Fighting the Plague in Antiquity and the Middle Ages: The History of Ancient and Medieval Efforts to Prevent the Spread of Diseases by Charles River Editors

Author:Charles River Editors
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Charles River Editors
Published: 2020-04-11T16:00:00+00:00

The flowers or herbs mentioned above were tied together in small bundles called “posies” and may have given rise to a chant later picked up by children. To this day, kids across the world are still familiar with the simple refrain:

“Ring around the rosies

Pocket full of posies

Ashes, ashes

We all fall down.”

Although it’s impossible to determine with certainty and continues to be debated, many scholars believe the nursery rhyme is a nod to the Black Death. In this seemingly innocuous chant, the first line refers to the bright red cheeks that appeared on the faces of those suffering fever, while the ashes referred to the remains of the burned possessions that had once belonged to the sick. Of course, the dead were the ones who fell down. In support of this interpretation, Peter and Iona Opie, who have long studied nursery rhymes, noted, “The invariable sneezing and falling down in modern English versions have given would-be origin finders the opportunity to say that the rhyme dates back to the Great Plague. A rosy rash, they alleged, was a symptom of the plague, and posies of herbs were carried as protection and to ward off the smell of the disease. Sneezing or coughing was a final fatal symptom, and ‘all fall down’ was exactly what happened.

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