The Dancing Plague of 1518

 

The Dancing Plague of 1518

Dance at Molenbeek. Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564-1638)

A depiction of dancing mania, on the pilgrimage of epileptics to the church of Molenbeek

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Having recently twice heard mention of this phenomenon, I wanted to learn more.

 It’s not clear what caused an outbreak of enforced dancing. One theory suggests that it was food poisoning, from eating rye affected by ergot fungus, which can cause hallucinations. This causes twitching and convulsions rather than dancing, but is similar in composition to LSD, and was also implicated in the frenzy surrounding the Salem witch trials.

 An alternative theory proposes that it was mass hysteria related to stress brought about by impoverished living conditions, disease, and starvation.

Whatever the cause, on 14^th July 1518, Frau Troffea left her house in Strasbourg and began dancing. After several hours, she fell to the ground, exhausted, but began dancing again the following day. She continued to dance for six days, despite the pain of her bruised and bleeding feet. Others joined the dancing, until around four hundred people were involved. Some danced themselves to death, dying from heart attacks, strokes, or exhaustion.

At the time, in a region where St Vitus was honoured, people believed that prolonged dancing was a punishment visited on sinners.

St Vitus was a Christian martyr from Sicily. He is the patron saint of dancers, comedians, actors, and dogs, and protects against snake bites, storms, oversleeping, and epilepsy. He is most commonly associated with St Vitus’ Dance, which is now known as Sydenham’s Chorea. Sydenham’s chorea is caused by an autoimmune reaction to a streptococcal infection (strep throat) It can cause involuntary twitching of face, hands, and feet, and imbalance and poor coordination, resulting in an unusual gait.

They believed that Frau Troffea had sinned and was controlled by the Devil. They led her, with others, to a shrine in the mountains to atone for their sins.

The dancing mania, Pieter Brueghel

It is believed that sometimes strong men were employed to support exhausted dancers.
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

By the beginning of September 1518, the plague began to abate, and the dancing stopped completely after several weeks. Although the Strasbourg outbreak is probably the best-documented, there were at least ten similar occurrences centuries before, all equally inexplicable.