History of the Plague in London by Daniel Defoe (easy readers .txt) π
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- Author: Daniel Defoe
Read book online Β«History of the Plague in London by Daniel Defoe (easy readers .txt) πΒ». Author - Daniel Defoe
156 A count.
157 Range, limits.
158 Unknown.
159 Lying.
160 Was.
161 Notice this skillful touch to give verisimilitude to the narrative.
162 Country.
163 "Without the bars," i.e., outside the old city limits.
164 Profession.
165 The plague.
166 The legal meaning of "hamlet" in England is a village without a church of its own: ecclesiastically, therefore, it belongs to the parish of some other village.
167 All Protestant sects other than the Established Church of England.
168 A groat equals fourpence, about eight cents. It is not coined now.
169 A farthing equals one quarter of a penny.
170 About ten miles down the Thames.
171 The t is silent in this word.
172 Hard-tack, pilot bread.
173 Old form for "rode."
174 See the last sentence of the next paragraph but one.
175 Roadstead, an anchoring ground less sheltered than a harbor.
176 Substitute "that they would not be visited."
177 The plague.
178 St. Margaret's.
179 Nota bene, note well.
180 DulΒ΄ich. All these places are southward from London. Norwood is six miles distant.
181 Old form of "dared."
182 Small vessels, generally schooner-rigged, used for carrying heavy freight on rivers and harbors.
183 London Bridge.
184 This incident is so overdone, that it fails to be pathetic, and rather excites our laughter.
185 Supply "themselves."
186 Barnet was about eleven miles north-northwest of London.
187 Holland and Belgium.
188 See Luke xvii. 11-19.
189 Well.
190 With speed, in haste.
191 This word is misplaced. It should go immediately before "to lodge."
192 Luck.
193 Whom.
194 A small sail set high upon the mast.
195 "Fetched a long compass," i.e., went by a circuitous route.
196 The officers.
197 Refused.
198 Nearly twenty miles northeast of London.
199 He. This pleonastic use of a conjunction with the relative is common among illiterate writers and speakers to-day.
200 Waltham and Epping, towns two or three miles apart, at a distance of ten or twelve miles almost directly north of London.
201 Pollard trees are trees cut back nearly to the trunk, and so caused to grow into a thick head (poll) of branches.
202 Entertainment. In this sense, the plural, "quarters," is the commoner form.
203 Preparing.
204 Peddlers.
205 "Has been," an atrocious solecism for "were."
206 To a miraculous extent.
207 "Put to it," i.e., hard pressed.
208 There are numerous references in the Hebrew Scriptures to parched corn as an article of food (see, among others, Lev. xxiii. 14, Ruth ii. 14, 2 Sam. xvii. 28).
209 Supply "(1)."
210 Soon.
211 Substitute "would."
212 Whom.
213 Familiar intercourse.
214 Evidently a repetition.
215 "For that," i.e., because.
216 Singly.
217 Supply "to be."
218 Buildings the rafters of which lean against or rest upon the outer wall of another building.
219 Supply "of."
220 The plague.
221 "Middling people," i.e., people of the middle class.
222 At the mouth of the Thames.
223 Awnings.
224 Two heavy timbers placed horizontally, the upper one of which can be raised. When lowered, it is held in place by a padlock. Notches in the timbers form holes, through which the prisoner's legs are thrust, and held securely.
225 The constables.
226 The carters.
227 The goods.
228 In spite of, notwithstanding.
229 Supply "who."
230 "Cum aliis," i.e., with others. Most of the places mentioned in this list are several miles distant from London: for example, Enfield is ten miles northeast; Hadley, over fifty miles northeast; Hertford, twenty miles north; Kingston, ten miles southwest; St. Albans, twenty miles northwest; Uxbridge, fifteen miles west; Windsor, twenty miles west; etc.
231 Kindly regarded.
232 Which.
233 The citizens.
234 Such statements.
235 For "so that," substitute "so."
236 How.
237 It was not known in Defoe's time that minute disease germs may be carried along by a current of air.
238 Affected with scurvy.
239 "Which," as applied to persons, is a good Old English idiom, and was in common use as late as 1711 (see Spectator No. 78; and Matt. vi. 9, version of 1611).
