Life has changed quickly since COVID-19 broke out worldwide. Many people have to stay at home, bored and lonely. But if we look at history, there are many people who produced their best work when they were alone.
| In 1606, when a viral epidemic (病毒性流行病) hit London, all of the theaters in the city were forced to close. At that time, English writer William Shakespeare worked as an actor at The King's Men theater. After finding himself without a job, but much free time, Shakespeare started writing. He wrote King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra before the year was over. |
| In 1665, when English physicist Isaac Newton was in his early 20s, a viral epidemic hit the country. Classes at Cambridge University were canceled, so Newton went back to his home( During that time, the young man wrote the papers that would become early calculus (微积分). |
| Edvard Munch, painter-of The Scream, didn't just see the Spanish Flu change the world around him-he was infected (感染) himself in 1919 while living in Norway. But Munch continued making great art. As soon as he felt better, he began keeping records of his experience. Self-portrait (自画像) with the Spanish Flu shows him sitting in front of his sickbed with a tired face. |
