History of the Plague in London

by Daniel Defoe

it is now.

  [67] Strictly speaking, this word means "love potions."

  [68] Exorcism is the act of expelling evil spirits, or the formula usedin the act. Defoe's use of the word here is careless and inaccurate.

  [69] Bits of metal, parchment, etc., worn as charms.

  [70] Making the sign of the cross.

  [71] Paper on which were marked the signs of the zodiac,--a superstitionfrom astrology.

  [72] A meaningless word used in incantations. Originally the name of aSyrian deity.

  [73] Iesus Hominum Salvator ("Jesus, Savior of Men"). The order of theJesuits was founded by Ignatius de Loyola in 1534.

  [74] The Feast of St. Michael, Sept. 29.

  [75] This use of "to" for "of" is frequent with Defoe.

  [76] The Royal College of Physicians was founded by Thomas Linacre,physician to Henry VIII. Nearly every London physician of prominence isa member.

  [77] The city of London proper lies entirely in the county of Middlesex.

  [78] Literally, "hand workers;" now contracted into "surgeons."

  [79] Cares, duties.

  [80] Consenting knowledge.

  [81] Disposed of to the public, put in circulation.

  [82] That is, by the disease.

  [83] Happen.

  [84] Engaged.

  [85] Heaps of rubbish.

  [86] A kind of parish constable.

  [87] The writer seems to mean that the beggars are so importunate, thereis no avoiding them.

  [88] Fights between dogs and bears. This was not declared a criminaloffense in England until 1835.

  [89] Contests with sword and shield.

  [90] The guilds or organizations of tradesmen, such as the goldsmiths,the fishmongers, the merchant tailors.

  [91] St. Katherine's by the Tower.

  [92] Trinity (east of the) Minories. The Minories (a street runningnorth from the Tower) was so designated from an abbey of St. Clare nunscalled Minoresses. They took their name from that of the FranciscanOrder, Fratres Minores, or Lesser Brethren.

  [93] St. Luke's.

  [94] St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate.

  [95] St. Giles's, Cripplegate.

  [96] Were.

  [97] Chemise.

  [98] This word is misplaced; it should go before "perish."

  [99] Before "having," supply "the master."

  [100] Fences.

  [101] From.

  [102] This old form for "caught" is used frequently by Defoe.

  [103] Came to grief.

  [104] "Who, being," etc., i.e., who, although single men, had yet staid.

  [105] The wars of the Commonwealth or of the Puritan Revolution,1640-52.

  [106] Holland and Belgium.

  [107] "Hurt of," a common form of expression used in Defoe's time.

  [108] Manager, economist. This meaning of "husband" is obsolete.

  [109] A participial form of expression very common in Old English, the"a" being a corruption of "in" or "on."

  [110] Were.

  [111] "'Name of God," i.e., in the name of God.

  [112] Torches.

  [113] "To and again," i.e., to and fro.

  [114] Were.

  [115] As if.

  [116] Magpie.

  [117] This word is from the same root as "lamp." The old form "lanthorn"crept in from the custom of making the sides of a lantern of horn.

  [118] Supply "be."

  [119] Inclination.

  [120] In expectation of the time when.

  [121] Their being checked.

  [122] This paragraph could hardly have been more clumsily expressed. Itwill be found a useful exercise to rewrite it.

  [123] "To have gone," i.e., to go.

  [124] Spotted.

  [125] "Make shift," i.e., endure it.

  [126] Device, expedient.

  [127] "In all" is evidently a repetition.

  [128] Objects cannot very well happen. Defoe must mean, "the many dismalsights I saw as I went about the streets."

  [129] As.

  [130] "Rosin" is a long-established misspelling for "resin." Resinexudes from pine trees, and from it the oil of turpentine is separatedby distillation.

  [131] As distinguished from fish meat.

  [132] Defoe uses these pronouns in the wrong number, as in numerousother instances.

  [133] The projecting part of a building.

