A Journal of the Plague Year

The narrator notes that while doctors once believed that the plague could kill people immediately upon infection, postmortems always reveal some “Tokens” (specific symptoms) suggesting that people who die have been infected for a while without their own knowledge. Both this phenomenon and concealment of sickness make it difficult for examiners to know when to quarantine a house. The narrator tells an anecdote of a man who put a red plague cross on his own door; as the actual examiner assumed another examiner had done it and had responsibility for the house, the man was able to come and go as he pleased—until eventually he was discovered and fled.

The narrator concludes that quarantines don’t work unless people cooperate with the quarantine. After three weeks as an examiner, the narrator pays someone else a small sum to take over the job. He still thinks that rather than quarantining the sick with their entire families inside houses, the city should “remove[] the Sound from the Sick” and keep the apparently uninfected in a shorter quarantine to make sure they weren’t unknowingly infected. This method, he believes, would cause much less grievance.

The narrator comments that, after a certain point in the plague, people can no longer grieve as they used to. The plague’s intensity, like the intensity of the following year’s Great Fire, sends people into “Despair”—not religious despair for their souls, but a fatalistic despair that the plague will certainly kill them. Also at this time, the plague kills faster, within a few days of infection. For three or four weeks, this fatalistic despair makes people reckless: they begin venturing outside, talking to one another, and attending church. Having witnessed surprising religious devotion during this time, the narrator suggests that expectation of death brings “Zeal.”

Also during this time, people stop caring about the particular denominations of their ministers, though bias against “Dissenters” has previously been widespread. The narrator reflects that in comfortable times, people sow division, whereas during a crisis, they come together. He suggests that “Another Plague Year” might cure current “Animosities” and concludes that all will be siblings in the afterlife.

During the despairing plague time, the narrator (having finished his term as an examiner) self-quarantines at home for another 10 to 12 days. From his window, he sees dreadful sights in the poor area of Harrow-Alley, such as women and families screaming over the corpses they carry to the dead-cart. The plague lasts for six or seven more weeks even after this point. As a digression, the narrator sees the “Hand of Divine Justice” in the fact that astrologers and quacks all vanish, whether dead or fled.

From August 22 to September 26, 1655, about 40,000 people die of plague in London according to the official Bills of Mortality. The narrator believes this number to be a dramatic undercounting, due to the widespread death and “Confusion” in London at the time. Yet despite the extreme conditions, London’s magistrates made sure that the city had enough food and that bodies were not left “unburied or uncovered.” Even the price of bread wasn’t much inflated!

Throughout the plague, London uses only two pest-houses. Sick people are never compelled to use the pest-houses—in fact, some poor people want to go to the pest-houses but can’t, as they cost money. Most who go to the pest-houses are servants, and many recover. The narrator believes that London should have had many more pest-houses, though people should not have been forced to go to them, which would have led families to conceal sick members or to violently resist those members’ abduction.

The narrator praises the wisdom of London’s mayor, aldermen, and other officials who at the plague’s beginning announced that they would not leave London but would care for the city’s needs. This announcement calmed the Londoners and prevented too many from leaving the city, which might have led to a “plunder[ing]” of the surrounding areas. Moreover, lawmakers and officials kept doing their public duties despite the dangers. The narrator particularly praises the mayor’s order that bakers work during the plague or forfeit their legal standing to work in London—a measure that prevented shortages. He also praises the prompt removal of corpses from public areas.

The narrator attributes to “a merciful Disposition of God” that the plague burns out in one area as it spreads to others. This allows trade to continue in the uninfected areas, even as plague remains in the city’s environs. His own neighborhood long believed it would not be infected at all—indeed, people fled plague-stricken west London to his neighborhood and likely brought the plague with them. At this point, he reiterates that people can be infectious without even knowing they were sick and argues that, for this reason, “the utmost human Vigilance” could not have prevented the plague’s advance. As an example, he tells a story of an acquaintance who had a wounded leg that would hurt in the presence of the infected—and often did hurt even when those around appeared well.

The narrator believes that well-seeming infectious people account for popular beliefs that the plague comes directly from the air or the “Hand of God”—beliefs that make some people risk socializing with others they know have the plague. While the narrator believes God and Providence directed certain miraculous “Deliverances of Persons when Infected”—and attributes his own survival to God—he also believes that the plague is a “natural” phenomenon that spreads “by natural Means.” This belief is compatible with in Providence because God created nature, even as God can “act in a Supernatural Way” if He wants to. But supernatural explanations aren’t necessary to explain person-to-person infection.

The narrator believes that everyone the plague infected caught it naturally: it came via trade from Holland, infected one neighborhood, and spread from there—often before people who spread the disease to many others knew they were sick. As an example, the narrator argues that many didn’t know they were sick until late “Tokens” (specific symptoms) of the disease, presaging impending death, appeared on their bodies. However, the narrator isn’t sure how long people can be undetectably infectious and believes the doctors don’t know exactly either.

