WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:05.879 Chapter sixteen of Unknown London, written by Walter George Bell. 2 00:00:07.160 --> 00:00:12.119 This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by 3 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:20.480 Janet Chapter sixteen Letters from London during the Great Plague. 4 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:25.079 John Allen, minister of the Gospel and student of medicine, 5 00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:29.920 wrote these letters in sixteen sixty five, when London was 6 00:00:29.960 --> 00:00:35.280 sick and dying of the Great Plague. Fires like funeral 7 00:00:35.320 --> 00:00:39.560 pyres were kept burning in the streets, adding a foul 8 00:00:39.719 --> 00:00:45.479 smoke to so much other foulness. The streets were mostly empty, 9 00:00:46.200 --> 00:00:50.880 for few people ventured into them, and then furtively suspicious 10 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:55.520 of every passer by. Once the citizen was out of 11 00:00:55.560 --> 00:00:59.439 doors on some needful errand his fears were made plain 12 00:00:59.479 --> 00:01:03.520 by his prime progress corkscrew fashion as he crossed and 13 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:07.879 recrossed the road times out of number, this to avoid 14 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:10.799 even a meeting on the same side with some other 15 00:01:10.879 --> 00:01:17.680 person approaching. Human beings are by nature neighborly, the isolation 16 00:01:17.799 --> 00:01:22.000 among them born of this awful visitation, the dread of 17 00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:26.120 contact with one's own kind as with a leper, the 18 00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:30.280 hideous selfishness of the time, self centered wholly on maintaining 19 00:01:30.319 --> 00:01:34.719 one's own existence. These were as horrible as were the 20 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:39.200 ghastlier tokens of death, striking down men a thousand daily. 21 00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:44.400 London was a city of prisons, the locked and guarded 22 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:49.000 dwellings of citizens into which plague had entered. A watcher 23 00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:53.000 stood before each door, ready to fetch the bare necessities 24 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:57.400 for sustaining life for the stricken prisoners within, but never 25 00:01:57.519 --> 00:02:01.959 loosening the bolts. He took his instructions from a safe 26 00:02:02.040 --> 00:02:08.080 distance from a casement window thrown open above. On door 27 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:11.960 after door was marked with chalk, a red cross, and 28 00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:17.520 the plaintive words Lord have mercy upon us. There were 29 00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:21.280 doors in these specter haunted streets which never opened till 30 00:02:21.319 --> 00:02:24.639 the dead cart came on its round, and the bodies, 31 00:02:25.159 --> 00:02:29.319 those of a whole family, were brought out and unceremoniously 32 00:02:29.400 --> 00:02:33.639 added to the heap already collected. Then the cart trundled 33 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:37.479 away for the pit. There was no time for ceremony, 34 00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:42.000 nor with death so common an occurrence, the mood for 35 00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:47.319 it over the city was a strange, uncanny silence, broken 36 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:52.159 only by the dirge of the church bells. Traffic had 37 00:02:52.199 --> 00:02:56.800 disappeared from the streets, and by withdrawing, accentuated the city's 38 00:02:56.840 --> 00:03:01.400 apparent emptiness. A big city, even in Stace sixteen sixty five, 39 00:03:02.159 --> 00:03:07.879 with all its activities suddenly stopped. Shops were closed, A 40 00:03:07.919 --> 00:03:12.039 goodly part of the population had fled. There was not 41 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:17.719 even conversation the pleasant sound of human voices. London had 42 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:21.240 become a tomb of the living and the dead, its 43 00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:25.879 one great artery of communication and of commerce. The River 44 00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:30.560 Thames had the same oppressive quietness as prevailed among the buildings, 45 00:03:31.199 --> 00:03:35.560 the boatmen having moved upstream, taking wives and children with 46 00:03:35.639 --> 00:03:39.840 them away from the infection. London Nurse heard with the 47 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:44.280 distinctness that was arresting the rush of the rapids between 48 00:03:44.280 --> 00:03:49.360 the starlings and peers of old London Bridge. John Allen 49 00:03:49.439 --> 00:03:52.919 had mentioned in his letters they deal with many topics, 50 00:03:53.919 --> 00:03:59.000 that severe winter frost, starting about Christmas sixteen sixty four, 51 00:03:59.639 --> 00:04:04.680 had continued almost without a break till April. Then, on 52 00:04:04.759 --> 00:04:08.400 the twenty seventh April, he gives casually, in a sentence, 53 00:04:09.199 --> 00:04:13.280 as if of little importance, the first indication of all 54 00:04:13.479 --> 00:04:18.240 that was to follow. I heard yesterday there are two 55 00:04:18.279 --> 00:04:23.800 houses shut up in Drury Lane for the sickness. He 56 00:04:23.879 --> 00:04:28.000 wrote much the packet's number in all one hundred and 57 00:04:28.199 --> 00:04:33.720 ninety letters extending over ten years. Something impelled him to write, 58 00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:37.360 and frequently when the plague was raging at its worst, 59 00:04:38.199 --> 00:04:42.360 probably a longing for human intercourse and sympathy, even though 60 00:04:42.399 --> 00:04:46.480 he knew people are brutally frank at such times that 61 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:50.399 his letters were received with dread. Lest contagion should be 62 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:54.439 carried on the written sheet. Surely, if my friends be 63 00:04:54.519 --> 00:04:58.079 afraid of my letters, I would not be afraid of theirs, 64 00:04:58.759 --> 00:05:03.120 he writes in one half reproachfully out of his solitude. 65 00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:08.399 John Allen was a parson ministering at the quaint old 66 00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:13.480 Sinkport town of Rye, till in sixteen sixty two the 67 00:05:13.560 --> 00:05:17.920 Conformity Act put the problem of conscience nakedly before him. 68 00:05:19.199 --> 00:05:23.160 Could he serve God and do what man required of him? 69 00:05:23.399 --> 00:05:26.759 He decided that he could not, and his name has 70 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:30.240 honorable place on the role of those many hundreds of 71 00:05:30.279 --> 00:05:34.439 devout and brave churchmen who went out into the wilderness 72 00:05:34.920 --> 00:05:39.680 at the Great Ejectment. His journeyings brought him to London, 73 00:05:40.480 --> 00:05:43.879 and there he took up the study of medicine. He 74 00:05:43.879 --> 00:05:48.319 addressed his letters, which are still preserved, to two friends 75 00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:52.560 he had left behind at Rye. Philip frithe a solicitor 76 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:57.920 and Samuel Jeek, the historian of the Sink ports, and 77 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:03.160 they reveal a somewhat surprising personality. Surprising that is to 78 00:06:03.319 --> 00:06:06.639 us at this day, though no doubt common enough two 79 00:06:06.680 --> 00:06:11.040 and a half centuries ago for John Allen, priest of 80 00:06:11.079 --> 00:06:16.360 the Anglican Church, a man of education, probably trained at college, 81 00:06:16.839 --> 00:06:22.040 a lettered man, held strange beliefs. At night, he looked 82 00:06:22.040 --> 00:06:26.040 out upon the stars, intent on divining from them the 83 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:31.360 decisions of fate. He dabbled in alchemy with something of 84 00:06:31.399 --> 00:06:34.920 the unbeaten faith of the old searchers after the secret 85 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:39.439 of the transmutation of metals, and his astrology and alchemy 86 00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:43.639 mixed together in a curious pottage with those medical studies 87 00:06:43.639 --> 00:06:46.920 by which he hoped to give benefit to suffering humanity. 