240 Flung to.
241 Changed their garments.
242 Supply "I heard."
243 At.
244 Various periods are assigned for the duration of the dog days: perhaps July 3 to Aug. 11 is that most commonly accepted. The dog days were so called because they coincided with the heliacal rising of Sirius or Canicula (the little dog).
245 An inn with this title (and probably a picture of the brothers) painted on its signboard.
246 Whom.
247 The Act of Uniformity was passed in 1661. It required all municipal officers and all ministers to take the communion according to the ritual of the Church of England, and to sign a document declaring that arms must never be borne against the King. For refusing obedience to this tyrannical measure, some two thousand Presbyterian ministers were deprived of their livings.
248 Madness, as in Hamlet, act iii. sc. 1.
249 "Represented themselves," etc., i.e., presented themselves to my sight.
250 "Dead part of the night," i.e., from midnight to dawn. Compare,
251 "Have been critical," etc., i.e., have claimed to have knowledge enough to say.
252 Being introduced.
253 The plague.
254 "First began" is a solecism common in the newspaper writing of to-day.
255 Literally, laws of the by (town). In modern usage, "by-law" is used to designate a rule less general and less easily amended than a constitutional provision.
256 "Sheriff" is equivalent to shire-reeve (magistrate of the county or shire). London had, and still has, two sheriffs.
257 Acted.
258 The inspection, according to ordinance, of weights, measures, and prices.
259 "Pretty many," i.e., a fair number of.
260 The officers.
261 Were.
262 "Falls to the serious part," i.e., begins to discourse on serious matters.
263 See note, p. 28. The Mohammedans are fatalists.
264 A growth of osseous tissue uniting the extremities of fractured bones.
265 Disclosed.
266 The officers.
267 Leading principle.
268 Defoe means, "can burn only a few houses." In the next line he again misplaces "only."
269 Put to confusion.
270 Left out of consideration.
271 The distemper.
272 A means for discovering whether the person were infected or not.
273 Defoe's ignorance of microscopes was not shared by Robert Hooke, whose Micrographia (published in 1664) records numerous discoveries made with that instrument.
274 Roup is a kind of chicken's catarrh.
275 Them, i.e., such experiments.
276 From the Latin quadraginta ("forty").
277 From the Latin sexaginta ("sixty").
278 Kinds, species.
279 Old age.
280 Abscesses.
281 Himself.
282 The essential oils of lavender, cloves, and camphor, added to acetic acid.
283 In chemistry, balsams are vegetable juices consisting of resins mixed with gums or volatile oils.
284 Supply "they declined coming to public worship."
285 This condition of affairs.
286 Collar.
287 Economy.
288 Supply "they were."
289 Action (obsolete in this sense). See this word as used in 2 Henry IV., act iv. sc. 4.
290 Which.
291 Sailors' slang for "Archipelagoes."
292 An important city in Asia Minor.
293 A city in northern Syria, better known as Iskanderoon or Alexandretta. The town was named in honor of Alexander the Great, the Turkish form of Alexander being Iskander.
294 Though called a kingdom, Algarve was nothing but a province of Portugal. It is known now as Faro.
295 The natives of Flanders, a mediæval countship now divided among Holland, Belgium, and France.
296 Colonies. In the reign of Charles II., the English colonies were governed by a committee (of the Privy Council) known as the "Council of Plantations."
297 The east side.
298 On the west side.
299 See map of England for all these places. Feversham is in Kent, forty-five miles southeast of London; Margate is on the Isle of Thanet, eighty miles southeast.
300 Commission merchants.
301 Privateers. Capers is a Dutch word.
302 Supply "he."
303 Supply "the coals."
304 "One another," by a confusion of constructions, has been used here for "them."
305 By a statute of Charles II. a chaldron was fixed at 36 coal bushels. In the United States, it is generally 26ΒΌ hundredweight.
306 Opening.
307 "To seek," i.e., without judgment or knowledge.
308 Mixing.
309 Him.
310 This unwary conduct.
311 Think.
312 Were.
313 Accept.
314 Personal chattels that had occasioned the death of a human being, and were therefore given to God (Deo, "to
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