History of the Plague in London Part 20

[98] This word is misplaced; it should go before "perish."

[99] Before "having," supply "the master."

[100] Fences.

[101] From.

[102] This old form for "caught" is used frequently by Defoe.

[103] Came to grief.

[104] "Who, being," etc., i.e., who, although single men, had yet staid.

[105] The wars of the Commonwealth or of the Puritan Revolution, 1640-52.

[106] Holland and Belgium.

[107] "Hurt of," a common form of expression used in Defoe's time.

[108] Manager, economist. This meaning of "husband" is obsolete.

[109] A participial form of expression very common in Old English, the "a" being a corruption of "in" or "on."

[110] Were.

[111] "'Name of G.o.d," i.e., in the name of G.o.d.

[112] Torches.

[113] "To and again," i.e., to and fro.

[114] Were.

[115] As if.

[116] Magpie.

[117] This word is from the same root as "lamp." The old form "lanthorn"

crept in from the custom of making the sides of a lantern of horn.

[118] Supply "be."

[119] Inclination.

[120] In expectation of the time when.

[121] Their being checked.

[122] This paragraph could hardly have been more clumsily expressed. It will be found a useful exercise to rewrite it.

[123] "To have gone," i.e., to go.

[124] Spotted.

[125] "Make s.h.i.+ft," i.e., endure it.

[126] Device, expedient.

[127] "In all" is evidently a repet.i.tion.

[128] Objects cannot very well happen. Defoe must mean, "the many dismal sights I saw as I went about the streets."

[129] As.

[130] "Rosin" is a long-established misspelling for "resin." Resin exudes from pine trees, and from it the oil of turpentine is separated by distillation.

[131] As distinguished from fish meat.

[132] Defoe uses these p.r.o.nouns in the wrong number, as in numerous other instances.

[133] The projecting part of a building.

[134] Their miraculous preservation was wrought by their keeping in the fresh air of the open fields. It seems curious that after this object lesson the physicians persisted in their absurd policy of shutting up infected houses, thus practically condemning to death their inmates.

[135] Used here for "this," as also in many other places.

[136] Supply "with."

[137] Such touches as this created a widespread and long-enduring belief that Defoe's fict.i.tious diary was an authentic history.

[138] "Running out," etc., i.e., losing their self-control.

[139] Idiocy. In modern English, "idiotism" is the same as "idiom."

[140] Gangrene, death of the soft tissues.

[141] Before "that" supply "we have been told."

[142] Hanging was at this time a common punishment for theft. In his novel Moll Flanders, Defoe has a vivid picture of the mental and physical sufferings of a woman who was sent to Newgate, and condemned to death, for stealing two pieces of silk.

[143] Cloth, rag.

[144] They could no longer give them regular funerals, but had to bury them promiscuously in pits.

[145] Evidently a repet.i.tion.

[146] In old and middle English two negatives did not make an affirmative, as they do in modern English.

[147] It is now well known that rue has no qualities that are useful for warding off contagion.