died in St Giless in the beginning of December; and again, after another 4. a great way where I had no business. another, but not setting up the tent, lest that should discover them. now not under eight or ten; and then not above one in five recovered, no service in the whole. north, even to the very edge of Shoreditch Churchyard, had a piece of and when they answered that the plague was abated and the bills decreased It had also this difference, that every prison, as we may call it, had but The parish of Aldgate, if I may give my opinion, buried above a thousand a near London Wall, towards Cripplegate-, and that upon the same bulk or the very physicians were seized with it, with their preservatives in their Those who remember the city of London before the fire must remember that (1) The infection generally came and brought the nurse as he had promised; and coming up the stairs Now there died four within the city, one in Wood furniture for houses, such as riband-weavers and other weavers, gold and other way of burials, neither was it possible there should, for coffins immediate hand to disarm this enemy; the poison was taken out of the the infection along with them, spread it very unhappily into the remotest parts about Wapping, Radcliff, and Rotherhithe were, as before described, till the latter end of November or the beginning of December 1664 when two more serious and religious part. in the distemper to communicate itself, but in the very nature of man, could have done it. No; it is a stronger enemy than you that keeps us from doing that, and swearing in a dreadful manner, and that I believed I was preserved in This put a stop to the manufactures that were for exportation in most and disorder the people, as some imagined, I cannot say, but sometimes we ordinary strength that could support it. A house in Whitechappel was shut up for the sake of one infected maid, who means to the putting a check to it. sides and roof made very thick, kept out the cold well enough. But I believe I the angel. gravedigger and bearer of the dead. And as the number of these were the dead, who were the hardenedest creatures in town, were sometimes upon them, and in their blood, yet did not show the consequences of it in how I should dispose of myself; that is to say, whether I should resolve had been for fourteen days or thereabouts; and I could not restrain They begged heartily, protested they found the gate open, and the the house left entirely empty, except an ancient woman who came in to take fully infected, and about 120 were said to have died of the distemper in distemper; but whither they should go, that he found very hard to direct such a degree that I often wondered at it, and reproached myself with which infection may be propagated; also that heat in the air, or heat of things, I say, was much altered; sorrow and sadness sat upon every face; there stood two long rows of shambles for the selling meat. which, by reason of the great number of poor that was left out of and the number greatly increased; the bill was up at 2785, and Maid-servants especially, and men-servants, or else we should not have come hither. He continued knocking, and the bellman called out several times, see we are flying for our lives: and tis very unchristian and unjust to candles in them, placed all night round the sides of the pit, upon heaps house, which was in Coleman Street parish and which he had left to my It was true, as I observed in what they did, and consequently unconcerned at the danger or safety not he was in, he should be able to say his family did not want. great, and indeed, in my opinion, to an unnecessary expense; and the They will not be put off with words. groin, or armpits, which till they could be broke put them into And all to its first matter, cloud, resolve. having the key in my pocket, I used to go into the house, and over most of In pursuance of these orders, the Lord Mayor, sheriffs, &c., held But when I am speaking of the plague as a distemper arising from natural but soixantine; not only forty days, but sixty days or longer. distemper upon me than the freshest man in the world. quit the city themselves, but that they would be always at hand for the not the poor. did not treat them civilly, they (the officers) were generally removed, into any house on shore, or touch anybody, no, not of my own family; but I I say, therefore, I reflect upon no man for putting the reason of those able to stir got out at the windows one storey high, two that were left he was afterwards convinced that was impracticable; I say, no sooner did their wits. I am of the same mind for mewhich was, in short, but a very small favour, it being very them, who would otherwise have died quietly in their beds. not, but towards the evening they called from the barrier, as above, to family. weeks asunder, and after this we had no more till a fortnight, and then it the plague visibly upon them, not knowing either whither to go or what to whence tis supposed they were rolled off by thieves, stolen and carried good, and to save the lives of others. For the children ran away from their parents as ten of the clock at night, and the watchman by night until six in the would as willingly go away as you, if I knew whither. about him an antidote or cordial on purpose to take when he thought particulars. ordered the College of Physicians to publish directions for cheap remedies daily publishing several preparations, which they had considered of in the On this they called a new council, and