"The Curse of Venus": How a terrible illness influenced the creativity and destinies of great people

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Syphilis has been the scourge of Europe since the return of Columbus from America. They were sick so often and so many that one could speak of a weakly smoldering epidemic with individual bright outbreaks. Is it any wonder many celebrities have lived with or died from syphilis? Much more interesting is that the illness seems to have influenced their character, and perhaps the character of their work.

I must say, the most destructive form of the disease was in the fifteenth century - so destructive that syphilitics resembled lepers, only they died much faster. This is how natural selection took place, and among the next generations there were already many people who lived relatively calmly with chronic syphilis, without falling apart before our eyes.

Relatively calm, since it affected the joints (as in Woland's famous novel by Bulgakov), affected the brain (causing erotomania, decreased critical thinking, delusional ideas), caused tremors or deafness. Some burned out from syphilis for several years, others lived with it to a ripe old age, spreading the disease further. By the way, prostitutes were considered the main carriers of syphilis, although in fact their clients walked along with them, who calmly walked home from prostitutes, infected their wives, seduced or raped maids, passing on the disease to them, and conceived sick children already in the womb.

The most famous syphilitic - Guy de Maupassant

Maupassant was obsessed with erotomania all his life. He could provoke persistent arousal in himself in a few seconds, with the power of thought alone, and spent many hours in brothels. Guy calmly endured illnesses outside the brothel: he had little intercourse as such, he wanted to put women in his bed, as many women as possible. He was obsessed with this idea.

He wrote about women: “I collect them. There are those with whom I meet no more than once a year. With others I see every ten months, with others once a quarter. Fate confronts me with some only at their deathbed, with some - when they want to go to have dinner with me in a cabaret …”.

Since he was famous and, besides, he did not care, to hunt for a commoner, tired of work and greedy for gifts and cheap wine, or to seduce a woman around above, then there were enough victims of his voluptuousness. One of the women he tried to seduce is the famous artist, feminist journalist Maria Bashkirtseva. But she only played with him, exchanging "anonymous" letters. She did not want to lose her virginity with a man of dubious purity.

Untreated syphilis led a young writer to chronic headaches, neuroses, vascular spasms, heart problems. He went to many doctors, but they either suggested a nervous illness or smoking abuse, until one experienced doctor figured out what was wrong. The news of the illness did not stop Maupassant. He calmly continued to infect women.

At twenty-seven years old, the entire once very hairy body of the writer was covered with bald patches, and one eye almost lost sight. He began to lose the thread of conversation or reasoning. He was overcome by hallucinations. In this state, he lived to be forty-three years old and wrote almost all of his works - illness and suffering seemed to spur his mind and talent. He died in an insane asylum. The last days of his life, Maupassant crawled around his ward on all fours, like an animal.

The most unexpected syphilitic - Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer was known for his modesty in relation to women (with complete indifference to men), so many are amazed by the fact that he had been sick with syphilis all his long life. It is believed that he brought it from his only whirlwind romance in Italy. But there is also a more conspiratorial version: that he contracted it on purpose in order to understand the nature of syphilitic insanity.

At one time, Schopenhauer became famous for a very extravagant theory of what a marriage should look like. He believed that in a marriage there should be two husbands for one woman - so, they say, it is most reasonable. He also believed that when a woman could no longer have children, the marriage must be dissolved. Is it any wonder that ladies, who at that time did not have the opportunity to feed themselves, found his ideas misogynistic? Yes, he, in general, did not hide the fact that after a trip to Italy he does not really like women.

The funniest syphilitic - Henri Toulouse-Lautrec

In his youth, as you know, famous, but then only the future artist injured his legs and stopped growing, remaining about one and a half meters tall. Perhaps it was this that prevented him from getting married and determined the circle of his communication with women: Henri constantly moved among prostitutes and prostituted dancers. He was also known for his wit and cheerful disposition.

He painted a lot of his acquaintances, and this often aroused indignation: his paintings were called "smelled of syphilis." I meant the epidemic of the disease among French prostitutes, however, the artist himself, of course, was infected. In addition, he drank a lot, so that at the age of barely thirty, either from an illness or from alcohol, he began to go crazy. He became unpleasant in communication, wit turned into caustic. Then he was paralyzed, and at thirty-seven he died.

The funeral of the scandalous artist was held to match his whole life. The cart with the coffin was driven by Father Henri. He was drunk and it seemed to him that the horses were going too slowly. Toulouse-Lautrec the elder began to whip them up, and as a result, the funeral procession had to literally run after the coffin to the cemetery.

The most legendary syphilitic - Ivan the Terrible

For a long time it was believed that the king was poisoned, and he slowly and for a long time died of poison. Indeed, modern scientists have found a lot of mercury in the remains of Grozny. However, mercury was not very popular as a poison - it was more often used as a medicine. Including syphilis.

As you know, in the middle of his life, Ivan the Terrible was extremely incontinent, committed many gang rapes together with his guardsmen and, according to rumors, also amused himself with individual guardsmen. It seems that from one of them he contracted syphilis, either directly, or during criminal fun with Muscovites.

It is known that before his death, the king's liver swelled, hair fell from his head and beard, and suffered from terrible back pain. It is believed that he also suffered from hallucinations, he was killed by him. All these are symptoms of chronic syphilis. By the way, a large amount of mercury was found in the remains of his allegedly murdered son. It is believed that the son shared with his father many mistresses and, possibly, lovers and could also be infected.

The Happiest Syphilitic - Florence Jenkins Foster

Florence Foster went down in history as the worst opera singer. In her youth, she had a wonderful ear for music, but she married unsuccessfully and received syphilis from her husband. The disease was treated with mercury, which damaged his hearing, but apparently did not cure - Foster had no hair on his head, and his behavior began to be distinguished by extravagance.

Foster lost all critical thinking, so that her own singing - very, very far from the standards of the opera - seemed to her ideal, and she calmly performed with him, not embarrassed by laughter in the hall. In addition, for performances, she composed very unusual outfits, however, within the limits of general decency. As a result, Foster has always felt like a star and a trendsetter. She lived a long life and died, having managed to fulfill her dream - to give a big concert at Carnegie Hall.

I must say that Foster had his own circle of friends who treated her very respectfully, no matter what. The fact is that she sponsored aspiring musicians and composers who play and write academic music. The careers of many of them, albeit not the most famous ones, began with the Florence salon.

The story of two other famous syphilitics - Passions of Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine: from genius poetry to pistol shots.