From all this, the narrator concludes that “the best Physick against the Plague is to run away from it” and suggests that in the future, if confronted by a plague, people should break into smaller groups rather than let the plague catch “a Million People in a Body together.” He compares the plague to a fire, which spreads rapidly when buildings are close together.

The narrator makes explicit that he believes infectious people who spread the plague both in and beyond London did so without knowing they were sick, rejecting once again the rumor that plague victims don’t care about infecting others. As a contrary example, the narrator describes a neighbor of his who, finding himself plague stricken, moved into a little building in his yard and refused to let his family come near him, letting only a “Nurse from Abroad” tend him and communicate his prayers to his family.

The narrator says he doesn’t know why different people suffered such different symptoms from the plague. Yet while he admits that the obvious symptoms, such as swellings, were more agonizing, he argues that the “unperceiv’d” disease was worse because it led people to infect others unknowingly. Then he describes two scenarios in which unknowing infection was common: when parents accidentally infected their families, and when people called the doctor for what they thought was a mild illness only to find “Tokens” (specific plague symptoms) presaging death on their bodies. These people with few prior symptoms might have spread the plague to others for weeks—a fact that, to the narrator, totally undermines the purported efficacy of forcible quarantines.

The doctors have no idea how to distinguish stealthy cases of plague. The narrator’s friend Dr. Heath suggests perhaps smelling the breath of possibly infected people—but the breath-smeller might catch the plague! Others suggest organisms might be seen in the infected people’s breath under a microscope—but “we had no Microscopes at that Time, as I remember, to make the Experiment with.” In general, the narrator doubts that reliable methods of detecting plague were available at the time the plague was raging.

Reviewing the timeline of early plague deaths, the narrator dates the first plague death in a Bill of Mortality to December 20, 1664, the second to February 9, 1665, and a few more to April 22. Given the long gaps between reported cases, he concludes that more people must have caught the plague and died in the intervening periods—and had the cause of their deaths covered up because their frightened families bribed parish officers. As evidence, the narrator reproduces Bills of Mortality showing a sharp increase in “non-plague” deaths in the relevant parishes during the relevant time period.

At the same time, the narrator takes long gaps between plague deaths as possible evidence for his theory that infected people can remain apparently well for a long time. During the plague, once people realize that well-seeming neighbors and other seemingly harmless people can infect them, they start carrying folk cures or medicines from doctors around with them, which made places like church reek. Others self-quarantine or talk to people only from a great distance. The narrator believes that these methods do slow the plague and save lives—albeit with due respect given to the additional workings of "Divine Providence.”

However, the poor continue are reckless, seeking paid work wherever they can get it. They justify their choices either by citing God’s protection, fatalism about death, or their own immediate need not to “starve.” The narrator concedes that the poor have a point regarding financial necessity, but he believes they take unnecessary risks and blames these risks as well as their privation for their dying “by Heaps.” He notes that some private citizens did undertake charitable action on behalf of the poor. While he won’t claim that none of these citizens died as a result, he never personally heard of it happening—which, he argues, speaks in favor of engaging in charity. He also notes that government as well as private charity aid the poor during the plague.

The narrator sees God’s providential design in people’s willingness to send charity to London’s poor during the plague. And, on the subject of providence, he mentions again the providential movement of the plague throughout the city—so the whole city wasn’t devastated at once. Then he criticizes those who “forget the Deliverance, when the Danger is past.”

The narrator changes the subject to trade during the plague. Foreign trade largely stops because other countries fear England spreading the illness to their shores, though Turkey accepts some of their goods. The narrator hears a rumor that an English ship did in fact cause plague deaths in Portuguese territory, though he doesn’t know whether the rumor is true. He also notes that as bad as the plague in London is, the tales told about it abroad are even worse, exaggerated and lurid. Perhaps as a result, English trade suffers unfairly for a long time after the plague is over.

As for domestic trade, trade via waterways in corn and coals continues throughout the plague—in part because London’s mayor enacts policies to keep sailors from having to leave their ships and potentially get infected in London. Yet it is hard to keep the coal trade going in part because, during the plague, England is at war with the Dutch, and for a while the Dutch attack English ships carrying coal. However, the Dutch come to fear catching plague from the English and leave the coal ships alone. Eventually, despite all London’s precautions, some coal ships do catch plague and spread it to other English cities.

Within London during the plague, most trade halts “except in Provisions and Necessaries of Life.” For example, because foreign trade stops, manufacturing for export also stops—not only exports to foreign countries but also export within England. Many workers end up unemployed and in poverty—though the narrator again makes a point of praising London’s magistrates, who bring charitable relief to poor families to keep them from starving. He also notes that as Londoners purchase fewer goods during the plague, manufacturing suffers in other areas as well. Yet after the Great Fire the following year, London needs to rebuild or replace so many items that English manufacturing benefits from tremendous demand.