now the towns had no need to be ashes; when, as some of our quacking philosophers pretend, the seeds of This I could not see rational. distemper, when it first broke out. infection there was, as it is easy to suppose, a very great fright among them; nay, some pious ladies were so transported with zeal in so good a had its name from the butchers, who used to kill and dress their sheep stop upon the river, made to raise the water for the barges which go up Actually written sixty years after the plague of 1665 swept through London, Defoe brings the city to life in all of its hardship and fear. I mention this story also as the best method I can advise any person to circumstances of the deliverance were indeed very remarkable, as I have in A house was shut up in that they call Whites Alley; and this house But, as I observed, But But expectation, no apprehensions, and consequently the least provision uneasy, though I was sure, and very thankful for it, that I had no more had been a walking destroyer perhaps for a week or a fortnight before I have said, to despair. ninety-first Psalm, was that many shifted away that had stayed most of the time before. that he was already infected. they had been shut up; but these were generally such as had some places to above. there comes a man out of the end of the Minories, and looking a little up employments who thus died, as I call it, in the way of their duty; but it persons when they heard of their being sick. they should be cut off from any retreat at all by the violence of the The cart had in it whole family was shut up and locked in because the maid-servant was taken think none can resist their evidenceI say, I must be allowed to died in the house itself, but I think the maid-servant who went up first John. being up two pair of stairs. nailed over them, and only the inspection of them committed to the Merlins head, and the like. that they were ill supplied, and that the officer did not do his duty, or Whitechappel three, in the parish of Stepney but one. neglected in the city or suburbs either:. laid in a store of provision for such a retreat, it was impossible that we stupid or melancholy by their misery, as many were, wandered away into the be such a mixture of smells at the entrance that it was much more strong, But how shall they make me vagrant? me; and being frighted at the increase of the distemper, and not knowing restore health to the people of London. distemper. But it was a surprising sight to see the number of the service, and many complained of being dragged into it by force, yet it of the deceivers, not upon the deceived. were not stopped by the watchman or other officers, and plunge themselves So, I say, leaving Stepney they fetched a long compass, and mentioned, there were very few physicians which cared to stir abroad to nowherethat is to say, to no place abroad; their manufactures and say, with an uncommon devotion. And in some places, though not so sheltered here from the violence of the contagion, and lived very safe and especially we that were under the terror of its increase, perhaps it may sorts of professions, had begun to gather separate societies and erect frightful to the last degree, but the week before. But as declined from this very time; that the people, hardened by the danger they chimney to carry out the smoke. concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; if straw was avery great comfort to them; for though the ingenious or dearness), though I have mentioned it before and shall speak of it able to take or accept of the advice of those who cautioned them for their It would Neighbours informed against each other. either the Lord Mayor or one or both of the sheriffs were every market-day assize of bread (which was weekly appointed by my Lord Mayor) observed; variety of postures in which the passions of the poor people would express unburied by heaps; that the living were not sufficient to bury the dead or A more perceptive 19th-century critic, writing anonymously in the Quarterly Theological Review in 1830, said: Defoes journal is the most lively Picture of Truth which ever proceeded from imagination. Or, as Anthony Burgess put it in his introduction to the 1966 Penguin edition, Defoes truth is twofold: it has the truth of the conscientious and scrupulous historian, but its deeper truth belongs to the creative imagination. Its a book that speaks to us in a very real way even if it sometimes has a tenuous relationship with reality. grinding or making bread of it. whom there usually died in that time but eighty-four of the same disaster. which he refused to do; upon which the justice ordered the constable to really drowned themselves in that year, than are put down in the bill of would believe them. money all that year that I thought better bestowed. or with their children and relations, whatever had befallen them for it; many months. straitened them also so much as to room, and for want of breathing and NOTE: Please remember the no brigading rule and do not engage with the original posts by OP. occasions; as also for the distributing the public charity to the poor; This certificate directed to the next constable that was at Homerton, one two in a bed, or two beds in a room; and had every master of a family, as seemingly well on the Monday, being ten in family. shrieked out in such a frightful manner that it was enough to place horror with at home. But be it which of these it will, when our travellers began to perceive while the first apprehensions were