History of the Plague in London
Page 51
of it.
If I should say that this is a visible summons to us all tothankfulness, especially we that were under the terror of its increase,perhaps it may be thought by some, after the sense of the thing wasover, an officious canting of religious things, preaching a sermoninstead of writing a history, making myself a teacher instead of givingmy observations of things (and this restrains me very much from going onhere, as I might otherwise do); but if ten lepers were healed, and butone returned to give thanks, I desire to be as that one, and to bethankful for myself.
Nor will I deny but there were abundance of people who, to allappearance, were very thankful at that time: for their mouths werestopped, even the mouths of those whose hearts were not extraordinarilylong affected with it; but the impression was so strong at that time,that it could not be resisted, no, not by the worst of the people.
It was a common thing to meet people in the street that were strangers,and that we knew nothing at all of, expressing their surprise. Going oneday through Aldgate, and a pretty many people being passing andrepassing, there comes a man out of the end of the Minories; and,looking a little up the street and down, he throws his hands abroad:"Lord, what an alteration is here! Why, last week I came along here, andhardly anybody was to be seen." Another man (I heard him) adds to hiswords, "'Tis all wonderful; 'tis all a dream."--"Blessed be God!" says athird man; "and let us give thanks to him, for 'tis all his own doing."Human help and human skill were at an end. These were all strangers toone another, but such salutations as these were frequent in the streetevery day; and, in spite of a loose behavior, the very common peoplewent along the streets, giving God thanks for their deliverance.
It was now, as I said before, the people had cast off all apprehensions,and that too fast. Indeed, we were no more afraid now to pass by a manwith a white cap upon his head, or with a cloth wrapped round his neck,or with his leg limping, occasioned by the sores in his groin,--allwhich were frightful to the last degree but the week before. But now thestreet was full of them, and these poor recovering creatures, give themtheir due, appeared very sensible of their unexpected deliverance, and Ishould wrong them very much if I should not acknowledge that I believemany of them were really thankful; but I must own that for thegenerality of the people it might too justly be said of them, as wassaid of the children of Israel after their being delivered from the hostof Pharaoh, when they passed the Red Sea, and looked back and saw theEgyptians overwhelmed in the water, viz., "that they sang his praise,but they soon forgot his works."[352]
I can go no further here. I should be counted censorious, and perhapsunjust, if I should enter into the unpleasing work of reflecting,whatever cause there was for it, upon the unthankfulness and return ofall manner of wickedness among us, which I was so much an eyewitness ofmyself. I shall conclude the account of this calamitous year, therefore,with a coarse but a sincere stanza of my own, which I placed at the endof my ordinary memorandums the same year they were written:--
A dreadful plague in London was, In the year sixty-five, Which swept an hundred thousand souls Away, yet I alive.
H.F.[353]
FOOTNOTES:
[4] It was popularly believed in London that the plague came fromHolland; but the sanitary (or rather unsanitary) conditions of Londonitself were quite sufficient to account for the plague's originatingthere. Andrew D. White tells us, that it is difficult to decide to-daybetween Constantinople and New York as candidates for the distinction ofbeing the dirtiest city in the world.
[5] Incorrectly used for "councils."
[6] In April, 1663, the first Drury Lane Theater had been opened. Thepresent Drury Lane Theater (the fourth) stands on the same site.
[7] The King's ministers. At this time they held office during thepleasure of the Crown, not, as now, during the pleasure of aparliamentary majority.
[8] Gangrene spots (see text, pp. 197, 198).
[9] The local government of London at this time was chiefly in the handsof the vestries of the different parishes. It is only of recent yearsthat the power of these vestries has been seriously curtailed, andtransferred to district councils.
[10] The report.
[11] Pronounced H[=o]'burn. {Transcriber's note: [=o] indicates o-macron}
[12] Was.
[13] Were.
[14] Outlying districts; so called because they enjoyed certainmunicipal immunities, or liberties. Until recent years, a portion ofPhiladelphia was known as the "Northern Liberties."
