The Black Death* Comes To Europe

The Black Death* Comes To Europe

1347 A ship from the Black Sea docks in Messina (Italy) carrying the plague from the East. And, what a plague it is! Within twenty-four hours of infection and the first tell-tale black pustule, the victim is dead.

The plague* is carried by fleas on the black rat and comes in two forms: pneumonic (striking the lungs and always fatal) and the more familiar bubonic, (from which some recover) causing large black pustules which leads to the name Black Death*. It begins its European journey in Italy and surges north leaving towns depopulated with no one left to bury the dead. In the countryside, stock animals die of hunger and disease as their owners succumb to the plague. Fields go to waste. In some places, like Germany, as much as sixty percent of the land falls out of cultivation. Many places it isn't safe to travel at all, travelers' inns close down, and being out is dangerous. It seems like the end of the world.

For years after the plague, a new image of the "dance of death" prevades art as a haunting memory of that time. It takes three centuries for the population to regain the level it had before the plague struck.

The plague changes everything. First there is a terrific sense of joy for those who are still alive. The survivors find themselves incredibly wealthy, having inherited everything the dead no longer need. They go on a gigantic spending binge. But, without a productive base, the price of everything goes up. The status of the remaining labor pool is totally changed. Half the workforce is gone and labor is desperately needed. The old system of being tied to your father's job is definitely out. Serfs are no longer bound to the land and farm-workers can set their own terms.

Authority breaks down and political uprisings crop up all over. Radical reformers spring up and have to be coped with. Workers have the upper hand and they try to make the best deal they can. Industrial productivity is at a premium and a real push for more technology gets under way.

1348 The Italian writer Boccaccio* (who sensibly retreats to an isolated place while the plague is around) comes out with his Decameeon*, a brilliant effort to deal with life among the dying.

*1350 - Despite the plague, a two-day Passion Play* is performed in the free city of Frankfur am Main in Germany. There is an extant copy of the director's scroll with all the stage directions. This kind of document really helps us figure out what these plays looked like. The German plays are full of robust sensuality and sturdy piety.

1350 The plague reaches Stockholm, and has largely run its course on the continent. Somewhere around seventy-five million people die of the plague. Many more die of hunger and the violence caused by social disruption. All in all, at least one-third, and more likely, one-half of the European population perishes.

Til Eulenspiegel*, a popular figure in Germany, dies. He will become an even more popular character in story and plays.

In Florence the city begins to tax church property and stop it from increasing. They bring the religious orders under state control

After the plague wealthy merchants like to behave like the nobility. They employ their own troupes of performers. When the troupe belongs to a king or a great lord they are permitted to go on tour (when they're not needed at home.) They get special letters that identify them as servants of the king (or whatever) which enables them to be legal anywhere (that "masterless After the plague wealthy merchants like to behave like the nobility. They employ their own troupes of performers. When the troupe belongs to a king or a great lord they are permitted to go on tour (when they're not needed at home.) They get special letters that identify them as servants of the king (or whatever) which enables them to be legal anywhere (that "masterless

1350 - In Germany, for the intellectuals, there are Abelespele*, learned dramatic productions. In China, the famous Chinese play, The Chalk Circle* is written by Li Hsing Tao. 1351 In Italy Petrarch* writes his autobiography, Epistle To Posterity. 1361 The Black Death reappears in England. 1368 Out in China, an uprising leads to the end of Mongol* rule and the beginning of the

Ming* dynasty. Other Mongol* empires also fall apart, except in central Asia and Russia. 1369 Chaucer* writes his first book. Out in central Asia, a Mongol* soldier seizes power in Samarkand and gains authority over

both the Changatai and the Golden Horde*. His name is Timur the Lame, better known as Tamerlane*. He will come to be known throughout Europe as the scourge of all central and western Asia.

1370 The steel crossbow comes into general use as a weapon of war. Tough on all those knights, since it will pierce armor.

1371 In Spain Jews are required to wear a yellow patch over their hearts identifying them. Since they are a prosperous and powerful minority they arouse a lot of envy and jealousy. Anti-Semitic hysteria frequently breaks out in parts of Spain.

1375 - Earliest reference to that most popular of English cycle plays*, The Second Shepherd's Play.

by 1375 In the British Isles there are at least 125 different towns which produce plays. Although only twelve are known as producing the Corpus Christi cosmic dramas. There are four locations from which we have extant Cycle

texts: Chester (24 plays) York (48 plays) Wakefield (32 plays) also called Towneley plays Ludas Coventriae or N[LN Length:0.8 in] plays (42 plays)

In addition to the Cycle plays there are at least ten other British dramas in English and three in Cornish which survive.

