At Day's Close

by A. Roger Ekirch

  Europe at Night, W. Sullivan, n.d.

  In John Dryden’s comedy Amphitryon (1690), the ancient deity Mercury demands of Night, “What art thou good for . . . but only for love and fornication?” In view of our present trajectory of technological change, we might well pose the same question today. Increasingly, rather than render nighttime more accessible, we are instead risking its gradual elimination. Already, the heavens, our age-old source of awe and wonder, have been obscured by the glare of outdoor lighting. Only in remote spots can one still glimpse the grandeur of the Milky Way. Entire constellations have disappeared from sight, replaced by a blank sky. Conversely, the fanciful world of our dreams has grown more distant with the loss of segmented sleep and, with it, a better understanding of our inner selves. Certainly, it is not difficult to imagine a time when night, for all practical purposes, will have become day—truly a twenty-four/seven society in which traditional phases of time, from morning to midnight, have lost their original identities.31 The Russian government has even attempted to launch an experimental “space mirror” designed to transform night into twilight in selected locations with the aid of reflected light from the sun.32

  The residual beauty of the night sky, alternating cycles of darkness and light, and regular respites from the daily round of sights and sounds—all will be impaired by enhanced illumination. Ecological systems, with their own patterns of nocturnal life, will suffer immeasurably. With darkness diminished, opportunities for privacy, intimacy, and self-reflection will grow more scarce. Should that luminous day arrive, we stand to lose a vital element of our humanity—one as precious as it is timeless. That, in the depths of a dark night, should be a bracing prospect for any spent soul to contemplate.

  NOTES

  (A fuller set of citations may be found at www.wwnorton.com.)

  ABBREVIATIONS

  Add. Mss.——Additional Manuscripts, British Library, London

  AHR——American Historical Review

  Assi 45——Northern Assize Circuit Depositions, Public Record Office, London

  Bargellini, “Vita Notturna”——Piero Bargellini, “La Vita Notturna,” in Vita Privata a Firenze nei Secoli XIV e XV (Florence, 1966), 75–89

  BC——British Chronicle (London)

  Beattie, Crime——J. M. Beattie, Crime and the Courts in England, 1600–1800 (Princeton, N.J., 1986)

  Beck, Diary——David Beck, Spiegel van Mijn Leven; een Haags Daboek uit 1624, ed. Sv. E. Veldhijsen (Hilversum, 1993)

  Best, Books——Donald Woodward, ed., The Farming and Memorandum Books of Henry Best of Elmswell, 1642 (London, 1984)

  BL——British Library, London

  Bodl.——Bodleian Library, Oxford

  Bourne, Antiquitates Vulgares——Henry Bourne, Antiquitates Vulgares; or, the Antiquities of the Common People ...(Newcastle, Eng., 1725)

  Bräker, Life——Ulrich Bräker, The Life Story and Real Adventures of the Poor Man of Toggenburg, trans. Derek Bowman (Edinburgh, 1970)

  Brand 1777——John Brand, Observations on Popular Antiquities ... (New Castle upon Tyne, 1777)

  Brand 1848——John Brand et al., Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain . . . , 3 vols. (London, 1848)

  Breton, Works——Alexander B. Grosart, ed., The Works in Verse and Prose of Nicholas Breton . . . , 2 vols. (1879; rpt. edn., New York, 1966)

  Burke, Popular ——Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (London, 1978)Culture

  Burt, Letters——Edward Burt, Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland to His Friend in London . . . , 2 vols. (London, 1754)

  Cannon, Diary——Memoirs of the Birth, Education, Life, and Death of Mr. John Cannon, 1684–1742, Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, Taunton, England

  Carter, Diary——Jack P. Greene, ed., The Diary of Colonel Landon Carter of Sabine Hall, 1752–1778, 2 vols. (Charlottesville, Va., 1965)

  Clegg, Diary——Vanessa S. Doe, ed., The Diary of James Clegg of Chapel en le Frith, 1708–1755, 2 vols. (Matlock, Eng., 1978)

  Cohens, Italy——Elizabeth Storr Cohen and Thomas V. Cohen, Daily Life in Renaissance Italy (Westport, Ct., 2001)

  Cole, Diary——Francis Griffin Stokes, ed., The Blecheley Diary of the Rev. William Cole ... 1765–67 (London, 1931)

  Cowper, Diary——Diary of Dame Sarah Cowper, Hertfordshire County Record Office, Hertford, England

  Crusius, Nocte—Jacobus Andreas Crusius, De Nocte et Nocturnis Officiis, Tam Sacris, Quam Prophanis, Lucubrationes Historico-Philologico-Juridicae (Bremen, 1660)

