humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare

"bookburn" wrote:
>
> Robert Simkins
>
> > How did Sir John Falstaff die? Shakespeare seems to
> > suggest it was from 'the sweat', but I can't be sure.
> >
> > In the Epilogue to Henry IV Part 2, Shakespeare states
> > that "Falstaff shall die of a sweat". Then in Henry V, Act
> > II, Scene III, his death is said to have taken place in bed,
> > his body going cold and clammy.
> >
> > Shakespeare also mentions some kind of 'sweat' in Measure
> > For Measure with Mistress Overdone saying, "Thus, what with
> > the war, what with the sweat, what with the gallows and what
> > poverty, I am custom-shrunk." And again in Henry IV, Part 1,
> > Act II, Scene II, we hear, "Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats
> > to death," but this doesn't seem to be the same sweating.
> >
> > Worse yet, such a 'sweating sickness' would appear to be an
> > anachronism, based on what I read in Wikipedia:
> >
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweating_sickness
> >
> > Here, it is shown to be a strange disease that only stuck
> > around from 1485 to 1551. Most unusual for a sickness to be
> > so selective in deciding whom and when to strike, then
> > disappear forever.
> >
> > Has this been researched before? Did the rotund fellow really
> > perish from the sweating sickness?
> >
> > RS
>
> A few of the entries from the OED:



> 3b. = sweating-sickness. Obs.
>
> a1517 in G. P. Scrope Castle Combe (1852) 294 The wyche freer dyyd
> of the swet in my howse. 1551 Edw. VI Lit. Rem. (Roxb.) II. 329 At
> this time cam the sweat into London, wich was more vehement then the
> old sweat. 1576 Newton Lemnie's Complex. (1633) 164 The English
> Sweat, the accident of which disease is sowning and grievous paine at
> the heart, joyned with a byting at the Stomacke. 1596 Dalrymple tr.
> Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 5 That sair seiknes, named the sueit of
> Britannie. a1614 D. Dyke Myst. Self-deceiving (ed. 8) 26 Thus it was
> in that great Sweat in the time of King Edward. 1661 J. Childrey
> Brit. Baconica 123 There was a fourth sweat between the years 1517 and
> 1551.



sweating-sickness

A febrile disease characterized by profuse sweating, of which
highly and rapidly fatal epidemics occurred in England in the
15th and 16th centuries. Now chiefly Hist. in reference to these.

1502 Arnolde Chron. Avij, This yere [sc. 1485] was a grete deth
and hasty callyd th swetynge syknes. 1542 Boorde Dyetary xxvii.
(1870) 289 Whan the Plages of the Pestylence or the swetynge
syckenes is in a towne,..the people doth fle. 1560 J. Daus tr.
Sleidane's Comm. 83 This yeare [sc. 1529] also was Germany sore
afflicted with a newe kynde of disease called the Sweathing
sicknes. 1661 J. Childrey Brit. Baconica 122 The first time of
this sweating sickness was in the year 1485. 1758 Jortin
Erasm. I. 36 The sweating sickness..began at first in 1483, in
Henry the Seventh's army, upon his landing at Milford haven.
1839 Keightley Hist. Eng. I. 423 The sweating sickness was a
rapid fever, carrying people off in 24 hours. 1594 Nashe Unfort.
Trav. Wks. 1904 II. 228 Let mee...tell a little of the sweating
sicknes, that made me in a cold sweate take my heeles and runne
out of England. 1639 Massinger Unnat. Combat iv. ii, [We will]
ease you Of your golden burthen: the heavy carriage may Bring
you to a sweating sickness.


Peter F.