The craft Guilds finance their own productions and every craft takes part. The ship builders do Noah, the goldsmiths, the Magi, the drapers do the Prophets [it's what you might call the The craft Guilds finance their own productions and every craft takes part. The ship builders do Noah, the goldsmiths, the Magi, the drapers do the Prophets [it's what you might call the

The wagons apparently move through the town (with the actors in tableaus until it stops) to different points in the city where they play in sequence until each location has seen all the plays. If any craft gives a bad show it's fined. The texts are always being revised and adapted to accommodate the new performers. There is terrific rivalry among the guilds to come up with the best show and the biggest effects, so each one often added stuff on their own. A lot more plays survive in France than anywhere else. These plays range from very short to cycles requiring more than twenty-five days to perform. Most of the Cycle plays don't cover the whole Bible (like the British, which do) but end with the resurrection of Christ.

*1377 - The first record of court entertainment Disguisings* with elaborate scenery and effects occurs when Charles V* of France entertains Emperor Charles IV*.

1378 - We hear from that heretical John Wyclif* and he refers to a play entitled Play of the Lord's Prayer* being performed in Yorkshire.

1378- The church is in disarray with two popes, one in Rome and another in 1417 Avignon, France. The Pope is captive of the French. There are rival Popes and nobody knows who the right one is.

1380 Timur* (the current Mongol) begins a long series of successful campaigns into Persia, Georgia, Russia and points west.

1382 An early protestant, John Wyclif* tries to reform the English church but his doctrines are condemned and he is expelled from Oxford.

1386 Up in northern Europe the downfall of the Teutonic Knights* begins. Poland and Lithuania make a dynastic union and develop a good force to bring against the knights.

1387 Canterbury Tales by Chaucer* appears on the scene. by 1390's most prosperous cities in Europe have lengthy religious cycles (in their local

language,) made up of many short plays. 1390 Those heretical, protestant writings by Wyclif reach Bohemia (in Czechoslovakia)

where they make exciting and stimulating reading, especially to a theologian named Jan Hus*. 1391 A series of massacres of Jews rage through the largest cities in Spain. 1396 A great crusading Christian army is decimated by the Turks at Nicopolis on the Black

Sea and the flower of western aristocracy is slaughtered. The Byzantine Emperor sends an academic Manuel Chrysoloras* to the west for help. The Pope won't give any (he wants to get rid of the competition in the East.) Most of the group goes home but Chrysoloras* gets an offer of the Chair in Greek at Florence University and so he stays.

1397 Chrysoloras* opens his Greek classes in Florence and we have the beginning of a revival of Greek literature in Italy. The Florentines begin to get a thirst for classical culture. The de Medici* start lending money on an international scale.

1398 - The French Confrerie de la Passion* begins performing religious plays in Paris. This group will go on doing this until 1548.

1398 Another precursor of the protestant movement, Jan Hus* of Bohemia, lectures on theology at Prage. His followers will spark a revolution, ending in devastation and a flood of refugees to the west (which is where we get the term for anarchic and unconventional: "Bohemians".)

Timur* conquers Delhi, India. 1399 In England, Richard II* is deposed and Henry IV* of Lancaster gets the throne. 1399 - In York (England) there is a guild of the Lord's Prayer* performing Paternoster plays

every year. These are also being performed in Lincoln and Beverley. The plays survive and are extant.

The fourteenth century marks the end of feudalism* and the rise of a new Europe. Magic is popular, witches are consulted for medical treatment, and alchemists are busy looking for the philosopher's stone and the secret of turning everything into gold. The world is still medieval and the "Great Chain of Being" determines everyone's and everything's place in the universe, even in categories there is a hierarchy, the lion is king of the beasts as the eagle is king of birds. God is at the top and stones are at the bottom. Earth is at the center of the universe and the heavenly bodies revolve around it. Everyone knows their place. Everything is made of the four elements (earth, fire, water, air) and everything else comes in fours (seasons, winds, directions, ages of man.) In fact, people are crazy about numbers (which have magical properties) like 3, 4, 6, 7, 12. This goes back to Pythagoras* and the Italians are reading him for the first time. They love him. Western music is beginning just about now and uses the Pythagorean scale. There is lots of talk about "the music of the spheres", that is, the mystical heavenly sounds of Aristotle's* universe. But, Humanism* is in the air and it will soon settle in Italy. The Theatre is moving on like a snowball going down hill, bigger every moment.