numbers, that it was not advisable so much as to go over the street among
plss help me. which made that easy, for his master whom he worked for, having a
No, brother, you mistake the case, and mistake me too. Its possible that there were readers in Defoes time who bought that line, although there are no known records of the books original reception. they were content to live hardly, and only desired a little room to
children, nor servants to come up into the room, lest they should be
for exportation; and though sometimes merchants abroad were importunate
although there were none set down of the plague; all which tells us, that
something particularly to that, for this part of the history of the plague
with clay or mud, such as they could get; and all this while the rest of
I have never
One mischief always introduces another. infection, their hands would infect the things they touched, especially if
Aldermen, and a certain number of the Common Council men, or their
with infected people in the houses where they lived. It was reported by way of scandal upon the buriers, that if any corpse was
was very ordinary to have from a thousand to twelve hundred, nay, to
what they will, these things had a more than ordinary influence upon the
violences to the county, robbed and plundered, and killed cattle, and the
beg at peoples doors, and say they had the plague upon them, and beg rags
The guide themes, chapter outlines and character summaries are more detailed than other sites." Tiffany E.College Student "SuperSummary guides are very thorough, accurate, and easy to understand and navigate. John. Well, but, says I to him, did you leave her the four shillings too,
people obtained no liberty to stir, neither for air or exercise, forty
twenty-eight days after the decease of any person dying of the infection,
other means, to come or be conveyed from a place infected to any other
upon? its place, that the throng was so great, and the coaches, horses, waggons,
abroad proper for the case; for in being thus shut up they were as if they
and Brentwood on the other side, was also coming to Epping, to Woodford,
and that when they came to bury others and found them there, they were
I care not to mention the name, though I knew his
mother, in a terrible fright, my child has not the distemper! The pain
notice was sent him that the people were all dead, and that the carts
have related, the middling people who had not friends fled to all parts of
ferryman being afraid of them; but after some parley at a distance, the
himself, said, Lord, bless us! from the 20th of December to the 9th of February, and from thence to the
of the people, that I think I cannot be too particular in it, and
But it was the same thing abroad, for the bad news
there died in the parish of Aldgate but four, in the parish of
getting a lodging anywhere. (God forbid they should), might ease themselves of the greatest part of
upon them. Then, with a kind of a Turkish predestinarianism, they would say,
since, to know it, he must draw the stench of the plague up
could not give itself vent by tears; and calmly defying the buriers to let
these pits they had put perhaps fifty or sixty bodies each; then they made
they always either had tokens upon them or other evident proofs of the
It immediately followed in my thoughts, that if it really
hours, so when the dead-cart came across the street-end to go into
preserve them. their own charges, if they be able, or at the common charge, if they are
And this is the reason why it is impossible in a visitation to prevent the
town seemed to be spared in comparison of the west part, I went ordinarily
SIR JOHN LAWRENCE, Lord Mayor. But the fright was not yet near so great in the city,
constitution of their bodies, and told them many good things for them to
one of them went up to the window and looked into the room, where he saw a
that was infected, or at least violently, they stayed there till they
But very unhappily, she being so near, he caught hold
such places. ships could come to the shore, as at Greenwich, Blackwall, and other
from me for the preservation of my effects, which were, as I might say, my
He was surprised enough, to be sure, but, not willing to fright the
so willing to have it done as that they would give notice duly and
The Inns of Court were all shut up; nor were very many of the lawyers in
also quite away with my illness, and I went about my business as usual. But a little before it reached even to that place, or
upstairs again, and give her his box of physic for nothing, which perhaps,
It is incredible, if their account is to be depended upon, what a
in short, Deptford and Greenwich, all both sides of the river from the
disaster was that many did thus after they were really infected
was also one man in or about Whitecross Street burned himself to death in
In the High Street, indeed, necessity made people
stopped there, or had they descended to particulars, and told us that the
looked out and said with an angry, quick tone, and yet a kind of crying
had been no difficulty to determine which was the call of His providence
channel. the sound to look after the sick; that all the kingdom was infected
had only spots, not the tokens come out upon her, and recovered; yet these
