Shakespeare and the Epidemic:

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his time. But after his death, his reputation waned. Finally rose to the top of fame in the nineteenth century. The Romantics were appreciative of his compositions. Victorians worshiped him ritually; In the words of George Bernard Shaw, it was "bardolatry". Even in the twentieth century, attempts were made to rediscover his writings from various perspectives on research and drama presentation. Even today his plays are very popular and widely studied. These plays are staged and interpreted in different ways in different cultural and political contexts around the world.

Shakespeare spoke of social distance during the epidemic. The general idea is that there is an epidemic every century. William Shakespeare, the protagonist of English literature, also suffered from several epidemics during his lifetime. He wrote ‘King Lear’ while on self-quarantine during the plague epidemic.

Shakespeare said that the plague bridged social, gender, and personal distances. The plague began in 1564, a week after he was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. The death rate that year was four times higher than the previous year. Not only that, but Shakespeare survived the plague a few more times. While in lockdown, he wrote some outstanding articles. When all the theaters in England were closed during another epidemic, Shakespeare wrote his most successful descriptive poems, "Venus and Adonis", and "Rape of Lucrece".

The plague returned in 1603-1604. As the situation became extremely tense, the celebration of the accession of the new King James II to the throne was canceled. One in five people died in London at the time. Shakespeare then wrote his research "Measure for Measure".

Shakespeare probably worked with "King Lear" during the plague outbreak in the summer of 1606. The play was staged more than once that year. In the play, the effect of the disease is used diagonally and in many figurative ways. The language in which King Lear cursed his daughter Reagan and her husband Cornwall contained the words ‘revenge’, ‘plague’, ‘death’ and ‘confusion’. Plague is everywhere in Shakespeare's writings; Nowhere again.

Shakespeare has dealt with the plague so many times in his life, but no character in any of his plays has died of the plague. For example, in the play Othello, Desdemona was killed by pressing a pillow on the bed. In the play, Titus Andronicus, rapists Chiron, and Demetrius are strangled to death. John of Grant died of old age in the show due to the absence of an exiled boy in the play ‘Second Richard’. Ophelia drowned in the play Hamlet.

Only Romeo and Juliet mention dying during the quarantine. Contemporary London never came up in Shakespeare's plays. Similarly, the most identified cause of death in his society has not come up. In fact, Shakespeare has always resorted to the imagination. Symbolizes the harsh reality.

Shakespeare's contemporary playwright Thomas Decker has written several articles on the epidemic. Poet and playwright Ben Johnson's play 'The Alchemist' is about the master of a house and his servant during the plague. The plague had a direct effect on his writings.

French critic Rene Girard wrote in a famous article, "The uniqueness of the plague is that it ultimately destroys all forms of individuality."And Decker noted that "in the tomb the servant, the master, the wicked and the good became equal."Thousands of husbands, wives, and children were taken to the grave together, Decker said, referring to "as if they were in the same bed."

By the end of the Middle Ages, the "dance macabre" had appeared. It depicts death as a skeleton that moves obscenely among the living.

From this point of view, Shakespeare was an exception. He was never interested in statistics. His fictionalized the macro-narrative of the epidemic as a micro-narrative of tragedy, placing the uniqueness of humanity against the catastrophe caused by disease. It is better to describe his work as a cultural narrative vaccine as opposed to a numerical description of the epidemic.