88 00:06:48.920 --> 00:06:53.360 He writes no connected narrative of the plague. In certain letters, 89 00:06:53.879 --> 00:06:57.480 especially when the infection came nearest to his home, the 90 00:06:57.560 --> 00:07:02.000 absorbing topic occupied all his attle tension. But at times 91 00:07:02.040 --> 00:07:05.279 the mention is most casual, merely the number of deaths 92 00:07:05.279 --> 00:07:08.560 in London for the week recorded in the published Bills 93 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:13.399 of Mortality. The reader often is annoyed at omissions of 94 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:17.959 what might have been told, but there is enough, remembering 95 00:07:18.040 --> 00:07:20.639 that these are original letters by a man who lived 96 00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:24.959 through the plague. The world knows that time of horror 97 00:07:25.399 --> 00:07:28.680 only from Defoe's Journal of the Plague, here a work 98 00:07:28.759 --> 00:07:32.399 that owes its apparent authenticity to the author's art alone, 99 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:37.040 assisted by copious quotations from printed and manuscript records at 100 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:41.720 his hand. Much unprofitable ingenuity has been spent in seeking 101 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:46.560 to establish that H. F the reputed writer of the journal, 102 00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:51.519 was Defoe's uncle Henry Foe. The book was given to 103 00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:57.360 the world as fiction. Allan is worth attention as fact. 104 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:01.480 May twenty six, Ye, sickness is to increase in Holland, 105 00:08:01.959 --> 00:08:06.160 as it also doth hear ye bill mentioned three last 106 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:09.920 week and fourteen this week, But it's rather believed to 107 00:08:09.959 --> 00:08:13.480 be troubled the number at ye upper end of the town. 108 00:08:13.639 --> 00:08:16.439 Persons high and low are very fearful of it, and 109 00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:20.920 many removed. One house, if not two, are lately shut 110 00:08:20.959 --> 00:08:26.839 in Chancery Lane, and one about Cripplegate. June twenty six, 111 00:08:28.199 --> 00:08:31.240 I hear ye general bill this week will be about 112 00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:34.440 twenty five hundred. I thank god, I go about my 113 00:08:34.519 --> 00:08:37.720 business without any slave of sphear of it. Yet my 114 00:08:37.799 --> 00:08:41.440 body too apt for such a disease which proves very 115 00:08:41.480 --> 00:08:47.360 mortal where it comes many whole families of seven, eight, nine, ten, 116 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:52.720 eighteen in family totally swept away. I think there is 117 00:08:52.759 --> 00:08:56.559 no fleeing from God's hand. And truly this sickness, so 118 00:08:56.759 --> 00:09:00.440 highly pestiential in some places, speaks it to be more 119 00:09:00.440 --> 00:09:04.639 a judgment than anything else. And true repentance is the 120 00:09:04.679 --> 00:09:10.759 best antidote and pardon of sin, the best cordial. July 121 00:09:10.879 --> 00:09:14.440 gave fearful indication of the terrors of plague, the deaths 122 00:09:14.519 --> 00:09:18.039 attributed to it that month having numbered four thousand, one 123 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:21.559 hundred nineteen. But there was to be a startling leap 124 00:09:21.639 --> 00:09:26.679 up from these figures. On the eleventh August, Allan writes 125 00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:30.600 to Frith, who evidently had suggested his flight from London. 126 00:09:32.399 --> 00:09:36.840 I shall not think myself safer there at Rye than here, 127 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:41.200 whilst my call is to stay here. Yet I am 128 00:09:41.279 --> 00:09:44.120 troubled at the approach of the sickness nearer every week, 129 00:09:44.720 --> 00:09:47.519 and at a new burying place which they have made 130 00:09:47.559 --> 00:09:51.679 near us, and with some piece of indiscretion used in 131 00:09:51.759 --> 00:09:55.919 not shutting up, but rather making great funerals for such 132 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:59.879 as die of the distemper, which yet I think God 133 00:10:00.039 --> 00:10:02.720 will not put an end to till sin be left 134 00:10:02.759 --> 00:10:06.000 and suppressed more than it is. But God seems to 135 00:10:06.039 --> 00:10:10.240 pursue a design which doubtless he will effect before he 136 00:10:10.399 --> 00:10:15.000 hath done. Four thousand thirty in all, two thousand, eight 137 00:10:15.080 --> 00:10:23.440 hundred seventeen Plague August eighteen, five thousand, three hundred nineteen, 138 00:10:23.480 --> 00:10:28.600 this week's bill in general. Mister Sidney Porter, mister Miller's 139 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:32.200 brother in law, died last Tuesday. I am afraid to 140 00:10:32.279 --> 00:10:35.440 write to mister Miller of it, lest he should be 141 00:10:35.480 --> 00:10:39.039 afraid of my letter. But pray let him know of 142 00:10:39.080 --> 00:10:44.519 his brother's death. August twenty four. I am through mercy 143 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:48.440 yet well in midst of death, and that too approaching 144 00:10:48.519 --> 00:10:52.159 