[4] It was popularly believed in London that the plague came from
Holland; but the sanitary (or rather unsanitary) conditions of London
itself were quite sufficient to account for the plague's originating
there. Andrew D. White tells us, that it is difficult to decide to-day
between Constantinople and New York as candidates for the distinction of
being the dirtiest city in the world.
[5] Incorrectly used for "councils."
[6] In April, 1663, the first Drury Lane Theater had been opened. The
present Drury Lane Theater (the fourth) stands on the same site.
[7] The King's ministers. At this time they held office during the
pleasure of the Crown, not, as now, during the pleasure of a
parliamentary majority.
[8] Gangrene spots (see text, pp. 197, 198).
[9] The local government of London at this time was chiefly in the hands
of the vestries of the different parishes. It is only of recent years
that the power of these vestries has been seriously curtailed, and
transferred 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 certain
municipal immunities, or liberties. Until recent years, a portion of
Philadelphia 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 this
title.
[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 this
form, 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's
staying 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 doubtless
due 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 of
calling to the bar, are the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, Lincoln's
Inn, and Gray's Inn. The Temple is so called because it was once the
home of the Knights Templars.
[41] The city proper, i.e., the part within the walls, as distinguished
from that without.
[42] Were.
[43] The population of London at this time was probably about half a
million. 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 of
scholarship was a common jest among his more learned adversaries, such
as Swift, and Pope.
[46] It was in this very plague year that Newton formulated his theory
of gravitation. Incredible as it may seem, at this same date even such
men as Dryden held to a belief in astrology.
[47] William Lilly was the most famous astrologer and almanac maker of
the time. In Butler's Hudibras he is satirized under the name of
Sidrophel.
[48] Poor Robin's Almanack was first published in 1661 or 1662, and was
ascribed 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. He
is supposed to have died in the last decade of the first century A.D.
[52] So called because many Frenchmen lived there. In Westminster there
was another district with this same name.
[53] "Gave them vapors," i.e., put them into a state of nervous
excitement.
[54] Soothsayers.
[55] In astrology, the scheme or figure of the heavens at the moment of
a person's birth. From this the astrologers pretended to foretell a
man's destiny.
[56] Roger Bacon, a Franciscan friar of the thirteenth century, had a
knowledge of mechanics and optics far in advance of his age: hence he
was commonly regarded as a wizard. The brazen head which he manufactured
was supposed to assist him in his necromantic feats; it is so introduced
by Greene in his play of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (1594).
[57] A fortune teller who lived in the reign of Henry VIII., and was
famous for her prophecies.
[58] The most celebrated magician of mediæval times (see Spenser's
Faërie 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 the
midst of a morality play to relieve the tedium of that very tedious
performance. 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 in
art.
[63] To be acted.
[64] Buffoons, clowns.
[65] About 62½ cents.
[66] About twenty-five dollars; but the purchasing power of money was
then seven or eight times what it is now.
[67] Strictly speaking, this word means "love potions."
[68] Exorcism is the act of expelling evil spirits, or the formula used
in 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 superstition
from astrology.
[72] A meaningless word used in incantations. Originally the name of a
Syrian deity.
[73] Iesus Hominum Salvator ("Jesus, Savior of Men"). The order of the
Jesuits 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 is
a 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, there
is no avoiding them.
[88] Fights between dogs and bears. This was not declared a criminal
offense 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 running
north from the Tower) was so designated from an abbey of St. Clare nuns
called Minoresses. They took their name from that of the Franciscan
Order, 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. It
will 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 dismal
sights I saw as I went about the streets."
[129] As.
[130] "Rosin" is a long-established misspelling for "resin." Resin
exudes from pine trees, and from it the oil of turpentine is separated
by distillation.
[131] As distinguished from fish meat.
[132] Defoe uses these pronouns in the wrong number, as in numerous
other instances.
[133] The projecting part of a building.
[134] Their miraculous preservation was wrought by their keeping in the
fresh air of the open fields. It seems curious that after this object
lesson the physicians persisted in their absurd policy of shutting up
infected 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 belief
that 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 his
novel Moll Flanders, Defoe has a vivid picture of the mental and
physical sufferings of a woman who was sent to Newgate, and condemned to
death, for stealing two pieces of silk.
[143] Cloth, rag.
[144] They could no longer give them regular funerals, but had to bury
them promiscuously in pits.
[145] Evidently a repetition.
[146] In old and middle English two negatives did not make an
affirmative, as they do in modern English.
[147] It is now well known that rue has no qualities that are useful for
warding 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 the
narrative.
[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 a
church of its own: ecclesiastically, therefore, it belongs to the parish
of 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 is
six miles distant.
[181] Old form of "dared."
[182] Small vessels, generally schooner-rigged, used for carrying heavy
freight on rivers and harbors.
[183] London Bridge.
[184] This incident is so overdone, that it fails to be pathetic, and
rather excites our laughter.
[185] Supply "themselves."
[186] Barnet was about eleven miles north-northwest of London.
