In July of 1518, a housewife by the name of Frau Troffea living in Strasbourg (in present-day France) walked out of her home and into the street. She began to dance in the street, but nobody paid much attention to her, including her husband. Troffea danced until she could not dance any longer. She soon became exhausted and fell asleep. Had she caught the Dancing Plague?
The Plague Begins
The next morning, Troffea woke up. She was still in the street, and immediately after waking she began dancing in the street again. This time, people began to take notice and paid attention to her odd behavior, as Troffea danced along with no music playing.
She danced and danced, nonstop. Her feet became bloodied and bruised. Despite this, Troffea showed no sign of stopping.
Within four days of Troffea’s odd dancing, something strange happened in the same town. Thirty-four other citizens began to uncontrollably dance. Within four weeks, it is estimated that about four hundred people had caught the Dancing Plague.
Reactions
Those who had not been affected by the Plague watched all around them as people danced uncontrollably. The unaffected were highly confused as to what was happening, and likely felt helpless. They also felt scared, as their affected neighbors and loved ones screamed and begged for help.
Since it was the middle of summer, around fifteen people were dying each day due to exhaustion and dehydration in the hottest month of the year.
Local doctors believed that the affected had gone mad. Their only remedy, and the most popular in those days, was through “bloodletting”, that is removing a certain amount of blood from one’s body.
The Party
However, the doctors had a difficult time removing any blood from the affected, since they could not stop people from uncontrollably moving.
The city council then decided to try something new. The council decided to exhaust the dancers long enough to the point that they simply stopped dancing. They hired musicians and encouraged the rest of the townsfolk to dance with those affected. The city became one huge party.
Cursed
The huge party, of course, did not work, and the affected continued to dance to death. The council then believed that the town had been cursed for all of its sinning. They immediately shut down all gambling houses and brothels. They also banished all those who were considered sinners from the town.
The city council became so desperate that they even made music and dancing illegal. By now, many of the locals believed that Saint Vitus, the patron saint of dancers and entertainers, had placed the curse on the town.
Disappearance
Nothing seemed to work, and the city council was hopeless. The Dancing Plague continued until September, lasting for about two months. Then, it mysteriously disappeared.
This was the last recorded date of the Dancing Plague. However, it was not the first time that an occurrence such as this was recorded in history. There are recordings from 1247, 1278, 1375, 1381, 1428, and possibly others that were never documented.
Conclusion
To this day, scientists are unable to accurately resolve what had caused the Dancing Plague. Some claim it to be mass hysteria from poisoned food. Yet, the fact that the last recording of the Plague happened over five hundred years ago makes it a large mystery as to why it never returned.
With an abundance of evidence from multiple sources, it is generally believed that the Dancing Plague really occurred. In 1518, the Plague took the lives of hundreds, all while confusing those around who could not understand the phenomenon.
