answersLogoWhite

0

It's a disease carried by rats which infects the lymphatic system, causing swellings in the lymph nodes called buboes. It spread all around Europe very quickly in the fourteenth century and killed about a third of the population. By Shakespeare's time, a different type of plague called pneumonic plague was the main killer. Shakespeare himself narrowly escaped the plague as a baby and his sister Anne and brother Edmund both died of it.

User Avatar

Wiki User

13y ago

What else can I help you with?