Talk:Dr. Seuss vs Shakespeare/Rap Meanings/@comment-108.17.65.13-20141019181846/@comment-92.236.149.157-20150318212748

That is, the 1347 epidemic was, but there have been many outbreaks since, all over the world. In fact there was one in London in 1603, that Shakespeare would have witnessed. His own theater company had to close the Globe for a total of 60 months between 1603 and 1610 during long periods of plague in the city. Elizabethan England was a highly unhygienic place and many died prematurely of contagious diseases like the aforementioned bubonic plague and cholera as well as smallpox, syphilis, typhus, malaria, influenza and some mysterious diseases like "sweating sickness" that we still don't know a great deal about. Hope that clarifies something. :)