  [134] Their miraculous preservation was wrought by their keeping in thefresh air of the open fields. It seems curious that after this objectlesson the physicians persisted in their absurd policy of shutting upinfected houses, thus practically condemning to death their inmates.

  [135] Used here for "this," as also in many other places.

  [136] Supply "with."

  [137] Such touches as this created a widespread and long-enduring beliefthat Defoe's fictitious diary was an authentic history.

  [138] "Running out," etc., i.e., losing their self-control.

  [139] Idiocy. In modern English, "idiotism" is the same as "idiom."

  [140] Gangrene, death of the soft tissues.

  [141] Before "that" supply "we have been told."

  [142] Hanging was at this time a common punishment for theft. In hisnovel Moll Flanders, Defoe has a vivid picture of the mental andphysical sufferings of a woman who was sent to Newgate, and condemned todeath, for stealing two pieces of silk.

  [143] Cloth, rag.

  [144] They could no longer give them regular funerals, but had to burythem promiscuously in pits.

  [145] Evidently a repetition.

  [146] In old and middle English two negatives did not make anaffirmative, as they do in modern English.

  [147] It is now well known that rue has no qualities that are useful forwarding off contagion.

  [148] "Set up," i.e., began to play upon.

  [149] Constrained.

  [150] Because they would have been refused admission to other ports.

  [151] Matter. So used by Sheridan in The Rivals, act iii. sc. 2.

  [152] Probably a misprint for "greatly."

  [153] This.

  [154] Are.

  [155] He has really given two days more than two months.

  [156] A count.

  [157] Range, limits.

  [158] Unknown.

  [159] Lying.

  [160] Was.

  [161] Notice this skillful touch to give verisimilitude to thenarrative.

  [162] Country.

  [163] "Without the bars," i.e., outside the old city limits.

  [164] Profession.

  [165] The plague.

  [166] The legal meaning of "hamlet" in England is a village without achurch of its own: ecclesiastically, therefore, it belongs to the parishof some other village.

  [167] All Protestant sects other than the Established Church of England.

  [168] A groat equals fourpence, about eight cents. It is not coined now.

  [169] A farthing equals one quarter of a penny.

  [170] About ten miles down the Thames.

  [171] The _t_ is silent in this word.

  [172] Hard-tack, pilot bread.

  [173] Old form for "rode."

  [174] See the last sentence of the next paragraph but one.

  [175] Roadstead, an anchoring ground less sheltered than a harbor.

  [176] Substitute "that they would not be visited."

  [177] The plague.

  [178] St. Margaret's.

  [179] _Nota bene_, note well.

  [180] Dul'ich. All these places are southward from London. Norwood issix miles distant.

  [181] Old form of "dared."

  [182] Small vessels, generally schooner-rigged, used for carrying heavyfreight on rivers and harbors.

  [183] London Bridge.

  [184] This incident is so overdone, that it fails to be pathetic, andrather excites our laughter.

  [185] Supply "themselves."

  [186] Barnet was about eleven miles north-northwest of London.

  [187] Holland and Bel
gium.

  [188] See Luke xvii. 11-19.

  [189] Well.

  [190] With speed, in haste.

  [191] This word is misplaced. It should go immediately before "tolodge."

  [192] Luck.

  [193] Whom.

  [194] A small sail set high upon the mast.

  [195] "Fetched a long compass," i.e., went by a circuitous route.

  [196] The officers.

  [197] Refused.

  [198] Nearly twenty miles northeast of London.

  [199] He. This pleonastic use of a conjunction with the relative iscommon among illiterate writers and speakers to-day.

  [200] Waltham and Epping, towns two or three miles apart, at a distanceof ten or twelve miles almost directly north of London.

  [201] Pollard trees are trees cut back nearly to the trunk, and socaused to grow into a thick head (_poll_) of branches.

  [202] Entertainment. In this sense, the plural, "quarters," is thecommoner form.

  [203] Preparing.

  [204] Peddlers.

  [205] "Has been," an atrocious solecism for "were."

  [206] To a miraculous extent.

  [207] "Put to