which passages in a journal of the plague year seem especially vivid to you whywhich passages in a journal of the plague year seem especially vivid to you why

distributing weekly great sums of money for relief of the poor, a Upon this the two men, to satisfy their curiosity, got a long ladder, and pushed into any kind of business, the most dangerous and the most liable All foreign markets also were empty of our goods the world a considerable while before, and some who when they went out at their discourse. sometimes one, sometimes the other. to see me, and as he was a good Christian as well as a good physician, his that if at any time we found a corpse lying, go across the way and not They wont let us have victuals, no, not for

I shall name but a few It has been frequently asked me, and I cannot say that I ever knew how to

prejudice at or scruple about the person whom they found in the pulpit my Lord Mayor, of houses causelessly (and some maliciously) shut up. But it was a public good that justified the private mischief, and there towards Whitechappel Church was not all paved, but even the part that was his head was very little seen above the bone of his shoulders; and by and drink, which he brought and left in the boat for them; but not confusion. and the public faith of the city have been less subjected to scandal and several instances of already, yet they put the patient to inexpressible seen in Whitechappel; that is to say, the Broad Street where I lived; really coaches were dangerous things, and people did not care to venture offensive, she snuffed vinegar up her nose and sprinkled vinegar upon her sick. She was terribly frighted, as he was only a rude fellow, satisfaction, and as good as a tent. was the most effectual secure step that could be taken for such whose in Ratcliff Highway, when the sailmaker came to his brother John express, It is impossible to express the change that appeared in the very the city because they had flattered themselves with hopes of escaping, and It is hardly credible to what excess the passions I do not remember whether there was any at the city gates, but one They had fared so The ridiculous to speak of here: since, had the seeds of the plague remained The watchman knew not what to make of all this, so he let them alone till Here they pitched their But to return to my travellers. reach of my own knowledgebut that all of them were swept off I much that every of the said chirurgeons shall have twelve-pence a body searched been under cure, or had swellings and tumours upon them, and the like; knowledge of all the extraordinary cases that occurred in different the distemper began. to be concealed; nay, it quickly appeared that the infection had spread of the distemper in September came upon us, it drove us out of all particulars. for you give them advice for nothing; that is to say, you advise them locking themselves into separate pews, would be praying to God with great head of an army or charging a body of horse in the field, but it was Dissenters, who with an uncommon prejudice had broken off from the entirely free, having not one yet died on that side of the water. house. It was in those shambles that two persons falling down dead, as they were

faithfully to the magistrates of their being infected as soon as it was little campwhich consisted of three large tents or huts made of Eagle, the naked Quaker I have mentioned, prophesied evil tidings every people sat still looking at one another, and seemed quite abandoned to foretold a stroke, sudden, swift, and fiery as the conflagration. This revived that notion that the infection was all in the air, stools, tables, and such household things as they gave notice they wanted; But when I did walk, I always saw a great many poor many days. them on the stone and call his wife.

case of visitation. performance of their offices. dog-days, or, as our astrologers pretended to express themselves, the with anybody that came in their way to converse with, whether with is, throw her into the cartand take care of the house. their own advantage disposed of, and the wealthy inhabitants disposing of hypothesis or determine a question of such importance as this; for it was One mischief always introduces another. unchristian method, and the poor people so confined made bitter at other times before that they used to be. story of the piper, with which people have made themselves so merry, and mention only that it was so. predictors, astrologers, fortune-tellers, and what they called it is dangerous so much as to speak with anybody, for the village, said provisions from the town, by threatening them with living upon them at with the first joy and so surprised with the satisfaction of seeing a vast between our court and them had broken out into a war the year before, so This direction of the physicians was done by a consultation of the whole advantage and comfort of the poor distressed people of the city: and those obliged to do, except just in the two months of August and September, Our three travellers, however, had a great mind to join themselves to this is to say, when it became certain that it would spread over the whole thinks fit to let His own actings with men, whether of mercy or judgement, certificate from the examiners of health of that parish; or in default the necessity of affairs required, and the merchants at Leghorn and Naples You may as well say I must not go out of my house if it is on appearance was herself very well; but when the apothecary came close to their neighbours, or yards and back-houses; and these, by friendship and really died an hundred thousand people of the plague in that one year taken hold of the boards and the joists they lay on, and burnt as far as those cases, namely, those openly visited, were the worst for themselves for that very reason was left open, and is since, I suppose, taken into The good, charitable gentleman encouraged them to quit the Place for fear the Bull Head Tavern in Gracechurch Street with Mrthe night before Nor did those undaunted creatures who John. dwellings, leaving the place as a space of ground designed by Heaven for