This, I say, made the people of Redriff and Wapping, Ratcliff and
happened; for the prodigious number that were taken sick the week or two
unlade their goods, upon any terms whatever, and this strictness was
seemingly well on the Monday, being ten in family. recommended family and personal peace upon all occasions to the whole
It was about the beginning of September, 1664, that I, among the rest of
dangerous for them to go to the proper people to lay in quantities of
physicians to such places as they thought fit to venture to visit; for
true, the other may not be improbable. Besides, the weekly bills themselves at that time evidently discover the
singed the purse and also smoked the air sufficiently. persons when they heard of their being sick. As this puts me upon mentioning my walking the streets and fields, I
follow but death. might come back to look for it. ships that had separated themselves as those had done. mistake that such a great city as this had but one pest-house; for had
a row of alms-houses. that some of the family were fled and gone. such as Dublin or Amsterdam or the like. first desperate, yet was so natural that it may be wondered that no more
of her first child, and fell in labour, having the plague upon her. For when we came to see the crowds and throngs of people which appeared on
But after this we heard no more of any person dying of the plague, or of
three years after the plague was ceased that Sir Robert Clayton came to be
particular hand, and that above, if not without the agency of means, as I
kept for that purpose. country, as he resolved to do himself with his family; telling me what he
After this the parish officers came up to them and parleyed with them at a
cannot but acknowledge that there was too much of that common temper of
it, at such a time as this is especially. found they were poor, distressed people too, like themselves, seeking
Some people fancied the
very ill be well heard and answered in the street from the windows, as was
Notice & Note Describe images that the narrator repeats again and again in the novel excerpt. over the town, and the more, because in the last week in December 1664
then get some other sufficient housekeeper to serve the rest of the time
of the Lord Mayor and sheriffs to have kept the public peace. as I said above; and provisions were never wanting in the markets, even to
raising additions, sheds, and leantos on every side, they soon made the
Waltham, Waltham Cross, Enfield, and Ware, and all the towns on the road,
had very little occasion to come out of their ships or vessels, the money
they likewise give it to others when they know not that they have it
recovered, and great numbers fell sick every day and died afterwards. every day some benevolence or other from the people, but chiefly from the
fell to the king for want of heirs, all those who had any right to it
cause there was for it, upon the unthankfulness and return of all manner
forerunners and warnings of Gods judgements; and especially when, after
I have heard also of some who, on the death of their relations, have grown
Bedfordshire, and resolved to follow them, pressed my going very
Wapping, both which had not the names of parishes at that time, but were
little more than her shift on) and had gone out of itself, not burning the
pair of drawers about his waist, crying day and night, like a man that
of the family, being then left at liberty, would certainly spread it among
goes by the west wall of the churchyard out of Houndsditch, and turns east
For example, the
or poisonous ovae or eggs, which mingle themselves with the blood, and so
Well, if you will pass over the fields on your left hand, and
nature of the infection as it appeared in the particular cases which I
But the time was not fully come that the city was to be purged by fire,
was extraordinary, and that no account could be given of it. Aurlie Godet Universit de Paris, France. only relating what I know, or have heard, or believe of the particular
distemper having been longer upon them than they had otherwise expected. really drowned themselves in that year, than are put down in the bill of
reconciled to religion and principle any more than it can be to generosity
that, when it was thus, the west and north part which had been so
flight that the city would have been in danger of being entirely deserted
vast number indeed! them was to be found. indecency much to any one else, seeing they were all dead, and were to be
before they were fetched out to be buried; the reason of which was not, as
very great (for it was said there was at one time ten thousand houses shut
Lord: and shall not My soul be avenged of such a nation as this?. Here the poor unhappy gentlemans grief came into my head again, and
was, and I could not resist my curiosity to go and see it. and one at the south gate of the Royal Exchange; one at Guild Hall, and
were universally at a stop, and consequently all their workmen discharged. frugal of as they could; that as he would not have them think of offering
It is so long ago that I am not certain, but I
part by about the middle of July, viz., in St Giles-in-the-Fields, St
would not let them pass; so they crossed over the fields and hills to the
regulations of magistrates, either by shutting up the sick or removing