  Defoe, Tour——Daniel Defoe, A Tour thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britian . . . , 2 vols. (1724–1726; rpt. edn., London, 1968)

  Dekker, Writings——Thomas Dekker, The Wonderful Year [Etc] and Selected Writings, ed. E. D. Pendry (Cambridge, Mass., 1968)

  Dietz, Surgeon——Master Johann Dietz, Surgeon in the Army of the Great Elector and Barber to the Royal Court: From the Old Manuscripts in the Royal Library in Berlin, trans. B. Miall (London, 1923)

  Drinker, Diary——Elaine Forman Crane et al., eds., The Diary of Elizabeth Drinker, 3 vols. (Boston, 1991)

  DUR——Daily Universal Register (London)

  Dyer, Diary——Diary of William Dyer, 2 vols., Bristol Central Library, Bristol

  East Anglian Diaries——Matthew Storey, ed., Two East Anglian Diaries, 1641–1729: Isaac Archer and William Coe (Woodbridge, Eng., 1994)

  ECR——George Francis Dow, ed., Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, 8 vols. (Salem, Mass., 1911–1921)

  Evelyn, Diary——Esmond Samuel De Beer, ed., The Diary of John Evelyn, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1951)

  F. Platter, Journal——Seán Jennett, ed. and trans., Beloved Son Felix: The Journal of Felix Platter, a Medical Student in Montpellier in the Sixteenth Century (London, 1962)

  Falkus, “Lighting”——Malcolm Falkus, “Lighting in the Dark Ages of English Economic History: Town Streets before the Industrial Revolution,” in D. C. Coleman and A. H. John, eds., Trade, Government, and Economy in Pre-Industrial England: Essays Presented to F. J. Fisher (London, 1976), 248–273

  Flaherty, Privacy——David H. Flaherty, Privacy in Colonial New England (Charlottesville, Va., 1972)

  FLEMT——David I. Kertzer and Marzio Barbagli, eds., Family Life in Early Modern Times, Vol. 1 of The History of the European Family (New Haven, 2001)

  G and LDA——Gazetteer and London Daily Advertiser

  G and NDA——Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (London)

  Garnert, Lampan——an Garnert, Anden i Lampan: Etnologiska Perspektiv på ljus Och Mörker (Stockholm, 1993)

  GM——Gentleman’s Magazine (London)

  Griffiths, Youth——Paul Griffiths, Youth and Authority: Formative Experiences in England, 1560–1640 (Oxford, 1987)

  Grose, Dictionary——Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (London, 1785)

  Harrison, Description——William Harrison, The Description of England, ed. Georges Edelen (Ithaca, N.Y., 1968)

  Heywood, Diaries——J. Horsfull Turner, ed., The Rev. Oliver Heywood, B.A., 1630–1702; His Autobiography, Diaries, Anecdote and Event Books . . . , 4 vols. (Brighouse, Eng., 1882)

  HMM and GA——Harrop’s Manchester Mercury and General Advertiser

  HPL II——Georges Duby, ed., Revelations of the Medieval World, trans. Arthur Goldhammer, Vol. 2 of Philippe Ariès and George Duby, eds., History of Private Life (Cambridge, Mass., 1988)

  HPL III——Roger Chartier, ed., Passions of the Renaissance, trans. Arthur Goldhammer, Vol. 3 of Philippe Ariès and Georges Duby, eds., History of Private Life (Cambridge, Mass., 1989)

  HWW III——Natalie Zemon Davis and Arlette Farge, eds., Renaissance and Englightened Paradoxes, Vol. 3 of Georges Duby and Michelle Perrot
, eds., A History of Women in the West (Cambridge, Mass., 1993)

  Isham, Diary——Norman Marlow, ed., The Diary of Thomas Isham of Lamport (1658–81) ... (Farnborough, Eng., 1971)

  Janekovick-Römer, “Dubrovniks”Zdenka Janekovick-Römer, “‘Post Tertiam Campanam’: Das Nachtleben Dubrovniks im Mittelalter,” Historische Anthropologie 3 (1995), 100–111

  JIH——Journal of Interdisciplinary History

  Josselin, Diary——Alan Macfarlane, ed., The Diary of Ralph Josselin (London, 1976)

  JRAI——John Cameron and John Imrie, eds., The Justiciary Records of Argyll and the Isles, 1664–1742, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1949, 1969)

  JSH——Journal of Social History

  JUH——Journal of Urban History

  Jütte, Poverty——Robert Jütte, Poverty and Deviance in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 1994)

