Two women met in a supermarket, both of whom went to a slimming club on Saturdays, now on account of the coronavirus, closed: "What did you do," said one to the other,, "when you found out that the club was closed?" "I had a chicken sandwich!" came the reply. "And what did you do?" asked the other. "Oh," she said, "I had a meat pie."
Now taking up from where I left off yesterday, with the life of Henry Morse, a priest who ministered in London to the destitute, the poor and those dying of the plague in the early 1600s, and who himself, in an anti-Catholic purge, was hanged at Tyburn in 1645, I thought that it might be interesting to recall from his biography, some details of how the authorities coped, or tried to cope, with what in effect was the continuation of the Bubonic Plague that was at its height in the mid fourteenth century, and that didn't burn itself out in England until after the Great Plague of London of 1665, some twenty years after the death of Henry Morse. In Chapter 8 we have this opening account of the anxiety, and the precautions put in place as the plague was relentlessly making its way across Europe, and then, as now, there were delays in putting processes in place, and not everyone thought that the rules applied to them: -
From Chapter 9
"In the early summer of 1635 the plague was reported on the Continent. In August, when it struck Dunkerque, causing great loss of life,Sir Robert Parkhurst, the Lord Mayor of London, wrote in alarm to the Council. He proposed a proclamation to prohibit all vessels from Flemish and French ports landing persons or goods without licence, and, furthermore, urged a period of quarantine for all travellers coming ashore from the infected places. But it was not until the 3rd of October that these precautions were taken. The same day an Order in Council set watchers on all incoming ships to prevent the landing of goods or persons until the lapse of twenty days. For the most part the order was enforced, but occasionally the cordon was broken by an insistent traveller like Baron de la Ferte who obtained horses at Great Yarmouth and rode with his retinue to Court within two days of landing. . ."
And this from Chapter 10
"The sealing up of houses was a tragic measure. In St. Giles-in-the-Fields the crowded tenements were occupied by four and sometimes five families, frequently strangers to one another. No exit was permitted once a case of the plague had been reported. Barred in behind doors fastened with padlock and staple, the healthy and the infected lived side by side. The wisdom of the order had never been questioned. First enforced by Cardinal Wolsey [who held political as well as ecclesiastical office] in 1518, it now had the sanction of the College of Physicians, who considered contagion inescapable. Although there were cases to prove the contrary, it was argued that anyone who came into contact with a plague victim was certain to fall sick himself. Thus, without work or occupation, the healthy were forced to await the death of each victim in turn. No food or medicine was available except such as the parish visitors brought them, or, in the case of Catholics, the two priests assigned to this work. "I sent for Mr Morse when I was visited with the plague . . .and he many times gave alms to me, my husband and my two little children, who all died of the plague, the parish not giving us anything, we being very poor and seven persons in number shut up."
Now I have two other sources on the theme of plague:" The Diaries of Samuel Pepys", and somewhat incongruous, in the circumstance, a beautifully presented and gilded reproduction of "The Great Plague", by Walter George Bell. The focus, here too, is on London, and the plague, that of 1665; twenty years exactly after the hanging of Henry Morse. In Bell's case there are contemporary plates in support of the narrative. i.e., and electron micrograph image of a flea, Xempoylla cheopis, clinging to the fur of a rat, and adjacent to it another: a colour presentation of the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis. "Six vigorous specimens can increase to more than 7,000 in one day. two days later the total may be 100 million.
For his part Samuel Pepys besides being an MP., had an illustrious career associated with the navy, though in keeping with the precarious age in which he lived, he was twice arrested - on suspicion . . . and later , in 1699, made Freeman of the City of London for services to Christ's Hospital. Now if you are familiar with the poetry of John Betjeman, you will know that his work has a flavour that is so uniquely his, that you can, as they say, smell it a mile off. Pepys's Diary is a bit like that:-
"Up early; and with Mr. Pickering and the child by wagon to Scheveling . . ."
"Up and all day long finishing and writing over my will twice, for my father and my wife . . .
"Lay long in bed, talking; among other things, talking of my sister Pall, and my wife of herself is very willing that I should give her 400! to her pension - and would have her married as soon as we could . . ."
So what of the plague:-
In "The Great Plague", Bell writes of the wealthy who, fearing the plague seek refuge in the suburbs and beyond; while on the behaviour of the crowds, Pepys puts it thus: -
". . . Church being done, my Lord Brouncker, Sir J. Mennes, and I up to the Vestry at the desire of the Justices of the Peace, Sir Th. [Thomas] Bidolph and Sir W. Boreman and Ald. [Alderman] Hooker - in order to the doing something for the keeping of the plague from growing; but Lord, but to consider the madness of people of the town, who will (because they are forbid) come in crowds along with the dead Corps to see them buried. But we agreed on some orders for the prevention thereof. . ."
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© Cormac E. McCloskey
HENRY MORSE: Priest of the Plague
Author: Philip Caraman
PEPYS'S DIARY Vol. II. 1664-1666
The Folio Society 1996
THE GREAT PLAGUE IN LONDON
Walter George Bell
The Folio Society 2001
Editor: Belinda Hollyer
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