Although the London plague was not a pandemic as we now understand the word, for the citizens of that great capital, the experience of it was total. For those that did not flee the disease, the City was the World. In this postscript, I pres

A Visible Summons to Thankfulness

Jul 4th, 2020 12m 37s

Here at the end we find a bit of literary license, for the abatement of the plague is depicted by Defoe as a swift and decisive stroke from heaven, “the immediate finger of God.” Suddenly the plague abates, and one week, on a day (a Thursday!

Judge the Most Favourably and According to Charity

Jul 2nd, 2020 24m 49s

Having reached very near the end of his narrative, the author is in a mood to reconcile his accounts, and in a spirit of tolerance he strikes a balanced tone, urging that compassion color the judgments made, particularly of those clergy and ph

They Might as Well Have Talked to the Air

Jun 30th, 2020 13m 50s

More on how the decline in the mortality rate put the people of London “past all admonitions.” As in the last episode, the author chronicles the city’s return to the usual vices and immoralities once the danger was perceived to have passed (wh

Rash and Foolish Conduct

Jun 27th, 2020 14m 1s

Here is an account, as they say, “ripped from the headlines.” In the early fall of the year, following a week in which no fewer than 8,200 people died of all diseases, the plague began to abate, and the mortality rate dropped. No sooner did th

Trade and Commerce II

Jun 25th, 2020 16m 13s

Here continues a brief review of trade during the plague, this time with an emphasis on domestic trade. The author discusses the provision of coal and foodstuffs to the city and the general state of the trades, which naturally suffered tremend

Trade and Commerce I

Jun 23rd, 2020 13m 32s

In a welcome respite from his catalog of horrors, the author looks beyond the streets of London and considers the effect of the disease on trade and commerce, starting here with its impact on foreign trade. London in 1665 was the second most p

Underreporting

Jun 20th, 2020 23m 24s

Now the author returns to a consideration of the first months of the visitation. How is it, he wonders, if the plague is spread through contact with infected persons, that the bills of mortality recorded such wide gaps, one as long as nine wee

Breathing Death upon Them

Jun 18th, 2020 14m 41s

After some reflections on how mass evacuations (the term he uses here is disposing) of the city, thereby reducing its population density, might proportionally reduce the impact of the disease in any future calamity, the author resumes a famili

A Distemper Arising from Natural Causes

Jun 16th, 2020 21m 21s

This longish episode takes up a terribly important topic: beliefs among the author’s contemporaries as to how the plague was transmitted. Londoners of the 17th century clearly had a notion of contagion, and naturally enough they believed that

Episode 25: Doing Their Duty

Jun 14th, 2020 17m

Although I haven’t mentioned it in these notes before, throughout the Journal the author has praised the work of the city administration—the Lord Mayor, the Court of Aldermen, magistrates, the city council, the sheriffs, and others—for their le

Episode 24: Provisions Were Always to be Had in Full Plenty

Jun 11th, 2020 16m 16s

This episode continues the author’s cataloging of the miseries endured during the epidemic. From the weekly bills he notes that close to 40,000 people died in the five weeks between August 22d and September 26th (although not all from the plagu

Episode 23: A Close Conversing with Death

Jun 9th, 2020 16m 13s

After several episodes in which the author has been content simply to relay incidents and anecdotes of suffering and distress, here now he draws a breath and offers his personal reflections about the experience of Londoners at the height of the

Episode 22: All Regulations and Methods Were in Vain

Jun 6th, 2020 18m 21s

Episode 22: All Regulations and Methods Were in VainBy now the author’s belief that the policy of shutting up households was futile and cruel should be abundantly clear, but just in case it isn’t, here are more anecdotes illustrating that

Episode 21: Raving Mad, to Be Sure

Jun 4th, 2020 13m 22s

But what happened when the infected got out? When they escaped from shut up houses or roamed the streets, delirious, before the authorities became aware of their illness? This episode relates several incidents in which persons dying of the dise

Episode 20: A House in Whitechappel

Jun 2nd, 2020 13m 10s

While praising the “prudence” and “moderation” of the magistrates who oversaw the shutting up of houses, the author nevertheless continues his condemnation of the practice as ineffective and unfair. Yes, he says, if all and only infected person

Episode 19: A Wicked Inclination to Infect Others

May 30th, 2020 11m 9s

Readers of the novel will note that at this point I have entirely passed over a long account about three men from Wapping, whose tale of taking to the highways and fields is instructive, but perhaps too long and detailed for modern listeners.

Episode 18: The Most Deplorable Cases

May 28th, 2020 13m 59s

This episode is one of the most disturbing in the novel. It concerns the death of newborn infants and their mothers at or shortly after childbirth as the result, direct or indirect, of the plague. Some died along with their mothers at the mom

Episode 17: The Devout Waterman

May 26th, 2020 16m 40s

Here is a pious little tale about an act of loyalty and human kindness that the author witnessed on one of his forays along the waterfront. It contains some information about how the more resourceful among those who lived near the river found

Episode 16: A Thousand Unaccountable Things

May 23rd, 2020 12m 16s

Although Defoe’s account is scarcely chronological, at this point in the novel we have come to the height of the epidemic, when, by official accounts, around 7,000 people were falling victim to the plague every week. Here he describes what are

Episode 15: All Trades Being Stopped, Employment Ceased

May 21st, 2020 18m 43s

Having already treated social distancing, quarantine, crime, fake news, lack of preparation, fake remedies, and the inadequate facilities for the treatment of the sick and the disposition of the dead, the author now takes up another all-too-fam

Episode 14: The Story of the Piper

May 19th, 2020 18m 43s

This episode contains one of the better-known anecdotes to emerge from the novel and offers a rare moment of gallows humor amidst the unrelenting horror. The story of the piper was evidently widely known at the time of the visitation itself, fo

Episode 13: The Most Rash, Fearless, and Desperate Creatures

May 16th, 2020 18m 43s

It was inevitable that in the breakdown of trade and civil authority, and in a time of widespread hunger, that crime would increase. Serious crime, including murder, was widely reported, but the author is skeptical of these accounts. He belie

Episode 12: Social Distancing

May 14th, 2020 20m 11s

The accounts in the first part of this episode will be especially familiar to those of you hearing it during the spring of 2020, particularly if you have been sequestering yourself against the COVID-19 pandemic. Here the author describes how s

Episode 11: Houses Inhabited and Houses Forsaken

May 12th, 2020 18m 43s

Here the author continues his insistence that the forced shutting up of houses is not only bad policy but actually led to the death of many more than would have succumbed if they had been able to voluntarily sequester themselves and send away t