  Kay, Diary——W. Brockbank and F. Kenworthy, eds., The Diary of Richard Kay, 1716–51 of Baldingstone, Neary Bury: A Lancashire Doctor (Manchester, 1968)

  Koslofsky, “Court Culture”——Craig Koslofsky, “Court Culture and Street Lighting in Seventeenth-Century Europe,” Journal of Urban History 28 (2002), 743–768

  Lavater, Spirites——Lewes Lavater, Of Ghostes and Spirites Walking by Nyght, 1572, ed. John Wilson Dover and May Yardley (1572; rpt. ed., Oxford, 1929)

  LC——London Chronicle

  LDA——London Daily Advertiser

  Lean, Collectanea——Vincent Stuckey Lean, Lean’s Collectanea ... , 4 vols. (Bristol, 1902–1904)

  Legg, Low-Life——Thomas Legg, Low-life or One Half of the World, Knows not How the Other Half Live ... (London, 1750)

  Le Loyer, SpectersPierre Le Loyer, A Treatise of Specters of Straunge Sights, Visions, and Apparitions ... (London, 1605)

  LEP——Lloyd’s Evening Post (London)

  LE-P——London Evening-Post

  Lewis, Diary——Diary of John Lewis, 1718–1760, Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS. Eng. misc. f. 10

  LM——Leeds Mercury

  Lottin, Chavatte——Alain Lottin, Chavatte, Ouvrier Lillois: Un Contemporain de Louis XIV (Paris, 1979)

  Lowe, Diary——W. L. Sachse, ed., The Diary of Roger Lowe (New Haven, 1938)

  Matthiessen, Natten——Hugo Matthiessen, Natten: Stuier I Gammelt Byliv ([Copenhagen], 1914)

  Ménétra, Journal——Jacques-Louis Ménétra, Journal of My Life, ed. Daniel Roche, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (New York, 1986)

  Moryson, Itinerary——Fynes Moryson, An Itinerary Containing His Ten Yeeres Travell . . . , 4 vols. (Glasgow, 1907)

  Moryson, Unpublished Itinerary——Charles Hughes, ed., Shakespeare’s Europe: A Survey of the Condition of Europe at the End of the 16th Century, being Unpublished Chapters of Fynes Moryson’s Itinerary (1617) . . . (New York, 1967)

  Muchembled, Violence——Robert Muchembled, La Violence au Village: Sociabilitié et Comportements Populaires en Artois du XVe au XVIIe Siècle (Turnhout, France, 1989)

  Nashe, Works——Ronald B. McKerrow, ed., The Works of Thomas Nashe, 5 vols. (Oxford, 1958)

  NHCR I——Charles J. Hoadly, ed., Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven, 1638–1649 (Hartford, Ct., 1857)

  NHCR II——Charles J. Hoadley, ed., Records of the Colony or Jurisdiction of New Haven, 1653 to the Union (1663) (Hartford, Ct., 1858)

  NHTR——Franklin Bowditch Dexter and Zara Jones Powers, eds., New Haven Town Records, 3 vols. (New Haven, 1917–1962)

  NYWJ——New York Weekly Journal

  O’Dea, Lighting——William T. O’Dea, The Social History of Lighting (London, 1958)

  OBP——The Proceedings on the King’s Commissions of the Peace, Oyer and Terminer, and Gaol Delivery for the City of London; and also Gaol Delivery for the County of Middlesex, Held at ­Justice-­Hall in the Old Bailey

  ODNB——Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004)

  OED——Oxford English Dictionary, 1st edn. (Oxford, 1888–1928)

  PA——Public Advertiser (London)

  Parkman, Diary——Francis G. Walett, ed., The Diary of Ebenezer Parkman 1703–1782 (Worcester, Mass., 1974)

  Paroimiographia——Paroimiographia: Proverbs, or, Old Savves & Adages, in English (or the Saxon toung) Italian, French, and Spanish, whereunto the British, for Their Great Antiquity and Weight are Added . . . (London, 1659)

  Patten, Diary——The Diary of Matthew Patten of Bedford, N. H. (Concord, N. H., 1903)

  Pepys, Diary——Samuel Pepys, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. Robert Latham and William Matthews, 11 vols. (Berkeley, Calif., 1970–1983)

  PG——Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia)

  Pinkerton, Travels——John Pinkerton, ed., A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in all Parts of the World ... , 17 vols. (London, 1808–1814)

