History of the Plague in London by Daniel Defoe
hot iron. I cannot say what became of this poor man,but I think he continued roving about in that manner till he fell downand died.
No wonder the aspect of the city itself was frightful. The usualconcourse of the people in the streets, and which used to be suppliedfrom our end of the town, was abated. The Exchange was not kept shut,indeed, but it was no more frequented. The fires were lost: they hadbeen almost extinguished for some days by a very smart and hasty rain.But that was not all. Some of the physicians insisted that they were notonly no benefit, but injurious to the health of the people. This theymade a loud clamor about, and complained to the lord mayor about it. Onthe other hand, others of the same faculty, and eminent too, opposedthem, and gave their reasons why the fires were and must be useful toassuage the violence of the distemper. I cannot give a full account oftheir arguments on both sides; only this I remember, that they caviledvery much with one another. Some were for fires, but that they must bemade of wood and not coal, and of particular sorts of wood too, such asfir, in particular, or cedar, because of the strong effluvia ofturpentine; others were for coal and not wood, because of the sulphurand bitumen; and others were neither for one or other. Upon the whole,the lord mayor ordered no more fires, and especially on this account,namely, that the plague was so fierce that they saw evidently it defiedall means, and rather seemed to increase than decrease upon anyapplication to check and abate it; and yet this amazement of themagistrates proceeded rather from want of being able to apply any meanssuccessfully than from any unwillingness either to expose themselves orundertake the care and weight of business; for, to do them justice, theyneither spared their pains nor their persons. But nothing answered. Theinfection raged, and the people were now terrified to the last degree,so that, as I may say, they gave themselves up, and, as I mentionedabove, abandoned themselves to their despair.
But let me observe here, that when I say the people abandoned themselvesto despair, I do not mean to what men call a religious despair, or adespair of their eternal state; but I mean a despair of their being ableto escape the infection, or to outlive the plague, which they saw was soraging, and so irresistible in its force, that indeed few people thatwere touched with it in its height, about August and September, escaped;and, which is very particular, contrary to its ordinary operation inJune and July and the beginning of August, when, as I have observed,many were infected, and continued so many days, and then went off, afterhaving had the poison in their blood a long time. But now, on thecontrary, most of the people who were taken during the last two weeks inAugust, and in the first three weeks in September, generally died in twoor three days at the farthest, and many the very same day they weretaken. Whether the dog days[244] (as our astrologers pretended toexpress themselves, the influence of the Dog Star) had that malignanteffect, or all those who had the seeds of infection before in thembrought it up to a maturity at that time altogether, I know not; butthis was the time when it was reported that above three thousand peopledied in one night; and they that would have us believe they morecritically observed it pretend to say that they all died within thespace of two hours, viz., between the hours of one and three in themorning.
As to the suddenness of people dying at this time, more than before,there were innumerable instances of it, and I could name several in myneighborhood. One family without the bars, and not far from me, were allseemingly well on the Monday, being ten in family. That evening one maidand one apprentice were taken ill, and died the next morning, when theother apprentice and two children were touched, whereof one died thesame evening and the other two on Wednesday. In a word, by Saturday atnoon the master, mistress, four children, and four servants were allgone, and the house left entirely empty, except an ancient woman, whocame to take charge of the goods for the master of the family's brother,who lived not far off, and who had not been sick.
Many houses were then left desolate, all the people being carried awaydead; and especially in an alley farther on the same side beyond thebars, going in at the sign of Moses and Aaron.[245] There were severalhouses together, which they said had not one person left alive in them;and some that died last in several of those houses were left a littletoo long before they were fetched out to be buried, the reason of whichwas not, as some have written very untruly, that the living were notsufficient to bury the dead, but that the mortality was so great in theyard or alley that there was nobody left to give notice to the buriersor sextons that there were any dead bodies there to be buried. It wassaid, how true I know not, that some of those bodies were so corruptedand so rotten, that it was with difficulty they were carried; and, asthe carts could not come any nearer than to the alley gate in the HighStreet, it was so much the more difficult to bring them along. But I amnot certain how many bodies were then left: I am sure that ordinarily itwas not so.
As I have mentioned how the people were brought into a condition todespair of life, and abandoned themselves, so this very thing had astrange effect among us for three or four weeks; that is, it made thembold and venturous. They were no more shy of one another, or restrainedwithin doors, but went anywhere and everywhere, and began to converse.One would say to another, "I do not ask you how you are, or say how Iam. It is certain we shall all go: so 'tis no matter who is sick or whois sound." And so they ran desperately into any place or company.