[187] Holland and Belgium.
[188] See Luke xvii. 11-19.
[189] Well.
[190] With speed, in haste.
[191] This word is misplaced. It should go immediately before "to
lodge."
[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 is
common among illiterate writers and speakers to-day.
[200] Waltham and Epping, towns two or three miles apart, at a distance
of ten or twelve miles almost directly north of London.
[201] Pollard trees are trees cut back nearly to the trunk, and so
caused to grow into a thick head (_poll_) of branches.
[202] Entertainment. In this sense, the plural, "quarters," is the
commoner form.
[203] Preparing.
[204] Peddlers.
[205] "Has been," an atrocious solecism for "were."
[206] To a miraculous extent.
[207] "Put to it," i.e., hard pressed.
[208] There are numerous references in the Hebrew Scriptures to parched
corn as an article of food (see, among others, Lev. xxiii. 14, Ruth ii.
14, 2 Sam. xvii. 28).
[209] Supply "(1)."
[210] Soon.
[211] Substitute "would."
[212] Whom.
[213] Familiar intercourse.
[214] Evidently a repetition.
[215] "For that," i.e., because.
[216] Singly.
[217] Supply "to be."
[218] Buildings the rafters of which lean against or rest upon the outer
wall of another building.
[219] Supply "of."
[220] The plague.
[221] "Middling people," i.e., people of the middle class.
[222] At the mouth of the Thames.
[223] Awnings.
[224] Two heavy timbers placed horizontally, the upper one of which can
be raised. When lowered, it is held in place by a padlock. Notches in
the timbers form holes, through which the prisoner's legs are thrust,
and held securely.
[225] The constables.
[226] The carters.
[227] The goods.
[228] In spite of, notwithstanding.
[229] Supply "who."
[230] "Cum aliis," i.e., with others. Most of the places mentioned in
this list are several miles distant from London: for example, Enfield is
ten miles northeast; Hadley, over fifty miles northeast; Hertford,
twenty miles north; Kingston, ten miles southwest; St. Albans, twenty
miles northwest; Uxbridge, fifteen miles west; Windsor, twenty miles
west; etc.
[231] Kindly regarded.
[232] Which.
[233] The citizens.
[234] Such statements.
[235] For "so that," substitute "so."
[236] How.
[237] It was not known in Defoe's time that minute disease germs may be
carried along by a current of air.
[238] Affected with scurvy.
[239] "Which," as applied to persons, is a good Old English idiom, and
was in common use as late as 1711 (see Spectator No. 78; and Matt. vi.
9, version of 1611).
[240] Flung to.
[241] Changed their garments.
[242] Supply "I heard."
[243] At.
[244] Various periods are assigned for the duration of the dog days:
perhaps July 3 to Aug. 11 is that most commonly accepted. The dog days
were so called because they coincided with the heliacal rising of Sirius
or Canicula (the little dog).
[245] An inn with this title (and probably a picture of the brothers)
painted on its signboard.
[246] Whom.
[247] The Act of Uniformity was passed in 1661. It required all
municipal officers and all ministers to take the communion according to
the ritual of the Church of England, and to sign a document declaring
that arms must never be borne against the King. For refusing obedience
to this tyrannical measure, some two thousand Presbyterian ministers
were deprived of their livings.
[248] Madness, as in Hamlet, act iii. sc. 1.
[249] "Represented themselves," etc., i.e., presented themselves to my
sight.
[250] "Dead part of the night," i.e., from midnight to dawn. Compare,
"In the dead waste and middle of the night."
_Hamlet_, act i. sc 2.
[251] "Have been critical," etc., i.e., have claimed to have knowledge
enough to say.
[252] Being introduced.
[253] The plague.
[254] "First began" is a solecism common in the newspaper writing of
to-day.
[255] Literally, laws of the _by_ (town). In modern usage, "by-law" is
used to designate a rule less general and less easily amended than a
constitutional provision.
[256] "Sheriff" is equivalent to _shire-reeve_ (magistrate of the county
or shire). London had, and still has, two sheriffs.
[257] Acted.
[258] The inspection, according to ordinance, of weights, measures, and
prices.
[259] "Pretty many," i.e., a fair number of.
[260] The officers.
[261] Were.
[262] "Falls to the serious part," i.e., begins to discourse on serious
matters.
[263] See note, p. 28. The Mohammedans are fatalists.
{Transcriber's note: The reference is to footnote 28.}
[264] A growth of osseous tissue uniting the extremities of fractured
bones.
[265] Disclosed.
[266] The officers.
[267] Leading principle.
[268] Defoe means, "can burn only a few houses." In the next line he
again misplaces "only."
[269] Put to confusion.
[270] Left out of consideration.
[271] The distemper.
[272] A means for discovering whether the person were infected or not.
[273] Defoe's ignorance of microscopes was not shared by Robert Hooke,
whose Micrographia (published in 1664) records numerous discoveries made
with that instrument.
[274] Roup is a kind of chicken's catarrh.
