This episode contains one of the better-known anecdotes to emerge from the novel and offers a rare moment of gallows humor amidst the unrelenting horror. The story of the piper was evidently widely known at the time of the visitation itself, for the author remarks on its being a story, “with which the people made themselves so merry.” He also mentions use of what must have been a popular preventative measure, the holding of garlic and rue in one’s mouth, and the liberal use of vinegar. I’ll leave the details to you.
In the second part of this episode the author touches upon a theme all too familiar to us today, the general lack of preparedness of both the citizenry and the authorities for situations of this sort. Their slowness to respond to this calamity. Recall also his remarks in a previous episode about the so-called “supine negligence of the people themselves.” Outbreaks of the plague, you’ll remember, were not new to London. The previous one had occurred only a decade before, and the failure to plan for another was as hard for the author to understand then as our own lack of planning and slowness to respond, despite plenty of advance warning, is now.
The episode ends with an account of instances of private charity and the distribution of money to the poor and unemployed, a kind of stimulus package we also know about.
[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.
Visit our website: www.londonplague.com
© 2020 Mark Cummings