As it brought the people into public company, so it was surprising howit brought them to crowd into the churches. They inquired no more intowho[246] they sat near to or far from, what offensive smells they metwith, or what condition the people seemed to be in; but, looking uponthemselves all as so many dead corpses, they came to the churcheswithout the least caution, and crowded together as if their lives wereof no consequence compared to the work which they came about there.Indeed, the zeal which they showed in coming, and the earnestness andaffection they showed in their attention to what they heard, made itmanifest what a value people would all put upon the worship of God ifthey thought every day they attended at the church that it would betheir last. Nor was it without other strange effects, for it took awayall manner of prejudice at, or scruple about, the person whom they foundin the pulpit when they came to the churches. It cannot be doubted butthat many of the ministers of the parish churches were cut off amongothers in so common and dreadful a calamity; and others had not courageenough to stand it, but removed into the country as they found means forescape. As then some parish churches were quite vacant and forsaken, thepeople made no scruple of desiring such dissenters as had been a fewyears before deprived of their livings, by virtue of an act ofParliament called the "Act of Uniformity,"[247] to preach in thechurches, nor did the church ministers in that case make any difficultyin accepting their assistance; so that many of those whom they calledsilent ministers had their mouths opened on this occasion, and preachedpublicly to the people.
Here we may observe, and I hope it will not be amiss to take notice ofit, that a near view of death would soon reconcile men of goodprinciples one to another, and that it is chiefly owing to our easysituation in life, and our putting these things far from us, that ourbreaches are fomented, ill blood continued, prejudices, breach ofcharity and of Christian union so much kept and so far carried on amongus as it is. Another plague year would reconcile all these differences;a close conversing with death, or with diseases that threaten death,would scum off the gall from our tempers, remove the animosities amongus, and bring us to see with differing eyes than those which we lookedon things with before. As the people who had been used to join with thechurch were reconciled at this time with the admitting the dissenters topreach to them, so the dissenters, who, with an uncommon prejudice, hadbroken off from the communion of the Church of England, were now contentto come to their parish churches, and to conform to the worship whichthey did not approve of before. But, as the terror of the infectionabated, those things all returned again to their less desirablechannel, and to the course they were in before.
I mention this but historically: I have no mind to enter into argumentsto move either or both sides
to a more charitable compliance one withanother. I do not see that it is probable such a discourse would beeither suitable or successful; the breaches seem rather to widen, andtend to a widening farther, than to closing: and who am I, that I shouldthink myself able to influence either one side or other? But this I mayrepeat again, that it is evident death will reconcile us all: on theother side the grave we shall be all brethren again. In heaven, whitherI hope we may come from all parties and persuasions, we shall findneither prejudice nor scruple: there we shall be of one principle and ofone opinion. Why we cannot be content to go hand in hand to the placewhere we shall join heart and hand without the least hesitation, andwith the most complete harmony and affection,--I say, why we cannot doso here, I can say nothing to; neither shall I say anything more of it,but that it remains to be lamented.
I could dwell a great while upon the calamities of this dreadful time,and go on to describe the
No wonder the aspect of the city itself was frightful. The usualconcourse of the people in the streets, and which used to be suppliedfrom our end of the town, was abated. The Exchange was not kept shut,indeed, but it was no more frequented. The fires were lost: they hadbeen almost extinguished for some days by a very smart and hasty rain.But that was not all. Some of the physicians insisted that they were notonly no benefit, but injurious to the health of the people. This theymade a loud clamor about, and complained to the lord mayor about it. Onthe other hand, others of the same faculty, and eminent too, opposedthem, and gave their reasons why the fires were and must be useful toassuage the violence of the distemper. I cannot give a full account oftheir arguments on both sides; only this I remember, that they caviledvery much with one another. Some were for fires, but that they must bemade of wood and not coal, and of particular sorts of wood too, such asfir, in particular, or cedar, because of the strong effluvia ofturpentine; others were for coal and not wood, because of the sulphurand bitumen; and others were neither for one or other. Upon the whole,the lord mayor ordered no more fires, and especially on this account,namely, that the plague was so fierce that they saw evidently it defiedall means, and rather seemed to increase than decrease upon anyapplication to check and abate it; and yet this amazement of themagistrates proceeded rather from want of being able to apply any meanssuccessfully than from any unwillingness either to expose themselves orundertake the care and weight of business; for, to do them justice, theyneither spared their pains nor their persons. But nothing answered. Theinfection raged, and the people were now terrified to the last degree,so that, as I may say, they gave themselves up, and, as I mentionedabove, abandoned themselves to their despair.
