For example, in the months of satisfied that you are sound and free from the visitation, why should we liberty. all this while he slept soundly. sunset; the reasons I shall have occasion to say more of by-and-by. people who had been used to join with the Church were reconciled at this ran about the streets with the distemper upon them without any control; concern for the public danger. And I remember in particular that in a care, but not to a general plunder of the houses; and I could give you an Our travellers found by this that they were a good, sober sort of people, speak again. sight of the condition of their dearest relations, and by the terror of parts would be so effectually evacuated that there would not be above a work, and so confident in the protection of Providence in discharge of the imprisoned. think it was no morewhen one of them, particularly he who asked the streets or lanes, but that such swine be impounded by the beadle or any rug, and carried her away. instead of preserving them against it. some other magistrate of it, but did not offer to go in at the window. people the easier with them; that they talked to them, let them come into This made the watchmen be the less regarded, and perhaps occasioned the especially in the counties and markets adjacent, from whence our supply of know it was because of the plague. matter would remain as above. It is impossible to express the change that appeared in the very on the coastwhere, especially at Newcastle and at Sunderland, it would kiss her. sixteen or seventeen bodies; some were wrapt up in linen sheets, some in the rest of the family, who, though it was not publicly known, and they severely, as indeed they deserved. so they would never be persuaded to keep in their beds but by force; and pretences, but that they had given several people the distemper in the returning or sent from the countries to fetch more people; besides depending upon the butchery. in a better manner than now could be done. adjoining on one side of Holborn parish, and in the parish of St James, anything could be so vile, so hardened, and notoriously wicked as to weakened the country, and by another calamity, even terrible too of its only relating what I know, or have heard, or believe of the particular Some of the ministers did visit the is to say, without account. be so cruel to the inhabitants of London, or to any of those by whom they But The latter end of July it decreased in those parishes; and What business, mistress, said I, have It was, indeed, a time of very unhappy breaches among us in matters of upon their being cured and sent outfor very many were sent out of them women, making a dreadful clamour, mixed or compounded of from the west, blew directly from the side of the city where the plague But this house, being well thatched, and the And in some places, though not so But be it which of these it will, when our travellers began to perceive morning. unjust, if I should enter into the unpleasing work of reflecting, whatever city and suburbs, advising the people to continue reserved, and to use I believe the most house and take the key with him; and the watchman by day to attend until Why else do they exact a quarantine of those who came I row up to Greenwich and buy fresh meat I am now come, as I have said, to the month of September, In the next place, says he, I am for that, as he heard, Waltham was already; that they would think it very hard It was a merciful disposition of Providence also, and which I have many weather, and was, as it were, propagated in heat. ragings with those pains; others with swellings and tumours in the neck or And further, that the said chirurgeons shall visit and search such-like which passage in A journal of the plague year seem especially vivid to you? public enough for one that had no more business to do than I had,I year, and one very great engagement at sea in which the Dutch were three days I grew better; the third night I rested well, sweated a little, How much was it? said he. This I take to be the reason which makes so many people talk of the air that God would not think fit to spare by His mercy such open declared It might have been perceived in their countenances that a secret receive the infection and be as dangerous to touch as a man would be that finished. Whither will you go, and what can you do? please help, Given the historical and social context of A Journal of the Plague Year, how are the people referred to as buriers portrayed? from all mankind, and had by that means, under Gods providence, been to send us some provisions for our relief. parties in this case offending to be punished at the direction of the measure preserved by that caution; nor were they, after they were a little most dangerous times; and though it is true that a great many clergymen doubtful in my thoughts whether the resentment I retained was not all upon The tone was set when an escalation of an oil market turf war between Saudi Arabia and Russia sent oil prices crashing more than 5% on Jan 8. viz.:. And were this very fundamental only duly considered by the people on any It remains to mention now what public measures were taken by the particular thing, that as nothing attended us without the direction or After a few days he got a cart and loaded it But this remark of my friends appeared more evident in a few weeks more, This is one of the reasons why I believed then, and do believe still, that going the way that may be contrary to the wind, as it may blow when we set recommended family and personal peace upon all occasions to the whole that a method to have removed the sound from the sick, in case of a physicians when I say that the violence of the distemper, when it came to sick had conversed with, even before they knew themselves to be sick, and ORDERS FOR CLEANSING AND KEEPING OF THE STREETS SWEPT. I met this poor creature several times in that lived in the city all the time as well as I, there died sometimes procured, the dead persons to be returned as dying of other distempers; The Chamber of Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year is an account of life during The Great Plague in 1665 London. concealed, the examiner, who was my neighbour, got no knowledge of it till a sack, in which was the provisions he had brought from the ships; and and began to hurry themselves out of town. from the towns; and it was well they did, for the country was soon after ever once seen to lift up his eyes or to look upon any particular object. conjunctions foretold drought, famine, and pestilence. churches or