Mercutio’s actual line in Romeo and Juliet is “A plague on both your houses,” but somehow it’s more commonly remembered as “pox.”
The two terms weren’t interchangeable. The London Plague of 1592-1593 was fresh in people’s memory (killing 15,000 out of London’s 150,000 population), and that was true plague (Yersinia pestis bacteria), not smallpox (Variola virus). Both diseases, if survived, might leave one with pock-marked skin, but in Shakespeare’s day “the Great Pox” actually referred to syphilis…
Monkey Pox, you do know how it is infecting people and which group it is infecting? Unfortunately humans have a very short memory. Protect yourselves, idiots!
P51Strega almost 2 years ago
Who pox? Was the Grinch a carrier?
Gandalf almost 2 years ago
Yepper; fools to the left off me, jokers on the right…
fritzoid Premium Member almost 2 years ago
Mercutio’s actual line in Romeo and Juliet is “A plague on both your houses,” but somehow it’s more commonly remembered as “pox.”
The two terms weren’t interchangeable. The London Plague of 1592-1593 was fresh in people’s memory (killing 15,000 out of London’s 150,000 population), and that was true plague (Yersinia pestis bacteria), not smallpox (Variola virus). Both diseases, if survived, might leave one with pock-marked skin, but in Shakespeare’s day “the Great Pox” actually referred to syphilis…
BeniHanna6 Premium Member almost 2 years ago
Monkey Pox, you do know how it is infecting people and which group it is infecting? Unfortunately humans have a very short memory. Protect yourselves, idiots!
Night-Gaunt49[Bozo is Boffo] almost 2 years ago
Fortunately, spider pox is fictional however “monkey pox” is very real.