Toward the end of September 1655, the plague begins to slacken. As the narrator’s friend Dr. Heath observes to him, fewer people are dying of the plague, though many are still falling ill. When Londoners notice that the plague is less deadly than before, they grow reckless and socialize more readily with the infected, in consequence of which many continue to die. Doctors, noting the prevailing recklessness, publish notices encouraging people to be cautious, and religious leaders preach caution from the pulpit. Yet ironically, these actions publicize the slackening of the plague, and people from outside London begin visiting it again, which leads to an uptick in plague deaths in early November.

Yet by December 1655, though plague cases still crop up, London is returning to normal. The narrator laments that, while some survivors still appear grateful to God for “their Deliverance,” many others revert to their old, pre-plague misbehaviors. Meanwhile, other cities in England are now badly suffering from plague. While London’s mayor and alderman warn Londoners not to take in guests from those cities, many Londoners ignore them, believing that they cannot get reinfected or that the infection comes from the air rather than other people. As a result, more die.

It is found that the plague has killed whole families, leaving their property ownerless. The narrator hears that the king instructs London’s mayor and aldermen to transfer this property to the poor. Notably, the poor suffer badly during this time of recovery because many people stop sending them charity.

During the plague, many areas of the city were converted into graveyards. After the plague, the narrator notes, some of these areas remain graveyards. But in others, the corpses are removed, and the spaces are repurposed and built over. (Here a brief N.B. intrudes to mention that the narrator himself lies in a graveyard, called Old Bethlem, originally created during the plague.) The narrator criticizes the lack of foresight that led to graveyards on mixed-use ground, such that bodies buried in those areas are later disturbed.

Here the narrator observes that he could have included many more incidents in his plague narrative, such as orders the king’s court sent to London’s mayor—but then he suggests that the only really important things the royal court did were mandating a monthly fast and sending money to help London’s poor.

When doctors and religious leaders who left London during the plague return, they are often mocked and verbally abused by the public for their desertion. The narrator laments that “the Spirit of Strife” did not leave with the plague. As soon as the plague was over, conflict between the Church of England and dissenting sects resumed, and the government persecuted the dissenters. The narrator disapproves of this legal persecution, yet he disapproves also of dissenting ministers who mock Anglican priests who left London during the plague: not everyone has “the same Courage,” and people should treat one another “according to Charity.” Besides, as courage ultimately comes from God, the courageous ought to be grateful rather than boastful.

The narrator believes that doctors, religious leaders, and government employees who died fighting the plague ought to be publicly praised, though due to the confusion surrounding the plague, it is hard to know exactly how many of each group died. He particularly praises those who worked with London’s poor, given their greater risk of infection.

Of “Quacks,” the narrator notes he knows of at least one whom the plague killed despite the “Preservative” from plague the quack was hawking. Though the narrator by no means scorns doctors in general, he himself took no medicine against the plague, only carried a “strong Scent” to help deal with terrible smells. In general, quack doctors and other medical conmen disappear from London after the plague. Though some believe they died of plague in an example of “God’s Vengeance,” the narrator suspects most escaped London to con people frightened of plague in the English countryside.

Some doomsdayers frighten Londoners by predicting a scourge-like return of the plague. The narrator ironically notes that if the doomsdayers were to have predicted the Great Fire, people might believe in them more. Regardless, occasional small outbursts of plague cases do continue to alarm the city. On one occasion, two people fall dead while shopping for meat, which causes a rumor that London’s “Meat was all infected” and harms the butchers’ trade for a while. Noting that the rumor had no evidence behind it, the narrator observes that “no Body can account for the Possession of Fear when it takes hold of the Mind.”

The plague has so abated by February 1666 that Londoners largely stop panicking. Yet the rich return more slowly than the poor, not sending for their families until spring 1666. As an aside, the narrator observes that England’s fleet did not suffer many plague cases, so that Londoners press-ganged to serve in the naval war against the Dutch tended to survive.

The narrator closes his narrative of the plague year by announcing his belief that nothing but God’s intervention could have stopped the plague. He recalls how joyfully Londoners reacted when the first Bill of Mortality came out showing a decrease in plague deaths. The narrator admits that he himself, prior to that day, was deeply depressed by the death all around him. He observes that, after God decided to abate the plague, doctors were surprised by their plague patients’ recoveries—recoveries due not to any medical discovery but to God’s “invisible Hand.” The narrator doesn’t want to seem preachy, like a clergyman rather than a historian, by calling everyone to give thanks—but he wants to give thanks himself.

The narrator also notes that many people were thankful to God when the plague stopped—even those who didn’t continue to be thankful afterward. He remembers how, as the plague was ending, strangers used to stop and talk to one another in the street about human powerlessness and God’s mercy. Though he briefly criticizes those who soon forgot said mercy, he decides not to be over-critical and ends with a poem expressing his amazement that so many died while he survived.