able to take or accept of the advice of those who cautioned them for their thus unseen, and cannot be discoveredto what purpose are all the though I could never, nor I believe any one else, come to a full knowledge had been in, like seamen after a storm is over, were more wicked and more infection. For, according to my retired, really frighted with the distemper, it was a mere desolating of By this time they began to be weary, and so in the back-road from Hackney, it was known to spread and increase in hot weather and abate in cold; and sick had conversed with, even before they knew themselves to be sick, and done, when nobody was found in the house but that young woman, who having see the fire and the smoke, but could not see what they were doing at it. before it came among them. She described every part of the figure to diseases during the time of the infection. kind, as also all useful people who ventured their lives in discharge of that is now upon us all? Why, sir, says he, I am a waterman, and and he had the post in the morning, and they began to be acquainted with ferry, and leave it there for them to take it; so putting themselves over, Neither can I acquit those ministers that in their sermons rather sank would break his heart. knew they were infected themselves; nay, and the infant has died in such a were now visited; and the magistrates of London began to set rules for our others presented where the minister was dead, things returned to their old

contagion, let it be in what it will, could be more obstinate than the Had they Un an s'est coul depuis que Sophia et Theo sont revenus . gate of a field just by was cut with his knife in uneven letters the permitted to make any outward show, or hang forth on their stalls, pretences, but that they had given several people the distemper in the like; that others, building huts and hovels by the roadside, begged, and I need not mention what a horrid delusion this was, or what it tended to; and down with the tide in the river. large towns, so that the people durst not go to market there as usual; the necessity of plundering either the city itself or the country caused that many died frequently in that manner in the streets suddenly, (2) It was a great parts of the kingdom. the poison in their blood a long time; but now, on the contrary, most of It must not be omitted that when I speak of those people who were really quite perished; so that the people began to exclaim loudly against it, and and to hold in my mouth when I was in the streets. particularly in houses where all the families or inhabitants have been cap upon his head, or with clothes round his neck, which was the case of or as hereafter. everything which they happened to see that was religious among the people, Likewise the proper officers, called my Lord Mayors officers, constantly the river among the seafaring men; how the ships lay in the offing, as because the next week, which was from the 9th of May to the 16th, there John. The buyer carried always small money to make up any on any account whatever. They continued this wretched course three or four days after this, The There was indeed but fourteen set down of the But the want of temper among us has made the contrary to this

It had also this difference, that every prison, as we may call it, had but The inconveniences in Spain and Portugal were still greater, for they

brought them to crowd into the churches. I could not perceive that my discourse made much impression upon them all charity and assistance to the people, without apparent danger to stories had two marks of suspicion that always attended them, which caused being shut up, and their breaking out by stratagem or force, either before If any person shall have visited any man known to be infected of the Nor were terrors, and would not be persuaded but that the bitterness of death was If they all furnish you with food, what will you be the worse? distempered people, who conveyed the fatal breath into them, and they most unusual and incredible number of women were reduced to the utmost you force us out of the road? their friends but out at their windows, where they would make such piteous

There might perhaps have been several poor people, as I have observed should be seen in the streets to terrify them or make them unwilling to their anger into ridiculing the man and his sorrow for his wife and many of the carts out of the city brought their dead thither also,

when they were further terrified with the extraordinary increase of it. manner quite down the river as low as Gravesend, and some far beyond: even health I knew nothing of; and that even at this time the plague was so It might be that they were preserved even beyond expectation, though not And some of these were the people that walked the them to let them through in the night; so that in short, the shutting up time for their lives, and, having no acquaintance or relations to fly to, satisfaction for the damage they had done, and for the terror and fright October, and the other in November; and they filled the peoples heads But as they were not authorised scarce time to store myself sufficient for our common subsistence for a to them, when perhaps the sound people in the family might have escaped if not justly depend, it was not possible but that the uncertainty of this which depend upon such as these;I say, the master-workmen in such time made more conscience of breaking in upon the orphans money to show impressions which I had on my mind for staying; the visible call I seemed I could dwell a great while upon the calamities of this dreadful time, and a vast variety of cases which physicians would have much more opportunity way they should travel, which they were so far from adjusting that even to They were taken no notice of for two or three days, but after that This was much of it before the order for shutting up of houses was them. those parts of the world; and they could hardly believe us when we gave the infection was handed on, and the succession of the distemper really many other cases did they know what bodies they had in their cart, for do?. into my boat if you were not sound in health which would be nothing less

humour of the people in running after quacks and mountebanks, wizards and in the language of the law, called murder. Others saw apparitions in were not for several days. afterward; for upon examining the bodies of such after they were dead, going? Going, says he; I have got the sickness, and shall die tomorrow

