Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year

[Smeraldina Rima]

I started reading this when the only person warning about Coronavirus in this country was The Boston Crab (then being roundly ignored I might add) and finished it during lockdown. Now everybody from David Baddiel to Stewart Lee has been musing about the parrallels to the present day predicament. It's a fictional diary written and published over fifty years after the plague of London of 1665 and - although I haven't looked into it - it's often mentioned that it might have been based on real journals made by Defoe's uncle. Two things stood out to me. One is that the narrator is bizarrely repetetive - pressing straightforward points about common behaviour and belief regarding the distemper and - for instance - whether it lingers in the air. The other thing I cared about is that he uses 'whence', 'from whence' and 'from where' seemingly interchangably, while mostly favouring 'from whence'. By contrast, of his 13 uses of 'whither', only one is used with the seemingly redundant 'to'. What is point 'from whence'. Shakespeare wrote 'from whence' too, so it must have been standard and intelligent speech long before Lee and Herring said 'from whence the humour arose'.

I sometimes wish it were still socially acceptable to use the precise set of directional adverbs: 'whence', 'whither', 'thence' and 'thither'... but maybe they never were very precise.

This is the most memorable part of the book:

It was about the 10th of September that my curiosity led, or rather drove, me to go and see this pit again, when there had been near 400 people buried in it; and I was not content to see it in the day-time, as I had done before, for then there would have been nothing to have been seen but the loose earth; for all the bodies that were thrown in were immediately covered with earth by those they called the buriers, which at other times were called bearers; but I resolved to go in the night and see some of them thrown in.

There was a strict order to prevent people coming to those pits, and that was only to prevent infection. But after some time that order was more necessary, for people that were infected and near their end, and delirious also, would run to those pits, wrapt in blankets or rugs, and throw themselves in, and, as they said, bury themselves. I cannot say that the officers suffered any willingly to lie there; but I have heard that in a great pit in Finsbury, in the parish of Cripplegate, it lying open then to the fields, for it was not then walled about, many came and threw themselves in, and expired there, before they threw any earth upon them; and that when they came to bury others and found them there, they were quite dead, though not cold.

This may serve a little to describe the dreadful condition of that day, though it is impossible to say anything that is able to give a true idea of it to those who did not see it, other than this, that it was indeed very, very, very dreadful, and such as no tongue can express.

[Astronaut Omens]

That same night, September 10th 1665, not very far away, Samuel Pepys was laughing his head off-
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1665/09/10/

I never met with so merry a two hours as our company this night was. Among other humour, Mr. Evelyn's repeating of some verses made up of nothing but the various acceptations of may and can, and doing it so aptly upon occasion of something of that nature, and so fast, did make us all die almost with laughing, and did so stop the mouth of Sir J. Minnes in the middle of all his mirth (and in a thing agreeing with his own manner of genius), that I never saw any man so out-done in all my life; and Sir J. Minnes's mirth too to see himself out-done, was the crown of all our mirth.

In this humour we sat till about ten at night, and so my Lord and his mistress home, and we to bed, it being one of the times of my life wherein I was the fullest of true sense of joy.

.
There's a more suitably downbeat selection of quotes from Pepys' experience of 1665 here:
https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/Xn4chRIAAK03rFsj

[bgmnts]

No mention of clapping for the NHS there.

What a cunt.

[Astronaut Omens]

No, but the weird empty streets were the same.
Pepys, 28th of August

Up and being ready, I out to Mr.Colvill the goldsmith's having not for some days been in the streets. But now, how few people I see, and those walking like people who had taken leave of the world

[Smeraldina Rima]

Thanks for drawing this comparison. Pepys's long entry for the 2nd September 1666 - and subsequent ones concerning the great fire - show similar mixed emotions to the ones that you pointed out in the time of the plague:

By this time it was about twelve o'clock; and so home, and there find my guests, which was Mr. Wood and his wife Barbary Sheldon, and also Mr. Moons: she mighty fine, and her husband; for aught I see, a likely man. But Mr. Moone's design and mine, which was to look over my closett and please him with the sight thereof, which he hath long desired, was wholly disappointed; for we were in great trouble and disturbance at this fire, not knowing what to think of it. However, we had an extraordinary good dinner, and as merry, as at this time we could be.
[...]
When we could endure no more upon the water; we to a little ale-house on the Bankside, over against the Three Cranes, and there staid till it was dark almost, and saw the fire grow; and, as it grew darker, appeared more and more, and in corners and upon steeples, and between churches and houses, as far as we could see up the hill of the City, in a most horrid malicious bloody flame, not like the fine flame of an ordinary fire. Barbary and her husband away before us. We staid till, it being darkish, we saw the fire as only one entire arch of fire from this to the other side the bridge, and in a bow up the hill for an arch of above a mile long: it made me weep to see it. The churches, houses, and all on fire and flaming at once; and a horrid noise the flames made, and the cracking of houses at their ruins.

https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1666/09/02/

He writes on 5th September: 'Home, and whereas I expected to have seen our house on fire, it being now about seven o'clock, it was not.'