nearer and nearer. Not many doors off, and the pit 145 00:10:52.279 --> 00:10:56.480 open daily within view of my chamber window. The Lord 146 00:10:56.519 --> 00:10:59.600 fit me and all of us for our last end. 147 00:11:00.600 --> 00:11:03.639 Here are many who are amulets made of the poison 148 00:11:03.679 --> 00:11:07.679 of the toad, which, if there be no infection, works nothing, 149 00:11:08.200 --> 00:11:11.720 but upon any infection invading from time to time raise 150 00:11:11.759 --> 00:11:16.240 a blister, which a plaster heals. And so they are well. 151 00:11:17.320 --> 00:11:20.600 Perhaps I may, by ye next get the true preparation 152 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:24.480 of it, and send it to you, I saw this 153 00:11:24.600 --> 00:11:30.080 day some prima materia in our streets. Let us, not 154 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:33.600 presuming on the fuller knowledge that now is common property, 155 00:11:34.039 --> 00:11:39.200 call the honest man quack. The ex Vicar of Rye A. Scoffer, 156 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:43.039 as above made plane at simple folk who placed their 157 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:46.960 faith in the toad amulet. Was himself an earnest seeker 158 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:50.759 after the true elixir that should conquer the plague, on 159 00:11:50.879 --> 00:11:56.080 the essential merit of cleanliness, sanitation, fresh air, purity, and 160 00:11:56.159 --> 00:11:59.679 food and water. He, in common with medical men of 161 00:11:59.720 --> 00:12:04.559 his ais age, had no enlightenment, his mind confused with 162 00:12:04.639 --> 00:12:08.600 alchemy and astrology. He believed the cure would be found 163 00:12:08.840 --> 00:12:12.759 in an extract from the little plant growth best known 164 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:18.200 as califolium. It fell from heaven in the night, was 165 00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:23.000 once the popular belief. The plant which is indicated so 166 00:12:23.159 --> 00:12:27.120 often in these letters by the general term materia prima, 167 00:12:28.080 --> 00:12:33.399 was the tremella no stock lynn. It appears in summer 168 00:12:33.480 --> 00:12:37.559 after rain on sandy and parched soils, is agitated with 169 00:12:37.639 --> 00:12:41.720 a tremulous motion when fresh, and is so frail that 170 00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:47.080 gatherers must be out before sunrise. Once heated by the 171 00:12:47.120 --> 00:12:50.960 sun's rays, it dries and shrivels up, and nothing remains 172 00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:56.879 except some membranes brownish in color. Distilled, the plant yields 173 00:12:56.919 --> 00:13:00.759 a dark fetid oil, believed by the alchemists to contain 174 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:05.399 the universal spirit, which, when extracted pure, would be the 175 00:13:05.480 --> 00:13:10.480 solvent of gold so long sought. After Allan employed a 176 00:13:10.519 --> 00:13:14.440 man to gather the plant for him, and moreover pestered 177 00:13:14.440 --> 00:13:18.879 his correspondents for supplies. In the true spirit of the 178 00:13:18.919 --> 00:13:23.960 scientific inquirer, he asks also for the moss that grows 179 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:28.799 on dead man's skulls and bones, instancing a certain churchyard 180 00:13:29.039 --> 00:13:33.559 at Winchelsea, where it might be found that churchyard can 181 00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:38.120 have been kept with little reverence. He resumes the story 182 00:13:38.360 --> 00:13:41.200 of a stricken London in his Weekly Letters of the 183 00:13:41.240 --> 00:13:46.440 twenty ninth August. Meantime, much has happened. The troops had 184 00:13:46.440 --> 00:13:50.159 been moved into Hyde Park, the Court of Charles two 185 00:13:50.519 --> 00:13:54.240 had gone first to Hampton Court, and thence to Salisbury, 186 00:13:55.039 --> 00:13:57.679 but on the appearance of plague in that cathedral city 187 00:13:57.759 --> 00:14:02.519 fled precipitously to Oxford, whither the Michaelmas Law term was 188 00:14:02.679 --> 00:14:06.360 ordered to be taken, and a Royal proclamation was issued 189 00:14:06.600 --> 00:14:12.240 directing Parliament to meet there August twenty ninth, Ye sickness 190 00:14:12.240 --> 00:14:16.200 here is very much increased this week. I fear ye 191 00:14:16.360 --> 00:14:20.679 bill will be near double the former, And truly I 192 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:24.000 know not how to think it should lessen, when as 193 00:14:24.039 --> 00:14:27.320 the greatest thing done to stop it fits taking ye 194 00:14:27.320 --> 00:14:31.039 fanatics out of their own