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Quarantine and self-isolation need not be monotonous and stifling. They can be the gateway to work, either in the arts or in the sciences, which define the history of the world.
Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, John Milton, and Lord Byron used that time to add to their formidable body of work in science and literature. It was not called a block in its time, but long periods of time passed in isolation, when medicine was not as developed as it is now.
The University of Cambridge, where the four studied, delved into their archives to collate their activities during such periods of isolation centuries ago. She has also asked her students to submit accounts of how they are spending time locked up during the coronavirus pandemic.
Isaac Newton (Trinity College) – Considered Trinity’s most successful student, he exemplified productivity during a pandemic. Like many in Cambridge during the Great Plague of 1665-56, he retired to the country to escape the disease-ridden city and spent two long periods at his family’s home, Woolsthorpe Manor, in rural Lincolnshire.
Newton thrived in isolation, then described it as one of the most productive moments of his life, finding space to reflect and develop his theories on optics, calculus, and the laws of motion and gravity. It was during this time that he performed his famous prism experiment.
“Probably to his parents’ chagrin, he made a hole through the shutters of his windows to produce a single, thin ray of light that passes through two prisms, demonstrating for the first time that the prisms did not create colors, but simply separated colors. they were already there, “wrote university researcher Alisha Matthewson-Grand.
“In fact, Newton was so intellectually transformed by his period of isolation that later commentators have referred to his time outside Cambridge as his annus mirabilis, or his” year of wonders. “
Charles Darwin (Christ’s College): Darwin’s experience with isolation was not the result of a pandemic but his own chronic illness. He suffered from a myriad of unexplained symptoms, including vertigo, vomiting, cramps, fatigue, anxiety, and visual disturbances.
He noted in his 1876 autobiography that “few people can have lived a more withdrawn life than we do [Darwin and his wife Emma] Have done. In addition to brief visits to the relationship houses, and occasionally to the beach or elsewhere, we have not gone anywhere. “
Darwin believed that periods of isolation and ill health helped his career. At home, she was free from the demands of other scientists (teaching, administrative work) and therefore could devote herself entirely to research; He wrote: “Poor health, although it has wiped out several years of my life, has saved me from the distractions of society and fun.”
Lord Byron (Trinity College): In 1811, Lord Byron was forced to quarantine Malta after returning from cholera-ravaged Greece. He was furious at the prospect of spending 40 days locked up, a move he considered draconian and unnecessary.
While confined, he wrote “Farewell to Malta”, a satirical poem that attacks the island for (among other things) its “smoky cities and cloudy sky” and its “cursed stairway street.” He makes explicit reference to his quarantine in the first verse “Goodbye, damn the quarantine / That gave me fever and spleen!”.
John Milton (Christ’s College): The author of “Paradise Lost” and “Aeropagitica” spent time away from Cambridge as a freshman in 1626, when the city was hit by the bubonic plague. He was in London when he wrote Elegia Prima, his first Latin elegy. The work is an early example of his aptitude for verse composition, as well as his impressive comedy talent.
A letter in verse form, the elegy was written for his closest friend, Charles Diodati, and recounts how Milton was enjoying his unexpected period away from Cambridge, while also anticipating his return to “Cam fans” and “the loud school buzz. “