Pepys uses 'thither' and 'whither' very frequently - though seemingly never with the preposition 'to' (at least it is not usual); 'thence' also frequently - usually without the preposition 'from' - but occasionally also with it when he likes; and 'whence' much more sparingly; where it does occur I think as a clear exception always with the preposition 'from' and in phrases of coming.

To make another diary comparison, John Evelyn was very upset by the empty streets and closed shops in the time of the plague:

7th September, 1665. Came home, there perishing near 10,000 poor creatures weekly; however, I went all along the city and suburbs from Kent street to St. James's, a dismal passage, and dangerous to see so many coffins exposed in the streets, now thin of people; the shops shut up, and all in mournful silence, not knowing whose turn might be next.

11th October, 1665. To London, and went through the whole city, having occasion to alight out of the coach in several places about business of money, when I was environed with multitudes of poor, pestiferous creatures begging alms; the shops universally shut up, a dreadful prospect!

https://archive.org/details/diaryofjohnevely02eveliala/mode/2up

Edited to change 1966 to 1666 following humiliating post below.

[BlodwynPig]

Pepys played with the Beatles?

[buttgammon]

Although there's inevitably going to be irritating things in it, I'd like to read that Defoe book.

For what it's worth, I've been writing about 'Oxen of the Sun' recently and Defoe (ever a Joyce favourite) keeps coming up. There's a section that largely takes its style from Journal of the Plague Year but also bits that are loosely based on Pepys.

[Smeraldina Rima]

I didn't find it too irritating - the repetition adds to the narrator's character. He provides detailed lists of the deaths and writes 'as I have said before' a lot. There's one bit he keeps coming back to that became comical - I think it might have been about people underestimating the danger of people not showing symptoms. Would be interested to know more about the "Oxen of the Sun" Defoe/Pepys thing as and when if it doesn't compromise your research, maybe a PM link to your finished essay. Deleted extra froth in edit.

[buttgammon]

The 'Oxen' thing isn't too fully fleshed but I can see it heading in a Defoe-centric direction so I'll let you take a look if it goes anywhere!

[Mister Six]

Considering his age, he looked great in Spider-Man.

[Astronaut Omens]

Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 2 Chapter 5 has a long description of an outbreak of plague in Athens around 430 BC (from page 123 here)
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.461316/page/n121/mode/2up
Most of it is grimly descriptive of the disease and the problems of mass burial, but I found this abstract bit on the psychological effects of the plague quite striking- the very opposite of 'we're all in this together' . Does Defoe go into this sort of stuff?

In other respects also Athens owed to the plague the beginnings of
a state of unprecedented lawlessness. Seeing how quick and abrupt
were the changes of fortune which came to the rich who suddenly
died and to those who had previously been penniless but now in-
herited their wealth, people now began openly to venture on acts of
self-indulgence which before then they used to keep dark. Thus they
resolved to spend their money quickly and to spend it on pleasure,
since money and life alike seemed equally ephemeral. As for what is
called honour, no one showed himself willing to abide by its laws, so
doubtful was it whether one would survive to enjoy the name for it.
It was generally agreed that what was both honourable and valuable
was the pleasure of the moment and everything that might conceiv-
ably contribute to that pleasure. No fear of god or law of man had a
restraining influence. As for the gods, it seemed to be the same thing
whether one worshipped them or not, when one saw the good and
the bad dying indiscriminately. As for offences agamst human law, no
one expected to live long enough to be brought to trial and punished;
instead everyone felt that already a far heavier sentence had been
passed on him and was hanging over him, and that before the time for
its execution arrived it was only natural to get some pleasure out of
life.

[Smeraldina Rima]

He does, but the descriptions of psychological effects are usually practically grounded. The most abstract speculation is often given as the opinion of others which the narrator passes on neutrally or sceptically. Here is one example relating to malicious behaviour which foreshadows the news story about people going into a supermarket to cough on the bakery:

Another thing might render the country more strict with respect to the citizens, and especially with respect to the poor, and this was what I hinted at before: namely, that there was a seeming propensity or a wicked inclination in those that were infected to infect others.