[275] Them, i.e., such experiments.
[276] From the Latin _quadraginta_ ("forty").
[277] From the Latin _sexaginta_ ("sixty").
[278] Kinds, species.
[279] Old age.
[280] Abscesses.
[281] Himself.
[282] The essential oils of lavender, cloves, and camphor, added to
acetic acid.
[283] In chemistry, balsams are vegetable juices consisting of resins
mixed with gums or volatile oils.
[284] Supply "they declined coming to public worship."
[285] This condition of affairs.
[286] Collar.
[287] Economy.
[288] Supply "they were."
[289] Action (obsolete in this sense). See this word as used in 2 Henry
IV., act iv. sc. 4.
[290] Which.
[291] Sailors' slang for "Archipelagoes."
[292] An important city in Asia Minor.
[293] A city in northern Syria, better known as Iskanderoon or
Alexandretta. The town was named in honor of Alexander the Great, the
Turkish form of Alexander being Iskander.
[294] Though called a kingdom, Algarve was nothing but a province of
Portugal. It is known now as Faro.
[295] The natives of Flanders, a mediæval countship now divided among
Holland, Belgium, and France.
[296] Colonies. In the reign of Charles II., the English colonies were
governed by a committee (of the Privy Council) known as the "Council of
Plantations."
[297] The east side.
[298] On the west side.
[299] See map of England for all these places. Feversham is in Kent,
forty-five miles southeast of London; Margate is on the Isle of Thanet,
eighty miles southeast.
[300] Commission merchants.
[301] Privateers. _Capers_ is a Dutch word.
[302] Supply "he."
[303] Supply "the coals."
[304] "One another," by a confusion of constructions, has been used here
for "them."
[305] By a statute of Charles II. a chaldron was fixed at 36 coal
bushels. In the United States, it is generally 26¼ hundredweight.
[306] Opening.
[307] "To seek," i.e., without judgment or knowledge.
[308] Mixing.
[309] Him.
[310] This unwary conduct.
[311] Think.
[312] Were.
[313] Accept.
[314] Personal chattels that had occasioned the death of a human being,
and were therefore given to God (_Deo_, "to God"; _dandum_, "a thing
given"); i.e., forfeited to the King, and by him distributed in alms.
This curious law of deodands was not abolished in England until 1846.
[315] The southern coast of the Mediterranean, from Egypt to the
Atlantic.
[316] Censure.
[317] Afterward.
[318] "Physic garden," i.e., a garden for growing medicinal herbs.
[319] Since.
[320] Lord mayor of London, 1679-80, and for many years member of
Parliament for the city.
[321] The workmen.
[322] Recognized.
[323] Fenced.
[324] Members of the Society of Friends, a religious organization
founded by George Fox about 1650. William Penn was one of the early
members. The society condemns a paid ministry, the taking of oaths, and
the making of war.
[325] See p. 105, next to the last paragraph.
[326] Die. "Of the plague" should immediately follow "died."
[327] See Note 3, p. 26.
{Transcriber's note: the reference is to footnote 26.}
[328] The act of indemnity passed at the restoration of Charles II.
(1660). In spite of the King's promise of justice, the Parliamentarians
were largely despoiled of their property, and ten of those concerned in
the execution of Charles I. were put to death.
[329] Family and personal peace.
[330] The Established Church of England, nearly all of whose ministers
were Royalists. The Presbyterians were nearly all Republicans.
[331] The dissenting ministers.
[332] The Churchmen.
[333] Of.
[334] What we should call an assistant minister is still called a curate
in the Church of England.
[335] "I had not said this," etc., i.e., I would not have said this, but
would rather have chosen, etc.
[336] See Rev. vi. 8.
[337] Moved away (into the country).
[338] The duties of headboroughs differed little from those of the
constables. The title is now obsolete.
[339] Count.
[340] "Must." In this sense common in Chaucer. The past tense, "should,"
retains something of this force. Compare the German _sollen_.
[341] Otherwise known as _theriac_ (from the Greek [Greek: thêriakos],
"pertaining to a wild beast," since it was supposed to be an antidote
for poisonous bites). This medicine was compounded of sixty or seventy
drugs, and was mixed with honey.
[342] Supply "died."
[343] Supply "of."
[344] Substitute "which."
[345] Those.
[346] A corruption of "benzoin," a resinous juice obtained from a tree
that flourishes in Siam and the Malay Archipelago. When heated, it gives
off a pleasant odor. It is one of the ingredients used in court-plaster.
[347] This word should be omitted.
[348] The "press gang" was a naval detachment under the command of an
officer, empowered to seize men and carry them off for service on
men-of-war.
[349] Off Lowestoft, in 1665. Though the Dutch were beaten, they made
good their retreat, and heavily defeated the English the next year in
the battle of The Downs.
[350] See Ps. lx. 11; cviii. 12.
[351] Were.
[352] See Exod. xiv., xv., and xvi. 1-3.
[353] "H.F." is of course fictitious.