Dark Origins – A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe based on the Great Plague of London, 1665 #DarkOrigins #readingcommunity #history

Overview

A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe is a most interesting book particularly in light of the recent Covid-19 pandemic that swept the world.

It is written in the first-person as a first hand account of the protagonist’s, identified as H.F. and described as an unmarried saddler, experiences during the great plague that afflicted London in 1665. The story is fiction but it contains detailed statistics of the death bills as the plague started to take hold and over the months of its duration, charts, data and extracts from government documents which make it read like the non-fictional personal diary of someone who was recording the facts and figures of the time.

When the plague first comes to the city, it is contained to certain parishes and is staved off by the colder winter weather, but when late spring and summer arrive, the numbers of the infected and the dead increase significantly. The protagonist is aware that the rich are leaving the city, but he is very religious and believes that God wants him to stay.

He describes how the poor are tricked into purchasing preventative medicines and charms by quack doctors, fortune tellers, and other tricksters. It is interesting that he picks this thread up again later in the book and states that all of these ‘pretenders’ succumb to the plague.

H.F. describes in detail the horror of the plague. How infected people go mad and run naked through the streets until they drop down dead. He describes how the authorities implement a system of the shutting up of houses in terms of which when any member of a household was identified as having being infected, the entire household were locked up in the house and a watchman placed outside the door so they could not escape. The protagonist is not in favour of this system as it results in all the inhabitants of the household becoming infected and dying of the plague. It also results in a lot of desperate bids to escape shut up houses that resulted in the plague spreading further. Interestingly enough, a similar attempt to keep people in their homes during the Covid-19 pandemic also didn’t achieve the expected success and resulted in a huge amount of resistance by people.

H.F. depicts a governing structure in the city that is sympathetic to the situation of the poor and ensures that people have access to bread at a reasonable price throughout the duration of the plague. He goes into a lot of detail about the price of bread versus the weight of the loaves before the plague. The city is kept free of bodies which are collected at night and taken to mass graves.

The protagonist also goes into a lot of detail about the effect of the plague on the people of the city. The grief experienced by survivors who have lost their entire families and who follow their dead loved ones and throw themselves into the mass graves and other ‘infected’ people who effectively kill themselves because of the pain the disease is inflicting on them.

The narrator tells a lengthily story about three brothers who leave the city to escape the plague and meet up with a small band of other people also leaving. The difficulties experienced by Londoners who left the city and attempted to live in the countryside while the plague raged are detailed. The suspicion and lack of welcome by the rural villages and town who do not wish to accept any Londoners into their areas for fear of their carrying the plague, and the lack of shelter, food, and other amenities. The three brothers and their band manage to make a success of it with some help from a local wealthy landowner. They actually outlive a lot of the villagers when the plague does spread out of London and into the surrounding countryside.

Reading this book after the Covid-19 pandemic was fascinating. The parallels between this event more than 350 years ago in London and the experiences and reactions of people during the time of the pandemic are have a dreadful similarity. People turn to religion and to quack remedies, people resist the attempts by authorities to contain the disease by findings ways to escape from their homes, people suffer depression and loss.

This book is certainly not for everyone as it is filled with facts and figures, but I found it very interesting and appreciated the historical information shared.

The Great Plague of 1665 – 1666 Picture caption: Painting of the 1665: London’s Last Great Plague from the Museum of London https://royalhistsoc.org/calendar/1665-londons-last-great-plague/

The plague that broke out in London in 1665 was the worst outbreak to effect England since the black death of 1348. It is believed at approximately 15% of the population of London died. The recorded deaths were 68,596 but it is believed at least 100,000 people died. The population of the city in 1665 was 460,000.

The plague was carried by fleas on rats and they were attracted to the poorer parts of the city where rubbish and waste filled the streets.

There were three types of plague:

Bubonic plague that caused swellings (buboes) in the lymph nodes found in the armpits, groin and neck. These sufferers experienced headaches, vomiting and fever. Sufferers had a 30% chance of dying within two weeks.Pneumonic plague which attacked the lungs and spread to other people through coughing and sneezing; andSepticaemic plague which occurred when the bacteria entered the blood. The chances of survival of this type of plague were very slim. Picture caption: Depiction of plague sufferers https://www.britannica.com/science/plague#/media/1/462675/216256

The treatments and methods of prevention were privative. Patients were bled with leeches. The air was cleansed using smoke and heat as people thought bad air caused the distemper. Children were encouraged to smoke to ward off bad air. Some people sniffed a sponge soaked in vinegar.

When the winter arrived, the plague started to decrease. Scientists believe this was due to people developing a stronger immunity to the disease rather than the great fire of London on 2 September 1666, making any notable impact through the destruction of houses within the walls of the city and on the banks of the River Thames. Many of the plague deaths had occurred in the poorest parishes outside the city walls

On The Plague Year: London, 1665

By DM Lovic

In London Town, the children played, the kittens purred, the flowers bloomed,
The adults laughed, the horses neighed, for no one knew they all were doomed.
Yes, all within the world was right when Death sneaked into town that night.
 
Beneath a haunted summer moon, upon a flute that whistled flat,
He played a slow, hypnotic tune that summoned every flea and rat
Who came from cellar, slum and glade to march the Devil’s plague parade.
 
Searching streets from side to side, the weakest souls with sword he struck,
Then left a token on their hide to signify the loss of luck.
For no one touched would e’er be saved, ‘twas six mere hours from spot to grave.
 
The wealthy fled to distant hills, doors were bolted, shutters locked,
But none could stop the morbid chills when death stood on the stoop and knocked.
Inside, they wept and fought with fate but, patiently, he’d smile and wait.
 
Sickness turned into despair, howls of terror, dreadful shrieks,
They echoed through the London air for weeks and weeks and weeks.
But panicked cries and wailing tears were only music to his ears.
 
One ghastly year that madness reigned and when Death fin’ly had withdrawn,
The price was tallied and explained: one hundred thousand souls were gone.
And London Town, in stark reverse, returned to life without the curse.
 
On city streets, the children played, the kittens purred, the flowers bloomed,
The adults laughed, the horses neighed, for every soul knew he was doomed.

From: The Poetry Nook

About Roberta Eaton Cheadle

Award-winning, bestselling author, Roberta Eaton Cheadle, is a South African writer and poet specialising in historical, paranormal, and horror novels and short stories. She is an avid reader in these genres and her writing has been influenced by famous authors including Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, Amor Towles, Stephen Crane, Enrich Maria Remarque, George Orwell, Stephen King, and Colleen McCullough.

Roberta has two published novels and has horror, paranormal, and fantasy short stories included in several anthologies. She is also a contributor to the Ask the Authors 2022 (WordCrafter Writing Reference series).

Roberta also has thirteen children’s books and two poetry books published under the name of Robbie Cheadle, and has poems and short stories featured in several anthologies under this name.

Roberta’s blog features discussions about classic books, book reviews, poetry, and photography. https://roberta-writes.com/.

Find Roberta Eaton Cheadle

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Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Roberta-Eaton-Cheadle/e/B08RSNJQZ5

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