The Dancing Plague - Issue #5
The Dancing Plague - Issue #5
Dance, dance 'til you're dead
There are no shortages of plagues throughout history. Most of which, seemingly able to wipe us out without much effort at all.
I mean, Spanish Flu wiped out a third of the world. The Black Death killed two thirds of Europe. - shits nasty.
Plagues are no fun topic, although there is one nestled in history that pricked my ears when I heard about it..
Strasbourg, July 1518
German housewife Frau Troffea stepped out of her house and started dancing in the street, dancing to a tune no one else could hear.
Nothing wrong with with a little song and dance onlookers thought as they clapped her on. The woman danced, danced and continued to dance without rest, for 6 days.. 6 fucking days.
Within the week, 34 others had joined in and by the end of the month, the dance party hit 400 members. - a full on festival.
At the height of the town disco, 15 residents were dying each day from exhaustion, heart attacks and strokes. They weren’t even having fun, they were in obvious pain. Screaming in agony as their feet bled on the streets, begging for mercy.
But what caused the case of happy feet? After ruling out the Astrological and Supernatural afflictions that caused most problems of the Middle Ages, Physicians settled on the only possible explanation - Hot Blood
The balance of the dancers Humors was off, way off. - where’s Hippocrates when you need him?
Doctors of the time believed Hot Blood caused the brain to overheat. In turn, resulting in insanity for the victim. In this case, insane dance moves. - shake it baby.
The best remedy for Hot Blood in the 16th Century was Blood Letting, obviously. Which would have been a feasible treatment, given the patients were willing to receive it.
As it was near impossible to stop the dancing and start letting, town officials settled on plan B..
The city council built a huge stage in the centre of town and hired musicians to play, hoping the festivities would burn out, but as you’d imagine, it just encouraged more to join in.
- How would you even deal with this? by the look of things, they didn’t seem to cover ‘spontaneous raves’ when teaching Medieval Crisis Management at business school in the 16th Century.
As the dancers were getting tired, the band didn’t pull out a ballad and try and slow the tempo down. Instead, they sped up and kept the dancing at full speed.
The next logical answer was that the town had been cursed. To stop newcomers joining in the party, officials cracked down on gambling and prostitution. - fucking killjoys, didn’t work anyway.
Where do you go from there? Well its obvious isn’t it? Ban both dancing and music, and thats what they did.
Anyone caught dancing were immediately fined 30 shillings on the spot, and all music was outlawed with the exception of string music for weddings. - everyone knows violins aren’t evil.
Running short on ideas, anything was worth a shot at this point. Dancers were rounded up and thrown onto the back of wagons, where they were carted up a mountain to the shrine of St Vitus.
A priest then gave a mass over the dancers, and gave each hipshaker a Cross and a pair of red shoes, blessed in holy oil.
And.. it worked? The dancing slowly came to an end, the oiled up holy shoes did the fucking trick. - all praise St Vitus.
St Vitus - The Patron Saint of Nervous Disorders
So what caused the outbreak?
As you’d expect, throughout history there’s been lots of possible explanations as to what started the rave, some more plausible than others.
The most popular being..
Grain poisoning - which at the time was known to cause full body convulsions.
- Would that explain the stellar dance moves to a backbeat? Not sure about that one.
Epilepsy
- Logical, but how would that explain the dancing being so contagious? Again, a shot in the dark it seems.
Mass Hysteria - Now this was probably the answer, its the most logical anyway. Hear me out.
Mass hysteria is seen all throughout history; The Salem Witch Trials, the panic over the War of the Worlds radio broadcast etc.
Strasbourg was a rough old place during that time. They suffered through 4 major famines from 1492 - 1511.
In 1516 the price of food went through the roof and in 1517 a 5th famine struck.
The town was more than set up for an outbreak of Mass Hysteria. Common superstitious beliefs led folk to think that their mind and bodies were being controlled by a superior force, way out of their control.
It also explains why the visit to the shrine and the holy shoes seemed to ‘cure’ the problem, easing their minds with religion.
It could have been anything, I wasn’t there, but it ticks all the boxes of Mass Hysteria. How it started, how it spread and how it ultimately ended.
Interesting one that, what do you think? Thanks for reading.
- M.
On This Day -
1897 - British Expedition force invade Benin City, the city is burnt and looted. Marks the end of Nigerian Kingdom of Benin, formed in the 11th century.
1972 - British government declares state of emergency after month long coal miners strike.