Ashes Ashes we all fall down
Should be
Ashen Ashen we all fall down...
as in, ash-colored or anemic looking from illness or emotion; "a face turned ashen"; "the invalid's blanched cheeks"; "tried to speak with bloodless lips"; "a face livid with shock"; "lips...livid with the hue of death"-
However, it's a common mistake, a ring around the rosey cheeks was one of the first symptoms and the pocket full of poseys were an attempted herbal cure and hoped to ward off the worse....
Why do I feel like cliff claven now?
Actually I believe that the doctors sprinkled rose petals on the sick victims to 'cure them
The nursery rhyme "Ring Around the Rosey" is a rhyme about the plague.
Infected people with the plague would get red circular sores ("Ring
around the rosey"), these sores would smell very badly so common folks
would put flowers on their bodies somewhere (inconspicuously), so that
it would cover the smell of the sores ("a pocket full of posies").
Furthermore, people who died from the plague would be burned so as to
reduce the possible spread of the disease ("ashes, ashes, we all fall
down").