. They did not understand the causes of infectious diseases, or how they spread. It is no wonder that the people looked to priests and story-tellers for answers, rather than doctors. They did not have the ability to understand where this sudden cruel death had come from. And they did not know whether it would ever go away. The Plague was a disaster without a parallel, causing dramatic changes in medieval Europe, contributing to what is called the Crisis of the Fourteenth Century. The Black Death had many effects beyond its immediate symptoms. Not only did the Black Death take a devastating toll on human life, but it also played a major role in shaping European life in the years that followed.

Answer 2

Because it killed 1/3 population of Europe.