Lanterna Rally

Author: Daniel Defoe

Publisher:

Published: 2020-10-24

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13:

Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year is a first-person, mostly nonlinear narrative told by protagonist H.F., an unmarried saddler whose name is only revealed by his signature at the end of the work. The Journal is a tale of his experiences during the plague that afflicted London in 1665; the work is thus fiction but is peppered with statistics, data, charts, and government documents. H.F. begins by relating rumors that the plague had come to Holland, and closely follows the bills of mortality. Certain parishes are affected, but cold weather seems to stave off the worst of the plague during the winter. However, in May and June the numbers of dead begin to swing upwards and H.F. starts to wonder whether or not he should leave the city. After some debate back and forth, he decides that God wants him to remain.H.F. observes that the rich are leaving the city and the poor are being strongly affected by the distemper. He relates how they succumbed to the wiles of quack doctors, fortunetellers, mountebanks, and astrologers in their fear and anxiety of the imminent plague.City officials are rational and organized concerning the spreading plague, and publish the Orders of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London. These set up rules and regulations for the appointment of searchers and examiners and watchmen to guard the houses, for the shutting up of infected houses, and for the shutting down of events in which large groups of people would congregate. H.F. is generally against the shutting up of houses, commenting that it seemed to do more harm than good in most cases and could barely prevent the plague from spreading because Londoners found ways to escape or delude city officials.