Some sort of STD which she'd picked up from one of her lovers. Sweeney referred in a not altogether serious manner to the French Pox (i.e. syphilis) before he realised she was ill, but the symptons suggest that it was indeed the Pox she had contracted. Very common in the 18th century.
shareYes, she was covered in sores and rashes.
shareI missed that bit too. The pox has been used to refer to syphilis, that seems most likely but there are other pox as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pox
I think it´s syphilis, the rashes and all...are pox STD??
shareNot all "pox" are sexually transmitted -- for example, chicken pox and smallpox are not. But Mrs. Lovett's illness, syphilis or the French pox (which the French call "the English disease"), is a very contagious, very serious STD. It is easily curable today with antibiotics, but it leads to dementia and death if untreated.
share[deleted]
Mrs. Lovett caught the illness because she unknowingly had eaten the flesh of a costumer who had it. It had nothing to do with her sleeping around with her male costumers...At least i don't think it did...
shareI think it did... I was distracted during that part, but it seems to me that this guy, like the others, had been sent by Mrs Lovett to Sweeney, and she had slept with him.
Then he killed him and as he was about to butcher the body he saw the marks on his body.
I don't think she ate the meat.
You're right. After watching this last night. During the sex scene with the sailor you can see spots of his back.
shareA pox? How delightful, a pox!
"I've been living on toxic waste for years, and I'm fine. Just ask my other heads!"