In this episode Defoe includes the text of orders issued by the Lord Mayor concerning the shutting up of houses, notification of the authorities, the appointment of watchers and guards, disposition of the bodies of the dead, public sanitation, and what we now refer to as “social distancing,” with bans on “loose persons and idle assemblies.” It’s a grim catalogue. What is perhaps most noticeable about this account, apart from the evident terror the shutting up of houses provoked, was the careful insistence of the authorities on the gathering of accurate information about the number and location of all those infected, mirroring our own contemporary concern for testing and accurate reporting, or the lack thereof. I have to say, the recitation of these orders makes for some tedious listening, but the comparison of the steps taken then with our own is really quite instructive.
For an index of contemporary issues surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and their historical precursors in the Journal, visit 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.
Visit our website: www.londonplague.com
© 2020 Mark Cummings