Strasbourg is a free imperial city in the Holy Roman Empire and has a population of about 20 In the last decade Strasbourgeois have had to deal with unusually cold weather and a heat wave, famine and sickness. Orphanages and hospitals are congested with desperate people. In the heat of the summer sun on this particular day, a woman named Frau Madame in German Troffea steps into the streets and begins to dance.
There is no music. She dances anyway, day and night. Another Strasbourgeois joins her. Then another. Little by little, the group of dancers grows. City officials become concerned. Why are residents, young and old, dancing in the streets? Their faces are distressed. Some dance until they collapse from fatigue. They consult with local doctors. The best way to alleviate a fever, they say, is to sweat it out. They hire musicians, like drummers and fife players, to perform and dancers to dance alongside the stricken.
They seem to have lost all self-control. Some dance so long that they wear away the skin on their feet all the way to the bone. The music and the crowd and the antics only seem to attract more dancers, and the numbers swell to perhaps In August the city bans dancing in the street and stops the music. Priests hold masses at the cathedral in an effort to stop the sickness.
An image of Saint Vitus or Saint-Guy in French , protector of patients with abnormal movements, is created in wax and dedicated on an altar in his name. A few try exorcisms. Some sources say up to 15 people were dying daily from heart attacks, strokes, and exhaustion , others suggest that 15 actually refers to the number of newly infected a day. But why? Why did hundreds suddenly dance in the streets of Strasbourg in the summer of ?
Perhaps it was the result of an ergot fungi poisoning from infected rye crops. This would explain convulsions could they be mistaken for dancing? This case suggests that people believed it was a curse. Perhaps God was angry with the Strasbourgeois. After all, the decade before was dire; they were already dealing with high bread prices, starvation, leprosy, smallpox, syphilis, and other diseasesβmaybe this was just another plague sent as punishment for their sins.