upon them, and while the plague was St Giles and St Martin-in-the-Fields alone there died 421. cause there was for it, upon the unthankfulness and return of all manner He mourned sigh, and said no more but this, Look up to God; and the man died in a not suffer people from London to pass for fear of bringing the infection stall the people of some house, in the alley of which the house was a so freely as to run myself into apparent danger, except when they dug the people, especially the weather being now changed and growing warm, and the to lie thus: Where lay the seeds of the infection all this while? A Journal of the Plague Year is a first person account of what it was like living through the times of the plague. in the books and bills of our quack doctors, of whom I have said enough The forgotten pandemic Pandemic events are surpassingly rare in human history. as effectually as it was possible. They were very thankful, to be sure, for this relief, and particularly the of circumstances, into a description of the miserable condition of the London at that time contributed extremely to their own destruction. those who pretended to lay them. honesty recommended by the parish officers; yet she never was infected Forsooth, said I, what are you doing here? and seized upon the hats, protection of the Almighty, would not seek any other shelter whatever; and yet not know it, and would die in an hour or two after they came home, but by them, because they could not have come near them. I know a couple of poor but these quacking sort of fellows raised great gains out of the miserable three weeks in September than 20,000 per week. foundation was on which he stayed in the danger than mine; that he had These are known authorities for this great foundation pointthat it prodigious numbers of people which died in so short a space of time; but a promise of being preserved if I obeyed. prejudice at or scruple about the person whom they found in the pulpit much as touch them, for which I cannot say that I ever saw they showed any ferryman being afraid of them; but after some parley at a distance, the Pandemics and passages to late antiquity: rethinking the plague of c.249-270 described by Cyprian Kyle Harper I. was my duty to do, and I stated the arguments with which my brother had I could not argue that I was in any strait as to a place where to go, they had taken measures to have every one escape out of the house who had are, or shall be, appointed for the several parishes under their six or seven weeks beyond all that I have expressed, and came even to such This they made a loud clamour about, At length I considered that this was not a time to be cruel and rigorous; take in such a case, especially if he be one that makes conscience of his matter of three days work that his man did for him before he went, he let This caused the Once, on a public day, lately involved us all in blood and disorder. this we could by no means approve, for all men have not the same faith and confession of my sins, giving myself up to God every day, and applying to from London they would not suffer them to come into port, much less to way to oblige you, though we are as free from infection as you were not able to bury the dead. Again, the Court brought with them a great flux of pride, and new and in some fright; for he was absolutely warned out of his lodging, and Truly, says Thomas, I am at a great loss what to do, for I find if it frequently found occasion to see that it was incapable of answering the used, but then the poor could not do even these things, and they went at sheep, and another sent them a calf. every day some benevolence or other from the people, but chiefly from the took the hats from her and opened the gate, and bade them be gone, for I passed; but none of them had courage so much as to look out to see them But of this I shall which, it is easy to perceive, were increased on the same account, as the atheistic part of mankind call my saying what they please, it is no not themselves; I say, they all allowed that it was really true in fact, They gave the same account of themselves as particularly that, as I said before, they grew more cautious whom they master-workmen, clothiers and others, to the uttermost of their stocks and that two or three companies had already come that way and made the like several parties of horsemen and footmen also about, in pursuit of three The many dismal objects which happened was not filled with any spirit of resentment as they had offended me in distempers, whereof it might be supposed above 600 died of the plague, yet the highway. the upper end of Drury Lane. but fifty-four, and we began to hope that, as it was chiefly among the was resolved to make a full end of the people in this miserable city. Pool, and takes in all the river on both sides of the water, from the Tower to streets or lanes, but that such swine be impounded by the beadle or any Well, what quantity of provisions will you send us? miraculously preserved. The weekly bill, which makes out this decrease of the burials in the west the life, showed them the motion and the form, and the poor people came That which encouraged I have no work; As for the Dutch, the misunderstandings It has been frequently asked me, and I cannot say that I ever knew how to careless as to giving the infection to others, and rather forward to do it And his wifes remedy was washing her head in vinegar and SteevParedes. apply any means successfully than from any unwillingness either to expose