houses, and sometimes caught meeting 195 00:14:31.159 --> 00:14:35.200 and carrying them to infected prisons of which we have none, 196 00:14:35.240 --> 00:14:38.799 free will be found in the end to heighten it, 197 00:14:39.759 --> 00:14:43.639 though it said when major of ye soldiers hath threatened 198 00:14:43.960 --> 00:14:48.559 by that means quickly to drive that plague away. Remember 199 00:14:49.120 --> 00:14:52.720 that there will be little prima materia found after a 200 00:14:52.840 --> 00:14:55.519 rainy but most in a dry night after a rainy 201 00:14:55.600 --> 00:15:01.519 day or weather the wind southwest. That month of August 202 00:15:01.559 --> 00:15:08.240 twenty thousand, forty six persons had died in London. September two, 203 00:15:09.080 --> 00:15:13.759 Ye sickness increased very much last Bill Fist. One thousand, 204 00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:18.840 nine hundred twenty eight increase ye total seven thousand, four 205 00:15:18.919 --> 00:15:24.360 hundred ninety six of ye plague six thousand, one hundred two. 206 00:15:25.960 --> 00:15:30.080 Since that bill, I have not particularly heard anything whither 207 00:15:30.159 --> 00:15:34.399 still increasing or not, but fear by the doleful and 208 00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:39.000 almost universal and continual ringing and tolling of bells, it 209 00:15:39.080 --> 00:15:44.279 doth increase. I am sure it approacheth to me. I 210 00:15:44.399 --> 00:15:48.360 mean my concernment for it. Hath pleased God to take 211 00:15:48.360 --> 00:15:50.879 from me the best friend I have in ye world, 212 00:15:51.440 --> 00:15:56.240 and one wherein my children he had three stood as 213 00:15:56.320 --> 00:16:00.200 much concerned as in myself with reference to what they 214 00:16:00.200 --> 00:16:03.879 should have expected from the relations of my wife. It 215 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:08.519 is my brother Peter Smith, who is abroad on Lord's Day. 216 00:16:08.600 --> 00:16:12.799 Last in the morning towards evening a little ill then 217 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:16.440 took something to sweat, which that night brought forth a 218 00:16:16.519 --> 00:16:20.039 stiffness under his ear, where he had a swelling that 219 00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:23.399 could not be brought to rise and break, but choked him. 220 00:16:24.120 --> 00:16:28.799 He died Thursday night last. I bless God. I am 221 00:16:28.840 --> 00:16:31.840 well was not with my brother after we see what 222 00:16:31.919 --> 00:16:35.679 it would be as little else upon every distemper here 223 00:16:36.039 --> 00:16:40.840 can be expected. It is a great mercy now counted 224 00:16:40.879 --> 00:16:48.080 to die of another disease September seventh, to frithe The 225 00:16:48.159 --> 00:16:52.879 increasing sickness hath now drawn very nigh me. And God 226 00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:56.919 knoweth whither I may write one more or no. It 227 00:16:57.000 --> 00:16:59.000 is at the next door, on both hands of me, 228 00:16:59.679 --> 00:17:02.879 and under the same roof. But I have no place 229 00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:07.240 of retiring. Neither in the city nor country, none in 230 00:17:07.359 --> 00:17:10.680 heaven nor earth to go on too. But God, only 231 00:17:11.640 --> 00:17:14.200 the Lord, lodge me in the bosom of his love, 232 00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:19.440 and then I shall be safe whatever betides. If I live. 233 00:17:20.160 --> 00:17:23.680 I hope to have some materia prima from you. If 234 00:17:23.720 --> 00:17:26.640 you could enclose a little dust in a letter, I 235 00:17:26.680 --> 00:17:32.000 shall be glad to receive it. Figures this week eight thousand, 236 00:17:32.200 --> 00:17:36.880 two hundred fifty two of plague six thousand, nine hundred 237 00:17:37.119 --> 00:17:43.359 seventy eight. It is truly still increasing. These three days. 238 00:17:43.720 --> 00:17:46.640 Hath been sea coal friars made in the streets about 239 00:17:46.680 --> 00:17:50.400 every twelfth door. But that will not do ye work 240 00:17:50.519 --> 00:17:54.799 of stopping God's hand. Nothing but repentance will do that 241 00:17:55.559 --> 00:17:59.920 of which no sign yet but oppressions and yet increasing. 