There have been great debates among our physicians as to the reason of this. Some will have it to be in the nature of the disease, and that it impresses every one that is seized upon by it with a kind of a rage, and a hatred against their own kind—as if there was a malignity not only in the distemper to communicate itself, but in the very nature of man, prompting him with evil will or an evil eye, that, as they say in the case of a mad dog, who though the gentlest creature before of any of his kind, yet then will fly upon and bite any one that comes next him, and those as soon as any who had been most observed by him before.

Others placed it to the account of the corruption of human nature, who cannot bear to see itself more miserable than others of its own species, and has a kind of involuntary wish that all men were as unhappy or in as bad a condition as itself.

Others say it was only a kind of desperation, not knowing or regarding what they did, and consequently unconcerned at the danger or safety not only of anybody near them, but even of themselves also. And indeed, when men are once come to a condition to abandon themselves, and be unconcerned for the safety or at the danger of themselves, it cannot be so much wondered that they should be careless of the safety of other people.

Similarly at the end of the book the most abstract speculation about morality is presented as the opinion of others:

I wish I could say that as the city had a new face, so the manners of the people had a new appearance. I doubt not but there were many that retained a sincere sense of their deliverance, and were that heartily thankful to that Sovereign Hand that had protected them in so dangerous a time; it would be very uncharitable to judge otherwise in a city so populous, and where the people were so devout as they were here in the time of the visitation itself; but except what of this was to be found in particular families and faces, it must be acknowledged that the general practice of the people was just as it was before, and very little difference was to be seen.

Some, indeed, said things were worse; that the morals of the people declined from this very time; that the people, hardened by the danger they had been in, like seamen after a storm is over, were more wicked and more stupid, more bold and hardened, in their vices and immoralities than they were before; but I will not carry it so far neither. It would take up a history of no small length to give a particular of all the gradations by which the course of things in this city came to be restored again, and to run in their own channel as they did before.

The narrator's religious devotion seems to constrain his abstract speculation too. When the plague finally abates he thanks God for it:

Nor was this by any new medicine found out, or new method of cure discovered, or by any experience in the operation which the physicians or surgeons attained to; but it was evidently from the secret invisible hand of Him that had at first sent this disease as a judgement upon us; and let the atheistic part of mankind call my saying what they please, it is no enthusiasm; it was acknowledged at that time by all mankind.

He believes that while good people have died of the plague, God would not have spared the worst people from His punishment. In one part he encounters atheist mockers in a tavern. His own devout faith and disappointment colours this interaction and commentary:

It is with regret that I take notice of this tavern. The people were civil, mannerly, and an obliging sort of folks enough, and had till this time kept their house open and their trade going on, though not so very publicly as formerly: but there was a dreadful set of fellows that used their house, and who, in the middle of all this horror, met there every night, behaved with all the revelling and roaring extravagances as is usual for such people to do at other times, and, indeed, to such an offensive degree that the very master and mistress of the house grew first ashamed and then terrified at them.

They sat generally in a room next the street, and as they always kept late hours, so when the dead-cart came across the street-end to go into Houndsditch, which was in view of the tavern windows, they would frequently open the windows as soon as they heard the bell and look out at them; and as they might often hear sad lamentations of people in the streets or at their windows as the carts went along, they would make their impudent mocks and jeers at them, especially if they heard the poor people call upon God to have mercy upon them, as many would do at those times in their ordinary passing along the streets.

These gentlemen, being something disturbed with the clutter of bringing the poor gentleman into the house, as above, were first angry and very high with the master of the house for suffering such a fellow, as they called him, to be brought out of the grave into their house; but being answered that the man was a neighbour, and that he was sound, but overwhelmed with the calamity of his family, and the like, they turned their anger into ridiculing the man and his sorrow for his wife and children, taunted him with want of courage to leap into the great pit and go to heaven, as they jeeringly expressed it, along with them, adding some very profane and even blasphemous expressions.

They were at this vile work when I came back to the house, and, as far as I could see, though the man sat still, mute and disconsolate, and their affronts could not divert his sorrow, yet he was both grieved and offended at their discourse. Upon this I gently reproved them, being well enough acquainted with their characters, and not unknown in person to two of them.

They immediately fell upon me with ill language and oaths, asked me what I did out of my grave at such a time when so many honester men were carried into the churchyard, and why I was not at home saying my prayers against the dead-cart came for me, and the like.

