In A Time Of Plague

Shakespeare in the Time of Plague takes place in England mostly during a period of frequent episodes of bubonic plague, which greatly affected London for long stretches of time. No one was immune to the misery and death the plague produced, particularly in the poorer parishes of London. Daniel Defoe described the great plague in London of 1665 from survivor accounts, but much of the response to that plague was based upon laws and regulations laid down by King James I during the plague visitation of 1603-1609. It was, also, a time when Shakespeare wrote some of his greatest plays, including Hamlet, Macbeth and Lear. Losses animate the lead characters in those plays in complicated ways, e.g.: Hamlet loses his father and becomes obsessed with it, and cannot move on, until he finally is joined with his father in death. Macbeth's ambition leads him to destroy all those who have helped him and blinds him to his own fatal end. Lear rages on when his children abandon him. Shakespeare may have drawn upon responses he observed in reactions to the conditions of the plague around him.

This is a collection of original poems by Christopher Bursk. The poems are inspired by Vergil's Aeneid and deal with modern issues of love, loss, family, masculinity, and more. Many of the epigraphs are in Latin from the Aeneid and some are translated into English.

Original essays by distinguished scholars from many disciplines examine the many ways in which diseases have been defined throughout the ages and how they, and their victims, are considered today. Included are chapters on responses to plague in early modern Europe, plagues and morality, AIDS and the tradition of homophobia, and pandemics as natural evolutionary phenomena. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Examines how our beliefs and sources of faith determine our understanding of the afflictions of our time and the ways in which we respond to them personally, professionally, and publicly, from a Christian perspective. Looks at how various European and American authors present issues as plagues, and offers choices for decisions and the placing of our faith. Authors discussed include Camus, Thoreau, Dickens, Hesse, and Dickinson. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

As a pandemic swept across fourteenth-century Europe, the Decameron offered the ill and grieving a symphony of life and love. For Florentines, the world seemed to be coming to an end. In 1348 the first wave of the Black Death swept across the Italian city, reducing its population from more than 100,000 to less than 40,000. The disease would eventually kill at least half of the population of Europe. Amid the devastation, Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron was born. One of the masterpieces of world literature, the Decameron has captivated centuries of readers with its vivid tales of love, loyalty, betrayal, and sex. Despite the death that overwhelmed Florence, Boccaccio’s collection of novelle was, in Guido Ruggiero’s words, a “symphony of life.” Love and Sex in the Time of Plague guides twenty-first-century readers back to Boccaccio’s world to recapture how his work sounded to fourteenth-century ears. Through insightful discussions of the Decameron’s cherished stories and deep portraits of Florentine culture, Ruggiero explores love and sexual relations in a society undergoing convulsive change. In the century before the plague arrived, Florence had become one of the richest and most powerful cities in Europe. With the medieval nobility in decline, a new polity was emerging, driven by Il Popolo—the people, fractious and enterprising. Boccaccio’s stories had a special resonance in this age of upheaval, as Florentines sought new notions of truth and virtue to meet both the despair and the possibility of the moment.

This study of sixteenth-century Seville offers a new perspective on how early modern cities adapted to living with repeated epidemics of plague.

This very timely and advantageous work is truly a godly help to Christ’s church, a present help in a time of plague. It is filled with godly directions from various authors who took time to thoughtfully set down specific biblical directions, pleading with the people of God to forsake sin, and follow Christ’s prescription for holiness and righteousness. These authors are all of one mind, though they lived at different times over a span of almost 200 years. This is because all godly directions taken from careful Scriptural study will always end up in the same place. It is true, each writer deals with various texts, from various angles. But, still, their conclusions are the same, and they all offer the church today godly directions that will deliver the church from under the heavy hand of God’s judgments. The authors are well known to those who have taken an interest in the preachers of old, and in times of reformation. The works included have been chosen to be helpful, not overbearing. They are, however, clear in their content, though more examples could certainly be added (having whole books written on this subject of the plague). There are four sermons, one by John Hooper (on Mark 1:15) which is a shortened homily, a sermon by Lancelot Andrewes (on Psa. 106:29–30), one by John Owen (on 2 Timothy 3:1) and one by Thomas Manton (on Psalm 119:67). There is an extended prayer given by William Crashaw (which is amazing and experimentally helpful) coupled by an exhortation given by him about the plague, as well as an extended exhortation by Henry Burton on self-denial and humiliation (on Luke 9:23). Finally, Thomas Draxe sets down a series of simple questions and answers to the difficulty of a plague and how the godly should conduct themselves. In all of these the church around the world would do well to heed their godly directions in this time, that God would hear from heaven, and forgive their sin, and remember his covenant for their good.