Of Mice and Moisture

Of Mice and Moisture

Of Mice and Moisture is a Lucinda Cole’s publication on the early modern theories of Contagion. Early modern scholars failed to establish a link between rats and diseases, commonly referred to as plagues or pestilences. The Contagion theology represented rats culturally as mirrors of lust, gluttonous, lustful wishes, and never-ending human multiplication. Naturally, rats were seen as agents of famine and warm-blooded disease vectors. Rats were likened to witches because they shared an analogous and homologous relationship. The sixteenth-century saw England plagued with disease linked to rats and the witchcraft craze. Witchcraft accusations increased as serial epidemics continued. The rat infestations corresponded with a period of climate instability that resulted in food insecurities. Witches were quick to suffer for the patterns of crop failures and diseases that accompanied the rat infestation. Rats, witches, plagues, and bad air were entangled in complex analysis. Plagues were seen biblically as a punishment for the fallen word and filled the world with the bad air.

Mother nature was considered a living, breathing, consuming, and farting entity. Witches attracted corruption and infection from the air and were branded disease vectors. Rodents were perceived to evoke a general context of pestilence, according to Macbeth. Shakespeare’s rat in Macbeth is suggestive of a powerful vehicle, Macbeth’s witch, associated with famine, bad air, destruction, and toxic sexuality. Rats were considered more dangerous in copulation and excreted a toxic fluid that rots the flesh and bones. Rats were considered to have sexual power, which was responsible for the massive number of rodents. The number of rats threatened the human food supply. Famine and pestilence were attributed to witches and rats rather than derangement of regular operation of nature.