Dancing Plague of 1518
The Dancing Plague (or Dancing Epidemic) of 1518 was a case of dancing mania that occurred in Strasbourg, France (then part of the Holy Roman Empire) in July 1518. Numerous people took to dancing for days without rest, and over the period of about one month, most of the people died from heart attack, stroke, or exhaustion.
On one calm summer morning, in the Alsatian city of Strasbourg, France, a certain woman who went by the name of Frau Troffea was suddenly overcome with an irresistible urge to boogie. She begun hopping and leaping into the air, restlessly dancing with an intensity that baffled the rest of the villagers. One day, two days, four days passed and still she danced with mindless rage, never pausing to eat, drink or sleep. Soon enough, others feverishly joined her, shaking about compulsively around the city - until the number reached 400 by the end of August 1518.
It is not known why these people danced to their deaths, nor is it clear that they were dancing willfully.
As the dancing plague worsened, concerned nobles sought the advice of local physicians, who ruled out astrological and supernatural causes, instead announcing that the plague was a "natural disease" caused by "hot blood". However,instead of prescribing bleeding, authorities encouraged more dancing, in part by opening two guildhalls and a grain market, and even constructing a wooden stage. The authorities did this because they believed that the dancers would only recover if they danced continually night and day. To increase the effectiveness of the cure, authorities even paid for musicians to keep the afflicted moving.
In addition to the many dancing manias of medieval times, there have been other similar incidents of unexplained mass hysteria. * A dancing mania in Madagascar in the 1840s.[1] * The Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic of 1962, in which thousands of people were afflicted with laughing fits which struck sporadically over a period of several months.
Historian John Waller, author of the forthcoming book, "A Time to Dance, A Time to Die: The Extraordinary Story of the Dancing Plague of 1518,"
Waller's theory
Stress-induced psychosis. Having suffered severely from famine, and in many cases wiped out and reduced to begging, the region was in an ongoing crisis. Many had died of starvation. The area was riddled with diseases, including smallpox and syphilis. Waller believes the stress was intolerable, and hence a mass psychological illness resulted.
"Anxiety and false fears gripped the region," Waller said.
One of these fears, originating from a Christian church legend, was that if anyone provoked the wrath of Saint Vitus, a Sicilian martyred in 303 A.D., he would send down plagues of compulsive dancing.
No comments:
Post a Comment