In Maggie O’Farrell’s novel Hamnet , the “pestilence” is the bubonic plague.

Quick Scoop: What was the pestilence in Hamnet?

In the story, Hamnet’s twin sister Judith falls ill with what characters call the “pestilence,” which the book clearly frames as the bubonic plague sweeping across Europe in the late 16th century. The illness is shown arriving via trade routes and infected fleas, spreading silently through goods and ships before appearing in Stratford as a deadly outbreak. The novel follows classic plague imagery: sick children, desperate home remedies, and the ominous presence of a physician in beaked mask and dark cloak. A key plot turn is almost mystical: Hamnet, desperate to save Judith, seems to draw the illness from her into himself, and he is the one who ultimately dies of the plague. This fictionalized “pestilence” echoes the historical outbreaks that repeatedly struck Elizabethan England, even though we don’t know Hamnet Shakespeare’s real cause of death. TL;DR: In Hamnet , the “pestilence” is the bubonic plague, brought by fleas via trade and ships, which infects Judith first and then, in a fateful twist, kills Hamnet instead.