  Pitou, “Coureurs de Nuit”——Frédérique Pitou, “Jeunesse et Désorde Social: Les Coureurs de Nuit á Laval au XVIIIe Siècle,” Revue d’Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine 47 (2000), 69–92

  PL——Public Ledger (London)

  PL 27——Palatinate of Lancaster Depositions, Public Record Office, London

  Pounds, Culture——Norman John Greville Pounds, The Culture of the English People: Iron Age to the Industrial Revolution (Cambridge, 1994)

  Pounds, Home——Norman John Greville Pounds, Hearth & Home: A History of Material Culture (Bloomington, Ind., 1989)

  PP——Past and Present

  RB——William Chappell and J. W. Ebsworth, eds., The Roxburghe Ballads, 9 vols. (1871–1899; rpt. edn., New York, 1966)

  Remarks 1717——Remarks on Severall Parts of Flanders, Brabant, France, and Italy in the Yeare 1717, Boldleian Library, Oxford

  Ripae, Nocturno Tempore——Polydori Ripae, Tractatus de Nocturno Tempore: In quo Absoluta Criminalium Praxis, Canonicaeq; Materiae, Beneficiorum Praecipuè Continentur. Contractus Etiam, Seruitutes, Judicia Civilia, Vltimae Voluntates ad Susceptam Prouinciam Obseruantur (Venice, 1602)

  Roche, Consumption——Daniel Roche, A History of Everyday Things: The Birth of Consumption in France, 1600–1800, trans. Brian Pearce (Cambridge, 2000)

  Ruff, Violence——Julius R. Ruff, Violence in Early Modern Europe, 1500–1800 (Cambridge, 2001)

  Ryder, Diary——William Matthews, ed., The Diary of Dudley Ryder, 1715–1716 (London, 1939)

  SAI——William Shaw Mason, comp., A Statistical Account, or Parochial Survey of Ireland, Drawn Up from the Communications of the Clergy, 3 vols. (Dublin, 1814–1819)

  Sanderson, Diary——Robert Sanderson Diary, St. John’s College, Cambridge

  Sanger, Journal——Lois K. Stabler, ed., Very Poor and of a Lo Make: The Journal of Abner Sanger (Portsmouth, N. H., 1986)

  SAS——Sir John Sinclair, ed., The Statistical Account of Scotland: Drawn up from the Communications of the Ministers of the Different Parishes, 21 vols. (Edinburgh, 1791–1799)

  Schindler, “Youthful Culture”——Norbert Schindler, “Guardians of Disorder: Rituals of Youthful Culture at the Dawn of the Modern Age,” in Giovanni Levi and Jean-­Claude Schmitt, eds., A History of Young People in the West (Cambridge, Mass., 1997), 240–282

  Schindler, Rebellion——Norbert Schindler, Rebellion, Community and Custom in Early Modern Germany, trans. Pamela E. Selwyn (Cambridge, 2002)

  Scott, Witchcraft——Reginald Scott, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (Carbondale, Ill., 1964)

  Select Trials——Select Trials at the ­Sessions-­House in the ­Old-­Bailey (1742; rpt. edn., New York, 1985)

  Sewall, Diary——Milton Halsey Thomas, ed., The Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1674–1729, 2 vols. (New York, 1973)

  SH——Social History

  SJC——St. James Chronicle (London)

  SWA or LJ——Sussex ­Weekly-­Adve
rtiser: or, Lewes Journal

  Swift, Journal——Jonathan Swift, Journal to Stella, ed. Harold Williams (Oxford, 1948)

  SWP——Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, eds., The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692, 3 vols. (New York, 1977)

  T. Platter, Journal——Seán Jennett, ed. and trans., Journal of a Younger Brother: The Life of Thomas Platter as a Medical Student in Montpellier at the Close of the Sixteenth Century (London, 1963)

  Taillepied, Ghosts——Noël Taillepied, A Treatise of Ghosts ... , trans. Montague Summers (1933; rpt. edn., Ann Arbor, Mich., 1971)

  Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic——Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England (London, 1971)

  Thoresby, Diary——Joseph Hunter, ed., The Diary of Ralph Thoresby, 2 vols. (London, 1830)

  Tilley, Proverbs in England——Morris Palmer Tilley, ed., A Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries . . . (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1966)

  Torriano, Proverbi——Giovanni Torriano, Piazza Universale Di Proverbi Italiani: or, a Common Place of Italian Proverbs (London, 1666)

  Torrington, Diaries——John Byng, 5th Viscount Torrington, The Torrington Diaries ... , ed. C. Bryan Andrews, 4 vols. (New York, 1935)