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The disease Shakespeare refers to most often is syphilis. Syphilis had become an epidemic since it was brought back from America by Christopher Columbus, and was rampant among the prostitutes in Southwark.

Another serious disease was plague, of the variety called pneumonic plague, which recurred frequently and caused the closure of theatres in the 1590s. A particularly devastating outbreak of plague took place in 1666.

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13y ago

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