Imagine you were one of them...
In Strasbourg, in July 1518,
the last big dancing plague took place. It was started by Frau Troffea, who,
one day, left her house, went out on the street, and started moving in a way
that many said resembled some kind of dance. Eventually, an exhausted middle-aged
woman was dragged up the mountain to the Saint Vitus shrine, the patron saint
of people with epilepsy, in the hope she'd stop. In the meantime, many others
took to the streets dancing. By the summer's end, about 400 people were plagued
with dancing, and some of them died.
If this event, and similar others that occurred throughout Europe, is still unexplained today, it is because historians have focused mainly on the lives and the doings of people in power, and for centuries, the rest of us were regarded (and discarded) as expandable.
The Dancing Plague of
Strasbourg was an awkward occurrence even for the people of the time. But we
know more about it because it involved a larger population over a few
summer weeks, and city officials tried different methods to end the madness
without success. Among other cases of choreomania, this is the best documented because
of the recordings made by the council of Strasbourg and other eyewitnesses.
At the time, Strasbourg
was a significant political and commercial center, a mix of cultural influences
and traditions in the Holy Roman Empire at the French border. Its history goes
back to the Roman Empire in the second century BC when it was called
Argentoratum. The city was the capital of a free-standing republic controlled
by guilds until 1681 when it was incorporated into the French kingdom. As for
religion, the inhabitants were mainly Catholics except for pockets of the Jewish
population. Just a few months before, on October 1517, Martin Luther revolutionized
the religious landscape by posting his 95 Theses to reform the catholic church.
Although his ideas spread like fire, aided by the new printing press
technology, it would be a few more years before Strasbourg adhered to
Protestantism. This is still important as Protestants do not recognize saints,
and St Vitus was one of the protagonists in the dancing mania of 1518.
The dancing plague began in July 1518, when a woman known
to us by the name of Frau Troffea began to dance uncontrollably, followed by
dozens in just a week and jumping, within a month, to hundreds of people dancing
compulsively. Both men and women, young and old, were affected, and many danced
for days or even weeks. They danced restlessly and helplessly. Some collapsed, exhausted.
Their feet were bruised, scratched, raw, infected. Some died of strokes or
other causes.
Contemporaries tried to find the cause of this plague, and
in doing so, they advanced numerous theories. From Paracelsus, who blamed women
for trying to make fools of their husbands through this behavior, to the medics
of medieval Strasbourg, who advanced the "overheated blood" theory, or
simply, fever, they all tried to find an explanation for what was happening.
The hypotheses were wild, but the actions to stop it were insignificant.
The Council of Strasbourg, after listening to their doctors who said that the
cure rests in sweating the bad blood through…more dancing! decided to encourage
the mania. So they cleared out the city's horse market space and built a
dancing ring, encouraging people to join in, plagued or not. To make it seem
more natural, they also hired musicians, tambourines, fiddlers, pipes, and so
on, to sing the dancing tune. They copied the Tarantella example from Southern
Italy, where people believed in curing spider bites by incessant dancing. But
the dancing plague didn't stop. More people joined in, pretending to be
entranced because the officials provided free food and drink. Some women even
hope to cure infertility or other illnesses.
But a few days into this continuous dancing, weaker people
started to die. One source records 15 deaths in one day. The authorities,
seeing that the bad blood hadn't been eradicated, stopped the music and the
voluntary choreomania, and dismantled the stage. They deduced that the physicians
were wrong, and the affliction must be a curse—a damnation.
Officials took further measures like confining people to
their homes and banning fine clothing and jewelry, and ultimately when
everything else failed, they gathered the remaining maniacs, tied them up on
carriages to prevent falls or running away, and climbed the steep hills that
ascend the mountains to St. Vitus shrine. There, the dancers were given red
shoes and left to the mercy of the Saint. We do not have information about what
happened to them. It came to us that the city regained its normalcy shorter
afterward, and no other case of the dancing plague was recorded in the region.
As a fan fact, the last recorded choreomania case was in Madagascar in 1863.
Today, Strasbourg is the host for the Council of Europe, an
organization created to protect democracy and human rights.
Here is a summary of the last big dancing plague of Europe:
The
Dancing Plague of 1518, which took place in Strasbourg (Alsace), then part of
the Holy Roman Empire, is one of history's most unusual and puzzling events.
Here are some key facts about it:
1.
Outbreak Origin: The dancing plague began in July 1518 when a woman
named Frau Troffea stepped into the streets of Strasbourg and began to
dance uncontrollably. For a week, dozens of people joined her in this strange,
compulsive dancing.
2.
Number of
Participants: It is reported that 400 people were
dancing within a month, seemingly unable to stop.
3.
Symptoms: Participants appeared to be in a trance-like state. They
danced without rest, and many reportedly collapsed from exhaustion, with some
even dying from heart attacks, strokes, or sheer fatigue.
4.
Attempts to Control
It: Authorities in Strasbourg believed a
fever or supernatural affliction caused the dancing. They initially tried to
encourage the dancing by setting up music and professional dancers, hoping it
would "burn itself out." This strategy backfired, as even more people
were drawn into the plague.
5.
Religious
Explanations: At the time, religious authorities
believed the event was a punishment from St. Vitus, the patron saint of
dancers and epileptics. People thought the dancers were cursed or had angered
the Saint.
6.
Cures: Eventually, after other interventions failed, the
authorities banned music and dancing and built a shrine for St. Vitus. The
dancers were taken to the shrine, where religious rituals were performed to
heal them.
7.
Possible Causes:
o
Mass Hysteria or
Psychogenic Illness: Many modern historians and
psychologists believe the event was a case of mass hysteria (now called
mass psychogenic illness). People may have been under significant stress due to
famine, disease, and harsh living conditions, and the outbreak was a physical
manifestation of collective psychological distress.
o
Ergotism: Another theory suggests the dancing plague might have
been caused by ergotism, a condition resulting from eating bread made
from grain infected with ergot, a hallucinogenic mold. Ergot poisoning can
cause convulsions and hallucinations, but this theory is debated since not all
symptoms match.
8.
End of the Plague: After several weeks, the dancing gradually subsided. The
plague ended by September 1518, but the event left a lasting mark on the
region.
9. Legacy: The Strasbourg dancing plague is one of the most famous
examples of "dance mania" or "choreomania," a phenomenon
recorded in various parts of medieval and early modern Europe. However, the
1518 outbreak was one of the largest and most well-documented instances.
This example of bizarre human behavior remains one of history's unsolved mysteries, as its exact causes are still debated.
