The Plague!

• Red Star

• YOU HAVE BEEN INFECTED. Stay tuned.

• Began in Asia, hit Europe in 1347

• Spread to Europe by merchants from China

• rats and fleas carried the disease

• Blue Star

• YOU HAVE BEEN INFECTED. Stay tuned.

• The disease swept through Italy

• The plague spread throughout Western Europe.

• Green Star

• you were not infected by the plague. You will go on to live a long healthy life. Now get back to work!

• No one knew what it was, they blamed the Jews for poisoning the water.

• Jews, lepers (skin disease), and foreigners were persecuted

• Silver Star

• YOU HAVE BEEN INFECTED. Stay tuned.

• “This scourge had implanted so great a terror in the hearts of men and women that brothers abandoned brothers, uncles their nephews, sisters their brothers, and in many cases wives deserted their husbands. But even worse,… fathers and mothers refused to nurse and assist their own children.”

– Giovanni Boccaccio

• Gold Star

• YOU HAVE BEEN INFECTED. Stay tuned.

• Red, Blue , silver, gold stars: you are now starting to get painful swellings called buboes, (thus Bubonic Plague)

•You call the Dr. and he shows up wearing this:

• Wide brimmed black hat wore close to the head

• Primitive gas mask in the shape of a bird’s beak

• Long black overcoat

• Wooden cane• Leather breeches

• The most that could be done was that various concoctions of herbs might be administered to relieve the symptoms - there was no known cure. Headaches were relieved by rose, lavender, sage and bay. Sickness or nausea was treated with wormwood, mint, and balm. Lung problems were treated with licorice. Vinegar was used as a cleansing agent as it was believed that it would kill disease. But bloodletting was commonly thought to be one of the best ways to treat the plague. The blood that exuded was black, thick and vile smelling with a greenish scum mixed in it.

BLUE STARS• You are now starting to experience

heavy breathing and continuous blood vomiting.

Religion

• People started questioning God and why they were being punished

• People doubted the clergy’s ability

• People began alienating the church

SILVER STARS

• You are now experiencing aching limbs, coughing, and terrible pain.

• Children start singing:• “Ring around the Rosy”

– you have red circles on your skin

• “Pocket full of Posey”– to hide the smell

• “Ashes to Ashes” – your skin is turning

black• “We all fall down!”

– The plague has taken you.

• Silver and Blue, purplish and black spots are showing on your skin (thus the Black Death)

• You spend your life savings, not knowing what the next day holds in store.

RED STARS• Even though you think you are dying, you

are actually starting to feel better! No buboes on your skin!

• After 1350, European culture in general turned very morbid.

• The general mood was one of pessimism, and contemporary art turned dark with representations of death.

GOLD STARSGOLD STARS

• You spend your life fortune because you think you are dying. You don’t like your relatives anyways!

• But you are feeling better!!

• The Black Death dominated art and literature throughout the generation that experienced it.

Adieu, farewell earths blisse,This world uncertaine is,

Fond are lifes lustful joyes,Death proves them all but toyes,

None from his darts can flye;I am sick, I must dye:

Lord, have mercy on us.("A Litany in Time of

Plague" by Thomas Nashe)

• Red and Gold, you have somehow survived the plague but you still carry it.

• Blue and Silver, the Black Death has taken you, along with 25 million people in Europe and 35 million people in China.

• The economy will begin to crumble

• Feudalism will soon come to an end.