242 00:18:01.559 --> 00:18:05.319 With increasing heat and continued drought, the plague grew in 243 00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:09.240 virulence in the first weeks of September, and the deaths 244 00:18:09.319 --> 00:18:13.839 scaled ever higher. Not a cloud drifted across the blue sky, 245 00:18:14.599 --> 00:18:18.200 and the sun scorched down upon the fever stricken city. 246 00:18:19.519 --> 00:18:21.799 Rain fell at last on the fifteenth of the month, 247 00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:24.799 putting out the fires in the streets and bringing new 248 00:18:24.839 --> 00:18:29.039 life to the parched grass that had grown up unchecked 249 00:18:29.160 --> 00:18:33.640 between the stones. The temperature fell, and the bills began 250 00:18:33.720 --> 00:18:37.160 to show a decline. But September, by reason of the 251 00:18:37.240 --> 00:18:40.759 vast mortality with which it was ushered in as the 252 00:18:40.799 --> 00:18:45.319 worst record of the plague, gear Allan at this time 253 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:49.839 tells the facts of a medical investigation and its frightful sequel. 254 00:18:51.640 --> 00:18:57.839 September fourteenth. This sickness, though more die because more are infected, 255 00:18:58.599 --> 00:19:02.000 yet thanks be to God, is not so mortal as 256 00:19:02.039 --> 00:19:06.079 at the first, for more recover of it now than formerly. 257 00:19:07.160 --> 00:19:09.160 If we knew how to trust the bills, it is 258 00:19:09.279 --> 00:19:13.680 decreased in the general. The general bill is seven thousand, 259 00:19:13.960 --> 00:19:18.599 six hundred ninety buried this week, whereof of the plague 260 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:25.240 six thousand, five hundred forty four, our friend doctor Starkey 261 00:19:25.720 --> 00:19:28.839 is dead of this visitation, with about six more of 262 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:34.799 them chemical practitioners, who in an insulting way over other galonists, 263 00:19:35.599 --> 00:19:39.400 and in a sort over this visitation sickness, which is 264 00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:43.200 more a judgment than a disease. Because they could not 265 00:19:43.279 --> 00:19:47.119 resist it by their galinical medicines, which they were too 266 00:19:47.160 --> 00:19:51.680 confident that their chemical medicines could do. They would give 267 00:19:51.759 --> 00:19:54.400 money for the most infected body they could hear of 268 00:19:54.640 --> 00:19:59.000 to dissect which they had and opened to search the 269 00:19:59.039 --> 00:20:04.319 seat of this disease, et cetera. Upon ye opening, whereof 270 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:09.160 a stench ascended from the body and infected them every one. 271 00:20:09.240 --> 00:20:12.440 And it is said they are all dead, since the 272 00:20:12.519 --> 00:20:17.480 most of them distractedly mad. Whereof g Starkey is one. 273 00:20:17.799 --> 00:20:22.079 I hear also that above seven score doctors, apothecaries and 274 00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:26.559 surgeons are dead of this distemper in and about ye city. 275 00:20:27.039 --> 00:20:31.759 Since this visitation, God is resolved to stain the pride 276 00:20:31.839 --> 00:20:35.960 of all glory, there is no boasting before him, and 277 00:20:36.119 --> 00:20:41.519 much less against him. Again, about a week later, he 278 00:20:41.559 --> 00:20:47.240 writes to Jeek September twenty, it is somewhat refreshing to 279 00:20:47.319 --> 00:20:49.920 me to think you are yet willing to receive a 280 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:53.960 line from me. It was an affliction to me that 281 00:20:54.039 --> 00:20:56.240 I knew not to whom I might send a letter 282 00:20:56.279 --> 00:21:02.079 with acceptance, except mister Fryth. Onely, I am afraid that 283 00:21:02.119 --> 00:21:05.839 some of my friends there are this day too much afraid, 284 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:10.039 where no fear need to be, for were my pen infectious, 285 00:21:10.319 --> 00:21:14.759 my hand would soon let it drop. Gracious mister Cobb, 286 00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:18.839 one whom God sometimes employed in the work of comforting 287 00:21:18.920 --> 00:21:21.400 and supporting others. In this dark and gloomy day of 288 00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:26.079 the Lord, who yet fell by this sickness, and last 289 00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:31.559 Lord's day entered into his father's bosom. Clouds are gathering 290 00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:35.680 thicker and thicker, and I think verily the day of 291 00:21:35.720 --> 00:21:40.519 the Lord will yet prove more blacker. Whither the Lord 292 00:21:40.599 --> 00:21:43.519 will make good that word spoken by a child here 293 00:21:43.599 --> 00:21:47.599 concerning the increase of ye plague till eighteen thousand, three 294 00:21:47.680 --> 00:21:51.759 hundred seventeen die in a week, which all endeavors are 295 00:21:51.839 --> 00:21:56.319 used to conceal, though still goeth on in reality to 296 00:21:56.400 --> 00:22:00.599 increase it. And that word too, of a year's time 297 00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:05.279 