HOW DID THE BUBONIC PLAGUE (BLACK DEATH) EFFECT THE LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE?
• William Shakespeare was terrified of the Bubonic Plague – and who can blame him? • England had been ravaged by outbreaks of the plague since the 1300’s • He lost his sisters Joan, Margaret ( just babies) and Anne (aged 7) to the deadly plague • He also lost his brother Edmund (aged 27) • But the greatest loss to William Shakespeare was his only son, Hamnet, who died when he was just eleven years old • So many people from just one family (the number increased after Shakespeare’s death when his grandsons, Shakespeare Quiney died in infancy, aged 6 months old, in May 1617 and his brothers Richard and Thomas Quiney died of the plague aged 19 and 20 years of age) • No-one knows how many friends, fellow actors and acquaintances of Shakespeare died of the Black Death, but given the number of his close relatives who died, it must have been a significant number • There were constant outbreaks of the Bubonic Plague and every time this occurred the Theatres were shut down. The closures occurred
