As much as anything, this episode is a meditation on the mood of the city as the plague swept over it. His mind made up to stay, the author now settles into the daily routine of his business, helped in part by the fact that the plague still spared his part of town from the worst of its virulence. Meanwhile, however, further to the west, the death toll mounted steadily through the summer of 1665. As the impact of the plague began to affect a larger area, the author notes that the face of the city was much altered—“sorrow and sadness sat upon every face,” he says—and that the city seemed to be all in tears. In walks through the city, he remarks on how deserted the streets had become, and how frequent the cries and screams coming from the houses of the sick. And he observes that the restoration of the monarchy a scant five years earlier had led to a rapid increase in the population of London, which in turn meant that many more died than might have even a few years before.
[For notes on the main themes of the novel, visit https://londonplague.com/postscript/. To see some ways in which our reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic are anticipated in the Journal, see https://londonplague.com/concordance/.]
Credits:
Podcast produced by Sam Brelsfoard
Music from Funeral Sentences of Henry Purcell (1659-1695), performed by the Choir of Clare College at the University of Cambridge, Timothy Brown conducting. Used by permission.
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