The Dancing Plague Of 1518 Research Paper

2197 Words5 Pages

Erica Tang
Kearney
Lit/Comp 10
11 October 2016
Dance of Death:
The Dancing Plague of 1518:
An Annotated Bibliography
Andrews, Evan. “What Was the Dancing Plague of 1518?” History.com, A&E Television
Networks, 14 Sept. 2015, http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/what-was-the-dancing-plague-of-1518. In 1518 in Strasbourg, a woman named Frau Troffea spontaneously started dancing in the middle of the streets for no reason, and she would not stop. Her jerky, awkward movements continued for about a week, and mysteriously others soon followed suit. By the end of the month, about 400 people were dancing away compulsively. During that time, locals thought it was due to hot blood. The town hired musicians and dancers, thinking that the cure was to …show more content…

Bystanders stated that she did not look like she was enjoying herself. Her face was contorted, and she looked like she was in a trance. She would not talk or acknowledge her surroundings. The people carried on with their business, staring at her in wonder. Nobody paid attention to her even though it was weird, because she was harmlessly dancing. However, others soon join Ms. Troffea, and the people started to panic. By the end of the month, many civilians were dancing nonstop. When the dancing continued for weeks, the authorities addressed the problem by building a stage and hiring musicians and dancers, thinking that more dancing will cure the mysterious phenomenon. However, it did not work. Some people even died from exhaustion, and the remaining dancers were taken away to another place. Then, the epidemic abruptly stopped just as sudden as it had started. There were some theories that passed around ever since the epidemic. One theory that caused the mass hysteria was that the dancers ate ergot, a toxic mold that grows on rye that can create seizures, spasms, and psychosis when ingested. This theory is more likely inaccurate, because ergot causes gangrene, which makes body movements very hard. It would be hard for the people to dance if they had gangrene. Another theory is that the people believed in St.Vitus, who can curse people the dancing plague. Since many people believed in him, it could be …show more content…

This theory is also improbable, because the victims did not want to dance. Misery was palpable in their faces. Also, there were no signs of heretical behavior prior to the plague. Another main suggestion was that it was simply a mass hysteria. While this could be true because of the famine, disease, and spiritual despair they were doing though, it does not explain why they dance in their misery.

The source is from a 2008 article from BBC.com, a famous news website with a high reputation. It is a modern text, but that is good because researchers are able to look back into the phenomenon with more knowledge than before. The information is relevant to the topic and from a trustworthy academic source. It was written as an overview of the event to inform people who are interested to learn more about the dancing plague. The article provides factual and accurate information about what happened.

The source directly supports the claim for the project and provides additional insight about the theories and reasons why the theories are questionable regarding the plague of 1518. Additionally, one quotation that was particularly useful is “this theory doesn’t explain why the people danced in their misery” when the author introduced the mass hysteria theory (Waller

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