I was indeed astonished at the impudence of the men, though not at all discomposed at their treatment of me. However, I kept my temper. I told them that though I defied them or any man in the world to tax me with any dishonesty, yet I acknowledged that in this terrible judgement of God many better than I were swept away and carried to their grave. But to answer their question directly, the case was, that I was mercifully preserved by that great God whose name they had blasphemed and taken in vain by cursing and swearing in a dreadful manner, and that I believed I was preserved in particular, among other ends of His goodness, that I might reprove them for their audacious boldness in behaving in such a manner and in such an awful time as this was, especially for their jeering and mocking at an honest gentleman and a neighbour (for some of them knew him), who, they saw, was overwhelmed with sorrow for the breaches which it had pleased God to make upon his family.

I cannot call exactly to mind the hellish, abominable raillery which was the return they made to that talk of mine: being provoked, it seems, that I was not at all afraid to be free with them; nor, if I could remember, would I fill my account with any of the words, the horrid oaths, curses, and vile expressions, such as, at that time of the day, even the worst and ordinariest people in the street would not use; for, except such hardened creatures as these, the most wicked wretches that could be found had at that time some terror upon their minds of the hand of that Power which could thus in a moment destroy them.

But that which was the worst in all their devilish language was, that they were not afraid to blaspheme God and talk atheistically, making a jest of my calling the plague the hand of God; mocking, and even laughing, at the word judgement, as if the providence of God had no concern in the inflicting such a desolating stroke; and that the people calling upon God as they saw the carts carrying away the dead bodies was all enthusiastic, absurd, and impertinent.

I made them some reply, such as I thought proper, but which I found was so far from putting a check to their horrid way of speaking that it made them rail the more, so that I confess it filled me with horror and a kind of rage, and I came away, as I told them, lest the hand of that judgement which had visited the whole city should glorify His vengeance upon them, and all that were near them.

They received all reproof with the utmost contempt, and made the greatest mockery that was possible for them to do at me, giving me all the opprobrious, insolent scoffs that they could think of for preaching to them, as they called it, which indeed grieved me, rather than angered me; and I went away, blessing God, however, in my mind that I had not spared them, though they had insulted me so much.

They continued this wretched course three or four days after this, continually mocking and jeering at all that showed themselves religious or serious, or that were any way touched with the sense of the terrible judgement of God upon us; and I was informed they flouted in the same manner at the good people who, notwithstanding the contagion, met at the church, fasted, and prayed to God to remove His hand from them.

I say, they continued this dreadful course three or four days—I think it was no more—when one of them, particularly he who asked the poor gentleman what he did out of his grave, was struck from Heaven with the plague, and died in a most deplorable manner; and, in a word, they were every one of them carried into the great pit which I have mentioned above, before it was quite filled up, which was not above a fortnight or thereabout.

These men were guilty of many extravagances, such as one would think human nature should have trembled at the thoughts of at such a time of general terror as was then upon us, and particularly scoffing and mocking at everything which they happened to see that was religious among the people, especially at their thronging zealously to the place of public worship to implore mercy from Heaven in such a time of distress; and this tavern where they held their dub being within view of the church-door, they had the more particular occasion for their atheistical profane mirth.

Atheists and wrongdoers usually appear as a minority, although we might now see the mockers as being nearest to ourselves. There is some commentary on the ways that other bad people would manipulate religious fears for quick profit and a brief mention of increased criminal activity among ordinary people - stealing clothes from dead bodies for example - but again the narrator focuses on the practical reasons and doubts the most scandalous reports of opportunistic vice.

[bgmnts]

What was Thucydides doing talking about the plague when he was a war correspondent? Scope creep maybe?

[chveik]

Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 2 Chapter 5 has a long description of an outbreak of plague in Athens around 430 BC

Book VI of De natura rerum is pretty solid when it comes to this particular plague's description

[Astronaut Omens]

What was Thucydides doing talking about the plague when he was a war correspondent? Scope creep maybe?

The next chapter after the one I mentioned above goes into the relevance: the Athenian army lost troops and a lot of morale to the plague, and their leader Pericles became politically weakened as a result, with a lot of the Athenians at that point wanting the war to end. Their enemies,  the Peloponnesians also became afraid of catching the plague off them. The rest of that chapter is given over to how Pericles managed to turn his political crisis around through speechmaking.

[Astronaut Omens]

Atheists and wrongdoers usually appear as a minority, although we might now see the mockers as being nearest to ourselves.

