History of the Plague in England

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History of the Plague in England

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Title: History of the Plague in England
Author: Daniel Defoe
Release Date: December 4, 2005 [EBook #17221]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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ECLECTIC ENGLISH CLASSICS
HISTORY OF THE PLAGUE IN LONDON

BY DANIEL DEFOE
NEW YORK ·:· CINCINNATI ·:· CHICAGO AMERICAN BOOK
COMPANY

Copyright, 1894, by AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY.
DEFOE--THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. M. 2
[Illustration: PRINCIPAL WARDS AND PARISHES IN THE CITY
OF LONDON, 1665.]
[Illustration: LONDON AND THE SUBURBS, SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY.]

INTRODUCTION.
The father of Daniel Defoe was a butcher in the parish of St. Giles's,
Cripplegate, London. In this parish, probably, Daniel Defoe was born
in 1661, the year after the restoration of Charles II. The boy's parents
wished him to become a dissenting minister, and so intrusted his
education to a Mr. Morton who kept an academy for the training of
nonconformist divines. How long Defoe staid at this school is not
known. He seems to think himself that he staid there long enough to
become a good scholar; for he declares that the pupils were "made
masters of the English tongue, and more of them excelled in that
particular than of any school at that time." If this statement be true, we
can only say that the other schools must have been very bad indeed.
Defoe never acquired a really good style, and can in no true sense be
called a "master of the English tongue."
Nature had gifted Defoe with untiring energy, a keen taste for public
affairs, and a special aptitude for chicanery and intrigue. These were
not qualities likely to advance him in the ministry, and he wisely
refused to adopt that profession. With a young man's love for adventure

and a dissenter's hatred for Roman Catholicism, he took part in the
Duke of Monmouth's rebellion (1685) against James II. More fortunate
than three of his fellow students, who were executed for their share in
this affair, Defoe escaped the hue and cry that followed the battle of
Sedgemoor, and after some months' concealment set up as a wholesale
merchant in Cornhill. When James II. was deposed in 1688, and the
Protestant William of Orange elected to the English throne, Defoe
hastened to give in his allegiance to the new dynasty. In 1691 he
published his first pamphlet, "A New Discovery of an Old Intrigue, a
Satire leveled at Treachery and Ambition." This is written in miserable
doggerel verse. That Defoe should have mistaken it for poetry, and
should have prided himself upon it accordingly, is only a proof of how
incompetent an author is to pass judgment upon what is good and what
is bad in his own work.
In 1692 Defoe failed in business, probably from too much attention to
politics, which were now beginning to engross more and more of his
time and thoughts. His political attitude is clearly defined in the title of
his next pamphlet, "The Englishman's Choice and True Interest: in the
Vigorous Prosecution of the War against France, and serving K.
William and Q. Mary, and acknowledging their Right." "K. William"
was too astute a manager to neglect a writer who showed the capacity
to become a dangerous opponent. Defoe was accordingly given the
place of accountant to the commissioners of the glass duty (1694).
From this time until William's death (1702), he had no more loyal and
active servant than Defoe. Innumerable pamphlets bear tribute to his
devotion to the King and his policy,--pamphlets written in an easy,
swinging, good-natured style, with little imagination and less passion;
pamphlets whose principal arguments are based upon a reasonable
self-interest, and for the comprehension of which no more intellectual
power is called for than Providence has doled out to the average citizen.
Had Defoe lived in the nineteenth century, instead of in the seventeenth,
he would have commanded a princely salary as writer for the Sunday
newspaper, and as composer of campaign documents and of speeches
for members of the House of Representatives.
In 1701 Defoe published his "True-born Englishman," a satire upon the

English people for their stupid opposition to the continental policy of
the King. This is the only metrical composition of prolific Daniel that
has any pretensions to