[15] Attempts to believe the evil lessened.
[16] Was.
[17] Were.
[18] The chief executive officer of the city of London still bears thistitle.
[19] One of the many instances in which Defoe mixes his tenses.
[20] Whom. We shall find many more instances of Defoe's misuse of thisform, as also of others (see Introduction, p. 15).
[21] Used almost in its original sense of a military barrier.
[22] Whom.
[23] See Matt, xxvii. 40; Mark xv. 30; Luke xxiii. 35.
[24] Denial.
[25] The civil war between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians,1642-51.
[26] Whom.
[27] This argument is neatly introduced to account for the narrator'sstaying in the city at all, when he could easily have escaped.
[28] Explained by the two following phrases.
[29] Whom.
[30] "Lay close to me," i.e., was constantly in my mind.
[31] Kept safe from the plague.
[32] "My times are in thy hand" (Ps. xxxi. 15).
[33] Dorking is about twenty miles southwest of London.
[34] Rather St. Martin's-in-the-Fields and St. Giles's.
[35] Was.
[36] Charles II. and his courtiers. The immunity of Oxford was doubtlessdue to good drainage and general cleanliness.
[37] Eccl. xii. 5.
[38] Have seen.
[39] Nor. This misuse of "or" for "nor" is frequent with Defoe.
[40] The four inns of court in London which have the exclusive right ofcalling to the bar, are the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, Lincoln'sInn, and Gray's Inn. The Temple is so called because it was once thehome of the Knights Templars.
[41] The city proper, i.e., the part within the walls, as distinguishedfrom that without.
[42] Were.
[43] The population of London at this time was probably about half amillion. It is now about six millions. (See Macaulay's History, chap.iii.)
[44] Acel'dama, the field of blood (see Matt. xxvii. 8).
[45] Phlegmatic hypochondriac is a contradiction in terms; for"phlegmatic" means "impassive, self-restrained," while "hypochondriac"means "morbidly anxious" (about one's health). Defoe's lack ofscholarship was a common jest among his more learned adversaries, suchas Swift, and Pope.
[46] It was in this very plague year that Newton formulated his theoryof gravitation. Incredible as it may seem, at this same date even suchmen as Dryden held to a belief in astrology.
[47] William Lilly was the most famous astrologer and almanac maker ofthe time. In Butler's Hudibras he is satirized under the name ofSidrophel.
[48] Poor Robin's Almanack was first published in 1661 or 1662, and wasascribed to Robert Herrick, the poet.
[49] See Rev. xviii. 4.
[50] Jonah iii. 4.
[51] Flavius Josephus, the author of the History of the Jewish Wars. Heis supposed to have died in the last decade of the first century A.D.
[52] So called because many Frenchmen lived there. In Westminster therewas another district with this same name.
[53] "Gave them vapors," i.e., put them into a state of nervousexcitement.
[54] Soothsayers.
[55] In astrology, the scheme or figure of the heavens at the moment ofa person's birth. From this the astrologers pretended to foretell aman's destiny.
[56] Roger Bacon, a Franciscan friar of the thirteenth century, had aknowledge of mechanics and optics far in advance of his age: hence hewas commonly r
egarded as a wizard. The brazen head which he manufacturedwas supposed to assist him in his necromantic feats; it is so introducedby Greene in his play of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (1594).
[57] A fortune teller who lived in the reign of Henry VIII., and wasfamous for her prophecies.
[58] The most celebrated magician of mediaeval times (see Spenser'sFaerie Queene and Tennyson's Merlin and Vivien).
[59] Linen collar or ruff.
[60] Him.
[61] The interlude was originally a short, humorous play acted in themidst of a morality play to relieve the tedium of that very tediousperformance. From the interlude was developed farce; and from farce,comedy.
[62] Charles II. and his courtiers, from their long exile in France,brought back to England with them French fashions in literature and inart.
[63] To be acted.
[64] Buffoons, clowns.
[65] About 621/2 cents.
[66] About twenty-five dollars; but the purchasing power of money wasthen seven or eight times what