of great and sad persecution, spoken by the same mouth 298 00:22:05.359 --> 00:22:09.440 after death had once cooled it. In this visitation time 299 00:22:09.480 --> 00:22:15.079 will show, did ever the brain of Edgar Allan Poe 300 00:22:15.160 --> 00:22:19.519 yield anything quite so morbid as the doctor's story just told. 301 00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:25.279 Even more gruesome, badly phrased as it is, is this 302 00:22:25.759 --> 00:22:30.119 of the child stricken dead with plague, yet after death, 303 00:22:30.359 --> 00:22:34.240 prophesizing by word of mouth another year of great and 304 00:22:34.359 --> 00:22:38.160 sad persecution before the plague should be lifted from the city. 305 00:22:39.839 --> 00:22:43.519 Distraught minds gave willing belief to the most incredible things. 306 00:22:44.400 --> 00:22:48.359 The public desired marvels. A blazing star had appeared in 307 00:22:48.400 --> 00:22:53.039 the skies, visible till daylight. A month before the plague 308 00:22:53.079 --> 00:22:58.720 struck London, Mister Secretary Morris's cistern of water turned into 309 00:22:58.720 --> 00:23:04.799 blood during a night lily. The popular astrologer, soothsayer and 310 00:23:04.960 --> 00:23:10.160 Charlatan had an eager audience for his almanacs and writings. 311 00:23:10.720 --> 00:23:14.559 Allan's next letter to his friends after two days Interval 312 00:23:15.400 --> 00:23:19.880 reports the week's deaths in London to have been eight thousand, 313 00:23:20.079 --> 00:23:24.799 two hundred ninety seven of plague seven thousand, one hundred 314 00:23:24.839 --> 00:23:29.960 sixty five, And on the twenty seventh September, he writes, 315 00:23:31.799 --> 00:23:35.880 I am where ye Lord hath hitherto amidst one hundred 316 00:23:35.960 --> 00:23:40.839 dying weekly preserved me, and yet through mercy am in 317 00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:45.759 health the Lord be praised. The Lord hath decreased this 318 00:23:45.880 --> 00:23:50.640 week's bill one thousand, eight hundred thirty seven. There dying 319 00:23:50.720 --> 00:23:55.960 this week, but six thousand, four hundred sixty plague five thousand, 320 00:23:56.000 --> 00:24:00.400 five hundred thirty three, And in our parish there was 321 00:24:00.440 --> 00:24:04.480 fifty decreased. But it is still very hot near me. 322 00:24:05.359 --> 00:24:09.319 I fear it will increase with you if you send 323 00:24:09.440 --> 00:24:13.359 any prima materia in a glass. I pray cover it 324 00:24:13.440 --> 00:24:17.279 over with paper and double seal it, that nothing of 325 00:24:17.319 --> 00:24:23.799 it be seen. The worst was over, and September plague 326 00:24:23.839 --> 00:24:29.200 had claimed in London twenty six thousand, two hundred thirty victims. 327 00:24:29.359 --> 00:24:33.839 So attributed and probably by far the largest proportion of 328 00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:37.920 others whose deaths were accounted for by various causes in 329 00:24:37.960 --> 00:24:43.720 the Bills of Mortality, save himself, Allan imparted to frith 330 00:24:44.160 --> 00:24:48.279 at Rye, the precautionary measure to which in part at 331 00:24:48.400 --> 00:24:55.960 least he attributed his own immunity. Friend, he writes, get 332 00:24:55.960 --> 00:24:59.039 a piece of angel gold, if you can, of a 333 00:24:59.079 --> 00:25:03.480 liz coin that is ye best, which is philosophical gold, 334 00:25:04.279 --> 00:25:06.480 and keep it always in your mouth. When you walk 335 00:25:06.559 --> 00:25:10.559 out or any sick persons come to you. You will 336 00:25:10.559 --> 00:25:14.279 find strange effects of it, for good and freedom of breathing, 337 00:25:14.559 --> 00:25:18.440 et cetera, as I have done. If you lie with 338 00:25:18.559 --> 00:25:21.400 it in your mouth without your teeth as I do, 339 00:25:21.720 --> 00:25:25.319 vist in one side between your cheek and gums, and 340 00:25:25.440 --> 00:25:32.720 so turning it sometimes on one side, sometimes on ye other. Thereafter, 341 00:25:32.799 --> 00:25:38.920 the references to the plague are shorter. October seventh, The 342 00:25:39.039 --> 00:25:41.599 sickness is now very hot at the next house to 343 00:25:41.720 --> 00:25:45.559 us one way, but hath been nearer, though none of 344 00:25:45.599 --> 00:25:49.359 our family hath been ill at all yet through a mercy, 345 00:25:50.599 --> 00:25:54.640 what with some employment on Lord's days at other days 346 00:25:54.680 --> 00:25:59.880 sometimes in this scarcity of ministers, many being dead, though 347 00:26:00.119 --> 00:26:06.880 more fled, I am straightened in time. At Yarmouth, Colchester, Ipswich. 