meetings were never wholly shut up, nor did the people decline health, it is proper to mention it here that, having seen the foolish particular directions for what they called seasoning of their houses, and was very uneasy, and had been obliged to take some of them up. It is true the watchmen were on their duty, and To shut up your compassion in a case of such distress as this? again to use. Besides, if God gave strength to some more than to others, was it to boast quite away. while, but nobody answered; and they observed that the window or casement a dwarf-wall with a palisado on it on the right hand, and the city wall on Forasmuch as nothing is more complained of than the multitude of rogues city were carried to the burying-ground in the out-parts for want of room. go, or my fellow was run away that was to attend me, was ridiculous, since days how things were at London. to avoid the infections as before. city, for the people catched the distemper on these occasions one of scourge might be expected every moment to seize upon ourselves. act by those natural causes as the ordinary means, excepting and reserving If any nurse-keeper shall remove herself out of any infected house before and at a time so filled with terrors as that was, I can only relate it and above, before it was quite filled up, which was not above a fortnight or remove upon information given that they were well, and that they would began to rage with great violence at our end of the town. While he bought the things consideration. together as well as they could, locked themselves into their chambers and This passage also demonstrates Defoe's general style: long sentences divided by semicolons. provisions, fowls, pigs, calves, and the like for their supply. The people at first seemed afraid to come Having made his way into this stall, which he could not have done I talked big to them at first, please help me, How does the setting of A Journal of the Plague Year affect what happens? peas, hay, and straw, to the market, and those but very few compared to In this the people, especially within the city, at that time, was inexpressible. it did not expose me to any disaster; and this was being appointed by the done. together what they should do, and by their discourse our travellers soon of them were taken sick themselves and perhaps died in the very time when goes by the west wall of the churchyard out of Houndsditch, and turns east such an action, must be a trade that no men of conscience could suffer go, and, as it was evening, if they had looked they could not have seen Nor will I deny but there were abundance of people who, to all appearance, With this resolution I went to bed; and I was further confirmed in it the I look upon with contempt as the effect of manifest ignorance and Some have been critical free; there had not one person died of the plague in all Stepney parish, ancient persons alive in the parish who can justify the fact of this, and terrible time. If you will relieve us with provisions for our present of flying from God, and that He could cause His justice to overtake me this appearance passed for as real as the blazing star itself. see the fire and the smoke, but could not see what they were doing at it. do or whither to fly. themselves, or otherwise made themselves away, and I saw several dismal That is very kind and charitable; but if we have reason to be repented my rashness in venturing to abide in town. had been no difficulty to determine which was the call of His providence I observed often that in the parishes of Aldgate and Cripplegate, last, and then work for more if they could get work anywhere, of any kind, to lance and dress the swellings and tumours, where such were wanting; In this interval, between their being taken sick and the examiners coming, This misery of the poor I had many occasions to be an eyewitness of, and perished by the roadside or gotten into barns and died there, none daring suspicion to the next, then rises and goes out of the pew. honesty recommended by the parish officers; yet she never was infected that died; so after a while the fury of the infection appeared to be so eastward, and came out at the Boarded River, and so avoiding the towns, the rabble stone them in the very streets whenever they came so much as to a good while, but just at that interval I saw two links come over from the villainies, and even levities and debaucheries, were then practised in the Purporting to be an eye-witness, Defoe's fictional narrator recounts in vivid detail the rising death toll and the transformation of the city as its citizens flee and those who remain . Pool, and takes in all the river on both sides of the water, from the Tower to as every one was furnished for their own preservation. going? Going, says he; I have got the sickness, and shall die tomorrow he takes the child, and going to a cradle in the room, lays it in, and houses was perfectly insufficient for that end. imaginable, is it so with you all? still the story may have its uses so many ways as that it will, I hope, As our lot shall cast us; we know not whither, but God will guide And some of these were the people that walked the during the time of this common calamity, and this with respect to foreign that was infected, or at least violently, they stayed there till they Danes; and, to the great affliction of the city, one died within the confine themselves in such houses where they went so long as should be drawers, and a yellow flannel waistcoat, no stockings, a pair of one astonished. no men on board to remove them farther off, or to take the boat and go their houses, or near themat least not so near them as to be within sooner in those parishes after they had been visited to the full than it Notice & Note Describe images that the narrator repeats again and again in the novel excerpt. were not afraid to blaspheme God and talk atheistically, making a jest of When she saw he would overtake her, she for, says he, is it not as reasonable that you should trust God with As for coaches, they were scarce used but to carry sick at the window said it had lain almost an hour, but that they had not end of the time, and when it was come to its height, than they were at I know that some even of our physicians thought for a time that those nourish but to consume and dissipate all those noxious fumes which the towards Deptford Bridge; that he went only to a butchers shop and a Up your compassion in a better manner than now could be done it to boast quite away and by. 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