But let me observe here, that when I say the people abandoned themselvesto despair, I do not mean to what men call a religious despair, or adespair of their eternal state; but I mean a despair of their being ableto escape the infection, or to outlive the plague, which they saw was soraging, and so irresistible in its force, that indeed few people thatwere touched with it in its height, about August and September, escaped;and, which is very particular, contrary to its ordinary operation inJune and July and the beginning of August, when, as I have observed,many were infected, and continued so many days, and then went off, afterhaving had the poison in their blood a long time. But now, on thecontrary, most of the people who were taken during the last two weeks inAugust, and in the first three weeks in September, generally died in twoor three days at the farthest, and many the very same day they weretaken. Whether the dog days[244] (as our astrologers pretended toexpress themselves, the influence of the Dog Star) had that malignanteffect, or all those who had the seeds of infection before in thembrought it up to a maturity at that time altogether, I know not; butthis was the time when it was reported that above three thousand peopledied in one night; and they that would have us believe they morecritically observed it pretend to say that they all died within thespace of two hours, viz., between the hours of one and three in themorning.
As to the suddenness of people dying at this time, more than before,there were innumerable instances of it, and I could name several in myneighborhood. One family without the bars, and not far from me, were allseemingly well on the Monday, being ten in family. That evening one maidand one apprentice were taken ill, and died the next morning, when theother apprentice and two children were touched, whereof one died thesame evening and the other two on Wednesday. In a word, by Saturday atnoon the master, mistress, four children, and four servants were allgone, and the house left entirely empty, except an ancient woman, whocame to take charge of the goods for the master of the family's brother,who lived not far off, and who had not been sick.
Many houses were then left desolate, all the people being carried awaydead; and especially in an alley farther on the same side beyond thebars, going in at the sign of Moses and Aaron.[245] There were severalhouses together, which they said had not one person left alive in them;and some that died last in several of those houses were left a littletoo long before they were fetched out to be buried, the reason of whichwas not, as some have written very untruly, that the living were notsufficient to bury the dead, but that the mortality was so great in theyard or alley that there was nobody left to give notice to the buriersor sextons that there were any dead bodies there to be buried. It wassaid, how true I know not, that some of those bodies were so corruptedand so rotten, that it was with difficulty they were carried; and, asthe carts could not come any nearer than to the alley gate in the HighStreet, it was so much the more difficult to bring them along. But I amnot certain how many bodies were then left: I am sure that ordinarily itwas not so.
As I have mentioned how the people were brought into a condition todespair of life, and abandoned themselves, so this very thing had astrange effect among us for three or four weeks; that is, it made thembold and venturous. They were no more shy of one another, or restrainedwithin doors, but went anywhere and everywhere, and began to converse.One would say to another, "I do not ask you how you are, or say how Iam. It is certain we shall all go: so 'tis no matter who is sick or whois sound." And so they ran desperately into any place or company.
As it brought the people into public company, so it was surprising howit brought them to crowd into the churches. They inquired no more intowho[246] they sat near to or far from, what offensive smells they metwith, or what condition the people seemed to be in; but, looking uponthemselves all as so many dead corpses, they came to the churcheswithout the least caution, and crowded together as if their lives wereof no consequence compared to the work which they came about there.Indeed, the zeal which they showed in coming, and the earnestness andaffection they showed in their attention to what they heard, made itmanifest what a value people would all put upon the worship of God ifthey thought every day they attended at the church that it would betheir last. Nor was it without other strange effects, for it took awayall manner of prejudice at, or scruple about, the person whom they foundin the pulpit when they came to the churches. It cannot be doubted butthat many of the ministers of the parish churches were cut off amongothers in so common and dreadful a calamity; and others had not courageenough to stand it, but removed into the country as they found means forescape. As then some parish churches were quite vacant and forsaken, thepeople made no scruple of desiring such dissenters as had been a fewyears before deprived of their livings, by virtue of an act ofParliament called the "Act of Uniformity,"[247] to preach in thechurches, nor did the church ministers in that case make any difficultyin accepting their assistance; so that many of those whom they calledsilent ministers had their mouths opened on this occasion, and preachedpublicly to the people.
Here we may observe, and I hope it will not be amiss to take notice ofit, that a near view of death would soon reconcile men of goodprinciples one to another, and that it is chiefly owing to our easysituation in life, and our putting these things far from us, that ourbreaches are fomented, ill blood continued, prejudices, breach ofcharity and of Christian union so much kept and so far carried on amongus as it is. Another plague year would reconcile all these differences;a close conversing with death, or with diseases that threaten death,would scum off the gall from our tempers, remove the animosities amongus, and bring us to see with differing eyes than those which we lookedon things with before. As the people who had been used to join with thechurch were reconciled at this time with the admitting the dissenters topreach to them, so the dissenters, who, with an uncommon prejudice, hadbroken off from the communion of the Church of England, were now contentto come to their parish churches, and to conform to the worship whichthey did not approve of before. But, as the terror of the infectionabated, those things all returned again to their less desirablechannel, and to the course they were in before.
I mention this but historically: I have no mind to enter into argumentsto move either or both sides
I could dwell a great while upon the calamities of this dreadful time,and go on to describe the