Thanks for that, brilliant post. In particular, I keep re-reading the tavern scene to try and figure out Defoe's thinking behind his narrator's. Defoe could have not included the scene at all but...doing so, he comes across as a very devout person who is nonetheless prepared to openly wrestle with the tiniest possibility that both plague and survival have nothing to do with God, even if he has to loudly condemn the idea.
Since, as you say, most modern readers would see the mockers as being a little closer to our point of view, if not in their cruelty, we could say that if that scene was written in a historical novel today it would be ironic. What I can't say with any confidence is that Defoe wasn't messing around with any irony at all here, I can't figure it out!

[Astronaut Omens]

"this tavern where they held their dub" is my new favourite bit of ye olde worlde speak.

[Smeraldina Rima]

Yes it is difficult to account for all the shades of irony. About Defoe's convictions I only know that he was a Puritan and that he wrote a book about the history of the Devil (in which at one point he claims that those influenced or inhabited by the Devil include people who believe themselves to be pious). This idea might complement the defensive references to 'enthusiasm' in the Journal of the Plague Year, two instances of which were quoted above: 'and let the atheistic part of mankind call my saying what they please, it is no enthusiasm; it was acknowledged at that time by all mankind'/ 'and that the people calling upon God as they saw the carts carrying away the dead bodies was all enthusiastic, absurd, and impertinent'. The narrator casts himself as a reasonable and sceptical Christian between the atheist mockers in the tavern and the errant enthusiasts on the other side. 'Enthusiasm' is never used here in a sincere etymological sense of being inspired by God but in the two pejorative senses indicating public fanaticism and religious fervour. The outstanding enthusiast described is a historic Quaker character who also features in Pepys's diary, a man named Soloman Eccles or Eagle.

As the desolation was greater during those terrible times, so the amazement of the people increased, and a thousand unaccountable things they would do in the violence of their fright, as others did the same in the agonies of their distemper, and this part was very affecting. Some went roaring and crying and wringing their hands along the street; some would go praying and lifting up their hands to heaven, calling upon God for mercy. I cannot say, indeed, whether this was not in their distraction, but, be it so, it was still an indication of a more serious mind, when they had the use of their senses, and was much better, even as it was, than the frightful yellings and cryings that every day, and especially in the evenings, were heard in some streets. I suppose the world has heard of the famous Solomon Eagle, an enthusiast. He, though not infected at all but in his head, went about denouncing of judgement upon the city in a frightful manner, sometimes quite naked, and with a pan of burning charcoal on his head. What he said, or pretended, indeed I could not learn.

I will not say whether that clergyman was distracted or not, or whether he did it in pure zeal for the poor people, who went every evening through the streets of Whitechappel, and, with his hands lifted up, repeated that part of the Liturgy of the Church continually, 'Spare us, good Lord; spare Thy people, whom Thou has redeemed with Thy most precious blood.' I say, I cannot speak positively of these things, because these were only the dismal objects which represented themselves to me as I looked through my chamber windows (for I seldom opened the casements), while I confined myself within doors during that most violent raging of the pestilence; when, indeed, as I have said, many began to think, and even to say, that there would none escape; and indeed I began to think so too, and therefore kept within doors for about a fortnight and never stirred out. But I could not hold it. Besides, there were some people who, notwithstanding the danger, did not omit publicly to attend the worship of God, even in the most dangerous times; and though it is true that a great many clergymen did shut up their churches, and fled, as other people did, for the safety of their lives, yet all did not do so. Some ventured to officiate and to keep up the assemblies of the people by constant prayers, and sometimes sermons or brief exhortations to repentance and reformation, and this as long as any would come to hear them. And Dissenters did the like also, and even in the very churches where the parish ministers were either dead or fled; nor was there any room for making difference at such a time as this was.

It was indeed a lamentable thing to hear the miserable lamentations of poor dying creatures calling out for ministers to comfort them and pray with them, to counsel them and to direct them, calling out to God for pardon and mercy, and confessing aloud their past sins. It would make the stoutest heart bleed to hear how many warnings were then given by dying penitents to others not to put off and delay their repentance to the day of distress; that such a time of calamity as this was no time for repentance, was no time to call upon God. I wish I could repeat the very sound of those groans and of those exclamations that I heard from some poor dying creatures when in the height of their agonies and distress, and that I could make him that reads this hear, as I imagine I now hear them, for the sound seems still to ring in my ears.

So the atheists in the tavern and the various enthusiasts become a kind of Scylla and Charybdis for the narrator to sail between and define himself against as the sensible Christian.



Soloman Eccles/Eagle information