{"id":200,"date":"2020-06-05T16:33:49","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T16:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/histonaut.com\/?p=200"},"modified":"2020-06-05T22:24:12","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T22:24:12","slug":"samuel-pepys-on-the-great-plague-1665","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/05\/samuel-pepys-on-the-great-plague-1665\/","title":{"rendered":"Samuel Pepys on the Great Plague (1665)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Illustration of the Great Plague in London (1665)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During the summer of 1665, London experienced the last outbreak of the bubonic plague which carried away about 100,000 lives, i.e. one fifth of the entire city population. Extracts from the diary of Samuel Pepys, a naval administrator, provide us with a valuable testimony of the eyewitness of this horrible calamity. In spite of quick spread of the incurable disease of unknown origin, London society demonstrates certain resilience to its ravages. The author of the diary himself takes everyday risks moving from one district of the city to another, visiting different places outside London, meeting numerous officials and common people; the thought to temporary stop his activities does not even come to his mind. And we can guess that his counterparts behave in exactly the same way.  That\u2019s why the city is frightened by the plague but not paralyzed by it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Our extract from Samuel Pepys\u2019s diary starts on the 24th<\/sup>\nof May 1665, when people in the coffee-house begin to discuss remedies against\nthe growing plague, but to no avail. Very hot weather recorded on the 7th<\/sup>\nof June, definitely, contributes to quick spread of the disease. The infected houses\nare marked \u201cwith a red cross upon the door\u201d and the inscription \u201cLord have\nmercy upon us!\u201d But the author does not mention who is responsible for such\nmarkings the dwellers or some official authorities. It is interesting to read\nthat tobacco\u2019s smell and taste are considered as the prophylaxis against the\nplague. The death strikes indiscriminately rich and poor (Sir John Lawson and\nthe coachman). Those who have means leave the city, shops and businesses are\nclosing, even at the Royal Exchange the activity is relatively low. Burial\ngrounds in the church-yards become subject of speculations. Newly devised\nremedies such as \u201cthe plague-water\u201d become the best gift for Londoners. On the\n26th<\/sup> of July, the sickness reaches the parish where Pepys lives and\nhe starts to put in order all his affairs. Under the 27th<\/sup> of July is\nmentioned for the first time the weekly bill of mortality showing sharp rise of\ndeaths of the plague. It means that municipal authorities are still capable to\nrecord burials and try to count all casualties of plague. Thanks to such\nstatistics, Londoners can evaluate the situation and make appropriate\ndecisions. By the 10th<\/sup> of August, the number of plague victims\nattains 3000 in a week and Pepys decides to dispatch the final version of his\nWill as quickly as possible. The necessity to isolate sick people seems clear\nto everyone even the Lord Mayor defends to inhabitants to leave their houses\nafter 9 PM providing an opportunity to those who are ill to go out and take\nfresh air. The Royal Court leaves London for Wilton. By the 13th<\/sup> of\nAugust, Pepys finalizes all preparations to his possible death and continues\nhis normal activities. On the 31st<\/sup> of August, weekly count of the\nplague casualties cited in the Bill reaches 6,000 but people fear that the true\nnumber is above 10,000. The epidemic attains its peak during the first week of\nSeptember (6,978 victims) but from the 14th<\/sup> of September the\ndeath-toll starts to decrease. Immediately, The Royal Exchange fills with people.\nPepys certainly feels saddened and depressed by the tragic loss of his friends\nand servants but economic and political life of London goes on and long-term\nmourning is out of question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            In such a way, the Great Plague of 1665 lasts slightly\nmore than four months and in spite of considerable casualties does not paralyze\ncompletely the business life of the British capital. As usual, poor and\ndependent groups of population suffer much more than wealthy and influential\nones. In the second half of the seventeenth century Englishmen could not afford\nto stop their economic and political activities for even a short period of time\nbecause they were in acute competition with their Dutch, French and other\nEuropean rivals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bibliography: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warrington, John.(editor) The Diary of Samuel Pepys<\/em>, 3 vol. London, J.M. Dent and Sons, 1953.\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Illustration of the Great Plague in London (1665) During the summer of 1665, London experienced the last outbreak of the bubonic plague which carried away about 100,000 lives, i.e. one fifth of the entire city population. Extracts from the diary of Samuel Pepys, a naval administrator, provide us with a valuable testimony of the eyewitness […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[120,119],"class_list":["post-200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-great-plague-of-london","tag-samuel-pepys"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/great-plague-of-london-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9td7q-3e","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions\/211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}