What epidemic killed thousands in London during Shakespeare's time?

Answer 1

I'll bet you're thinking it was the Bubonic Plague, but you'd be wrong. The plague epidemic struck Europe in the early fourteenth century and one person in three died. The disease was still around in Shakespeare's day, but it had "hit Europe" two hundred and fifty years before. The deadly disease that his Europe in Shakespeare's time was syphilis, which was brought from the New World by Columbus's sailors and spread through Europe like wildfire in the sixteenth century. Shakespeare's plays are full of references to it.

Answer 2

The disease most often referred to in Shakespeare's plays is syphilis, a deadly STD which spread like wildfire. King Henry VIII is believed to have died from it, as did his successor Edward VI. Queen Elizabeth contracted smallpox, which was usually fatal, but managed to survive, although she lost a lot of hair in the process. The bubonic plague, although outbreaks occured occasionally and caused the theatres to be closed (it is referred to once in a Shakespeare play), was not the deadly killer it was when it first hit in the 14th century, because over two hundred and fifty years people had built up an immunity to it.

Answer 3

There were frequent outbreaks of the plague, but it was not the Bubonic Plague, otherwise known as the Black Death. There are three different varieties of the plague, and the Bubonic one (identifiable by the formation of black lumps or buboes in the groin and armpits and anywhere where there are lymph nodes) is only one. The epidemic which took place in Shakespeare's day was of Pneumonic Plague which affects the lungs and causes shortness of breath and coughing.

Answer 4

Consumption (Tuberculosis), Smallpox, The Black Death (bubonic Plague), and many others that were caused by malnutrition and poor living conditions.

Answer 5

It was the bubonic plague, of which there were several out breaks over a long period of time - including in Shakespeare's time.

Answer 6

There was a plague epidemic in Stratford that year but young Will didn't catch it.

Answer 7

Black Death Black Death

Answer 8

The black plague.

Answer 9

The Bubonic Plague