348 00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:11.720 The sickness is very much, and now pretty much at Norwich, 349 00:26:12.880 --> 00:26:20.359 Southampton is reported to be almost depopulated. October nineteenth. We 350 00:26:20.440 --> 00:26:24.599 have had this week, God be praised a very merciful 351 00:26:24.599 --> 00:26:28.960 abatement of ye bill of mortality fixed one thousand, eight 352 00:26:29.079 --> 00:26:34.319 hundred forty nine, decreased this week, ye whole bill being 353 00:26:34.400 --> 00:26:39.440 three thousand, two hundred nineteen, whereof plague two thousand, six 354 00:26:39.519 --> 00:26:44.519 hundred sixty five. But yet it doth creep into fresh houses. Still, 355 00:26:45.720 --> 00:26:48.680 Ye Lord fit me for what is good will and pleasure? 356 00:26:48.839 --> 00:26:56.720 Is the long trial had told upon allen My head 357 00:26:56.759 --> 00:27:00.000 aketh at ye present, he writes in his first life 358 00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:05.400 letter of November. Again he repeats the prayer, Y Lord 359 00:27:05.519 --> 00:27:11.000 fit me for what he intends towards me. He looked 360 00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:13.559 at night into the vault of the heavens to read 361 00:27:13.599 --> 00:27:18.759 his fate the portense boded ill. It is pitiable to 362 00:27:18.839 --> 00:27:21.880 realize from the next letter that the man who had 363 00:27:21.920 --> 00:27:25.279 lived so long in daily and intimate contact with the 364 00:27:25.359 --> 00:27:30.160 facts of life and death, in extreme peril himself at 365 00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:34.240 the end of it all found no peace, but must 366 00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:38.839 needs worry his racked nerves with faint imagings about the 367 00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:45.480 malign influence of the stars. His mind remained simple. Allan 368 00:27:45.640 --> 00:27:50.480 clearly was a fatalist, but with faith undiminished, the faith 369 00:27:50.519 --> 00:27:54.160 he held while thousands were dying around him, and weary 370 00:27:54.240 --> 00:27:58.559 months passed in his unfruitful researches in the efficacy of 371 00:27:58.599 --> 00:28:01.400 the little plant, if if only its secret should be 372 00:28:01.480 --> 00:28:08.880 vouchsafe to him. November eight through mercy, I am yet 373 00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:13.400 very well, though never without daily fears, and truly not 374 00:28:13.599 --> 00:28:17.359 without cause, if I either consider the will of mine 375 00:28:17.359 --> 00:28:21.000 own heart, or yet if there be any truth in any 376 00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:24.839 language of the stars for Mars's coming to my ascendant 377 00:28:25.079 --> 00:28:28.519 in my nativity, which was their Lord of the eighth, 378 00:28:29.799 --> 00:28:33.119 and in my revolution this year, Lord of the Esque, 379 00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:37.440 and in his course of progress and regradation. He will 380 00:28:37.480 --> 00:28:41.039 continue within the compass of my ascendant in my nativity 381 00:28:41.559 --> 00:28:46.359 till first July next send as much prima materia as 382 00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:50.160 you can get gathered in Scorpio by itself, if in 383 00:28:50.279 --> 00:28:57.559 Virgo by itself November fourteen to jik, it is yet 384 00:28:57.640 --> 00:29:01.000 dying time with us. Though the bill hoped to have 385 00:29:01.079 --> 00:29:08.400 decreased this week November sixteenth, to thrive, you will see 386 00:29:08.440 --> 00:29:12.039 a little decrease in this bill. But truly God seems 387 00:29:12.079 --> 00:29:15.839 now in divers families to visit the second time after 388 00:29:15.920 --> 00:29:19.519 they have been all well six or eight weeks, and 389 00:29:19.640 --> 00:29:24.000 fresh houses in divers places, besides whole families swept away 390 00:29:24.079 --> 00:29:30.000 that have returned to Ye city already December seventh, some 391 00:29:30.200 --> 00:29:34.680 fresh houses in divers parishes are still visited, besides more 392 00:29:34.720 --> 00:29:37.920 of them that come to town or are employed in the 393 00:29:37.960 --> 00:29:45.240 airing of others houses. December twelfth. Divers persons and families, 394 00:29:45.240 --> 00:29:48.160 at their return home to the city have met with 395 00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:52.359 what they fled from. Insomuch that I fear and hear 396 00:29:52.480 --> 00:29:56.319 this week's bill hath an increase. I hear there is 397 00:29:56.400 --> 00:29:59.839 a new blazing star seen last week four or f 398 00:30:00.079 --> 00:30:07.519 five nights together about northeast December fourteenth, Ye sickness is 399 00:30:07.559 --> 00:30:12.440 now again increasing, as by Ye totals doth appear, But 400 00:30:12.559 --> 00:30:16.559 yet is increased in the sickness thirty three, and wholly 401 00:30:16.880 --> 00:30:21.359