A Time To Dance, A Time to Die was more or less perfect holiday reading for me, being written about events in the country I was visiting (France) and both serious enough to occupy my mind and sufficiently entertaining to match my mood while sunning myself in courtyards and outdoor café.
The book concerns an outbreak of what appeared to be Chorea sancti viti, or St Vitus Dance in 16th century Strasbourg. Whereas chorea is usually a symptom of serious illness, the Strasbourg outbreak seems to have been something like mass hysteria, involving hundreds of people and lasting for some weeks before dying out again.
John Waller uses his first three chapters setting the scene. The people of Strasbourg and its surrounding area had suffered much in the preceding years. A series of bad harvests, periods of drought followed by torrential rain, culminating in the “bad year” of 1517 with grain prices soaring and famine striking with terrible force, killing thousands from malnutrition and related maladies.
The populace was exploited by a rapacious church, with monasteries exploiting the high grain prices by selling their grain stores (obtained from taxes and tithes) outside the area, the starving peasants observing convoys of grain leaving their towns and villages to achieve higher prices in wealthier areas. The population was threatened by the “infidel Turk”, the arrival of syphilis in their communities and a terrible epidemic of a disease named “the English Sweat”. (click on the link below to continue reading this review)
Waller reminds his readers of the intense belief people had that bad times such as these were brought by God as judgement on the sins of people or church. However, whereas in other situations the people had recourse to priests and other clergy to intercede on their behalf, in Strasbourg the people had so lost confidence in their corrupt ministers that they no longer believed in their powers to intercede on their behalf.
It was in this situation that on 14 July 1518, Frau Troffea stepped out of her house “swaying and jumping awkwardly from foot to foot”. The poor woman danced compulsively throughout the day, until at night she collapsed into sleep, only to resume her dance early the next morning. She danced like this for six days, until being sent away to a chapel dedicated to St Vitus, some thirty miles away.
Within no time many more citizens were overcome with the irresistible desire to dance. The burghers of the city consulted the physicians guild, who recommended that the dancers should be left to continue their dance, in the belief that the heavy perspiration resulting from the dance would eventually expel the residues of bad blood which had built up in their veins. The outdoor grain market was commandeered to accommodate the dancers and the burghers even hired professional musicians to encourage the dancers and so hasten the time when they would be thoroughly danced out.
John Waller has covered every angle of this strange and terrible story, investigating the possible physical and mental causes of this dancing plague. He recognises that it occurred within a particular historical and social context and also explores similar outbreaks which have occurred in different locations and times. He considers the similarities between the Strasbourg events and other movements such as modern day “raves”, or Pentecostal worship services. Outbreaks of dancing have occurred regularly in Christian charismatic worship services, but rarely lasting more than a few minutes rather than the several weeks in 16th century Strasbourg.
John Waller has gone to considerable lengths in this book to get inside the mediaeval mindset and as I read it I was reminded how very different the beliefs and culture of that age were from our own. I found this to be an interesting and enjoyable read which is not merely of historical interest but also helps to explain some modern-day psychological phenomena.
