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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and this is another

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Speaker 1: classic episode of the podcast. In this one, we talk

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Speaker 1: about the Great Pox a k a. Syphilis and whether

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Speaker 1: a certain Bard may have been afflicted with it. Hey

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Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here. William Shakespeare mentioned diseases often

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Speaker 1: in his plays, probably because he was literally surrounded by them,

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Speaker 1: I mean, aren't we all. But during his London based

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Speaker 1: lifetime in the fifteen and sixteen hundreds, such notorious illnesses

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Speaker 1: as the bubonic plague, typhus, and malaria ravaged citizens, all

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Speaker 1: made more potent and deadly by rodents, over crowding and

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Speaker 1: virtually non existent sanitation systems. Also striking fear into the

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Speaker 1: hearts of just about everyone were smallpox and the Great pox,

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Speaker 1: known today as syphilis. The two conditions actually present similar rashes,

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Speaker 1: despite being different in terms of type of action and transmission.

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Speaker 1: Smallpox is a virus spread by breathing. Syphilis is bacterial

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Speaker 1: and almost always sexually transmitted. The hallmark of both diseases

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Speaker 1: was a body riddled with pustules, also known as pox.

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Speaker 1: It fell to the people to distinguish between these horrors. Thus,

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Speaker 1: syphilis became known as the Great Pox, not because the

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Speaker 1: pock marks of syphilis were larger than those of smallpox,

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Speaker 1: but rather because, in the fifteen to seventeenth centuries, it

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Speaker 1: was the greater fear. Syphilis was likely introduced to Europe

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Speaker 1: when Christopher Columbus, that Guy and his crew brought it

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Speaker 1: back from the New World in fourteen nine three. Although

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Speaker 1: there are other theories, the timing is definitely suspect. The

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Speaker 1: pandemic began in Europe pretty much right after they returned,

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Speaker 1: killing many. Even those were lucky enough to survive, were

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Speaker 1: typically covered in scars and went blind. Of course, the Europeans,

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Speaker 1: for their part, left behind smallpox and other diseases in

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Speaker 1: the New World, sometimes intentionally, which, how long with slavery,

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Speaker 1: would wipe out millions of Native Americans. Fortunately, smallpox has

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Speaker 1: now been eradicated by vaccine, and we have penicillin to

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Speaker 1: treat syphilis. Shakespeare's writings indicate an interest in syphilis, such

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Speaker 1: as in the play tim And of Athens, where he

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Speaker 1: references the use of inhaled vaporized mercury salts, a common

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Speaker 1: treatment for the disease at the time. In fact, one

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Speaker 1: of his best known quotes was originally a reference to syphilis.

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Speaker 1: A plague on both your houses from Romeo and Juliet

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Speaker 1: was first a pox on both your Houses. Thanks to

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Speaker 1: multiple references of syphilis and his works, historians have wondered

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Speaker 1: whether Shakespeare himself was infected. Known for being a little

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Speaker 1: bit of a hustler, his signature during the last years

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Speaker 1: of his life indicates that he experienced a tremor, which

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Speaker 1: is a common side effect of mercury poisoning, which, as

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Speaker 1: we said, was the treatment of choice for syphilis. Of course,

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Speaker 1: any number of physical ailments can cause a tremor, so

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Speaker 1: it's unlikely that this posthumous diagnosis will ever be confirmed.

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Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article You've Heard of Smallpox?

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Speaker 1: But what was the Great Box? On houseworks dot com,

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Speaker 1: written by Leah Hoyt. Brainstuff is production of I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio in partnership with house Toffworks dot Com, and it's

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Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts from my Heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.