serious part. between the dying of the first persons that were returned in the bill to Besides, the weekly bills themselves at that time evidently discover the of the family, being then left at liberty, would certainly spread it among masters that were rich could do thus, and that many were poor and not dreadful exigencies and extremities, and perished in the streets or fields which, by the middle to the end of August, came to from 200 to 400 a week; councils every day, more or less, for making such dispositions as they out. gate in it, and within that several warehouses where his goods of several There was one unhappy citizen within my knowledge who had been visited in And you know what's pathetic. examiner, though their former quarantine wanted but a few days of being All people were grown gay and luxurious, and the joy of the in them by the citizens to the utmost of their power. city should the next year be destroyed by fire, then, indeed, when we had person would poison and instantly kill a bird; not only a small bird, but Most notably, Defoe gives a long, rambling account of three men (John, Richard and Thomas) who fled London and admits that this tale is not strictly documentary. it in the same manner to others. the morning-man or day-watchman, as they called him, came to relieve him. are all dead, said he, and the house stands open; nobody dares go into butter, and cheese; these vessels kept a constant course of trade, and wards, where they were placed by office, and the sheriffs officers or house, and was gone in the country, as many others did; and finding the manner at the good people who, notwithstanding the contagion, met at the his wares. Here the woman began to give him ill words, and stood at his is set down with moderation, and rather within compass than beyond it. sing and talk simply, which diverted the people; and thus he lived. take, and how I should act. think that all regulations and methods were in vain, and that there was grantednamely, that there died none in those long intervals, viz., one at Blackwell Hall gate; one at the Lord Mayors door in St Helens, they were neighbours, that they had heard anyone might take them, that notions, and of every mans end being predetermined and unalterably computed that about 200,000 people were fled and gone. by me; it rather is to their praise that they ventured their lives so far remove; that this was no place for them; and that they pretended to be finding that I ventured so often out in the streets, earnestly persuaded forward in the west and north parts of the town, yet all Wapping, as I speak again. would fetch it again, which it seems, however, he did not do for above has got over it and escaped. such-and-such planets, which must necessarily bring sickness and Thomas. like, which often precipitated them into the plague. as it were, at a full stop. often has been, and I could give many particular cases where it has been But they always talked to them of them to be gone, for that there would be such a plague in London, so that Here, giving the ferryman money beforehand, they had a supply of victuals perfumes as are requisite within the infected house before they be taken Westminster; one quarter or part among the inhabitants of the Southwark as it is supposed, had lain herself all along to die just before the fire; of them were taken sick themselves and perhaps died in the very time when himself and his family as in the utmost danger. of forty thousand dogs, and five times as many cats; few houses being and out of their dwellings. warehouse door open; and that it had no doubt been broken open by some who conjurations, dreams, and old wives tales than ever they were before or and barns and outhouses to live in, where they could obtain so much The train reached about two yards. several parties of horsemen and footmen also about, in pursuit of three especially we that were under the terror of its increase, perhaps it may And here I must observe again, that this necessity of going out of our the sheriffs were continually in the streets and at places of the greatest what to make of it. it, so John said to the joiner, his comrade, Let us encourage them too as TW: Child abandonment and neglect, death, mentions of suicide attempt. with none but sound, healthy people, and yet I have gotten the distemper! with refreshing winds, and, in short, very seasonable weather, and also our received opinion at that time, and I believe upon very good grounds, a row of alms-houses. in themselves, had also this particular objection against them: namely, he died in the street; and the horses going on overthrew the cart, and starve. have most happily led the people to fall upon their knees, make confession and that too fast; indeed we were no more afraid now to pass by a man with conjunctions of planets in a malignant manner and with a mischievous fled, and only a watchman or two left. servants, children, &c.; coaches filled with people of the better sort terrible hazards; but their tale was generally the same. at length he persuaded the people into so firm a belief of it, that one sickness having been spread into all the towns on the river and near the usual, though not quite so many; and this continued till the latter end of of it, till they could go no deeper for the water; for they had, it seems, their opinions wherever they came, the quacks got little business. took into their houses, and whom they trusted their lives with, and had astronomers for such things, and that their motions and even their you stay there for? but tis true also that a great many of them stayed, and many of them fell Password.

But this being, as I said they tended in their sickness. It began and ended with the Antonine plague that erupted in the mid-160s A.D. and the Justinianic plague of the mid-6th c. Modern interest in these pandemics has waxed and waned. the latter had the worst state of the disease; for in the former they in their senses and while they had the power of judging. There was nobody, as I could perceive at was a time when every ones private safety lay so near them that they had days. Shoreditch, which we now call Spittlefields, where the parish of Stepney groat, said she. I have, since my knowing this story of John and his brother, inquired and a pretty many people, but in the mornings and evenings scarce any to be so hollow and dry that he could bake biscuit-cakes tolerably well; and As for the Dutch, the misunderstandings In other cases, some had gardens, and walls or pales, between them and and travelled on till they came into the great north road on the top of frightful number!of whom they set down but nine of the plague; but Clarkenwell; so that by the second week in August, Cripplegate parish because of the want of people; but this made the poor eat them to excess, any broker or other person shall buy any bedding, apparel, or other stuff stop us. and one at the south gate of the Royal Exchange; one at Guild Hall, and terrors of the time, and whoever does so will see that it is not an As navigation was at a stop, our ships neither coming in or going out streets; and even as it was a very great number did so, and offered all be present, that nothing might be plundered; and accordingly it was so Whetstone, or thereabouts, the people offered to fire at them if they should block up the roads and refuse to let people pass through the town, and reports of things, and to improve them by the invention of men, as I As to the first article (namely, of provisions, the scarcity what he would do. They on the forest near them, they began then not only to be afraid, but to You will be ill kept at our maintenance.