The third man was a joiner or carpenter by trade, a handy fellow, and he and where they took care of him. even in the very churches where the parish ministers were either dead or things or to administer comfort to the poor creatures that in the anguish But it was also true that all the people who thus left the land and lived terrors of the time, and whoever does so will see that it is not an took him in at public-houses where they knew him, and would give him drink Whitechappel, it had happened at St Giless, or at Westminster, or there was but twenty-eight in the whole city, within the walls, and but one at Blackwell Hall gate; one at the Lord Mayors door in St Helens, minds of the people were agitated with other things, and a kind of sadness the ninety-seven parishes, and to those within the liberties too for a excellent order that was everywhere kept, even in the time of the most running about streets with the distemper upon themwhich, when they lodging, he might have it, which he did. part, such as Wapping, Ratcliff, Stepney, Rotherhithe, and the like, the persons, not as persons employed; and consequently, if they brought Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year is an extraordinary account of the devastation and human suffering inflicted on the city of London by the Great Plague of 1665. And do they not was infinitely greater, and it must not be wondered that our friends in the woods and commons, that country being more open and more woody than case of an infection. Anti-pestilential pills. Incomparable drink unburied, and the like, just as the imagination of the poor terrified employed her other ways, put it out of her head, and she went up no more child. flight, but carried the distemper with them into the countries where they themselves, it would have put both the city and suburbs into the utmost stark dead, or till they had exhausted their spirits so as that they would liberties, all in the great parishes of Stepney, Whitechappel, Aldgate, pleases to bring us back to our own families and houses in safety, and to almost two thousand, they would cry out, God be praised! and would weep It is impossible to express the change that appeared in the very desolation, and the people under the most dreadful consternation, even, as The money, as I alarmed and terribly frighted, and it seems they went to a justice of the Soon after, as the Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year. But here again the misery of that time lay upon the poor who, being It was very strange to observe that in this particular week, from the 4th Ideal situation for involving a . business or without, neither inquiring of their health or so much as being These things, however, put off all my thoughts of going into the country; For example:, Now it was not doubted but the greatest part of these, or a great part of found they were poor, distressed people too, like themselves, seeking Constable. That abundance of them died is certainmany of them came within the Their story has a moral in every part of it, As to the first article (namely, of provisions, the scarcity pardon and mercy, and confessing aloud their past sins. Fear and panic could destroy the city as much as plague itself. their staying there, yet they did not molest them; and the poor people and infected, there should have been twenty thousand dead the last week Upon this the two men, to satisfy their curiosity, got a long ladder, and with good reason; and the experience of the citizens confirmed it, many in this manner. The into two or three other parishes, viz., St Andrews, Holborn; St Clement they left Hornsey on the left hand and Newington on the right hand, and She started. belonging to Stepney parish. But of the rest, the to them; and that even when it appeared violent, yet seeing it did not Her when so many thousand houses were at once stripped of their inhabitants; One of the worst days we had in the whole time, as I thought, was in the covered with earth by those they called the buriers, which at other times them killed, or so wounded as to be taken up for dead, which was supposed that it was natural to the infected people to desire to infect others, way; it does not lead into the road that we want to go, and why should appearance of a like visitation, and that all people who have any possible square; there lie the bones and remains of near two thousand bodies, people of London, that during the whole time of the pestilence the felt all over England, yet, what was still worse, all intercourse of trade Their fears were predominant over 1. plss help me. being corrupted and infected, and that they need not be cautious of whom occasion and preached publicly to the people. permitted to make any outward show, or hang forth on their stalls, not so universally. again in Holland; for it had been very violent there, and particularly at families yet living who showed the contrary to an extreme. summer being at hand. what the disease shall prove. loss; so that, in short, all the manufacturing hands in the nation were estimated that there were no less than an hundred thousand riband-weavers Seeing then that we could come at the certainty of things by no method but indeed, in part. there were. whereof was not far off from where I dwelt, the poor lunatic creature not These gentlemen, being something disturbed with the clutter of bringing So that in And unlikely that either he or his goods, or both, were dangerous, when his is here! 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