The masque of the red death

1. The masque of the red death Medieval Times The Plague Poe Lit Terms

2. Medieval Government In the Middle Ages, Europe was divided into many different states. Each state had its own system of government. Some of these were monarchies, and had kings to rule them.

3. Medieval Power Structure • Peasants had obligations to the powerful person that they lived closest to. • In exchange, the powerful person was supposed to protect the peasants from invasions and from the king, and give them food when there was a drought, and enforce the law (which was mainly whatever he or she said it was). • Each of these powerful people, in turn, owed obligations to a more powerful person - each count or countess, for instance, owed obligations to a duke (or duchess) or an earl. • If there was a war, the count had to go to the war with his peasants, to fight for the duke. • The count had to send valuable presents to the duke as well, every year. • In exchange the duke was supposed to protect the count.

4. Medieval Families • Some people were still slaves, but slavery was gradually dying out. • In medieval European families, most kids lived with their father and mother but a lot of kids also lived with other relatives, or just with an older brother or sister, because their parents had died. • Most kids never knew their grandparents, who had died before they were born.

5. Medieval kids and teens • Hardly anyone went to school • Kids worked in the fields, or took care of younger brothers and sisters • A few children, usually from richer families, were given to monasteries or abbeys to be monks and nuns, and these children were sometimes taught to read and write • The children of very rich men and women sometimes had tutors at home • Teenagers, around the age of twelve or thirteen, often went out to work for somebody else • Sometimes they worked for their neighbors, helping to plow the fields or take care of babies or animals • Sometimes they worked for richer families, as servants, • Sometimes they were apprenticed to learn a skill like weaving or blacksmithing • Many teenagers lived with the people they worked for

6. Medieval Clothes • Men and women wore similar clothes made of linen and wool. • Most people wore long tunics and men sometimes wore pants under them

7. Bubonic Plague “The Black Plague” “The Black Death”

8. The plague arrives Historians think that the plague arrived in England during the summer of 1348. During the following autumn it spread quickly through the south west. Few villages escaped. Churchyards were full with bodies. The plague spread quickly during the winter of 1348-1349 to the north of England. By 1350, nearly the whole of Britain was infected with the plague. At the end of 1350 nearly two and a half million people were dead!

9. Transmission of the Plague

10. Symptoms of the plague

11. More Symptoms BUBONIC - fever, exhaustion, chills, swollen glands which turn red at first, then black PNEUMONIC - cough which produces frothy blood from lungs SEPTICAEMIC - internal bleeding; blood pools under skin causing black coloration

12. Cures • Medieval people did not know about germs causing disease. They did not understand that plague was spread by rats and fleas. They thought that people’s bodies were poisoned. • If the swellings burst and the poison came out people sometimes survived. It seemed sensible to draw out the poison.

13. Medieval cure # 1 The swellings should be softened with figs and cooked onions. The onions should be mixed with yeast and butter. Then open the swellings with a knife.

14. Medieval cure # 2 Take a live frog and put its belly on the plague sore. The frog will swell up and burst. Keep doing this with further frogs until they stop bursting. Some people say that a dried toad will do the job better.

15. Other Medieval Cures • Bathing in human urine. • Placing dead animals in the home. • Use of leeches or bleeding the individual.

16. Edgar allan poe

17. Statistics • Born: January 19, 1809 • Died: October 7, 1849 • Accomplishments: Father of the modern horror story; wrote over 140 works of fiction; numerous works of non-fiction • Weapon of Choice: Morbid Rumination

18. Life Story • Orphan who did not get along with his foster father • Gambled excessively • Forced to drop out of college due to gambling debts • Returned home to find his sweetheart engaged to another man • Published first book in 1827

19. Married his cousin (Virginia Clemm) when she was 13 years old • Clemm died in 1847 • In 1849 Poe was found on a Baltimore street sick, delirious and wearing clothing that was not his own • Doctors at the hospital he was taken to could not determine what was wrong with him • He died 4 days later

20. Death Theories • Complications from alcohol • Rabies • “Congestion” of the brain • Diabetes • Carbon monoxide poisoning • Epilepsy • Cooping (an old form of voting fraud where individuals were drugged or beaten by thugs and forced to repeatedly vote)

21. Interesting Facts • Room number a the University of Virginia: 13 • Number of homes before joining the army: 13 • Age of wife when they married: 13

22. Poe in the modern world • Referenced on The Simpsons at least six times • Image and words have been used to sell bubblegum, life insurance, and pickles • Appears on the cover of the Beatles’ Sgt. Peppers album

23. Every year since 1949 a mysterious visitor goes to Poe’s grave on his birthday and leaves him half a bottle of cognac and three red roses Remembering Poe

24. Lit Terms & Vocabulary

25. Symbols • Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

26. Puns • a type of joke in which words are used that have a similar sound, but a different meaningExample: One example of a pun would be `A pun is a punishable offence'. • A humorous substitution of words that are alike in sound but different in meaning, as in this passage from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: “And how many hours a day did you do lessons?” said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.“Ten hours the first day,” said the Mock Turtle, “nine the next, and so on.” “What a curious plan!” exclaimed Alice. “That's the reason they're called lessons,” the Gryphon remarked: “because they lessen from day to day.”

27. Piquancy (pee-kuhn-cee) • Definition: (noun) Pleasantly sharp quality • Synonyms: liveliness, stinging • Sentence: The NBA finals had a great deal of piquancy.

28. Habilments (huh-bil-uh-muhnts) • Definition: (noun) clothing • Synonyms: apparel, attire • Sentence: Mrs. Shean exchanged the habiliments of Dorothy for the Marie Antoinette costume.

29. Disapprobation (Dis-ap-pro-bation) • Definition: (noun) Disapproval • Synonym: Condemnation • Sentence: Jenny does what she pleases and does not fear disapprobation from her father.

30. Cessation (Se-Say-Shun) • Definition: (noun) Stopping, either forever or for some time • Synonyms: stop, halt, end • Sentence: Recovering alcoholics who practice smoking cessation have an easier time staying sober.